I'm saying it's not a big deal that this one game didn't give you a 'world to explore' when there are still many other good points about it. I'm also saying it's blown out of proportion.
I donÆt see a lot of those ægood pointsÆ. I see a game that has little to no interest in my input as a gamer/consumer, isnÆt particularly fun to play, and propels me down a linear path for 20 hours minimum with few deviations. IÆve played Linear games that managed to be fun, they did something to make the experience exciting, or made me really care about the characters. FF 13 has failed to do that for me.
I normally find myself doing everything in my power to gain XP in games because I enjoy growing my characters in interesting directions. With FF 13 I find myself avoiding fights because I am sick and tired of just hitting confirm, and switching paradigms. That is not a good place for an RPG of any stripe to be in, where the player would rather ignore a fight, not because theyÆve found a better way to progress, but because itÆs so frakking boring that being weaker is a preferable alternative.
I had more fun with Suikoden, Final Fantasy Tactics & Advanced, FF 11, Disgaea 3, Star Ocean and the æTalesÆ games.
IÆll make it clear I am not having fun playing this game.
If i wanted to fully be engaged or engrossed in a battle system, I'd be playing Tales of Star Ocean or something. There hasn't been a single final fantasy save for X-2 where the battle system was engaging. This isn't Bayonettah. You sipped a hot latte while playing FF13, and I did algebra homework while playing FF7 or Suikoden. Same to no difference.
Then something has gone wrong, and needs to be fixed. For all the problems I had with DA 2, combat was engaging and even fun. I rather enjoyed watching my mage dominate the battle field via his meat shields, mystic power, and the clever deployment of them all.
Heck Baldurs Gate 2 and Icewind Dale gave me more enjoyment during combat than FF 13 has managed.
I can't honestly think of any examples at the moment, but if I'm 'on the run' from a huge military group and trying not to die, I'm not going to spend the day at the inn, talk to the locals at the pub, or chill around the fountain. I'm also not going to walk fuck all knows where into some cave far off from wherever my destination is. That ruins my immersion. The fact that I seemed to be on the run for most of the game made sense. It's understandable that some people got mad at this, but it still 'felt' better than dicking around on the world map going willy nilly, then entering a town and then suddenly remembering that i'm 'on the run because i'm a rebel' or whatever.
If theyÆd had you doing that for an hour or two, I wouldnÆt complain. However youÆre still running 20 hours into a game that is padded with flashbacks, cutscenes, and areas that could easily have been skipped/cut/fused/etc.
ThatÆs poor storytelling. They dragged out things that couldÆve been established fairly quickly, forced you to run down a linear path that couldÆve been cut in several places or spiced up in ways that wouldÆve been interesting.
Heck, If theyÆd allowed you to roam around town, but had the number of enemies (and their power) that could be encountered increase the longer you stay, THAT wouldÆve been perfect. Now youÆre balancing the possible rewards of staying and exploring that town versue the risk of running into fights you canÆt handle.
I'm not discounting their complaints, I'm explaining why most of these complaints are from first look experience bullshit without looking at the bigger picture of the game. FF13 is not 'terrible' in the slightest, it's just that when you got the game you got FFX again, couldn't realize it at all, and got mad that you couldn't go back to older areas in the game for some reason like you could in FFX. Except it wasn't a huge deal for me.
By calling these complaints æBullshitÆ you are discounting them, and they need to be heard. The game is pretty and has a nice musical score but the rest of itÆs not worth the price of admission. What I was expecting was an entertaining JRPG with a fast fun combat system, a lovely new world to explore and interesting characters.
I got a game that I have to force myself to play just so I can say that I gave it a chance. I havenÆt wanted to play anymore since hour six, and I seriously considered hurling it across the room at hour 12.
The only use of over 90% of npcs in a game is to expand the world setting. The placebo effect of talking to people to raise the flag to trigger an effect feels like padding to me. Oh i'll suck down all the placebo i get, I don't mind, but the fact that people can say that it's 'better' boggles me.
Because you have the option of not setting that flag. Choice is important, especially in an RPG. Seeing that your playthroughs can vary keeps people coming back. Lord knows I wouldnÆt play through the Witcher 2 again if I couldnÆt change things.
IÆm not here to subsidize the games industry. If Square-Enix canÆt put out something worth buying, then they can go bankrupt for all I care, perhaps itÆll serve as a warning to the rest.
Also: open ended games tend to fall apart story wise, because they lack characters.
Open ended games whose characters I liked more than the ones in FF 13
Deus Ex
Mass Effect Series
Vampire: Bloodlines
Fallout series.
Baldurs Gate Series
Dragon Age series
KOTOR
Witcher 2
Again if you all like it fine, but I and others are not as pleased and wish to share why in the hopes that these missteps will be corrected in future releases.