I also played that version, there isn't a western version for the NES, but I've hoped you confused FF II for FF IV.
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I appreciate Final Fantasy XIII more and more
- Thread starter Sea lion
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I also played that version, there isn't a western version for the NES, but I've hoped you confused FF II for FF IV.
It got the music right OP... but how you think it got the battle system right I'll never know. It was 90% hold A to win, with the other 10% switching between your build up % stance, your damage stance, and your healing stance. It removes most of the gameplay from turn based RPGs, while still trying to be one and it's just awkward. They should have just gone full out ARPG instead of the mockery of ATB that they produced.
Well I'm European so no, I meant FF2 and I reiterate, it's a great game.
As someone who platinumed it, I didn't hate it.
The story is okay. not terrible or anything. just very confusing...
but the first 10+ hours of that game is extremely tedious. you start the chapter, basically spend an hour in a single environment with endless battles with absolutely no tension, because IIRC, you auto-heal after a battle. You're also level-capped and the level tree is incredibly linear.
pulse is good in general, because you get options. you can chose what to do, the open world is really well done imo and chocobos + battles with actual difficulty!!! the auto-battle is actually pretty good in the endgame.
not a bad game, but takes way too long to actually open up and give you options. the first 10 hours of that game is an absolute chore.
The story is okay. not terrible or anything. just very confusing...
but the first 10+ hours of that game is extremely tedious. you start the chapter, basically spend an hour in a single environment with endless battles with absolutely no tension, because IIRC, you auto-heal after a battle. You're also level-capped and the level tree is incredibly linear.
pulse is good in general, because you get options. you can chose what to do, the open world is really well done imo and chocobos + battles with actual difficulty!!! the auto-battle is actually pretty good in the endgame.
not a bad game, but takes way too long to actually open up and give you options. the first 10 hours of that game is an absolute chore.
I love Masashi Hamauzu, he is honestly my favourite composer of all time. That title used to go to Yoko Shimomura, and it's still close, but over time I have seen more and more of Hamauzu's work, and it has nearly all touched my heart constantly. He just has such a massive Resume of fantastic games under his belt, from SaGa Frontier 2, Sigma Harmonics, World of Final Fantasy, Legend of Legacy AND Alliance Alive, Musashi (hamauzu :P): Samurai Legend, FF X as a co-credit, and of course, he worked on not one, but ALL the FF XIII games!
Listen to the soundtracks of ANY of those games, and you're in love. Download the soundtracks for ALL of these games, and you're in HEAVEN!!!
I will always appreciate and talk up these two, they are some of the best in the business!
After all these years later, nah, I still think it's my least favorite FF game of all time. Ranks lower than FFII and FFVIII, IMO. Never been a fan of Hamauzu (there's only, like, two songs I like from the entire soundtrack), and hated the battle system.
yo that fucking MUSIC. I have my qualms with the game but that music fleshed out the game's feel and atmosphere well enough for me to push to beat the game, which is more than I could say for some other Final Fantasy games.
Yes. YES. Join us!
I'm always so glad when I hear of someone else coming around on Final Fantasy XIII. I've said this in many different ways in many different places, but FF XIII has been subjected to some bizarre revisionist history and I thought it was fantastic despite its (very legitimate) problems, and for me it was night-and-day better than FF XII. Couldn't stand XII despite The Zodiac Age being a massive improvement over the original, but I just devoured XIII and XIII-2 and loved nearly every second of them. (The less said about Lightning Returns, though, the better.)
And I particularly appreciate the point you made about Hope. I feel the exact same way and have expressed that repeatedly. People give him way too much shit just for being emotional, and probably even more so because he's a male and some folks have silly problems with guys being soft or emotional, but goddamn. Hope was a sheltered kid whose mother died and I'm certain most of the people who give him shit would weep at the loss of their own mother too and/or would absolutely want to exact passionate revenge on someone they perceived as being responsible for their mother's death.
