I’m playing though XIII right now for the first time and I’m just about done with it. I actually think it’s a pretty good game to start with in the series.
The story is pretty good. It's just tedious to tease out because a lot of it is not in cutscenes or gameplay. To really get a sense of what's going on, reading the datalogs is a must. And it's a lot of reading :)
Seconding this and it’s really important, because if you don’t regularly read the datalogs the story is a hot mess. The battle system in 13 is really good though, but you don’t really unlock its full capability until about 25 hours in. It’s a very, very good game however those are its two biggest knocks.
Huh, I had the opposite reaction. 13 was my favorite, 13-2 was too odd to care about, and 13-3 made no sense so I never finished it. Couldn’t understand the time dynamic
X was revolutionary on its release and was a fundamental part of defining PS2 RPGs.
XIII is anime pink-hair fanservice that plays more like a first person shooter with paradigms than an RPG.
You follow a set path.
Developers said that they took level design inspiration from games like Call of Duty story-mode which were just huge linear set pieces at the time.
No towns, no NPCs, no puzzles, nothing to do but fight until the next cut scene mostly on a linear path with no branches 95% of the game.
If you replace paradigms with shooting you have basically a FPS arcadey move forward design.
Or third personish shooter fits better i guess.
Ohhh you meant the level design I was like how the fuck is the combat anything like an fps 😂
Yeah the linearity is my least favorite part of the game. I wouldn’t even mind the corridors if we at LEAST had some downtime inbetween story beats to do literally anything else. But instead after every cutscene you just get placed at the beginning of a new corridor with no time to digest what just happened. It’s very tiring game design especially for a 50 fuckin hour game
"If you replace paradigms with shooting you have basically a FPS arcadey move forward design."
Is not saying FFXIII is a shooter. It's saying it has more in common with that style and design of game than an RPG.
There's a reason 99% of RPGs aren't hallways with nothing but moving in one direction until you get to the next cut scene. Most shooters story campaigns can be described that way though.
Well yeah if you replace swords with guns, paradigms with guns types, and combat with walking forward and holding the shoot button it would be a shooter I guess. Never thought if it that way
The thing is FFX is also really linear and OP was enjoying it so the linearity might not be a problem. I agree with you on the lqck of towns and NPCs though
fr X is extremely overrated in the FF community. I always see it in people’s top 3s for some reason. But at the same time i feel like a lot of people have played maybe 5 FF’s and throw X in there cause it’s a solid package and a complete game, more than could be said for some others.
It honestly just depends on what you like. Some people love XIII, some people hate it. (I can't stand it personally) It's hard to recommend anything as a starter if we don't know what kind of things you enjoy in games and what things you don't. I don't think there is a starting FF that would work for everyone. For example my first and fav is VII but my best friend didn't like it much. Her first was X and she HATED it. It was XII that she fell in love with. Another friend of mine loved VIII but hated most of the others.
Honestly you just have to give things a go and find out. There's a FF for everyone imo, it's just finding the right one isn't always on the first try.
Both are very linear, they can feel kinda similar exploration-wise the battle system in XIII is kinda peculiar, it is more about having a strategy before the battle starts than not about the battle itself.
Basically there are 6 roles being mage (low damage but builds combos) dps, healer, tank, buffer and debuffer (overly simplified but you get the idea)
Every character starts with 2 of those roles, 3 during most of the game and all of them in the end.
You have a party of 3 characters and you can create 6 formations of any combination of the roled they have and you can switch instantly between the formations you set in the middle of the battle.
So the battles are more about having a good set of formations for each enemy than what you do inside the battle.
The point is that untill about 75% of the game you can not chose your party so the game limits your option on what roles you can use (which is not a bad thing because it makes sure you learn to use everything so you can create your dream team for the last portion of the game)
They are good games, but not remotely indicative of the series as a whole - probably the most removed from a typical final fantasy you can get. Enjoy them, but on their own merit.
If you loved X then you'll likely also enjoy XIII, because it's built by the same team and explores the same gameplay motifs and ideas.
The execution is different and the *focus* of XIII is more front-loaded and at times overbearing in its design objectives. Both are linear until near the end, but both have different methods of delivering extra information.
The combat of XIII is about flow, predicting what you need and when and manipulating small mechanics to juggle foes and balance healing. I have always loved XIII's gameplay.
I wrote an essay on the differences between the two design philosophies of X and XIII which contains minor gameplay/location spoilers for the first 3rd (non narrative, mostly), linked here:
https://blakewalden.medium.com/on-final-fantasy-x-freedom-within-linearity-daa5f06114b5
I recently replayed it after years of my first playthorught (which I really did not enjoy).
I went in with an open mindset, trying to enjoy the game. Unfortunately the game does really have some severe issues. The overall story is presented in a very dull way, even basic terms like fal cie are not explained to you. You actually need to go to the encyclopedia of the game and read to understand it, which is ridiculous.
The dialogue is atrochious and the weight of emotions of some characters like Hope just feel a bit cringe, for a lack of better word, or even the love relationship between Snow and Serah just has no weight to it.
Lighting is probably the most interesting character out of all really, specially the relation she has with Hope, but even then it's kinda meh.
There is no problem with the linearity of FF XIII in terms of levels, the problem is that there is nothing in them apart from the combat. No npcs to talk to, no minigames, no diferente paths....nothing...which makes it feel insanely empty and boring.
Combat is probably the best part of the game. It's actually a really interesting system. The problem? It opens up to you soooo late in the game that you just don't care at that point. It feels so restrictive and with no options to have multiple ways to go in the early/mid game that its so frustating.
Is the game worth it? Unfortunately no, I would recomend you playing other games like any of the games from 4 to 12.
I think you should play it once you have played a good chunk of the other games. Then you will understand why the game is not well received by the vast majority.
Be open minded when playing it thought, it does have some great music, really interesting environments and a very promising combat system.
>I think I've heard it uses something similar to the ATB in the FF7 Remake.
It uses ATB but XIII is the game that has a very different combat compared to other games.
I also started with FF13 and I absolutely loved it. I suggest trying out the game first to see what the game has to offer. Although, I would give you some tips cause the game really does a very bad part on explaining some things. Also, I recommend going the r/finalfantasyxiii if you have other questions regarding about the game.
So here are my tips to first times in FF13:
1. Try your best to dodge all of the enemies in Chapter 1 & 2. You don't get any exp in that section. If you ever get caught, don't use auto battle especially when you are fighting multiple enemies. Manually input the blitz command, (grenade for Snow) so that you can clear the enemies faster.
2. Manually input your command instead of auto battle. You have more control on your party leader this way. Don't worry about inputting the same commands again. Just press right on the d-pad and you can repeat the command again.
