This review contains spoilers
After really enjoying Final Fantasy XIII-2, I was really looking forward to how they would improve the Battle System and exploration. It was quite a shock to see the direction they took in this game! It ended up being good, just a bit worse than XIII-2, but I really appreciate when game developers take risks and try out different approaches to their game, so in a way I must applaud them for this.
The strongest point in this game to me was the Story, after following the characters from this Trilogy all the way, I was really curious to know how they would end up. Although most of the game makes you spend time with side-quests, the main line story was very beautiful with an amazing ending!
Combat is the real big change in this game, the new "Garb System" makes you build synergies between loadouts to have you face against your foes. I really liked how I ended up really going for different garbs and spells during the Early and Mid-Game, later down the line I did stick to my one and only loadouts, but that makes sense as you begin to learn more about the enemies, ATB Costs and whatnot. However, I really feel like NOT having a party is a let-down, this trilogy had Sazh, Snow, Noel, Vanille, Fang but throughout the game you barely spend time with them. By the way, how come Noel is not involved in Caius's main quest? I just wish the game had more content with them.
Exploration is all right. You always have something to do thanks to side quests, but after completing all the main quests I felt like I had no incentive to keep playing at all. I did decide to do a lot of side quests and extinction hunting, but the time spent doing those were not really fun, just a big grind.
The game is based on a limited amount of days and time to save as many souls as possible. From the start of the game, this mechanic made me stress out a lot, life is already a game of chasing time, I was not looking forward to managing it in this game as well, but with the time stop ability you actually have plenty of time to do everything. I feel like this mechanic serves more of a story purpose rather than enhancing gameplay. It doesn't really hurt you that much, but it also does not add much.
Well, if you have already played XIII and XIII-2, you should play this game. It is good! Just not my cup of tea.
The strongest point in this game to me was the Story, after following the characters from this Trilogy all the way, I was really curious to know how they would end up. Although most of the game makes you spend time with side-quests, the main line story was very beautiful with an amazing ending!
Combat is the real big change in this game, the new "Garb System" makes you build synergies between loadouts to have you face against your foes. I really liked how I ended up really going for different garbs and spells during the Early and Mid-Game, later down the line I did stick to my one and only loadouts, but that makes sense as you begin to learn more about the enemies, ATB Costs and whatnot. However, I really feel like NOT having a party is a let-down, this trilogy had Sazh, Snow, Noel, Vanille, Fang but throughout the game you barely spend time with them. By the way, how come Noel is not involved in Caius's main quest? I just wish the game had more content with them.
Exploration is all right. You always have something to do thanks to side quests, but after completing all the main quests I felt like I had no incentive to keep playing at all. I did decide to do a lot of side quests and extinction hunting, but the time spent doing those were not really fun, just a big grind.
The game is based on a limited amount of days and time to save as many souls as possible. From the start of the game, this mechanic made me stress out a lot, life is already a game of chasing time, I was not looking forward to managing it in this game as well, but with the time stop ability you actually have plenty of time to do everything. I feel like this mechanic serves more of a story purpose rather than enhancing gameplay. It doesn't really hurt you that much, but it also does not add much.
Well, if you have already played XIII and XIII-2, you should play this game. It is good! Just not my cup of tea.