One thing I really love about the trilogy is the mythos, it's super interesting and ambitious. Kinda made me hope Versus XIII was made to expand on the lore
The lore of this game is excellent!! I wish Versus 13 would have made it out of the development hell that it was stuck in and not be transformed to 15 (although I like 15 as well).
I'm not lying when I say this game changed my life, I bought it in a moment of hardship, and at the end I grew up loving every character and I learned something from each one of them. I dare to say is one of the best ensemble of characters in RPG
The script was really well done. A breath of fresh air from the tired and stale presentation of retrospective videos from other creators . Keep up the good work. You got a sub
The script was well done? It bombarded you with terms and concepts in the opening hours which will not mean anything to you for several hours and you most likely have to go through the ingame Lexikon to understand some of them. You will rarely find a game which does a worse job.
@@brotbrotsen1100He was talking of the video's script. Beside honnestly never understand that critic, I understood the story and didn't struggle understanding what the term mean, despite that I didn't read the logs sooooo yeah I don't get the issue.
I genuinely LOVED this game. The battle system is so underrated. Some of the end game battles felt like action games because the speed you had to change paradigms was so fast. The amount of strategy that you could go into was actually quite deep. My only negative was the lore. I struggled to keep up with all the different terminologies. Even by the end I was like "what's a L'cie again?" 😂 overall though, this is a great game that I have replayed a few times over the years.
@@yaknowwhoitis606 It must be an attention deficit disorder. Because I found it difficult as well. It was like there was plot missing to make me acknowledge the types. I can only hope to find a way around this issue.
The myth that the game plays itself and you can beat it by button mashing is an absolute lie. There are enemies that require quick and frantic paradigm shifting, there are enemies that require precise timing when switching to SEN SEN SEN or MED MED MED. There are enemies that require debuffs like Deprotect. There are enemies that are immune to stagger. The fact that they don't know this tells me they are noobs who played on Easy and didn't need any strategy.
The lore is actually really well done. The game logs every single piece that you need to understand, which is actually quite unheard of in heavy story games. You can simply open up the menu and read the lore
This was my first Final Fantasy game. I played it in 2013. At first I hated it because I didn't really understand how to properly play and unintentionally made the game drastically harder for myself and ended up dropping it about halfway through the story. Speaking of the story I honestly didn't understand it. I was confused about most of the terms the characters were using and didn't bother reading the in-game glossary. Fast forward to late 2014 and I found out that I could stream the game on my PS4 via PlayStation Now. I decided to give the game a second shot but this time I watched videos on how to properly play and watched a spoiler free video that explained the story and certain terms and made a point to read the in-game glossary when necessary. I ended up LOVING the game and got back to where I originally was in the story in just 3 days (took my about a week the first time around). Unfortunately the game was removed from Playstation Now so I wasn't able to finish it. But I plan on getting a Series S this year so I'll definitely be playing through the trilogy this year.
That’s an awesome journey that you’ve been through with this game! That’s very similar to my experience with it too. I picked it up in 2010 and played it on and off for about a year and then dropped it because I couldn’t get into the battle system or the story. But in 2015 I picked it back up and struggled to get through the first 1/3rd of it for about 6 months and then finished shortly after that and fell in love with the game! I also replayed it on a Xbox series and it was great! Runs really well with no real issues. Hope you get to play it soon and finish it!
Without game guides, I wouldn't have defeated the first appearance of Barthandelus. I still don't get the story and it's a lot of lore. I mean Star Wars has lots of lore but it can be understood or at least more fun to understand.
After enduring the first 15 hours or so on PSNow, I wasn't best pleased when it was taken off before I could finish it. It took me another 8 years before I could face picking it up again and starting from scratch on PC. I'm pleased I did, in the end, but I cancelled the PSNow subscription after that experience and will never do cloud gaming again.
I never used autobattle, this is the most fast-paced battlesysteme ever if you select manually, and the soundeffects if you time your attacks is awesome
Yes! This is my story, I played till Pulse auto-battling, and it felt so bad that I was in the dungeon part before it running past all battles. I stopped, realized I must be doing something wrong, and started again with the goal specifically of not using auto-battle, and it was a completely different game. Even early, playing for speed, it was so much better.
I love Lightning. She's both gorgeous and a badass. I've played through the game maybe 20 times each with different weapons and accessories. Most who play it don't realize there are weapon and accessory combos that make battles easier. But I love Lightning. I think she's one of the best video game characters of all time and I would love to see her back in a game in some capacity.
This is hands down one of my top 3 FF games and I agree, a lot of people are/were turned off by that opening section and missed out on the paradigm system in all its glory.
I stood in line for hours waiting for that game to be released got the strategy guide the collectors edition. I loved every second of it. Was I confused as hell about the story? Yes but like you mentioned once that padagrim system finally opened up. Oh man it was on a whole mother level of strategy. The final boss fights were pretty tuff and then going after all the hunting missions! I wonder how many people ever killed that elite adaimatum or what ever that huge dinosaur was called lol
I didn't get the game on launch, but I picked it up a couple months afterwards and I got the strategy guide with it and I hated it initially and gave up on it for several years. I came back probably 6 years later and finished it and I loved it! And yeah the final boss and the Adamantoise are very challenging which I love!
i recalled that i've watched a video about defeating whatever that huge dinosaur was. if i remember correctly, the dinosaur was defeated pretty easily. .. just a few rounds of Paradigm Shift.
As far as Final Fantasy games go, this is one of my favorites. Not to say it didn't have issues. By God, it had so many issues. But, in terms of favorites, its sequel is actually the one I like the most. 13-2 gets rid of most of the linearity, its music slaps, and though the story was even more convoluted than 13 (time travel of all things?), I was willing to put up with it so long as I had Plains of Eternity blasting in the background. Plus battling and collecting monsters brought me back to my Pokemon roots and the game's need to give you things to find managed to be both intriguing and tedious at the exact same time (looking at you, graviton cores). All in all, I really loved the video, and I'd very much like to see your opinion on FF 13-2.
13-2 gets rid of mostly anything, no? the paradigm fights become absolutely weird with mostly 2 characters. the story is basically a blackbox, you just jump into random time points, you dont get to bond with serah and the other guy either, unlike the first game... im really curious why you would prefer 13-2 over 13 D:
FF13 was my very first Final Fantasy and I loved it. I was so very very confused about the story, but I loved the music, the stunning visuals, and the combat as well. I never finished the game bc I never understood the paradigm shift mechanic and like you, I don’t need too until I hit chapter 11. I picked up 13-2 some time after and loved it even more. I’m a sucker for monster capture systems. Overall, I enjoyed the game and watching your video made me wonder if it’s time to finally go back and beat it.
Bro get back into the game and finish it. The paradigm shift is way better to use after chap 11 where it’s fully expanded. The basic when fighting is stagger monster-->do a lot of damage. This guys explains the whole mechanics. Try to understand the vid and give the game a go again
I'm VERY much here for your video. It's one of my Fav FFs of ALL time (I'm 40). What you said about the soundtrack makes me smile ear to ear because, I too listen to it in my free time and consider it one of the best FF soundtracks. Great video, great game. Most underrated FF title.
Finally good FFXIII takes, 13 imo has the best atb combat of the whole series n they even do a lot to try and teach players even before it opens up wit the eidolon fights.
