Final Fantasy XIII-2 News

[BlitzNCS]

You basically go in a straight line from one map to another, like in FF13. I dont remember all of it but it was
go through area 10 -> reach area 11 -> reach area 12 -> reach area 13
and so on. some stuff like the silent plains had the extra cave with yojimbo but thats about it. The actual story is as linear as a goddamn arrow.

But that's not true at all, most field maps I can think of have several entrances/exits, and many even have lots of routes in the same map. Obviously the plot dictates that you have to go to specific places one after the other, but half of my memory of FFX involves running around a towns going to different places. Granted, it's not as free-roaming as the PSX FF's were, but linear is definately not a word I'd use to describe it. Guess I'm on my own here though

 

[Shankifer]

Okay, so call me an idiot or whatever, but the reason I hate FF13 is because it's so damn confusing.

I literally just sat down and tried to play it after a few months of not playing. The scenery is gorgeous and all but sometimes I haven't a clue where to go. I could see though, a guidebook could solve that problem. My biggest beef is with the weapon leveling system. If you don't go online and research, you will waste tons of Exp and Credits. Its ridiculous. I really don't like the Paradigm thing but I got over that. I probably just suck at leveling my characters, but the battles are hard as hell for me. When I lose battles to mutated oozing flowers I get a little disappointed. It takes forever to try to grind so that you can beat some of the bigger guys and get more Credits/Items to level up your weapons with. Sure you could probably follow the storyline and not worry about all that but then it is as all you are saying, just too linear. The game would be great if it were more user-friendly. There are just too many scenarios that they don't prepare you for in the tutorials. Too much of the game must be researched to experience.

I'm planning on taking mine back just because it pisses me off to the point where I just can't get anywhere. I feel like I don't even have to finish the game to experience the ending. I'm sure if I watched all the cinematics I would fully grasp the plot and how it unfolds.

The 11th mission is the worst, you get thrown a bunch of different instructions and tutorials, then unleashed. Complete suck. Final Fantasy 13 is a fail, for me anyway. People who are more adept at games like this have my congratulations.

 

[DLPB_]

This topic could be renamed intio "horrible news for the gaming scene"
or rather "horrible news for people with taste"
fits too.
FF13 was bad.

Again, I point out that this could just as easily be a solution to most of XIII's problems, rather than a rehash of them. Admittedly, a number of people didn't like the story or characters (understandably so, since Lightning and Hope were both whiny b*tches, though I personally liked the story anyway), but the battle system was stellar, and if XIII-2 manages to fix the linearity (which should be more feasible than it was the first time around for various reasons) then I'll be all over it.

I'm reserving judgment until the thing's actually out. I don't have particularly high hopes for it, but I"m not going to assume it's bad either.

FFX-2 was a profit despite how terrible it was. At least that's what I recall.
And as opposed to 'lol square will fix it to make it a good game'
the scenario of
'square is going to launch a sequel to ride on the fanboy sales because people will buy anything as long as final fantasy is written on it'

my bet lies in slaughtering the horse, making some profit and then going back to making games that will make them even richer

spot on.  It makes them profit and these days that's ALL they care about.  The fanbase are getting what they deserve but unfortunately they are taking the rest of us down in the sinking Titanic.

 

[Marc]

I have a question to people who disliked FFXIII .

What past FF is your favorite ?  What did you like the best about it ?  What made it better than the others ?

Same question can be asked for people who did like FFXIII.

I'll start.

My favorite FF is probably FF4.  I really loved its story where a man doing evil against his better judgment turns around and reforms itself.  It also had lots of humorous touches (I played FF4 hardtype on a ROM so it most was likely a fan translation - it had the bit about Captain Kirk when confronting the king).

 

[DLPB_]

What past FF is your favorite ?  What did you like the best about it ?  What made it better than the others ?

Past faves:  FF7,8,9,10 and to a lesser extent 6

Reasons: 

choose who is in your party,

choose to do many side quests that are not just more battles

do puzzles sometimes

hunt for best weapons that you have a good chance of getting without the need for a guide

Miniquests that are fun and to find new secret areas

world map in 6,7,8,9

Use Summons in battle that actually help you out, and in X, use the summons as new battle characters.

