Final Fantasy XIII

[Talderas]

I'm a newbie in this department, as FFX was my first foray in to the Final Fantasy series. I really enjoyed it, to the point that it's one of my favorite RPGs. Nothing fancy, just a well-put-together story, with a decent combat system and fun gameplay.

You -need- to go back and play FFVI.

[theckhd]

You -need- to go back and play FFVI.

I may at some point. I've been tempted to get I and II for my iPhone, but I don't need more distractions at the moment.

The limiting factor in playing through older video games is really WoW though. That 4-6 hours a night could really be put to better use.

[rathe]

I did go back and play FFVII, and while it was fun, the story really wasn't presented well. It made sense after a play-through and some research online, but between weak translations and not enough exposition, it was very difficult to follow the first time through.

I have to disagree with you here. It was difficult to follow the first time through, but that was sort of the point. It wasn't just the translation, one of the best parts about the game was trying to figure out who cloud really was. IMO, it was meant to be confusing . Although I guess I understand because this was a long time ago before so many cool stories existed or before you had an easier to understand version (tidus). "I'm awesome!" "you're not real!" "amg! ... wait i am!" "wow!".

[Sabindeus]

You know I am a total FF fanboy for the older FF games (SNES/PSX era), but the newer FF games really just don't do anything for me. Is this going to be good?

Did you play X at all?

Tidus and Yuna irritate me. That makes it rather hard to enjoy the game. At least with FFXII Vaan was the only character that irritated me.

Echoing this sentiment.

I totally played X, but I thought a lot of things in it were exceptionally stupid. 1. Sphere Grid, 2. Tidus is a dream (amg spoilerz) 3. Yuna's entire character (or lack thereof)

[Sabindeus]

Zidane wasn't that great either.

>:(

Zidane is probably my favorite FF protagonist.

[Talderas]

Zidane is probably my favorite FF protagonist.

Quistis.

[fudomyou]

Zidane is probably my favorite FF protagonist.

Quistis.

Do we get to count Zack? His game was terrible, but I liked the character.

[theckhd]

I did go back and play FFVII, and while it was fun, the story really wasn't presented well. It made sense after a play-through and some research online, but between weak translations and not enough exposition, it was very difficult to follow the first time through.

I have to disagree with you here. It was difficult to follow the first time through, but that was sort of the point. It wasn't just the translation, one of the best parts about the game was trying to figure out who cloud really was. IMO, it was meant to be confusing . Although I guess I understand because this was a long time ago before so many cool stories existed or before you had an easier to understand version (tidus). "I'm awesome!" "you're not real!" "amg! ... wait i am!" "wow!".

Actually, the "who is Cloud" part, while confusing, wasn't the root of the issue. The translation I played (which was the PC version, not sure if it matters) was really vague about what Mako was, how it was harvested, how it interacted with the Lifestream, Jenova, Sephiroth, and everything. It was a jumbled mess of a story until I read spoilers online afterward.

I don't think I'm too dumb to have picked it up if it were presented well. Maybe it was presented well in Japanese, but it sure felt like someone was relaying the story to me through a bad babelfish translation.

But then again, I don't usually replay games over and over either. There's always another game I want to try with new mechanics to figure out, so I rarely go back and replay a game multiple times over. So I tend to prefer stories that are designed to be clear in a single play-through. There's nothing wrong with having neat easter eggs for people to discover during their second or third re-play, but if it's seemingly incoherent when someone's getting their first impression of your game, you've failed somewhere.

fudomyou noted a similar thing in his XIII review, in that the story was unintelligible until late in the game. That's what I'd consider poor storytelling technique.

[Roots]

Vaan was by far my least favorite protagonist. I literally couldn't tell if he was a guy/girl when I first saw him. I dislike gender confusion in leading roles I guess.


Also thanks for the FXIII review fudo, it sounds like I'm going to be disappointed, but unfortunately I'll still have to buy it and play it for 50 hours

[Aubade]

Tidus was my fav.

[Talderas]

Tidus was my fav.

May a thousand sharp blades puncture your epidermis.

[Brand]

Cecil FTW.

>.> <.<

[Sabindeus]

Cecil FTW.

>.> <.<

Cecil is probably #3 on my list after Zidane and Locke.

Yes I count Locke as a protagonist.

[Sabindeus]

Zidane is probably my favorite FF protagonist.

Quistis.

Do we get to count Zack? His game was terrible, but I liked the character.

I <3 Zack very much, also I liked Crisis Core (mostly because it contained Zack). I think a lot of the reason I liked Zack, though, was because he reminded me of Zidane.

Quistis isn't a protagonist, doesn't count, also her game sucked.

[Talderas]

Quistis isn't a protagonist, doesn't count, also her game sucked.

Lies and slander!