What a great video, you definitely addressed both the critiques and praises of the game in a digestible format. It definitely touches on the more broad things that I feel people overlooked about the game. I love this trilogy but I can see why it may have put some folks off especially if you've played the other FFs first, namely 10 and 12. I always think that if this game didn't have "Final Fantasy" attached to it, then it probably would have done much better or at least been given more of a chance. (Something like the Last Story for Wii, which is also another great game from the creator of the original FF and the composer of FF7) Can't wait to hear your thoughts on FFXIII-2 or any other FF games! Only one major problem here... You only have 10 subs at the time of my watching, I will gladly be number 11 😤
Thank you so much Therius!! I’m glad that you enjoyed the video and I appreciate the sub!! FF13 gets a lot of hate but I wanted to voice out my opinion on it for people like us that love it. I’ll definitely be making more videos on different FF titles but I’m thinking about doing a few more interesting videos on FF13 as well. So I’ll have more videos out soon! And again thanks for the support!
I do like the Crystarium system for increasing stats and gaining new abilities. I was initially thrown off on first play through by the lack of a traditional experience points building up to a level up system (like Kingdom Hearts and FFXV use), but capping how far you can upgrade the roles each character has based on what point in the story you’re at is a good compromise for not making the characters overpowered and only fully unlocking it by finishing the story. The weapon upgrade system could have done with more help ingame though.
Always a fan of underdog games. The big draw for me to consider this game is that it’s a trilogy. Being able to play a large narrative over several games resonates with me.
@@feiwong3634 I have tried so hard to get in to this series, but for various reasons I just haven't been able to. I mean, I own the first 6 games, but never got further than the first mission in Trails in the Sky 1 and a hefty amount of time in the first of the second series that's eluding me at the moment. You're right: this series on paper should totally do it for me.
I absolutely love Final Fantasy 13. It's a little more linear than I'd like it to be, but it doesn't take away the amazing-ness of the title. The story is beautiful. Characters are great! Hell, my first couple's cosplay was myself as Serah and my partner as Snow
I got this game yesterday and I spent around 5 hours in it and I am enjoying it! Good job on this video it really sums everything up. can't wait for your next vid!!
I'm so glad to find people loving this game. I've loved it since release. I played it twice in a row, something I only ever did with 7 and 9 at release.
This game has a massive place in my heart, I watched my mom play this game and played it myself, and the music sort if rented part of my brain to itself and paid for lost Odyssey's room next door. Its so good and i love it.
Talking about this game in 2023 makes me so nostalgic... I bought FF13 when I was 17 and in a very depressive and dark phase of my life. Playing this game, gave me so much as a teenage girl. I was already a big FF fan then and still am today. Next to FF10 and FF7, FF13 has a very special place in my heart. I love the music so much and still listen to it nowadays. The design of the world and of the characters is mesmerizing even for a game that came out in 2009. And I really liked the journey of the story. There is something about it that is so unique. Yes, many things also bothered me, such as individual characters (yeah SNOW, Hope, Vanille, and even Lightning sometimes even though she is my favorite character). Also, the battles and the leveling up were tedious as hell but still, I enjoyed everything about the game. It surely felt like a journey for me and seeing these characters struggling and fighting against destiny is just so important to witness!! As a player, you see things differently once certain aspects of the game impact your heart. Thanks for bringing back these memories. 💗
The videogame that changed my life forever. I just bought the trilogy for the black friday Xbox pc store deals, $30 the 3 games. Fun fact for me is that I've never played the other two 13 games, so for me, this is like getting a 2nd and 3rd season for a series long in the waiting. I honestly cannot wait to relive this story.
I'd actually agrue that the combat system is better when you do a mix of auto battle and manual entry. I'd reccommend starting with manually entering aoe moves like blitz and the higher level spells while targetting the enemies closest to the middle of the group. Then switching to auto battle once either enemies spread out a bit more or you only have 2 left. I find this to be faster and more enjoyable since I actually have to do more than press 1 button and wait. Also getting a good idea of how much your healing spells heal is very important so you don't over heal because you can cancel actions that have yet to be performed and keep the progress on your ATB guage. Making a switch to healing and throw out 2 or 3 heals then switching back to your damage paradigms is also very useful. None of this is necessary but i find it to be more enjoyable and makes the end game alot easier.
I fucking love FF13's battle system and there are so many little optimisations you can make right from the beginning of the game. Things like, targeting the best enemy for an AOE move and timing it right, and knowing when it's worth attacking without fully filling ATB. And as soon as you get paradigms you can start taking advantage of ATB refreshes to deal more damage or quickly stagger enemies way faster. People also neglect TP moves like quake that can be used to keep stagger gauges up (particularly useful with pre-emptive strikes on large groups). And one of my favourite things to do as Sazh is abuse his blitz move against larger enemies to deal way more damage than regular attacks would. There are so many quirks and bits of tech to make use of, but admittedly because it's such a unique system I think most players won't necessarily take advantage of them, which is a massive shame.
This soundtrack was on repeat when I was in middle school. I was a huge orchestra nerd so all the strings always intrigued me. I started playing this game again and have been loving it! Especially now that I understand it more with my adult brain.
Thank you for speaking well of my childhood haha❤ I was about 10 years old when my father took me to the gamestop to buy a game. He said: "a game within this amount of money" I don't remember exactly how much now but I think it was about twenty euros, as a little experienced child I was very impressed by the cover of final Fantasy xiii but at the same time I loved the cover of catherine (thank god I didn’t choose that one at the time, who knows understands that it wasn't really a game for children) but in the end i chosen ff. I had no idea of how to play the game properly since the games I played before were the sims, various tomb raiders, the prince of persia etc so in short titles quite different genres from ff. I remember that even in those titles I was stuck so many times in parts that if played again now are very easy , but ff xiii had all my willpower as a child I’ve been stuck at least 100 times I freaked out so many times in beating the bosses because I couldn't and after hours of attempts ,if I kept losing, I started looking for the walkthroughs of the game managing somehow to play around 9/10 chapter arriving in barthendeus or whatever it was called boss, and that’s where i got stuck in a definitive way when i was a kid hahah, I tried again to do it recently and damn it I didn't remember it so complicated that damn thing. I remember that I was amazed by the realism and graphics of the game, that for being a 2009 game it was stunning and still is visually remarkable in my opinion today. I also loved many characters and I loved the fact that for a part of the game I had the characters divided into small teams, I loved the team with Hope and Lightning where she was a bit like a "mom”, there was even a chapter dedicated on Hope’s personal growth were he was like put on charge to become more brave and strong? I don't remember the plot well but it should be something similar but anyway I really appreciated the growth of his character so much. It was also very nice the duo of Sazh and Vanille both very comical characters who in my opinion were a very good combination. Maybe as a child I was kind of sad cause I wanted to play more with Snow alone because I remember the difficulty in beating shiva but it was damn inspiring I remember perfectly that I finally beat her one morning before school and that says it all 😂 I also think that playing Snow solo fits his character better ngl. But yeah, it made sense why they didn't do it. There’s no need to talk about the world to be honest, full of such different and detailed environments were magic for my eyes. The characterisation of each map was nothin but mesmerizing and I loved using chocobo in areas where you had some open world gameplay. Thank you for this review that made me want to play it again 😂
Thank you for watching the video! And yeah I agree with all of various different praises of the game that you make! I hope you get to play it again and enjoy it all over again!
