Poor FFXIV

[OJtheLIONKing]

FFXIII gets a bad rap. People complain about the western reviews praising it for doing something new, but they're absolutely right. I've been playing JRPGs for near 15 years now (starting with 7, but I've since played all the mainline FFs and a bunch of other RPGs as well) and the vast majority have similar battle systems, character types, stories, etc. I personally never much cared for the ATB system since it seemed like a false sense of "urgency" being stuffed into what is inarguably a turn based system, which is why I loved FFX's commitment to the turn based tactical aspect of it.

However after all this time with turn based systems, people were (rightly) complaining about these systems being very slow paced and kind of boring, especially when you had to use them to fight hundreds or thousands of random battles. So while the rest of the genre has been stagnating, and the sales have plummeted to reflect that fact, SE has been innovating.

First with FFXII's "FFXI offline" system, that I quite liked as an FFXI player, but seemed fairly unpopular outside the MMO player circle. Also FFXII was like Star Wars with Chocobos, that was awesome. I thought the customizability and the ability to delegate the boring micromanagement aspect of random battles was an awesome new experience for the FF series.

Then FFXIII's system. It's still sort of turn based, but it's also very fast, flashy and fun, which I think is what a game should be. The pace at which battles could unfold kept you thinking on your feet, and you had to tactically think of how to handle boss fights rather than just "well, here comes the big damage spell, let me heal through it." Debuff classes were actually useful in most boss fights for once instead of being strictly situational, and the way the game handled it made maintaining buffs and debuffs much less of a chore than previous FFs.

It could have used more exploration, but at the same time it had great pacing through most of the story that discouraged boring grinding and kept you involved in the story and the world. I think, if anything, what people like to talk about the "good" part of the game, the open world part, is actually the weakest because there's little direction, no narrative and nothing but endless battles.

Do I think XIII is perfect? No, for a variety of reasons, and similarly I don't like the direction SE has taken the past few years with endless spinoffs and rereleases instead of quality original IPs. Still, I don't think FFXIII deserves the crap it's gotten, especially since FFX was quite similar in its linearity and is often praised as one of the best FFs.

[MassacreMassacre]

Complain much? if you don't like why complain on the forums?