The Real Reason Final Fantasy XIII Sucked

A lot of people have complained about Final Fantasy XIII’s linearity and leaving the player with no control over the party, and these are worthy complaints. But they didn’t address my biggest complaint with the game, and that is:

Square Enix forces you to play the game the way they want it to be played, rather than the way you want to play it.

In the old days you could play the FF series in a variety of ways: you could be smart and use great strategies in battle. Or you could be lazy and just level up until you could hammer on anything. You could use status attacks or just stick to offensive magic. Or use no magic at all, save for the occasional cure spell.

In fact, there were so many ways to play the game, that people used to offer challenges to go through the game with absurd rules. For Final Fantasy XII, for instance, they offered up the following challenges:

• Enforced Class System Challenge
• Low Level Challenge (also known as the 122333 Challenge)
• No License Board
• Solo Character

I’m sure there are more, but you get the point. Every game prior to FFXIII had enough flexibility for a variety of challenges. For FFXIII, there’s essentially only one: No Crystarium Usage.

Then Square Enix grades you on how well you play the game per their criteria. In the old days there were reasons to prolong some battles, and no penalty for doing so. Now it’s all about status attacks and speed.

I used to like mindlessly leveling up – it was relaxing, and I loved fussing over the stats of each character. FFXIII doesn’t let me do that, because they’ve limited the number of baddies in any given area. Sometimes I didn’t want to watch cut scenes for a while, so I’d wander off into the field and just kill stuff. FFXIII has an unrelenting stream of cut scenes. There’s no escape.

So not only do you have to play it the way they want it played, you have to follow the storyline on their timetable.

Anyway, FFXIII-2 and FFXV are supposed to come out sometime. I hope that Square Enix remembers that they’re developing for players, not an audience that’s allowed limited interaction with their story.

Sounds Like a Good Time to Tighten Emissions Standards

Auto sales were stronger this month, but it wasn’t the compacts and hybrids that led the surge:

Pickups and SUVs helped accelerate U.S. auto sales in September, although carmakers remain concerned that worries about the economy could dampen demand later this fall.

General Motor Co.’s sales rose 20 percent compared with last September, led by a 34-percent rise in full-size pickups and SUV sales. Chrysler Group LLC’s overall sales rose 27 percent.

Let’s see, what could we do to dampen these sales? Hmmmmm…. Hey!! I know, let’s announce the tightening of emissions standards next month! They won’t kick in until 2017, but I’m sure the announcement alone will have an effect!