Final Fantasy XIII Lightning Saga

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

I don't hate it, it's just not one of my favorites.

[MegasonicZX]

They are also bringing stealth in to the game, like in Assassin's Creed.

 

And now with that they are bringing "Tales of" like gameplay in battles, my inner hype is died down a bit. I preferred the original battle system.

Wow dude its like we're polar opposites cause now I actually do want to get this game now (be the first out of the 100 sequels to come ill actually get too) but I respect the opinion sides I always like it when square does something different than the same old turn based thing because the games that are really golden titles are those for me.

[T-Min]

Hm, so the combat is real-time then? That makes me hate it a bit less, I suppose.

 

But uh...stealth? Bleh.

 

...That reminds me, I really need to get back to Tales of Graces...

[Emmett L. Brown]

Stealth can be cool, but ONLY if you get XP for succesfully stealthing past a bunch of enemies. Otherwise you're basically just forfeiting XP and money. You could "stealth" through a lot of Chrono Trigger, but it wouldn't do much for your levels.

[Xenos]

I could imagine the Stealth areas being story-specific, so I don't think gaining a whole lot of EXP in that case would matter.

 

...But then again, that is wasted progress that you got no experience for...hm. Maybe the stealth areas are short and are only used to advance the plot more, so it won't get in the way of leveling?

 

And if they were going to make the battle system like that, I was hoping they'd take more cues from Dissidia. That game was really smooth when traversing the unique terrain of each stage. But unfortunately, it looks like they went for uninteresting flat plains to fight in again...blegh.

[pppp]

So Motomu Toryiama has revealed how they came up with Lightning's new suit:

 

 In terms of the process of designing outfits, if we were to look at it
just from the standpoint of, “Is this realistic for battle?” and
whatnot, we might end up with very bulky, chunky outfits — armor and
stuff that you might see on soldiers in the real world. For Final
Fantasy, we want to keep in mind the characters’ personalities and what
their character is like. As far as Lightning, we would think about what
befits her character and then design the aesthetics and allocate
functionality to it afterwards.

 

http://www.examiner.com/article/lightning-returns-final-fantasy-xiii-armor-design-explained

 

 

I wonder if these stupid outfit designs are actually his idea.

Edited January 31, 2013 by pppp

[Emmett L. Brown]

"We thought about what kind of outfits would be realistic for battle, and then we decided to ignore that"

 

I think it's awesome to hear them admit it. Of course, nobody batted an eye lash at Magitek Knight general Celes battling in a green leotard with shoulder pads. Impractical designs are the bread and butter of JRPGs, but there's a fine difference between impractical and ridiculous.

[PSI Wind]

 

Hmm....

 

Square you just can't get  original, can you? Really? the plot as well as the character is basically the same as the first game. Nothing aside from minor things screams new and original.

And more clothes talk! Cause even the fangirls of 13 wanted that! obviously! Why don't you do that with all your games?! that would be perfect!

To be fair, Ventus and Roxas do have a reason to look similar

[KHCast]

To be fair, Ventus and Roxas do have a reason to look similar

Yeah I know. All the more Reason I'll take them over Serah and dark Serah.:/ Ventus and Roxas probably have a better explanation.

[pppp]

Yeah I know. All the more Reason I'll take them over Serah and dark Serah.:/ Ventus and Roxas probably have a better explanation.

 

Ven's heart finds a home in Sora's which means Sora's sense of friendship and fighting style come from him. Later in KH2 Sora's nobody looks exactly like Ventus because its the part of Sora's heart that houses Ven's.

 

I think one of the chronicles in KH3D explains some of it.

[KHCast]

Ven's heart finds a home in Sora's which means Sora's sense of friendship and fighting style come from him. Later in KH2 Sora's nobody looks exactly like Ventus because its the part of Sora's heart that houses Ven's.

 

I think one of the chronicles in KH3D explains some of it.

Oh I knew that. I was just saying that when square attempts to explain it, ventus probably will still have a better reason for existing.

[T-Min]

I love how Kingdom Hearts has legitimately surpassed Final Fantasy in quality and relevance.

