Board 8 > Just got FFXIII. Worth playing?

(+) Yeah! (+)

How does it stack compared to other FFs? Are the sequels worth playing?

No
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maybe
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Bad game imo
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It is extremely linear. Not just in storyline but in gameplay as well. But it is fun and has some good characters.
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Interesting. Are any FFs good after X? I didnt care for XII.

It's my favorite Final Fantasy but I have unconventional opinions about that series. I'd say it's at least worth approaching with an open mind, and you'll probably like it more if you don't expect it to be like the other FFs when it isn't.
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Its a great game with fun characters and gameplay. Definitely play it.
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XIII, XIII-2, and XV are all at least "good". XIII-2 is my favorite of those three.

Play it.
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It's a good game.
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If you own it go for it, but it's not very good.
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It's got a good battlesystem (takes a bit for it give you most of your options tho) and it's very pretty
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Its good. It takes a bit longer than necessary to really open some stuff up, but the cast is good. Some of the story isnt handled too well and requires reading some in-game info dump type things, but other than that its fine

It's just okay for the first half or so, then later it gets good for a bit, then towards the end it becomes a slog.
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it's a god awful word with a terrible battle system and trash characters

don't do this to yourself
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No.
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It's a considerably bad game.
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It's a fantastic game with great characters, a unique battle system, and beautiful locations.

As you can see opinion on it is mixed so give it a shot and see how you feel about it.

Moonroof posted...

Interesting. Are any FFs good after X? I didnt care for XII.

13-2 is legitimately fun and good, just ignore the plot.

they say lightning returns is good too but i haven't played it
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It is super flawed in several ways

The presentation iin the story is incomplete

The battle is serviceable but makes you wish you were playing a tales game

Linear didn't bother me much but yea, it did other people

But instill found the world and characters worthwhile enough to not only finish it but to 100% it

But yea, it MIGHT be worth a run
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Battle system is interesting, but everything else is mediocre.

Literally hallways: the game. Makes ffx maps look labyrinthian by comparison

Edit: maybe hallways isn't the right word, the point im making is that the maps are almost entirely point a to point b with nothing else going on
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This largely depends if you are also going to play FFXIII-2 and Lightning Returns. Like if you don't want to do that I'd say probably skip, but if you do then the trilogy is worth a play through. The games are very character focused and the cast is probably the most divisive in the series. You really need to play all 3 games to really get full closure on everyone. But overall I think the trilogy has among the best developed casts in the series. On top of that I also think the world building is extremely good and the soundtrack for XIII is number one.

The actual story though is kind of "wtf". It's really more about characters reacting to what is happening. XIII itself poses some interesting questions but they are solved in the lamest way possible. Some of the writing also seems a little iffy at times. And just like the characters the games themselves all seem pretty divisive in terms of their gameplay. The other is that the characters do start kind of bland or at least not as immediately likable compared to some other ff characters. But weird things happen over the course of the games. Like characters I didn't think much about in the first couple of games show up later in the third one and I can't help but think that "man this is so cool more games should do stuff like this."

As for the battle system. In XIII I don't really know what people expected. Like in terms of when it came out it was the best battle system a FF game has had. XIII-2 improves on it a little bit, and LR modifies it as it's based on using one character (Lightning).
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I am definitely story-focused when it comes to RPGs, FWIW.

I never get the linear complaints. Is it really bad the game doesnt have 8 pointless hallways leading to potions/items youll never use and armor/weapons that are barely any better than what youre already using? As far as Im concerned XIII just saves you time youd otherwise waste for almost no value

Plus if you want some roaming, the game DOES eventually open up to a pretty damn big area.
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Moonroof posted...

I am definitely story-focused when it comes to RPGs, FWIW.

well XIII doesn't even try with its story so yeah

skip!

Inviso posted...

Plus if you want some roaming, the game DOES eventually open up to a pretty damn big area.

people say this but the "open" portion is trash, you're just dropped into some field zone you don't care about and it's like "hey you can uh do things these side-things if you want or just... don't"

as someone that hate's XIII's linearity, XIII is at it's best during its linear portion before it completely drops all direction
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If you like long boring corridors and shitty characters then this will be your GOTY.
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KokoroAkechi posted...

As for the battle system. In XIII I don't really know what people expected. Like in terms of when it came out it was the best battle system a FF game has had.

