Wired FFXII review, not so good.

[mrstickball]

Lostplanet22 said:

mrstickball said:
1) Its bad that it is that linear, 20 hours into a game. If that trend continues, you wonder what kind of scores and sales XIII will garner.
2) The review is only 20hrs into the game. I simply cannot believe someone would review a JRPG prior to finishing the game. You just cannot do that in an RPG.

Bad like in FFX?  Aren't JRPG's mostly linear untill you are almost at the end of the game and can explore the world (the best part in any JRPG for me btw).

2)  I think most reviewers do that.  What is finishing anyway. Was finishing FFX storyline enough to give a good review of the game or must have done all the side quests aswell (that can take 150+ hours).

Although some really open up toward the end, there are quite a few that offer strong sidequests prior to the end.

For example, Tales of Vesperia contained multiple, multiple sidequests that could be done prior to getting late into the game.

FFVII had Condor Fort as a great sidequest once you got out of Midgar. VIII had Triple Threat as a game-within-a-game which was a good sidequest series.

Theres a difference between finishing a game 100% to review, and finishing what may be 30% of the full game. I could understand someone playing through the main quest + some side quests that aren't too long, in order to review. But when someone says 'I'm 80% through the chapters and this game is XYZ' just doesn't sit right with me. Yes, there are some things that you can certainly comment on (plot, battle system, ect), but as you said - some introduce major concepts near the end, and it doesn't sit right if you review a game prior to knowing where it heads.

@noname - Final Fantasy does sell outside of Japan, 'ya know. If the reviews are bad in the west, then I don't expect it to have strong sales.