"it might not be the most exciting or fun minigame i played" me, awkwardly looking around as if I don't just grind out blitzball on a save I have periodically 😬

I don't even think its boring, since I was a kid I've always approached a hallway like this, *Run.*

I remember when JonTron did the "Final Hallway XIII" skit on it: "The game's playing itself, Jon! The game's playing itself, Jon!!" I got a good laugh out of it, but it kind of stung because I really enjoyed this game when it came out (and still do today). I can appreciate it in spite of its flaws - great retrospective!

I'm glad you mention how other Final Fantasy games, especially FF10, are linear as well. I always compare FF13 with the tenth title because it's a great example of what 13 should have been but wasn't. It's really odd because usually mistakes like 13's are committed and then corrected. But the devs here got it right in 10 and then somewhere along the line forgot, I guess. Also, the story is just bizarre, often leaving the player in the dark as to what's going on. Which isn't bad when done right. We all like a bit of intrigue and mystery. But only if the aspects of the story are meant to be a mystery. When everyone in the cast knows what each other is talking about, the only person left in the dark is the player. That's not a mystery that's just 1 person being clueless as to what's going on. And the game's solution to this problem is to hand players a glossary of terms and telling them to read it. Not only is this clunky, asking players to do homework, it's also butchered by the fact that the characters, concepts and terms you're asking players to read up on are only inserted into the glossary following the cutscene they were used in. So, even if someone was studious enough to want to read up, they would only be able to after those terms are first stated in the story, guaranteeing that players are going to be confused the first time around. And since there's no way to rewatch cutscenes, you're also asking bewildered players to remember what just happened, which just isn't practical. Again, FF10 did this right, so it's odd that 13, coming after it, didn't. Tidus served as the "fish out of water" character. Someone foreign to the concepts so that the others who do know what's going on will have to stop and explain it to them, and thus the player as well. This is why so many RPGs have a character with amnesia. It's a trope but one that serves a purpose. FF13 would've benefited from this as well. It's odd because there is a character that actually isn't from Cocoon, Vanille. It's just that she's so ditzy, that she doesn't stop and ask "Hey, what's going on?" to anyone and no one bothers to explain much to her. So while she might be just as confused as the player, she doesn't seem to have any curiosity that compels her to want to understand.

I really appreciate this video. A mature take on 13 shouldn’t be so hard, but alas for years it got dogpiled. I love how you compared the amount of fights in 13’s opening hours to 10’s interactivity is one thing, but I always found the problem to be that if you take any level from 13 and put it on a timeline the amount of seconds between battles would be the same all the way through the level, as was the way they scaled the difficulty of the monsters in each level. The predictability of the structure in each level made it to where I would see the more difficult monsters towards the end of the level and I would just have to go take a break for a bit. 10 varied its pace so much and mixed up little bits of character interaction and cutscenes into its levels. 13 is a book where each chapter is the same amount of pages and paragraphs

I love this game. The music, the places, the emotions, the aesthetics, the over all vibe, everything. It's beautiful, and gives me such an indescribable dreamy feeling. That's what final fantasy should be all about. I don't understand how people can dislike it so much.

I think the mission structure makes the linearity feel a lot more linear than it is. In X and in every FF game, even if it’s linear you can go back and visit previous locations even if there isn’t a point. Like this it just feels claustrophobic in some way

I feel like the most important thing for new players to know is that FF13 is divided into 2 parts - "the story" and "the post-game". Its not at all intuitive to anyone who hasn't played Final Fantasy before and this one is quirkier than most. The story is approximately 30 to 40 hours long and spans 13 chapters. The post-game takes considerably longer than the story to complete and is entirely set in a vast open world region with all of the game's super bosses. My Treasure Hunter save is about 120 hours long, which gives you some indication of how long the post game can be. You can start the post-game in chapter 11 before finishing the story but I strongly recommend finishing the story first. By doing so, you will unlock the final crystarium level and you need the stat boosts for the post-game, especially the +hp nodes. Exp, money (gil) and items don't matter in the story. They are only important in the post-game. You can and should skip as many enemies as possible in the story. Treat the story as if you are a bunch of fugitives on the run (which you are) and you want to evade all the hostiles. Don't bother farming trash mobs. They don't give enough exp, money or items to be worth even killing once and all it will do is slow the game down to a hellish grind. You can spend 10 hours farming gil in chapter 7 and it will be a waste of time because in chapter 11 you will farm more than that in 90 seconds. FF13 is rather didactic, at least in terms of its mechanics. The battle system is a bit convoluted, so they break it up into smaller parts and subtly try to instruct you how to use each part before allowing you to put all the parts together. Fight as often as you need to in the story to feel comfortable with combining character roles and then skip as much of the trash mobs as you possibly can. You will be tested on story bosses, which you can't skip. Aster Protoflorian is sort of infamous for schooling players who sleepwalked through Gapra Whitewood and didn't pick up that you have to learn how Lightning and Hope must fight together. That by fighting against each other's role, they are both made weaker. In a sense, this is the point of this chapter in the story. Each character has a set of primary roles that is analogous to their character arc. Snow starts out with the Commando role - a solo operator, the main guy, big damager dealer. He picks up Ravager later - a damage booster for the entire party. Later still he becomes a Sentinel - a protector/guardian figure. You can tell a lot about every character in the game based on what their roles are and how they change. By splitting the party up, the game seizes the opportunity to tell the story of these characters as they grow and learn from one another and also teach you how to fight to survive. The game tries to teach you how to combine a Ravager and a Commando to damage boost up and knock 'em all down. Or how to combine a Sentinel + Synergist to survive one shot attacks and then play counter offensive. Or how to use a Saboteur + Synergist to hurt enemies with so much resistances they otherwise seem invulnerable. Its one of the few games I've played where the story, characters and gameplay are so deeply intertwined that I still appreciate how intentional the design is, even to this day. You just have to play it in the way the designers want you to play it and if you try to oppose it in any way, it can easily become confined, repetitive and boring. The combat and itemisation system is fully unshackled as you near the post-game and I think that is where the story and gameplay peaks. At least to me, its where everything clicked and its weird idiosyncrasies made sense.

