Comparing opinions on Final Fantasy XIII between newcomers and existing fans

[StraySheep]

I was just thinking back to my history with Final Fantasy and how for me it all started with FFXIII. I have since made it my life's work to defend this trilogy – XIII-2 in particular – and I have always wondered how much of the discrepancy in the reception of this game was due to me having no baggage about what I expect the series to be.

So let's do a poll and see if there is a notable difference! And if any surveys exist on this already please share.

 

[Wrexis]

For me it was Corridor Simulator XIII, but that's coming from Open World XII and other games in the series.

 

[Deleted member 81119]

FF games always get shit from the fanbase for changing too much, and that's probably part of the problem with XIII.

But no other RPG since XIII has thought streamlining out exploration, NPCs or player choice was a good idea, so it's not just that.

 

[Kahhhhyle]

It was the first and as of now only Final Fantasy I've played. Didn't finish it because I didn't like it

 

[BadWolf]

Series regular, loved the trilogy.

 

[YozoraXV]

I love FF and I really liked FF13. The music, graphics and battle system were all amazing to me.

Sure it was linear but that's what I like about JRPGs, you have a story and they lead you through it, why have branching paths when in the end you get to the same place. They could have added some towns and side quests though.

Still can't wait to play it again on Gamepass.

 

[chandoog]

Series fan, wasn't a fan of it. (FF13)

- Game kept tutorializing the player too much.
- Localization wasn't anywhere near as good as 12.
- Just way too many straight corridors, little player agency.
- Characters weren't likable.

+ Game looked fantastic for its time though.

 

[signal]

Started with 7and think XIII / XIII-2 are relatively garbo compared to the prior entries. XIII-2 less so but still 👎

 

[Deleted member 46429]

I played a lot of FF titles before FF13, and I liked 13. It's a deeply flawed game I'd only recommend with caveats, but I had fun with it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Battle system really did carry the game for me.

 

[Wispmetas]

Pretty much the 1st FF I played. A friend of mine lent it to me, because I had always been interested in the series because of KH but didn't play any on the PS2 days.

I enjoyed it, but then I got stuck at this boss:

And I stopped there my playthrough on the PS3. But I really enjoyed my time. I have since went ahead and bought it again on Steam and completed the game and still like the game. Even if I have played other FF like the OG VII and XV.

 

[Warukyure]

I've played all the mainline games including the MMOs, honestly, I don't even rank it at the bottom. For the most part, the music, the world, and some of the characters were interesting enough to carry it.

If people have a problem with the linearity, did they skip out on 10? Or did they not realize there wasn't much freedom until the calm lands.

 

[StraySheep]

Pretty much the 1st FF I played. A friend of mine lent it to me, because I had always been interested in the series because of KH but didn't play any on the PS2 days.

I enjoyed it, but then I got stuck at this boss:

And I stopped there my playthrough on the PS3. But I really enjoyed my time. I have since went ahead and bought it again on Steam and completed the game and still like the game. Even if I have played other FF like the OG VII and XV.

Click to shrink...

Oh no isn't that right near the end or am I remembering wrong?

 

[OrakioRob]

Played FF I, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII and IX before it (love most of them, my favorite is VI, not big into IX but still like it).

Played XIII on the X360. Found it beautiful to look at, the soundtrack was excellent, combat was very exciting. I think the plot is weak and I don't like the characters. That said, I really enjoyed the game, I think it's very good from a technical perspective. Very fun to play, I like the lightning-fast (pun intended) rhythm it has, meaning I like the linearity because the pacing was great. And yes, I'm a fan of exploration and open world/MMO-likes such as Xenoblade Chronicles X.

I played XIII-2 later. Beat it, didn't enjoy it as much. It was very confusing and making it more open ruined the pacing, in my opinion. I think the plot and characters are even worse in XIII-2. Still beat the game, still like it quite a bit.

Tried XIII-3 and quit after a few hours, too confusing for me (and the plot, dear God!). Might give it another go if it lands on Game Pass.

More info since I'm really talkative today ^_^ After playing XIII, I played X (really liked it) and XII (awesome game, even though I also didn't like the plot very much).

