Can you say "linear"?

I still haven't finished it (I bought it over the weekend), but what I have seen thus far is pretty liniear.

FFXIII is like the Windows Vista of Final Fantasy; spent way too long in development only to get a half-assed product that was rushed to prevent the franchise from losing further market share.

Here's to hoping FFXV will have side quests.

Its a Final Fantasy, what the hell did you expect?

I love it and think its very fun. The combat is great, no random encounters is great, the soundtrack is great, the story so far is good, and the FMVs are spectacular. Linear isn't bad.

But I also haven't played a Final Fantasy since FF 9 (I never had a PS2).

Can someone explain to me what precisely ties together the various titles in the FF franchise, besides the title? I've never been quite able to work that out.

Sure! Alll the Final Fantasy games have a similar title.

sadly, there are no real similarities from one game to the next, just generally an expected improvement to some aspect of it.

I would have to say that 7 and 9 are still my favorites out of all of them.

Well, X & X-2 were connected. There's nothing really connecting them. Each one is a different story with different characters. I don't follow closely but I think XII was linked to X, X-2.

Side quests, towns to explore (what's with shopping at a save point?), more challenging battles (srsly just keep mindlessly attacking and you'll win every battle; on top of that your party gets healed after every battle), more variety in weapons/items, story is kinda weak, etc.

This game is not of the quality of past Final Fantasies.



XII isn't linked to X & X-2, but XII does have a sequel, and VII has a whole collection of prequels, sequels, remakes, etc.

How long have you been playing it and how far have you gotten? In the battles I'm doing I'm constantly doing paradigm shifts. And the healing you're party after every battle is GOOD. Less tedious work, more fun.

Also, I'm fairly certain there ARE side quests - eventually. I've played FF7 a couple of times and there weren't a whole lot of side quests in that either, and exploring towns was just a boring way to figure out what you were supposed to be doing.

Bah; less random battles and healing after each battle is for pussies. Real men encounter as many random battles as possible to power level and learn through trial-and-error just how many items are needed to get through an area alive and make it to the next save point.

And yes, there are side quests, but very few (that I've seen anyways). Also, I (and quite a few other FF fans) actually happen to like exploring towns and doing things not directly linked to the main story (which may be why Square Enix is planning to bring back towns for XV).

That's two games away, you sure that's not suppose to be XIV?

XIV is going to be an MMO

FF was going well until 8. From there they went downhill.

Then you've obviously never played IX. Second best to VII, by far.

Personally, I think XIII Is a step astray from the "Good" Final Fantasies. I miss the good old days!
IMO, VII was best in terms of story. XI was 2nd best because it contains friggin cool places (and Vivi!) and X gets 3rd because of immersion.

I never played any of the cannon Final Fantasy games, but Kingdom Hearts was freaking epic. I don't know who got high where to arrive at that idea, but they deserve a goddamn medal.

True, Kingdom Hearts was pretty epic, and not an epic fail. Final Fantasy is leaning more towards the KH style play and away from the classics. If you haven't at least played VII once, you don't know what you're missing!

My favorite is Final Fantasy 6 Advance on the GBA. I love the way you can train all of your characters into incredibly strong Mage Warriors, if you're willing to take the time.

I also enjoy FF V Advance, which is cool because you can train your characters in a very large number of jobs from Geomancer to Summoner to Dragoon.

Of course, both games require a good deal of patience and effort to level up all your characters that far. It's well worth the time, though.

Maybe I just like training my characters to ridiculous levels.