I've had a long history with the Final Fantasy games, starting back with 7 when it first released. I played 3 and 5-9 back in the day. I loved the series at first, and then not so much... so I barely touched it for over a decade (almost 2? good god). I finally played FF12 Zodiac Age earlier this year to see if it would rekindle my childhood love. It didn't. So I figured, what the hell, I'll play the game that long time fans of the series seem to hate the most. After all, I loved FF8 and hated FF9, so I guess every day is opposite day for me when it comes to Final Fantasy.
So, here are some thoughts in no real order:
Linearity: I was fine with it. Exploration in most other Final Fantasy games wasn't that interesting to me anyway. I play this type of game for the characters and the stories. I appreciated just getting to the point for the first 10 Chapters. Also, the hallways are goddamn beautiful and have great music, so that's cool.
No Towns: Why would you go into town when you're on the run? I legitimately thought it gave the game a really cool feeling of actually having to operate outside of society. Also, much like not caring too much about exploration in other Final Fantasy games, I never found towns that interesting to explore. I find that most JRPGs don't do a great job of delivering interesting side stories or fun flavor dialogue anyway.
Battle: By far my favorite mainline Final Fantasy system. I like Tactics more, but that's probably not a fair comparison. Dancing between the paradigms to get just enough healing, buffs and debuffs in while 5 starring everything I could was a great time. Making hallway battles potentially lethal in quite a few parts of the game made battle much more exciting. The only thing that really annoyed me was how slow the menus felt... the game is far too fast paced to faff about individually selecting abilities in most cases. Still, operating fast and furious at a slightly higher level of control kept me entertained throughout the game.
Characters: I liked them. I actually liked watching Hope grow as the game progressed. Dude was 14 and he figured out some heavy shit. Watching Lightning "lighten" up a bit was rewarding, too. Snow was the shounen protagonist I wanted and deserved. And Sazh was the man. Definitely the most relatable Final Fantasy character ever. Vanille was a fine character, though the voice acting was certainly interesting...
Story: I enjoyed it from the beginning. I didn't find the jargon that frightening. The plans on of the big bad were crazy but made sense by the end, like other Final Fantasies. Overall, the story was decent to good.
Crystarium: Ok, character advancement was a bit boring. That said, I liked that each character had a solid niche. I also liked that the vast majority of abilities were useful throughout the game. I didn't mind having 'level caps' throughout the story, either.
Items and weapons and stuff: Yeah, they dropped the ball here. It didn't have too much of a negative impact on my experience, but having better customization options through itemization (and leveling) would have definitely elevated the game.
Game Length: It took me a little under 45 hours to complete the main game + 25 or so hunts that were convenient to do along the way. Overall, the game really only felt like it dragged on in a couple of places (Chapter 7 and especially Chapter 10) to me, which is pretty good for a JRPG. I was ready to be done when I beat the last boss, but didn't feel like it was a chore. I may go back and try to do more of the hunts at some point, since I enjoy the game play, but the backlog never ends...
Conclusions: The things that people hate about the game generally just didn't matter to me, or were actually positives from my perspective. With how much I liked the battle system, characters, visuals and music, I think it's replaced FF8 as my favorite game in the main series. It doesn't quite make my "All Time Favorites" shelf, but it was a darn good experience from where I'm standing. FF13 has successfully rekindled my interest in the series. I'll be playing the rest of the trilogy and several other FF games over the next few months (years?).
So, here are some thoughts in no real order:
Linearity: I was fine with it. Exploration in most other Final Fantasy games wasn't that interesting to me anyway. I play this type of game for the characters and the stories. I appreciated just getting to the point for the first 10 Chapters. Also, the hallways are goddamn beautiful and have great music, so that's cool.
No Towns: Why would you go into town when you're on the run? I legitimately thought it gave the game a really cool feeling of actually having to operate outside of society. Also, much like not caring too much about exploration in other Final Fantasy games, I never found towns that interesting to explore. I find that most JRPGs don't do a great job of delivering interesting side stories or fun flavor dialogue anyway.
Battle: By far my favorite mainline Final Fantasy system. I like Tactics more, but that's probably not a fair comparison. Dancing between the paradigms to get just enough healing, buffs and debuffs in while 5 starring everything I could was a great time. Making hallway battles potentially lethal in quite a few parts of the game made battle much more exciting. The only thing that really annoyed me was how slow the menus felt... the game is far too fast paced to faff about individually selecting abilities in most cases. Still, operating fast and furious at a slightly higher level of control kept me entertained throughout the game.
Characters: I liked them. I actually liked watching Hope grow as the game progressed. Dude was 14 and he figured out some heavy shit. Watching Lightning "lighten" up a bit was rewarding, too. Snow was the shounen protagonist I wanted and deserved. And Sazh was the man. Definitely the most relatable Final Fantasy character ever. Vanille was a fine character, though the voice acting was certainly interesting...
Story: I enjoyed it from the beginning. I didn't find the jargon that frightening. The plans on of the big bad were crazy but made sense by the end, like other Final Fantasies. Overall, the story was decent to good.
Crystarium: Ok, character advancement was a bit boring. That said, I liked that each character had a solid niche. I also liked that the vast majority of abilities were useful throughout the game. I didn't mind having 'level caps' throughout the story, either.
Items and weapons and stuff: Yeah, they dropped the ball here. It didn't have too much of a negative impact on my experience, but having better customization options through itemization (and leveling) would have definitely elevated the game.
Game Length: It took me a little under 45 hours to complete the main game + 25 or so hunts that were convenient to do along the way. Overall, the game really only felt like it dragged on in a couple of places (Chapter 7 and especially Chapter 10) to me, which is pretty good for a JRPG. I was ready to be done when I beat the last boss, but didn't feel like it was a chore. I may go back and try to do more of the hunts at some point, since I enjoy the game play, but the backlog never ends...
Conclusions: The things that people hate about the game generally just didn't matter to me, or were actually positives from my perspective. With how much I liked the battle system, characters, visuals and music, I think it's replaced FF8 as my favorite game in the main series. It doesn't quite make my "All Time Favorites" shelf, but it was a darn good experience from where I'm standing. FF13 has successfully rekindled my interest in the series. I'll be playing the rest of the trilogy and several other FF games over the next few months (years?).