@@thechance-lore4711 thank u for reading all the comment hahahaha After I sent it I realized how long it was. And don't worry I think I'll play it soon since i still have my old working ps3 and the game
My two biggest problems with FFXIII is: 1. the story isn't presented well at all and is mostly in the datalogs, not a huge problem for me personally since my top two favorite games of all time are long JRPGS that aren't voiced (Sora No Kiseki FC and SC) though FFXIII does just lazily throw most of the interesting worldbuilding in its datalogs. 2. You only get the full combat system in chapter 9, which is criminal since FFXIII has the best combat system in any FF in my opinion (though, there's still some cool stuff you can do really early on, stuff like ATB refresh, Paradigm shifting when your party leader is in the air to skip the animation that happens the first time you shift in every battle, Sazh's blitz and probably some more stuff I'm forgetting.) And my third slightly smaller gripe is that the localization is really bad in FFXIII. All in all I enjoyed the video, though I felt it could've been a bit longer since some parts felt a little rushed, like the OST part, you could've let blinded by the light get to the actually good part but I assume you cut it short so as not to get smited by squeenix.
Thank you for comment! Yeah I totally agree with those points, it's a shame that most of the story is really behind datalogs, is told very poorly, and that the localization is very bad as well. I know that several cutscences have complete different meanings in Japanese. Also, the battle system is absolutely the best in the series but it takes too long to open up. But, once it does it's great! And yeah, I cut the music bits short and used various different tracks because of potential copyright issues lol
I am so glad that someone who actually paid attention to the battle system is talking about it. So many people didn't bother reading anything and just went "Auto-Attack BRRR". But Paradigm Shift is legitimately a cool on the job system and this is the ONLY Final Fantasy that gives both magic and physical distinct roles so they're not put in a weird situation where Physical is straight up better because it requires fewer resources, but instead physical and magical compliment each other due to how the stagger gauge works. And debuffs are extremely strong in this game a huge plus in my book.
The datalog entries are pretty much required in order to comprehend all the vocabulary. Honestly it's pretty easy to follow once those made up words become familiar. As said, the soundtrack is phenomenal. The graphics still hold up. The linearity is a very misunderstood deliberate narrative choice. And it's overstated. I do recommend playing without the minimap. I highly recommend that.
I picked this one up because I found it cheap at a hobby store and the case looked cool and all holographic, plus I wanted to break into FF. I’m only at chapter four and I’m enjoying it so far!
Honestly everything prior to I'd say the first Barthandalus fight and everything past him might as well be two different games for how wildly my enjoyment swung around. When I first played this game I was just walking forward, mashing X and getting mad whenever that failed. I got up to the first Bart fight and got repeatedly destroyed by what I now consider the first boss in the game to put up a fight. I tried a few more times, didn't manage to beat him, and ended up dropping the game for roughly half a year because "whatever's past him couldn't be good enough to justify this". I was basically fully on team hater at this point. I came back to it later since I was a highschooler with nothing else to play, did the grinding needed to get my stats up to a point where Bart was actually fightable, beat him, and found myself kind of enjoying the next chapter(I love the Cid fight especially). Then I hit Gran Pulse and good lord I could barely put the game down. Between having every character, having access to every role on every character, more or less having the full crystarium, having frankly a ridiculous amount of hunts just dumped into my lap, I was well and truly hooked. I then went back in for a second run, this time not allowing myself to upgrade my weapons, rather choosing to play around with the passives on your gear(since run number 1 I basically just crafted obscene stat-stick weapons on certain characters super early and thought they'd carry me forever). It was potentially the most fun playthrough I had of any game in the series, mixing and matching gear for bonus effects it can trigger, popping specific weapons onto my characters because their passives are beneficial against specific foes.
I actually had a very similar experience with dropping the game at first and hating it and then picking it up years later and making myself playthrough the whole game and I'd say around Chapter 11 I just fell in love with it and it became one of my favorite games! And yeah this game is also very very deep with the battle mechanics but it's very approachable as well which is great!
My main complaint about the paradigm shift besides how long it takes to let you play it fully, is that the single leader thing was badly done in some aspects. For example: the leader ALWAYS drew aggro, which meant being the leader as squishy characters like Vanille and Sahz was a pain and you often got game'd over because the game made that leader die = game end, which was stupid. Vanille and Sahz were incredible buffers/debuffers and having control over their actions was much better than leaving the AI to decide, but you could never do it because you would normally die. Also, Summon was only available to be used by the leader, so you had an array of summons you would rarely use because, again, the leader gets aggro-ed and you die. So most of the time you would summon Odin or Bahamut because the best leaders were the commando and ravagers who had the vit and HP to handle the aggro. Other than that, best system SE invented. GReat mix of semi action, RPG and gambit system.
Aaah, amazing. I just did a cover of March of the Dreadnoughts on my channel and have been super high on FF13 for the past few weeks. This video is amazing, and I'm glad you mention the music so strongly, and so early on. Awesome video!
I genuinely love this game sosososo much, and the enemies can be challenging to defeat, but that’s what makes it fun. And the bosses… can be hard to, but once you defeat them, it’s like defeating an Elden Ring boss. It’s refreshing, and you feel good that you were able to do that. This was also my first game on PS3 that I recently bought. I hope that Square Enix decides to remaster the entire trilogy for new gen consoles. FF13 deserves all the love it can get!
Thanks, enjoyed your summary, and subbed. It would be awesome if we could eventually get some remasters of the 13 series for PS5, etc! This series is special if you actually let yourself experience it!
tbh the autobattle doesn't even always pick the best option it only takes into consideration buffs and damage resistance, not your character's stats If an enemy is weak to water and you have both Water and Aquastrike, but your character has higher strength than magic, it will still try to use both despite Aquastrike doing more damage because of how your character is set up autobattle can get you through the game but it will never be the best option and that's not even taking into account roles such as Synergist or Sabateur where sometimes autobattle will simply try to apply all buffs/debuffs that it can instead of what you want, which is another reason not to use autobattle
I’m so glad the tide of hate for this game has passed. It was the ff that came out when I was at that key age to deeply be influenced by an FF. I had played 12 when I came out and LOVED it, but 13 was a huge event for me, and I got in trouble right before it came out and my parents made me lose video games for a week and the game just sat on the counter until the week was over. The anticipation it created, and how much I LOOOOOOVVVVVEEEDDDD it the moment I finally started it, made my bond with the game like no other. The combat is so enthralling, the characters tied to my heart, and the music can bring me to tears like nothing. I so hope more people get to experience the joy of this game in the 2020’s.
Great keep on going bro, I’m 34 and I’m just starting content creating as well. I’m on Tik Tok but will be on Twitch and YT from there. But good luck 🤞🏻🎉
Great review! You covered every aspect in great detail and even though my first entry to FF was XVI, I was old enough to know about the launch of XIII way back in early 2010 but I never knew about the fan backlash until a few years later. Also this is irrelevant but what’s the name of the ost at the start of 2:15? Btw liked and subscribed
It's not a bad game like they say back in the 2000's, it was kinda linear in the beginning until you reach pulse and lightning is a character you could fall for so easy
Honestly this game is beautiful. The soundtrack and art style is phenomenal. I fell in love with this game when I was in school. The battle system. My favourite after FFX turn based system. The paradigm system was super enjoyable.
