(This is a column by Jason Schreier dedicated to the analysis (and occasional mocking) of his favorite genre, the Japanese role-playing game. Whether it's because they're too antiquated or just too niche, he believes JRPGs don't get enough attention in the gaming industry today. It's time to change that.)
I've been playing a lot of Final Fantasy XIII-2 lately. I can't post my full thoughts until the embargo's up (January 30), but there's one question I've been pondering ever since I popped in the disc: What's up with this dialogue?
Final Fantasy 13 was first introduced to us back in 2009, almost four years after Final Fantasy 12 was released, and fans had been eagerly anticipating the next installment. But when it finally arrived, there were mixed reactions, including complaints about its linearity, the lack of towns and NPCs, and the limited control over the characters. At the time, Square Enix kept its game production behind closed doors and didn't take in a lot of feedback — especially from Western fans.
The game has been revisited by many different Final Fantasy fans since then, and some, like myself, have come to love it again. Almost all staple entries in the series have found their way to modern consoles, so it's about time that the FF13 trilogy gets a remaster
I've been thinking about this. I agree. While I really disliked it at first I never played it again. After hating ff15 so damn much I just think it can't be worse then 15 and if I'm not mistaken atleast it's turn based. I need more of that in my life.
I actually finished FFXIII and on the second playthrough found I actually liked the game.
Actually I have liked most of the FF games (I have not played FFIX unfortunately) and I do agree with you with regards to FFXV. Graphically IMHO FFXV is excelent but for some reason I just could not get enthusiastic in playing it.
As for "turn-based", I prefer active and real time although to be fair "turn-based" is a real plus especially when confronting a difficult protagonist. I found this to be especially the case when playing FFXXII where you could switch rapidly between "turn" and "active" although having a resonable knowledge of simple Boolean Algebra is IMHO essential when playing this game.
Ridiculous comment, first of all i think you should replay 15, second of all that game is 10 times better than the XIII games especially the royal edition. And third .. turn based combat is a dying (almost dead) style of gameplay and i personally wont miss it at all so don’t act like that is some sort of big plus because XIII has it.. it is not.
Ff15
Sucked imo. I don't need to give it another try. Last time was the 3rd time and I had 34 hours into it. It just wasn't good imo
How is turn based dying or almost dead? Pokémon is one of the biggest RPGs in the world and is and has always been turn based. To some it is a plus especially when it comes to FF since the first 10 of them all are and are arguably better games than any FF to come after
XV was rubbish, but understandable given the development hell. That overworld for me is the biggest example, so strangely designed and empty. And parts of the story awkwardly cut for DLC, most egregious being that prompto part where he's like "I'm a clone", or whatever he was (it was that forgettable), and the other guys basically shrugging it off.
Turn-based is alive and well: Pokemon, Dragon Quest, XCom, Civilization, Homeworld, Age of Wonders, Total War, Original Sin, Baldur's Gate, Warhammer, Yu-Gi-Oh, Company of Heroes, Wasteland, Pathfinder, Disco Elysium, Octopath Traveler, Chained Echoes and many, many more great games, both new and old, franchises and new IPs are selling well, reviewing well and sequels are coming.
If you don't play the game, maybe the turn-based has just died in/for you, but certainly the genre has never been so alive as in 2023! Plus, when you look at Final Fantasy franchise, it started going down in quality when it left turn-based combat behind. FFXVI may redeem some of the glory (and FFXIV was great), but the turn-based games were higher rated and deeper in terms of gameplay and had more interesting things to do in the world.
I'd say Persona 5 is one of the best of the best games in a couple of decades.
I don't think you manage that with a dying gameplay format.
Levii92
Turn based is way funner imo then just some hack n slash rpg. I like both but prefer turn based.
Far as dying I doubt it. It's also kinda funny cause the best final fantasy have been turn based. Ff still to this day can't top ff6 through ff9. Interesting.
Far as someone who brought up persona 5. I dislike the art style so I've yet to play it but I'd throw dq11 in there. Best jrpg I've played in fkin years. Over a decade.
Last I was a bit iffy on chained echoes because of the sp and no traditional leveling system. I recently bought it. Looks gorgeous, story is fantastic so far, but I cannot for the life of me get over how much I truly hate the leveling system. It's just flat out whack to me. I'm still going to finish it cause unlike ff15 atleast chained echoes doesn't feel like a chore
The XIII series (especially Lightning Returns) has far better combat than XV, and you don't need to watch an anime and a movie to make sense of the story.
15 was only fun for derping about in the wilderness, at least FF13 had a better story and was more coherent overall (plot, characters, gameplay, world, ect...).
15 was just beautify garbage, so much wasted potential, the Duke Nukem Forever of the FF franchise.
I really loved Persona 5, can't wait for P6 to be announced, I'd love ports of the first few games (we already have P3P/P4G/P5R available on almost everything now).
People act like XV killed one of their family members. It wasn't the best FF ever, but it certainly wasn't a bad game. You "hated it so damn much"? Chill.
I agree, FF13 is better than FF15, but I don't think I can play through that trilogy again, I'd rather play one of the older games.
Thank you. A ton of FFXIII articles recently. Most of the people who like this game are not old enough to have played 4 to 9. Even 10 and 12 are vastly superior to this game. That being said a remaster would then make all the FF titles available on the PS platform.
Citation needed
Do you have some kind of official survey of ff 13 fans ages?
Would love a link
Also, all games are available on multiple systems, re released many times
"Not old enough" doesn't even make much sense
That was part of what I was trying to say. I've gave 15 3 try ff13 deserves atleast a second. And like I said I could use some turn based in my life
I've also played through or played all of the ff games starting with ff1 way way way back.
