| FinalFantasyXIII said: In closing I think we all just learned that some or most/all the people who had a difficult time understanding the story of FFXIII just admitted here that they chose not to even read up on the datalog entries or find a wiki online when they got confused by terms in the game and simply gave up! Looks exactly so, and I remember in RE1 & 2 reading all the diary's I foundsame in Oblivion/Skyrim etc. reading all kinds of side items same in Ni No Kuni. I'm very surprised someone can complain about a story and obviously not read up on said story when it is available if you didn't get the gist of it in the games AMAZING cutscenes! This is another topic I wanted to get at and prove along with the FFXIII fans! Yippee! +1 for us! |
I think the difference is that in those other games, you can understand the story to a satisfying degree without having to read those extra bits. They enrich the storyling by giving background, but they aren't necessary. Only a small percentage of players look through the datalog/wiki in any given game and that's usually because the story outside of those encylopedia's enthralls them enough to want to find out more.
It's interesting that you mention Oblivion and Skyrim because the overall story of those game's isn't the normally the big draw for people but the fact you can forge your own personal character story in a world filled with depth and lore. The exploration as well as the countless books, scrolls and side-stories in those games is the main draw and key to immersing yourself deeper.
With Final Fantasy XIII, the story in the cut scenes and told throughout the game barely scratched the surface of a world with incredible depth and potential. If you wanted to understand the story and lore of the game to a degree normally expected of a jRPG, you had to read the datalog. This leads to an issue for people as they don't take enough enjoyment from the story during the cut scenes, but this also means many aren't interested in reading the datalog as they haven't had enough immersion in the lore to care.
I know not everyone's like this and other will read and try to understand what's happening, but for other's, if they're not enjoying the core game and story, they're not going to dig deeper. Basically, I think for many, SE got the balance wrong and should spent more time covering the story, history and lore (preferably in a diverse range of side quests) rather than keeping it stored up in the datalog.