underrated underappreciated loved this game when i first played this on the xbox360 long and fun and the farming was good it was challenging but in a good way

I think you're pretty spot on here. What FF13 lacked, ironically, was a clarity of focus. All the main cast is either clueless about what they're doing, or doesn't explain anything to each other, or the player. They made a huge mistake in not opening up the combat system until so late into the game, in my opinion, since *having fun* can be enough of a motivator to continue playing until the plot starts to come together. Final Fantasy fans have a certain expectation of trappings like interactable NPCs and towns, and most of these games can be played at whatever pace you want. Adding these things, even on a surface level, would make the transition smoother. I also think it's really interesting that where 13 did the tight plotting at the beginning and opened up at the end, 15 started open and closed off for the final act, which I think worked way better.

The thing this game did right away that made me want to put it down was the jargon and the story. I got so lost and confused within two hours about what things were. Putting a compendium in a game is a bad sign because I want to play the game not read about it. FFX does right by putting the story within the characters. We get a lot of history, perspective and motivation from ordinary people but I got none of that in FF13. Tidus was a good narrator on what other people’s perspectives were like how saying destroying sin is worth doing even if it comes back.

10:54 Motomu Toriyama says he wanted to "transcend JRPGs", which makes no sense based on his allusions to FPSes...but makes perfect sense from the perspective of someone who was tired of JRPGs being confined to genre conventions and wanted them to be taken as seriously as an Oscar nominated film. (for context, genre films are disqualified by the Academy because they aren't "art") Based on everything else he said in that interview (among others) about FF13 and his design philosophy for the game, I am pretty confident in stating that this is the real root of the problem. Toriyama's premise is fundamentally flawed. It's fundamentally flawed, because turning games into semi-interactive movies defeats the whole sodding point of games being an interactive medium. When Toriyama complains about players being able to wander around their environment and find stuff that has nothing to do with his story (like your FFX example) he is mistaking film for games (certainly not First Person Shooters). When Tidus is swimming around looking for goodies instead of immediately talking to Wakka, it's a good thing because it signals to the player that they are in control again and are in charge of Tidus and his actions and the story moves ahead at THEIR pace to some degree. This gives the player time to acclimate to their new digital environment and makes the experience more "immersive" (god I hate how often that term is misused, but it genuinely fits here). Take that away, and while you might shave off a bit of needless sightseeing or legwork for the sake of expediency, there is a limit to how much you can take away before the player becomes detached from the intended experience. That above all else is what really makes a game like FF13 infuriatingly boring. Or to put things more simply: +A good game earns the right to take control away from the player in order to show something important/interesting. -A bad game takes it away because it ASSUMES everything it has to show the player is way more important than what the player thinks and wants. In the same way a pretentious filmmaker talks down to their audience through a bad movie, Toriyama is browbeating his players through his sheer contempt for the genre he has chosen to work in. Had he made FF13 a CGI film, I honestly think it would have been received much better. I probably wouldn't have liked the story (because I really don't like the story in FF13 on account of its spinning its tires forever and ever on the same three plot points) but I definitely wouldn't have hated it as absolutely as I do FF13 the video game.

A lot of the changes to the battle menus you suggested were done in Lightning Returns. I'd recommend playing it because it's my favourite in the trilogy, as well as a huge influence on the VII Remake series since it shared a lot of the same developers. For instance, the main programmer of LR was promoted to co-director of Remake and Rebirth. Auto battle in XIII is really misunderstood. It's not playing the game for you like in gatcha games like Ever Crisis. The most important decision in battle is which paradigm to be in, and all auto battle does is quickly fill out your ATB bar with commands. It's like saying an RTS has no strategy because soldiers automatically fight nearby enemies, when your actual decisions are which units to build and where they should go.

I feel like Final Fantasy XIII would've benefitted from having quests before Gran Pulse. Like it would've been interesting for the story to integrate more one off characters that you try to connect with. Well yes the main party is being chased around, but I feel like it would've done a great service to the world and characters if there are quests to show how good the main party is, that they're willing to "waste" their own time (because the time shouldn't have a time limit system tbh) to help around other people. One of the more memorable moments in the game is the area where you get to meet Hope's dad. I kinda wish there were more moments that make the characters have more moments that they are trying to blend in with their environment.

