RTTP-Final Fantasy XIII- A lore rich world with a fantastic setting and incredible soundtrack and phenomenal combat....

[nogoodnamesleft]

With an absolutely terrible, TERRIBLE script and awful cast of characters with some of the worst writing ive experienced.

Recently have had the itch to experience the fantastic battle system this game had and finished it over the weekend. It was a pretty great ride for the most part, i give the game an 8 overall. However, it could have been so much more and in fact could have been the best final fantasy game ever made.

A lot has been said that the first 25 hours or so are ridiculously boring and linear and i do agree to an extent, but the battle system starts hitting its stride a bit earlier than that and the gameplay is quite fun. However the corridors that you go through for that entire period-i still cant believe this was thought to be ok.

To be fair, a lot of JRPGs are incredibly linear and actually just as linear as FF13 but they give the ILLUSION of non linearity. This is the main issue here. There are no illusions. You are walking down fucking corridors for the longest time in the game. Just terrible.

The characters, honestly, for the most part, are terrible. Ive seen a lot of love for Sazh which i just cannot wrap my head around because he is just so bland and generic but that fits in the with the entire cast of characters. They are so incredibly unlikable. They range from

Lightning-average, acceptable if you will
Sazh-See above
Vanille-Actually, above average and ends up being one of the more likable characters but her VA and writing at times is honestly worst in class in the game that it will leave a negative impression more than a positive one
Fang-pointless. Forgettable. Most of the time forget shes even in the game.
Snow-Quite possibly one of the most annoying and terrible characters ive ever played in an rpg. From his character design head to toe, his writing and dialog and his script, nothing about this character is likable imo.
Hope-Terrible in the first half, somewhat stays out of the spotlight in the second so its ok since he doesnt fucking whine and complain that much by the end of the game. Still cringe worthy writing and dialog.

HOWEVER

I absolutely LOVE these things about the game

The lore is RICH and i mean fucking RICH-i spent a lot of time reading about the past and present of the universe, world, gods etc. I am very satisfied with what was created and its a shame we wont see more games in this universe using its lore. Love what they did with past franchise characters like Anima etc.

However the way the story is presented has to be the absolute worst shit ever. Falcie LCie Cieth fuckin bla bla like we are expected to know whats going on. I finally read all of the in game datalog and watched some plot analysis' to and i understand the story, setting and lore perfectly now and i am impressed. The way it is told in game though, was absolutely terrible and another thing i cannot believe was play tested and thought to be acceptable.

The music is absolutely phenomenal. Its no Uematsu, but its stunning from basically beginning to end in a different way. Cold, crystal tunes with gorgeous melodies and kick ass battle themes and action themed tracks when they are needed.

And of course, the combat. Fast fucking paced real time job switching keeping you on your toes even with non boss encounters keep gameplay exciting most of the time. One of the best JRPG combat systems ive ever experienced which to me, before the game was released i was thinking would be the opposite-WTF, no levels? auto heal after each battle?? NO MP?! CAN ONLY CONTROL YOUR MAIN CHARACTER?!!?!?!?!?!?! But they made it all work. Cant praise it enough. Infinitely better than the mess of a combat system we got in 15.

All in all, i look back at the game in a better light than i did on initial release. I hated it at the time and i have gone back to it two times since and both times i quit after reaching Gran Pulse. But im glad i completed it for the most part and i definitely enjoyed my time with it more this time knowing what was going on with the story and having the lore knowledge as well.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

I still can't think of any single part of XIII I enjoyed. Even the music is just bland.

 

[Transistor]

To this day I still can't understand the praise for the combat.

99% of the game can be accomplished by auto-battling with Ravager / Commando / Medic combo

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

To this day I still can't understand the praise for the combat.

99% of the game can be accomplished by auto-battling with Ravager / Commando / Medic combo

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You will legitimately get your ass handed to you on the higher end side missions using only one Paradigm

 

[Transistor]

You will legitimately get your ass handed to you on the higher end side missions using only one Paradigm

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You mean the optional hunts 40 hours into the game once you get to Gran Pulse?

So, like, 1% of the game.

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

You mean the optional hunts 40 hours into the game once you get to Gran Pulse?

So, like, 1% of the game.

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Content wise? maybe, 1% sure.

Time investment needed to actually be able to tackle them? Not really.