[KHCast]

And dragon quest. And the world that ends with you.

[pppp]

Well that's what happens when a franchise strays away from what made people like it in the first place.

 

The way i see it, recent FF games are trying so hard to be whatever has the most wide appeal that they completely ignore what made all those people like it in the first place. If they want to rebuild their reputation they need to start by listening to their fans and cater to them, instead of just catering to themselves. Kinda like what Sonic Team has been doing ever since Iizuka assumed control.

 

One of the main reasons i have a lot of respect for the Tales series is how they don't really go out of their way to appeal to the critics and haters who bash the series for not doing anything groundbreaking. They listen to fan feedback and make games that appeal to them and take care to not fix what's not broken.

 

Tales Of, Dragon Quest and Pokémon are pretty much the only long running JRPG franchises that kept a mostly consistent level of quality, and yet all three of them often get accused of stagnation by biased critics who think every game in a series has to reinvent the wheel. The fact that the fans still love them though shows us that radical rethinking isn't always the key. Developers can preserve the look, feel, and soul of a series for years as long as they make every game be different enough from other series titles to have its own identity.

 

So to sum up: Square, i get that you want to keep the series fresh, but all its doing is alienating fans who care less and less with each game and keep choosing games like Ni No Kuni or Tales of Graces that prefer to execute the best qualities of the genre to the best of their ability.

Edited February 1, 2013 by pppp

[pppp]

So Marzgurl has uploaded part 2 of her review. This time, she reviews the localisation of the game:

 

[pppp]

OK so remember this parody?:

 

 

Well the guy who made it has made a parody of LR's presentation conference:

 

 

It's awesome

[Xenos]

So I watched all of Final Fantasy 13 in movie style, it was actually...pretty damn good to me. I actually came to enjoy the characters quite a bit and the overall story, while confusing at bits, was pretty well done I'd say.

 

It made me want to try the actual game...is the combat different from 13-2 at all? Because that really was off-putting, and after seeing 13's story it'd be unfortunate I couldn't play through it myself because of the combat mechanics.

[Conando]

The battle system is the exact same in XIII and XIII-2, except XIII's manages to be significantly slower.

[pppp]

Huh. I don't know how but i apparently missed this piece of news from 2 weeks ago about the soundtrack:

 

 Masashi Hamauzu will be working on a theme for the main character,
Lighting, in the story. He will also be responsible for composing one of
the four worlds in Nova Chrysalia, with the others being Mitsuto
Suzuki, Naoshi Mizuta and a possible fourth unannounced composer.
Finally, the soundtrack will change along with the day-night cycle,
which is a new feature for the series.

 

http://www.examiner.com/article/new-lightning-returns-final-fantasy-xiii-soundtrack-details-revealed
 

For those that don't know, these are the composers of FFXIII-2. That's right guys, the "wonderful" composers who gave us this gem are coming back:

 

 

How wonderful that the woman singing sounds bored out of her freaking skull. Oh, and let's not forget how they raped the chocobo theme with this:

 

 

Who needs beautiful orchestral music when we can have some of the worst vocal songs ever written for a game?    Geez, and people say Sonic vocal songs suck

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

Yep that's right pppp, ignore all the other good tracks in the game and just select the bad ones to make the XIII series look even worse.

[T-Min]

Yep that's right pppp, ignore all the other good tracks in the game and just select the bad ones to make the XIII series look even worse.

Wait, there are good tracks in XIII-2?

 

News to me :V

[Soniman]

Im 98% sure that Crazy Chocobo was a joke track. Meaning that it really wasn't meant to be taken seriously.

[Conando]

To be fair, the actual composition under the lyrics is actually not bad at all, some of it is pretty good. But, if they're going to fill the songs with lyrics again? Yeeaaah...

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

Wait, there are good tracks in XIII-2?

 

News to me :V

 

 

Not sure if serious, but yeah there is.

[pppp]

Yep that's right pppp, ignore all the other good tracks in the game and just select the bad ones to make the XIII series look even worse.

 

Besides the main theme and its variations that are actually pretty good i can't remember a single track from that game except the ones that are so bad you can't help but ponder how could they think it was good.