Menu Close

PSXE Poll Update: FFXIII Expectations High, But Mixed

So before the game hit store shelves, we wanted to know what you expected from the newest entry in the legendary role-playing franchise.

It's all a matter of perspective and it probably depends upon the research you've conducted and the feedback you've read going into the week. Well, while most of you certainly expected a great game, many weren't convinced about the overall experience, and whether or not it would "feel" like Final Fantasy . We said in our review that in fact it does not feel like FF but is indeed a fantastic adventure, and one well worth playing. For my part, it was a difficult review to write, because I felt as if I might be shortchanging the majority of gamers while only caring about the FF fans. But it seems that everyone who commented appreciated the tone and agreed with the analysis, which is great. I'm having a ton of fun with it, certainly. But this leads me to the new poll question, and it's bound to incite plenty of new discussion and debate. After all, while FFXIII is fantastic, perhaps we haven't really determined the level of awesomeness…

The question is, do you consider the game to be a contender for Game of the Year? You might, and we might as well. You will recall that I said if the game didn't hold the "Final Fantasy" name, I'm convinced review scores would be nearly a whole point higher on average, and my overall score would've certainly been higher. And it seems we have plenty of fans around, so who thinks it's worthy of a nod at the end of 2010?

Related Game(s): Final Fantasy XIII

140 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Jawknee
Jawknee
14 years ago

Goodness, were to begin. I bought my 60gb PS3 with FFXIII in mind. I feel like I've waited for ever for this title. While its still a good game, plenty to do, lots of pretty cut scenes, environments and characters, great story too, i think its hard to argue this is a "Final Fantasy" in anything but name only. It's starting to feel like a giant battle simulator with a nice story thrown in the mix. The Game Overs are making me want to quite playing but i will push on as i will never play a Final Fantasy and not finish it multiple times!

Jawknee
Jawknee
14 years ago

ARGH! Square needs to patch this Game Over crap. This is getting so irritating.

::goes back to FFXIII::


Last edited by Jawknee on 3/14/2010 10:44:33 PM

MyWorstNightmar
MyWorstNightmar
14 years ago

Jawknee, I am 4 hours into the game, and have had game overs. I have not played other FF's. What is ticking you off? In other FF's, do you just die, and then take control of another member of your group? What would you have SE do to patch this? What could they do, allow you to use a potion to continue on?

Jawknee
Jawknee
14 years ago

In all other Final Fantasy you have enough control over all your party members that it doesn't matter if the leader dies. You can simply revive him with another party member if your quick enough. The game isn't over until the entire party is down. Not the case with XIII. If your leader falls its Game Over even if your other party members are alive. But if another party member other then the leader falls, it's up to you to revive them. It's unbalanced.

Your still early in the game. Doesn't start getting tough until about 20 hours in. My advice is grind. A lot. You need your leader to be in tip top shape for upcoming boss fights.

Also, there's probably nothing Square can or would do to remedy this problem. I'm just being a brat. It was someones bad idea over at Square and some how it slipped through the cracks. Probably Wada's. ha!


Last edited by Jawknee on 3/14/2010 11:15:36 PM

LegendaryWolfeh
LegendaryWolfeh
14 years ago

Well in every other FF you don't control just one character, you control everyone on your team, generally about 4 members. And it one dies it's no big deal because you are all of them, just use someone else to use a phoenix down and voila, team's back up, that's how Final Fantasy is supposed to be, should be how any rpg is. I mean wtf, you have another dude standing there, as a medic, and as the game over screen is coming up you can hear them yelling as they cure you or try to do w/e for you, but it doesn't matter because you died. =| ridiculous.

Jawknee
Jawknee
14 years ago

Square wasn't going for a JPRG this time around LegendaryWolfeh. They wanted a Battle Simulator and unfortunately we have to suffer with it.


Last edited by Jawknee on 3/14/2010 11:16:43 PM

kraygen
kraygen
14 years ago

I also agree with you Jawknee. Are the other 2 members automatically rendered brain dead when you die? Are their brains linked to yours so that if you die, they just shut off?

FF has always been about a party, a team, a family of characters striving to make it through some catastrophe to make the world a better place. Evidently the party is gone on this game and it should have just been a lone wolf type game.

No point to the party, if the party is pointless.

johnld
johnld
14 years ago

@Jawknee
I dont mind the game over screen. my problem is no matter how much i grind, theres always 1 guy that can take your leader out with 1 or 2 hits, and sometimes they put more of these guys in one enemy party. i fought against a hover cycle and 2 flying soldiers. cycle uses its ultimate move making my leader char to red bar while my medic is getting stunned by rocket volleys so i cant be healed as the other one sets to finish me off. One other thing that ticked me off is that i cant pick my own team leader. i have a 2 man team, at least let me pick the character i want to use. i dont want to play the medic to keep my group alive especially at the games pace. i dont know how much times i actually healed the wrong person because its starting to become a button masher.