 

[Toth]

I live the game so much but the translation is so weak. I bet Alexander Smith could have smoothed our a lot of the clunkiness. The core story itself is fine.

 

[hateradio]

I hated so much of the game, but I did find the battle system to get better as you went along.

Keeping a few good standard paradigms helps, but I honestly just went for the main story, only did a few quests, and traded it in for a loss of $15. So it wasn't too bad.

 

[StraySheep]

Glad you like most aspects of the game nogoodnamesleft. While I can agree that the moment to moment writing leaves something to be desired (all I can say about it because it has been awhile) I actually really like the characters. Especially Sazh, man!

If you haven't you should play XIII-2 afterwards which is a better game is just about every way and is a top 5 Final Fantasy game!

To this day I still can't understand the praise for the combat.

99% of the game can be accomplished by auto-battling with Ravager / Commando / Medic combo

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99% of Final Fantasy is selecting attack and then the occasional potion/cure spell.

 

[Majukun]

absolutely one of the worst games i have ever played.

a game that refuses to be played

and that's without even considering the bad story and characters.

 

[Deleted member 4037]

I actually like the cast except Hope, Hope is the only one that draws my ire
The writing is corny, but I find it charming tbh

 

[Bhonar]

With an absolutely terrible, TERRIBLE script and awful cast of characters with some of the worst writing ive experienced.

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LOL this is exactly what I came in here to post, after seeing the title of your thread but before clicking into the thread. haha good call

This is by far the worst overall cast of playable characters in any mainline FF I've played.

And it also includes the ABSOLUTE WORST individual character of all ...Hope. Everytime he talked, I literally wanted to punch him in the mouth.

The only cool character is Fang. Then Sazh is half-decent. Everyone else ranges from bad to flat-out garbage.

 

[Transistor]

99% of Final Fantasy is selecting attack and then the occasional potion/cure spell.

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Hell, at least in those you would have to actually select cure.Trash mobs in XIII could be played blindfolded by mashing X. It just boggles my mind how backwards they went from X / X-2 / XII. I like to go back to X-2 for the pinnacle of Final Fantasy battle systems.

 

[Korigama]

Eh, Fang was one of the only interesting ones among that cast, her connection to Vanille being more noteworthy than any other interactions within that group. Hope was the only one I truly hated, but the game still has a poorly-written story and it's a stretch to call most of the supporting cast and antagonists "characters".

To a point I can see why some might like the combat when there's an actual full party of three and the game stops treating the player like an idiot, but I still hated it. And absolutely none of the lore matters when they made no effort to create a world that seems believable or lived in, instead amounting more to pretty, disjointed wallpaper than anything else. If there were more locations like the ruins of the Oerba village, which also had one of the best tracks in the game (there's good music in the OST, but doesn't make me miss Uematsu less and is yet another example of Toriyama's insistence on never featuring the FF victory fanfare in his games), then that would've been a step in the right direction.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

Eh, Fang was one of the only interesting ones among that cast, her connection to Vanille being more noteworthy than any other interactions within that group.

To a point I can see why some might like the combat when there's an actual full party of three and the game stops treating the player like an idiot, but I still hated it. And absolutely none of the lore matters when the made no effort to create a world that seems believable or lived in, instead amounting more to pretty wallpaper than anything else. If there were more locations like the ruins of the Oerba village, which also had one of the best tracks in the game (there's good music in the OST, but doesn't make me miss Uematsu less and is yet another example of Toriyama's insistence on never featuring the FF victory fanfare in his games), then that would've been a step in the right direction.

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Yup. I agree with all of this.

 

[Dandy Crocodile]

Easily one of my top 3 games in the series.
I love 13 and Vanille is a phenomenal character.

 

[signal]

Still dislike XIII, still like XIII-2.

 

[Veliladon]

99% of the game can be accomplished by auto-battling with Ravager / Commando / Medic combo

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Lol. Sure. You're going to take hours on fights, go through squillions of consumables, and you're going to get fucked on Orphan. You absolutely need to use Sentinel to survive some hits and you need to use SYN/SAB to get fights done in a timely manner.

If you're not flicking between Optimas as fast as you flick through menus actions in FFVII or Chrono Trigger you're 100% doing it wrong.

