FFXIII going to 360. AKA the Brock/DJ Thread of HAET

[MixedMyth]

Yeah...I kinda theorized that this was what was going to happen early on when they said 360 would get things like Blue Dragon and a couple of others. I laid even odds that FF13 would go to 360, actually, because on the one hand Square has done the multiplatform thing before when the released FF7 and 9 for the PC. On the other hand, Squenix hasn't had best business sense or logic lately so I wasn't sure they'd recognize a smart move when they saw one.

[RiverHelix]

Wow the last FF I played was the 1st one. I not too long ago kicked my WoW addiction. So which one is really the better RPG? Any opinions? I have the PS3. I have to say I mostly bought it* (asked my wife for it for x-max/b-day) cuz of the blue-ray. I don't play a lot of games anymore and sometimes I balance my time between the PS3 and battling my son in Wii. But I liked all the games I got for it: Uncharted, Turok, COD4, MGS4. The only next-game that is a big disappointment: Madden...come to thing about it, it might have been the deciding factor that I was familiar to the PS controller in terms of Madden gameplay that helped edge my decision...BUT they changed the stupid buttons all around and won't even allow you to reconfig...aaargh. Something I hope they correct for '09. Matter of fact, I'm going to see what IGN has to say about that right now.

[Brockway]

I'm not sure what you're asking there. Is FF13 better than WoW? I've really got no clue, I haven't played either Last MMO I played was City of Heroes.

[MixedMyth]

Who knows? FF13 isn't out yet. But comparing a stand alone rpg to an MMO is a little unfair as they both play very differently and have different purposes. Personally, I'd take a stand alone rpg over an MMO just about any day of the week. Less grinding, MUCH more plot and character development. And I've done both kinds of rpgs.

[Wadefade]

Reason they are releasing it on the 360 is because Lost Odyssey did well on the 360. And, of course, SE sees $$$ and follows suit. Also, since Lost Odyssey was by an ex-FF dude, they have to save face and release FF13 on the 360 as well.

At any rate, FF8 > FF7.

[MixedMyth]

Lost Odyssey! That's the other rpg I was trying to think of. Yeah.

Gonna have to disagree about the ff8, ff7 thing, but that's mostly a matter of taste.

[Dotty]

FF12 uses the engine for FF11, which is an MMO. They just made it so it was single player, and its a very fun game.

Story was a little lacking, but the game was fun. ^^

[MixedMyth]

See, the MMOishness just didn't send me, even though I've played MMOs before. The combat just didn't seem interesting. It felt like grinding....I did appreciate that you could see baddies, but the actual cinamatography of the fights and aesthetics of spells and such was very unimpressive. Oh, the summons were pretty cool...but useless.

[Brockway]

FF8 is worse than FF7 based solely on the fact that you NEVER win a single boss fight. Seriously, what self respecting band of globe trotting kids with swords can't take out a freakin' spider tank? 12 lost my interest 1st, when I realized while watching someone else play, that that short brown haired girl who hangs around Ashe during cut scenes was actually a boy, and 2nd, when they killed off all the cool people in the opening 10 minutes. I most likely will NEVER actually play it.

I bought Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, and Eternal Sonata to play on my friends 360, Eternal Sonata looks pretty cool, but I've only played the opening before going back to trying to finish Folklore.

In other news, Persona 3 and P3: FES are even better than FF7 to me. I finally beat it a month ago, well P3, just started FES, and the ending (and beginning of FES) pulled all the right heart strings.

[MixedMyth]

Not to mention Squall's personality and the fact that the whole world closes up during the final disc. And the convenient mass amnesia.

But maaan, I want to play Lost Odyssey so badly. Some day....some day!

[Jim North]

FFI is boring. Booooooring. I couldn't stand playing it as a kid, and I can't stand playing it now. Even the upgraded versions. The farthest I've ever gotten was entering the dwarven caves. It's a continual source of amazement for me that they ever ended up making any more after this one.

FFII I know only a little about. I think I've played through a single dungeon, but that was a long time ago.

FFIII I only played once on an emulator. My computer was pretty crappy at the time and it choked about half a minute into the experience. On an NES ROM. I haven't tried to play it again since. It's sort of a tradition now, not playing FFIII.

FFIV holds a very special place in my heart as it's the very first FF I ever played. The script itself may be a little blah at times, but the characters are great. And you just can't beat a resounding shout of "SPOONY BARD!"

