Runa216 said:
The difference between XIII and the Dark Souls series is...well there's a lot. First and foremost, The Souls games have always had an 'outsider looking in' narrative style, meaning much of the world building is supposed to be mysterious and convoluted and not very direct. Plus, the plot in those games was always secondary to your personal journey and the sense of accomplishment. You could theoretically enjoy Dark Souls without ever understanding any of its plot, instead just being content to play the GAME and feel a sense of accomplishment for overcoming obstacles and bosses. Knowing the story makes those elements better but it's by no means required. The same cannot be said for XIII, which was a tightly controlled, Linear, character-driven RPG. the fact that, in spite of the game being VERY linear, you still HAD to delve into datalogs and the rest of the in-game encyclopedia to understand the plot points that were put in front of you. In Souls, reading item descriptions was completely optional and tertiary to the other elements of the game. In Final Fantasy it was homework, required to understand most of what was going on. These two things are not the same. This sort of 'obscure storytelling is fine in souls, so it's fine in final fantasy' would be like saying Mario not having a deeper story means that Persona doesn't need one, either. I understand where you're coming from because I had to struggle with this 'why do I hate the requisite reading in XIII but I love Dark souls?' internal dilemma for a while. and context matters. what works in one game doesn't necessarily work in another. HAving obscure lore dumps and deliberately obtuse storytelling in Souls works fine because it compliments the game's style and atmosphere. A game like Final Fantasy XIII cannot get away with that sort of thing because it's such a plot and character driven game. That said, lately I've been considering re-evaluating old games I didn't like. There are a lot out there I thought I hated or disliked and tried again recently to find I actually really liked them. I'd never fully played through Final Fantasy 2 or 3 until the PS/Switch releases of the Pixel Remasters because I always thought they were failed experiments and that's why they didn't originally come to North America. but I ended up absolutely loving both of them. 1, 2, and 3 are all on my all-time favourites list. the rerelease of Skyward Sword on Switch has me excited to give that another shot despite not liking it. GTA IV is another game I wanna try. I hate Dark Souls II but I played it with my friends and...despite still resenting it the experience of playing it with friends was positive. I intend to give games like Final Fantasy XIII, Skyward Sword, and Donkey Kong 64 another chance with the benefit of more perspective. Now that I know what I'm getting into maybe I won't hate it as much as I used to. And XIII is definitely on that list. Believe it or not I don't like not liking things. More and more lately I've tried to be positive about things. This perpetual negativity around so many games annoys me. console wars annoy me. Review bombing annoys me. I may be critical of Xbox and Microsoft because they keep dropping the ball but in reality I'm actually rooting for them. I WANT Starfield to be a Game of the Year Contender. I was disappointed when Redfall proved to be as bad as it was. I was cheering when Hi Fi Rush came out. I want them to succeed, because I think the industry is better when we have more options and variety, but me rightly calling them out on their persistent failures gives me this reputation for being anti-Xbox and I'm just not. I want to carry that hopeful optimism for most things. I want to like things. I want games to bring me joy. I don't wanna log online and see this toxic discord about Final Fantasy XVI 'not being final fantasy' because it's not turn based. I don't want to see people review bombing games like The Last of Us Part II and Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores for having those scary lesbians in it. I don't want to see Stephanie Sterling being a smug, immature brat about Tears of the Kingdom. and I don't wanna see Sony fanboys bitching about Starfield being locked to 30 FPS. All of these games are or are expected to be great. there's plenty of room for positivity on all sides. There's no need for tribalism. And Final Fantasy sees much the same sort of nonsense. Ever since Final Fantasy VII there's been SOME sort of controversy with each new entry. Some are reasonable, some are not. but what most of these moronic arguments don't factor in is that Final Fantasy's whole thing is that there are thematic through-lines but each game is its own thing. Different setting, different world, different characters, different eras, different combat systems, different graphic styles, etc. The only consistent element of Final Fantasy is the title and the concept of change. So even though I genuinely LOATHE Final Fantasy XIII, I sincerely plan on giving it another shot with fresh eyes. I may still not like it but maybe I won't hate it and that's enough. but right now, as my memory serves, that game's combat system was trash and its storytelling was dismal and a failure for its genre and linear nature. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm missing something. It's been a while since I last played the game, but every time I look things up or watch videos I'm reminded of these assessments. Again, I hope I'm wrong. Maybe that was just my personal vietnam in terms of FF games (Again, everyone has that one they don't like, maybe 2 or 3), but I spent a LOT of time on that game trying to like it and I just couldn't. XV had its problems. XII had its problems. Even XVI has its problems, but I personally feel their flaws are vastly smoothed over by all the elements that work well. As it should be. IT's not about 'oh, this game has a flaw so it's irredeemable' like so many seem to be acting, it's 'oh, this one element doesn't quite work, but the rest is a tonne of fun so that's okay.' At least that's how I feel it. That's also why 7/10 is considered the base score for a game instead of the 5 it probably should be. because with games, the medium encapsulates so many forms of media that even if one or two elements fails the other parts are still worthy of praise. |
The comparison with the Souls series was only to poke some fun on the idea of having to read equals bad, yeah, I know there are vastly different, and I completely agree on how a game presents its ideas heavily influence the outcome of it being good or not, even when the subject is the same, as presenting lore and story progression on texts, they are really very different approches and results.
I don't feel like playing FF13 again tbh, but I ever only replay games I truly love, like I'm replaying Pokemon Crystal right now, there is only a select few games that are capable of getting me excited to play them more than once (aside from trophy hunting, that's a different story).
I did't have as much of a problem with the on-rails experience as most of the playerbase seems to have, my major problem with the game as not feeling like it was good at being a rpg, it was not frustating not bad per se, just not good at making me want to progress on it.
It's okay to dislike things, don't feel pressed to have a positive reaction to everything, in the end we are all bound to our own tastes. Final Fantasy fanbase is definitely one of the most all over the place, there is always a lot of people that hate the ones you love, and I know that as 12 is my favorite, which is an unpopular one to love, and I know some nice people here who wholeheartedly love either 8 or 10 which are quite easily my least favorites.
The stuff about TLoU2 (and very likely Horizon 2 DLC which I have not played) is just nonsense, there is nothing to gain with that, just don't pay attention to people blindly hating for the sake of it. TLoU2 is one of the very best games I've ever played, the ones losing are the haters.