Last edited by johnld on 3/14/2010 11:51:06 PM

Jawknee
Jawknee
14 years ago

@johnld, it's not so much the Game Over screen it's self. It's that the game ends when the leader is dead. I agree too. I'm stuck at a boss that has a one hit kill attack, except everyone survives except the leader. It just seems like an radical and unnecessary departure from previous iterations.

As for being able to pick your leader. It will come but it's still limited to the menu. Won't be able to change leaders in a battle. It also resets all your Paradigm when ever you swap party members.

LegendaryWolfeh
LegendaryWolfeh
14 years ago

farther in the game you'll get to the point where you'll be allowed to pick your leader, but by that time it'll be pointless and no longer necessary =|

Vivi_Gamer
Vivi_Gamer
14 years ago

I agree that it was a bad move to make it game over when the leader dies, When your Mage learns Raise they'd be able to revive you…. I can't figure out why they did that.

TheHighlander
TheHighlander
14 years ago

YOu know, as much as everyone wants to praise the graphics, the auto-combat, not being able to pick the leader, game over when the leader dies thing seems to me to be something that in many games would be considered a game breaker. I mean, I'm thinking of all the other RPGs I've played. If you modified each of their combat systems to make it automatic, and that you couldn't choose who you control, and you made it so that if they are incapacitated/die it's Game Over, and further you allowed the game AI to target the leader in such a way that this was essentially unavoidable…well, it wouldn't take long for people to hammer the game into the ground over what would be called a game breaking design feature.

Now look, I'm not hating on it, and I've not played it, but I'm getting a lot of frustration between the lines of the above posts, you know?

Ben Dutka PSXE
Ben Dutka PSXE
14 years ago

john: Any time an enemy has a move like that, use Sentinel. I know what you're talking about in regards to that hover bike; its Gatling Gun ability could kill either Snow or Hope instantly. But as soon as I saw the bike charging that skill, I instantly switched to Sentinel and did Provoke and SteelGuard.

Snow blocked most of the bullets and I was barely hurt at all. Sentinel is very useful in such situations.


Last edited by Ben Dutka PSXE on 3/15/2010 10:28:39 AM

Jawknee
Jawknee
14 years ago

Highlander, you will love and hate the game. That pretty much sums it up.

johnld
johnld
14 years ago

@ben
yeah, i figured that out after a few tries. kinda forgot that sentinels had that ability since i havent used snow a long time.

WorldEndsWithMe
WorldEndsWithMe
14 years ago

I really don't think it will be a contender at all. As sweet as it is, GOTY it won't be. SE has made too many concessions this time around, and I do hope they learn how to bring FF back for real some day.

Jawknee
Jawknee
14 years ago

Thinks its a coincidence that once again, a former Sony exclusive gets mediocre reception after going multiplat?

and as for GOTY? Yea, i'm in agreement. No way, no how, no where.

SmokeyPSD
SmokeyPSD
14 years ago

I really doubt they will learn quite honestly.

johnld
johnld
14 years ago

why do i get the feeling that they wont go back to how FF was but instead try something else new next time. "well that didnt work, lets come up with a new thing, the old way is too outdated to work with twitch gamers."

darxed
darxed
14 years ago

Perhaps if it hadn't been released so early in the year, I mean if killzone 2 didn't win it last year, I don't think FFXIII will win GOTY at the end of this one…


Last edited by darxed on 3/14/2010 10:20:34 PM

johnld
johnld
14 years ago

its up against heavy rain and god of war 3 along with its mixed reception, GOTY is slightly out of reach.

Milonakis
Milonakis
14 years ago

Gran Turismo and God of War are releasing this year, FF XIII can't win.

NoSmokingBandit
NoSmokingBandit
14 years ago

GOTY? No. If only because its march and early games often get ignored. God of War 3, The Last Guardian, and GT5 are going to be tough games to beat this year too, and who knows what else will come in this fall… Maybe the elusive game Ben can't tell us about?


Last edited by NoSmokingBandit on 3/14/2010 10:22:20 PM

johnld
johnld
14 years ago

i'd bet its a goty for 360, nothing really great coming for it so far. probably Mass effect 2 and bioshock 2 are its only competition. For PS3, i just dont see it competing with all of sony's exclusive games here and are coming up.

oldmike
oldmike
14 years ago

ME2 is a better game then FF13 on the 360
on the PS3 heavy rain and GoW3 are my picks

Jawknee
Jawknee
14 years ago

I agree. its kind of like IX. I was a great game, but i didn't tickle me the way VII and VII or even XII did for that matter. But at least in IX we could still fight our own battles. Blagh! im hating this battle system more and more as i go.

WorldEndsWithMe
WorldEndsWithMe
14 years ago

Yeah, I expected IX to be something wholly different, and to release on the PS2, it was like a nice little addition, like a quality spin off, but it didn't tickle my FF bone so much either.

