Final Fantasy XIII Unappreciated By Most Final Fantasy Fans

By: Derek

15-07-2010

Final Fantasy XIII Unappreciated By Most Final Fantasy Fans

Final Fantasy XIII became one of the year’s hotbed for game reviews; setting aside on how graphically-advanced the game was and how the battle pace gave meaning to the word Fantasy, FF XIII clearly lacked the meat which, its predecessors have during the PlayStation 1 era. Nobody, even me, would appreciate a Final Fantasy game without towns to visit and NPCs to annoy despite of their redundant, pre-determined responses – Final Fantasy XIII had the most excruciating linear exploration that I have ever seen from the franchise.

According to Yoichi Wada, CEO of Square Enix, Final Fantasy XIII enjoyed half of the positives and suffered half of the lamentable negatives such as the dismantling of some gameplay parts which gave success to the franchise. He was impressed on how Final Fantasy XIII did in terms of sales and marketing expectations but, at the end of the day, it’s the fans who’ll decide whether the game became an extraordinary experience or cannon fodder.

Final Fantasy isn’t entirely a FAIL. The game just feels empty abandoning its roots and unlike Final Fantasy XII, which kind of started the trend for linear exploration, the game still has its moments of being crowned as this year’s RPG champ. Anyone disagree?

Here is what Wada had to say about Final Fantasy XII. This is courtesy of Final Fantasy Union and his interview on Gamasutra:

“Looking at the numbers alone, it is pretty good, because we were able to release the latest Final Fantasy in all three markets of Japan, United States, and Europe in a very short period of time, and we were able to reach 5 million units rapidly — and I think this product will grow further. But when it comes to the customers’ reaction to the quality of the game, some value it highly and some are not very happy with it.

“I think this is a product that was able to meet the expectations for those who know Final Fantasy. There are all kinds of games around in the market today. Should Final Fantasy become a new type of the game or should Final Fantasy not become a new type of game? The customers have different opinions. It’s very difficult to determine which way it should go.”