discussion Is Final Fantasy XIII underrated?

[Littlejfrey]

I've always read how this game is considered one of the worst final fantasy games, that it's monotonous, with obnoxious characters and very easy to play. 
I've been playing for a little over half of it and I find it to be great! I love the battle system (the difficulty has been very challenging, in a good way) the leveling system, the characters and the story. And well visually it's beautiful (like all FFs). I think overall is much better than FFXII 
So I think the criticisms are very unfair and thank god I didn't listen to them and gave the game a chance. Did anyone have the same experience? 

[rhaenyra]

It was the very first Final Fantasy game I've ever played in full so it holds a special place in my heart but honestly idk where the hate comes from? The game was great 

[feelslikeadream]

Yes! It's one of my faves tbh. Love how the narrative unfolds in a non-linear way. A lot of the haters are just homophobic, I fear.

 

Also, it's funny how people complained about XIII and then the next mainline game was XV, which was actually awful

[mael]

I think she is rated…

 

Anyway we need a remastered

[Fevesy]

FFXIII is an amazing game and one of the best FF games tbh.

 

There is a constant discourse with FF games that the latest one isn't a "true FF" when the defition of FF games isn't just a turn based RPG with 4 characters. A lot of people switched up on FFXIII when FFXV came out and now people are switching up on FFXV now that FFXVI came out.

 

FFXIII was the first one in a social media/youtube era so it's criticism felt hightened. Most of their criticisms for FFXIII apply to other FF games. FFX and FF7R are both corridor games for the most part, they just disguised it better. FFXII "plays itself" too. There is an open world portion of the game, it's clear most people just skipped past it. 

 

I also think there is also just some plain misogyny involved since there is a female MC. Lightning is a more interesting character than Cloud and Leon boring asses 

 

There is only two criticisms that are valid for FFXIII tbh

 

1. Too much of the lore is in the datalog or whatever to read

and 

2. (Game spoilers)

Spoiler

Jihl Nabaat died far too soon, an icon! 

 

Edited August 23, 2023 by Fevesy

[Fav]

7 minutes ago, Fevesy said:

FFXIII is an amazing game and one of the best FF games tbh.

 

There is a constant discourse with FF games that the latest one isn't a "true FF" when the defition of FF games isn't just a turn based RPG with 4 characters. A lot of people switched up on FFXIII when FFXV came out and now people are switching up on FFXV now that FFXVI came out.

 

FFXIII was the first one in a social media/youtube era so it's criticism felt hightened. Most of their criticisms for FFXIII apply to other FF games. FFX and FF7R are both corridor games for the most part, they just disguised it better. FFXII "plays itself" too. There is an open world portion of the game, it's clear most people just skipped past it. 

 

I also think there is also just some plain misogyny involved since there is a female MC. Lightning is a more interesting character than Cloud and Leon boring asses 

 

There is only two criticisms that are valid for FFXIII tbh

 

1. Too much of the lore is in the datalog or whatever to read

and 

2. (Game spoilers)

  Hide contents

Jihl Nabaat died far too soon, an icon! 

 

Spoiler

 

Edited August 23, 2023 by Fav

[uusagii]

The entire franchise just went downhill with 12
I'll still NEVER forget the sheer disappointment and anger I felt as a child while playing 12

[exfactor003]

XIII is my third favourite after X and VII.

 

I feel that it was very underrated, but people seem to have warmed up to it considerably in the last few years.

[Johnnyboi]

Yes it’s a whole lot better than 16

[fauxtography]

FFXIII has aged very well and the narrative overall towards it has improved (at least, for the fans that have revisited it.)

 

Its primary reasons for being dragged are very "of the time" and are pretty moot now. The game had a super long announce-to-release cycle already souring expectations, and then the change from standard final fantasy RPG mechanics to linear hallways set it up for major backlash.

 

Honestly the series overall continues to have the same backlash upon each release, I think FF fans are just terminally miserable at this point.

[poki]

18 minutes ago, fauxtography said:

Honestly the series overall continues to have the same backlash upon each release, I think FF fans are just terminally miserable at this point.

I'm genuinely feel sad for people who don't like FF16. I've played FF since forever and I feel like there was my life before FF16, and my life now after FF16. 

 

Sims community is the most depressing in my experience. Sims 4 in 2023 has so much objectively better gameplay than Sims 2/3 but they still hold on to nostalgia 

[poki]

It's a good game 

[JC.]

One of the complaints that I saw that it was too linear which I don’t mind.

[CristianGarcia]

I’ve learned not to trust the GP cause they trashed 15 up and down and it’s the best one since 8 imo…

 

I haven’t played 13 yet tho because of the way it gets downplayed but I think if a game was THAT bad why did they make a part 2 and 3? Lol

Edited August 24, 2023 by CristianGarcia

[elevate]

It's bizarre how this game was criticised for its combat and linearity and then XV, XVI, and especially VIIR built off the combat in XIII (and worsened it, in some cases) but got 9s and 10s across the board. 

[TaylorFantasy]

Yes sister it's the most underrated Final Fantasy in the series. It's in my top 5 Final Fantasy games.

It may not have the most extensive "classic JRPG" features but on the things it did well it did extremely well.

It has the best combat system in the series and one of the best art directions.

The locations are all diverse and aesthetically pleasing, the monster designs are bold and they paid off (eg: the bomb monsters), and even the monster reskins have many thoughts put into them (eg: the flan mosters).

 

It's so ironic how FF16 stans are using FF13 as an example of a bad game when FF16 is actually a piece of TURD of a game. Boring as hell world and art design, and really repetitive combat. I can't even start with how poor the implementation of stat system is which in turns makes exploration pointless. Oh and nasty as hell QoL choices

 

4 hours ago, feelslikeadream said:

Yes! It's one of my faves tbh. Love how the narrative unfolds in a non-linear way. A lot of the haters are just homophobic, I fear.

 

Also, it's funny how people complained about XIII and then the next mainline game was XV, which was actually awful

Oh spill sister. Also misogynistic because they hate seeing strong independent women who don't need no man be stronger than the men.

[Rigalo]

I want to say yes but I haven’t played it since I was like 16. They need to remaster the trilogy like what’s the hold up 

[poki]

Not my fave FF16 taking stray bullets in here 

[poki]

The REAL enemy is FF7 stans. I had to delete an account from somewhere else because I said I hate it.

 

We don't need a FF16 vs FF13 war 

Edited August 24, 2023 by PoKiTaurus

[TaylorFantasy]

22 minutes ago, PoKiTaurus said:

The REAL enemy is FF7 stans. I had to delete an account from somewhere else because I said I hate it.

 

We don't need a FF16 vs FF13 war 

Kiiii my mistake sis I didn't see your post before posting.

FF7 stomp stomp stomped, fume. The REAL real enemy is the FF9 stans because you can find them in every corner overrating that slow-camera-panning-hell of a game.

 

FF7, FF13 and FF16 are very talented girls we don't need to pit them against each other. Still hate FF16 

[poki]

FF9 used to be my #1 before FF16 

[G.U.Y. Gaga]

I love it tbh 

 

the only reason I don’t throw away my Xbox 360 lmao 

[Dessy]

Yes in terms of the amount of raw, unfiltered hate it received from FF fans. It's definitely one of the weaker entries but ppl acted like it was some D-level unplayable game 

[fountain]

It’s a masterpiece  my favourite game. The story is deep and rich, the characters are complex and real, the gameplay is really engaging and a refreshing take on the FF style and graphically it is beautiful and still impressive to this day. The haters are wrong and just jumped on the bandwagon.