Final Fantasy VII is one of the most important games in JRPG history, or even gaming as a whole. The game is set within such an unbelievably vast "open" world that is incredible for being on the playstation (despite being on 3 discs). Within that open world are several much more detailed, handcrafted areas that look amazing due to having pre-rendered backgrounds that the characters interact with. The story is not half bad either and you'll find the cast will grow on you as you play, it can even be quite touching at times with its themes of anti pollution and protection of nature.

The problem with Final Fantasy VII lies in the actual game-play when you are not just walking around or watching cutscenes. Its a fairly standard RPG turn based battle system that does have its own touch but not enough to make it fun. the random encounters get downright infuriating after awhile, and the game will force you to grind for levels later on in the story.

Overall, if your able to sift through some mind numbingly outdated RPG battle mechanics, and the very cryptic hints on what to do to progress in the game that feels signature to most games pre 2005, you'll see one of the most incredible handcrafted worlds and most iconic stories in all of gaming. I'm super looking forward to playing more final fantasy games in the future!

I'm honestly not sure where to even begin with this game. There are so many things to love and so many problems at the same time. I haven't even really decided what the quality of the game is myself, yet I still ended up really loving it in the end. I guess I'll just go over every thing that did and didn't work for me.

Gameplay:

Final Fantasy XIII has one of the best combat systems I have ever played. It truly feels perfectly thought out and designed in every way. Battles control like your average turn based RPG, however there is no taking turns in this game. Your party as well as the enemies you fight have an action bar that charges over time, and you decide when and how to use that action bar. This is the best way in which I have ever seen an RPG make the player focus on timing that didn't feel a bit clunky; unlike some of the older FF games. On top of the amazing timing system, this game also introduces the stagger system, another one of the best RPG mechanics I have ever seen. Each character can switch between numerous different stances with different types of attacks. Some of these attacks focus on doing damage while others focus on charging the "stagger bar," Which significantly weakens the enemy and is often the only way to practically kill them. What all this means is that in every single battle, no matter what the enemy, having a real strategy is an absolute must. It makes it so that the game never feels slow or grindy as battles will always demand your full attention and be engaging at the same time. Additionally this game makes the excellent choice to replenish your health after every battle, meaning you never have to worry about resource management and can just focus on what's actually fun; the combat. The game also does an excellent job with its experience/level up system. Rather than there being actual levels, there is a crystarium that functions like a skill tree where you can choose what aspects of your character you actually want to upgrade. New sections of the crystarium with better upgrades are unlocked upon completing chapters, which prevents you from ever becoming too overleveled. This is just another factor forcing you to constantly use strategy in battles, and also actively discourages the player from grinding. All of these aspects combine to make probably my favorite RPG battle system ever.

Outside of the combat system, this game has one big, glaring problem that I'm a little bit conflicted on: it's linearity. It is a bit ridiculous just how linear this game is. Aside from one area, nearly every single level of this game is just a straight hallway where you walk directly to your objective and I understand why some people hate it, but here's the thing; I don't. I have to ask myself, does this game really need exploration? While it's true that the level design definitely could be a bit more interesting, it doesn't hurt this game too much. The most interesting part of this game is the fighting, and this linear level design ensures that the player is always guided to the exact area they should be in to fight enemies that are exactly the right strength for them. It also ensures that the story can be paced exactly how the developers intended, despite this game's story being a bit lacklustre in a few ways. The way I see it, the time you spend walking between battles is a bit of an intermission for you to observe the world around you and to connect everything in the game together, and that’s okay.

I think my one big issue with the gameplay and the reason that so many people have a problem with these levels and the lack of interactivity with the world is caused by the lack of mini games. Though the world looks stunning you almost never interact with it in any way aside from walking from enemy to enemy. There is exactly one minigame in chapter 2 of the game, and then you never see one ever again. It almost feels like there was a plan to include them that was just never executed for whatever reason. It’s not the end of the world, just a bit disappointing.