People are weird. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'm always so glad when I hear of someone else coming around on Final Fantasy XIII. I've said this in many different ways in many different places, but FF XIII has been subjected to some bizarre revisionist history and I thought it was fantastic despite its (very legitimate) problems, and for me it was night-and-day better than FF XII. Couldn't stand XII despite The Zodiac Age being a massive improvement over the original, but I just devoured XIII and XIII-2 and loved nearly every second of them. (The less said about Lightning Returns, though, the better.)
And I particularly appreciate the point you made about Hope. I feel the exact same way and have expressed that repeatedly. People give him way too much shit just for being emotional, and probably even more so because he's a male and some folks have silly problems with guys being soft or emotional, but goddamn. Hope was a sheltered kid whose mother died and I'm certain most of the people who give him shit would weep at the loss of their own mother too and/or would absolutely want to exact passionate revenge on someone they perceived as being responsible for their mother's death.
People are weird. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
In the sense that people act like it's universally hated, I would definitely say so. It was a divisive game at the time, but most Final Fantasy games are, really.
Right. People act like it was an abject failure from a critical and sales perspective, which just is objectively not true. It's crazy.
I agree it did get the battle system and ost right, but don't leave out the environment art direction when talking about the positives of XIII. Seriously I'm replaying it right now on PC at 4K atm and the environments are just overflowing with personality and detail.
The story and corridor driven maps can get mind numbing and I can understand someone dropping the game because of that, but the battle system, music and environment art direction enhance the experience so much it keeps me playing.
The story and corridor driven maps can get mind numbing and I can understand someone dropping the game because of that, but the battle system, music and environment art direction enhance the experience so much it keeps me playing.
I can do make the same argument about ff12. I beat that game sleeping, literally.
Unlike other Final Fantasy games, where its: x x x x x x x x down x x x x x x x x down x down down x x x x x x x.
Or FF 12 which is :
I love FF 12 and the old school games, but you can be just as reductive with their battle systems too.
I loved it overall but it needed to cut the hallways down to 1/4 of what they were and replace those long boring segments with sidequests you could take on around the city or outside the city. Add in more weapon upgrades from actual shops and it would've rocked so hard. The story was really great as was the setting. The pacing was awful because you ran forward and fought for hours at a time (really the whole game). Without a little exploration, talking to npc's, a few sidequests, and minigames it got bland. I did play it through nonstop though. While it wasn't my first FF, it was the first one I beat which is saying something. I remember loving the music and the summons were really cool looking. I also REALLY adored the ending. When that music kicked in I got a little teary eyed.
I did prefer it to 15. That game was a frankenstein's monster of a game.
I did prefer it to 15. That game was a frankenstein's monster of a game.
This right here was my only real complaint with the game. FF stories and a majority of the cast of FF mainline games had been pretty shitty for a while, so I didn't expect much on those fronts going in, but them limiting the battle and leveling system so much for the majority of the game was the true actual disappointment.
Outside of that though, XIII is the true endpoint of the ATB system that FF had established. I wish that they refined it more rather than go to this garbage ass middle road of action RPG with some stuff designed to make it feel turn based like they did with XV and are now apparently doing with the 7 Remake.
They seem to always learn the wrong lessons as they go from game to game with this series.
It's a great game. Music, character design, and combat system are among the best in the series.
I've seen quite a few people complain about the capped leveling per chapter, but I actually loved that because it ensured you couldn't over-level and just brute-force your way through (unlike XII, which was just braindead, at least up through the snowy mountain area you go to after the Tomb of Raithwall, which is around where I dropped it). Because Square knew exactly how powerful you'd be (or at least exactly how powerful you could be) at any particular moment in the game, it allowed them to design boss fights around those limits that really did test your understanding of the battle system, the various combat roles, and the concept of Paradigm Shifting.
The boss fight against Cid was particularly thrilling and stressful (in a good way) in this regard.
The boss fight against Cid was particularly thrilling and stressful (in a good way) in this regard.
If you think about it that's pretty much every FF. Sure you can choose to spice it up and cast some magic or do summon once in a while but otherwise it's just xxxxx. I think the break mechanic is awesome and leads to some fun encounters.
The combat in XIII was held back by the designers though. It only truly opens up when fighting some of the super bosses. Then it becomes really deep with just the right mix of strategy, timing, and risk/reward dynamics.
