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.
October 19, 2011 at 1:19 am
I know this review is like 2 years late, but I figured I had to say my piece anyway.
December 14, 2011 at 2:08 pm
Interesting. I remember pointing out that FFX forces you to play Tidus as a whiny little brat, and you dismissed my complaint. *points at you and laughs*
but yeah, I lumme some FF6…now there’s a great mix of game and story.
December 15, 2011 at 12:41 pm
I must admit that despite my complaints I had to stop playing the game because I’d stay up all night.
December 21, 2011 at 4:59 am
I feel you’re being far too charitable. This game was obnoxiously linear in all respects: the story, the “level-up” system, the maps, the characters, and of course, the battles. The least fun I’ve ever hard with a final fantasy game.
December 21, 2011 at 7:19 am
This game was obnoxiously linear in all respects: the story, the “level-up” system, the maps, the characters, and of course, the battles.
I believe that I said in the first sentence that the linearity was a “worthy complaint.”
I should have also mentioned that the way Squeenix takes control of 2 party members during battle makes my complaint seem even worse: they don’t trust you to play the game correctly to the point that they do 2/3 of the battling for you.