Final Fantasy 13: What would you change?

[Dagger Dias]

What's this? Yet another Final Fantasy topic by the forum's resident Final Fantasy fanboy? You better believe it. Let's talk about Final Fantasy 13, but instead of receiving the inevitable complaints from those who disliked it, I would like to know how it could have been better.

Final Fantasy has always been my favorite series in the video game realm, bar none. I've played all of the games in the main series other than FF13-2 which I have not had the time or finances to purchase just yet, and have generally enjoyed each of them other than a couple of exceptions. (Looking at YOU, FF2 and FFX-2!) FF13 had such enormous potential. With the power that the 360 and PS3 have, this game could have been and SHOULD have been so much better. It wasn't all bad. The graphics were beautiful, the soundtrack had more than its fair share of enjoyable pieces of music, the battle system was very well done, and the game had a good (though hard to follow at first) story. Then we come to some negatives....

The game has been described by some as a "hallway" or more of a movie experience than a video game experience. It is one of the most linear games in recent memory and as much as I love the series, it was a bit of a chore to get through most of FF13 and my attempt at a second run ended in me giving up on it completely when I realized how much of a waste of time it felt like. Games need replay value. These days you also need to be able to explore. I'm not saying that this would have been "the next FF7" or anything, I just think it could have been so much more. Final Fantasy 13 was a good game, but it could have been an excellent game if things had been done a little differently.

I have plenty more that I can chime in with, but I would like to know what some of you guys think first. What I'm looking for in this topic is basically this:


If you could change anything about Final Fantasy 13 what thing(s) would you change about the game and why?

Did you like the game, why or why not?


Discuss!

 

[Ty Burna]

The big issue with FF13 that most will agree with was the hallway affect. Don't get me wrong I don't mind linear games, but this was a game just begging to break out. Look at FF12 for example, you could go anywhere provided you were leveled up enough to get there. FF13 however left me bored out of my mind. When I've spent 20+ hours on a game, I shouldn't be getting tutorials for damn near everything still. That's more then enough time to have a grasp on each system in the game but to keep introducing change after change is maddening.

This game has a ridiculous amount of playing time, which is fine but I can't get through the first 60 hours to finally get some sort of exploration capabilities. I've spent 60 hours in Diablo III and have one character at the max level of 60, one at level 34, and two more in the level 20 areas, and a good majority is just trying to farm for rare and legendary items. Skyrim I've spent close to 60 hours in but I feel like I accomplished far more then had I spent 60 hours in FF13. I may be exaggerating a bit on the time frame but damn it felt like I was maybe halfway through the first part of the game and I was well over 30 hours into it already.

I really gave up at that point. They used the linearity to tell the story of the game, but in the process they really took away that classic Final Fantasy feeling. I think the biggest issue was that they could have put a completely different name on this game and the expectations would have lowered and the game would have been better received. But because we've been so ingrained on exploration and going from town to town such as every other FF game that we've played, we couldn't/didn't accept that this was what Final Fantasy should have been.

Another thing I didn't like, I want full control over my party when in battle. I don't want to leave it to AI completely and pray that they heal me when the time is absolutely right. In FF12 you could set up your gambits to automate party actions, which is fine, but if I needed a crucial action done now I could switch to said character, apply the action, and move on to the next party member.

Maybe I didn't give the game enough time, but can I really say that when I put 30 hours in and I didn't care for it?

 

[Wally Dangerously]

If you could change anything about Final Fantasy 13 what thing(s) would you change about the game and why?

I agree with the previous post. My two biggest beefs are the game's linearity and battle system. I'll sacrifice extended cinematic sequences in favor of a more involving and sandbox-style game experience any day. I think Bethesda is the RPG king right now with The Elder Scrolls series, and I wish FF13 had had much more open-ended exploration.
I also detested the paradigm battle system. I enjoy having more freedom in my battle options, mixed with a little bit of pre-planning, so I really enjoyed FF12's gambit and battle system.

I quit playing FF13 after about 20 hours after being severely disappointed. Final Fantasy is also my favorite video game series of all time and I hope Square considers the multitude of negative feedback they received about FF13 as they're developing the next installment, which I will buy regardless of how sub-par FF13 was.

 

[Sean Valjean]

Overall? I enjoy both XIII games to a degree. The combat system is fantastic and is by far the highlight of both games. The linearity was addressed in XIII-2, so no complaints there either. Both are gorgeous, which is par the course for the series. They're not my favorite entries, but I generally enjoyed them both. Now, what are my least favorite parts?

The story. That has been my biggest complaint about the XIII games. The first game had a decent story with a solid premise that completely bombed at the end. XIII-2 is a convoluted melodrama with a silly time travel plot. This wouldn't bother me so much in other games, but a strong narrative is a huge part of Final Fantasy I found myself scratching my head/face-palming more often than not with these games.

I would also change the cast. And by change, I mean get rid of everyone not named Lightning or Fang. Everyone else is either annoying, uninteresting, or both. Lightning, on the other hand, is arguably the best protagonist in the series history. What a breath of fresh air she is. She's interesting, she doesn't screw around, and her character feels genuine and she doesn't have an whiny existential crisis every five minutes like most FF leads. The same is true for Fang.

Apparently, Square is planning yet another XIII sequel. While I'm not exactly jumping for joy, I do hope they fix those issues and deliver a XIII game that is truly spectacular.