Also, there's no way a mere mortal can keep up with manual entry with boosted ATBs in end game. The game is absolutely built for 100% auto.

 

[Cobalt Thorium G]

I should pick this up and play it on the X, never did play it back in the day.

 

[StraySheep]

This is by far the worst overall cast of playable characters in any mainline FF I've played

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So obviously is very subjective but here is my view on the FF casts.

• I-IV are nothing characters.
• Haven't played V and VI yet.
• VII is great
• VIII cast, outside of the main two, are very bland. Even Squall and Rinoa are bland for the majority of the game.
• IX is pretty good even as I am on Disc 3 currently.
• X has highs and lows. Kimahri, Lulu, and Rikku are pretty boring.
• XII great cast
• XIII is really solid for me. I really like Fang, Snow, Sazh, and Lightning at least. Like Hope more than most, especially as he gets better in...
• XIII-2 Obviously a small group of Serah, Noel, and Mog. But they are a great group and as we can see above even the better parties in FF have duds.
• XV the bros are great.

So while I would put almost a handful of casts ahead of XIII, I find it hard to say its the worst overall cast imo.

 

[TheThirstyMage]

I remember not liking it at the time but i'm willing to give it another shot. I'm older and more patient now.

 

[Mockerre]

A lot has been said that the first 25 hours or so are ridiculously boring and linear and i do agree to an extent, but the battle system starts hitting its stride a bit earlier (...)

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I rest my case, your honor.

 

[Zerokingx]

I for one very much love the cast overall tho Cid and Jihl and Yong deserved better tbh

 

[Veliladon]

I'm not going to deny, the first few hours playing it I was like "wtf is this?" and then all the paradigm shift stuff clicked and I'm like a duck in water and the combat was suddenly awesome.

 

[devSin]

FF13 is an action game first, and a JRPG second (a distant second). It needs to be approached that way IMO.

I also disagree that the characters are bad. The game is really stingy with development; once you understand their motivations and what's supposed to be going on (rather than just the little that the game shows you), their behavior makes a lot more sense. (The worst I can say is that Fang is mostly superfluous.)

The story is just standard JRPG schlock. It's far from the worst I've ever seen.

The art, combat, and music really are phenomenal, though. Easily the best music in the franchise, and actual good character designs from Nomura.

 

[Draconian]

Never had an issue with the battle system, but the game is an absolute slog in its design.

 

[LazyLain]

So obviously is very subjective but here is my view on the FF casts.

• I-IV are nothing characters.
• Haven't played V and VI yet.
• VII is great
• VIII cast, outside of the main two, are very bland. Even Squall and Rinoa are bland for the majority of the game.
• IX is pretty good even as I am on Disc 3 currently.
• X has highs and lows. Kimahri, Lulu, and Rikku are pretty boring.
• XII great cast
• XIII is really solid for me. I really like Fang, Snow, Sazh, and Lightning at least. Like Hope more than most, especially as he gets better in...
• XIII-2 Obviously a small group of Serah, Noel, and Mog. But they are a great group and as we can see above even the better parties in FF have duds.
• XV the bros are great.

So while I would put almost a handful of casts ahead of XIII, I find it hard to say its the worst overall cast imo.

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Listen to this guy. He's got Sagawa as his avatar, he clearly has good taste when it comes to characters.

 

[Dragoon]

Started it 3 times, couldn't finish it. I tried. I fucking tried my best but couldn't do it. I've said it on gaf before, but this is far and away one of the shittiest casts ever put on a videogame. As a anime fan, it's also like the director/writers chose the worst fucking traits from the shittiest anime characters.. and put them all together as one group of dogshit together.

 

[ChewbieFR]

Didn't play it yet but I find the soundtrack phenomenal.

 

[Arthoneceron]

This fucking game made me lost all the hope that I had for the series.

Yet, FF XV is a game which tries to be good, while FF XIII does it's best for being awful.

 

[Deleted member 4869]

I really liked the game, but it probably has the worst cast and main character in modern (Or at least post IV) Final Fantasy history.

I debate myself on which cast I disliked the most, XII's or XIII's.

The combat system was indeed pretty good, though. Too bad the game will always be remembered for it's corridor-style level design.