Suddenly everything matters: who's in your party, what paradigm setup you have, what order spells are cast in with autobattle, cancelling out of attack chains, reading enemy tells, timing your rotations, juggling the break gauge... you realize right away why there is an auto button because human multi tasking can barely keep up with the ATB.
Yeah I agree the level balance was great. Overall the game difficulty was well controlled imo, and that's why I felt the difficulty was just about right throughout the whole game.
I love XIII. It has fun looking combat with the acrobatics and the effects. It is also not that difficult with its linear progression of skill trees and map. The music is great too. Where is that PS4 4k version ;)
I really wanted to re-play it recently. I would buy the shit out of a FFXIII PS4 compilation.
No it doesn't, that's XIV.
Also OP, ewww. FFXIII is irredeemable garbage, thankfully SE is catching up on that.
Always love the reductive complaints about the battle system and then later on citing long/boring fights. The main issue is how much time you spend in the first half with only 2 party members which gjmps you severely.
Either way it's still 1000 times better than XV's terrible combat.
Either way it's still 1000 times better than XV's terrible combat.
Hot take: I think it's one of the best Final Fantasy entries simply because of how fluid the combat is, how great it was visually for the time, and the soundtrack, of course.
The story is nothing to sneeze at, but I found the cast enjoyable (except for Hope and Snow, who is the most annoying character ever created in any video game). I had a lot of fun with it and I was recently considering playing it through again.
The sequels though.....
The story is nothing to sneeze at, but I found the cast enjoyable (except for Hope and Snow, who is the most annoying character ever created in any video game). I had a lot of fun with it and I was recently considering playing it through again.
The sequels though.....
I dropped FFXIII halfway through (after beating Barthowhatever), so not sure if it improves later on.
What I like about XII ZA combat, while the main story/quest is easy, the optional content (Mob Hunt and Esper) easily made FFXII combat one of my favorite combat system in the series, not to mention the amount of customization option.
Then again, I'm a sucker for micromanagement mid combat.
I liked it enough when it released.
It was easily the weakest of the mainline titles at the time, but I enjoyed it.
XIII-2 was much better I think.
My main issue was the poor character development and a lot of important lore just being in the datalog.
XV was even worse in that aspect and didn't even have a datalog to support it.
It was easily the weakest of the mainline titles at the time, but I enjoyed it.
XIII-2 was much better I think.
My main issue was the poor character development and a lot of important lore just being in the datalog.
XV was even worse in that aspect and didn't even have a datalog to support it.
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If you turn off auto battle it's a different game. Not really sure why people still say this when it's widely known to do so.
*Yawn* I'm so tired of hearing this....
If you turn off auto battle it's a different game. Not really sure why people still say this when it's widely known to do so.
Yeah, so true. I didn't love XV like I did XIII, but I still really enjoyed it (enough to sink more than 90 hours into it) despite its horrifically bad narrative problems.
Most RPG's can and will be beaten with COM/RAV/MED versions, it's the basic tank and spank strat, that's RPG's to a fault. Sure Auto Battle takes the time out of you looking through menu's but it's not the best choice for post game, like at all.
FF13 was just a game that unfortunately have Final Fantasy in it's title, if it was named something else people would see it as a classic.
FF13 was just a game that unfortunately have Final Fantasy in it's title, if it was named something else people would see it as a classic.
It nailed the battle system and the battle music is my favorite in the series but it comes abysmally low in the two of the three most important things an RPG neeeds: a good story with a decent protagonists and good level design. Characters are bland and the linear level design made me feel like a whole wide world does not exist.Theres potential there, like 20 hours in where you go into the open mini sandbox. Revisionist history would be having this game be good in the same way insane people think Resident Evil 6 is good.
It most certainly didn't nail the battle system. It might appeal to some but to others it's one of the most boring ever, coupled with this horrible growth system.
(And it's not because of the auto battle which is just a side feature)
Beside the horrible characters lines it was what quickly killed it for me.