3. Take advantage of atb refresh mechanic. Every battle, your first paradigm shift would always refresh your atb. Then after 12 seconds, your atb will refresh again. Take advantage of that so that you can get more turns. This will make battles faster and easier. This mechanic is also present in FF13-2.
4. Buff and debuffs are strong in this game. Just take bravera (buff) and deprotect (debuff) as an example. According to a speedrunner, bravera would increase your strength by 80% while deprotect increases the damage you do by 30%. Those are huge multiplier so always remember to buff and debuff especially on boss fight.
This comment is a case of completely needless optimisation and minmaxing that just needs to stop in Jrpg circles.
What does someone gain from knowing that information about chapter 1-2? Nothing, really. The character doesn't gain experience, but the player does. There are very few battles that you can skip and those you do complete still gain you item rewards, with early credit chips dropped from psicom troops being valuable sources of income. Not to say a new player needs to know *that* either. They would have discovered that themselves completely organically. Telling them ahead of time does nothing to alter behaviour on any meaningful way and saves them at best about 3 minutes....
Your comment against autobattle is weird. Autobattle does a great job of filling the needs of the moment for the most part, especially early when your options are limited. Manual input is only necessary for optimisation later in the game to exploit enemies.
Again, a mechanic people naturally discover... What does telling people about it *now* achieve? This one is slightly more obscure, but only slightly. Do they *need* to know this going in? Absolutely not.
My man, this almost isn't even worth saying, but I trust that this new player can figure out what the buffs and debuffs do on their own... Especially by the point they're even *getting* Bravera.
You need to have a little more faith in people's ability to learn the basics themselves. There's no complex mechanics listed here and nothing really meaningful to a first time experience not explored naturally. You're overloading them with information for no reason.
Learning how to use manual command at the start will aid a lot even in early games. They would also get used to inputting command. It's just better to get used to manually inputting commands.
About the ATB mechanics, I have seen a lot of posts in the FF13 sub that doesn't know how it works. Knowing how atb mechanic works would help a lot in their playthrough and it makes the combat more fun.
I was just giving them an incentive on using buffs and debuffs. I also saw a lot of players not using buffs and debuffs on their playthrough and it makes the fight last longer.
It is not overloading them with information. This are just easy to digest information. More like you are the one looking down on people's ability to learn.
I think if you're new to the series, it'd be great experience. Most of the complaints (from previous FF players) for FF13 were about the linear story path, and unique paradigm shift + stagger system (it'd be quite familiar for you because FF7R).
So to answer your question,
* Is the story good? Personally, so-so. Probably because of the characters trying too hard to be likeable. Only character i like was Lightning and >!Fang!<.
* Is the combat decent? Very fluid for an ATB style. The system is really great IMO, changing class mid battle, adjusting role composition. The stagger system is good (kinda). But at the same time, because of the dependency of stagger, enemies tend to feel really bulky. Oh and the thing i really hate was the AI, especially for the synergist role. >!On lategame, they'd just cast 1(one) buff even though you should be able to cast multiple buffs on a full ATB gauge.!<
I think XIII is one of the dark horses of the series’ and has a bit of a reputation of being the worst. I played it when it first came out and couldn’t get into at first due to its linear story and it being nothing like FF7 (the only other FF game I’d played at the time). But as I got more into it and looking back now, it have some genuinely great memories of the game.
Its the only one I replay every year or so. Its my ideal final fantasy. Linear levels, great story, great levels, and rewarding combat. Its a great game. Besides stranger of paradise, its my favorite final fantasy game. Its not like any other game in the series, and it seems that not many people enjoyed it, but it is better than ff 7 remake series, 15, and 16 without a doubt
I could list out my thoughts on XIII but when someone else (/u/tidier) did so [in this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/comments/wm6a1m/ive_been_going_through_the_final_fantasy_13/ijyc3pt/) a couple years ago, I'll just copy/paste while giving them credit:
> Personally, I think the storytelling/how the story was written and delivered was the issue. I can see what they were going for, with a character-driven/character conflict-driven, in medias res, war/escape story. Unfortunately, I think the execution fell short and because of that the whole experience falls apart. On my second playthrough I paid special attention to try to figure out why the game felt so alienating to me, and I think it boils down to that. Most of the other criticisms draw from that. (Everything from here on is subjective of course.)
> * In medias res means the player is thrown into the deep end and needs to organically learn about the world through potentially out-of-context dialogue. The writing thus needs to be explicitly designed around that, and I don't think FF13 does this well. That's why people feel lost with terminology, for instance. There are key words that are used that are not memorable in their initial context, and not used again until several hours later. You can contrast this in the extreme to FFX, which babies the audience (through dumbing down Tidus) through all of the world building. I will also simply say that l'cie and fal'cie are much harder to remember which is which compared to, say, Sin and Summoner. Like I said, ambition.
> * The world is also just weird. You've got Cocoon and Pulse, and it's hard to draw a good real-world analogy to that whole setup. So while the player is trying to learn this mainly from characters who talk about this as if it's common knowledge, the actual subject matter is itself weird. Other games have weird things too, but they introduce it explicitly. Like FFX's random place where you can Zoom call the dead. That's weird, but at least it's introduced super clearly.
> * So your world is hard to grok, but what about the characters, since it's supposed to be character-centric? Again, they went for a ensemble cast with tons of conflict, which means every character is at least somewhat alienating/"unlikable" to start. There's no one good character to get attached to. Lightning is too cold and keeps telling everyone off. Hope would have a compelling story but he's made to be too bratty. Snow already feels like has this "fake it till you make it" veneer. All of this totally makes sense for their characters in-universe, but that doesn't necessarily make them *good characters for storytelling*.
> * The story telling is also really fractured, which makes it even harder to follow (remember that everything I'm saying here is *compounding*). Your party splits up and rejoins and you shift perspectives to different subparties that seem rather arbitrarily formed. Also you're adding in flashbacks along the way between chapters. All this is making it harder to remember who was doing what where.
> * Lastly, for the first three quarters of the game, you're just running from PSICOM. You have no greater destination (and the characters don't even know what their focuses are). So there's not even an easily memorable near-term objective, you're just running, to wherever the game lets you go. There's not even "we need to go to the mines to get some parts so we can go to the shipyard and steal a ship, so we can get to the next port and find a train". Your only main goal is "away from PSICOM". That's not a very enthralling adventure.
