Square-Enix are killing this franchise. This is NOT a Final Fantasy game

User Rating: 1 | Final Fantasy XIII PS3
By RocketEdge | Review Date:
I can sum this game up in one sentence; If you are into the type of game that spoonfeed's you a story, then FFXIII is the game for you. But let me elaborate the best way I can. Let me start by saying, the story is pretty terrible. The directors throw you into the middle of a story, and expect you to immediately understand what the hell is going on right from the beginning. They throw word's at you (L'Cie Fal'Cie etc.) and expect you to understand it without blinking an eye. It was so mind-boggling to me at first that I had to read through this thing called a 'Data Log' where you have to read pages upon pages just to find out what the **** is going on.

I personally really disliked the characters too. Hope would rival any of the most annoying characters in video game history for example. He goes around blaming Snow for his mothers death, when said name had nothing directly to do with it. Snow is stereotypical, as is Lightning, while Vanille is just annoying. Sazh was cool I guess.

Now onto the gameplay. As bad as I made the story out to be (and it was bad), by far the worst aspect of the game was it's linearity, and its what made this game anything but a typical FF game. I can understand some FF games were linear to a certain extent, but this is laughable. It is literally a line from A to B throughout the entire game. This is the setup: Cutscene, walk from A to B, battle, cutscene, and so on. You might think I'm over exaggerating but this is genuine the make up of the game.

The battle system is, like most of the game, an insult to your intelligence. The Crystarium. Do you remember the Sphere-Grid system from FFX? This is like that, except there are absolutely no options. You just go from A to B, yet again. The battles themselves are mildly entertaining, but all you have to press is auto-battle. What is the point like? Give me FFXII's gameplay anyday. Give me FFVII's gameplay anyday, either I would have found more entertaining than this.

The graphics are fantastic - really are. But the flaws are bad and I feel so passionately about that that even giving this game a 1.5 is generous. This is a catastrophe of a game on so many levels. I couldn't even bring myself to play it after 10 hours of play out of sheer boredom. Square-Enix are killing this franchise. I get the feeling when gamesites, magazines etc. reviewed this game they were feeling a little naive in giving this game anything less than its predecessors because they would feel like they were going against the grain. SE will probably make a buck on its name for a while but it will eventually dry up. Either they attempt to go back to the old way or I can see many long term fans not caring about this series that I & many others have loved for years.

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