Story

This is by far Final Fantasy XIII’s biggest problem by a long shot. I’ll give it some credit in that the general concept of the world and its backstory is genuinely very cool, but it is executed and presented so bafflingly badly that I don't even know how Square thought it was acceptable to release in its current state. For starters, you are given no context on what many of the made up terms and nonsense story aspects are. Instead, you're expected to read an in-game dictionary to make sense of anything, however you'll often just have to read the game's wikipedia page. This game loves to tell you what happens in its story without actually showing it to you. What really doesn't help is that the dialogue in this game is some of the worst, most unnatural sounding I have ever heard. I have seen student films made by 10th graders developed on budgets of cardboard with better dialogue than this. The characters often barely feel like they're even talking to each other, instead just spouting random nonsense needed to progress the plot. There must have also been some sort of miscommunication between the writers, voice actors, and animators, because holy sometimes the editing for this game's cutscenes is actually so horrible. Characters will constantly cut each other off or have 2 voice lines play at the same time, and interrupt themselves constantly with their weird anime grunting. Each character is a fairly simple anime trope you've probably seen many times before and they are all pretty hard to relate to, which sucks cause the entire first 6 chapters of this game are dedicated to each character's arc, and none of them are good. Still, despite everything I just said, the characters (though bland) were consistent enough that by the end of the game I did find myself liking them and even rooting for them. Also, none of this story stuff would be nearly as big a deal if this game wasn't an RPG, one of the most story heavy genres in gaming. Even if you don't like the story, if you can look past it, the game is still playable.

Graphics

Graphically FF XIII is absolutely stunning. I have no idea how this was even released on PS3 because it looks better than many PS4 games I've played, and at a distance could even be mistaken for something that was released today. One advantage to this game's linear level design is that the developers can control exactly what you see and focus all their effort into making it absolutely beautiful. This game has so many interesting and incredible locations that would often make me take a small break from playing just to sit back and observe them. Interestingly the one area in this game that doesn't match the rest in terms of visual quality happens to be the one “open world” style area.

Music

I do not have too much to say about this aspect aside from the music being a little disappointing. Off the top of my head I can't exactly remember any of this game's music aside from one battle theme. I wouldn't care about this as much as I do if this were any series other than Final Fantasy, but as it is, I expected more.

Conclusion

I’ve definitely got a few more stray complaints and compliments I haven't mentioned in this review, but I feel I've properly conveyed my general feelings on this game. Despite being conflicted on many things I did enjoy Final Fantasy XIII quite a bit, and it might even be my favourite RPG in some aspects. If you're reading this wondering if you would enjoy the game or not, I really couldn't say. Some of the things that annoyed me about this game might be completely hated by someone else, or might be loved. I feel like this game felt really tailor made for me to enjoy in a lot of ways, so it really depends on your taste in games. Personally I definitely enjoyed it and will not be forgetting my time with it anytime soon.

Tem jogo que você entende rapidamente que é especial, que tem uma aura diferente. É o caso de toda a revitalização da franquia Yakuza, e especialmente desse jogo que "salvou" a série.

O enredo de Yakuza é algo raro nos videogames. Está realmente entre o pico dos melhores histórias da mídia. É IMPOSSÍVEL você não se conectar MUITO com Kazuma Kiryu e Majima Goro. É RÁPIDO e FÁCIL notar o porquê destes serem dois dos personagens mais icônicos dos videogames.

O outro aspecto do jogo que me chamou mais atenção foram as substories. Apesar de não partilharem da mesma qualidade técnica das história principal, não terem dublagem e nem cutscenes, elas são EXTREMAMENTE interessantes e engraçadas. Muitas vezes você pensa que uma side é apenas galhofa, mas recebe na cara uma lição valiosíssima. GRANDE ponto do jogo.

O que me fez tirar uma estrela (pensei até em dar 3.5) foi o quanto esse jogo se extende. Levei quase 40 horas para terminar, e acredito que poderia facilmente ter levado 30 horas se tudo no jogo não se extendesse tanto. Não acho que a história seja enrolação, mas ao mesmo tempo acredito que poderia ser mais concisa, afinal 40 horas em um jogo que não te oferece muita coisa nova da metade pro final não é fácil de tankar (jesus, por que eu tenho que enfrentar o Kuze TANTAS VEZES nesse jogo??).

