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Alphachris on 27 November 2013
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"The Story in FF XIII was poor". I often hear that, but I almost always miss further arguments...

In my opinion FF XIII had a really great story and I find it was among the very best games of this generation. It was one of the few games that tried to take their story very serious, that tried to portray the emotions of Human seriously.

Why did I find the story great? It revolved around some very deep topics...

Free will vs. Determination:
The Fal'Cie are beings with godlike powers and they are much stronger than humans... but they do not have a free will. Humans, while they are weak and the Fal'Cie could possibly kill them at they will (like shown in the scene where they turn Humans in L'Cie without focus) they can't force Humans into killing the Fal'Cie.

One important aspect of the games story is thinking about how a "god" could trick a Human into killing him so that the world can be destroyed.

The power of propaganda:
Just in case that you didn't notice, a great source of inspiration of this game was the propaganda used by fascist regimes like in Germany. The Fal'Cie tried to inspite fears into the heart of the people. One of the strongest scenes was when you see Barthandelus grinning while the TV News reported that the people of Cocoon demanded that those why came near the Pulse objects are to be purged... It was not the regime wanting to kill those civilians who simply happened to be at the wrong place in the wrong time. The "normal people" wanted them to be purged... Just imagine a world where there is a strange object found in a house next to yours and the next day the whole country demands that you are to be executed because you unintentionally came close to that cursed object.

A Situation where there is no solution - a perfect plan:
The story writer came up with a story where there is no possible good ending. (It was the same thing with FF13-2, too). The L'Cie could either become a monster or turn into a crystal. Either way, the characters were doomed and they knew it. The changing mark was there just to show you that you have to hurry up because you are running out of time. The whole game delivered a feeling of hopelessness... at different times in the game you could see the characters almost despair because they simply did not know what to do because they couldn't see a solution....

They got the order do destroy their homeworld (except Fang and Vanille). That was a thing that they simply couldn't do. And the price for this decision was becoming a monster. That got them angry, but if they kill the Fal'Cie they would simply fulfill what the Fal'Cie wanted them to do. There simply was no way out... The Fal'Cie Barthandelus simply had the perfect plan from the start. He knew that eventually he would win.. either the L'Cie would become strong enough to kill him (he wins) or his Propaganda Plan worked so that a Civil War would start and the military would try to kill off the Fal'cie (he wins).

Sacrifice:
Vanille was somehow the most important character for the story. She simply decided that she would not destroy Cocoon and she accepted her fate of becoming a Monster. It was her Fate to become Ragnarok, but she refused (free will).


So, I can live with the phrase "I didn't like the storyline" but hearing "the story was poor" is a thing that I feel is so wrong. There is so much thought put into this game and it reaches a mature storytelling that you will not find in many games. Final Fantasy left the "Main Hero tries to save the world because he is simply a good guy and the main villain tries to destroy the world because he simply is plain evil" story scenario for much more mature and deeper storytelling. And thats why I FF is still the best RPG franchise out there for me. It deals with highly philosophical themes and tries to deliver a great story above all else.

I will not go into your "linearity" argument. I can understand your point of view, but I do not share it. I personally do not think that "exploration" is a main aspect of a JRPG. It is nice to have some hidden dungeons where you can find Ultimate Weapons/Summons/etc... But it is a bonus, just like a hidden Superboss is not a "must" for me. The main reason why I play JRPG is because they are the only games that put so much effort in their characters/Story.

So if I had to review this game, it would be one of the few real 10/10 games of this generation, among games like Uncharted, Assassin's Creed 2 or Heavy Rain.