| Pristine20 said:
The only thing new was the idea of staggering enemies. How can this not be an FF game? Leader death = game over is not a bad thing. It makes careful selection of your leader part of your strategy. This is why it's better to use maybe Fang or Snow instead of Light as leader. Ironically, I'm having a similar conversation on another site and my debate opponent there thinks that FFXIII was the easiest of all of them because she never died lol. I did think it was the most difficult like you but I also thought that was a good thing. There was no real punishment for dying anyway so I don't understand why it bothered you so much. I know nothing about the advanced sphere grid. I've only played the NA version of FFX so I can't speak to that. I will say though that in NA version of FFX, all the characters ended up the same stats and ability-wise. Only difference was overdrives. I thought FFXIII improved on the FFX formula in this regard. I just don't see how regular sphere grid =/= crystarium except for holding x to move vs pressing x on each node.
Nostalgia is good because it's a cheap way to get people to buy the game (just ask nintendo) but it seriously puts a damper on developer creativity. We will never see anything really new if the nostalgic always had their way. In a game with regular sequels I'll understand your complaints but the standout thing about FF vs other games with sequels is that FF games are all stand alone games with no real ties to their predecessors besides some common elements like summons, chocobos, a guy named Cid, magic called firaga, thundaga and blizzaga, etc. Compare to say resident evil series with it's clear connection between games. With every new FF, we expect a fresh game, not a play on the old. Only FFX and FFXIII have had real sequels and they didn'tgive the sequels new numbers for a good reason. |
Sorry I cut down a lot of your post just to comment on these parts, most of it I understood.
First, I know there are many things ripped off from previous FF games, thing still didn't sit well with me. Maybe it's more complex than 'It has a feature which in themselves are good so it is good.', you know, even lack of steampunk in it was sad.
I didn't find the game hard, I found it frustrating. As soon as was able I stopped using Lightning as my main playable character. This was more because I didn't like her character.
After some research, I did not realise the US version of FFX didn't have advanced Sphere Grid, I thought it was the standard, PAL did so I played a drastically different game to you it seems. A shame.
I can understand what you mean. There are many nostalgic feeling things in the games, for me it was too far removed from what many of us know and love. But understand the story and liking characters were a huge factor as well, as in I didn't with either. FFX-2 had a very odd story, extremely cheesy writing and I doubt anyone will openingly play this game in front of people but it had a fantastic battle system which kept many playing.
I can see why many like FFXIII so much, it's quicker paced, beautiful graphics, stagger is an interesting feature but for me it was the worst Final Fantasy game I've played.
Hmm, pie.