I really appreciate how the discussion of linearity, comes down to how 13 doesn’t succeed in immersing the player enough to mask the feeling.

A few of these battle changes were implemented in Lightning Returns, with the face buttons selecting different actions.

I think with all the flaws 13 has, it makes up for in excellent combat, great characters/story and awesome music. The songs sunleth waterscape from 13 and ruined hometown from 13-2 are both incredibly memorable to me

2:34 Yes, when you attach progression flags to specific locations and bar those, you logically create paths the player MUST take in order to progress. Nobody is contesting that. This in itself is not a good argument against FF13's Linearity though because for 95% of the game, there aren't any side areas, objectives or much of ANYTHING really that lets the player walk around and explore. While the common counter-argument in response to this is "There's often nothing special in those places", that in itself isn't true either. I can think of several hidden items, and even full events within FF6, FF7, and FF9 all off the top of my head that the player is never lead towards at multiple stages of each of those games and has to find entirely on their own volition. Moreover, even if you removed these things, connecting locations together via a larger overworld map still accomplishes the purpose of making the player feel like they're wandering a connected world rather than some Japanese madman's digital playhouse. It's rather funny that you claim "nobody complained about when FFX did this" when that game's on-rails nature was in fact, one of the largest criticisms. Yes, it's easy to miss that due to the game's tremendous popularity and positive critical reception, but if you look back at the reviews, it was frequently mentioned both here in the west and in Japan. Square took that complaint seriously and made both FF12 and FFX-2 far more open-world because of that. (technically, FF11 was too but that's an MMORPG and not really applicable here)

Unironically I think FF Type 0 is a better FF13 than FF13. They both have roughly the same type of plot but in Type 0 the immersion is so much deeper and the stakes are so much more clear.

IMO the only issue about FF13 was that the battle tutorial, which is for the best part of the game, sucks. Not only do you not get to enjoy most of the mechanics but even by chapter 11 when it all opens up, you are still not told all the real useful stuffs. For example you should really treat paradigm shift as your move set and shift between drastically different paradigms relating to battle phases, rather than try to find a way to balance between things. Which is encouraged because you get bonus for having all 3 of the members doing the same thing, but it was never taught to the player explicitly. Also, you can paradigm shift while you character is doing its action, which not only saves animation waiting time but also let you cancel the whole team's move, and that's how you actually control all 3 characters in precision. And the game never taught the player to do so either. Those two, adds that the game didn't emphasize the importance of the "start action" button (Y/∆), means that many gamer don't even realize the full potential of the battle system before getting to the end of the game, criticizing that "it's all clunky auto battle that you can't control stuff" or something. But at least that's the last time they did those mistake I think, and chronological order wise, it is what revolutionised turn based battle system.

X was a mild step back but still had enough of the elements I loved about the series to keep it acceptable for me. Plus its aesthetic and design wasnt as goofy and pop-y as XIII. I at least had Auron to latch onto. XIII was when I realized SquareEnix doesnt really care about the same aspects of their games as I do. I've given up and moved on to other franchises despite FF6 being my favorite game of all time.

Linear DEFINITELY isn't boring. This game was to me though so I just dropped it. lol

Great video man! Keep it up 🎉 I love 13 buying this randomly at GameStop during my college days left me stuck playing this everyday for a month. Love this game and lightning.

13 is probably the most fascinating game to pick apart either positively or negatively, the sad thing is the majority of discourse around it is reductive like the overemphasis on linearity because the actual issues are harder to parse or the defenders using the terrible "it opens up after 7 hours" defense and worse often devolved into flame wars. While there's thankfully a lot more thoughtful critiques coming out now the early days of drowning any disection in flame stuck and even now there's pretty much always at least a couple people in every comment section about it using the game's bad reputation to personally attack its fans or an overzealous fan trotting out the "you just don't get it" tripe.

The one time I remember FFXIII had a switch up in gameplay was that March of The Dreadnughts (Pulse Armaments) mandatory minigame. If the game had some more moments like that, like maybe actually using the airships or something, it would spice up the experience. Nautilus could have been a nice play to add a few small minigames or sidequests, like the Gold Saucer from VII. It would make the game feel more alive like every other game. The freedom in Final Fantasy games is what most people enjoy in exploring their worlds.

I keep coming across the music to this game, I’m like “I remember this. What’s this from? I love this song” and then I remember the story… well, at least the music is still good. The battle mechanics were interesting

I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favorite Final Fantasy XIII review on the Citadel

I really hope we get the 13 series on modern consoles one day

This video is a banger, keep it up man

Nice video. I think most of the story issues could have been mitigated if Vanille was the party leader. Her being a foreigner who's lying about her memories offers the perfect excuse to explain Cocoon's jargon to players without relying on a datalog. Your combat ideas are good. I would add that including a 'wait mode' would have satisfied old fans who want to pick their commands and not feel rushed. Also, I think the developers could have made things even more interesting if it was possible for your party members to be staggered like you can enemies. When you heal an ally, there's a bar where the stagger meter is that reacts to each heal they receive. I thought it was weird that enemies could not stagger you. That could have added a new layer of strategy.

I only play 13 and never try the other ff13 game...how about 13-2 and lightning return?? The problem still same?