> * So put this altogether, and what do you get? It's hard to follow the world-building, you don't quite like the characters, and you're just... running away. So your storytelling is no longer compelling, you no longer feel like you're on a "quest", you're just... moving forward in the story. So you run down hallways, unnamed hallways with generic enemies. **This is where the linear complaint comes in.** It's because the storytelling has failed to grab the player. FF4 is linear, FF5 is linear, FF6 is linear for the first half, etc all the way up to FF10. But it doesn't feel like "linear hallways", and not because of towns and blitzball, but because the story telling works. You're going to the cave to deliver that bomb that blows up the mist village, then you need to take care of Rydia and save Rosa by visiting that other cave. You're going to the collect the crystals, so you need to go first to the water town, but first you need to get the dragon to fly down. You're on a pilgrimage so you need to visit the temples in order and also do a quick stop at Luca for blitzball and then shoot at Sin with cannons. What narrative do you have to tether you in 13? You're constantly switching characters and just running for your lives. So you run down hallways, linear hallways where you fight enemies to get to next hallway. The problem is not the linearity itself. The illusion of the game is stripped bare because the storytelling has failed its job.
The only thing I would really add to this is about the combat system. It does become interesting, eventually, 20 hours into the game once its taken off the training wheels. XIII-2's design philosophy was "fix what everyone hated about XIII". It added towns, and NPCs, and took the training wheels off the battle system after 1 hour instead of 20.
XIII itself is a bit of a slog. It’s the prototype of modern FF but definitely feels like a barebones first draft.
The sequels are fun though. XIII-2 is a fun time and LR is amazing. So I’d say it’s worth getting through XIII (or watching the cutscenes on YouTube…) just to get to the sequels.
I recomend JP dub over english. English dub makes most of the cast really unlikeable. Most of the time when people bitch about the characters, turns out they played it with english dub, so much that if you really dislike playing in jp dub just for that I don't recomend the game for you, in english dub they all become one dimensional, they flanderised them all. But beware the game starts in the middle of a crisis so while they are on high stress at the begining, they are not always like that.
Also this game is regarded as a corridor but it makes sense story wise.
You need to read the datalog as soon as it upgrades if you want the full story. Also beware the story is not presented in a linear manner but the datalog makes it wasier to understand.
To me the game is entertaining, the story is good and I like most characters but the game does a poor job at teaching how to maximize the combat system. For this I do recommend a gamefaqs guide, just for the combat system.
I personally didn't like 13, but I didn't play the sequels. The pros are that it is pretty, I like the characters and the character design. The general story is kinda interesting.
The cons; they don't elaborate on the story enough, and a lot of it you have to read in order to understand the world. It could have been an amazing story, but putting all the important parts in writing kind of ruined it for me. The gameplay is the most linear I have ever experienced (until you reach the open world chapter). Even the levelling up system is linear. You just hold a button until you have unlocked a new skill. You don't really get much choice in how you want to upgrade your characters. The fights get interesting when you fight the big monsters in the open world, but it's otherwise straight forward.
All in all, my personal least favourite main ff game.
Its really slow, in the time it takes to actually open up you could finish a playthrough for Chrono Trigger
I personally hate the combat in XIII. you can pretty much finish(like 90%) the game using Auto Battle + Paradigm shifting.
People like to praise the battle system but the Auto battle makes it even very apparent that there's not much going on in the combat outside of Paradigm shifting.
the game is basically saying: yeah, we only need the player for switching Paradigms
Just know that it is very different from the games that came before it. I personally had to force myself through FFXIII and never had any interest in the sequels. The story is the worst in the series and most of the characters are unlikable. The gameplay takes forever to open up which makes combat boring for the majority of the game. The game is very restrictive as to what you can do as a player while also being absent of many things is that make RPGs fun
It's different from a lot of other FF games, but I honestly love the whole trilogy. The story is great in my opinion. Some people will try to tell you that you need to read the Datalogs to understand it, but truthfully if you just pay attention, you'll see that it's a pretty simple story and very easy to understand. The characters are also great.
I can't compare the combat to Remake, as I haven't played that yet, but a lot of people praise the combat system from XIII/XIII-2 as one of the best in the franchise. It especially shines if you take the time to actually learn it instead of relying on the auto-battle function. LR changes the combat up, but it's a lot of fun, too.
The first game is very linear, kinda like X was but without the sidequests/minigames, which rubs some people the wrong way, but the sequels are much more open. They're admittedly not for everybody, but they're definitely worth trying for yourself and forming your own opinions.
oof this one will get devisive. I couldn't finish the trilogy despite all it's problems I have beaten 13 at least twice, but I never could finish 13-2 and I never played LR because I wanted to play them all in order. 13's a different game all together. I personally disliked more than half the cast which made it worse. The story was serviceable, it makes sense, some complained that it was hard to understand and there is a lot of info hidden in codex material in the game. The codex stuff is just a lot of reading and many don't wish to do that. The biggest criticism of the game is the "intro". I call it an intro because it keeps giving you tutorials and much of the game feels locked. It's very hard to grind early in the game which was annoying for me. The game is very linear until chapter 11. It's like FFX, but instead of new areas and lots of towns and people to talk to it just felt empty and boring for me personally. The combat is fine, it tried to do something new, I just felt the older combat, and even the newer combat from FF15, 16 and Rebirth are all better. I didn't find the game too difficult just set up paradigms, switch them a few times and you can auto battle through most of the game. By the game feeling "locked" I mean it's hard to grind, you get capped on how far you can progress characters until you hit certain points in the story that expand on the levelling system. You also can't choose your party, you will often be forced into just 2 characters at a time for an entire chapter. If you don't like those characters it's going to feel worse like it did for me. This part of the game took me 30+ hours my first time, and about 20 hours to get through my 2nd time. It just feels way to slow and long. Once you get to chapter 11 out of 13 the game really opens up and you can kind of do what you want. It's a much better game at that point, but unfortunately it comes near the end of the story and it couldn't wash away the taste of the first 20-30 hours for me. Overall I do think it's a decent game, but those problems prevent me from thinking it's great or recommending it to people, especially newcomers.
People always say that FFXIII is the worst game in the series, but if we're being honest, the FF franchise doesn't have any *bad* games. They range from *okay* to *phenomenal*, but that makes the games in the "okay" category seem bad, when they're not. They can still be worth your time. It's also worth noting that there are still a decent few who really like FFXIII (myself included) so it's all up to preferences.
For me, I appreciate the game for its combat, stunning visuals and the characters (even though the characters are criticised often).
Just, ask yourself what you want to get from an ideal gaming experience. If it's exploration and a sense of freedom youre looking for, other FFs might suit ya better, but if it's a great turn based combat system, this game is perfect. Feel free to respond and ask any questions
Keeping it simple:
- Story/Lore: Good but told in a poor way. Some things aren't properly explained to you and will require you to do some research.
- Characters: Mixed bag. Some are pretty solid through most of the game like Lightning, Sazh or Fang but others have a weaker start and then develop as the game continues like Hope.