Jawknee
Jawknee
14 years ago

Nope, I'm talking about IX. Forgot to mention X. I liked X better then IX too.

chedison
chedison
14 years ago

I often hear this about IX. Personally, it was just as good at VII. It was definitely better than VIII. VIII or XII might be the worst for me.

LegendaryWolfeh
LegendaryWolfeh
14 years ago

Bleh, IX was totally better than X =P it had a world map, towns, and an actual old styled final fantasy feel. and yes full team control ftw. Also did anyone else play around with the co-op control of FFIX? if you had another controller in you could change the control and give say two people control of two chara's during battle and you be the other two, but it's only for the battle scenes and nothing else, it was kind of neat to do.

Scarecrow
Scarecrow
14 years ago

IX was better than VII in my opinion

chedison
chedison
14 years ago

man im glad people agree with me about IX :(. I really liked the characters in it, even though they were a little odd.

Thrill Kill
Thrill Kill
14 years ago

VI was the best for me, then VII,VIII,IX…I disliked X…just didn't do it for me. XII didn't either.

totozero18
totozero18
14 years ago

@Legendarywolfeh, yup I tried it here, it was really cool, as I always end up watch friends as they play or my friends are watching as I play, so the multiplayer battle was great.

(Also I love Crystal Chronicles just for that) Fav FF's Definitely VII, X, IV, VIII, VI, IX, and idk if spin-off's count but Crisis Core rocked and I yes I cried like a baby when I finished it.

*FFVII SPOILERS kinda, did you guys know that right after you reconstruct cloud's memory in Mideel you can go to Shinra Mansion and you see CC's ending? SPOILERS*


Last edited by totozero18 on 3/15/2010 9:34:51 AM

Jawknee
Jawknee
14 years ago

Crystal Chronicles is…how can i say this…Blagh!

WorldEndsWithMe
WorldEndsWithMe
14 years ago

Sadly I doubt it will be much of a contender for RPG of the year.

johnld
johnld
14 years ago

maybe if it was more of an rpg than an action game it could be in the running, hahaha.

WorldEndsWithMe
WorldEndsWithMe
14 years ago

yeah that's what I was getting at.

Fane1024
Fane1024
14 years ago

How is it an action game if you don't control anything?

It sounds more like a real-time strategy game than anything else, but with only three units and a restricted battlefield.

tes37
tes37
14 years ago

I love the game, but it wouldn't get a GOTY vote from me. I will however, vote for the return of the missing elements.

Jawknee
Jawknee
14 years ago

Same. I'm still stuck at that same part i was an hour ago. I'm going to grind for like 2 days, and then kick the crap out of that boss. 😉

tes37
tes37
14 years ago

I'm getting close to chapter 8, so I'm going to be facing whatever Boss you're having a tough time with pretty soon.

Jawknee
Jawknee
14 years ago

Yup. it's on Chapter 9. That is all I'll say. 🙂

johnld
johnld
14 years ago

@jawknee
theres really no point to grind a lot because theres a limit to how strong your character at certain points of the game. hell, i found a good place to grind and did it for a while. Then i found out that the next level of that damn crystal thing is still not available till i finished chapters of the game. I ended up with an extra 30000 cp while i max out my characters but can still be taken out by some enemies pretty easily. I'm not liking this unlocking abilities as you progress through the story. This not receiving gil and less enemy item drops blows too.


Last edited by johnld on 3/15/2010 12:05:47 AM

Jawknee
Jawknee
14 years ago

@johnld, Good god, your right. WUAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

This just keeps getting worse. ha!

Jawknee
Jawknee
14 years ago

YEA! Beat that damned boss. Grinding till my characters reached the allowed maximum seemed to help.

WorldEndsWithMe
WorldEndsWithMe
14 years ago

It is a strange feeling to really like a game, recognize what is solid about both the game and story, and yet still feel disenfranchised. Basically I'd like to thank SE for the game and all their hard work, then beat them upside the head. Hard.

Alienange
Alienange
14 years ago

You'd have scored this a 9.7 if it WASN'T a FF game? Wouldn't that mean a certain biased made it into your review? Why can't each FF be reviewed independent of the last?

chedison
chedison
14 years ago

Doesn't make sense to me either. Nostalgia of a name doesn't have to hold you back from enjoying a great game.

WorldEndsWithMe
WorldEndsWithMe
14 years ago

Because at least in my opinion, a game within an established franchise really must keep a certain something of itself in order to be worthy. It isn't some Dirge spinoff, it is supposed to be a full fledged RPG that doesn't rat out it's fans for 30 pieces of silver.

Imagine Die Hard without McLane, Uncharted without climbing, GOW without QTE's, COD without fanboys. It just wouldn't compute man!


Last edited by WorldEndsWithMe on 3/14/2010 11:12:27 PM

1 2 3