"Good" is subjective. I love FFIX but I know many fans who don't like it for the art style and the slow combat.
Recently replayed them and I agree a remaster would be great. The complaints about linearity are fair, but they only really apply to the first half of the first game and while I agree that it would've been nice to have proper towns, minigames and subquests, it didn't detract from the intriguing story, interesting characters, tactical gameplay and amazing soundtrack in my opinion.
XIII-2 fixes a lot of the issues of XIII and expands on the story in interesting ways. The combat and progression builds on top of the systems of XIII and the nonlinearity and discoverability of secrets is a big inprovement over the original game. It's easily the best game of the trilogy.
Lightning Returns was probably a bit too experimental for it's own good. It tried to reinvent the wheel for no reason. The solo party for most of the game and the outfit based combat felt like a downgrade over XIII-2 combat system. It does have a unique vibe, but the plot kinda goes off the rails and many of the story beats didn't land as much for me as they did in the first two games. The race against time aspect was an interesting idea, but it never felt like it mattered, because it wasn't much of a challenge to manage the remaining time even while doing all the subquests.
XIII-2 is by far the best of the trilogy. Went out of my way to get the Platinum trophy on it. Which is actually a fun one to go for. Didn't take too long, only about 70-80 hours to accomplish. Loved every second of it though.
I don't think linearity is a fair critique, when every FF up until that point was fairly linear esp. in the first half of the game. People herald FF VII(including the remake), but it is just as linear as FFXIII was. The linearity complaints came at a time when open-world games were just starting to become a thing and people thought every game should be open-world, but now that every game is, people now want more linear experiences. Go Figure.
Ff10 was pretty linear to. Haven't played through all of 13 but 10 was linear as fk until the end
Totally agree. I never fully understood why 10 was so universally praised when it had many of the same design philosophies xiii is criticized for.
I felt the same for the most part except the LR combat system. I thought it was an upgrade on the party of three system the previous two games had as now you had more control over your moves with different sets being an L1/R1 click away, and could move the single character around in battle and attack limbs or tails of certain enemies, or reduce the distance between you and an enemy you're after saving ATB.
LR combat certainly has it's merits. I would've preferred it if it wasn't tied to the costumes which can make Lightning look quite ridiculous and out of place sometimes though.
But mainly I would've preferred to see an evolution of XIII-2 systems. Since they are so different it's obviously just a preference. Can't really compare them objectively.
Yeah I get ya, and I can totally see why the costume part got to people. I'm someone that doesn't care what the character looks like as long as I'm happy with the stats (looking at Xenoblade). LR to me is just one of those odd games that I can't help respect for mixing things up, even if the outcome wasn't the best lol. But yeah too different to compare.
Why would a remaster be great? They exist in HD, on a console that is still compatible with modern televisions, and you just replayed it.
I replayed them on my PS3. I just think it would make sense for those games to be more accessible to Playstation gamers, which is where the majority of the modern FF fanbase is (due to the exclusivity deals of VII Re and XVI).
As we celebrate Final Fantasy’s 35th anniversary, let’s look back at the underrated soundtracks of the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy.
Come on... Even haters of Final Fantasy XIII have to admit the soundtrack really was great. There are some parts of the OST that stand out among even Nobuo's work.
Agreed... Legendary Nobuo Uematsu was not involved with FF13.. So that has got terrible musics.
@Jambola nope... But in PS1 era we played FF7-8-9 and in a PS2 era FF10... They were all involved with Uematsu San. We grove up with him and his musics.. SO FF means, him and his music to us.
It's alright but I mean with so many other FF games it's not even in the top 10 for me
You just can't beat IX, VII, X and my personal favourite VIII when it comes to music
Even the theme song sucks, instead of just having an English version of the Japanese theme they got X Factors Leona Lewis to do the song which didn't sound like FF theme song.
Yeah, that ending song was terrible, I'll never be able to fathom why that was chosen, it feels so out of place with that game.
I agree, regardless of the general consensus of the game itself, FF rarely lets down when it comes to the music at least.
Yes; eyes one me, man with the machine gun, waltz to the moon, the oath, maybe I’m a lion…FF8 has the best music in the series by far. I have the original OST, the orchestra arrangement, the piano arrangement, the Black Mages tracks and a few other albums. My four disc original OST is my pride and joy.
Modder 'MJB' has released an AI-enhanced HD Texture Pack for Final Fantasy XIII-2.
Excellent article. Really enjoyed it.
"For starters, let's be clear on something: It is difficult to tell whether a JRPG script's problems draw from its translation or its source material. Since we Yankees are seeing somebody else's interpretation of the writers' original work, we don't know who's messing up along the way."
So true, and it sucks that many people overlook that and automatically blame the original writers. People say FFVII has bad writing because of a few mistranslated lines for instance.
of course these are haters and trolls but you get the point
Direct Japanese to English translations are bad since a lot gets lost in translation, there's a certain degree of interpretation that's needed and that's where the trouble starts.
I try using a little common sense and altering what doesn't look/sound right, that's the best way to go IMO.
The Dialogue in FF has always been not so good (I love all the FF's that aren't online), except for FFIX and FFXII which had some of the better dialogue I've seen in games as a whole.
If you speak out the old dialogue it sounds just as silly, or more silly than the current FF's. It is just currently more jarring, because you actually hear it instead of making it seem better in your mind.
Most games have bad dialogue. There's exceptions like uncharted and bioshock, planescape torment, Trails in The Sky, and the FF's I listed come come to mind.
All imo ofcourse.