XIII reflects well on XII...

[smurphy]

Ok I admit I wasnt the biggest fan of XII when I first played it. And a lot less so with XIII. But after playing XII again I found it to be the perfect remedy to the restrictive and linear XIII. These games are polar opposites. XII has near unlimited freedom while XIII only has a limited amount until when Gran Pulse is reached. I found playing XII again after playing XIII to be a much better experience than my initial playthrough. Has anyone else felt the same after playing through XII again?

When you compare the 2 which system do you prefer? Or what balance do you think Square Enix should reach for the next installment? Given how hardware limitations are perpetually increasing I think there should be near XII levels of freedom but thats no reason not to have the production values of XIII.

[Dodie16]

Well, I was a fan of XII to start with, so going back and playing the game after playing XIII was incredibly enjoyable regardless. It was nice to have that sense of freedom of exploration again after the "keep going forward" feel that most of XIII had, but considering the storyline that XIII went for (the characters were pretty much living on borrowed time...), it's understandable to me why it was like that.

As for which I prefer, there was elements of both that I greatly enjoyed. To name a few:

-I liked XIII's strong character interactions with the mains, but XII had an enjoyable supporting cast. XIII's support didn't get much of anything except for a quick scene here or there. So, I suppose that while I like my main characters to have development, it's nice to see that the support gets some love too.

- The Battle System of each game were an interesting approach. XIII's was fast and very action-oriented, while XII had a MMO vibe going on with it. Idk which of the two I like better, since they both have pros and cons, but I did I like that in both games there weren't random encounters. I like seeing what I'm about to fight, and assessing whether I should approach it or not, instead of being suddenly thrust into battle unexpectedly. Keep doing that, SE! No randoms anymore!

- XIII's world was beautiful, but it seemed empty (aside from enemies, of course). The character interactions somewhat made up for that, since your party members would randomly speak up and comment on things around them/happening to them. XII was also quite stunning, but also had freedom of exploration, which made it a more enjoyable world to me.

Anyway, this post is getting long, so in short, I enjoyed both games, but constantly having to keep moving through the story of XIII was a bit tiresome. XII's open and explorable world was really nice to come back to.

[SuperSabin]

Going to be the devil's advocate here, XII was pretty fun, was hard to get back into but still loved it anyway. Characters could equip whatever and use whatever magic you gave them. The battle system was nice to use, it being mmoish like said above. The concept of XII i felt was reused into White Knight Chronicles which was pretty cool but thats going off topic here.

XIII didn't quite satisfy like XII did, had like only a few characters I cared about. Story was decent, landscapes were nice, battle system was fun. However its really linear and not really engaging, and square is making a sequel to that which is pretty sad. XIII was, in the end, pretty dumb. I didn't bother finishing it. Fortunately theres going to be a Versus XIII which will purge us of that pathetic entry in the main series, funny how a spin off looks better than the mainstream title in this situation.

[ZantetsukeN]

Personally, I preferred XII. I was a teeny bit disappointed with XIII.

I preferred, first of all, the characters from XII. It seemed as though the characters in XIII were too whiny for my taste. XII's cast were a lot more unique in themselves. I will always argue that Balthier is the best character in an FF game since the PS1 days. XIII just had no characters that stood out.

You had a great deal more freedom in XII than XIII. In XII you had the hunts, the extra areas, the espers. XIII doesn't have an awful lot to do. It was just a very linear game.

However, the environments in XIII were beautiful and obviously a lot of effort had been put into the design for this game. XII, while also good and also bearing in mind it was for PS2, aren't as good. I will say that both games pushed their resepctive consoles to their limits graphically speaking.

I think the music in XIII is better however. XIII's themes had more ambience and added more to the environment. Neither game had any real stand-out themes (I did like the Esper Battle in XII and the general Battle Theme from XIII), but I feel XIII's music was better.

I will say that both games greatly suffered from one thing; Character uniqueness (is that even a word?). Not as in personality, but in terms of development. Eventually, minus some differences in stats, all the characters in both games can end up the same. Going back to IX you had one character who was a theif, one that was a black mage, dragoon etc. There were no differences in the characters by the end of the game. I feel, when you have that (and X also suffered from this), you don't play all the characters to the full.

Take my playthrough of XIII for example, the only characters I used were Lightning, Fang and Hope. I felt bad because I feel like I should be obligated to try out the other characters, but I wasn't. Like, going back to IX, you use different characters for different situations. On XII and XIII, if you set up your characters, you can use the same characters over and over again for any situation.

Overall, both games have their flaws, but XIII's flaws seem to show a lot more. As for the future of the series, I say add more elements of the classics, but keep moving foward in this style. I know that realistically, we will not see the true classic battle system again, but I feel that Squeenix are nearly there with a decent, alternative battle system. But I'm begging you Squeenix; make your characters more unique!

Wow, that was a long post, I need to lay down