FF XIII: Reinventing the wheel or a design miss?
No one can argue with the fact that FF XIII is one of the most anticipated games this generation. But since the game was released in Japan, criticisms have had started to pop up on the internet regarding some aspects of the game. FF XIII new design ideas in reinventing the JRPGs genre are the same points that will bother the most devoted fans of the series. We take a look at both of the good side and the bad side of those points:
1. Linearity VS More open ended gameplay:
- Negative: The game structure goes like this: battle, movie, repeat. No side missions, hidden sequences and no NPCs to chat with. FF XIII is the most linear game in the series. I have to play the first 25 hours like this. Screw that.
- Positive: It’s like an interactive roller coaster movie. Keep pushing forward, no need to get distracted by unimportant things. Also, the game gets more open ended after the first 25 hours, so you will get your fix.
2. No Towns VS more focus on the story and characters development:
- Negative: What Square-Enix were thinking? No towns? We love JRPGs because we want to play in a fantasy world with lavish vistas and great/unique looking towns. We love towns in JRPGs because they break the repetitiveness of the grinding and fighting.
- Positive: Talking to NPCs is a repetitive task. Square-Enix ditched the Town thing in order to give us a better story and deeper characters development.
3. No XP, no level up VS Crystarium System:
- Negative: FF X had AP, leveling and the sphere grid system, so what does the Crystarium System bring new to the table? Nothing.
- Positive: Who wants leveling and XP, when we have something more streamlined? Crystarium System is the future of RPGs.
4. No direct control over other party members VS faster, more action packed combat system:
- Negative: There is next to no strategy or skill involved, just keep pushing or mashing the attack button mixed with some magic attacks and you will be fine. Seriously.
- Positive: Paradigm system gives you the ability to change party members roles, so you actually have the ability to change the outcome of the battles in the game. Faster battle system that will make you concentrate on the action rather than worrying about managing your team members.
So, what do you think? Is FF XIII the future of JRPGs or it’s a step back for the genre and for the series?
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I’m kinda afraid of FF XIII. FF XII was really disappointing in my book so i was kinda hoping that XIII would be a return to the old formulas of the PS1 era FF games.
Too bad that this seems to be the most radical change in a FF ever… I’m still buying it but I’m kinda afraid of what I might get.
Posted on December 28th, 2009 at 4:35 am
[...] Fantasy XIII – No Towns? VG Arabia FF XIII: Reinventing the wheel or a design miss? I read this article and was a little dissapointed to hear about all of these classic JRPG changes [...]
Posted on December 28th, 2009 at 7:16 am
Lemme guess, you played the Japanese version w/o any knowledge of Japanese at all.
Posted on December 28th, 2009 at 8:26 am
i was really disappointed with recent FF games.
SE, just go back to what made you famous.
for once in your life listen to your fans.
GIVE US A GOD DAM KINGDOM HEARTS 3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted on December 28th, 2009 at 8:49 am
FF13 is such a disgrace seriously no towns or NPC’s and u can only control one character at a time?
Posted on December 28th, 2009 at 9:34 am
iam very disppointed
no towns what were they thinking ?
FF XIII is the most linear game in the series. I have to play the first 25 hours like this. Screw that.
(this is the most part i really annoy me )
Posted on December 28th, 2009 at 10:04 am
Expect it to sell like hotcakes then a week later find massive tons of copies back on Gamestop shelves.
Posted on December 28th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
I have never played a Final Fantasy game for multiple reasons. When I see a real review that talks about the presentation, gameplay, graphics, audio, etc. I will decide whether the game is good or the game is crap. This article talks about the first 25 hours – that is nothing in an RPG. I think I managed 50-60 hours in Fallout 3 without DLC, 75+ hours in Elder Scrolls on PC version. What I need to know is how entertaining or how boring is that first 25 hours? We will see.
Posted on December 28th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
This person is an outright liar.
- Negative: The game structure goes like this: battle, movie, repeat. No side missions, hidden sequences and no NPCs to chat with. FF XIII is the most linear game in the series. I have to play the first 25 hours like this. Screw that.
I can assure you that there are NPCs at the occasional towns, they are all voiced. There are numerous side quests in forms of ‘missions’ (FFXIIIs version of Hunts) and Chocobo Hot and Xold. There are hidden sequences in the forms of scene drives/limit breaks that must be unlocked.
- Negative: What Square-Enix were thinking? No towns? We love JRPGs because we want to play in a fantasy world with lavish vistas and great/unique looking towns. We love towns in JRPGs because they break the repetitiveness of the grinding and fighting.
Same amount of towns as FFX. Nautilus, Beach Front, Bowdam (Flashbacks), Eden, Polumporum.
X? Zanarkand (Flashback), Bevelle, Besaid, Luca, and Kilika.
