Runa216 said:
Given how little interaction you actually had in both gameplay and story, I hardly think it qualifies as a game. more like interactive visual experience...and a poor one at that. The OP has it almost perfect. The gameplay has almost no interaction in it (pre-chose six 'battle formations' from a list of 24, actually attempting to control your character will kill anyone not an expert in the game), not to mention you only 'control' ONE of the three characters, and if they die, it's game over. The story is 'good', but it is poorly told. over 90% of the story is told through in-game encyclopedia, rather than woven into the narrative like a GOOD game story. it's just....bad. functional, sure (with great production values), but the story and gameplay were both utter failures. I'm playing through FFX right now, and the story is almost as linear, but like OP said, it's actually fine because there's plenty of side quests, minigames, and exploration. Plus the gameplay required actual thought, foreplanning, and offered you complete control of up to SEVEN characters. At least with XII (which allowed the game to play itself), you had a LOT of control over the precise scenarios and reactions of all six of your characters. That, and it had a LOT of exploration, side quests, etc. I do admit the main line story is pretty simple, and much of the actual 'story' is in side quests and hidden content. |
Little interaction in the gameplay? This is no FF XIV, but still, you could auto-attack, throw items, manage the paradigms amd the TP, switch party, change equipment, change accessories, explore the ocassional branches in the map, dig items on the ground, avoid combats, do sidequests, I mean, WHAT else do you want? You have to switch paradigms. You still have to cast Libra if you want a chance against certain bosses. From time to time, you have to choose an attack your character refuses to (like Dazzle). You have to take care your HP doesn't go too low; you need to prepare your characters for the adventure beign. If leveling up the wrong Crystaliarium, you're forced to grind to make up for your mistake.
You wanted to press "attack" to "attack"? Is that your difference between a game and a "poorly interactive visual experience"? Seriously?
And the story ain't a failure. It manages to be far more complex than what it really is, but it is a story with a prologue, a middle and a closure. What more could you ask? Post-ending DLC to further expand the universe? Better the XIII ending than the fifteen-second sequence of Dark Souls, despite being an ultra superior game on every other area in my opinion.
Again, this is a game. Whether you like it or not, that's a different thing. But you can't come an qualify XIII as an "objectively bad game", because that's nonsense.
