| WereKitten said: Disclaimer: I still have to play XIII But I saw so many people comparing it unfavorably to previous games, that indeed it looks to me like a case of nostalgia-tinted glasses. In particular, for example, "disjointed, clumsy exposition" and "annoying, clicheed cast" might as well describe my experience with most of FFX. Just replace the token black guy with a Jamaican comic relief and you're done. You've got the whiner, the stoic warrior (comes in the furry variant), the goth witch. The fact that by all means FFXIII seems to be much closer to X than XII (which i adored, gameplay and cast and writing and all) is actually one of the reasons why I'm not that hyped about this latest game. The fact that you find it not that good in contrast to FFX is what puzzles me. I don't want demean in any way an experience you loved. I am curious about what can be said about the game per se when compared to FFX, trying to cut down on the subjectivity and nostalgia as much as you can. |
With regards to X, it was the game the convince me to get a PS3, I played it at a friends place on an imported PS2 with the original voice acting in Japanese and all I saw was 'awesome' everywhere.
That's the nostalgia factor.
Now to the meat. Please be aware that unlike a lot of the critic, I couldn't give a flying fuck about the game being too linear. I found nothing wrong with the linear progession, but what I found absolutely fucken confusing was the unfolding plot.
In X the main character is as clueless about the world he stumble into as the rest of us. its alien but you get to learn the expirience with the protagonist as the story progress.
Here everyone has already caste their die, and it feels like I've flipped open the middle of a book and I'm looking at a climax with not clue of a head or tail. That's the start of the trouble.
Now to character. First let me say that I did not like all of X's character either and the English voice actress for Yuna needs to be strangled.
But I played it (with great difficutlies) in its original Japanese language and I liked Yuna and Lulu and even though I dislike Waka, he didn't grate me in the same way as Vanille and Hope currently does. The two character combined are enough to kill a lesser game.
Seriously, the first time they gave Vanille a gun and she went 'pow' and pretended to shoot Snow left me absolutely speechless. The seriousness of the situation and her response was just mind bogglingly stupid.
All I could think of in my head was OMFG Snow! You just handed an semi-automatic to a RETARD and asked her to stand guard!
So yea, again I admited that a part of the reason of my disenchantment is nolstalgia and expectation not met but the story is very poor (atm) imo.
I've seen better story unfold in lost odyssey, valkyria chronicles and even star ocean (mainly becouse they're more coherent).
