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Final Fantasy XIII


Barfy
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FF7 & FF10 are possibly my two all time favourite games, and FF13 was the main reason for buying the PS3 (I know it's on XBOX but I didn't a few years ago).

 

Stevo, it's a bit more than potions and concoctions :) If you haven't done so already, you can download FF7 from the PSN store to play (probably £6 or £7). Should give you and idea of what final fantasy is about. Or FF10 off ebay should cost about the same! I managed 100% completion of FF10 and although no-one shared my joy, I was dead chuffed with myself :D

 

Personally I will be taking large chunks of leave after the 9th March to play this until my eyes bleed :D

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i HATED Oblivion. Will i hate this?

 

I've not played Oblivion, so couldn't say. Basically it's an epic story, lots of side quests, build up characters, fight the bad guys (not in CoD way) and save the world/universe. It's either your thing or not, personally I can't get enough of the FF games :D I keep meaning to restart FF8 as I swapped pcs half way through and lost my save game data :(

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im playing ff8 on my psp as wee speak lionheart on disk 1 *orgasm face*

ff x is hugely underrated

 

Totally agree! ffx is outstanding, especially when you've survived Penance :D I think I actually get upset at the end of it that after 150 - 200 hours of effort, there is simply nothing else to do!!!

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i HATED Oblivion. Will i hate this?

 

Depends what you hated about Oblivion.

 

This is a linear set story almost like an interactive movie, unlike oblivion which is focused on an open world with a vague plot. FF13 is a mixture of fantasy and sci fi really, its not got the dungeons and dragons aesthetic of Oblivion.

 

- this will give you a fair idea of what to expect.
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I torrented it earlier for free :D

 

Forgot how much fun it was! Had to prise myself away from it though, otherwise i'll spend the entirety of 2010 playing and replaying it..

 

Is that a Torrent of the PC version, or have you Torrented the PS3 file and then transferred it to the console?

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Is that a Torrent of the PC version, or have you Torrented the PS3 file and then transferred it to the console?

 

Torrent of the PC version. Not the same as playing it on a console, but it's better than nothing.

 

I suppose technically you could torrent a PlayStation version and then transfer it onto a memory stick, but there would probably be issues with viruses etc. Worth a try though eh?

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  • 2 months later...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soPA1UIpClQ

 

Out Tuesday.

 

Reviews coming out with 83 overall on metacritic, pretty good although fairly low for a full FF (not crystal chronicles or tactics, or a sequal). Main complaint seems to be that the game holds your hand for the first 15 hours limiting what you can do in the battle system and forces you down a narrow path of progression, although it opens up for the following 30 hours after that and turns out to still be a very good game.

 

Going to reserve judgement for myself, a slightly lower rating isnt going to put me off since ive been waiting 4 years. The story sounds reasonable and the graphics look fantastic, the battle system later on looks pretty fun too it just sounds like ive got to persevere the first third of the game to reap the rewards later on :).

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I am really looking forward to this game but i think after reading the reviews i will probably end up not liking it. A lot of the reviews on metacritic have given biased scores. Like Official Playstation Mag etc.. Those few 100 scores are obviously politically given, if you removed those reviews the score would probably be sitting in the 70's.

Which as you mention for a Final Fantasy game really is shocking seeing as the far majority of the series has been a 90's game. Even the last one which wasen't that great got 92%.

 

Reading the reviews i think the reason it has been getting bad reviews (it got 50% from edge) is mainly due to the variety of the game. In previous games you have a world to go and explore in, look about for secret things. Sort of go at your own pace. Lots of additional content to fill your time with such as looking for each characters ultimate weapons or playing some mini games etc..

With this one all that has been take out, you don't even control or have any say on the other characters, no world to run around in, which makes the game very linear, you will all have the exact same experience. Like they say that for the 60hrs or so of the game there was no variation from what you do from the first 1hr of the game, it was basically doing the same thing over and over, no exploration. You just fight a boss then have the cut scene, fight a boss and have the next cut scene etc etc. So because of that it doesn't seem like a Final Fantasy game. It seems like they rushed it out without really having a story to tell. They tried to westernise the series which is a real shame because it is not a fps game, it should not follow the same format as those games.

 

So i am very surprised the game has not done better reviews wise but from the content of those reviews it is understandable.

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Yeah for the most part i agree, but it does sort of tie in to what i said about having to be patient with the game. From what ive read so far it opens up about half way through the game, but up until that point its very linear. It is true that one character is under your control and two are under AI, although you can loosely control what the AI characters do with the paradigm system (six jobs to change on the fly), having youtube'd some battles (filling my time whilst listening to the game :p) I can understand that decision with the speed of the battles.

 

Also i wouldnt trust edge as far as I can throw them, a history of quite erratic reviews :p

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Still no real explanation for what the hell goes on in these games. Anyone will to give a good few paragraphs of their own experience as to why people like me, who have always avoided but are willing to give it a go, should get hooked?