Isso vale para o combate também. É bom, bem fechado dentro de sua proposta. Mas cansa com o tempo. Os inimigos são SEMPRE os mesmos. A diferença dos inimigos da primeira hora pros inimigos da 35ª hora é que os do final têm mais vida e te stunam mais (extremamente irritante). A skill tree não é lá essas coisas, então EU perdi muito o interesse no combate com o tempo, o que deixou o jogo mais maçante.

Mas são defeitos que se perdem no tempo quando você pensa pensa nesse jogo. O que fica é o sentimento que você desenvolve pelo Dragão de Dojima e pelo Cachorro Louco de Shimano. E é sobre isso toda a série, o quanto você se importa com os personagens principais, e o que eles têm a lhe ensinar.

Joguei 200 horas dese jogo, vou e volto de tempos em tempos, e posso dizer que é o melhor card game (tirando TCG's) que eu já joguei. As cartas são lindíssimas, a dinâmica rápida das partidas deixa o jogo muito atrativo, os arquétipos são muito bem construídos com as características dos personagens da Marvel.

Até hoje não sei dizer se a progressão é um ponto forte ou fraco deste game. Por um lado você demora MUITO para ter todas as cartas. Por outro, isso é um chamativo para continuar jogando, além de estimular sua criatividade para fazer bons decks (o que é possível) com as cartas que já tem.

Recomendo muito para quem tem receio com o gênero de card games, você irá se surpreender com esse aqui. Pra quem já é avançado no gênero, talvez não se interesse tanto, mas vale a conferida.

120 horas investido nesse jogo. Eu que tenho fugido de jogos que consomem tanto tempo assim. Me senti puxado pra dentro do jogo com tamanha qualidade e densidade do mundo e suas interaçoes.

Passaram 120 horas e passaram rapido. Eu ainda quero mais conteudo, conhecer novos personagens. Colocar meu personagem em mais aventuras. é incrivel o tanto que esse jogo aumentou o paramentro pra jogos de nova geraçao, se eu ja nao aguentava mais ver a formula da ubisoft. Hoje ela ja me da nojo. Gastei centenas de horas com Ac Odyssey, Valhalla - admito que teve seus pontos fortes mas o sentimento de tempo perdido e de conteudo massante eu nao cheguei de sentir com o Baldur´s Gate 3. - Virou meu baldur gate favorito - Superou o Baldur gate 2 que eu tenho umas 250 horas compartilhadas em dois saves -

Entao se for pra gastar tantos horas assim da sua vida, que seja com magnifico.


E diga-se de passagem, conciliar trabalho, namoro, estudo com Jogar algo tao massivo assim é loucura. Eu sei la quantas horas nao cabei dormindo menos so pra ir dormir mais tarde jogando e acordando mais cedo pra dar tempo de jogar mais. É o sentimento que todo gamer ama e infelizmente, é uma pequena porcentagem de jogos que possibilitam isso.

Talvez o melhor jogo que eu joguei até hoje, eu não tenho palavras pra descrever o nível de vício que esse jogo me deixou. Jogabilidade sensacional, linhas de narrativa infinitas e muito bem feitas, ótima história. Se eu tivesse que apontar um defeito seria o desempenho ruim do ato III no lançamento (época em que joguei), mas creio que isso já deve ter sido corrigido ou mitigado.
P.s. Eu nunca me importei tanto com um personagem quanto a Laezel, eu senti realmente como se eu estivesse ajudando uma amiga a enfrentar um problema.

Esse talvez foi o primeiro jogo que joguei na minha vida, ou no mínimo é o primeiro que eu tenho a lembrança de ter jogado. Não à toa videogame virou parte da minha vida com esse começo. Eu lá com meus 5 anos entendia nada do que significava esse jogo, do quão impactante foi Tekken 3 para a franquia e para a história dos jogos de luta, em especial os 3D. Eu sei que ali estavam Paul Phoenix, King e Jin Kazama, alguns dos meus personagens perferidos da cultura pop até hoje. E mesmo eu não tendo ideia do que fazia com o controle de PS1 do meu primo, eu sabia que eu estava APAIXONADO com aquela mídia ali desde o meu primeiro contato.