Final Fantasy XIII (Xbox 360, 2010) I've never been a "Final Fantasy" fan. I played the ultra cult favorite one with Cloud and couldn't get into it. Later on, I played the one with that guy who had a volleyball or something and found it boring it too. After many years, I sat down to play the new installment and I think it’s a shame that the one I choose seems to be generally disliked by a lot of FF fans. But I still tried to finish, because I decided to finish every game I start playing from now, but it seems God figured he, in his wisdom and mercy, should take pity on me and made the game freeze at probably halfway or two third of the game through.
And, wow, the game is awful. It's really ridiculous how primitive the game is. In terms of flexibility and freedom, it is really one of the most rigid role playing games ever. I don't expect every game to allow the player to have complete freedom in terms of where to go and what to do (I actually don't prefer it), but what "Final Fantasy XIII" does is a complete joke. Up to the part I played, you are just walking in a straight line. With absolutely no variation. I can't think of any recent game that was so restricted. Maybe there is such restriction in hack-and-slash action games, but even those you can usually wander around a small area a bit or jump up and down the platforms. Oh, well, you can jump up and down during your exciting wallpapered path, but because the game thinks you are a moron, jumping only works in certain designated sections of the path. And in case, you might not know what to do when you are faced with a ledge that needs jumping over, there is a blue dot flashing on the ground reminding you to jump.
Once you get experience, you get to choose which talents you choose, but don't worry, it's not an Either/Or choice. You can't even go through a specific path, because the path will close until you reach the next section, so you just choose the other talents. Meaning, by the time you reach the next section, you have all the talents chosen that were open, the only choice you had was which to choose first and which second, hardly making any difference.
And because the battles are automated except for the leader, you'd wish you could choose your party members or your leader. Neither, the game changes leaders and party members based on the plot, pushing the gameplay down the priority list in place of the painful bland and shitty plot.
Really, it would take a thesis to sit down and detail every aspect of how bad of a game this is. Some games are boring or flawed, but "Final Fantasy XIII" is a travesty and really just anti-game.
1/5
