Anyone else looking forward to this? And if so, what system are you gonna get it for?

I'm still wondering if there will be any difference between the PS3 and 360 versions, other than the 360 needing multiple discs. If that's the only difference, I'll probably pick it up for 360 to boost my gamerscore...

As for the game itself, I've tried finding some info about it without any spoilers, and from what I've read, it will play more like X than XII...which I must give a thumbs down to...I enjoyed the way XII played much more than X...

However, it appears the leveling system will be like X as well, which is something I really enjoyed. Sphere grid over license board, FTW.

It's supposedly very linear, with only a couple towns and no open-world type feel... i don't know if that's a good thing.

I'm guessing that means sidequesting is minimal.... however FF has a tradition of requiring some epic endeavors to receive some of the "ultimate" weapons...

The cutscenes I've seen are epic, but personally, i hope the gameplay is up to par... by the way, i'm upgrading to next-gen primarily for this game...

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Linear? That's the worst news I've heard yet...

Yeah, like dodging lightning 100 times in the Thunder Plains?

or grabbing multiple Spears out of a 1/1000 chest...

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That music gives me nightmares when I hear it...

Duh duh duh...duh duh...duh duh duh duh...

I actually heard that someone started having seizures during that part...

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1926-1931-1934-1942-1944-1946-1964-1967-1982-2006-2011

Doesn't surprise me...I'm sure plenty of people spent a shit load of time in front of their tv trying to do that...

I've collected some more thoughts on this.....




From other threads on here you may have me pegged as some sort of FF fanboy, but in actuality I have only owned III (6 in Japan) for SNES, and X and XII on PS2. I've played each of these games 1500 hours easily, so while I may not know all of the Final Fantasy ouvre, I certainly know what I like and dislike.

For those unfamiliar with this genre, Japanese RPGs are loaded with cliches. In turn there's a segment of the gaming population who won't accept these franchises if they don't have a vapid teenage protaganist, shallow manga-esque storylines, and an angsty but predictable save-the-world storyline. FFX did nothing to step out of this pattern. Gameplay was fairly linear until you aquired the airship. The majority of the design time seemed to be devoted to the cg cutscenes and graphics at the expense of the mediocre gameplay and outdated combat. The plot and character designs didn't veer far from the stock fantasy archetypes. FFX did do something somewhat different for it's time, an interesting levelling system, the sphere grid. Personally i don't think it was as good as it could have been, but it got a lot of people on the FF bandwagon and overall it was good enough.

Perhaps as a reaction to some of the critical shortcomings of the formulaic FFX, FFXII had a darker, more ambiguous storyline that played more like a political thriller, I quite enjoyed it as an attempt to "grow up" these types of games, i think the character development was adequate, as they really hit a homerun with the graphics and intricacies of the gameplay. I was slightly annoyed by the protaganist Vaan instead of Ashe, or Balthier, this may be because the game designer Matsuno quit in the development stage, or it may have simply been an attempt to pander to previously mentioned Japanese RPG conventions. Whether that was a mistake or not, in the end it played more like an ensemble piece but I suppose I can see how some fans didn't enjoy it.

Now as perhaps a reaction to some of the criticisms of XII, XIII may have gone too far to return to some of the established FF and RPG traditions. From what I'm reading, many of the levels are basically a straight or curved line, where you encounter-cutscene-encounter-cutscene- final boss. Many of the areas you can't even return to once you've cleared them. By most accounts the battle system is excellent, so I'll take a game that more closely resembles the excellent mechanics and gameplay of 12 than 10 at the expense of character development and storyline if need be. I had hoped for a lot in this department, as Lightning seemed to be an interesting female protaganist that is a departure from the somewhat docile Yuna and had some of the assertiveness of Ashe (if not the scant skirt).


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I almost douchebagged you for this lipid, I had been intentionally avoiding looking too closely at any reviews for this game until closer to the date of release in March. Thanks to this topic, I've been looking at early reviews for the better part of 3 hours. Now I gotta sit here stewing in anticipation for 3 months... fortunately I didn't find anything too spoiler heavy.

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I found some chocobos.... these fuckers look huge!

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1926-1931-1934-1942-1944-1946-1964-1967-1982-2006-2011

Give Yuna back her garment grid!