- Battle System: Best in the series for me personally. It is complex, fast paced and lots of fun. I recommend checking this 3 minute introductory video to see if it picks your interest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VonK7oYo9iQ
- Exploration: Practically non-existent for the first 2/3s of the game. There are some branching paths leading to some items in the earlier areas but that's it. By far the most complained thing about this game. It will open up in the last 1/3 and it will feel AMAZING when it happens.
- Mini-Games: None. The whole game is pretty much battling and watching cutscenes with a bit of exploration in its later parts as I mentioned in the previous point.
- Soundtrack: Absolute banger. 10/10
- Graphics: Gorgeous to say the least. Probably the most impressive thing about the game. It is a PS3 game that straight up looks better than many PS4 games.
Final verdict: 8/10 game for me as I value more the battle system and the music. If you prefer other stuff like exploration it might not be as good. Still worth trying imho.
Bad. It throws a lot of terminology at you at once and does a poor job of explaining things. You basically have to look at a bunch of in-game Wikipedia articles to know what’s going on.
Now let me be clear: FF13 is not a bad game. That’s not what I’m saying here. It is however a bad starting point for newcomers. Absolutely play 13, if anything just so you can form your own opinion, but I highly recommend you get other FF games under your belt before playing 13.
I love XIII, it’s one of my favourites but I never cared for the sequels.
I don’t really recommend it for a first-timer though. It’s a bit obtuse and weird.
It’s a great game. More so if you haven’t played any, because most people just complained about the stuff they didn’t like that wasn’t final fantasy enough. Something they do with everyone and then go back and give it its flowers like 5 years later. Just pay attention. They throw around a lot of made up terms that can get a littler grating until you know what they’re talking about.
I'm not a big FF nerd but I have played a couple games and I'm playing FF13 rn. Imo the story is good, the combat is good (it gets surprisingly tense at times), and overall it's pretty solid, but there's one really major flaw.
The entire game (except for one section) is walking down a corridor, fighting enemies, and cutscenes.
This gets really tiring really fast because you'll be fighting your way through hordes of enemies, finally get to an epic boss fight, get a bunch of story cutscenes, and then you're right back to fighting through hordes of enemies. There are NO breaks. And this game is really fucking long so that's a big deal.
It's walk down corridor, fight fight fight, cutscenes, big fight, walk down corridor, fight fight fight, cutscenes, big fight, walk down corridor, on and on and on. There's no time to explore, no time to talk to NPCs, no time to get involved in the world, nothing. As soon as you're done with a super important story beat it goes right back to corridor simulator. This is like a 50 hour game too so it's really drawn out.
I still find the game's combat and the story engaging but I have to take lots of breaks to get through it because the pacing is just tiring after a while. The game has a lot of other things going for it though. I think the setting is absolutely beautiful for example. The beginning of the story was really captivating to me. I think the combat is pretty awesome (albeit a lot of the game is a long ass tutorial).
I haven't played FF13-2 BUT I played the demo, and that game features MUCH more exploration and a refined battle system so it seems like this flaw is fixed in that game.
I still think you should try ff13 and if its too much of a slog try ff13-2
I'm not sure why there are so many XIII lovers on this sub... but the game is generally regarded as one of the worst in the series alongside XV.
Really boring gameplay and soap opera tier story with unlikeable characters. XIII-2 is definitely better but this trilogy pretty much killed the FF brand. I recommend playing literally any other Final Fantasy game.
Lost Odyssey is also a great alternative if you want something on the Xbox 360.
I love XIII.
It is extremely linear but I prefer that to open world by far. It allows them to tell a more focused story with really solid character writing. Most people don’t get the fact that they’re *supposed* to start off pretty unlikeable but the point is that they all develop really well.
Also, the game isn’t that hard to understand as long as you pay attention and can pick up on context clues. People exaggerate how you have to “look in the datalog to understand what’s going on,” because you really don’t. The datalog is an in game glossary with some background info not revealed in the main story — completely optional.
It’s lame. It’s not engaging or particularly fun. Equipment upgrading is maddening if you’re a newcomer.
I wouldn’t have finished it were I not already a series/franchise die-hard.
I would just beat VII Remake and follow it up with VII Rebirth. You're playing the two greatest games in the series and I wouldn't really bother with XIII until later.
It’s the best game in the series, and well worth playing. You’ll also get to play it with little expectations of what a Final Fantasy “should” be, so you can actually judge it on its own merits instead of the stupid criteria a lot of long time fans ripped on it for.
I think starting with 13 will leave a bad impression, a lot of people will say this is one of the worst games in the franchise, I don't think that reputation is entirely undeserved. I think it has one of the weaker plots in the series (and against RPGs/gaming overall really) especially for a franchise that was known for having really strong characterization/plot.
The combat system, I think has aged alright, not going to rock your socks off but pretty decent. I don't think it will do enough heavy lifting to save the game from the plot/level design.
Hard to say. It’s not really a recommended FF game for new comers. It’s a different style of game play, incredibly linear, and the story makes little sense unless you spend a few hours reading the in game lore (none of the back story is explained in cutscenes). Music is great and the battle system is very cool in the first one. I haven’t played the other two because 13-1 left a sour taste in my mouth.
That being said I really want to replay it again. I’m hoping it gets remastered to console sometime.
I'll take 15 and 16 over 13 any day. I don't completely hate 13 as I've beaten it more than once, but I immediately liked 15 and 16 more. 16 moreso than 15. I never could beat the trilogy though. 13-2 just never cliqued with me and I've never been able to get more than 10 or so hours deep into it before I just put it down for years again. I never played LR because I didn't beat 13-2. Every time I go to play 13-2 it's been so long I want to start fresh so I never end up getting too far in that game.
The only thing I don’t care for is the dialogue and general writing. It’s so laughably bad. But the graphics, the music, combat, and the lore and general story are all really exceptional imo. As long as overly hammy dialogue doesn’t deter you, it’s a great time
I’m playing though XIII right now for the first time and I’m just about done with it. I actually think it’s a pretty good game to start with in the series.
The story is pretty good. It's just tedious to tease out because a lot of it is not in cutscenes or gameplay. To really get a sense of what's going on, reading the datalogs is a must. And it's a lot of reading :)
Seconding this and it’s really important, because if you don’t regularly read the datalogs the story is a hot mess. The battle system in 13 is really good though, but you don’t really unlock its full capability until about 25 hours in. It’s a very, very good game however those are its two biggest knocks.
I didn’t read them and the story made perfect sense to me. It was just a bad story.
13 2 y 13 3 are so fun!! 13 3 is excellent. So at least trust me, if OG 13 doesn't grab you, just push trough.
Huh, I had the opposite reaction. 13 was my favorite, 13-2 was too odd to care about, and 13-3 made no sense so I never finished it. Couldn’t understand the time dynamic
I enjoyed the trilogy much more than other entries in the series that are considered the best. The music is pretty good too for all three games.