I grew up with it on release but i didnt understand the concept of gridning and upgrading weapons so i had a tough time and dropped the game for most of my middle and highscool years, when the game works and im switching styles smoothly for any given situation. Its just amazing feeling
Thanks for defending the battle system, besides actually being very engaging it’s just very kinetic and beautiful. Also my favorite battle theme in the series
With regards to combat and auto-battle, I'd also like to add that while the game is mostly playable by using auto-battle, the game actually rewards entering commands manually if you know what you're doing. For example, Sazh spamming Blitz can be better dps than him using Attack if you're fighting a large enough target due to the unique way his Blitz functions, and Lightning's Attack command can be better DPS than using Ruin on a specific ranged boss during the story - auto-battle will usually pick Ruin iirc, due to it doing more damage per attack, but the attack animation for her attack in that battle is so fast that it's higher dps in practice. Another, much more applicable optimization, is that auto-battle will often alternate between a spell and an attack. This is especially common in XIII-2. The issue with this is that there is a significant animation delay when a character swaps between attacking and casting, so your whole turn can take almost twice as long if you let auto-battle handle it. This is less of an issue when an enemy is more resistant to one type of damage, as auto-battle will choose only one type of action, but if they're equally vulnerable to both and your character has balanced stats, this is a big issue. The game heavily rewards knowing the game well, and that's awesome, but most people will never encounter these nuances because the game never encourages you to do it, so you'll usually only find this stuff out very late in the game, often from guides written by other players.
I love replaying this game every now and then. Actually gonna start another play through in a couple minutes! I enjoy that there's a lot of ways to play the game. It's heavily story oriented but the characters are so well done
Played on Xbox360 long time ago, sadly people hated it cause was not open world and too much tutorials. As a dungeon crawler was fun as hell, and the race cinematic I found up epic till this day.
Just finished playing ff16 and I can say this from all the main ff titles 13 by far is my favourite and I agree with everything you said about the game. 13 years later and it still looks and plays beautifully
The 13 series is what made me want to platinum a game(s) for the first time ever when it came out. Such a treat to play and do a 100% completion. I really don't get why it was donked on so much.
It's honestly my favorite Final Fantasy and in my top 10 favorite games of all time. I never played any other FF before it and never understood the hate long time fans had. Having played the older titles the hallway argument always made me laugh because so many other FF games are strictly linear with the story.
FF13 is good, it's flagship to SE's Crystal Tools, my only complaint of the game is that later in game you realize that you're playing a movie instead of actual RPG, even every fight is predetermined from how your paradigm setup was, it's good during its time of release
I've been revisiting the franchise and am now up to FF 13-2 so FF13 is very fresh to me. I totally get why people knock this game or even outright hate it...but in my revisit of the franchise its sitting at number 1. I absolutely love the WWE style party drama that make up the first 9 chapters. The game then opens up build options and combat progression while backing off story and in doing so it becomes my favorite combat system in the entire franchise. The characters are iconic to me but so are many in the franchise as a whole. This is also a game that just plays wonderfully with my modern gaming sensibilities of a dual monitor setup for podcasts and shows. Its excellent for playing for 15 minutes...getting a nice little story chunk and then 15 more minutes and repeat. Perfect flow of demanding your attention for a while but letting you enjoy a zen experience for a nice little chunk. This aspect paints my opinion of FF13 a LOT because in a vacuum, if I had to rank FF games on their own played without any other distractions there is no way I'd rank this game number 1 anymore. Games like FF6 and FF4 would quickly rise to the top in that case. But that's not PC gaming for me in 2023 and I suspect its not PC gaming for many of us. Edit: I HATED FF13-2 back in the day and I can safely say that I still absolutely hate that game now on this revisit. Its bottom 3 in the franchise for me.
That's a really good point about the Zen experience! As I was playing through the game again for this video I noticed that I would watch a video on my phone or on a secondary monitor or listen to a podcast in between major story chunks and I really enjoyed that playthrough
Great video. Agree with everything you were saying except for the linearity because I actually like linearity to keep focused on the story. Whenever I play games like Skryim I just end up sidequesting for 20 hours or more, becoming too OP, and losing track of the story. I actually liked having shops at the save points too because I can craft and buy stuff on the fly in dungeons vs needing to go to a town FF13 is an awesome game
What an awesome video, not a boring minute and the most refreshing review. I've loved this game for so long but didn't understand it completely. The way you've explained the battle system and everything else was better than the countless times i've tried to AND it made me understand it better for my 2nd playthrough. You are now appointed the official FF13 spokesperson for everyone i'm sending this video to so they could play it!!
One thing I tried when I got back to the game (played it on ps3 and got it on steam a few years later) was doing manual battle. And man did combat open up even more. If you time it right, you can have Lightning do just 1 attack and she can backflip away from a melee attack. Also, when the leader is not being targeted, you can spam 1 ruin and it will trigger "blindside", causing the player to move backwards, separating the leader from the rest of the group, which can prevent you from getting hurt from AOE attacks. I highly recommend it (but healing is a pain so I just use the auto command for that 😭😭😭😭😭)
Thanks for the video! I legitimately was thinking about playing this again and buying it, since I had good memories playing with a friend in middle school. We had just gotten to Chapter 11! Lol But the battle music! So good :D
I have always loved the music of this game personally. Man, I really need to do this stage in theatrhythm. Watching your video makes me want to get the trilogy on my new PS5. I’ll have to research the best way to play.
The linearity in FF13 would have been fine if the gameplay actually switched it up, but it didn't. FFX works because you're going from battles to puzzles to towns to blitzball and that sort of thing, so it doesn't feel like you're doing any one thing for too long. FF13 is pretty much walk forward, find hidden sphere chest and do boring battles for 20 hours until the combat system opens up later on in the game. It wouldn't have taken much to fix this - just add some puzzles and add more depth to the towns. There are some areas in FF13 that are just LONG and very samey, where the corridors really do feel like they are copy-paste from others that you just passed through. That's also a problem.
I always thought FF13 was fine. Not amazing, but not the disaster so many fans of the series treat it as. I always say that if they want to know what a truly bad FF game is, play FF2. What's more interesting to me is that despite what a MASSIVE success XIII was commercially for the series, it has never gotten any form of re-release on hardware after the PS3 and 360. I think it has been long enough after the XIII trilogy came out that nostalgia is setting in, so doing a remaster would probably net Square a good amount of coin and spark renewed interest in XIII. But they're just... leaving it alone.
Yeah I felt generally similar after finishing it for the first time last year. I bought it on the Xbox 360 back in the day, but gave up during the open world section (Chapter 13?) with all of the hunts. I tried to skip ahead and ignore that section, but found myself hitting a brick wall of a boss later, and wasn't able to progress. It's probably fair to say that the open world section is probably mandatory for grinding the hunts, unless you've specced your characters 'correctly'. Perhaps I was just bad at the game, I don't know, but it felt a breeze for me until that point, and I was using the role system properly too. Regardless, I found it much easier last year and finished it for the first time. I felt it was a surprisingly competent game. I didn't feel that way when I initially bought it in college, but without those expectations I had back then, I found it to be a 7/10 game for sure. Nothing bad, pretty good in fact.
This is my first final fantasy series that only gain 20.000 gil until chapter 11, 25 times retry to beat last boss and almost cry because last form had a time limit to beat, so nostalgic 😅😅😅
Great video. Your analysis was spot on. I love FF13, it is my favorite (dont @ me) but every time I consider replaying it I give up bc of the hurdles you have to jump through with mods to make it playable on the PC.
@@thechance-lore4711 Shortly after watching your video and making that comment I did get the game and mod it into stability and I am loving it. You are so right about the music, it slaps.