This game will always be near and dear to me and I still will get my PS3 out often to replay it to this day because believe it or not, it is the game that got me into Final Fantasy back in 2009. This game is a black sheep of the franchise but regardless of the arguments on linearity or story, it is one my favorite in the series.

This was one of the first games I bought when I got my ps3. There was a lot about it I liked but I just couldn't get into it. I enjoyed the story and the combat though. Ended up watching a movie version with all the cutscenes.

so I never completed FFXIII, I dropped it twice. But I did play XIII-2 to 100% completion and I really enjoyed that game. The combat is pretty much the same, and I pretty much used autobattle the whole time because once you know the enemies weaknesses the autobattle just kinda chooses the best things. The way you controlled combat was by choosing what roles to give to what character because they couldn't all do the same thing and your third party member was basically a pokemon that gave you a lot of variability around party composition

I tried really hard to get into it but after reaching chapter 4 i just don’t think i can get into it

I bought a ps3 because of this game. Last game i bought for it because it was so disappointing. Last console i bought too. This game literally made me a pc player.

Game suffered due to promo under selling the linear aspect. Focus was on scale of story and visuals. Luckily I got to it about a year after it came out and was not caught up in the heightened expectations. I enjoyed the game. Characters, combat, setting I enjoyed. Story was sometimes hard to follow but I think the game is better than many claim.

Honestly I loved FF13 and watching videos like this makes me want to play it again. I have probably beat it about 5 times though and I will admit that I can beat the game in almost half the time it took me the first time. The battle system is really fun and rewards players who think strategically and utilize the full gambit of options given. The early sections where you only have two characters helps you to become more familiar with each class and it also develops the characters in really meaningful ways. My biggest problems with the game actually start once the party comes together fully. Then I usually default to one combo of three characters that I know is optimal and I don't tough the other characters for the rest of the game. Also it feels as though all the characters are fully developed around then and so all that's left is a long slog to the finish. Luckily this is when the full battle system is unlocked but I usually skip the exploration part on gran pulse because I just want to get to the end and I know how long the rest of the game is. If you become good enough at the combat system you don't need the CP from this excursion and this even includes doing no grind anywhere else in the game. Honestly I grinded on my first playthrough and that's why it took twice as long but I think grind actually hurts the pace of the story. If you feel you need to grind then you probably aren't using the battle system optimally. If you want some tips for the battle system here goes: 1) You can upgrade your weapons. I don't usually bother early on since there is a multiplier system and rewards holding stuff. These upgrades make commandos hit way harder so make sure to mostly upgrade their weapons. 2) Synergist is busted. The buffs and debuffs in this game are really strong and worth using in boss battles or any fight you are struggling with. Also the en-element (like enfire) buffs are huge for enemies who have an elemental weakness. 3) Saboteur debuffs deal damage and slow the stagger gauge. The game doesn't really tell you this but Sab,Rav,Rav is really good if the enemy can be debuffed. Certain bosses fold to this combo hard, especially if you are buffed by synergists. 4) The depletion rate of the enemy's stagger gauge is locked in at the time they are staggered. Switching to Com,Com,Rav shortly before stagger will result in them being stagger way longer. 5) The game rewards risk taking and designs many of its enemies to have risky options to beat them faster. For example: Behemoths can be cheesed by well timing your stagger to knock them up and interrupt their transformation at half health. You can then finish them during that one stagger and kill them in half the time 6) It may controversial but the best team for the second half of the game is: Fang/Sazh/Hope. This gives you both synergists and a saboteur. Fang also has more damage that snow with the sentinel role. You should only need one sentinel and one medic if you aren't making mistakes. Have Sazh to pivot and be either Com or Rav is also really helpful. Upgrading Fang's Strength weapon (dragoon lance) will make her hit really hard. Like way more than just grinding does. Add in bravery, haste, and deprotect and she melts bosses when staggered. Overall it important to remember that most of the combat system is designed around stacking a bunch of different multipliers: Weapons strength, Character strength, stagger, elemental effectiveness, brave/faith, haste, deprotect/defaith, multiple commando bonuses. All of these can make a character do like 10+ times the damage but a lot of players skip some of these and end up with only 3 or 4 times damage. They then complain that the combat takes to long instead of engaging with the full strategy of the game. There is no resource management in FF13 unlike other FF games. You can and should go all out every fight. This is what I love about FF13's combat system. In other FF games I spend way to much time questioning if I should use my Mp now or save it. Potion now or save it. In FF13 I go all out because nothing is sacred. I even end fights with like 10 Hp because I know I can regenerate instantly. I know this makes things different from other FF games but it also helps accelerate the game and make you feel the pace of the story better. There are no side areas because you don't need areas to grind in order to progress and no side quests to slow down the main story. I know it isn't everyone's cup of tea but personally I love it and it makes other FF games feel kind of tedious because of the resource management.

It’s decent with mods. And the 4k upscaled cutscenes though impossible large in file size was really something to behold.

Considering you get a mech for each character as the story progresses I wonder why they didn't think of some racing/traversal minigame that let's you use the Eidolons as unlockable characters.

I did enjoy 13, but what I love about FF games is going into towns/lvling up/exploring.. and most of all, down time until I'm on the run again. But I think the whole idea of 13 is that you were always on the run.. But then all of those elements were in FF12, and I also found that game very eh.. Even though on pen and paper I should love it.