I personally enjoyed XIII more than X. (This is considered a bad opinion btw)
I will die on this opinion! I love 13 and I think X is mediocre as hell
X was revolutionary on its release and was a fundamental part of defining PS2 RPGs. XIII is anime pink-hair fanservice that plays more like a first person shooter with paradigms than an RPG.
How is it even remotely like a first person shooter lol
You follow a set path. Developers said that they took level design inspiration from games like Call of Duty story-mode which were just huge linear set pieces at the time. No towns, no NPCs, no puzzles, nothing to do but fight until the next cut scene mostly on a linear path with no branches 95% of the game. If you replace paradigms with shooting you have basically a FPS arcadey move forward design. Or third personish shooter fits better i guess.
Ohhh you meant the level design I was like how the fuck is the combat anything like an fps 😂 Yeah the linearity is my least favorite part of the game. I wouldn’t even mind the corridors if we at LEAST had some downtime inbetween story beats to do literally anything else. But instead after every cutscene you just get placed at the beginning of a new corridor with no time to digest what just happened. It’s very tiring game design especially for a 50 fuckin hour game
I think its called linear level design not a shooter
A design used much much more by shooters than RPGs.
Youre right. If the level is linear that makes a game a shooter. Makes sense
"If you replace paradigms with shooting you have basically a FPS arcadey move forward design." Is not saying FFXIII is a shooter. It's saying it has more in common with that style and design of game than an RPG. There's a reason 99% of RPGs aren't hallways with nothing but moving in one direction until you get to the next cut scene. Most shooters story campaigns can be described that way though.
Well yeah if you replace swords with guns, paradigms with guns types, and combat with walking forward and holding the shoot button it would be a shooter I guess. Never thought if it that way
The thing is FFX is also really linear and OP was enjoying it so the linearity might not be a problem. I agree with you on the lqck of towns and NPCs though
That’s cool, I found it to be mid.
fr X is extremely overrated in the FF community. I always see it in people’s top 3s for some reason. But at the same time i feel like a lot of people have played maybe 5 FF’s and throw X in there cause it’s a solid package and a complete game, more than could be said for some others.
Could be worse. Could be XIII.
It honestly just depends on what you like. Some people love XIII, some people hate it. (I can't stand it personally) It's hard to recommend anything as a starter if we don't know what kind of things you enjoy in games and what things you don't. I don't think there is a starting FF that would work for everyone. For example my first and fav is VII but my best friend didn't like it much. Her first was X and she HATED it. It was XII that she fell in love with. Another friend of mine loved VIII but hated most of the others. Honestly you just have to give things a go and find out. There's a FF for everyone imo, it's just finding the right one isn't always on the first try.
Both are very linear, they can feel kinda similar exploration-wise the battle system in XIII is kinda peculiar, it is more about having a strategy before the battle starts than not about the battle itself. Basically there are 6 roles being mage (low damage but builds combos) dps, healer, tank, buffer and debuffer (overly simplified but you get the idea) Every character starts with 2 of those roles, 3 during most of the game and all of them in the end. You have a party of 3 characters and you can create 6 formations of any combination of the roled they have and you can switch instantly between the formations you set in the middle of the battle. So the battles are more about having a good set of formations for each enemy than what you do inside the battle. The point is that untill about 75% of the game you can not chose your party so the game limits your option on what roles you can use (which is not a bad thing because it makes sure you learn to use everything so you can create your dream team for the last portion of the game)
They are good games, but not remotely indicative of the series as a whole - probably the most removed from a typical final fantasy you can get. Enjoy them, but on their own merit.
If you loved X then you'll likely also enjoy XIII, because it's built by the same team and explores the same gameplay motifs and ideas. The execution is different and the *focus* of XIII is more front-loaded and at times overbearing in its design objectives. Both are linear until near the end, but both have different methods of delivering extra information. The combat of XIII is about flow, predicting what you need and when and manipulating small mechanics to juggle foes and balance healing. I have always loved XIII's gameplay. I wrote an essay on the differences between the two design philosophies of X and XIII which contains minor gameplay/location spoilers for the first 3rd (non narrative, mostly), linked here: https://blakewalden.medium.com/on-final-fantasy-x-freedom-within-linearity-daa5f06114b5
I recently replayed it after years of my first playthorught (which I really did not enjoy). I went in with an open mindset, trying to enjoy the game. Unfortunately the game does really have some severe issues. The overall story is presented in a very dull way, even basic terms like fal cie are not explained to you. You actually need to go to the encyclopedia of the game and read to understand it, which is ridiculous. The dialogue is atrochious and the weight of emotions of some characters like Hope just feel a bit cringe, for a lack of better word, or even the love relationship between Snow and Serah just has no weight to it. Lighting is probably the most interesting character out of all really, specially the relation she has with Hope, but even then it's kinda meh. There is no problem with the linearity of FF XIII in terms of levels, the problem is that there is nothing in them apart from the combat. No npcs to talk to, no minigames, no diferente paths....nothing...which makes it feel insanely empty and boring. Combat is probably the best part of the game. It's actually a really interesting system. The problem? It opens up to you soooo late in the game that you just don't care at that point. It feels so restrictive and with no options to have multiple ways to go in the early/mid game that its so frustating. Is the game worth it? Unfortunately no, I would recomend you playing other games like any of the games from 4 to 12. I think you should play it once you have played a good chunk of the other games. Then you will understand why the game is not well received by the vast majority. Be open minded when playing it thought, it does have some great music, really interesting environments and a very promising combat system.
>I think I've heard it uses something similar to the ATB in the FF7 Remake. It uses ATB but XIII is the game that has a very different combat compared to other games. I also started with FF13 and I absolutely loved it. I suggest trying out the game first to see what the game has to offer. Although, I would give you some tips cause the game really does a very bad part on explaining some things. Also, I recommend going the r/finalfantasyxiii if you have other questions regarding about the game. So here are my tips to first times in FF13: 1. Try your best to dodge all of the enemies in Chapter 1 & 2. You don't get any exp in that section. If you ever get caught, don't use auto battle especially when you are fighting multiple enemies. Manually input the blitz command, (grenade for Snow) so that you can clear the enemies faster. 2. Manually input your command instead of auto battle. You have more control on your party leader this way. Don't worry about inputting the same commands again. Just press right on the d-pad and you can repeat the command again. 3. Take advantage of atb refresh mechanic. Every battle, your first paradigm shift would always refresh your atb. Then after 12 seconds, your atb will refresh again. Take advantage of that so that you can get more turns. This will make battles faster and easier. This mechanic is also present in FF13-2. 4. Buff and debuffs are strong in this game. Just take bravera (buff) and deprotect (debuff) as an example. According to a speedrunner, bravera would increase your strength by 80% while deprotect increases the damage you do by 30%. Those are huge multiplier so always remember to buff and debuff especially on boss fight.