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Never seen the appeal of the FF games.

 

I played one on the PS1........ it was a load of Japanese mystical bollards, numerous pointless cut scenes, turn-based, blocky and repetative gameplay (rush in, hit, rush out), and an apparent lack of a coherent storyline.

 

Yet people always go on about how great FF is.

 

Willing to take another look though - which one should I try?

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I remember playing Final Fantasy on PS1. I couldn't really understand why people were so keen. The graphics in the actual game were fairly basic, it was in the cut away bits of story that they were good. It was the cut away scenes that put me off. You had to sit there for bloody ages having the plot scroll up in front of you, pressing a button to make it continue once in a while. You could sit with that game for about 15 minutes without being able to do anything but listen to the awful music and watch a dull and muddled story explained very slowly. The gameplay side was just very average role play stuff when it finally started again.

 

It was just a load of hype.

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Still no real explanation for what the hell goes on in these games. Anyone will to give a good few paragraphs of their own experience as to why people like me, who have always avoided but are willing to give it a go, should get hooked?

 

In short i would say Square Enix are the best developers of games in Japan. "Normally" the games are very time consuming but fun. The visuals on screen are probably the most beautifuly done and the cut scenes are outstanding. They will be the height of this gens graphics for sure.

They tend to have some crazy ass story that revolves around the typical good vs evil arc but bring their own unique style of twists to it.

It really is like no other series. It is a shame you missed out on number 7 and 10, you would probably have been hooked from those like the rest of us!

I'd say give it a try. If you don't like it then always got God of War 3 in a week or so, that will be awesome.

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In short i would say Square Enix are the best developers of games in Japan. "Normally" the games are very time consuming but fun. The visuals on screen are probably the most beautifuly done and the cut scenes are outstanding. They will be the height of this gens graphics for sure.

They tend to have some crazy ass story that revolves around the typical good vs evil arc but bring their own unique style of twists to it.

It really is like no other series. It is a shame you missed out on number 7 and 10, you would probably have been hooked from those like the rest of us!

I'd say give it a try. If you don't like it then always got God of War 3 in a week or so, that will be awesome.

 

Ba hahahahahahaha!

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Never seen the appeal of the FF games.

 

I played one on the PS1........ it was a load of Japanese mystical bollards, numerous pointless cut scenes, turn-based, blocky and repetative gameplay (rush in, hit, rush out), and an apparent lack of a coherent storyline.

 

Yet people always go on about how great FF is.

 

Willing to take another look though - which one should I try?

 

Depends which one you tried in the past. Pick one of 7, 9 or 10 and try that.

8 is fantastic as well, but takes a while to get used to the over complicated levelling system, so for someone who isn't a fan of the series you would get bored quickly.

7 is available on PSN for about £7 I think.

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for those wanting to try ff games, 7 or 8 (ff7 is a lot more user friendly than 8 though) is available for download from psn for about £8. It's hard to describe the appeal, you either like this type of game or you don't. Personally I love 'em :D

 

Fwiw ffXIII is superb, yes it is linear at the moment (about 6 hours in), but there's no chance of getting bored as they introduce new things (paradigm system, eidolons etc) as well as building the storyline, even the character progression is completely different, and requires careful planning to combine with the pardigm system. The graphics are amazing (even on non-HD).

 

Worth the 4 year wait? So far I'd say yes :D

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Got mine today and had a couple of hours gameplay. Seems good (great graphics in HD) and not over-complicated like some of the previous ones have been.

It'll take a helluva lot for me to prefer it over FF7 (or 9 for that matter which I really liked and think was the 2nd best one), but I'm going to give it a chance.

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Ba hahahahahahaha!

 

By that i take it you don't agree?

 

Sales wise FF sells the most (FFXIII sold 1.5m copies in its 1st week alone in Japan).

Reviews wise you will struggle to find any developer let alone a Japanese one who has these type of meta review scores for their series.

Final Fantasy 12 = 92%

Final Fantasy 10 = 92%

Final Fantasy 9 = 94%

Final Fantasy 8 = 90%

Final Fantasy 7 = 92%

 

Nintendo,Sega,Capcom etc can't touch those numbers.

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ff10 was my favourite and would be a good one to start getting acquainted with the games. The graphics are generally good, the story moves on reasonably quickly for the most part, and could probably be completed in about 50 hours of gameplay, though there is enough in the way of sidequests to bump that up to 150 to 200 hours without getting too boring (Penance!!!).

 

ff7 was fantastic, though graphics don't look great anymore, the game was simple enough to get to grips with, and barring a few points the story moved along well enough. Like 10, there were also plenty of things to do around the story to enhance the game (Golden Chocobo + Knights of the Round :D).