I still hum the opening theme every now and again, i absolutely adore this game, i remember in HS waiting for school to end so i could come home and play this, i struggled at first but once you get a grasp of the job combos that work well the game becomes more manageable, mystic tower was my favorite combo
This was my first final fantasy game on the PS3. It isn’t my favorites but I definitely hold a special place in my heart of the trilogy. This game got me into JRPs and RPGs. I love the characters and the soundtrack. Good video!
That was a high quality review/commentary. And i am not even exaggerating if i say it was on par with IGN if not better. i foresee that u will be having tens of thousands subscribers. i wish u the best.
I did enjoy the game overall. I found the combat extremely easy and very hands off. Story was ok, probably would be better if i read the story notes in the game, but im not into doing that. Beautiful game and incredible music.
Thank you for a great video. I love this game. I was no rookie to FF in 2009 as I grew up with the NES and SNES. I feel as if this game easily stands up against any FF out there
an ff13 video in 2023? sign me up!
Thanks! Stay tuned for more soon!
I just start play this game and damn the CGI is gorgeous
YAAS
Just scored the platinum trophy today
Too bad you can’t play it on ps4. I have the Xbox 360 version but my Xbox broke!
it breaks my heart that so many fans disown this game. its a masterpiece to me, and I sing its praises whenever I get the chance.
I definitely agree! This is absolutely a beautiful game!
Nope still shit
No towns. No exploration simple as that
@@EAchank no getting lost and annoyed, like in the other games!
@@ryan_deakin 13-2 did it right
One thing I really love about the trilogy is the mythos, it's super interesting and ambitious. Kinda made me hope Versus XIII was made to expand on the lore
The lore of this game is excellent!! I wish Versus 13 would have made it out of the development hell that it was stuck in and not be transformed to 15 (although I like 15 as well).
there is Agito, also known as type-0, but it doesn't necessarily expand the mytho so much as it gives it another take
I'm not lying when I say this game changed my life, I bought it in a moment of hardship, and at the end I grew up loving every character and I learned something from each one of them. I dare to say is one of the best ensemble of characters in RPG
This is a wonderful game and I'm glad it's finally getting some of the recognition it deserves! Glad it helped you through a dark time!
Me too, the message of changing your fate is pretty strong
I feel the same way. every character is so good. im so happy to see that nowadays I see more and more people popping up and praising this game
This game helped me in a bad moment too!!
FACTS! Amazing game that's hated for some reason
The script was really well done. A breath of fresh air from the tired and stale presentation of retrospective videos from other creators . Keep up the good work. You got a sub
The script was well done? It bombarded you with terms and concepts in the opening hours which will not mean anything to you for several hours and you most likely have to go through the ingame Lexikon to understand some of them. You will rarely find a game which does a worse job.
@@brotbrotsen1100He was talking of the video's script.
Beside honnestly never understand that critic, I understood the story and didn't struggle understanding what the term mean, despite that I didn't read the logs sooooo yeah I don't get the issue.
LMAO no. Way to astrotruf your comment, little boy.
I genuinely LOVED this game. The battle system is so underrated. Some of the end game battles felt like action games because the speed you had to change paradigms was so fast. The amount of strategy that you could go into was actually quite deep. My only negative was the lore. I struggled to keep up with all the different terminologies. Even by the end I was like "what's a L'cie again?" 😂 overall though, this is a great game that I have replayed a few times over the years.
Yeah totally agree with all of these points!
Wait what, the terminology and lore is really not that hard to understand wdym?
@@yaknowwhoitis606 It must be an attention deficit disorder. Because I found it difficult as well. It was like there was plot missing to make me acknowledge the types. I can only hope to find a way around this issue.
The myth that the game plays itself and you can beat it by button mashing is an absolute lie. There are enemies that require quick and frantic paradigm shifting, there are enemies that require precise timing when switching to SEN SEN SEN or MED MED MED. There are enemies that require debuffs like Deprotect. There are enemies that are immune to stagger. The fact that they don't know this tells me they are noobs who played on Easy and didn't need any strategy.
The lore is actually really well done. The game logs every single piece that you need to understand, which is actually quite unheard of in heavy story games. You can simply open up the menu and read the lore
This was my first Final Fantasy game. I played it in 2013. At first I hated it because I didn't really understand how to properly play and unintentionally made the game drastically harder for myself and ended up dropping it about halfway through the story. Speaking of the story I honestly didn't understand it. I was confused about most of the terms the characters were using and didn't bother reading the in-game glossary.
Fast forward to late 2014 and I found out that I could stream the game on my PS4 via PlayStation Now. I decided to give the game a second shot but this time I watched videos on how to properly play and watched a spoiler free video that explained the story and certain terms and made a point to read the in-game glossary when necessary. I ended up LOVING the game and got back to where I originally was in the story in just 3 days (took my about a week the first time around). Unfortunately the game was removed from Playstation Now so I wasn't able to finish it. But I plan on getting a Series S this year so I'll definitely be playing through the trilogy this year.
That’s an awesome journey that you’ve been through with this game! That’s very similar to my experience with it too. I picked it up in 2010 and played it on and off for about a year and then dropped it because I couldn’t get into the battle system or the story. But in 2015 I picked it back up and struggled to get through the first 1/3rd of it for about 6 months and then finished shortly after that and fell in love with the game!
I also replayed it on a Xbox series and it was great! Runs really well with no real issues. Hope you get to play it soon and finish it!
Without game guides, I wouldn't have defeated the first appearance of Barthandelus. I still don't get the story and it's a lot of lore. I mean Star Wars has lots of lore but it can be understood or at least more fun to understand.
After enduring the first 15 hours or so on PSNow, I wasn't best pleased when it was taken off before I could finish it. It took me another 8 years before I could face picking it up again and starting from scratch on PC.
I'm pleased I did, in the end, but I cancelled the PSNow subscription after that experience and will never do cloud gaming again.
play 12
Just play them on pc. No reason to get xbox just to play xiii
Final fantasy 13 is my fav ff game of all time. It connected with me on an emotional level and helped through my depression for 3 months😊
Glad that you love the game like so many of us do and glad it got you through a rough time!! ❤️
Same here, the developer poured their souls into this game.
13-3 is the best one. The second one was kinda meh
ff13 gave me depression it was so bad
@@ahabgaddis7277 your despicable making jokes of people's depression no wonder no 1 likes you or watches you
I really want some sort of Paradigm shift to be introduced in a different final fantasy game because it was SO FUN
It’s such a good battle system!! I had a blast battling in this game!
And he’s more games should do some type of battle system like this!
I never used autobattle, this is the most fast-paced battlesysteme ever if you select manually, and the soundeffects if you time your attacks is awesome
I agree!!
Yes! This is my story, I played till Pulse auto-battling, and it felt so bad that I was in the dungeon part before it running past all battles. I stopped, realized I must be doing something wrong, and started again with the goal specifically of not using auto-battle, and it was a completely different game. Even early, playing for speed, it was so much better.
I love Lightning. She's both gorgeous and a badass.
I've played through the game maybe 20 times each with different weapons and accessories. Most who play it don't realize there are weapon and accessory combos that make battles easier.
But I love Lightning. I think she's one of the best video game characters of all time and I would love to see her back in a game in some capacity.
I agree with the take on Lightning!!
Fang was my waifu. I remember playing this game when I was in college and loving her and thinking is it normal to be obsessed with a game character 😂.