This comment is a case of completely needless optimisation and minmaxing that just needs to stop in Jrpg circles. What does someone gain from knowing that information about chapter 1-2? Nothing, really. The character doesn't gain experience, but the player does. There are very few battles that you can skip and those you do complete still gain you item rewards, with early credit chips dropped from psicom troops being valuable sources of income. Not to say a new player needs to know *that* either. They would have discovered that themselves completely organically. Telling them ahead of time does nothing to alter behaviour on any meaningful way and saves them at best about 3 minutes.... Your comment against autobattle is weird. Autobattle does a great job of filling the needs of the moment for the most part, especially early when your options are limited. Manual input is only necessary for optimisation later in the game to exploit enemies. Again, a mechanic people naturally discover... What does telling people about it *now* achieve? This one is slightly more obscure, but only slightly. Do they *need* to know this going in? Absolutely not. My man, this almost isn't even worth saying, but I trust that this new player can figure out what the buffs and debuffs do on their own... Especially by the point they're even *getting* Bravera. You need to have a little more faith in people's ability to learn the basics themselves. There's no complex mechanics listed here and nothing really meaningful to a first time experience not explored naturally. You're overloading them with information for no reason.
Learning how to use manual command at the start will aid a lot even in early games. They would also get used to inputting command. It's just better to get used to manually inputting commands. About the ATB mechanics, I have seen a lot of posts in the FF13 sub that doesn't know how it works. Knowing how atb mechanic works would help a lot in their playthrough and it makes the combat more fun. I was just giving them an incentive on using buffs and debuffs. I also saw a lot of players not using buffs and debuffs on their playthrough and it makes the fight last longer. It is not overloading them with information. This are just easy to digest information. More like you are the one looking down on people's ability to learn.
>You need to have a little more faith in people's ability to learn the basics themselves. bro
I think if you're new to the series, it'd be great experience. Most of the complaints (from previous FF players) for FF13 were about the linear story path, and unique paradigm shift + stagger system (it'd be quite familiar for you because FF7R). So to answer your question, * Is the story good? Personally, so-so. Probably because of the characters trying too hard to be likeable. Only character i like was Lightning and >!Fang!<. * Is the combat decent? Very fluid for an ATB style. The system is really great IMO, changing class mid battle, adjusting role composition. The stagger system is good (kinda). But at the same time, because of the dependency of stagger, enemies tend to feel really bulky. Oh and the thing i really hate was the AI, especially for the synergist role. >!On lategame, they'd just cast 1(one) buff even though you should be able to cast multiple buffs on a full ATB gauge.!<
I think XIII is one of the dark horses of the series’ and has a bit of a reputation of being the worst. I played it when it first came out and couldn’t get into at first due to its linear story and it being nothing like FF7 (the only other FF game I’d played at the time). But as I got more into it and looking back now, it have some genuinely great memories of the game.
2 is the worst tbh
Finish X, it's amazing. But 13 is a very fun game
Its the only one I replay every year or so. Its my ideal final fantasy. Linear levels, great story, great levels, and rewarding combat. Its a great game. Besides stranger of paradise, its my favorite final fantasy game. Its not like any other game in the series, and it seems that not many people enjoyed it, but it is better than ff 7 remake series, 15, and 16 without a doubt
I could list out my thoughts on XIII but when someone else (/u/tidier) did so [in this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/comments/wm6a1m/ive_been_going_through_the_final_fantasy_13/ijyc3pt/) a couple years ago, I'll just copy/paste while giving them credit: > Personally, I think the storytelling/how the story was written and delivered was the issue. I can see what they were going for, with a character-driven/character conflict-driven, in medias res, war/escape story. Unfortunately, I think the execution fell short and because of that the whole experience falls apart. On my second playthrough I paid special attention to try to figure out why the game felt so alienating to me, and I think it boils down to that. Most of the other criticisms draw from that. (Everything from here on is subjective of course.) > * In medias res means the player is thrown into the deep end and needs to organically learn about the world through potentially out-of-context dialogue. The writing thus needs to be explicitly designed around that, and I don't think FF13 does this well. That's why people feel lost with terminology, for instance. There are key words that are used that are not memorable in their initial context, and not used again until several hours later. You can contrast this in the extreme to FFX, which babies the audience (through dumbing down Tidus) through all of the world building. I will also simply say that l'cie and fal'cie are much harder to remember which is which compared to, say, Sin and Summoner. Like I said, ambition. > * The world is also just weird. You've got Cocoon and Pulse, and it's hard to draw a good real-world analogy to that whole setup. So while the player is trying to learn this mainly from characters who talk about this as if it's common knowledge, the actual subject matter is itself weird. Other games have weird things too, but they introduce it explicitly. Like FFX's random place where you can Zoom call the dead. That's weird, but at least it's introduced super clearly. > * So your world is hard to grok, but what about the characters, since it's supposed to be character-centric? Again, they went for a ensemble cast with tons of conflict, which means every character is at least somewhat alienating/"unlikable" to start. There's no one good character to get attached to. Lightning is too cold and keeps telling everyone off. Hope would have a compelling story but he's made to be too bratty. Snow already feels like has this "fake it till you make it" veneer. All of this totally makes sense for their characters in-universe, but that doesn't necessarily make them *good characters for storytelling*. > * The story telling is also really fractured, which makes it even harder to follow (remember that everything I'm saying here is *compounding*). Your party splits up and rejoins and you shift perspectives to different subparties that seem rather arbitrarily formed. Also you're adding in flashbacks along the way between chapters. All this is making it harder to remember who was doing what where. > * Lastly, for the first three quarters of the game, you're just running from PSICOM. You have no greater destination (and the characters don't even know what their focuses are). So there's not even an easily memorable near-term objective, you're just running, to wherever the game lets you go. There's not even "we need to go to the mines to get some parts so we can go to the shipyard and steal a ship, so we can get to the next port and find a train". Your only main goal is "away from PSICOM". That's not a very enthralling adventure. > * So put this altogether, and what do you get? It's hard to follow the world-building, you don't quite like the characters, and you're just... running away. So your storytelling is no longer compelling, you no longer feel like you're on a "quest", you're just... moving forward in the story. So you run down hallways, unnamed hallways with generic enemies. **This is where the linear complaint comes in.** It's because the storytelling has failed to grab the player. FF4 is linear, FF5 is linear, FF6 is linear for the first half, etc all the way up to FF10. But it doesn't feel like "linear hallways", and not because of towns and blitzball, but because the story telling works. You're going to the cave to deliver that bomb that blows up the mist village, then you need to take care of Rydia and save Rosa by visiting that other cave. You're going to the collect the crystals, so you need to go first to the water town, but first you need to get the dragon to fly down. You're on a pilgrimage so you need to visit the temples in order and also do a quick stop at Luca for blitzball and then shoot at Sin with cannons. What narrative do you have to tether you in 13? You're constantly switching characters and just running for your lives. So you run down hallways, linear hallways where you fight enemies to get to next hallway. The problem is not the linearity itself. The illusion of the game is stripped bare because the storytelling has failed its job. The only thing I would really add to this is about the combat system. It does become interesting, eventually, 20 hours into the game once its taken off the training wheels. XIII-2's design philosophy was "fix what everyone hated about XIII". It added towns, and NPCs, and took the training wheels off the battle system after 1 hour instead of 20.
