| Alphachris said: Could it be that you mean the Crystarium instead of the paradigm? The Crystarium is preset and you can only follow the path with minimal choices. In the end it is similar to the FF XII system but in FFX III not everyone could learn everything possible. Spoilers Ahead! FF 7 also had a very complex story. I had to play it through a second time to fully understand what actually is going on with Cloud, what Zacks role in the game really was and why Sephiroth had Powers over Cloud. The key scene to understand everything was the secret scene down in the shinra villa in Nibelheim. Don't let the complexity of the story make you think that it was weak. I had to think much about it until it finally everything made sense. I am sure that you could enjoy the story better in a second playthrough, now that you know the role of Barthandelus, Vanille and Fang from the beginning. @ Exploration. There was a worldmap, but it was not really there for exploration. Most of the time you had only 1 location to go further and the map was limited by rivers, mountains and water at every side. The only purpose of it was to show different undergrounds that determine which enemies you will encounter (forest, mountain, beach or grass, etc). Only FF 12 really had some large maps, that had several entries. There were also maps, that you could visit a second time and gain access to new areas, which is rather uncommon. The world map wasn't that impressive graphically anyway, since it reused the same patterns everywhere. I understand, that some people are upset that you gain access to new abilities halfway through the game. But really, how much abilities did you have in FF 7 until you left Midgar? Most of the time you had to simply attack by pressing X. Since you had to level up your materia, it took you a while to get the real strong abilities. Or Final Fantasy 9, where you had Zidane as main Character. Since he was a thief, you could only use attack, steal or item.... not much choice too, but nobody cared. FF 13 is not much different to other FF9, since they varied from game to game. Some had more customization, some not. Some had specialized characters and some had characters, that could learn almost every single ability. Some had more secrets, some had less. And While FF XIII did not change that much, the way JRPG are reviewed had changed very much. |
Yes, Crystarium, sorry. But it's not in any way similar to FFXII License Board. on the Crystarium you were set so you had to follow the path of the chosen skill, you couldn't branch off to another. In FFXII, I could have one character completely specialise in Techniks and power while another in defensive magiks and healing but I could chose anyone to be this roles.
Removing the spoilers, I understand a lot of that but it might have all been explained while i was turning off from the story itself because of the many things that happened before the start of the game that I was meant to research to understand. I just felt the narative in gameplay was not on the level of any previous FF game and what I've come to expect from the series as a whole. Even small characters like Cid and Nabaat, while main roles in story were introduced in one scene then gone the next so to speak. Before I even understood their role in the game.
Zacks involvement wasn't needed to understand the story though, he's a minor character fans and SquEnix have turned into someone more important (not played Crisis Core so don't know what's been added there). It was Cloud's mind and delusion that built the story.
And FF9 had a very set amount of abilities but those abilities to be set in any way and learned in whatever order you wished. Yes it had preset battle options but I found it far more diverse in it's battle system then FFXIII
Hmm, pie.