Return to all areas of game, often for more quests or Monster hunts. 

Traditional towns that break up the monotony

choose options in battle which are fully customised

select all allies in battle

use enemy skills or other game play elements in battle

Story and character development which is decent and for the most part well written


There are far more points to make but to sum it up, 6,7,8,9,10 are light years ahead of 12 and 13.  The newer Final Fantasy games take choice away from you, they take gameplay away from you and they have lazy storytelling and graphics as a substitute for intelligent game design.

These are not good things.  They are game flaws.  Serious ones.

 

[Kudistos Megistos]

There are far more points to make but to sum it up, 6,7,8,9,10 are light years ahead of 12 and 13.  The newer Final Fantasy games take choice away from you, they take gameplay away from you and they have lazy storytelling and graphics as a substitute for intelligent game design.

These are not good things.  They are game flaws.  Serious ones.

So, what do you think of the first five games? ;D

 

[Covarr]

There are far more points to make but to sum it up, 6,7,8,9,10 are light years ahead of 12 and 13.  The newer Final Fantasy games take choice away from you, they take gameplay away from you and they have lazy storytelling and graphics as a substitute for intelligent game design.

These are not good things.  They are game flaws.  Serious ones.

So, what do you think of the first five games? ;D

Warning: whatever your answer, speak no ill of FFIV. You go to the fucking moon in that game, and Cecil's character development is some of the best I've ever seen in anything.

 

[Kudistos Megistos]

FFIV is overrated and Cecil is an emo.

 

[Covarr]

FFIV is overrated and Cecil is an emo.

You're only saying that because I said not to speak ill of the game.

Cecil is a unique type of character. He starts out emo and then grows the hell up. You never see that in stories, usually if the protagonist is emo, it's glorified (see FFVIII).

 

[Bosola]

Oh. XIII-2. I wonder how many ways this will suck?

Anyway, I-II are unplayable in their original form. III is passable; IV is good fun; V has a paper thin story but a great mechanic; VI is overrated but solid; VII is... something for another time; VIII is lovably broken; IX does nothing different but does everything better, X had a nice mechanic; Vaan I have publicly called a 'sallow faced eunuch' and 'Turkish rent boy', so you already know my sentiments.

 

[Tenko Kuugen]

I think my favorite final fantasy is either 8 or 6, both for reasons of the plot

based on the music, ff8 is my favorite
for actual gameplay, ff6 had lots of characters, ff7 the materia system, ff8 the junction system but suffered greatly from how unbalanced it was and that normal mobs advanced indefinitely high and bosses did not, ff9 was very specialized but fun
for characters, it's definitely final fantasy 6. Terra and Kefka.

No final fantasy deserves any mention in any "best game ever" topics. But most excel in at least one or two categories over many, MANY other games.  However, the new games, ff10, 10-2, 12, 13 show a increasing tendency that the aim for good overall but no longer for very good and excellent in some points

nowadays, final fantasy is just another fucking mainstream franchise that has to cater to the ever younger growing demographic to make a profit. back when ff5 and ff6 came out, the average player was probably around 16-18+
Nowadays, it's more like 10. They still try to appeal to the older fans with some bullshit thrown in, but its not working. One tiny little "very good" isn't enough to make up for years of experiencing very good and excellent in almost and sometimes over half the game

I'm just waiting for the FINAL final fantasy because nothing in this world can be milked indefinitely. They lost a LOT of fans and people with ff13 and that hurt badly. All the money and time that went into ff13 wasn't enough to get anywhere as much sales as they wanted. SQX fucked themselves really bad with that one. I already fear for the future

 

[DLPB_]

I have to admit, I have not played 1,2,3,4,5 properly...  I did get reasonably far in 4 and 5, and have to try again.  I doubt I will be playing the others....  maybe 3 if that remake is any good?