I'd argue the battle system is just as flawed as the level design. when you think about it, paradigm shifts are one of the most overcomplicated systems ever made. every character has 3 roles of which they only have a couple abilities, and to switch between them you have to change the whole party's roles with formations that you have to set up in a separate screen every time the party changes. instead of just having each party member have one fully developed role and letting you switch members in battle. which would also fix the underleveled bench members issue that FF10 solved back in the PS2 and 13 brought back. AND would make party members more distinct too. having 5-6 actions per ATB bar makes the game move fast but it generates the issue of needing 2 of the 3 party members to be AI so you can actually control properly. and all 5-6 actions are just as impactful as a single action in other RPGs so what's even the point? having a single action but controlling all 3 characters would be better in every way except for a slight drop in flashiness. I've said it before, 13's battle system is just 10-2 but way worse.

I don't care about open world games. I just want to run in a straight line and KILL THINGS! AHHH!! But it's not good for an RPG.

when this game came out in 2009 I was a bit unsure about it. I picked it up and really started to enjoy it. However, the music wasn't hitting my heart like the the previous entries. The music was too orchestrated. The main composer was one of my favorites as he made some cool compositions in the saga series. Lots of jazzy upbeat sounds. But this time, he really backed off. I really like lightning up til her sister was abducted. Where was that strong independent woman? She became so soft and super annoying. Other than that, it was the battle system that I truly enjoyed. The cinematic style of the battle system was nothing like the recent entries. I go back to the game time to time, but the issues I had with it before seems to make it harder for me to complete it. (nearly at the end of the game and never went back)

Linearity isnt the problem as to say. It's execution. There is a reason people love FFX but considered FF13 a problem

This game was so much fun to me, and I really love this game as well and I finished the entire series back to back a few times and I love games that area series I like a long story that spans over those games regardless if it is linear I play games for story 1st gameplay 2nd.. a wise man once told this "one person's tale "story" and the mistakes they made to relate to it to your own self to improve yourself even if they experience is different from your own experiences" tldr: you can always learn if your first willing to stop n listen o3o which ppl have issues in these days n age anywho enough me bantering. Xd great vid

There is one other key difference between X (and older FF) and XIII corridors, and that is random encounters. It is one thing to go through a corridor knowing that every step might turn into combat, and a totally different dynamic when you run down a corridor knowing nothing will happen unless you interact with the visible enemies.

I played this game 2 times and 2 times, i stopped at the exact same spot. The spot where the group regroups and met up with cid only to learn that he betrayed them. I was like nope I'm out, I still dunno/don't remember why.

I have my game paused not because I find boring a linear story. What I find boring is the same type of combat again and again structured the same in all levels. I liked the combat dynamic, but I find the levels more and more tedious with endless combats in which I get bored because they are all the same but at the same time I cannot get distracted because the combat dynamics demand constant changing of roles between the characters, which became a chore. I'm really interested in the story and I like some character dynamics and visuals, but got so tired of doing the same again and again in each level that I don't have fun anymore.

You pretty much sum up a lot of my feelings for this game. I, too, was so tired of playing this game in Gapra Whitewood, and it didn't get any better at all after that. It's also unfortunate that I got the play the japanese version first and I don't really speak japanese. But yeah, I got tired of the hallway during Gapra and was so done with it in the airship raid. I didn't understand the gameplay and star-rating system didn't make any sense to me because FF series as a whole never demand any great performance on my gameplay. In fact, the reason I picked up FF to begin with was because I don't want to play those action games where they will rate my performance. I totally agree that the problem with this game is its opening sequence that doesn't sell the gameplay in its best foot forward. A lot of bad first impression probably came from the fact that the game want you to rely on Auto-Battle in the early phase where there's nothing to "auto" about. It's just Attack, Blitz and Potion. And the situation with its opening hours also doesn't give the player enough info to follow and not to mention how it repeatedly throwing the same jargon over and over without really showing what it is. In FFX, when you first met Sin, you see it first and then it's name from Auron. In 13, you go quite a while without seeing what a Fal'cie is and when you see it, you don't really know what it is to you and on top of that you have to also have enough conscious to remember that the game tell you there are 2 factions of Fal'cie which doesn't really matter much to the main plot at all since at the end of the day, all Fal'cies are the same. Another big problem is probably Square over reliance on HD expression in this game. Storytelling in game used to be quite limited with the pixel eras and the ability to tell a more nuance story increase with the fidelity of the graphic. HD era probably made Square a bit too confident in their ability to tell the story with nuance expressions. I kid you not; I understand the story of what's happening a lot better reading the chapter summary of the story-so-far when you load the game back than watching all the cutscenes combined. I feel like the intro can get a lot shorter. You really only need not that much battle to get a feel of this new battle system.

I used to think like this, but being older and knowing gnosticism and seeing the trilogy again made the story so much better.

Need more sidequests, extra dungeons, and the such. Also, if they cannot provide airplanes for us to revisit previous places, teleport portals should do the same trick

Ff13 story is phenomenal. It really grew on me my 2nd playthrough. I absolutely love ff13

you dont have to manually press Attack - 5-6 times every turn. you can just press triangle (or press left with the pad) to just redo the same previous command.

