Final Fantasy XIII

Hard to properly get through but the cinematics are amazing.

Don't know how I managed to finish this. All these hours, lost in time, like tears in rain.

I rushed out to buy this game the day it came out and then I rushed back before the store closed to return it for store credit.

I found the game unplayable.

Very misunderstood game.

One of the Final Fantasy franchises's main selling points is its world exploration and versatile combat but, in FF13, the developers decided that players should instead run down narrow corridors from point A to point B in order to engage in pre-determined fights to be rewarded with hours of bad cutscenes for doing so. Of course, this makes the game feel empty. The poor story, sound design, and voice acting don't help, either. I added an extra 5% because Snow looks like Seifer from FF8.

I played it because I want something more linear and linear this is for a lot of it. I'm okay with that but in ways that same linearity bleeds into the mechanics and I'm not okay with that. Sure there's leveling up but it's not satisfying. I don't like the battle system, I don't like the stuff around it. I like the characters and I like the story, even if some of the dialogue is hokey as fuck. It's not a horrible game, but it's not good either.

Final Fantasy XIII is all flash and very little substance. The combat is stale and a little to easy. There is no strategy to be found. And the character base is mostly loaded with stereotypes. Gone is the absorbing game play. Overshadowed completely by visuals and overt length.

Liked it, but full disclosure, I gave up at a certain point, and apparently where I gave the game up is where the game opens up and gets better. I'm an old-school gamer, so the battle system isn't exactly my cup of tea, but it's easy enough to get used to. I actually enjoyed this... more than most, but less than I'd hoped. I really pinned my hopes and dreams on this reinvigorating the franchise, and I guess it did, but it's a "good-not-great" from me. Which is apparently more than most can say.

Artistically and storwise, we have a very good one here, but sadly I cannot enjoy the gameplay itself, and I tried. The linearity is extreme, "hallway" is not just a metaphore, I replayed it now thinking I was probably exaggerating the feeling but I wasn't, first 9 chapters (out of 13) are a literal hallway that has no more than 3 bifurcations. If battle system was great at least, but is not. It's mostly just relevant to change the formation. But the story and cutscenes deserve playing it.