FFV I only played a little bit of. I lost my copy of FF Anthology before I could get very deeply into it, unfortunately.

FFVI is the best Final Fantasy ever. Beautiful sprites (even now!), wonderful storyline with an awesome ending, tons of memorable characters, the little tweaks on the classic battle system, pretty music . . . this game has it all.

FFVII is probably the second best Final Fantasy ever. I, like many other FFVII worshippers, adore the characters. I like the somewhat dystopian cyberpunkish feel of the setting and storyline. It's unfortunate that the visuals became dated so fast.

FFVIII is the worst Final Fantasy ever made. Characters that I just wanna reach out and strangle, a crazy ass and somewhat annoying money system, a storyline that's simply uninspired when it isn't just pulling random nonsense out of its ass (monsters that drop onto the planet from the moon in a river of red Jell-O, wha?!), a crazy ass and somewhat annoying battle system . . . the only redeeming factors the game has going for it at all are Irvine (the only one of the bunch I'd let off with only a light strangling) and Triple Triad (just . . . one . . . more . . . round!).

FFIX is a good, solid game. Just above average, I'd say. Characters, good. Storyline, good. Visuals, good. End boss . . . um. Well, the characters, storyline, and visuals are good, anyway.

FFX is pretty dang great, and I ain't afraid to say so. I know I'm almost completely alone in this, but I believe that X has the best battle system of the entire FF franchise, including my most beloved FF Tactics. I loved being able to rapidly switch out characters right in the middle of a fight. I loved being able to strategize, finding just the right combinations of attacks, special abilities, and items that would allow me to lock out the baddies from taking their turn entirely. It is a thing of beauty. Why can't anyone but me see that?! . . . anyway, I also enjoyed playing blitzball, liked the characters and story (even if they did have a few rather idiotic character moments along the way), and the sphere grid was pretty cool.

FFX-2 was surprisingly enjoyable. Another thing I may just about be alone on, I'm sure, but meh. It was actually pretty fun going back and revisiting the locations of FFX in different ways. Rikku was one of the highlights of the first game and I was glad to see her back, and Paine was a more than welcome addition in my opinion. The big bad was also interesting, both storywise and visually . . . I loved the end with him and his "shadow", especially the part where they turn to look back at the heroes over their shoulders. And I'll admit it! I liked playing dress-up!

FFXI does not exist. Move along, citizen.

FFXII took some time, but it eventually grew on me. Yah, like everyone else, I sat and groused for a while about the MMO trappings and all, but after I finally got used to the idea, I really started enjoying myself. And I personally found many of the characters to be well-crafted and very engaging. Especially Balthasar. He's tha fuggin' man. It's also a visually stunning game . . . it ranks right up there with FFVI for making me just want to run around and look at things. Like Cope said above, things don't really start jumping storywise until you first face Cid, but I was still happily getting into the groove of things before that, myself. It's just a shame I haven't gotten to finish it since my PS2 is on the blink at the moment.

FFXIII . . . well, being po' folks, I ain't got any of the systems that this game'll be on yet, but when I do get it, it'll be for PS3. I ain't gettin' any version of the X-Box at any point and I've long ago branded myself a total Sony loyalist. It may not be smart or correct, but it's one of the things that makes me what I am.

[MixedMyth]

You kidding? I loved X. It's story, and it's battle system. The sphere grid was both elegant and beautiful, as was the pacing of combat in general. If only they'd had 12's calibur of translation and voice acting.....ah well. It was still fantastic. I also admit I'm kind of a sucker for X-2. Don't get me wrong, it's a seriously flawed game and the girl-band bits make me want to gag...but I'm a sucker to find out what, shall we say, happens if you get things right. Only problem being that you can't get a good ending without a strategy guide. Seriously. Also, some of the story had real promise...the bit with the cave and the pyrflies was actually pretty cool and creepy. If they'd just stuck with that more and left the girl band stuff out, it would have been a much better game.

I should also mention Dirge of Cerberus. If you liked 7, this game is worth playing. The combat system isn't that great...Vincent isn't nearly as ninja as he ought to be from the cutscenes...but the story is very good, and you get to revisit some old familiar places and find out what happened. Plus...Hojo.