 

[BasilZero]

My first FF game was back in 1991 - Final Fantasy II (IV) on SNES

Been a regular since - bought FFXIII on PS3 back in 2011 for $15

I enjoyed it for the most part - difficulty with some bosses were my main issue (I had to kill the last boss with poison 😂 and the helicopter boss was a pain) - not a fan of the stagger system

Story, music and rest of gameplay were fine

I enjoyed FFXIII-2 on PS3 more (got that for $20 about six months after release)

I got LR FFXIII on PS3 for $5 but haven't played it yet

Got the full trilogy on Steam/PC for about $5 on XIII, XIII-2 and LR for $7.50 each

I would buy it again if it was on Switch or PS4/5

Here's my FF history with the number being the score out of 100


Final Fantasy I & II Dawn of Souls (GBA): 83
Final Fantasy I Dawn of Souls (GBA): 82
Final Fantasy I Anniversary (PSP): 85
Final Fantasy I (iOS): 81
Final Fantasy II Dawn of Souls (GBA): 83
Final Fantasy II Anniversary (PSP): 85
Final Fantasy III (NES): 80
Final Fantasy III (DS): 86
Final Fantasy IV (SNES): 90
Final Fantasy IV (PSX): 89
Final Fantasy IV (GBA): 86
Final Fantasy IV (DS): 92
Final Fantasy IV (PSP): 94
Final Fantasy IV After Years/Prologue (PSP): 88
Final Fantasy IV Complete Collection (PSP): 92
Final Fantasy V (SNES): 84
Final Fantasy V (PSX): 83
Final Fantasy V Advance (GBA): 88
Final Fantasy VI (SNES): 95
Final Fantasy VI (PSX): 95
Final Fantasy VI Advance (GBA): 95
Final Fantasy VII (PSX): 93
Final Fantasy VII (PC): 93
Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core (PSP): 93
Final Fantasy VIII (PSX): 88
Final Fantasy VIII (PC): 88
Final Fantasy IX (PSX): 95
Final Fantasy IX (PC): 97
Final Fantasy X (PS2): N/A
Final Fantasy X-2 (PS2): N/A
Final Fantasy XII (PS2): N/A
Final Fantasy XIII (PS3): 88
Final Fantasy XIII-2 (PS3): 86
Final Fantasy XV (PS4): 89
A King's Tale: Final Fantasy XV (PS4): 70
Final Fantasy Type-0 HD (PS4): 87
Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light (DS): 82
Final Fantasy Dissidia (PSP): 100
Final Fantasy Dissidia 012 Duodecim (PSP): 96
Final Fantasy Tactics (PSX): 94
Final Fantasy Chronicles (PSX): 95
Final Fantasy Anthology (PSX): 91

 

[Wispmetas]

Oh no isn't that right near the end or am I remembering wrong?

Click to shrink...

I might be mistaking it, but it is like the final boss before you reach gran pulse chapter.

 

[Serious Sam]

I play FF games occasionally (finished about 1/3rd of all mainline games) and I liked FF13. I don't consider myself a fan of FF, I just like playing various games lol.

 

[Echo]

Oh no isn't that right near the end or am I remembering wrong?

Click to shrink...

This is before you get to Gran Pulse, so maybe like 3/4th the way?

 

[Ayirek]

I'm a series fan and had beaten every mainline Final Fantasy as well as a few spinoffs with the exception of FFXI (didn't get into MMOs until ARR), and while I didn't hate XIII as much as some, I definitely understand why it gets the hate it does. The dungeons especially are extremely tedious - uninteresting and never-ending.

 

[StraySheep]

I might be mistaking it, but it is like the final boss before you reach gran pulse chapter.

Click to shrink...

This is before you get to Gran Pulse, so maybe like 3/4th the way?

Click to shrink...

Thanks guys, I was flipping back and forth between end of game and end of Cocoon in my head.

 

[Deleted member 1102]

Played it for the first time last year as a series regular. Didn't love it but didn't hate it, I think it's a really weird game, especially for FF. I'd break it down like;

Story - Not great compared to other FF games but on it's own it wasn't bad. Some of it kind of flew over my head but overall it was OK.

Combat - Eh, wasn't really my thing but I think it was interesting.

Characters - I actually liked them tbh. I thought they were all pretty interesting when you look at them under the lens of being awful people who eventually strive to right their wrongs and be better people. I don't know if that was the writers intent though.

Setting - Locations were good, nice variety with some good music in them. Definitely some underrated places in this game.

Level design - Literally some of the worst I've ever seen in a game. 'Corridors' puts it lightly how fucking abysmally boring moving from point A to point B is in this game. It's the one thing more than anything that will make me never play it again, I'd rather just watch a walkthrough on YouTube.

 

[Warukyure]

Oh no isn't that right near the end or am I remembering wrong?

Click to shrink...

Depends, you fight him 3 times, I've heard of people that got stuck a lot in that first fight because it was a huge difficulty increase.

Then you fight him on the bridge and near the end.

 

[Toth]

Series regular, loved the trilogy.

Click to shrink...

Ditto. The games would so benefit a remaster trilogy ala Zodaic Age. That game did wonders in improving XII's image.