The problem with 13 I think was the datalog. it threw made up nouns around like candy and expected you to read everything to understand it. And of course the comparison between 13 and 10 when it comes to linear design is there. Personal gripe though was auto battle. The most efficient method at almost all times was libra 2 times, auto the whole fight.

Didn’t mind the game. But felt underleveled for pulse, so ended having to keep fighting behemoths till I felt ok enough to finish the game. Didn’t do all the kill quests.

Wasnt a ff title that i replayed numerous times like others but i still enjoyed playing it when it was released

Amazing video. Really well done bit about a game which ultimately just fell short. It's a shame they made the game as linear as they did. For me a major turn off was how much lore you had to familiarise yourself with in the first 30 minutes. You're learning about terms like L'Cie and Fal'Cie and back then by the time the actual game started I still didn't know what was going on. It's a shame because there is a gem of a story hidden beneath the game. I think if they changed the narrative up a bit and gradually introduced the player to the world, it would have been a much more loved and respected entry to the series. Keep up the great work!

This is the only game I've ever played that hurt my brain trying to finish it. It taught me a valuable lesson that I dont need to finish every game I try and if I am suffering from insane levels of bordom I should just stop.

Kingdom Hearts 2 is also a linear hallway RPG but the reason why it gets away with that design is because the gameplay was unique and fun. FF13 combat was actually a reduction of previous Final Fantasys combat. In Final Fantasy 1 you could fully customize your party from having all White Mages to having No Healers. There are a myriad of ways to approach Final Fantasy 1 which is why it was able to become such a huge series. It was the freedom and ease of building the character you want that helped make it what it has become today. The Command Synergy Battle System was very similar to FF12 Gambit System where the party members were on auto-pilot for the entire fights. Letting you have absolutely no need to control them once you have all the proper Gambits setup with the right equipment. This was done so you can have the feel of controlling a whole party at once as you micro manage any problems and situations that might arise when they fight. A lot of RPGs are linear but most don't feel like it because of how authentic the gameplay journey feels. If you look at FF13 combat it's not a very party centric combat system. Oftentimes having one party member overtake the entire situation as soon as they summon and thus making the rest of the party take a bench. It was also a poorly planned and paced combat system as it incentivizes spamming commands rather than carefully studying and choosing the right tactics because of how all your damage and focus is centered around the Stagger mechanic. The movie-like story telling is actually the only objective trait that made FF13 a failure. It was meant to be a lower budgeted game. So these cinematics killed any success the game hoped to achieve. That's why they had to make two sequels to even make their money back. Lucky for them Lightning is a very popular character regardless of 13s overall presentation so they managed just fine in the end. If the game had less story and less cutscenes not only would it help the pacing but it would've made the game a financial success. Which is why people hate this game to its very core. They willingly gimped it by not allowing it the bigger budget it deserved so it's no wonder it wasn't amazing. They didn't want it to be amazing. Then to give reference to the time of its release Halo 3 was already 2 years old and MGS4 had come out a year before.

You had me at "I adore final fantasy xiii" subbed. Hope this trilogy gets on PS5 someday.

I am loving the support that I am seeing for 13 pop up more and more. And I love 13, it is one of my favorite FF games. The linearity of the maps was never one of my problems. There are other problems with the game and not all of them have to do with linearity. Despite it's flaws, I still love the game. There are degrees of linearity. Some games are linear and do not feel like it. Other games, like 13, are so on rails that you can't help but notice how linear it is. Which is why something like 10 or God of War can be linear and you are not noticing. You have freedom in other areas such as character progression. Progression in 13 is as on rails as the maps are. The upgrade system and the way in which you gain gil is a major issue. Characters do not have traditional levels anymore, your gear is what levels up. They gain experience through using materials. These materials cost money in shops. So how do you get money? You don't get it from battles anymore, you either find them in treasure spheres or selling items. You will never find enough gil or materials in the world to make a difference in the long run so you resort to selling items. The highest selling items (Platinum Ingots, etc.) can be obtained from some the strongest enemies as rare drops. The drop rate on items is really low. So you have to grind for hours until you get what you need. Trapezohedrons, the most common item needed for ultimate weapons, cost 2,000,000 gil. The whole process is just tedious and padding out the game.

You touched on many of my reasons why FFXIII is my least enjoyed in the mainline franchise and the only one I don't plan to finish outside of 15 (opposite end of the spectrum huge lifeless world). All the character builds, choices, exploration are gone and replaced with an uneven paced story. The other final fantasies do a great job at giving you things to do while there's not much going on story wise. For me Final Fantasy XIII answers the question what if we made and on the rails FF game. FF 16 feels very linear too but it's broken up with hunts and other things to do between the cinematic climaxes. Anyways I'm happy 16 is a step back in the right direction, getting back to what I loved about the ps1 classics

Could you go and make a video REVIEWING the story of ff13? Since you said it’s one of the most interesting stories and you hold it in high regard. I liked your review of ff13 gaming development failures so interesting in more your thoughts on the story. What do u make lightning? Does hope belong in most hated ff character lists?