As for VIII Music, I agree...  it was great.  In fact if I remember rightly, Nobuo's favourite soundtrack is VIII as well.

 

[gjoerulv]

nowadays, final fantasy is just another f*cking mainstream franchise that has to cater to the ever younger growing demographic to make a profit. back when ff5 and ff6 came out, the average player was probably around 16-18+
Nowadays, it's more like 10. They still try to appeal to the older fans with some bullsh*t thrown in, but its not working. One tiny little "very good" isn't enough to make up for years of experiencing very good and excellent in almost and sometimes over half the game

I'm just waiting for the FINAL final fantasy because nothing in this world can be milked indefinitely. They lost a LOT of fans and people with ff13 and that hurt badly. All the money and time that went into ff13 wasn't enough to get anywhere as much sales as they wanted. SQX f*cked themselves really bad with that one. I already fear for the future

Whut? In my part of the world, a video game was generally something for kids in the 80's and early 90's. As these kids grew up, they continue to play. I hardly know any 35+ year olds with gaming as a part of their lives, 'cause they weren't kids back then.

FF10 wasn't the 1st FF being heavily bashed by fans. The 1st FF was FF8. 'Cause of the junction system and "weird" story.
Then FF9 'cause of the medieval style (young FF fans hadn't played the early FFs), and recycled storyline.

Why the bashing? The reason is simply, 'cause the FFs changed too much; some can't cope. Change pisses people off and makes 'em focus on the negative. The truth is that one could dig up much sh*t on every FF.

 

[DLPB_]

Well I never criticised 6,7,8,9,10 as bad games (in fact I liked them all), but I have done with X-2, XII, XIII and all the other crap cash in spin offs for very good reason.  That reason is: they are dumbed down and nothing as good as the ones I just mentioned.  I like change, if that change is positive and building on what went before.

Dismissing criticisms of XII and XIII as "just fear of change" isn't a rational viewpoint when I can compare the games to such a point that it becomes obvious that they are taking lots of things away in this so called "change" and replacing it with nothing more than flashy graphics.  That isn't really in dispute here, it is clearly visible.  From bad storytelling, lack of decent story and character development, missing enemy skills, missing puzzles, missing minigames, missing interactive NPC, bloated FMV sequences and cut scenes, missing choice of allies and selections in battle, missing traditional towns, and repayable areas and 1000 other things.

This isn't just people imagining a dumbing down.  IT IS a dumbing down.

 

[ultima espio]

What have I unleashed?

 

[gjoerulv]

Dismissing criticisms of XII and XIII as "just fear of change" isn't a rational viewpoint...

Given the context I understand why you assumed I was talking 'bout criticism. I wasn't. There are a lot of reasonable criticism out there, but also a huge portion of mindless bashing. And I wasn't referring to "fear of change", but change only. You don't have to fear something to not like it. Many people would love to see their favorite FF recycled again, and again (at least you can assume that if you take their bashing seriously).

 

[Tenko Kuugen]

At some point bashing becomes justified
If square goes down the route of dumbing down their games even more, they will eventually reach ground zero
and thats when the series will die

 

[ultima espio]

And we have an announcement:

Due to be released this year

 

[gjoerulv]

At some point bashing becomes justified
If square goes down the route of dumbing down their games even more, they will eventually reach ground zero
and thats when the series will die

That heavily depends on what you say. It's possible to extract arguments from hate speech. Look at the example below:

wtf, where is the world map? I DEMAND A F*¤%& WORLD MAP!!! What idiot designs a FF with no world map?? Any FF without a world map sucks!!

Then the argument could be something like this: "Any game (or FF) without a world map is bad game design."

And we have an announcement:

Due to be released this year

So it isn't versus 13? hmm, then I guess it's more likely to suck, just as 10-2 did.

 

[DLPB_]

Good god they will do anything for cash won't they nowadays..  how many of you are going to fall for it I wonder

I am so glad I sold my PS3... it was that or sell my soul to these pretenders.  Square have gone from laughing at the fanbase to  pissing all over them as they laugh.