Call me a faggot, but I'm starting getting into Final Fantasy. If anyone's unfamiliar with the way this series works, every game is completely stand-alone, the characters and plots and settings have absolutely nothing to do with each other. I first started with Final Fantasy 7 back on the original Playstation many, many years ago. Almost every fan will agree that 7 was the best one ever made, which is unfortunate, since the fanfiction.net / deviantart fanbase has completely ruined it forever.
Back then, I didn't 'get' how real RPGs worked. My only experience was with pokemon. I would just attack, attack, attack, attack, attack, attack, completely ignoring buffs, mages, etc. Unsurprisingly, I sucked.
Well, I was bored recently, so I decided to break out 10 again. I figured I have more experience with real games now, so it should be easier. I was right. It was really god damn easy. Maybe one or two bosses gave me trouble (fucking Yunalesca) but nothing I couldn't handle after a couple tries. The story was pretty good, but it could've been so much better if they had only tried a little harder. They had to go and Japanize it. Every character is downright awesome, EXCEPT for the protagonist and his love interest, who are both insecure pussies. In addition to the terrible voice acting, there were a few scenes that might've been meant to be funny or cute, but just didn't really translate well across cultures. This will make your balls retract.
Final Fantasy 11 doesn't count because that was an online game and nobody gives a shit. 12 was okay, but it never really kept my attention because its style seemed so bland to me. I'll probably give it another try pretty soon. But 13 just came out, and this is the point of this post. It is really, really good.
There's a rift in the gaming community about it. Just like with every single great game released on the current generation, half of the gaming community outright hates it just so they can be cool. All of this nerd rage is embodied in this here Destructoid review, brought to you by some fat fuck. It's like he's never played a Final Fantasy game before.
"OHMAHGOD, I can't believe the characters and story elements are the exact same as every other Final Fantasy game, THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS I WAS EXPECTING SOMETHING ENTIRELY DIFFERENT. Oh I'm sure the fans will be all over me for this one, GOD DAMN I'M SO FUCKING EDGY HHUUUUUGGGGHHH"
And I've heard other complaints too. It's too linear, or it's just a dungeon crawler. Have these idiots ever played a fucking JRPG before? That's like complaining that you just run around shooting people in first person shooters. FF13 simply took out all the boring minigames and city roaming that only served to slow the games down, because Square has never been able to do them right. It's all fighting and story. It's a lot better this way, and these stupid fucks don't even realize it. "Waaaaahhhh gimmee back my Chocobo breeding/racing/whatever, waaaahhh I wanna go into the amusement park with Tifa, waaaaaaahhh." Dumbshits.
The guy on Destructoid said that story "is crucial to any RPG, and let me tell you right off the bat that Final Fantasy XIII has perhaps the worst story of any main Final Fantasy game to date . . . Even by Final Fantasy standards, the story is absolutely absurd. Let that sink in for a moment. The game is absurd by Final Fantasy standards!"
It's not that bad. Really. This confirms it. This man has never played a Final Fantasy game before. I'm going to be completely honest, I'm only a few hours into this (which is why I put 'Partial' in the title). I don't know what's going to happen plotwise, so I can't really say anything about it. But from what I've been introduced to, the story seems like it could be something really freakin' good. Yes, that's by Final Fantasy standards. So that still isn't saying much, but it's a JRPG, so you have to learn how to lower your expectations a little. Japanese gaming companies make these games based on their standards, not on ours. I'll give the guy points on his comments about the characters though. They seem pretty two-dimensional at my point in the game. But it seems like they're building it up so that they can develop, so I'm holding out. Again, it's Japan, so just like in anime, boring and predictable archetypes are a requirement.
The art style really impressed me. The last few games have been huge letdowns in this department, but FF13 is absolutely gorgeous, probably the best I've seen since 7. It's somewhat simple in some areas, but at the same time it puts artistic emphasis on the elements that are meant to be particularly eye-catching. So it's basically, "Yeah I know I'm awesome but I try not to brag about it," which is the perfect balance that every artistic style should strive to achieve.
The combat is different. It's not worse, it's not better. It's different. I'm still a little uncertain about it. It seems like it could be really fun once I level up my team and unlock more shit, so I'm reserving judgment. It's much more streamlined and fast-paced. It's somewhat complicated, so instead of trying to explain it, this video sums it up really well. The combat itself starts at about 7:00 in.
Verdict: 8 / 10
NOTE: I try to use the entire scale instead of the standard 7-10, so this is meant to be really good.
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