Final Fantasy XIII

[Correction]

Linear = no branching pathways. Not strictly underground. There are a lot of well-lit outdoor, areas through forests, cities, what have you. But it is not literally a tunnel. The first few areas of the game you see in the map are in fact a ruined elevated train track running through the core of a moon, so yeah that's going to be a relatively straight line no matter what.

That '10 hours' thing is probably the most overquoted blurb about the game. It took me less than two hours to clear all that. Anyone who takes longer than 3 hours is really, really terrible at a pretty easy JRPG.

[sruon]

I haven't played so obviously I can't tell for sure but I think it is, if I remember the stream correctly, butttttt... kinda passed out from boredom watching them.

[Correction]

It says at the bottom of the map '5-6 hours into the game...?' but that's pretty generous and taking a lot of time with each battle. The cutscenes do break up a lot of that linear flow and they are pretty HEAVY in the first 4 chapters of the game.

[octopus]

It's not literally an underground tunnel. But the path your characters go through is a narrow path (like a tunnel). It's not unusual at all for JRPG to force you to go a certain way, but this is a bit going to an extreme.

[Qalbert]

Linear = no branching pathways. Not strictly underground.

yeah I know linear doesn't mean underground, but tunnel sorta implied it, thus the question

[Chun Liroy]

Qal asks the same question twice, gets told it's linear. lol

[Kyo]

IGN review wont be up till early next week.

They'll post an article about the first 30 hours tomorrow.

[link deleted]

[Viserdes]

I don't think there is a game that i have enjoyed that wouldn't be called "linear", the game may seem like you have a choice but often you will not and to proceed there is only one action to take. This whole "linear" business seems to me like a frivolous means to damn the game, such things as whether the game is "linear" or not means little to me. It looks like an enjoyable game to me and i have seen no reason yet to not buy it.

[octopus]

There's a difference of something being linear, to something literally being one single narrow path for half of the whole game though.

[Kaisha]

The whole rollercoaster argument basically. I'm particularly curious as to what the average rating of the game will be. I'd wager an 8.5-9 for PS3, 8.0-8.5 for 360.

[Hyan]

Talking about reviews, a finnish gaming magazine gave FFXIII 81 out of 100, which isn't that much. They praised the audiovisuals, but felt the story was lacking, and especially the characters. The combat was thought to be confusing at first, but became better later. I don't think the review was biased, but they've always been more of a fans of WRPG's than JRPG's, so I'll have to play myself to see if they're right. I mean, they gave MGS4 86 out of 100...

[BRP]

Talking about reviews, a finnish gaming magazine gave FFXIII 81 out of 100, which isn't that much.

Of course not, only shit games get 4/5!

Final Fantasy getting more than a 2/5 is an extraordinary phenomenon really. Maybe 8.0 converts into 2/5.

[fren.]

So some people I know (hated pretty much everything post FF7) can't help themselves without mentioning that the game is gonna be an "epic letdown." I haven't followed up much on this, but judging by the near perfect reviews its gotten, where's the hate coming from?

[Kaisha]

From change.

[octopus]

FFXII got really high scores too: http://www.metacritic.com/games/plat...inalfantasyxii

And we know how it ended up ;o

[Draylo]

From FPS meatheads who can't deal with anything involving strategy or jrpg elements. They only wanna shoot and kill others.

[Tyrath]

Weird. If you're not into this type of gameplay I dont know why you'd come try it and bitch in the first place lol

[BRP]

From FPS meatheads who can't deal with anything involving strategy or jrpg elements. They only wanna shoot and kill others.

Yeah, Call of Duty players can't handle maps that are straight lines and dumb AI enemies.

[Tyrath]

BRP are you planning to try FFXIII?

[Katlan]

but does the game open up after teh first half and go to old school world map type stuff w/ side quests and all? is this also the first FFXI game that doesnt have diff weapon designs?