13 felt like 20 hrs in the game they realized they forgot to include some type of overworld so they tacked on Gran Pulse. I still enjoyed the game for some nostalgic reason. I remember I bought a ps3 for ff13 and infamous

11:13 All Yeah, I remember that quote. All Toriyama proved in saying that is that he never an FPS before in his life. What he said makes far more sense if you assume he was aware of games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Gears of War specifically because they were overwhelmingly popular at the time. However, they are FAR from being representative of the entire FPS genre as a whole. Take a short step backward from 2010 (when FF13 was new and Toriyama was saying all of this) and you will find far more FPSes that incorporate semi-linear logic into their environments; where while there's clearly a main path you must follow to progress, there's also extra resources, secrets, and even shortcuts through the levels. That was the norm in FPSes from Doom (1993) all the way up to ~2007; just prior to when games like Call of Duty and Gears of War took over the FPS genre so by the time Toriyama stated that, he was ignoring a good 95% of the FPS genre's output so citing this as a defense for his design decision in no way justifies it; quite the opposite, it's completely damning by virtue of his own stated ignorance.

The level layout wasnt my issue it was the majority of the world building being in an ingame encyclopedia. All of that repetitive dialogue could have been switched out. "We're enemies of cocoon." "We're pulse Fal'Cie" ad nauseum.

Honestly, outside of the ending, (doing exactly what the Fal’cie want somehow still foils their plans because reasons) the story doesn’t bother me What bothers me is the party mechanics: 13 started a trend that the series still hasn’t been able to overcome, and that’s the focus on the party leader in combat. I absolutely hate how you get a game over if the party leader dies, but if another character dies it’s recoverable. It led me to play as the character who’s most likely to live when I hit walls, aka, the sentinel spamming mediguard. It stopped being fun. The fact that after 12’s fantastic gambit system they seem to have given up on non party leader control is crazy to me Now in its defense…. I was a kid. And 13 was the first game I followed before it’s release. I ignored synergist and saboteur, and I’m guessing if I used those, I might have had more fun. I want to replay it sometime to see if that proves to be true. Regardless, 10/10 soundtrack

I played XIII for the 1st time on PC recently and I seriously enjoyed it! I love Final Fantasy 1-10 a TON and replay them often, 12 was pretty good, 15 was decent, haven't tried 16 yet, never played 11 or 14. XIII was way more impressive than I was expecting. The music and graphics are breathtaking. I appreciated the difficulty the game offers and strategy is key- no way you're "auto-battling" the whole game- timing with paradigm shifts are critical. I definitely had a few game overs and it forced me to pay attention! As for the "hallway simulator" complaint- I love Final Fantasy X the most in the series. Why? Because I know where I'm supposed to go and what I'm supposed to do, I can backtrack if I need to- pacing is right. 13 didn't quite get all of that right, but I'm getting tired of the whole "massive open- world" where you waste time just trying to figure out what you're supposed to do. I definitely look forward to my next playthrough for sure!

I feel like 13 is ff game that could really benefit from getting a remake. I feel like if that happened and they finetuned the story then it would be more appreciated. Ff13 was my first game to ever play and first in my love for ff so there are times whe re it has its charm but also has a lot holding it back

I just want a re-release on current platforms, even settle for digital only

This was my first ff game and the one that led me to all the others in the franchise. Despite being first i got so tired of the combat about halfway through. Loved the story and continued throughout all the sequals. Just the paradigms were not for me.

Having played all of the Fabula Nova games, I have a feeling that XIII would have been a solid game had they not tried to spilt the lore (and dev focus) imto 3 games. This is only made clearer after playing FFVII Remake, which plays very much like if you combined XIII, XV, and Type-0.

Started with the best bit of the game. The music. Haha. Jokes aside I like your voice. Let's see where this goes.

Good point of view on 13! I never had that much of a problem with how linear it was. Like you said, 10 was linear and everyone loved it. In fact, linear is almost preferrable in order to have a close-knit story, a lesson ff12 could've learned. Yes, it was fun to explore 12, but oftentimes people would forget why they were roaming this part of the desert or hiking through some forlorn forest. But I agree how some parts of 13 were just really boring and terribly paced. What made it worse was I actually didn't like Lightning or Hope at all. So imagine going through one of the most boring places with the 2 most annoying people in the game, with limited paradigm options.....It was miserable.

i like the soundtrack so much more than the game

For me, FF XIII is my most favorite battle system, it needs planning, strategy, and no useless magic, buff and debuff are so important. But, to be honest, from what I experience, I was somewhat feel exhausted when in Gapra Whitewood. There is no break from the linearity of all dungeon with enemies. FF X has the right linearity, it has break with some towns and cloyster of fayth to obtain aeon without breaking the story.

Linear can be fun, but most usually aren't unless filled with cheap jumpscares or gimmicks to satisfy a Twitch streamer's chat. The thing about XIII is that this linearity directs you from one location to another, having you fight encounters in between. There's not much to it, but they did give you a minimap in case you got lost. GTA, among many other games, prove you can have an open world game with linear progression at certain points on the map for the player to have options instead of forcing them through a tunnel or thinking you can't have a story with an open world experience.

amazing video! you've gained a sub from me

I like FF13, but to me the Paradigm Shift/Optima Change system itself isn't conducive to good pacing, particularly for Final Fantasy. The series has always been built around rigid roles and flat upgrades, but even when other games let you get creative there were always limitations ( jobs, materia, locks on the sphere grid) that ensure your party has some variety. 13 doesn't have anything like this so the characters sort of blend together and most of the abilities and upgrades feel pointless. Giving the player more freedom or diversions early on wouldn't really fix this, at best it would just distract from the issue. IMO the FF13 would've been better if they scrapped most of the RPG elements and made it more of a psuedo RTS game.

