FFXIII coming to Steam

[Koul]

I'm replaying it and it still comes off as a clusterfuck of stupid jargon. Reading the codex barely helps.

[Saga]

So I finally got around to installing this from Steam over my Christmas break, and I'm about two hours in. Having never played a previous version of FF XIII, I was not familiar with any aspect of this FF before now. I think I'm about two hours in, and the story is ridiculously confusing, to the point I have no fucking idea what's going on. Am I just retarded? I suspect so.

Trust me, you're not retarded. I pretty much checked out of the game's story right around the "Moms are tough!" line in the very beginning of the game.

[Charismatic]

Trust me, you're not retarded. I pretty much checked out of the game's story right around the "Moms are tough!" line in the very beginning of the game.

That's... pretty early on, but I guess I can't blame you.
I was only 30min behind you.

[Raen Ryong]

I'm replaying it and it still comes off as a clusterfuck of stupid jargon. Reading the codex barely helps.

I've never comprehended how people find XIII's story too difficult to understand.

Fal'cie = "gods"
l'Cie = slaves of said gods
They must perform their Focus which is basically a mission.

That's about it?

[Prothescar]

the problem is that it's dumb and contrived with numerous plot holes between the three games. it tried to do too many things and fails at a majority of them. the gameplay would be a saving grace in XIII-I if the option didn't exist to make the game literally play itself and all you have to do is press up on the joystick for the first 3/4 of the game. XIII-2 fixes most of the gameplay problems (though it can still play itself) and adds the monster collecting on top of it, so I'd place it as a better game on those merits and if I were telling myself which game to start with today it would be that one.

[Saga]

That's... pretty early on, but I guess I can't blame you.
I was only 30min behind you.

Yeah, it was very early in the game. But bad writing gets to me more than anything. The terminology being confusing, as others here mentioned, didn't help matters. Battle system was fun as fuck though.

[Raen Ryong]

the problem is that it's dumb and contrived with numerous plot holes between the three games. it tried to do too many things and fails at a majority of them. the gameplay would be a saving grace in XIII-I if the option didn't exist to make the game literally play itself and all you have to do is press up on the joystick for the first 3/4 of the game. XIII-2 fixes most of the gameplay problems (though it can still play itself) and adds the monster collecting on top of it, so I'd place it as a better game on those merits and if I were telling myself which game to start with today it would be that one.

Why is it contrived and where are the plot holes? I thought it was actually remarkably consistent given the amount of time travel which occurs. Most FFs basically play themselves... you can steamroll most of the older titles just by spamming Attack, and FF12 very literally can play itself. Final Fantasy games are not known for their difficulty or mechanical complexity... the older ones were more challenging but also with less depth in combat. Anything 7+ is relatively faceroll. At least 13 requires you to use debuffs/buffs, while you could easily finish 7/8/9 etc without casting a single Protect/Shell/Haste/and so forth.

[Talragan]

zzzz, 60 gigs almost finished downloading. Played through the game on PS3 before, but I kinda sold it, good to see I can replay it again on PC :D

[Destinye]

I've never comprehended how people find XIII's story too difficult to understand.

Fal'cie = "gods"
l'Cie = slaves of said gods
They must perform their Focus which is basically a mission.

That's about it?

I think it's just innate hate for the XIII games, because almost every FF game tossed terms at you like you're supposed to know it. VII, the "BEST FF EVARRRRRRRRRRRRRRR" started tossing terms at you and didn't explain shit until damn near the end of the game lol and even Square admits that VII and VIII were on the rushed side and things got jumbled through development..they can't even explain VIII and they made the damn game.

And thats ONLY IF YOU sought out certain side quests in VII or knew what to do without a walkthrough, because let's be real, at least the "push you forward" style that started with X (excluding XII) allowed us to focus more on the actual story of the games, which is why it's easier to see the problems with it.

the problem is that it's dumb and contrived with numerous plot holes

Sounds like every FF game, actually. Especially some of the most acclaimed ones. ESPECIALLY VII. While they do a decent job explaining stuff, now that most of us are older and likely more jaded, the short comings of this series becomes more apparent, especially when Nostalgia isn't factoring into your memories.