 

[Hippopuncher12]

I played every FF before 13 came out, lifelong fan of the series. I didn't hate it, I didn't love it, I thought XIII-2 was better but I still enjoyed most of the game, and still think it's better than XV. Still waiting on a trilogy remaster to play them again.

 

[Tiamant]

Series fan and I didn't enjoy it one bit. Even worse, the series got stuck with this universe for what, 5 years? Yuck.

 

[machtia]

I enjoyed it more than others did at the time, but it's a deeply compromised game. The story ceases to make sense after a certain point, and it's obvious they were rewriting things up until the last minute.

 

[darkside]

I haven't played any of them since they came out but for me it was a complete breath of fresh air. I absolutely hated everything about 12. The game felt so drab, the combat was boring and the story went from being uninteresting to just not existing. 13 wasn't perfect but I enjoyed my time with it

 

[LinguisticGoblin]

I went FF1 (iOS) -> FF3 (DS) -> FF7 (PS1) -> FFXIII (PS3) from my recollection as my intro to the franchise, and I thought it was mostly fine. I guess I'd technically have been a series regular after three games.

The extremely limited character build and party comp options bothered me even as a teenager in the first third but by the end I'd had an alright time time, and I still think certain complaints about it are overblown. Like as examples I'd say it has a totally pasaable player party by the series' standards and the story is all pretty straight forward to understand after the in media res opening (though the storytelling itself is not strong by any means)

I dunno, it's a solid 6.5/10. I liked the main cast and combat once the initial hours were over but it doesn't really do anything particularly well besides music and graphics for the time so I'd not call myself a fan of it particularly.

 

[Echo]

Anyway, series regular since the 90's. I liked the whole trilogy and especially loved Lightning Returns. Really liked the lore for this universe too, Type-0 was great for me as well.

I enjoyed XV too. Change doesn't scare me. I like that FF is always evolving and changing.

 

[TheWildCard]

Series regular, tend not rag on it because I rather some the combat system's ideas but everything outside of that has a lot of problems. Pretty obvious the game had a very messy development and eventually just tried to stitch together what they had, as barebones as it was, as well as further confirmation Square had lost the plot of what people liked about FF or even RPGs in the first place.

 

[Neo Hartless]

Fan since X, had played VI, VII and VIII. I was open for the changes in setting, tone and battle system, but what I got was a very shiny looking but frustrating combat system, a cast of characters with no charisma (except Sazh, he's cool), limited exploration on an already unremarkable world, and a lore that was presented in the most confusing and unwieldy way. Knowing the development hurdles it faced, it feels like a very compromised product.

XIII-2 fixes most of those problems though!

 

[Slaythe]

FF13-2 shits all over FF13 and fixes basically everything wrong with the game design and story pacing IMO.

FF13 is impossible to go back to.

 

[Kromeo]

I think to say I have mixed opinions on the game would be the kindest way to put it

I finished it on the first attempt which I haven't done for any of XIII-2, XV or VII-R so I guess that's something

 

[DimitriLH]

1st attempt I didn't hate it, but didn't love it either. 2nd attempt and actually beating it made me appreciate it much more and loving it. Sequel was great outside of doing all the quests ( screw the quiz guy.....). I've yet to give Lighting returns a proper try, once I clear some of my backlog I'll tackle it.

I'm a long time FF fan.

 

[Deleted member 36578]

I started with ff4 and loved the series all the way through ff10. Not being a mmo guy, I ignored 11. Then 12 came out and I really disliked the battle system plus the story didn't grab me so I never beat it. My long running ff cycle was totally broken at that point. When 13 came out I heard horrible things about its linearity. I never touched it. I returned to the series with 15 and thought it was just OK. Maybe the main line final fantasies just aren't for me anymore.... But I never gave 13 a chance. I didn't really feel like it was worth my time after hearing about it.

 

[N64Controller]

FF13-2 shits all over FF13 and fixes basically everything wrong with the game design and story pacing IMO.

FF13 is impossible to go back to.

Click to shrink...

100% with you on this and came to this thread to say this.

 

[Deleted member 3208]

First Final Fantasy; in fact, it was one of the reasons I bought a PS3.

Back then my opinion was quite low. Loved the soundtrack and the graphics, but didn't like the characters, the gameplay and the story. These days, although I don't hold this game in high regard, my opinion of this game has improved.

 

[headfallsoff]

It was my first and I wasn't into it and quit at the exhausting pope shit section, then I replayed it later after gaining more FF familiarity and I mostly like it now. Lotta issues but the story is ambitious in all the right ways especially after the disaster that is 12's plot and it has one of the best battle systems in JRPGs. It's very clearly the result of a strained production but I have a lot of affection for it.