I just didint like the same fight scenarios over and over, its fine when the enemies are switched up and their amounts but it was repeated so much

I agree that linear doesn't automatically mean boring or bad, but this game was in fact boring and bad. The combat was ok, everything else was a mess. Its the only RPG I've ever played where I didn't like any of the main characters because they were all annoyingly over dramatic. The story didn't really grab me either and the music at the time was such a step down from Uematsu's masterpieces over the years and even XII had a like a solid OST tho I can't remember who did it. XIII was the first FF game that didn't feel like FF. It was like SE watched the Twilight saga and decided to make a FF level teenie bopper edge lord trilogy and it worked for the people it was targetting but for those of us who grew up on the Sakaguchi era this game was a major flop.

I loooooooved this game. I wish they’d release a ps5 version so I could at least play it again.

Honestly, FF13's biggest problem is it's world design. It never feels like a world, more like disjointed levels, that are set up in a long samey looking corridor, that never looks like an actual place. The Macalania Woods in 10 feels like woods, Midgar in FF7R feels like a city, the world in FF16 feels a fantasy world, and the Greatwood feels like a forest, for example. But 13? Every level feels like a Sonic level, and you ask yourself "why'd anyone build so many straight roads in a place like this?". And the story is so dependant on the strengths of this world, that it kinda never clicks with most people. And Gran Pulse is like a bigger version of the first 20 hours, you kill things, and you HAVE to do the quests in order, so you're basically following a line in a boring level-like world once again. And you HAVE to do the sidequests because the difficulty in the later areas is greatly higher. Same problem I have with FFX, the first half is very linear and balanced, you never have to grind, but the difficulty spikes in the late game force you to grind

I loved the game and the music

It made me feel like id rather read it as a book than play it. Idk man. I felt like i was playing a tutorial for a few hours and i couldnt continue.

I find that open world games that offer total freedom but lack steady story/character progression are 100x more boring than linear games with a constant, thoughtful, satisfying progression.

Damn it, you are making me wanna go finish FF13 xDD i had a few issues with save corruption on my 360, and even my last PC run ended due to a corruption. My luck is terrible with this game.

13 was so dreadfully boring, it's the only final fantasy I couldn't bring myself to play. Big reason why it was so common to find in used game stores around release and for years after it

Thank you. It's not boring.

This! I kept saying that linear was never the problem

It felt like there was a decent game in there somewhere. I liked the combat system a lot, as well as some of the visual design. The characters, though, for me, are some of the series' very worst.

Great video, man! Just earned a new sub.

Also let's say that if we consider the whole FF13 trilogy as a single game, the 20 hours spent on the linear part of the first game is much more tolerable. The 3 games combined nets at least 150 hours of gameplay even if you don't care much about side quests. The story is just that long.

My first ff game and I loved everything

Linear is not boring, FFX was very linear but that's my favorite FF game, but FF13, for me the pacing ruined it. They didn't explain almost anything, it's all in the data log, half my playtime I felt like I did not understand what any of them were talking about or what was really going on and by the time they actually told you what something meant, you couldn't remember all the times they brought it up before to make sense of it, the whole beginning felt that they were randomly talking in a different language. I don't even think they actually name drop any of the gods that the entire plot hinges in the first game outside of the log now that I think of it. I beat the game and still didn't really understand what the villains were even trying to do because they never actually told the story of the gods clearly. Just weird choices. The story being confusing and unclear IMO, made people notice flaws in the characters much more making them very unpopular and it made stuff like the linear maps much more noticeable. If you're not immersed in the story, the time spent in a hallway feels much longer.

Tbf there are a lot of FF games that are linear…so idk whats wrong about 13. Its not my first game, X, X-2 and XII respectively in that order were my first but I fell in love with FFXIII. Good music, complex characters, a good story. It wasn’t difficult to understand 13’s story as a kid, so I don’t know why people complain that its too convoluted. The only thing I wished about it was Pulse not having any survivors at all 🤔

13th issue isnt the linearity. The issue is the plot is so contrived and difficult to follow without having the video game equivalent of a thesaurus to make it understandable. At no point in the first 30 minutes are we given a clear reason why any of the main characters are worth following or that the empire is worth toppling. Not giving players more to do outside of combat makes the world feel really flat too.

Games like metal gear rising or Furi are loved and they are very much linear. The linearity in itself is not boring. But ffxiii is boring for many other reasons though. Its very much blaitant linearity is just salt in the wound.

I love the game since it was my first ff game. And it saddens me that it could have been better if the crystal tools engine hadn’t been such a problem that it sunk ff into development hell until recently with ff7remake and rebirth. It could have been even more incredible since it had potential, but alas it is what it is. At least we can look forward to not having ff games be hindered by dev tools, since most games just moved to unreal engine and most of the teams now have plenty of experience with it.