Oops, okay I'll delete that, when I got home...I can't edit it through my cell! Soooowwwwyyyy guysss

Damn, this guy hit nail right on the head about FF13. I'm not as far into the game as he is (I'm only about 7hrs into it as I've been switching back and forth between FF13 and Dragon Age Origins), but the game is extremely linear. I've never played an "rpg" that has been like this. The "battle, movie, repeat" part is accurate as well.

 This is vanilla: http://gamzsonev3.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/vanilla-poster.jpg

Not more bad news. I guess FF changed WAY too much. I for one am kinda disappointed as well as this is not the first dude to say these things about the game. When I heard that the game had hardly any towns, no lv'ing up and so forth, I was hugely turned off.

:(

Wow, after hearing all of the bad news of FF13 so far, FFCC:TCB is actually looking to be a much better option at least to me.

Let's hope the people we have heard from so far were actually exagerating because if I hear one more dude and his/her bad news....I'll skip or rent FF13 or just wait till SE makes some remakes of past games. Oh well.

Sounds like horribly boring game. Moving onto playing Crystal Bearers, maybe not flawless, but still fun game.

Everyone (hater) is trying to find weakness of the game especially from popular franchise and vry hyped. FFXII has bad story, boring character but amazing world and nice gameplay (depends on individual). FFXIII has better character, story, gameplay (maybe) but smaller world, less explorable town. All games has their weakness.

*Sigh*

This is FFXII all over again. When will people understand that each FF is different and doesn't have to do the exact same things?

The problem doesn't lie in the game, the problem lies in you, the gamer, that doesn't accept evolution and doesn't accept change. The game doesn't have to do your every bidding, you are the one that has to shape his feelings and his concept of gaming in a FF game, with each new instalment.

Also, I've seen mostly on this site, that the people complaining or not giving a damn anymore about FFXIII, are basing it solely on other's people reviews and thoughts about the game. Seriously, if I had listen to people bashing FFXII, I wouldn't even give it a chance, and FFXII is my second favourite FF game of all time.

There's a thing called "Forming your own opinion and thoughts", use that, it will be much better. You don't want to buy the game? Then try it out at some friends house before you get it, just don't make assumptions before even playing the game for yourselves.

Oh, and about FFXIII being linear, I guess you people haven't played any of the old FF games right? Even FFVI was extremely linear right until you get the first Airship, which was only 25 hours into the game XD But I guess people dismiss that :P

Umm you do realize that the judge of any game is the gamer? gamers are not some kind of mindless slave that must obey the whims of the designers of a game, we judge if it sucks, and no one else, not even the designers, can say a game is good if gamers say it is bad.

-Linearity in and of itself is not necessarily bad, what is bad is if the linearity promotes repetition and boredom, and if your talking about playing a game for 'hours' then yes linearity will always generate boredom except for very exceptional game design, and chiefly those games will be action-oriented games rather then slow turn-based games.

- A lack of towns etc, making the game this linear, is bad because it strikes out one of the most important strengths of gaming that does not exist in other mediums, exploration by virtue of control.

- Linearity is bad for Final fantasy in general, because final fantasy has ALWAYS had shit gameplay, it has always been a godam chore going through a dungeon, it has never been a positive experience, the only exciting gameplay in Final fantasy has been boss encounters and FF7 Gold saucer, but that is like 1% of 99% of the encounters you go through, so obviously that is very bad.

That being said, the only way this game is good is if the cinematics are so exceptional as to outweigh the negatives, judging from what people have said, this could be the case.

FF6 is my most favourite FF, i have played it at least 10 times, and its gameplay isn't good, every dungeon you go through is not exciting, but tedious.

one gud thing is tht the story and music seem to be sumthing every1 is praising about ths game, many ppl praise gameplay too.

@vanatos

I ask you this then, have you played the game to give a proper judgment of the game? Because from the complaints i've seen so far is mostly from people who haven't played the game.

Plus, if you're going to complain about a FF game, then you need to understand the concept of FF per se. Most complains that each new instalment of FF is that it changes the formula too much, or that it doesn't look as similar as previous FF games.

Those aren't valid complains in a saga such as FF, that only shows how little people really know about the saga itself.

Oh, and you say FF always has had shit gameplay? Guess that shows how much you know about FF, because the gameplay itself has been one of the most appraised critically and by the fans throught the whole saga. To YOU it may feel crappy, but that doesn't make it so ;)

- When people complain about FF being too similar/not similar in some aspects, they are not complaining about this really, what they are complaining is that a newer FF is shittier then an older FF in some fashion

-gameplay in FF critically appraised?! ROFL, so through FF1-FF6, was it a great gameplay experience to go through the 99th random encounter in which you spammed the exact same attack? ditto for FF7, FF8, FF9, FF10 etc etc?

No, random encounters (or normal encounters apart from bosses) amount to 99% of the gameplay, yet these has never been praised, no one goes on forums and says 'shit that dungeon where i slogged through 100 random encounters was great guys'.

Do you know what is praised? all the time? design external from the gameplay and purpose, gameplay has only one overall purpose, excitement, it doesnt matter how intricate, complex gameplay it is, if it in the end isn't exciting, its crap, Final Fantasy can employ the most complex intricate and damn genius design ever, but if it aint exciting, its crap.

Reviewers loved praising the sphere grid in FF10, do i care? does the sphere grid make my 5th dungeon crawl more exciting experience? no, this is a case of praising the design external from gameplay, that is, praising its design instead of its enjoyment.

What about FF6? i loved the attempt at giving each character their own special skill, but what happens? their all virtually identical in effect except for a few (like Locke stealing), in fact the MAGIC skillset which everyone can get, has all the effects of the special skillset and more, so how are they distinct apart from cosmetic appearance? their not, but what reviewer said this? all they did was praise it.

Again, praising the design external to gameplay, i didnt give a shit that Sabin had a 'street fighter' skillset when his move effects were identical to everything else in the magic skillset.

The greatest problem of Final Fantasy has always been that it never achieves the purpose of its gameplay design.

Turn-based style combat is a TACTICAL game, and given were playing a game for hours on end, it must be defined by constant thinking of EVERY encounter on what to do to win, different tactics all the time.

Final Fantasy has always failed to achieve this, 99% of encounters can be won with the exact same spamming attack, 99% of encounters can be won regardless of what choice you make (whether using the ATTACK, FIRE MAGIC, ICE MAGIC, THROW, SUMMON etc).

the 1% which is at least somewhat interesting, are the boss encounters.

This creates repetition, boredom, lack of engagement, and general not-fun.

I don't like to say it, but anyone who argues that gameplay in Final Fantasy was some kind of praise-worthy thing, is obviously a fanboy, it has never been good, because it has never been exciting apart from boss battles, i only make an exception to Final Fantasy 1 and 2 since it was new then.