[Jim North]

I salivate at the thought of Dirge, purely because it's Vincent. Unfortunately, I haven't ever seen a copy of it. Once I get a working Playstation again, I may have to actually consider going through Amazon or something.

And regarding FFX's battle system, it's good to know I'm not the only bastion of sanity on this! It sometimes seems that amongst the FF fandom, it's almost universally despised. Most often when I talk about it with folks, the best response I ever get is the rare "Eh, it's okay".

[MixedMyth]

I'm sure it's quite cheap by now. And yes, it's AAALL Vincent. Okay, and some Cait Sith. The great thing is that they even use some monsters from the original game.

[Keffria]

I love the fanboy rage this has generated (not here; I mean on the internet in general). PS3 owners should just be happy they're getting the game at all, instead of it becoming a 360 exclusive. Either way, the game isn't going to force me to buy a current-gen console; it's going to be available forever, unlike games from less massively popular developers.

For the record, I liked the Sphere Grid, even though it essentially meant that by the end of the game, everyone had the same skills and there was no reason to use one character over another, unless you had a personal preference. Systems like that, FF7's materia, 8's junction system, etc. make it so easy for stupid grind-lovin' nerds to ruin the game in that respect.

[Phact0rri]

it should also be mentioned that, its not being released to the 360 in japan, brockway.

[Brockway]

I love the fanboy rage this has generated (not here; I mean on the internet in general). PS3 owners should just be happy they're getting the game at all, instead of it becoming a 360 exclusive. Either way, the game isn't going to force me to buy a current-gen console; it's going to be available forever, unlike games from less massively popular developers.

For the record, I liked the Sphere Grid, even though it essentially meant that by the end of the game, everyone had the same skills and there was no reason to use one character over another, unless you had a personal preference. Systems like that, FF7's materia, 8's junction system, etc. make it so easy for stupid grind-lovin' nerds to ruin the game in that respect.

Had that been announced, I would have had been forced to burn Square headquarters to the ground. I couldn't be more than a 3 hour train ride away.

I liked X alot, and X-2 had the most fun battle system of any FF game. Now that I think about it, its kinda similar to Persona 3's.

[Keffria]

X-2's battle system was fun, yes, but I just couldn't get over how terrible the rest of the game was; I was embarrassed to be caught playing it. I ended up trading it in for credit towards a copy of Shadow Hearts, a franchise that deserves more sequels but won't be getting any.

[Boozeathon4billion]

Man... what's up with all the ps3 hatred!? It's like the world has gone crazy and Microsoft led the revolution (and here I thought it would be apple this whole time).

I'm damn glad that I have a ps3 because its the best system on the market (hardware wise), has the most entertainment options (eg: bluray, has a dvr expansion coming in 09, psp connectivity, etc), and has great games out for it and more on the way. Sure, I could get the 360 and play most of the same games, but I honestly think that the PSN beats LIVE (and is free), that playstation still has the best exclusives of the big 3, am happy with the backwards compatibility of my 80gb model, and I really think Sony has a way better business model (i'm glad to know my ps3 will have games coming out for the next 9-10 years like the ps2, it makes the money spent worth it). Everyone talks about profitability and how much sony has lost on it so far, but two and a half years into the xbox 360's lifespan is the very first time that the gaming division at Microsoft has reported making a profit in the entire lifespan of the whole Xbox franchise. Sony expects to be making profit from the ps3 by the end of this fiscal year and still has 2 other systems making money for them (both hardware and sales).

In today's age of gaming it just makes sense for third parties to go multisystem in america because its the only place the 360 is really doing that well (and it is the one place getting FF13 for the xbox for sure). It's about making money not appeasing fanboys. Although it is nice when they throw us a bone every once and a while.

The company I'm disappointed in is Nintendo. All their games for the Wii/DS have taken like a total of 10 hours to beat and have little to no replay value unless you're a tween. lame... why did I spend 9 months hunting down a Wii again?

[Brockway]

Not to mention Squall's personality and the fact that the whole world closes up during the final disc. And the convenient mass amnesia.

But maaan, I want to play Lost Odyssey so badly. Some day....some day!

Apparently on the last disc you could get a chocobo from the forest (assuming you caught all the ones before), and use it to find the Ragnarok to travel around again. I never bothered though, only reason I finished 8 was because 10 (I skipped 9 due to the graphics style) was coming out soon and it felt wrong not to have it beat.