I thought lightning was kinda boring until XIII-3 then i developed a crush on her 😅😅
Shes such a badass 🔥🔥
she's the best
@@bort_hill amateur, i had a crush on her before final fantasy xiii even existed
My first final fantasy game. So much nostalgia just exploring the pretty world. The cut scenes were epic too.
it's a great game!!
Exploring a hallway with nothing in it is so amazing!
Hey it’s my first Final Fantasy game too.
This is hands down one of my top 3 FF games and I agree, a lot of people are/were turned off by that opening section and missed out on the paradigm system in all its glory.
Yeah it’s in the same spot for me as well!!
I stood in line for hours waiting for that game to be released got the strategy guide the collectors edition. I loved every second of it. Was I confused as hell about the story? Yes but like you mentioned once that padagrim system finally opened up. Oh man it was on a whole mother level of strategy. The final boss fights were pretty tuff and then going after all the hunting missions! I wonder how many people ever killed that elite adaimatum or what ever that huge dinosaur was called lol
I didn't get the game on launch, but I picked it up a couple months afterwards and I got the strategy guide with it and I hated it initially and gave up on it for several years. I came back probably 6 years later and finished it and I loved it! And yeah the final boss and the Adamantoise are very challenging which I love!
i recalled that i've watched a video about defeating whatever that huge dinosaur was.
if i remember correctly, the dinosaur was defeated pretty easily.
.. just a few rounds of Paradigm Shift.
About 1:40 to kill a basic toise. The long gui and baby gui are tougher imo
As far as Final Fantasy games go, this is one of my favorites. Not to say it didn't have issues. By God, it had so many issues. But, in terms of favorites, its sequel is actually the one I like the most. 13-2 gets rid of most of the linearity, its music slaps, and though the story was even more convoluted than 13 (time travel of all things?), I was willing to put up with it so long as I had Plains of Eternity blasting in the background. Plus battling and collecting monsters brought me back to my Pokemon roots and the game's need to give you things to find managed to be both intriguing and tedious at the exact same time (looking at you, graviton cores). All in all, I really loved the video, and I'd very much like to see your opinion on FF 13-2.
FF13 is wonderful and I can’t wait to play through FF13-2!
13-2 gets rid of mostly anything, no? the paradigm fights become absolutely weird with mostly 2 characters. the story is basically a blackbox, you just jump into random time points, you dont get to bond with serah and the other guy either, unlike the first game... im really curious why you would prefer 13-2 over 13 D:
FF13 was my very first Final Fantasy and I loved it. I was so very very confused about the story, but I loved the music, the stunning visuals, and the combat as well. I never finished the game bc I never understood the paradigm shift mechanic and like you, I don’t need too until I hit chapter 11. I picked up 13-2 some time after and loved it even more. I’m a sucker for monster capture systems. Overall, I enjoyed the game and watching your video made me wonder if it’s time to finally go back and beat it.
Thank you!! And yeah I think it’s time to go back! The very end of this game is very good!
Beat it.
Use the SEN, it fuckin rocks late game. 3 sentinel will save your ass late game.
Bro get back into the game and finish it. The paradigm shift is way better to use after chap 11 where it’s fully expanded. The basic when fighting is stagger monster-->do a lot of damage. This guys explains the whole mechanics. Try to understand the vid and give the game a go again
I'm VERY much here for your video. It's one of my Fav FFs of ALL time (I'm 40). What you said about the soundtrack makes me smile ear to ear because, I too listen to it in my free time and consider it one of the best FF soundtracks. Great video, great game. Most underrated FF title.
Thank you!! And Amen to that!! The music is wonderful and I listen to it in my free time as well!
My third favorite FF game! Always fun to discover new people who like the game
It's a wonderful game! And thanks for the comment! What's number 1 and 2 for you?
Finally good FFXIII takes, 13 imo has the best atb combat of the whole series n they even do a lot to try and teach players even before it opens up wit the eidolon fights.
This battle system is wonderful!!
Final fantasy 7 remake has better at combat
@@mystertom100just play the original lol
lol Auto-Pilot Fantasy 13*
What a great video, you definitely addressed both the critiques and praises of the game in a digestible format. It definitely touches on the more broad things that I feel people overlooked about the game.
I love this trilogy but I can see why it may have put some folks off especially if you've played the other FFs first, namely 10 and 12. I always think that if this game didn't have "Final Fantasy" attached to it, then it probably would have done much better or at least been given more of a chance. (Something like the Last Story for Wii, which is also another great game from the creator of the original FF and the composer of FF7)
Can't wait to hear your thoughts on FFXIII-2 or any other FF games!
Only one major problem here...
You only have 10 subs at the time of my watching, I will gladly be number 11 😤
Thank you so much Therius!! I’m glad that you enjoyed the video and I appreciate the sub!! FF13 gets a lot of hate but I wanted to voice out my opinion on it for people like us that love it.
I’ll definitely be making more videos on different FF titles but I’m thinking about doing a few more interesting videos on FF13 as well. So I’ll have more videos out soon!
And again thanks for the support!
I do like the Crystarium system for increasing stats and gaining new abilities. I was initially thrown off on first play through by the lack of a traditional experience points building up to a level up system (like Kingdom Hearts and FFXV use), but capping how far you can upgrade the roles each character has based on what point in the story you’re at is a good compromise for not making the characters overpowered and only fully unlocking it by finishing the story. The weapon upgrade system could have done with more help ingame though.
Absolutely agree with all of this!
Always a fan of underdog games. The big draw for me to consider this game is that it’s a trilogy. Being able to play a large narrative over several games resonates with me.
If you haven’t played it give it a shot!!
Then you will love Legend of Heroes, it has a huge narrative still going for 12 games since Trails in the Sky.
@@feiwong3634 I have tried so hard to get in to this series, but for various reasons I just haven't been able to. I mean, I own the first 6 games, but never got further than the first mission in Trails in the Sky 1 and a hefty amount of time in the first of the second series that's eluding me at the moment. You're right: this series on paper should totally do it for me.
I absolutely love Final Fantasy 13. It's a little more linear than I'd like it to be, but it doesn't take away the amazing-ness of the title. The story is beautiful. Characters are great! Hell, my first couple's cosplay was myself as Serah and my partner as Snow
That's awesome!! and I absolutely agree with all of these takes!
I got this game yesterday and I spent around 5 hours in it and I am enjoying it! Good job on this video it really sums everything up. can't wait for your next vid!!
Thank you so much and glad to hear you’re having fun with it!! And more videos to come soon!!
I'm so glad to find people loving this game. I've loved it since release. I played it twice in a row, something I only ever did with 7 and 9 at release.
That’s awesome!! And yeah I think a lot more people love this game than you’d think.
This game has a massive place in my heart, I watched my mom play this game and played it myself, and the music sort if rented part of my brain to itself and paid for lost Odyssey's room next door. Its so good and i love it.
That's awesome that you and your mom played it and yeah I think the game and the music is outstanding!
Talking about this game in 2023 makes me so nostalgic... I bought FF13 when I was 17 and in a very depressive and dark phase of my life. Playing this game, gave me so much as a teenage girl.
I was already a big FF fan then and still am today. Next to FF10 and FF7, FF13 has a very special place in my heart.
I love the music so much and still listen to it nowadays. The design of the world and of the characters is mesmerizing even for a game that came out in 2009.