I don't remember if 13 does it too but 13-2 had these horrible animations looking like a very, very bad drama full of over-acting characters. Animation for the sake of animation removes any coherence, it's atrocious.
(And it's not because of the auto battle which is just a side feature)
Beside the horrible characters lines it was what quickly killed it for me.
I don't remember if 13 does it too but 13-2 had these horrible animations looking like a very, very bad drama full of over-acting characters. Animation for the sake of animation removes any coherence, it's atrocious.
I dont think it is garbage. I think it thrives to be similar to dark souls storytelling is, but it just doesnt succeed due to technical problems. I mean it this way, ff13 tries to tell the lore via encyclopedia but the explanation is too broad and long it makes people lazy to read it.
It is different compared to dark souls in which the explanation is short and concise. The long lore description is separated into several parts where players are invited to connect them one by one
FF13 did 3 things very well: battle system, music and visual.
I went back to it last year and imo Lake Bresha and Sunleth Waterscape still is competitive in terms of visual prowess to recent games.
I think even compared to FF15, FF13 is still the best looking FF game due to its strong art direction and visual (because fixed camera and linear route).
FF15 looks very boring with its useless "open world".
I went back to it last year and imo Lake Bresha and Sunleth Waterscape still is competitive in terms of visual prowess to recent games.
I think even compared to FF15, FF13 is still the best looking FF game due to its strong art direction and visual (because fixed camera and linear route).
FF15 looks very boring with its useless "open world".
Sure the battle system is good, but there isn't any real reason to go past a basic setup to just win the battle. You can beat the vast majority of the encounters without having to make use of paradigm shifting or tweaking your setup. The difficulty level doesn't demand it and although there is a star rating system for encounters there isn't any incentive to get a perfect rating.
XIII would have really benefited from a more open level structure that would have allowed players who mastered the battle system to go off to areas other players wouldn't be able to handle or access other areas of the game before players just mashing "X" could.
XIII would have really benefited from a more open level structure that would have allowed players who mastered the battle system to go off to areas other players wouldn't be able to handle or access other areas of the game before players just mashing "X" could.
I never hated the game. I absolutely enjoyed it the first time I played and finished it a couple of other times. My issues where the characters, especially Lightning. Sazh and Fang where the best. Snow was just dumb and annoying and cliche as shit.
To me the game had potential it didn't fulfill. I wish we could have explored Palumpolom or Nautilus even more.
It's a good Final Fantasy game... not a great one. The same for XV. However unlike XV, XIII actually manages to tell its story as long you read the datalog which I didn't first time. Also, music was godlike. Sunleth Waterscape is just amazing.
FFXIII-2... a much much much better game than XIII and XV thanks to Caius, Yuel and Noel.
To me the game had potential it didn't fulfill. I wish we could have explored Palumpolom or Nautilus even more.
It's a good Final Fantasy game... not a great one. The same for XV. However unlike XV, XIII actually manages to tell its story as long you read the datalog which I didn't first time. Also, music was godlike. Sunleth Waterscape is just amazing.
FFXIII-2... a much much much better game than XIII and XV thanks to Caius, Yuel and Noel.
The crystalthing growth system is hot garbage compared to traditional job systems and zodiac age licence boards
You can't even hit the level cap for Chapter 3, the first chapter with the Crystarium, without fighting every single encounter and then running around and grinding for about 15-20 minutes. With every chapter that becomes much more difficult. In Chapter 7 I was only able to hit the level cap after running around for 1.5-2 hours. After Chapter 9 I gave up on hitting the cap because it would take an eternity.
So basically, the people who complain about this, are people who are complaining to complain. Which, I would say, is quite a few people.
And the people who complain about auto-battle just made the game boring for themselves because... you can turn it off.
Hot take: I think it's one of the best Final Fantasy entries simply because of how fluid the combat is, how great it was visually for the time, and the soundtrack, of course.
The story is nothing to sneeze at, but I found the cast enjoyable (except for Hope and Snow, who is the most annoying character ever created in any video game). I had a lot of fun with it and I was recently considering playing it through again.
The sequels though.....
XIII-2 is a top 5 Final Fantasy game. You know this to be true.