 

[Transistor]

I debate myself on which cast I disliked the most, XII's or XIII's

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Bruh.... XII has a cast that is light years ahead of XIII

 

[MonadL]

Outside of the amazing graphics at the time and some fun I had on Gran Pulse, I thought the game was awful in pretty much every era. Terrible battle system, terrible story, and terrible characters. Just an absolute mess of a game.

 

[Dark_Castle]

My ass is phenomenal.

 

[Deleted member 4869]

Bruh.... XII has a cast that is light years ahead of XIII

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I tried to like them. Believe me. But at the end of XII I just couldn't care less for any of them. They didn't seem to have any sort of chemistry besides Balthier and Fran, and even them I found to be very bland. To each it's own, though.

At the end, when it seems like

Spoiler: XII ending

Balthier and Fran are going to sacrifice themselves, I was like "meh..."

Hmmm, at least I can say I didn't outright hated any of them, unlike Snow, Hope, Vanille and Lightning in XIII.. :/

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

I tried to like them. Believe me. But at the end of XII I just couldn't care less for any of them. They didn't seem to have any sort of chemistry besides Balthier and Fran, and even them I found to be very bland. To each it's own, though.

At the end, when it seems like

Spoiler: XII ending

Balthier and Fran are going to sacrifice themselves, I was like "meh..."

Hmmm, at least I can say I didn't outright hated any of them, unlike Snow, Hope, Vanille and Lightning in XIII.. :/

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Im with you-12 cast is shit, but their VA is A+++++ as is their writing. But the characters themselves? Bleh. I liked Ashe though. Basch was ok too.

 

[Transistor]

I tried to like them. Believe me. But at the end of XII I just couldn't care less for any of them. They didn't seem to have any sort of chemistry besides Balthier and Fran, and even them I found to be very bland. To each it's own, though.

At the end, when it seems like

Spoiler: XII ending

Balthier and Fran are going to sacrifice themselves, I was like "meh..."

Hmmm, at least I can say I didn't outright hated any of them, unlike Snow, Hope, Vanille and Lightning in XIII.. :/

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I've always felt that the cast in XII we're never meant to have too much chemistry. They actually act like a group of people who got thrown together. Where in XIII they try so hard to force chemistry on them, and fail horribly.

 

[Deleted member 4869]

I've always felt that the cast in XII we're never meant to have too much chemistry. They actually act like a group of people who got thrown together. Where in XIII they try so hard to force chemistry on them, and fail horribly.

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You may be right. At least XII's characters are not cringe-worthy most of the time. I still don't like them, but they may be better than Lightning trying to have a tender moment with Hope, or Vanille's "I'm so tormented that I must act obnoxiously cheery all the time".

 

[SOLDIER]

The thing that makes the wasted potential of FFXIII even more infuriating is that they had THREE CHANCES to expand the setting and characters, and yet somehow they managed to come up with even worse writing and characterization with each sequel.

Lightning literally has her emotions stripped in the third game because "character development is hard" I guess.

Toriyama remains Square's worst director and if there's a merciful god he'll never touch another mainline game again.

 

[Deleted member 4353]

Eh. I didn't the cast was so bad. Lightning was definitely just straight up awful but the rest where just there expect Sazh. He was amazing.

 

[banter]

I agree with your character synopsises. I enjoyed 13, but it certainly wasnt great. The music was quite good, though a lot of th songs played on the same theme. My biggest gripe was how the first 15 hours was basically a long drawn out tutorial. And how if the party leader got taken down, it was game over.

 

[Deleted member 4869]

One of the many problems with Lightning is how her character straight up devolves in each game.

He starts up as a member of the security/police force in her world, either faithful or at least apathetic to their gods, the Fal'Cie.

Then after her sister gets chosen as a l'Cie, she goes straight "fuck the gods, all of them and all they represent. We humans have free will".

Except that in the end she fulfills the gods' wills.

And then she becomes the lapdog of the one "good" goddess. And worse yet, she goes on to become that goddess' successor.

And then she kills one "truly evil" god. As a goddess...


"Fuck the gods. Humans should be free! ... Well, actually just fuck these gods in particular, because this other goddess is super cool. And now I have become THAT goddess, myself. And fuck this other god, actually".

 

[Bhonar]

So obviously is very subjective but here is my view on the FF casts.

