First English FFXIII review from GamesRadar goes with 10

Wow. ;D

nice, GR sure were paid a lot for this.

A game that is basically one big dungeon…in terms no towns and shit, sigh. And that gets a 10…riiiiiight!

Gamesloldar.

Dunno why we are all getting so cynical, we all know it’s a 7/10 or 8/10 game (depending on your level of FF love) so waiting around for reviews seems a little redundant. Then again I don’t have anything else to do really.

@2: Actually, it was probably a straight favor exchange: “You let us break the embargo early and be the only review up for six hours, we’ll give you a 10.”

from what I’ve played so far it’s about as far away from a 10 as it gets. ESPECIALLY the 360 version.

lol GamesRadar

For me, the first 10 hours are boring as, but then bam it hits you .

…………………………..
Really?
A 10?
Damn….
I’m going to miss the towns and stuff.
What of an RPG is left?

10… Its a masterpiece of course… Every game is a masterpiece! Well done Games Radar.

Ten? No way.

*shock horror, Johnny says FFXIII isn’t a 10? THE WORLD IS ENDING!*

From what I have played of the JP version, it’s in the late eights/early nines.

“A game that is basically one big dungeon…in terms no towns and shit, sigh. And that gets a 10…riiiiiight!”

Contrary to popular belief, the game is in fact *not* a linear dungeon. The first 20 hours or so do have a linear path through the story (so did FFX), but there’s plenty of stuff that opens up to the player in terms of side-quests as you progress through the game.

As for a 10? It’s fucking GamesRadar. They’re the kindergarten of gaming websites.

Your recommendation has me sold Johnny.

Game Informer gave Ps3 version of FFXIII a 9.25. Why they docked off 0.75 points was due to the summons with their “transformers” ability and then some of the story seeming out of place.

MO’C, from what I ‘ve heard the game opens up at about chapter 11? which is close to the end.

Does anyone know if the combat system is anything like
FF7 Crisis Core?

The Tim Rogers review of the Jap edition is worth reading, providing you’re about to take a three-hour shit and have the patience for Tim Rogers.

http://www.actionbutton.net/?p=630

“MO’C, from what I ‘ve heard the game opens up at about chapter 11? which is close to the end.”

Pretty much just like every other Final Fantasy since FFVII (bar XII) then?

@16

You control only one party member which is the team leader, if that person dies its game over. Its still on the ATB system only the ATB has been broken into parts and each attack, skill, magic summon takes a portion of the ATB or the entire thing like Summons.

@18

Pretty much can’t think of a FF that allowed us to do what we want til close to the end.

you said it opens up after the first 20 hours.

and the SNES FFs weren’t like that, 9 wasn’t like that as well. even 7 or 8 weren’t actually, only 10.

edit: I didn’t mean full access to the whole world map, I meant running forward through the dungeons for hours, like in FF10.

@ Phoenixblight

FFXII is about the only one that did since FFVII.

Heck, if we want to go further back… FFIV was one of the most linear games in the series. You literally couldn’t do anything outside of the main story until right at the end, and you had absolutely no control over what characters you had in your party.

Why this is an issue now is beyond me. The game’s weapons have a huge amount of customisation, which is meant to work as an alternative to the semi-locked skills. And the game is *challenging*, something which has been absent from far too many Final Fantasy games.

“9 wasn’t like that as well. even 7 or 8 weren’t actually, only 10.”

You might have been able to slightly diverge on the root there, but you were still stuck to a completely linear part until right near the end of the game, when you got access to the world map.

Ah…. world maps. Now there’s a mechanic that I’m glad to see the back of.

I wish they’d try what they did in FFVI again. Where the first half of the story is set in stone, but you were given a huge amount of freedom in the second half of how to close off the story. God, that game was awesome.

why did you change the topic?

fine then, so you meant “apparently after 20 hours”.

@Michael

I meant except FFXII. That is pretty obvious.

There is a lot of things I would like Square to look into like outfits having more variety vs the static outfits. Can’t think of a FF with different looks for party members besides their weapon. I Agree VI was awesome.

Tch. So much for objectivity. I won’t hold my breath for the ‘proper’ reviews.

Quote:
” I wish they’d try what they did in FFVI again. Where the first half of the story is set in stone, but you were given a huge amount of freedom in the second half of how to close off the story. God, that game was awesome”

Final Fantasy XIII is essentially like that in every way. The plot purely unravels on Cocoon for the first half of the game and the second half will heavily focus on Pulse afterwards.

@ Falsate

Yes, but you don’t have any impact on the ending or the fate of your characters, do you? In FFVI you didn’t *have* to find everyone to finish the game, and the tragedy of its story worked for that reason alone.

That’s what I want to see. Considering how big FFVI was at one point, I can’t for the life of me understand why they haven’t re-used some of the ideas from it.