Is this game really THAT good? - Page 2

The game isn't that bad, so it obviously means it isn't that good at all.

It's just too much effort on the visual side. Admittedly for the first hour it was madness on TV, couldn't believe the quality I was seeing-even in gameplay. Soundtrack is great, The battle system drags (especially towards the end) but was better than I imagined.

The problem for me was the characters and the plot.

I think XIII and X are two similar games in that they are very plot-based and linear (though X was not as restricted). The difference between the two is the passion. In X you communicate with the voice of the world. You talk to people who belong to the world of Spira. You can hear varied and similar opinions from NPCs and thus, this lets you blend in to the world of Spira. You can even compete in the local sporting contest. Like most FF titles you can feel like you belong to the world of the game.
XIII on the other hand starts off with dialogue you couldn't possibly understand, and by the time you can grasp the setting of the plot you're almost done with the game. Why? Because you can only see the world from the eyes of the protagonists. I didn't feel like I agreed, or even disagreed with any of the characters because I didn't feel the need to care. You don't feel like what you're doing is causing any impact or difference to the plot because you can't see any effect taking place. You just end up grinding enemies for a few hours to wait for the protagonists to make their mind up about something which surely could have been done in a 2-minute cutscene. You'd think the characters are best buddies after these long hours but the ending proves you wrong. The style of the game makes the whole thing pretty hollow. Even with the mind-blowing graphics displaying each of their emotions, you would probably drop more tears playing VII despite the lego faces.

It's just a shame because every level of the game is a dungeon. You walk through a forest filled with enemies and when you're done you're rewarded with a factory filled with enemies. Oh, and that will reward you with a town filled with enemies. And then this rewards you with a vast landscape to roam freely around, which looks stunning at first but leaves you feeling quite lonely after you realise that again there are only enemies here. And this leaves you wondering why you've come this far.

I know I sound like I hate the game but I really don't. I think it had the potential to be an epic. With the visuals it's difficult to say the game is an all-time low, but in 10 years time I think a lot of people will look back and admit the game wasn't that good. Square are just missing out on good scenario writers since XII and hopefully, after the failure of XIII-2, they will pick it up again.

No. If you're a fan of classic FF games you'll be lost here. You start off in a completely linear setting for the first half of the game, which is okay in some ways. But look at it like this:

Remember the Midgar sequence that made up the first half of Disc One in FFVII? Imagine that went on for half the game and then you escaped onto the world map and found out there were no towns or villages, barely any more cutscenes or character development and no way to go back and talk to anyone, so you were basically grinding and fighting through enemy->boss runs for the rest of the game? Imagine that in very HD graphics and you've got this.

dude its a good game and will really pick up at around 20 hours in

Frankly speaking, I like the game. It has better environmental graphics than FFX and the enemies are not push-over.

In FFX, once ya have reached a certain level in Sphere Grid, ya will be unstoppable and the game begins to lose it's glitter. But in this game, such thing doesn't happen. Even when ya level up to the max, the chance of ya losing is still there. And this is an exciting thing (at least to me).

Save points are everywhere, so does shops and ability to sell/buy items. However, I do like to point out that, I find the lack of humans in the game in the middle of this game (from Mission 10 onwards) are somewhat depressing. I don't see much NPC which ya can interact with, unlike in FFX. This makes the players difficult to understand the game world which they are thrown into.

Overall, I like this game and could recommend it to all FF fans. Also, I have brought FF13-2 but haven't try it yet.

I liked this game to be honest. I own a fair few final fantasy games, but in the past I have tended to get lost or sidetracked and just give up. In this game, it leads you in (perhaps for a bit too long) and then gives you a bit more freedom.

The story is good, and the lack of npcs works within the setting (although I was pleased with their return in XIII-2). Other than Snow, I also like the characters quite a bit as I feel square did a good job. This isn't perfect but it's still a good game all the same.