Honestly, XIII/XIII-2 is basically a classic FF game without the illusion of choice, because most FF games can be "auto played" at a certain point, some earlier than others (ever sat around the start of IV and overleveled? You basically auto attack kill everything for the majority of the game..which should sound familiar to XIII's "plays itself")

I do agree though, start with XIII-2 since it was designed to be more "open ended" and even had a bit of post game content the first one didn't.

[Anakron]

I've never comprehended how people find XIII's story too difficult to understand.

Fal'cie = "gods"
l'Cie = slaves of said gods
They must perform their Focus which is basically a mission.

That's about it?

I think there were also some jargon in terms of how the sky world was run, Pulse, and the backstory. And it's been many years since I played it, but I think the problem was that as you were playing the game, the context of said terms wasn't very well related to the player.

You see the terms being used, but they didn't really connect to what is happening in the story at the moment, so they don't register to the player. The elements were just all introduced before they became relevant to the player. It isn't until after you finish the game that you realize that everything fit together from the beginning.

[Aevis]

I've never comprehended how people find XIII's story too difficult to understand.

Fal'cie = "gods"
l'Cie = slaves of said gods
They must perform their Focus which is basically a mission.

That's about it?

It doesn't help that there are Pulse and Cocoon l'Cie and failed l'Cies are called Cie'th. I remember beeing confused as fuck by the terminology on my first playthrough and ignored most of the story because of that. Later on I watched a video explaining the whole story in a couple minutes, which was way easier to understand.

[Prothescar]

Sounds like every FF game, actually. Especially some of the most acclaimed ones. ESPECIALLY VII.

I don't care for VII either. VIII is the worst in this regard by a pretty significant margin. IX I never played. X is coherent, but X-2 throws it out the window. XII all I remember is star wars.

Honestly the only FF stories I really, really like are IV and VI. The rest I enjoy for the gameplay and the characters, or don't enjoy at all.

[Ratatapa]

You never played IX?

Better get on it brah

[Destinye]

I don't care for VII either. VIII is the worst in this regard by a pretty significant margin. IX I never played. X is coherent, but X-2 throws it out the window. XII all I remember is star wars.

Honestly the only FF stories I really, really like are IV and VI. The rest I enjoy for the gameplay and the characters, or don't enjoy at all.

Yeah, you'll definitely enjoy IX then.

[Vaspinne]

IX is easily the best FF game (anyone who disagrees has clearly been dropped on their head a few times). The gameplay is the typical turn-based FF style. But each character has a unique moveset/job (Unlike VII or VIII or X for example where everyone can basically do everything). The story is also fucking fantastic! Each individual character has a great story/motive for what they're doing, and not only that, all the individual stories tie together for the overall main story which is also really damn good.

Definitely take the time to play it if you haven't.

[Raen Ryong]

FFIX is really good. My main issue with it is that the loading times are quite long compared to other titles, especially going into battle.

It doesn't help that there are Pulse and Cocoon l'Cie and failed l'Cies are called Cie'th. I remember beeing confused as fuck by the terminology on my first playthrough and ignored most of the story because of that. Later on I watched a video explaining the whole story in a couple minutes, which was way easier to understand.

I didn't find it that bad. The two groups of l'Cie are generally working toward the same goal, more or less, so the distinction is not that important until later on when you should have a better idea about it anyway. The idea of becoming Ci'eth if you fail is brought up multiple times in the story so even if you forget the specific term, you can remember it through context.

[arus2001]

Necron. 'nuff said.

But IX doesn't rank too high for me because I found too much of the music annoying, the plot feeling pretty glacial at times, and personally not endearing to the characters all that much.

So... IV4lyfe.

[Destinye]

Necron. 'nuff said.

But IX doesn't rank too high for me because I found too much of the music annoying, the plot feeling pretty glacial at times, and personally not endearing to the characters all that much.

So... IV4lyfe.

This is how I felt about IV lol. After years though, that one I liked.

[Ratatapa]

So tired of IV and VII lol

VII over fanboy for something not that great (characters and story was meh at best)

and IV because it's been redone SO MUCH

SNES
GBA
Ps1
IOS/Android
PSP
DS

Please SE put IV aside for a bit, don't need it as SUPER MEGA AWSOME FFIV THE EXTRA SUPRA COLLECTION on PS4/Xbone

[Krandor]

Totally going to be a PS4 exclusive of IV (that's just a port of the phone version) and you know it.

It will also cost $20