A Spoiled Analysis: Final Fantasy XIII

[watshisname08]

SPOILERS ABROAD: TURN BACK NOW IF YOU DON'T WANNA GET SPOILED, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

This is different from the FFXIII Discussion Thread because this will be the test pilot for me to open up "A Spoiled Analysis" thread here on the LRR forums. Spoilers are present and will NOT be hidden (since you need to know what happened in order to do the analysis).

So "borrowing" the idea from LRR about focusing on video games and their affects on gaming & the gaming industry in general, I'll be test piloting a subject thread called "Spoiled Analysis". Here you are free to SPOIL the game in the title. Talk about the various events or how you reacted to them while gaming. Give a more in-depth analysis of the game once you've completed it... Mostly this is supposed to be ANALYSIS not REVIEW, let's look at this game in the larger context. What will happen now? Did we like the various changes in it? Ect.

So here's a little bit of my Spoiled Analysis for FFXIII:

FFXIII is a great game that is poorly executed. Now before a flame war starts let me explain- the problem NOT the battle system, NOT the story, NOT the characters, NOT the linearity, IT'S THE TIMING (although timing can be connected to these things).

When I say TIMING I don't necessarily mean PACING. The game starts you off in the middle of the story and crosses the fine line between capturing interest or creating confusion. Sure the opening is action packed and can capture interest, but when you start in the middle of the story more times than not you'll confuse the player and that is what happened here. Scenes that should have been emotional are completely lost on the player because they haven't established these characters yet. There was a way for the developers to start the game from the beginning of the story and still be interesting. They should have started from Day 1, when Vanille and Fang awoke from crystal stasis. That would have been the perfect tutorial, two people who don't know where they are (just like the player) and have to fight their way out and then try and destroy a Fal'Cie.

The other problem I see with this is INVESTMENT. Square is making a big bet that people will stick with the game well past a gamer's patience point. Demanding 15+ hours before the game starts getting good, is a ballsy move. And from what I'm seeing it's both working and hindering this game's potential.

I'm leaving it off at that, the point of this thread is to garner intelligent, mature conversation about video games (in this point FFXIII). But I leave you with this though:

With the new battle system, linearity, and Square saying that this will be the FINAL classic JRPG in the FF series...

Is Square moving more towards the Western RPG model? Like BioWare has established (see Mass Effect). Are there various mechanics that Square is trying out that we have seen in current Western RPGs?

Alright let's start the first ever Spoiled Analysis.

[Kag]

I was thinking the same thing. The story is great, just not particularly well told, which is unfortunate.

Do I think Square is heading towards western RPGs? No idea. Guess we'll see when Versus and Agito come out.

[Rikadyn]

You know the main problem with the way they designed this game, is that there is absolutely no replay value.

[watshisname08]

I personally believe that many JRPGs don't have replay value. Especially the FF series, to me the FF series is about the story and characters. So mostly a person like me won't see replay value because I know what will happen afterwards. But for this game, I might replay to see what I've missed in the story and make more connections.

[Dave-O_Boy]

SO I beat the game last night and thought the ending was pretty good.
I do agree that the opening is just plain horrible for an opening. While I'm not sure if starting with Fang and Vanille would have been the best place to start as it would negate a lot of the big reveals later on in the story (like Sazh finding Dahj and such), it would certainly have been a better place to start and I suppose most of that stuff that would have less impact could have been reworked.
What I do like about that is then they could have spent the 1st hour or so getting all the tutorials out of the way. They could have introduced the paradigm system, summons, and all that right away.

As the intro is right now, the battle system should have had more variety. They should have gave the player attack items or other abilities that deal some elemental damage and buffs, etc.

Bottom line is that the first five hours are really rocky and could have been put together so much better.

Now the rest of the game is well done. Even if the party is apart, the motives and actions are sensible to the characters and the story does developed a good flow that a "classic" jRPG structure would have ruined. I did grow to like all the characters (with the exception of Snow, but He's a good character because he's so unlikable. Like Zoe from Dreamfall.)

What I really like about the game is the world. While most of the time we're getting flung through it and not able to really ingest much of the surroundings, what has been crafted is an interesting and detailed world when you do get some time to breathe (or read up on in the datalog). With the developers saying that they want to make a sequel, I'm hopeful that we'll see more of Cocoon and Pulse, especially considering the ending.

[wartjr2373]

They may have originally planned to tell the story differently, and start at a different time. This is speculation on my part, but I definitely recall hearing that a ton of content was cut from the final game.

I've finished the story mode, and am simultaneously completing mark missions and grinding gil to upgrade my weapons. I do think the beginning could've been done a bit better. I enjoyed the game as a whole, but at the same time, I was really looking for a nice long JRPG when I started playing, so my opinion may have been a bit skewed.

The only main FF games I've played are 10 and 13, so I may be the wrong kind of fan, but I tend to prefer linearity in my games. WRPG has, on the whole, not been especially appealing to me, as I find that when I'm allowed to do everything I tend to do nothing. I prefer a game with direction is what I'm saying. In that respect, FFXIII did right by me.

The battle system is exceptional, and I'm not alone in thinking this. Even reviewers that rated FFXIII poorly still said this. The issue people have is that it takes forever to open up. I understand that the direction they were heading in for this game warranted some caution, but perhaps they were a bit too cautious.

The characters were fine, I suppose. Sazh is probably my favourite, so it's unfortunate that I don't use him in my main party. I initially hated Hope, but he got better, and now I kinda like him. Same deal with Snow, Fang and Vanille. Not a fan of Lightning at all, though.

That's my analysis. This wasn't pre-planned, so forgive me if it reads like disorganized rambling. I'm too tired to proofread.

[Hakaryu]

I tried as hard as I could to get into this game but I just couldn't, so I never made it past the junk cliffs in the beginning before trading it in. I felt the voice acting and characters were to shallow, Lightning was from what I could see, a female copy of Cloud Strife. The combat system was boring and lacked selection. Sometimes I like to drag a battle out for fun, not be forced to make lightning decisions all the time. People say it gets better as you go along but I wasn't going to wait 10 hours to finally reach the meat of the game.