And I really liked the journey of the story. There is something about it that is so unique. Yes, many things also bothered me, such as individual characters (yeah SNOW, Hope, Vanille, and even Lightning sometimes even though she is my favorite character). Also, the battles and the leveling up were tedious as hell but still, I enjoyed everything about the game.
It surely felt like a journey for me and seeing these characters struggling and fighting against destiny is just so important to witness!! As a player, you see things differently once certain aspects of the game impact your heart. Thanks for bringing back these memories. 💗
Absolutely!! Thank you for your time!! I'm glad this game impacted you so positively in a tough time!!
The videogame that changed my life forever.
I just bought the trilogy for the black friday Xbox pc store deals, $30 the 3 games.
Fun fact for me is that I've never played the other two 13 games, so for me, this is like getting a 2nd and 3rd season for a series long in the waiting. I honestly cannot wait to relive this story.
That's awesome! Hope you enjoy it!
I'd actually agrue that the combat system is better when you do a mix of auto battle and manual entry. I'd reccommend starting with manually entering aoe moves like blitz and the higher level spells while targetting the enemies closest to the middle of the group. Then switching to auto battle once either enemies spread out a bit more or you only have 2 left. I find this to be faster and more enjoyable since I actually have to do more than press 1 button and wait. Also getting a good idea of how much your healing spells heal is very important so you don't over heal because you can cancel actions that have yet to be performed and keep the progress on your ATB guage. Making a switch to healing and throw out 2 or 3 heals then switching back to your damage paradigms is also very useful. None of this is necessary but i find it to be more enjoyable and makes the end game alot easier.
That’s a good point! I’ll have to try it out!!
I fucking love FF13's battle system and there are so many little optimisations you can make right from the beginning of the game. Things like, targeting the best enemy for an AOE move and timing it right, and knowing when it's worth attacking without fully filling ATB. And as soon as you get paradigms you can start taking advantage of ATB refreshes to deal more damage or quickly stagger enemies way faster. People also neglect TP moves like quake that can be used to keep stagger gauges up (particularly useful with pre-emptive strikes on large groups). And one of my favourite things to do as Sazh is abuse his blitz move against larger enemies to deal way more damage than regular attacks would.
There are so many quirks and bits of tech to make use of, but admittedly because it's such a unique system I think most players won't necessarily take advantage of them, which is a massive shame.
Music playing at 8:18?
I believe that is Lake Bresha
15 years later, it still looking 100times better than pokemon
HAHA so true!
This soundtrack was on repeat when I was in middle school. I was a huge orchestra nerd so all the strings always intrigued me. I started playing this game again and have been loving it! Especially now that I understand it more with my adult brain.
The soundtrack is amazing!! And glad that you still love it!
I totally agree, I love the battlesystems and the story. A great game in my opinion.
Amen!!!
Thank you for speaking well of my childhood haha❤
I was about 10 years old when my father took me to the gamestop to buy a game. He said: "a game within this amount of money" I don't remember exactly how much now but I think it was about twenty euros, as a little experienced child I was very impressed by the cover of final Fantasy xiii but at the same time I loved the cover of catherine (thank god I didn’t choose that one at the time, who knows understands that it wasn't really a game for children) but in the end i chosen ff. I had no idea of how to play the game properly since the games I played before were the sims, various tomb raiders, the prince of persia etc so in short titles quite different genres from ff. I remember that even in those titles I was stuck so many times in parts that if played again now are very easy , but ff xiii had all my willpower as a child I’ve been stuck at least 100 times I freaked out so many times in beating the bosses because I couldn't and after hours of attempts ,if I kept losing, I started looking for the walkthroughs of the game managing somehow to play around 9/10 chapter arriving in barthendeus or whatever it was called boss, and that’s where i got stuck in a definitive way when i was a kid hahah, I tried again to do it recently and damn it I didn't remember it so complicated that damn thing. I remember that I was amazed by the realism and graphics of the game, that for being a 2009 game it was stunning and still is visually remarkable in my opinion today. I also loved many characters and I loved the fact that for a part of the game I had the characters divided into small teams, I loved the team with Hope and Lightning where she was a bit like a "mom”, there was even a chapter dedicated on Hope’s personal growth were he was like put on charge to become more brave and strong? I don't remember the plot well but it should be something similar but anyway I really appreciated the growth of his character so much. It was also very nice the duo of Sazh and Vanille both very comical characters who in my opinion were a very good combination. Maybe as a child I was kind of sad cause I wanted to play more with Snow alone because I remember the difficulty in beating shiva but it was damn inspiring I remember perfectly that I finally beat her one morning before school and that says it all 😂
I also think that playing Snow solo fits his character better ngl.
But yeah, it made sense why they didn't do it. There’s no need to talk about the world to be honest, full of such different and detailed environments were magic for my eyes. The characterisation of each map was nothin but mesmerizing and I loved using chocobo in areas where you had some open world gameplay.
Thank you for this review that made me want to play it again 😂
Thank you for watching the video! And yeah I agree with all of various different praises of the game that you make! I hope you get to play it again and enjoy it all over again!
@@thechance-lore4711 thank u for reading all the comment hahahaha
After I sent it I realized how long it was.
And don't worry I think I'll play it soon since i still have my old working ps3 and the game
Of course! it was a good comment! and great! hope you have a good time with it!
My two biggest problems with FFXIII is:
1. the story isn't presented well at all and is mostly in the datalogs, not a huge problem for me personally since my top two favorite games of all time are long JRPGS that aren't voiced (Sora No Kiseki FC and SC) though FFXIII does just lazily throw most of the interesting worldbuilding in its datalogs.
2. You only get the full combat system in chapter 9, which is criminal since FFXIII has the best combat system in any FF in my opinion (though, there's still some cool stuff you can do really early on, stuff like ATB refresh, Paradigm shifting when your party leader is in the air to skip the animation that happens the first time you shift in every battle, Sazh's blitz and probably some more stuff I'm forgetting.)
And my third slightly smaller gripe is that the localization is really bad in FFXIII.
All in all I enjoyed the video, though I felt it could've been a bit longer since some parts felt a little rushed, like the OST part, you could've let blinded by the light get to the actually good part but I assume you cut it short so as not to get smited by squeenix.
Thank you for comment! Yeah I totally agree with those points, it's a shame that most of the story is really behind datalogs, is told very poorly, and that the localization is very bad as well. I know that several cutscences have complete different meanings in Japanese. Also, the battle system is absolutely the best in the series but it takes too long to open up. But, once it does it's great!
And yeah, I cut the music bits short and used various different tracks because of potential copyright issues lol
didn't have a chance to play the game but 14 years after still listening to the blinded by light and kimi ga Iru Kara.
the soundtrack is wonderful!!
This is one of the most underrated FF titles, I don't mind linearity at all. I absolutely love the music (I listen to it a lot) and battle system.
Amen! I love all of those!
Best battle system , fast and dynamic .
I am so glad that someone who actually paid attention to the battle system is talking about it. So many people didn't bother reading anything and just went "Auto-Attack BRRR". But Paradigm Shift is legitimately a cool on the job system and this is the ONLY Final Fantasy that gives both magic and physical distinct roles so they're not put in a weird situation where Physical is straight up better because it requires fewer resources, but instead physical and magical compliment each other due to how the stagger gauge works. And debuffs are extremely strong in this game a huge plus in my book.
I totally agree!
It is trust me
Agreed!
