Many of the pros you listed are not really pros or cons, they are just gameplay features. This 6/10 game lacked hugely compared to other FF games in story and gameplay which is why I view it as the worst FF game I've played. Graphics and sound/music was very good.

It lucky the game came out in 2010, if it was reviewed by standards at the moment... Well we need only look at Lightning Returns.

I just mean it reads funny like when you are saying traditional ATB is better than FFX's more actual turn based combat system, opposed to just being different. And being faster isn't better either, just different. I mean I found it too quick, the more reserved combat of traditional ATB allows more trategy than this did because of it's pace.

Completely agree with your individual scores.

I absolutely love the game. I'd give it around a 9.5 / 10.

9.5 from me

dazzling audio/visuals

good story, terrific combat, played till end had superb bosses was a really good time during last gen thats why i keep the game

Either a 7/ 10 or an 8/ 10. It depends on who I'm talking to.

Thing is, I respect XIII too much to hate it. It's certainly not everyone's cup of tea, and if I think you won't enjoy it I will say so. But when I played XIII I got the impression playing it that the dev team really went all out trying to earn my love. It understood that great stories had characters and themes tying them together, and tried to give me that, even if it was incompetently bumbled together.

And it helped that I loved the soundtrack and the overall art style.

I can see the game XIII was trying to be. It's frustrating that most of the time IT CAME VERY CLOSE. And yet it still blew it completely.

A brief synopsis of how to fix XIII. Of how close it really was.

GAMEPLAY:

Unlike most people who hate XIII, I understand why XIII has "the corridor" from a game design standpoint. The l'cie are fleeing and the designers are trying to force the player along like the characters. I get that. Thing is, that should (generally) have been done by chasing the party with powerful enemies most players can't take on, forcing the party down a maze, hoping they don't run into dead ends. A few corridors to connect the mazes would have worked fine.

Paradigmed combat was a good idea, but it was plagued with balance problems. It was balanced toward an action look, so it went by blazingly fast and enemies have a zero too much health. Enemies should have had health on par with the party and fought back with their own paradigm deck. The opposing paradigm deck can tune the difficulty as well as convey a sense of flavor in the enemies you fight.

That, and most of paradigmed combat should have been available to players from the first moment of play. One tutorial which only covers the basics and is not in small print.

CHARACTERS:

Snow spoils Lightning. Light is an awkward introvert who has to be forced into leadership, and Snow simply steals the show. This was probably a great time for another playable character death a la Aeris. The reveal that he got Hope's mother killed breaks his will because he truly can't fix that one, he turns into a Ceith, and Light has to kill him.

Kills the optimist, leaves Light in charge, and gets rid of most of the dead-weight flashbacks.

STORY:

Fighting fate is a tough theme to sell. Fate is, by nature, a nebulous concept, and the fate of the l'cie thing going to overpower Oedipus Rex, at least in the back of the player's mind.

The story should have straight up been about family and adoption, as most of the characters have that in their arc already. Imagine if the act 3 reveal had been that the Pulse Fal'cie sacrificed itself to adopt the party as it's children to stop this nonsense, and that Barthandelus was trying to corrupt that.


Like I said, XIII was very close to being a great game. It just didn't come together. If you can enjoy the game it should have been, you will like XIII. If all you can see is what's actually there, you will despise it.

I loved it! Not sure what I'd rate it, though. Maybe 9 or 9.5.

Fair review.

7/10 for me.

I'm having more enjoyment with Ni no Kuni than I had with FFXIII.

Wow. So much positivity in this thread!

This is where I'd rate it as well. Really enjoyed it a bunch.