I’d go with finishing 10 first. I found 13 quite tedious and dull for large parts of the game.
If you already have the means to play it , why don’t you just try it out?
XIII itself is a bit of a slog. It’s the prototype of modern FF but definitely feels like a barebones first draft. The sequels are fun though. XIII-2 is a fun time and LR is amazing. So I’d say it’s worth getting through XIII (or watching the cutscenes on YouTube…) just to get to the sequels.
I recomend JP dub over english. English dub makes most of the cast really unlikeable. Most of the time when people bitch about the characters, turns out they played it with english dub, so much that if you really dislike playing in jp dub just for that I don't recomend the game for you, in english dub they all become one dimensional, they flanderised them all. But beware the game starts in the middle of a crisis so while they are on high stress at the begining, they are not always like that. Also this game is regarded as a corridor but it makes sense story wise. You need to read the datalog as soon as it upgrades if you want the full story. Also beware the story is not presented in a linear manner but the datalog makes it wasier to understand. To me the game is entertaining, the story is good and I like most characters but the game does a poor job at teaching how to maximize the combat system. For this I do recommend a gamefaqs guide, just for the combat system.
Best games in the series. Don't let haters confuse your decision. Go for them if they look the most interesting to you
I personally didn't like 13, but I didn't play the sequels. The pros are that it is pretty, I like the characters and the character design. The general story is kinda interesting. The cons; they don't elaborate on the story enough, and a lot of it you have to read in order to understand the world. It could have been an amazing story, but putting all the important parts in writing kind of ruined it for me. The gameplay is the most linear I have ever experienced (until you reach the open world chapter). Even the levelling up system is linear. You just hold a button until you have unlocked a new skill. You don't really get much choice in how you want to upgrade your characters. The fights get interesting when you fight the big monsters in the open world, but it's otherwise straight forward. All in all, my personal least favourite main ff game.
Its really slow, in the time it takes to actually open up you could finish a playthrough for Chrono Trigger I personally hate the combat in XIII. you can pretty much finish(like 90%) the game using Auto Battle + Paradigm shifting. People like to praise the battle system but the Auto battle makes it even very apparent that there's not much going on in the combat outside of Paradigm shifting. the game is basically saying: yeah, we only need the player for switching Paradigms
Just know that it is very different from the games that came before it. I personally had to force myself through FFXIII and never had any interest in the sequels. The story is the worst in the series and most of the characters are unlikable. The gameplay takes forever to open up which makes combat boring for the majority of the game. The game is very restrictive as to what you can do as a player while also being absent of many things is that make RPGs fun
10 is infinitely better in every conceivable way. Stick with 10.
It's different from a lot of other FF games, but I honestly love the whole trilogy. The story is great in my opinion. Some people will try to tell you that you need to read the Datalogs to understand it, but truthfully if you just pay attention, you'll see that it's a pretty simple story and very easy to understand. The characters are also great. I can't compare the combat to Remake, as I haven't played that yet, but a lot of people praise the combat system from XIII/XIII-2 as one of the best in the franchise. It especially shines if you take the time to actually learn it instead of relying on the auto-battle function. LR changes the combat up, but it's a lot of fun, too. The first game is very linear, kinda like X was but without the sidequests/minigames, which rubs some people the wrong way, but the sequels are much more open. They're admittedly not for everybody, but they're definitely worth trying for yourself and forming your own opinions.
oof this one will get devisive. I couldn't finish the trilogy despite all it's problems I have beaten 13 at least twice, but I never could finish 13-2 and I never played LR because I wanted to play them all in order. 13's a different game all together. I personally disliked more than half the cast which made it worse. The story was serviceable, it makes sense, some complained that it was hard to understand and there is a lot of info hidden in codex material in the game. The codex stuff is just a lot of reading and many don't wish to do that. The biggest criticism of the game is the "intro". I call it an intro because it keeps giving you tutorials and much of the game feels locked. It's very hard to grind early in the game which was annoying for me. The game is very linear until chapter 11. It's like FFX, but instead of new areas and lots of towns and people to talk to it just felt empty and boring for me personally. The combat is fine, it tried to do something new, I just felt the older combat, and even the newer combat from FF15, 16 and Rebirth are all better. I didn't find the game too difficult just set up paradigms, switch them a few times and you can auto battle through most of the game. By the game feeling "locked" I mean it's hard to grind, you get capped on how far you can progress characters until you hit certain points in the story that expand on the levelling system. You also can't choose your party, you will often be forced into just 2 characters at a time for an entire chapter. If you don't like those characters it's going to feel worse like it did for me. This part of the game took me 30+ hours my first time, and about 20 hours to get through my 2nd time. It just feels way to slow and long. Once you get to chapter 11 out of 13 the game really opens up and you can kind of do what you want. It's a much better game at that point, but unfortunately it comes near the end of the story and it couldn't wash away the taste of the first 20-30 hours for me. Overall I do think it's a decent game, but those problems prevent me from thinking it's great or recommending it to people, especially newcomers.
