@Gue1 said:
@StrifeDelivery said:
@DarkLink77 said:
Oh my God, there's more of us.
And yeah, the linearity is a result of the setting and the story. It makes sense, but it does hurt the game.
Yes it is sad to see all the flak that 13 gets. The linearity does hurt the game, but as you stated, it makes sense for the setting and the story. A lot of extra stuff opens up as you near the end of the game, as well as being able to do stuff after the game is over. I'm not going to go too deep into story/extras because you said you just beat Barthandelus. It is a departure from other FF's as the openess is more apparent in the previous games, but it wouldn't make sense in this particular setting. It was nice to see the character dynamics; everyone wasn't a merry band of travelers that just happened to stumble upon each other. At times there was a lot of tension and discomfort, made it feel more dynamic and real instead of "get new character here". But perhaps one of the more pleasant things for me was the depth of the battle system. Finally a FF where doing buffs/debuffs actually matters, and you can pump them out with speed instead of like the days of old.
the game never opens up... All you get mid-through game is an empty plane where you go in circles killing things. And is just a very short chapter before you go back to the same corridors till you beat the game.
That's exactly what they are, merry band of travelers that just happened to stumble upon each other, all branded by the same fal'cie by chance. And what deepness is in the battle system? There is no strategy at all. The enemies are not weak to anything. All you do in this game is spam and spam and spam without even thinking what you're doing.
The characters, who are they anyway? You only know their motives but you don't know who they are. They never plan anything, there is no story progression or a bad guy. All this game has for story is a bunch of pep-talks until they decide to attack Cocoon to kill the Orphan because they felt like doing it.
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Linearity is not result of the story. They had plenty of moments when they weren't being chased by anybody but they still kept going through corridors. An example of this was on Chapter 8 when Vanille and Sahz were on Nautilus, the equivalent of the Gold Saucer of FFVII but not even a single mini-game could be played there! A huge missed opportunity.
By story setting you know that Cocoon people are afraid of those that live below but when you actually go to Pulse it's empty! There is absolutely no one. No village, no people, no nothing. Just an empty flat plane. This was another huge missed opportunity to truly expand the game.
You may wish to indicate spoilers since some people in this thread have said they haven't finished 13.
Spoilers:
Did you do anything after the game? Since the Crystarium opens up another level and you can continue doing side stuff? Especially with doing Mark Missions and checking out the Faultwarrens, checking out Yashchas Massif or even spending a little extra time in Vallis Media, let alone doing anything with the Chocobos. What I meant by "merry band of travelers that just happened to stumble upon each other" was the fact that yes, initially they are all together, branded by the fal'cie by chance. However, what you avoided to realize was that they aren't docile, static individuals. Each person has their own motives, goals, and viewpoints. You say "you only know their motives but you don't know who they are" is simply not true, since over the time of the game, you learn more about Lightning and Snow's background with Serah's involvement, the point to why Sazh is even there, along with Vanille and Fang. I don't know how you missed such obvious information. They definitely are not compatible at first, and even separate from time to time because of their differences.
There are several "bad guys", and a pretty straightforward story progression. Yet again, another thing that is hard to overlook but somehow you did. You do know there was a reason why Pulse was "empty", right? The fact that Cocoon was told for years and years that Pulse was an evil, dangerous place; the citizens of Cocoon believed it. It didn't matter if it was filled with people or not, because they believed the story. But, when you do encounter the town of Oerba, it is a ghost town, save for the tons of Cie'th roaming the area. Pulse is a giant, dangerous area, which partially took out the citizens of Pulse along with the fal'cie invariably turning people into Cie'th. You stumble across several ruins throughout the game, remnants of the old civilization. There was a huge gap of time between Vanille and Fang traveling to Cocoon and when they awaken again.
If you can't understand the depth of the battle system, then that is your loss. The enemies are weak to a lot of elements, you have to use Libra, and then you can see their weaknesses, which then your other party members will utilize to their advantage. Again, not sure how you can be oblivious to Libra, since they make it pretty apparent very early on in the game. Every FF game you can just spam attack and be done with a battle, but not necessarily 13's. Good luck trying to take down a Long Gui with just Com Com Com, or even Com Rav Rav. The battle system's depth comes from the speed of paradigm shifts as well as the multiplier effects of setting up your paradigm shifts. This game allows you to quickly debuff your opponent with say Sab Sab Sen or even just pure Sab Sab Sab, then shift to buff your party with Syn Syn Syn, then go into all out attack or defense (Com Rav Rav or even Com Sen Rav). The multiplier effects comes from having more than one of the same roles: Having 3 Sen's greatly boosts the defense capabilities vs. just having one Sen. 13's system actually makes it worthwhile to spend time doing buffs/debuffs, being able to quickly cast protect/shell/haste and deprotect/deshell/slow etc.
End Spoilers:
It really goes to show that you seem to know very little about 13. It seems that you decided to put on your blinders, play and beat the game without even thinking about doing stuff after the game is beat (or maybe you didn't even finish the game who knows), and not even think about the story, characters, or battle system. You brought up the strongest points of the game as flaws without even touching the actual flaws of the game.
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