So..... Look, none of us are happy with Final Fantasy XIII. Yes, I know, I know, die hard fans would probably kill me for saying this (even though I am one): This game was absolutely horrible. Honestly what made me realize this was when the current JRPG I am playing got circle scratched I figured I would pop this in and go back and get the last achievement I needed. Well..... Yeah.... There really isn't an easy way around this. The JRPG I was playing was a game from a lesser franchise and this would be Star Ocean: The Last Hope (you can expect a review of this game as soon as I finish it, a true review). This game almost makes me teary-eyed when I play through it and see actual towns with actual side quests and it makes me think of better days for Square Enix. Final Fantasy XII for example, released it 2006, or even X released in 2001, and hell, I'll even throw in X-2 as a better title than XIII. Why, you ask? For one reason and one reason alone, the combat consisted of more than pressing one button repeatedly until you win. Yes, I know paradigms and all that are included in this one. But I'm going to stop right here, and get back on topic. The combat will be discussed later. Now, the latest Star Ocean installment was in 2009 and not counting the International version of star ocean released in 2010. So, we go from XII, which in my opinion, is one of the greatest RPG's of all time, in '06, to The Last Hope in '09. Square Enix was doing good, both game were received fairly well. Now, fast forward to 2010. Just one year after The Last Hope.... Okay one sec, for those of you who haven't played The Last Hope I'm going to explain it a bit. It is wide open and leaves the player with many choices of doing things that do not pertain with the story line. At all. XII was very similar with side quests out the ass. Then there is XIII. XIII is one of the most linear games I have ever played in my life, which is contrary to everything Final Fantasy has stood for in the past. Fans like me have enjoyed pouring 100+ hours into each FF we are given the chance to. I even remember playing IX like it was the most amazing thing ever and I played through it twice just to get the Excalibur sword for Steiner. Yeah, I even remember the cast, from that one, Zidane, Vivi, Dagger, Steiner, Quina, Freya, Eiko, and some dude with red dreadlock type hair. And no, I didn't pull that offline.
One quirk that demands attention is plot. Usually, Final Fantasy titles are plot driven games and not hard to follow. So why does this one feel the need to give you the exact day-to-day meal of each character you run into and make absolutely no sense at all? Not even just the main or playable characters you're given full bios of, I'm really surprised I didn't find out hobo #2 likes cheese. Or maybe I did, I don't remember because the plot was essentially given to you in a book format inside of the disc (also, there were no hobos because there were no towns...). It had to document every single solitary shred of cutscene and backstory that is completely irrelevant to the game. Yet you're almost required to read it if you're the least bit OCD so the annoying exclamation mark that tells you there's something else you have to read will go the fuck away. So really, that's the problem with the plot.... Damn, I still have to explain why it didn't make any sense... The fact that it really didn't make any sense to me I think actually excuses me from saying why. But I'll be as professional as I can and say after sifting through the in-game information they gave me I understood most of the plot. Some things (SPOILER ALERTS!!!!!!! I warned you) in the plot make no sense still, such as why Fang and Vanille have to be from the past or why this even makes sense. Also why would the Fal'Cie, being described as almost gods, really want anything to so with normal people and why they seem so eager to turn them into slaves. But, as a whole, it is a generic plot with all generic characters. A futuristic planet in danger of some evil force that you must stop because no one else is capable of swinging a sword.
Next, the gameplay. This one is gonna be fun, tomorrow I'm going to have the angriest mob banging down my door demanding my head for this but I'm going to do it anyways. So you need joysticks to move, occasionally you press the B or A button outside of battle (360 Version) and.... Yeah okay onto the combat. Buttons you need: A. Done, nothing more needs to be said here. You can either spend time selecting attacks and dumping them into attack que or just hit auto battle and A again to select the enemy. And the main argument against this will be the paradigms. They are there, but are they needed? In a three person party, one comando, one ravager, and one medic is enough. Really it is, I beat the vast majority of the game doing this. The only fights that require you to actually switch occasionally are certain wild monsters (which you can run right around), higher level C'ieth Missions, and Bosses. Other than that, you're golden to use the paradigm setup I just gave you. And besides, once you learn to launch your foes into the air everything else becomes completely worthless because it feels like they never come down.
Finally, the last of the negatives... The linearity of this game truly sickens me. I can literally put in a GBA version of a Final Fantasy game in the form of Tactics Advanced and have three times the amount of game to actually play in side quests alone. And the 360 version spanned 3 discs. Also, with linearity such as this, you're implying that your player is not competent to play a game properly. I felt the entire time I was playing this there should have been signs that said "This way stupid" all along the corridors with big giant arrows. What also makes this a disappointment, was the anticipations for this game. It was shown at the E3 of 2006. Then it didn't come out for four years. So this is how I figure that tied into linearity; I was thinking this game is going to be the SHIT! I just knew that it was going to have the best and most side quests ever, from IX, FF titles hhad just gotten better and better with more and more to do. Boy..... I was wrong.
I'm not saying that Square Enix is incapable of making good games anymore. I have dissidia 12 for the PSP and it's not bad. Mildly linear, but the combat isn't just press A, and this was put out after XIII. And look, XIII has some good points, the graphics and presentation are AMAZING (especially the fireworks scenes) and the main character who looks like a girl.... is actually a girl. Oh, and the return of the gun blade was pretty cool too. So despite all this... just like every other FF fan, I'm in anticipation for XIII-2 because something in my body will not let be unexcited about a new FF game. Nothing to do but wait and see. I will say though, that if they continue with involving the player as little as they can with the combat, the death of Final Fantasy may be near. On the other hand, if they incorporate the same graphics, tone down the 7,895,209 plot twists in a single game therefore making it easier to understand, and go back to some type of previous combat modes you will have an AMAZING game people would want to play.
So, yes, this turned into a bash of Final Fantasy XIII but the game needed it. And if you don't agree, would you like your kick to the nuts now, or later?
Score: 3 Gun Blades out of 10..... Now I can go back to crying about my circle scratched disc two of The Last Hope.....
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Side Note
(I also didn't say how the linearity diminishes good gameplay graphics and makes them rather useless. Yes good graphics are nice, these are superb really, but graphics don't do much stimulation when the only scenic things to see are a plain of grass, a rather large plain of grass but still, just grass, or one narrow corridor at a time. Also, I forgot to mention if you're new to the series, you're better off going and buying a ps2 + XII because this is a horrible representation of the franchise.)
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