- Negative: FF X had XP and leveling and the sphere grid system, so what does the Crystalium System bring new to the table? Nothing.
This person obviously has never played X. There was absolutely no leveling in that game. Crystalium is an evolved Sphere Grid.
- Negative: There is next to no strategy or skill involved, just keep pushing or mashing the attack button mixed with some magic attacks and you will be fine. Seriously.
That is a straight-out lie. If you button mash through this game, you WILL lose. This is the hardest FF for a reason. If you do not regularly switch Optima’s/Paradigms and adapt strategy then you WILL die to REGULAR monsters. Forget bosses with over 3mil health, that can deal 4-8k health, and not forgetting the mission bosses with over 30mil health and can deal close to 15k.
This person needs to stop listening to the rumours told at 2ch, and ACTUALLY play the game before he makes up lies.
Posted on December 28th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
@ Dirk
I disagree 25 hours is more than enough, to atleast get an idea *not enough to over generalize but enough to know how its gonna be*
as far as the others, I plated Fallout 3 in i think 26 hours…
as far as XIII over time…
hours:
1 – 10: very boring
11 – 20: sorta boring
21 – 30: you should have full control by now, which its just very hard
31 – 40: very fun
41+: you should be done, and just doing side quests which isnt too bad and actually a lot of fun, most of story is just getting everything IE a very long tutorial. you dont even get all the summons till Mid Chapter 11 to give you an idea *out of 13 chapters*
Posted on December 28th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
o_O, point number 3 doesn’t make sense at all.
At first, you describe the Crystalium System as something that doesn’t bring anything new to the mechanics of leveling up in RPG’s, but then you completely refuted that by saying it’s the future of RPGs in the positive section, help me out here because those two points clearly contradict with each other.
Posted on December 28th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
@ Mohammad:
Crystalium System is like the sphere grid system from FF X nothing groundbreaking or new. Which isn’t a bad thing. But there is a lot of criticism about this.
At the same time, it’s an evolution of the sphere grid system and it feels more streamlined. For gamers who don’t play JRPGs, the system removes a lot of complexities found in JRPGs for them: No leveling, no XP.
Posted on December 28th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
They made this a north american Final Fantasy.
We all know who to blame for this, and Microsoft is picking up the tab….
Posted on December 28th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
I’m glad they’re bringing back the Sphere Grid for this game. It was one of the most amazing inventions to come out of an RPG and the more like FF X this game is, the better.
I don’t have any fears heading into March 9th, i’ll be picking up my copy of FF XIII and i’m pretty sure i’ll be impressed.
Posted on December 28th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
Um guys in the picture he showed, it clearly says “Crystarium” and not “Crystalium”
Posted on December 28th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
yes.i think its future of (square enix) rpg’s.i always hated jrpg game due to leveling,xp mp and hp stuff.now its more streamlined.i’ll love to play it
Posted on January 4th, 2010 at 8:53 pm
From what I read it seems FF XIII will be like The Last Remnant. Is this because of the Unreal Engine? If so you better change your engine Square
@Ahmad
“At the same time, it’s an evolution of the sphere grid system and it feels more streamlined. For gamers who don’t play JRPGs, the system removes a lot of complexities found in JRPGs for them: No leveling, no XP. ”
I’m an european and personaly I never saw any complexities with XP, Lv UP, HP, MP.
Western RPG also have the same, except D&D based, which is a completely different environment.
I can only agree with the “complexeties” idea if you mean to get FPS fans.
But if that is the point, these changes are sad IMO. First producers start making FPS with some RPG concepts… then we see RPGs turning into FPS.
As they say… cannot please Greeks and Trojans. If you try you risk displeasing both.
Japanese Game Industry is really down, not because of old concepts, but because they evolve changing game play dramatically. If you made a game, has a lot of fans, why change it drasticaly? If they liked it they want more of the same, with diferent story, maybe different monsters, but don’t mess up game mechanics.
If you don’t agree, I just ask you something. Do you think Diablo 3 is gonna sell few copies??? It has XP, Lv up system, HP, MP… characters even have similar skills!
Think about it.
Posted on January 25th, 2010 at 8:07 pm
RPG_Fan: I just felt i should reply in case you ever randomly look back at this: Unreal Engine??? Of course Final Fantasy doesn’t use the Unreal Engine, it wouldn’t even make sense. Final Fantasy XIII Uses a new engine developed specifically for this installment of FFXIII and versus. That engine was called Crystal Tools last time I looked but it might have changed since then (Crystal: I assume because the compendium of FFXIII games is titled Crystallis). I think SQuenix would cry if they heard you say Unreal Engine when referring to their engine.
Posted on March 14th, 2010 at 7:20 am
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