RenCutypoison said:
I don't agree with your analysis tough. Your first point is that the game is bad because story makes no sense. You explain coherence problems, mostly because of misunderstandings (that Wright explains well). But even without that. Does the universe need to be 100% coherent for a story to be enjoyed ? For example in FFX, Al Bhed have been there for a thousand year studying awesome technology but there is still one airship made by one man and no one seems to be able to compete with that in their community. And he only appears when you need it, despite his daughter clearly needing it. This didn't bothered me at all, I loved FFX story. Now for the second point, level design. Yes it's linear. Now, do J-RPG need big open world map ? Long ago, RPG in video game was invented. It was inspired by tabletop RPG, in wich you have a lot of freedom to tell your story. But with time passing, RPG took two different path, western and japanese. Western RPGs are still a lot like tabletops ones, where you create your character, choose your path etc. While J-RPGs try to tell a story. The story chosen by the devs. And at some point, FXIII story needed to be told in "straight fuckin lines", because it's cocoon. And Cocoon is a urbanized jail. And you need to feel claustrophobic to get that amazing sense of freedom in Pulse, because that's what Pulse really means for humanity in XIII. I agree with you on upgrading weapon, I actually didn't do it before post game. But I love combat. It's not about auto or manual mode, that's your choice there. But paradigm shift system was awesome IMO, and I liked to try getting 5 stars on each and every battle. And I had fun. The crystarium was limited, and that was annoying, but choosing between specialty was good enough. Trying to maximize the system is fun too BTW. I hate random encounters. Play DDS or SMT and you'll probably feel the same. So i'll leave it there. Finally, I wasn't bored during the playtrough, and had pretty clear objectives most of the times. Except on Pulse, but that's pretty much how the characters feel it too. Of course it was still kinda annoying.
Points you forgot : Amazing OST, good length overall, lack of minigames, great character design (totally subjective), great artstyle and graphics in general. |
We disagree on almost every point.
Yes a story needs to be coherant to be enjoyable which is why despite being a decent, well acted, well shot action film, "Elysium" is laughably bad and becomes worse the longer you think about it. The plot has such massive holes. Now sure, FFX had the same problems, and I consider FFX passable at best as I've said. It makes up for it's shortcomings, and at least it's linear nature is supported by story and atmosphere.
Do J-RPGs need an open map? Hell yes! Every single JRPG has either an open map or an active method by which you explore the world. Hell, it's a bloody trope of the genre, I expect an open map with towns, caves, dungeons etc. linking it all together.
Stories can be told without railroading, I should know, I've been running pen and paper roleplaying games for best part of a decade. Hell earlier Final Fantasies proved that well enough surely, they had additional areas, side quests, places to explore, and most importantly a vibrant world with people in it that felt alive; not just a corridor with save points in it.
Auto or Manual when I'll do exactly the same as the Auto because it's the obvious solution... that's not a choice, that's banality. If that's my choice, it sucks. I could crap a better combat system. As for choosing between specialities being "good enough", way to settle. In FFX, using the expert grid, (the only way worth playing), you can literally turn Yuna into a combat monster, Auran into your Black Mage, and Rikku into your Healer from practically the very beginning... I know I've done it. That's freedom. FFXIII doesn't even let you switch roles for the first 20+ hours, by which point you're so far specialised it'd take you the rest of the game practically to catch up. No-one changes specialisation in FFXIII, it's a lot of effort for no tangable reward.
Points I forgot apparently:
The music was OK, nothing really jumped out at me as special. Soft J-Pop mainly.
Good overall length is a fucking joke right? This game is about 80 hours longer than it needed to be. It would be too long at 20 hours. It's more padded than a pre-teens bra. Seriously, you can't honestly look at the fact that Squeenix wasted literally dozens of hours of your life you'll never get back and consider that a positive. It's a damning negative. It's a bowl of shit... I don't want a second helping!
Why is lack of minigames a good thing. Hell they go to a bloody amusement park and there's not even any mini games. Not even a Chocobo game, and it's a Chocobo themed park. I loved the minigames in Final Fantasy VII, and the card came in Final Fantasy VIII was great. Not having these things is another negative.
Great character design?! HA! Assymetrically dressed neon dance club rejects in trenchcoats is hardly what I'd call, "great design". This is only great design in Japan where fashion is basically whatever you can grab from Lady Gaga's wardrobe in the dark in 3 minutes. This is the country that adds random belts to outfits for no reason other than they can... they're not even holding anything up. Japan as a whole is a fashion black hole, and the worst part is they actually use Lightning as a fashion model on billboards over there... I'm not joking. Animated fashion models. I often wonder if this was considered before her role in the game, which is deeply depressing.
Really? Great graphics. Not really. They're passable I suppose, but they're no better than the average game of that year. Add in low quality textures in many areas, excessive clipping during battles, and a framerate that struggles to stay above 20fps. I'm not overly impressed. Sure the character models are good, and the pre-rendered cut-scenes are often really well made, but that's not saying much really.