I don't know if anything offended me more than what they did to the Chocobo theme...that shit was brutal...

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Scathing review of the game...

http://ps3.kombo.com/article.php?artid=11740

"biggest swindle in gaming history"

The reviews have been very mixed.

According to the comments, there is a disclaimer at the end of the article: "A casual, borderline-retarded journalist. This is the opinions of a non gamer..."


To be honest, I expect it to get mixed reviews, if not blasted, in the West as well. I prefer to draw my own conclusions from playing the game...

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They've got a pretty good track record right out of the gate with new systems. GTA:3 and GTA:4, while they showed the power of the systems, didn't hit their peak in fun until the sequels. Well, I'm just hoping that's true of GT4 because it was damn impressive but lacked in fun. Anyway...FF7 just blew the doors off of the PS1. There was nothing wrong with 8 and 9, but you didn't feel like 7 was missing anything 8 and 9 had (well 7 was missing Doomtrain, but I'll let that slide). FFX, while I think the story kind of went off the rails by the end, followed a similar path in quality with the sequels. FF on the NES was fine as well as 2 and 3 on the SNES, but that was eons ago.

I am concerned about the linearity of it based on the reviews. I guess it might not be the worst thing if I don't spend days breeding chocobos, playing that dumb card game in 8, or playing Blitzball and completely blowing off the story though.

M'eh ... I'm old and bad and poor ... I just borrowed my brothers Sega collection for xbox and have been playing the hell out of Shining Force ... sometimes simplicity can be more engaging.

... okay, yes, I'm kind of waiting for FF13 ... on sale, anyway!

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Nothing wrong with playing some Shining Force! Those games were great.Sucked when my Sega no longer could save data so I had to keep it on weeks at a time to play those

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Team Cutler.

Gametrailers has their review up...they give it an 8.6.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/review-final-fantasy/62719

They hammer on the linearity, and that really bothers me...being able to explore is probably reason number one why I play RPGs.

Also, I'm not liking what I'm hearing about the battle system...only controlling the party leader? I'm hoping I still have some sort of input on what my other characters are doing.

I'm not even sure if I'm going to grab this right away...might wait to see some comparisons between the PS3 and 360 versions. Shit, a year ago and I probably would have taken the day off and camped out for a copy of it. Now I really don't care.

For one of the first times in history the XBOX is saddled with the shitty port on this one. PS3 has 720p and 360 has 576p for starters. I'd be surprised if exploration in JRPG's ever approach the same level as the past. It just seems like they just don't have the resources to add more "space" than they already have in the game. I mean they started this is 05-06ish right? Gone are the days when you could throw a few houses with some shops and a few NPC's and call it a "town." A "town" in a current gen console is Liberty City, not a bunch of 2d houses.

The combat system if what I'm reading right leaves you with choices to spell out the roles of your party members, tank, healer, dps, and the like. It sounds good for the 99% of battles where they'd all be doing the same thing and controlling them is pointless, but for the tough battles it remains to be seen if that will be annoying or not.

Pre-ordered it and will play it, but am keeping an open mind as to if this is what RPGs are like on the current system will I like them. There's always FF 13 Versus I guess.

I'm always curious about how the ends of JRPGs play out. It seems like more often than not, no matter how desperate the game makes it seem like you have to finish, while playing you never really want to finish it. The world's going to end if you don't kill that last boss ASAP, but fuck it, I'm going to go dodge some lightning, collect some cards, race some chocobos, or my favorite, sure time is running out, but we're going to play a couple of games of Blitzball first. What's the thing in 13 that's going to make me put off finishing?

What are you talking about? That game was hardcore...

Actually I enjoyed the story...

Who needs Blitzball when you have Sphere Break?

I haven't seen any hentai yet... or maybe i just can't find it.

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Hmmm, didn't know the place I ordered it from was doing a midnight release, not that it's surprising I guess. Might as well pick it up tonight since I'm up until 2AM anyway.

Where did you order it from, and what delivery method did you choose?

Well, just picked this up...for PS3...gotta stay ahead of crosscheck on the trophy count...

Please keep us updated on what you think. I'm hesitant to purchase this based off of a lot of the reviews out there.

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Team Cutler.