Final Fantasy XIII is often cited as one of the most controversial games in the entire series.
As someone who got into the series only few years ago, I didn't have any expectations before playing Final Fantasy XIII and I tried to get into the game open-minded.
Now, a common complaint I heard from people before playing the game is that its level design is very linear. After playing through the game though, I can indeed confirm that the game is so goddamn linear, most of the game has you walking through narrow hallways and it almost feels like an interactive movie at times.
As for the story, there's a lack of proper introduction and explanation of important terms and plot points until halfway through, but it's too late at that point, and the second half suffers from absolutely terrible writing that doesn't make sense. Because of that, the story falls flat on its face and its characters aren't good enough to save it.
The gameplay though, is complicated; the first few hours were genuinely the most repetitive and mindless sections I've ever played through in a videogame, maybe ever. However, after the introduction of the paradigm shift, the gameplay got much better. With that being said though, the gameplay is not very good for the most part, not because it doesn't work well, but because it gets tedious outside of the boss fights, and the lenght of some chapters doesn't help.
Despite all of these flaws though, I got to say, Final Fantasy XIII is a great looking game even to this day, and its music is good too.
Pros:
+ Serviceable cast
+ Interesting gameplay ideas
+ Beautiful visuals
+ Nice music
Cons:
- Awfully linear structure
- Convoluted narrative
- Very bad story
- Slow pacing
Narrative: 2/10
Gameplay: 6/10
Content: 6/10
Characters: 5/10
Music: 7/10
Graphics/Audio: ?/10
Final Rating: 4/10
- Weak -
Final Fantasy XIII is blinded by its obsession to deliver a more cinematic experience than its predecessors while simultaneously utterly failing to deliver an engaging and well-written story.
Just... why?
Do I recommend it?:
Probably only to those who want to get deeper into the series... at low price.
As someone who got into the series only few years ago, I didn't have any expectations before playing Final Fantasy XIII and I tried to get into the game open-minded.
Now, a common complaint I heard from people before playing the game is that its level design is very linear. After playing through the game though, I can indeed confirm that the game is so goddamn linear, most of the game has you walking through narrow hallways and it almost feels like an interactive movie at times.
As for the story, there's a lack of proper introduction and explanation of important terms and plot points until halfway through, but it's too late at that point, and the second half suffers from absolutely terrible writing that doesn't make sense. Because of that, the story falls flat on its face and its characters aren't good enough to save it.
The gameplay though, is complicated; the first few hours were genuinely the most repetitive and mindless sections I've ever played through in a videogame, maybe ever. However, after the introduction of the paradigm shift, the gameplay got much better. With that being said though, the gameplay is not very good for the most part, not because it doesn't work well, but because it gets tedious outside of the boss fights, and the lenght of some chapters doesn't help.
Despite all of these flaws though, I got to say, Final Fantasy XIII is a great looking game even to this day, and its music is good too.
Pros:
+ Serviceable cast
+ Interesting gameplay ideas
+ Beautiful visuals
+ Nice music
Cons:
- Awfully linear structure
- Convoluted narrative
- Very bad story
- Slow pacing
Narrative: 2/10
Gameplay: 6/10
Content: 6/10
Characters: 5/10
Music: 7/10
Graphics/Audio: ?/10
Final Rating: 4/10
- Weak -
Final Fantasy XIII is blinded by its obsession to deliver a more cinematic experience than its predecessors while simultaneously utterly failing to deliver an engaging and well-written story.
Just... why?
Do I recommend it?:
Probably only to those who want to get deeper into the series... at low price.