 

ff8 was the version for ff geeks, the whole character building system was very complicated, and time consuming, and I never really got into the whole card game thing. That said though, by disc 3 I was totally hooked as with 7 & 10, although I have never managed to find time to complete the game :(

 

ff13 really looks the part, and no random battles :) I was beginning to get bored of the battle system, but just after gaining the ability to customise the weapons the enemies have become much harder. Using the paradigm system is therefore much more important. It's all still quite linear though, and I'm really hoping it will open up a bit because I just don't think it will be in the same league as the three ff games above if it doesn't.

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By that i take it you don't agree?

 

Sales wise FF sells the most (FFXIII sold 1.5m copies in its 1st week alone in Japan).

Reviews wise you will struggle to find any developer let alone a Japanese one who has these type of meta review scores for their series.

Final Fantasy 12 = 92%

Final Fantasy 10 = 92%

Final Fantasy 9 = 94%

Final Fantasy 8 = 90%

Final Fantasy 7 = 92%

 

Nintendo,Sega,Capcom etc can't touch those numbers.

 

So you think that the company that has ONE (ONE!!!) successful franchise of its own is the best developer coming out of Japan? Sorry mate but you are wrong. To take Nintendo as an example (a true innovator), it has developed many money spinning and successful franchises over the years that continue to impress worldwide, its combined sales figures will bum that of Squares ONE successful outlet. FF got old and tired years ago, I fail to see why it has such a following (except in Japan, where it is well suited to its market) when other games offer SO much more in way of innovation, scale and variety. FF lives off its licence alone these days. When you read the non-bias reviews that FF will get (not playstation official, ign ps3 etc) you will see what the true response to FFXIII is poor and mediocre, EDGE have given it a 5/10 (im not one for scores, but the review is very damning of FFXIII)

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Most developers are known for one franchise. Nintendo are known for Mario games. Are all the Mario games as good or are they churned out to make money?

 

Square Enix have a lot of big franchises in Japan that is not just Final Fantasy....

 

Dragon Quest is one of the biggest franchises in the world with the last one selling over 5m copies. That is more then most first person shooter games!

 

Then you got Kingdom Hearts which again is a monster of a franchise. The last selling 6m units, that is more then say the entire God of War series combined.

 

Then you got Star Ocean which again is a massive franchise in Japan and has had some success outside there too with recent 360 games and a recent PS3 release.

 

They make now all the old Eidos game like Hitman 5 and Just Cause 2, feck they even now make the Supreme Commander games!

 

To say it has one succesful franchise is not true at all. It has many that range from different genres.

 

I have played FFXIII now and i actually quite enjoy it. The first 3 hours were a bit of a drag but after that it gets much better.

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So you think that the company that has ONE (ONE!!!) successful franchise of its own is the best developer coming out of Japan? Sorry mate but you are wrong. To take Nintendo as an example (a true innovator), it has developed many money spinning and successful franchises over the years that continue to impress worldwide, its combined sales figures will bum that of Squares ONE successful outlet. FF got old and tired years ago, I fail to see why it has such a following (except in Japan, where it is well suited to its market) when other games offer SO much more in way of innovation, scale and variety. FF lives off its licence alone these days. When you read the non-bias reviews that FF will get (not playstation official, ign ps3 etc) you will see what the true response to FFXIII is poor and mediocre, EDGE have given it a 5/10 (im not one for scores, but the review is very damning of FFXIII)

 

nintendo are as innovative as poo coming out of my anus

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ok, so I've played it for about 25 hours in all now, and as much as I want to love the game given how long I've been waiting for it, I cn't help feeling a little disappointed :(

 

Graphically it is amazing, the story isn't bad, I think the battle(paradigm) system is the best in an ff game so far. Development of the characters & weapons seem simple enough, though it does require forward planning.

 

The disappointment comes from the simple fact that the game is totally linear from start to finish, there isn't (as far as I have been able to work out) anything of any note outside of the story, or freedom to explore. Is it sad that I am disappointed by this? anyone else thinking the same?

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Im at the beginning of chapter 10, thinking that the characters are probably the most understandable in an FF so far, the story isnt bad at all, and the battle system is awesome. The battle - cutscene - battle thing gets a bit tedious but having said that im still playing it, in the more open world FF 12 id packed in by now (I did get back to finish it eventually), but i seem to enjoy this more than running round for hours location to location.

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Im at the beginning of chapter 10, thinking that the characters are probably the most understandable in an FF so far, the story isnt bad at all, and the battle system is awesome. The battle - cutscene - battle thing gets a bit tedious but having said that im still playing it, in the more open world FF 12 id packed in by now (I did get back to finish it eventually), but i seem to enjoy this more than running round for hours location to location.

 

I kind of undersatnd what you mean, but in ff10 going after the dark aeons and penance was virtually another game in itself, and ff7 with Ruby & Emerald. I think it's just after the anticipation, it's not what I was hoping for. If I was able to avoid comparing it to earlier games and just play it for what it is I'd probably have no complaints, but....

 

I did re-start yesterday as I got to the end of chapter 9, and I was stuck, retried countless times, but just hadn't developed things in the right way to even get close to winning.

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