Final Fantasy XIII-2

[Beev]

I hated FF 9 (yes, I finished it), and never understood its appeal. Perhaps it brought out the nostalgia in gamers, but I found the story to be pretty weak, the villain(s) to be horrible, and the cast of characters to one of the worst in a FF game. Vivi and Steiner were fun, but other characters like Quina (sp?) have to be some of the stupidest I've ever seen.

100% agree. I have no desire to ever touch that game again.

 

[Dumac]

What changed for you? I despised not having full control of my party. Personally I prefer depth of the system and the storyline WAY over ease/difficulty.

Honestly Square just needs to transition the FF franchise into pure cinema at this point...

Yeah, I had my gripes with the system, like not being able to have full control over your party. What I did like though was the fact that you were healed every battle, even though some hated that.

For me, this got rid of the tedious of unimportant battles in the other FFs that just slowly drained on your health/mana, making you use potions or trek back to a heal spot. It also let them to ramp up the difficulty on each encounter, so that you can have many involved battles instead of countless uninvolved fodder with only the bosses being difficult/engaging.

My favorite battle system is still X though. Something about the way it is turned based, yet still quick if you want, and also shows the order of the turns. I also thought the sphere-grid system from X was fine. I disliked the characters and story, though...

FFXIII had mediocre characters and story, but that can be said for most final fantasy games. This isn't Shin Megami Tensei/Chrono Trigger/Mother here.

 

[coreyb]

That is what FF has been about since FF3....

been about? or was it the great stories and characters that made people fall in love with final fantasy?

now it's ONLY about battle systems and graphics. story sucks, characters are boring. that was my point.

 

[Dumac]

been about? or was it the great stories and characters that made people fall in love with final fantasy?

now it's ONLY about battle systems and graphics. story sucks, characters are boring. that was my point.

The main point of FFVII was the shiny graphics and new battle system.

The story was the same old, same old. And the characters only having emotional weight through nostalgia.

 

[Sulaco]

The main point of FFVII was the shiny graphics and new battle system.

The story was the same old, same old. And the characters only having emotional weight through nostalgia.

I can't agree with that.

You can logically argue pretty much any RPG story is "same old same old". The old cliches will always be present, there will always be predictable plot twists and stale characters.

What matters is pacing, dialogue, the way the story is presented, and what sort of attachment you feel or develop to the characters.

FF7 nailed all of those things.

 

[MikeyLSU]

the one thing that has bothered me for a while is the lack of a world map and world map view.

It was the one thing that really made you feel like you knew that world when you actually traveled it and went back to older places late in the game. I am not sure why they went away from this, but the last few, while still fun to play, were so much more linear because of it. ANd you really miss out on the feel of the world.

I hope they bring it back eventually.