This is going to be even more interesting than I thought!

You didn't like Lost Odyssey, Mr. Winchester?

In response to Icyedge and Scoobes. Although apologies to Khuutra if you think I'm taking your thread off topic then I will stop posting and let you chronicle away.

To Icyedge I would in fact say the Final Fantasy name gave it a HUGE bonus with critics. The game had a ridiculous amount of hype and a very strong brand. If it had been an unbranded RPG then I think it would have really struggled. For example Blue Dragon got totally hammered for being linear and many reviews marked it down greatly for this and not being Oblivion. While FF13 was more linear and even though it was criticized for this the review scores didn't reflect it at all. From an objective view point though yes ff13 is very highly rated for a JRPG this gen.

To Scoobes. I think that actually this generation hasn't been too awful for Jrpgs. There are certainly less of them, but a big part of that was the PS2 getting vast amounts of lower budgeted rpgs, very few of which made any impact at all. This generation though there have been a pretty reasonable amount of great rpgs and new franchises, as well as quite a few interesting but flawed games. I would say Blue Dragon, Tales of Vesperia, Lost Odyssey, Star ocean 4 are all fantastic and with the exception of LO had really great battle systems.

Likewise Tales of Grace looks amazing. VC was a fantastic Srpg. Then the whole host of Trusty Bell, WKC, Infinite Undiscovery etc. Which were reasonable. Heck even at launch Enchanted arms was pretty good for a launch game. So while it hasn't been great I think there have been a fair amount of exciting Jrpgs. I still think BD is a spiritual successor to Chrono Trigger, LO has one of the most touching story and characters ever, SO4 and ToV have 2 of the best Jrpg combat systems and VC was a breathtakingly fantastic SRPG.

On the contrary, I loved it. It's full of old RPG mechanics that I used to love in earlier Final Fantasies like searching in pots, dressers and bookcases for items and countless things to collect.

It could arguably be detrimental too. I could come up with many quote of reviewers showing they were harsher because of the Final Fantasy name on it. But, if my mother had wheels it would have been a car you know. In the world of the "IF" everything is possible so im not going to make a solid statement it would have been better or worst without the FF name on it. The reality just show its higher then the average jRPG (particularly nowadays). I do agree that recent years (not just on HD console) hasnt been the best when it comes to jRPG. The last jRPG I really really liked before Xenoblade came out was Suikoden 5.

I bought it recently but haven't played it yet. I'm not really a FF fan and I enjoy some JRPGs (not a fan of the genre), and as I probably belong to the minority that thinks that Tales of Symphonia is a cheesy and annoying game, I suppose I might enjoy FFXIII.

Its easy to say the name helped. Long development time, hype and brand name recognisation can also be detrimental. Thats all "IF" though, we dont live in the "IF".

Yes FF13 is more linear then Blue dragon (at least up to pulse) but linearity is not all there is to judge a game. Anyway, FF13 was also critic and hammered for linearity. 83% metacritic is not excellent in the video game world.

FF12 is the best in the series, never got that hate and i see more and more people coming around to loving it, but good luck with 13.

Well, I'm now to the part where I'm Snow. That's probably enough for now, if not the evening.

I notice in the datalog that I can learn a lot about the events I'm involved in. On the one hand, this means I'm not really confused about what's going on anymore.

On the other hand, does this mean they aren't going to be sharing what happens in the game itself? This isn't like the bestiary in 12 - this is them having to tell me in a book what's happening in the story itself because they didn't include it in the game proper.

I'm getting just pummeled with tutorials, here, and there isn't a very clear transition between scenes at times. All the people on the trains are now the ones fighting alongside the NORA resistance group, right? Though the NORA people weren't on the train. Right? They don't have the uniforms. But Sazh and Lightning were on the deportation train, and they didn't have uniforms either.

All I know about Fal'Cie is that they aren't human. I assume I will learn what they are as I go along.

Not sure where I stand on it so far. I wish the battle theme was more melodic. And that enemies didn't move aorund so damned much, makes Blitz very hit-and-miss when my attack is interrupted by Sazh doing his thing.

I just want to say a couple of things. One, you can move the camera during battles (took me a long time to figure this out...). Two, if you want a more tactical battle system I recommend changing it from autobattle to manual in the game menu, so you input your own commands. If you find that you don't have enough time, you can also change the speed of battles in the menu.