Zero Punctuation Review of XIII

[Trodorne]

The Escapist : Video Galleries : Zero Punctuation : Final Fantasy XIII

this link is to show the review of yatzee's opinion on the game. i have to agree for the most part what he says about the game. but i do not see eye to eye with him on other subject.

after watching this id like to hear anyones opinions on how he reviewed the game, whether it was justified or not. and your reasons for being for and against what he said about the game.

[Victoria]

You are well aware that his "reviews" aren't serious reviews, right? They're for entertainment purposes.

He's like AVGN for newer games. I have yet to see it, though, so after I do see it, I'll edit my post with my thoughts.

[loner-kid]

to put it simply, yahtzee doesn't like jrpg's and i honestly sympathise with him for having to play ff xiii because it's something he's not going to like. Regardless of that his review was pretty good from the perspective that nothing he said was strictly false (it is a humour vid, so you expect exageration) so meh, the bottom line is yahtzee always drills holes in games, it's what he does, so the general idea is just to understand what it is that you like and why

[Trodorne]

to put it simply, yahtzee doesn't like jrpg's and i honestly sympathise with him for having to play ff xiii because it's something he's not going to like. Regardless of that his review was pretty good from the perspective that nothing he said was strictly false (it is a humour vid, so you expect exageration) so meh, the bottom line is yahtzee always drills holes in games, it's what he does, so the general idea is just to understand what it is that you like and why

i have to agree totally, for me when i saw this review in his list of games. i was shocked. i knew he hated jrpgs, like he even mentioned the last one he played in the series was 6 (or 3) and he liked it cause the combat was short and over with and the story was too the point. i agree with him on the combat system.

[Merlin]

His description of the linearity and battle system is dead on. The battle system is an improvement over that of FFXII, which required zero interaction once you set it up, but it's a far cry from perfect. I understand that they made the paths more linear to focus on the storyline, but I still found it rather disappointing. They spent years and years on this game and I felt like they focused on making the "first HD FF" rather than the most powerful story in a FF ever. The graphics were impressive. The storyline, battle system, and linearity? Not so much.

On the flip side, his correlation between the individual characters and specific archetypes were a bit off. Understandable since he only played it a few hours. Comparing Lightning to Quistis and Auron is a bit of an insult to them. Neither one of them would behave in the fashion she did in the first half. The one I can definitely agree with is Vanille. I honestly didn't mind her behavior, but the voice...I hope that was a fake accent because it was off in so many points it was grinding on my nerves. I don't know how to explain it. It was just off. And don't hate on poor Rikku. She was a bit dingy but I'd so go out with her. She knew how to have a good time and didn't let the shit hitting the fan bother her

[Andromeda]

The only point I'm going to hit is the issue of "linearity" since it is the only subject for the game that really bugs me. People keep forgetting that nearly all RPGs are linear. There is only one entrance and one exit (if it has one at all, ie. cave). You go from A to B. The only thing is that they may put in a fork or two with dead ends, generally leading to optional treasure. The map twists and turns, but in the end you're going in a linear direction through every map in any RPG you pick up.

The only real difference between the degree of "linear" is that other games try to hide it from by a lot of twists and turns. FFXIII didn't try to sugar coat the fact that it was linear. Though if you look at the maps they are still actually pretty twisty and turny when you get down to it. They had their necessary forks in the path with optional treasure as well.

One factor though that makes it seem linear is the first that you're running a rail track, it's not going to be doing a lot of twisting and turning. When you're going through Pulse half of the areas are civilized locations that will be straight and blocky, it's the nature of civilized design. You get into the nature areas and they are significantly more organic.

Linear RPGs is nothing new. People are way too hung up on criticizing something that is inherit in nearly all RPGs that they've played.

[Yuna]

Well I have to finish my game before I can make a "puntuaction" about story or everything else...but I think he's not totally wrong.

All the peple saying all the RPG are linear...but what about other episodes ? Have you forget how was beautiful about (with Cloud or Squall) the next city you have to visit and all the answers you can give to people / friend / enemy ???

Yes, Final Fantasy is maybe a different Rpg compared to other titles, like for example Mass Effect, but I'm thinking Square Enix is forgetting the real meaning and importance of the title.

The story is fine: you have again a world were people have to fight agains religion, death, sorrow, without the weird sensation of playing FF X again...Lightning is perfect, the party is good, monsters are ok, but you can't explorate Cocoon and interacting with civilian or thing is something that you have to forget about.

Now, More than ever, with a super graphic like that, you must have the chance of playing a great game, with great location where you can do a lot of things...not just walking ahead, jumping, fight and then again, walking...

And this is not good...