Topic: The Final Fantasy XIII hype thread

I appologise if this is a copy of an existing thread - I didn't see one.

Anyway. FFXIII - it's out soon, and it's very exciting. We've seen the screenshots and videos - the game is gorgeous and Lighting is cute. The battle system seems solid. I played it a little in a booth when I was in Japan, and those 5 minutes were glorious. Also while I was in Japan, I purchased the special edition soundtrack, and I can confidently say it's the most epic and beautiful score in a Final Fantasy game yet.

So now, the wait. This is the game that I have been waiting for for the past 2-3 years. This is the game I bought a PS3 for. Who else is as hyped as I am for this one?

I was very tempted to buy the Japanese game, BTW, because it's already on sale for just 4,000 yen ($40 Aus, $30 odd US). But this one game I wanted to follow exactly, word for word, and I'm just not fluent enough in Japanese yet.

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2009/12/final-fantasy-xiii-prev...

yeah, i'm not really excited about it anymore after reading that preview. i'll wait for a drop in price.

Okay, so who wants to buy me a PS3 so I can get this game?

Agreed. I was never really all the interested in the first place, but it might be worth a rent, just to see. I had a feeling the series would go towards this with the last couple of games, and now that it's finally gone to the point of almost being an interactive movie, I hope it pans so they can finally move back towards being the games I used to love.

Don't get me wrong, I love a good movie, and that's why I'm gonna rent it. Heck, half the reason why I enjoyed FFX was because it felt more like an interactive movie - it meant I didn't have to think. I could just go with the flow and have fun with it. But still, I thought once was enough, and after FFX-2 and FFXI, it almost seemed like they'd moved on. Then FFXII came along and I realized they were just getting started.

Not excited for it one bit.
It hasn't gotten the best of reviews and feedback.

Really? Because in Japan it's got plenty of good reviews. It pissed off some people, but Final Fantasy is always going to do that because people have a bad case of tall poppy syndrome with it.

I don't know why there's such a resistance to story and cut-scene heavy games.

I've learned that the only people that take time to review a Final Fantasy game early do so to prove that they keep getting worse. I find this crap, since I feel that every single FF game has offered a new, different experience and has found ways to kick ass in spite of every single game since 7 getting universally awful feedback pre-release. I remember the wave of hate for XII ditching the FF battle formula and "turning into a watered-down MMO"....twas crap. XII was fantastic in every right. I fully expect XIII to be great too, as it seems like it's improving on the Final Fantasy X (and to a lesser extend, VIII) style of almost on-rails RPGing--not a ton of exploring off the beaten path for a decent amount of the solo story, but said beaten path has tons of fun stuff included in it. I loved X for that reason--I'll like XIII too.

@Mickeymac
Personally, I thought FFXII was amazing. And FFX-2? hahahaha, what a joke! you're not seriously defending that, are you? X-2 is like a bad fan fiction set to a game.
I'm with Waltzy and Swerd_Murd here. That review doesn't mean anything to me, because it sounds like another one of those pissed-off fanboy rants. Final Fantasy games are always good, and I don't mind the whole "interactive movie" thing, since I play RPGs for the story, though I seriously doubt it's as bad as all that.

The Japanese tends to enjoy interactive novels, I don't. Good story and cut-scenes aren't ever going to get resistance from me, the lack of any branching paths or enough gameplay-to-cutscene ratio though, that's a big no-no.

Hey! I liked FFX-2. It was harmless fun. Hardly the greatest FF game, but it was a cute little bonus for fans of X.

So you don't enjoy movies or novels?

I mean, I could understand someone who hated books and movies hating interactive books and movies, but I can't understand why someone who enjoys movies wouldn't enjoy a well-constructed interactive movie.

And that's pretending Final Fantasy is just an interactive movie. It's not, and anyone who claims it is is massively over-simplifying and exaggerating the game.

Because some people play a game for its gameplay rather than its story. I know I do, and that also extends to RPGs.

