So here we are, with Final Fantasy out since March. As of late Square has also released Final Fantasy 14, their second mmo. From recent of news, its been doing badly, enough that they extended the free trial to two months. Even with the extension, population has been dwindling still and it doesn't look good at all. Not only is the mmo not doing well, SquareEnix's stock has been its lowest in five years. It's been in a steady decline and its evident with the mmo and recent backlash on Final Fantasy 13.
Reviews and takes on the game has been very mixed, with some people who love it and some who cry foul calling it the worst Final Fantasy ever. Even the fans in Japan have viewed it negatively, with inability to explore cities, do side quests, and an overly simplistic battle system. I mean, I can understand that the director of the game wanted to tell a great story, and decided to make the game straight forward so you can understand what happens in an even flow. Although to some people, that didn't sit well.
In my opinion, I thought it was an okay game. I didn't beat it though, so I don't know if that says anything, but I am notorious in not finishing Final Fantasy games. Well I guess the biggest deal is that I sold it. Yes, for the first time I've sold a Final Fantasy game. I've been collecting the games, and this is the first one I sold. I just thought to myself that I can always get it later and finish it. But oh well.
I really enjoyed the older Final Fantasy games, especially FF-X2. I mean I could go explore, run from city to city if I wanted, explore, and the combat system was good. I liked how you had control over your characters every move, and choose them. While turn based, it still wasn't too bad. In FF8, the atb system was awesome, where you could control the outcome of a battle by who could attack faster and by choosing the right attacks. In FF13, there was the auto mode where literally all you had to do was sit back and watch. That was interesting. There was a manual mode, which I chose but that was hard. The bad thing was you could only assign roles and perform them for your party members. Only the player you are using currently could you assign commands. The roles were literally, magic, defense, buffs, etc.. It's similar to the gambit system in FF12, but you could at least also take manual control somewhat. Well that system was based off FF11 somewhat. Summoning was also a bit different. In FF13, you would team up with your guardian and everyone else in the field fades out. You only had a certain amount of ability to attack and then one ultimate. While alright, I really liked the old school summons. One person calls a guardian, comes down, does an awesome attack, and buggers off. The upgrade tree was great though. Similar to FFX and FFX-2, sphere grid, you would upgrade a circular path with branching levels.
Character and story were great, with nice graphics as always in every FF game. Well not all of the story was great, some were meh (didn't care for Snow's). All and all, it was an alright game. Hopefully I'll get back to it. Tell me what you think.
I liked it. Side quests are ok, but I just want to get the game over and see what happens. I've already spent tens of hours just to get the basic story line, I don't need to be running back and forth for side quests, which by the way, I feel obligated to complete.
ReplyDeleteThe battle system wasn't bad. I didn't mind the automatic mode because there weren't that many moves and the computer knew which ones were better. I thought the challenge was figuring out the paradigms you wanted to use beforehand, and switching them around at the right moment during battle.
The story was pretty good. Don't remember much of it now, but it was good at the time. I can't believe you sold it.