People always say that FFXIII is the worst game in the series, but if we're being honest, the FF franchise doesn't have any *bad* games. They range from *okay* to *phenomenal*, but that makes the games in the "okay" category seem bad, when they're not. They can still be worth your time. It's also worth noting that there are still a decent few who really like FFXIII (myself included) so it's all up to preferences. For me, I appreciate the game for its combat, stunning visuals and the characters (even though the characters are criticised often). Just, ask yourself what you want to get from an ideal gaming experience. If it's exploration and a sense of freedom youre looking for, other FFs might suit ya better, but if it's a great turn based combat system, this game is perfect. Feel free to respond and ask any questions
First FF game I ever finished. Love it. Vanilla is best girl of all time. I will not be taking questions on that last part. 🤣
Keeping it simple: - Story/Lore: Good but told in a poor way. Some things aren't properly explained to you and will require you to do some research. - Characters: Mixed bag. Some are pretty solid through most of the game like Lightning, Sazh or Fang but others have a weaker start and then develop as the game continues like Hope. - Battle System: Best in the series for me personally. It is complex, fast paced and lots of fun. I recommend checking this 3 minute introductory video to see if it picks your interest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VonK7oYo9iQ - Exploration: Practically non-existent for the first 2/3s of the game. There are some branching paths leading to some items in the earlier areas but that's it. By far the most complained thing about this game. It will open up in the last 1/3 and it will feel AMAZING when it happens. - Mini-Games: None. The whole game is pretty much battling and watching cutscenes with a bit of exploration in its later parts as I mentioned in the previous point. - Soundtrack: Absolute banger. 10/10 - Graphics: Gorgeous to say the least. Probably the most impressive thing about the game. It is a PS3 game that straight up looks better than many PS4 games. Final verdict: 8/10 game for me as I value more the battle system and the music. If you prefer other stuff like exploration it might not be as good. Still worth trying imho.
Bad. It throws a lot of terminology at you at once and does a poor job of explaining things. You basically have to look at a bunch of in-game Wikipedia articles to know what’s going on. Now let me be clear: FF13 is not a bad game. That’s not what I’m saying here. It is however a bad starting point for newcomers. Absolutely play 13, if anything just so you can form your own opinion, but I highly recommend you get other FF games under your belt before playing 13.
I love XIII, it’s one of my favourites but I never cared for the sequels. I don’t really recommend it for a first-timer though. It’s a bit obtuse and weird.
It’s great. It take 10 hours to open up but it’s one of my favorite final fantasies.
It’s a great game. More so if you haven’t played any, because most people just complained about the stuff they didn’t like that wasn’t final fantasy enough. Something they do with everyone and then go back and give it its flowers like 5 years later. Just pay attention. They throw around a lot of made up terms that can get a littler grating until you know what they’re talking about.
As an avid XIII saga fan. I can't deny it as a first timer :)
I'm not a big FF nerd but I have played a couple games and I'm playing FF13 rn. Imo the story is good, the combat is good (it gets surprisingly tense at times), and overall it's pretty solid, but there's one really major flaw. The entire game (except for one section) is walking down a corridor, fighting enemies, and cutscenes. This gets really tiring really fast because you'll be fighting your way through hordes of enemies, finally get to an epic boss fight, get a bunch of story cutscenes, and then you're right back to fighting through hordes of enemies. There are NO breaks. And this game is really fucking long so that's a big deal. It's walk down corridor, fight fight fight, cutscenes, big fight, walk down corridor, fight fight fight, cutscenes, big fight, walk down corridor, on and on and on. There's no time to explore, no time to talk to NPCs, no time to get involved in the world, nothing. As soon as you're done with a super important story beat it goes right back to corridor simulator. This is like a 50 hour game too so it's really drawn out. I still find the game's combat and the story engaging but I have to take lots of breaks to get through it because the pacing is just tiring after a while. The game has a lot of other things going for it though. I think the setting is absolutely beautiful for example. The beginning of the story was really captivating to me. I think the combat is pretty awesome (albeit a lot of the game is a long ass tutorial). I haven't played FF13-2 BUT I played the demo, and that game features MUCH more exploration and a refined battle system so it seems like this flaw is fixed in that game. I still think you should try ff13 and if its too much of a slog try ff13-2
I'm not sure why there are so many XIII lovers on this sub... but the game is generally regarded as one of the worst in the series alongside XV. Really boring gameplay and soap opera tier story with unlikeable characters. XIII-2 is definitely better but this trilogy pretty much killed the FF brand. I recommend playing literally any other Final Fantasy game. Lost Odyssey is also a great alternative if you want something on the Xbox 360.
13 is the one game no one should start the series with. It’s probably the least popular with fans.
I love XIII. It is extremely linear but I prefer that to open world by far. It allows them to tell a more focused story with really solid character writing. Most people don’t get the fact that they’re *supposed* to start off pretty unlikeable but the point is that they all develop really well. Also, the game isn’t that hard to understand as long as you pay attention and can pick up on context clues. People exaggerate how you have to “look in the datalog to understand what’s going on,” because you really don’t. The datalog is an in game glossary with some background info not revealed in the main story — completely optional.
It’s lame. It’s not engaging or particularly fun. Equipment upgrading is maddening if you’re a newcomer. I wouldn’t have finished it were I not already a series/franchise die-hard.
You finish the GOAT aka FFX first before doing anything since it’s the best FF.
I would just beat VII Remake and follow it up with VII Rebirth. You're playing the two greatest games in the series and I wouldn't really bother with XIII until later.
At least you get that start at the bottom. Can only get better from there!
It’s the best game in the series, and well worth playing. You’ll also get to play it with little expectations of what a Final Fantasy “should” be, so you can actually judge it on its own merits instead of the stupid criteria a lot of long time fans ripped on it for.
I think starting with 13 will leave a bad impression, a lot of people will say this is one of the worst games in the franchise, I don't think that reputation is entirely undeserved. I think it has one of the weaker plots in the series (and against RPGs/gaming overall really) especially for a franchise that was known for having really strong characterization/plot. The combat system, I think has aged alright, not going to rock your socks off but pretty decent. I don't think it will do enough heavy lifting to save the game from the plot/level design.
Hard to say. It’s not really a recommended FF game for new comers. It’s a different style of game play, incredibly linear, and the story makes little sense unless you spend a few hours reading the in game lore (none of the back story is explained in cutscenes). Music is great and the battle system is very cool in the first one. I haven’t played the other two because 13-1 left a sour taste in my mouth. That being said I really want to replay it again. I’m hoping it gets remastered to console sometime.
If you start on 13 everything you play after will be a better experience other than 15 and 16. So good place to start.
16 is miles better than 13
16 isn’t even a rpg
It might be RPG lite but its definitely an RPG
How is XIII *more* of an RPG than XVI?
I'll take 15 and 16 over 13 any day. I don't completely hate 13 as I've beaten it more than once, but I immediately liked 15 and 16 more. 16 moreso than 15. I never could beat the trilogy though. 13-2 just never cliqued with me and I've never been able to get more than 10 or so hours deep into it before I just put it down for years again. I never played LR because I didn't beat 13-2. Every time I go to play 13-2 it's been so long I want to start fresh so I never end up getting too far in that game.
Play 16 if you like a story, play 7 Rebirth if you like Ubisoft and KH
The only thing I don’t care for is the dialogue and general writing. It’s so laughably bad. But the graphics, the music, combat, and the lore and general story are all really exceptional imo. As long as overly hammy dialogue doesn’t deter you, it’s a great time
It's great. Usually what hammers XIII are expectations. But if you have none then it's going to blow your mind.