Hard, hard disagree on this. Like the rest of the game, character progression is entirely linear and even in terms of classes, each character is obviously tuned for 1-2 particular roles. Meaningful customization is basically out the window because of this, and combat itself is 90% just swapping classes while autobattle mashes buttons for you. It does get significantly better in XIII-2 though, which IMO is actually a really solid game.
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The linearity was done on purpose and it opens up late in the game on purpose. I thought it was used as a really clever story mechanic. It fucks with the pacing, but I thought how it was handled was really smart. Will not agree with anyone who complains about the level layouts as a bad idea.

I also don't entirely agree with the idea that you have to read through datalogs to understand the story. There's a couple moments where you might have to.

Battle system is kickass in the 2nd half of the game. Early on, it's a little autopilot, but if you legitimately think the game is entirely auto-playable, you're dead wrong. Each individual action is essentially replaced with quick paradigm shifts that you'll have to be very smart about for when the game stops being dead easy. Plus, I remember you do have to eventually start worrying about individual actions (rather than just the classes) as well if you want to shorten longer battles and prevent it from running too long
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You know, actually, let me just sum up everything everyone is saying for you -

You will never get a definite answer on whether you should play this game. It's super polarizing. Some people think it's total shit and bad in every single way, while some people think it's pretty great and has a lot going for it.

If you already own it, play it and find out for yourself. That's the only way you're gonna find out if it's good or bad, because those are entirely subjective and this game in particular seems to split people right down the middle.
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Solioxrz362 posted...

You know, actually, let me just sum up everything everyone is saying for you -

You will never get a definite answer on whether you should play this game. It's super polarizing. Some people think it's total shit and bad in every single way, while some people think it's pretty great and has a lot going for it.

If you already own it, play it and find out for yourself. That's the only way you're gonna find out if it's good or bad, because those are entirely subjective and this game in particular seems to split people right down the middle.

Opinions aside, this is the real answer.

There's probably almost exactly a 50% chance that you'll like the game. Since money isn't a factor here, the only question is time, and the game isn't really particularly long for an RPG. If you're curious, I'd say it's at least worth a try! If nothing else you'll walk away with an opinion you can voice in the next "is FFXIII worth it" topic!
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I don't understand when people say the game is like autopilot. In terms of FF games, FFXIII probably has the highest concentration of enemies that will probably just wipe you when you first get to them unless you are sufficiently prepared for them and know how to use your paradigms effectively.

The problem is that the game takes 10 hours or something to like explain how this actually works and such. It's like come on, this should have been in like in the first couple of hours. Like before this happens the game is very easy.
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I own hundreds of games I haven't played! You can do it too!
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You can get through maybe two-thirds of the game through brute force without really having to learn the battle system, and then you hit a wall and all the quirks that were sort of hinted at ten hours ago suddenly become really damn important, and you either learn how it all works in a hurry, or give up.

Once you get forced out of the 'attack attack attack' mindset and start mixing up roles to exploit bonuses and chains and whatnot, it's great. It just takes a long time before any of it becomes relevant, and doesn't really teach you any of it when it does.
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I don't get the argument that you can brute-force the game. I mean, I'm sure you can, but I bet you can beat every Pokemon too while not caring about type advantage and only using tackle. Even in early battles in XIII you win faster by staggering and paradigm shifting, not just by mindlessly attacking. I used every role and switched a bunch in one early Sazh/Vanille duo boss, it didn't take ten hours.
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yeah, people make a lot of criticisms of the game that just are not fair. "the battle system is so simple you can brute force it", yeah, and you can get through many JRPGs with classic turn-based by literally mashing X for "attack" every turn.

"The characters just auto-battle, you don't even control them" Yes, the attacks and spells are on auto-battle, that's not your focus - you have six commands to use, six paradigms, and you'll be switching between them constantly and paying attention to bars and stuff

hallways? FFX was all hallways too.

stagger is a dumb mechanic for a game with ATB
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hallways? FFX was all hallways too.

ffx map design isn't good either, though

anyway, it's not really a bad thing, it's a taste thing. i don't like that kind of game design in my rpgs, but other people do/don't mind it. that's cool.it's easier to put up with if some other portion of the game is particularily compelling, be it the story or the characters or the combat. for me personally, 13 failed to deliver on any of that to a significant enough degree that i don't care about the map design.
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