• I-IV are nothing characters.
• Haven't played V and VI yet.
• VII is great
• VIII cast, outside of the main two, are very bland. Even Squall and Rinoa are bland for the majority of the game.
• IX is pretty good even as I am on Disc 3 currently.
• X has highs and lows. Kimahri, Lulu, and Rikku are pretty boring.
• XII great cast
• XIII is really solid for me. I really like Fang, Snow, Sazh, and Lightning at least. Like Hope more than most, especially as he gets better in...
• XIII-2 Obviously a small group of Serah, Noel, and Mog. But they are a great group and as we can see above even the better parties in FF have duds.
• XV the bros are great.

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sure I certainly realize it's subjective and personal opinion. for the record, there are several FFs I have not played. these are the ones that I have played (not counting FF11 or FF14):

FF6
FF7
FF8
FF10
FF10-2
FF12
FF13 (but not the spin-offs)
FF15 (have not finished yet, but played around ten hours)

Every single one of those has a better overall cast than FF13. The next worst ones are FF15 and FF8

FF8 cast is very bland and unremarkable like you said, but I never hated any of them as much as Hope or Vanille

FF15 is pretty bad, I only like Gladio

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

Lightning is one of the worst characters I've ever seen.

FF13 first part: Going to save her sister, this is fine.
FF13 second part: Going to commit genocide so I am a rock instead of a zombie because?????????
FF13 third part: Give up on the genocide plan when Hope makes a dumb and simplistic analogy once.
FF13 fourth part: Barely involved in the game after her face-heel-face sequence is over.

 

[Piggychan]

Easily one of my top 3 games in the series.
I love 13 and Vanille is a phenomenal character.

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She definitely develops the further in you get into the story but I would easily take the Japanese voice actor over the western one we got. During the replay when it went BC on XB1 the early areas of the game when she is alone with Sahz I was getting comments from friends in XBL party chat asking me if I was watching porn when they heard Vanille's 'noises' over my mic...

 

[Toth]

One of the many problems with Lightning is how her character straight up devolves in each game.

He starts up as a member of the security/police force in her world, either faithful or at least apathetic to their gods, the Fal'Cie.

Then after her sister gets chosen as a l'Cie, she goes straight "fuck the gods, all of them and all they represent. We humans have free will".

Except that in the end she fulfills the gods' wills.

And then she becomes the lapdog of the one "good" goddess. And worse yet, she goes on to become that goddess' successor.

And then she kills one "truly evil" god. As a goddess...


"Fuck the gods. Humans should be free! ... Well, actually just fuck these gods in particular, because this other goddess is super cool. And now I have become THAT goddess, myself. And fuck this other god, actually".

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Well, she actually chose of her own free will to serve Etro, knowing that if she didn't, everyone was essentially screwed. It fit her character of giving up herself for others (such as her name).

 

[Bricktop]

It's a better game than XV, and I don't even mind the linear parts, but the -cie stuff is some of the dumbest shit ever. It's like jrpg developers intentional go out of their way to be as ridiculous as possible with their stories and FFXIII is god awful in this department.

 

[ZeoVGM]

I still can't think of any single part of XIII I enjoyed. Even the music is just bland.

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how in the world

Even the most ardent haters of XIII generally admit the music is phenomenal.

 

[Deleted member 4869]

I still can't think of any single part of XIII I enjoyed. Even the music is just bland.

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I can honestly only remember around 4 tracks. Blinded by Light (Which gets super repetitive after a while), Saber's Edge (Which is AWESOME), the one when you fight the Summons (Again, amazing track) and I believe the one from Sunleth Waterscape...?

 

[RPG_Fanatic]

I can mostly agree with what you are saying OP, with a couple differences.

First, I really liked Sazh, and he was by far the best member of the cast for me.

Second, while the combat system has a real solid foundation, the execution could have been better. The lack of party member control switching in battle was a big negative for me. The second was thr AI for the buff/debuff classes weren't the best and always followed a set pattern instead of reacting at all to what the enemy does. Third, the random moment of your party members in a battle system with attacks that have area of effect was annoying at times. Having one person be the sentinel to draw the enemy attacks falls a bit short of the other party members stand right next to the sentinel. It didn't ruin the combat, but it did hold it back from reaching its full potential.

I also liked the world and the lore it setup, but oh boy did the story and characters of the game not do it any favors.