I feel good about the game's popularity and status in the FF fandom now. It's not the most beloved but you look very silly if you're like well *I* like FF13 because it's got a strong following and a bunch of people that grew up with it. Solid entry in a weird franchise that only gets weirder.

 

[Xavi]

I was a series regular and XIII is in my TOP 5 Final Fantasy games. One of the best battle systems in the entire series hands down-

 

[Wetflix]

I played 3, 5, 6, 7, 10 and 10-2 before 14, and 13 is my favorite. I just really liked the combat.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

I've been playing FF games since Mystic Quest came out on SNES and I honestly can't think of a single thing XIII did well aside from graphics.

 

[Orion]

It's complicated. The VII-X era was my childhood so I'll always have issues with XIII's pacing and lack of towns, but I refuse to vote against Queen Lightning so I guess I'm a fan.

At the very least I'm enough of a fan that I've been checking my watch for a remaster collection.

 

[Demon Lizardman]

Played it after hearing how bad it was and going in with an open mind. Had fun the first few hours until levels or hallways (as people call them) got longer, the enemies started getting annoying to fight because how long it took to stagger them, leveling up was limited and linear. You only had two party members most of them game up until the last third, but you couldn't experiment with party members until the very end. Getting new weapons was pointless because you end up leveling up the first one you get (Granted it barely felt any more powerful than it did before). The story was a mess which had players looking at its datalogs aka in game wikipedia to understand what was going on and even then the story was boring compared tot the lore it was trying to set up. The dialogue was Elementary school tier and the voice perfomances were over dramatic which made it laughable and annoying to listen to.

By the time I was at Gran Pulse which to some people would say, the best part of the game, I've already had enough. Aside from some monster hunts, it was just dull, it then railroads to linear progression near the end where you fight the dumb final boss (Boss baby + Ferris Wheel?) and then the Deus Ex machina ending happens.

I hated it, I only forced myself to complete it because I wanted to see if there were any redeeming points other than its presentation.

 

[Mudo]

I am a longtime FF fan and really disliked 13. Thought 13-2 was fun, and hated the 3rd game.

The game is way too linear, and battles take like 20 hours to open up. There was basically no exploration until the halfway point and then what was there was drab and boring. 13 did have great music and sound was very pretty in places.

Thank god for 13-2 or I would have considered the waste of 10 years on this trilogy a total fail lol

 

[Yippiekai]

It wasn't a fun FF. The story was a mess, characters were boring and unappealing. At least FFX made the giant corridor thing a bit fun.

 

[Deleted member 4346]

I'm a long-time Final Fantasy fan and I despised XIII. The best part about it was the world and art, maybe the music. The rest, eh, gameplay, story, characters, all much inferior to FFXII. It is the worst mainline Final Fantasy, in large part because Lightning is the worst lead character of any mainline Final Fantasy (FFXI and XIV don't really have lead characters to be fair but they are both better than XIII).

 

[Jimmypython]

Did not like it especially following up to FF12. And I would still consider FF13 as the second worst 3D FF mainline game today.

But would definitely replay it just for the (fully unlocked) battle system. The later stage higher difficulty hunts were very fun.

 

[Manmademan]

FF13-2 shits all over FF13 and fixes basically everything wrong with the game design and story pacing IMO.

FF13 is impossible to go back to.

Click to shrink...

All that needs to be said here.

 

[GenericGhost]

I've only played the first game back when it launched. Wasn't too into it, but I did beat it.

Now i'm just about done with my second play though of FF7R with the DLC and I'm thinking about replying 13 and the two sequels.

Do you guys think it's worth revisiting if I didn't car for it back when it came out? (I loved 7 Remake if that has anything correlation)

 

[Orayn]

I played the first few hours around when it came out and bounced off, then played it for real around the same time as I was playing FFXV. Prior to that point I had played a good number of hours of FF, gotten near the end of a few different games, but never finished one.

I think I liked it more than XV, to be honest. I had to set a lot of expectations for myself in terms of linearity, how far into the game before I got a full party and all the roles, accepting that auto-battle is fine and you're basically using paradigm shifts to issue most of your commands, etc. but once I got into the groove it was fucking awesome. Loved the battle system, loved building and optimizing my party, and ultimately enjoyed the story quite a bit too.

In hindsight if XIII had a hub-and-spoke structure where you unlock roles and party members in whatever order you want after the initial Hanging Edge section I think it wouldn't have been very controversial at all.

 

[Deleted member 81119]

Yeah XIII-2 is amazing, really underrated.

I'm unbelievably excited for a XIII remaster that hopefully fixes some of its problems. I'd love for it to have its XII: TZA moment.