For instance, when I said that half the reason I enjoyed FFX was for the cinematic presentation(not the story, the story was terrible, and I hated the characters), the other half was the fantastic battle system(I have never played a Final Fantasy game that offered more depth or strategy during its battles than in FFX), along with the great, albeit limited weapon customiztion system, and even the sphere grid. If FF13 can match or even exceed that, I'll forgive it. Otherwise, it'll never be worth more than a rental to me.

read that preview. It was a joke. The writer took every opportunity to revel in his own creative way to string together random clever insults--case in point - "But going from an all-time high of five playable characters in Final Fantasy IV all the way down to one in XIII is pretty much indicative of the general ratio that informs this game’s design: For every five things you could choose to do in a previous game, XIII offers only one." Oooooh--BURN! Let's forget that 4 haphazardly threw you into random parties the entire game too (another point the preview makes) and gave you almost nothing to do with the battle system (fight or most powerful magic spell....) where as this one looks fantastically involved in a Grandia sense. I'm psyched.

Nothing wrong with interactive movie either.

EDIT - I think it's worth noting that the previewer went out of his way to play the game in as automated a fashion as humanly possible. It's also worth noting that he doesn't sound very good at games in the first place and decided to stop giving impressions right as the battle system got complicated (read: 40ish% of the way through the game.....you know...when all Final Fantasy games realize you've learned the ropes and start challenging you with the battle system)

I still think Final Fantasy X had the best battle system of the series to date. At least for me, anyway. I loved it. That's one of the main reasons I didn't care for FFXII. The battle system just rubbed me the wrong way from the start. Now I'm anxious to see how Final Fantasy XIII turns out. Here's hoping...

@Grensworth

I just meant it was more of a game than FFX was. It gave you more to do, and you even have some choice when it comes to character development and storyline. That's just going off of reviews and game descriptions, though, I haven't had a chance to play it, yet. So far it already disappoints me that it took away FFX's amazing combat system, but at least it brought back the class system that had been sorely missing from the previous games(though I guess FFXI was the first one that actually brought it back). Plus, a "fan fiction" is bound to be more interesting to me than the dull melodrama in FFX and FFXII.

I never said I don't like movies or novels. There's a big difference between watching a good movie for 2 hours, and being dragged along a linear 40 hour 'moviegame' with tacked on gameplay.

How would you know if you haven't played it, I haven't either I'm basing my opinions on what I've read about the game and what I've personally experienced with the latest of Squaresofts decline in RPG quality. (The last remnant for example, terrible terrible game).

I'm not saying I won't play this game, I'm just not excited about the release which is what this thread is all about. And will happily wait for a majority of reviews to prove the previews wrong or the price to fall.

The battle system I can speak for. It's very, very good.

How would you know if you haven't played it, I haven't either I'm basing my opinions on what I've read about the game and what I've personally experienced with the latest of Squaresofts decline in RPG quality. (The last remnant for example, terrible terrible game).

Because from VIII onwards every FF game has been stuck with the claim that it's "just an interactive movie," and it never, not once, has been. Even the most linear of the lot, X, had a hell of a lot of depth in the combat and sphere system, had minigames, and opened up to be entirely non linear in the end. People exaggerate to try and make FF sound worse than it is because the game itself is unfortunately too big for itself and people build unreasonable expectations for it.

And decline in RPG quality? Chocobo Mystery Dungeon? Star Ocean 4? The World is Not Enough? Final Fantasy Tactics Advance? And those are just the ones that are released in the West. S-E makes plenty of good RPGs still.

I'm not saying I won't play this game, I'm just not excited about the release which is what this thread is all about. And will happily wait for a majority of reviews to prove the previews wrong or the price to fall.

I'm guessing you'll be selective about which reviews you pay attention to.

@WaltzElf

I hope you're right, I really do. You played the demo, didn't you? I know someone here did.

I played some of the game in Japanese in a demo booth in a shop. It blew my mind. The best 10-20 minutes of this generations gaming I've experienced so far.

Ah, I knew it was you. I don't know much about the battle system, other than it somehow involves motorcycles(how can that not be awesome?), and it makes extensive use of Time Guages(aka my mortal enemies). I'll take your word for it, though. Now we just gotta hope that the story isn't so terrible and convoluted that not even the battle stsyem will be able to save it.