The datalog entries are pretty much required in order to comprehend all the vocabulary. Honestly it's pretty easy to follow once those made up words become familiar.
As said, the soundtrack is phenomenal. The graphics still hold up. The linearity is a very misunderstood deliberate narrative choice. And it's overstated.
I do recommend playing without the minimap. I highly recommend that.
Never tried it without a mini-map! Might have to replay it again without it!
NO NO NO, never, under no circumstances (if you value your life), it never was, it never will
Yes Yes Yes
I picked this one up because I found it cheap at a hobby store and the case looked cool and all holographic, plus I wanted to break into FF. I’m only at chapter four and I’m enjoying it so far!
That’s awesome!! Stick with it and let me know what you think!
it wasnt even worth playing on release for me xD probably the worst main entry of ff
haha fair enough! Not for everyone
Honestly everything prior to I'd say the first Barthandalus fight and everything past him might as well be two different games for how wildly my enjoyment swung around.
When I first played this game I was just walking forward, mashing X and getting mad whenever that failed. I got up to the first Bart fight and got repeatedly destroyed by what I now consider the first boss in the game to put up a fight. I tried a few more times, didn't manage to beat him, and ended up dropping the game for roughly half a year because "whatever's past him couldn't be good enough to justify this". I was basically fully on team hater at this point.
I came back to it later since I was a highschooler with nothing else to play, did the grinding needed to get my stats up to a point where Bart was actually fightable, beat him, and found myself kind of enjoying the next chapter(I love the Cid fight especially). Then I hit Gran Pulse and good lord I could barely put the game down. Between having every character, having access to every role on every character, more or less having the full crystarium, having frankly a ridiculous amount of hunts just dumped into my lap, I was well and truly hooked.
I then went back in for a second run, this time not allowing myself to upgrade my weapons, rather choosing to play around with the passives on your gear(since run number 1 I basically just crafted obscene stat-stick weapons on certain characters super early and thought they'd carry me forever). It was potentially the most fun playthrough I had of any game in the series, mixing and matching gear for bonus effects it can trigger, popping specific weapons onto my characters because their passives are beneficial against specific foes.
I actually had a very similar experience with dropping the game at first and hating it and then picking it up years later and making myself playthrough the whole game and I'd say around Chapter 11 I just fell in love with it and it became one of my favorite games!
And yeah this game is also very very deep with the battle mechanics but it's very approachable as well which is great!
no, it's not
Fair enough lol not for everyone
Do you mean to say that you want to play games that are fun and not hallway simulators with nothing to do?
I remember getting the midnight release for this game. Couldn't stop playing it.
That’s awesome!!
My main complaint about the paradigm shift besides how long it takes to let you play it fully, is that the single leader thing was badly done in some aspects. For example: the leader ALWAYS drew aggro, which meant being the leader as squishy characters like Vanille and Sahz was a pain and you often got game'd over because the game made that leader die = game end, which was stupid. Vanille and Sahz were incredible buffers/debuffers and having control over their actions was much better than leaving the AI to decide, but you could never do it because you would normally die.
Also, Summon was only available to be used by the leader, so you had an array of summons you would rarely use because, again, the leader gets aggro-ed and you die. So most of the time you would summon Odin or Bahamut because the best leaders were the commando and ravagers who had the vit and HP to handle the aggro.
Other than that, best system SE invented. GReat mix of semi action, RPG and gambit system.
I totally agree!! Hope they remaster and put these changes in!
Aaah, amazing. I just did a cover of March of the Dreadnoughts on my channel and have been super high on FF13 for the past few weeks. This video is amazing, and I'm glad you mention the music so strongly, and so early on. Awesome video!
Thank you so much!!
I genuinely love this game sosososo much, and the enemies can be challenging to defeat, but that’s what makes it fun. And the bosses… can be hard to, but once you defeat them, it’s like defeating an Elden Ring boss. It’s refreshing, and you feel good that you were able to do that. This was also my first game on PS3 that I recently bought. I hope that Square Enix decides to remaster the entire trilogy for new gen consoles. FF13 deserves all the love it can get!
This is a really good way to put it! Glad you love the game!
Thanks, enjoyed your summary, and subbed. It would be awesome if we could eventually get some remasters of the 13 series for PS5, etc! This series is special if you actually let yourself experience it!
Thank you so much!! Absolutely couldn't agree with you more!! I hope we get some remasters soon!!
tbh the autobattle doesn't even always pick the best option
it only takes into consideration buffs and damage resistance, not your character's stats
If an enemy is weak to water and you have both Water and Aquastrike, but your character has higher strength than magic, it will still try to use both despite Aquastrike doing more damage because of how your character is set up
autobattle can get you through the game but it will never be the best option
and that's not even taking into account roles such as Synergist or Sabateur where sometimes autobattle will simply try to apply all buffs/debuffs that it can instead of what you want, which is another reason not to use autobattle
That’s a good point!
This is my favorite game of all time. I played it like crazy, loved every bit
It's and excellent game!!
I’m so glad the tide of hate for this game has passed. It was the ff that came out when I was at that key age to deeply be influenced by an FF. I had played 12 when I came out and LOVED it, but 13 was a huge event for me, and I got in trouble right before it came out and my parents made me lose video games for a week and the game just sat on the counter until the week was over. The anticipation it created, and how much I LOOOOOOVVVVVEEEDDDD it the moment I finally started it, made my bond with the game like no other. The combat is so enthralling, the characters tied to my heart, and the music can bring me to tears like nothing. I so hope more people get to experience the joy of this game in the 2020’s.
I’m glad that you loved the game and yeah I totally agree!!
I gotta say that the main theme (Serah's song) is an amazing welcome to the whole experience.
The main theme is wonderful!
I just came here to comment that RUclips recommended this to me *13 days* after it was uploaded and I find that a lil' spooky.
Yeah that’s very “timely” haha
Great keep on going bro, I’m 34 and I’m just starting content creating as well. I’m on Tik Tok but will be on Twitch and YT from there.
But good luck 🤞🏻🎉
Thank you! You as well!!
Great review! You covered every aspect in great detail and even though my first entry to FF was XVI, I was old enough to know about the launch of XIII way back in early 2010 but I never knew about the fan backlash until a few years later. Also this is irrelevant but what’s the name of the ost at the start of 2:15?
Btw liked and subscribed
Thank you so much!! And the OST is Fangs Theme!
It's not a bad game like they say back in the 2000's, it was kinda linear in the beginning until you reach pulse and lightning is a character you could fall for so easy
agreed!
Honestly this game is beautiful. The soundtrack and art style is phenomenal. I fell in love with this game when I was in school. The battle system. My favourite after FFX turn based system. The paradigm system was super enjoyable.
Totally agree and I'm glad that you love it like I do!!!
I loved this game! I only have figures of two Final Fantasy characters. One is Aerith in her red dress (pretty recent), and the other is Lightning.
That’s awesome! I love this game too!
Completed the Story today after 13 Years❤
Thank You for the Video❤
Absolutely!! Thank you for watching!! ❤️
I grew up with it on release but i didnt understand the concept of gridning and upgrading weapons so i had a tough time and dropped the game for most of my middle and highscool years, when the game works and im switching styles smoothly for any given situation. Its just amazing feeling
It's a tough one to get into, but if you do, I think you'll find it to be very rewarding!
How to I play final fantasy nt addition in my fold 3 ?
Thanks for defending the battle system, besides actually being very engaging it’s just very kinetic and beautiful. Also my favorite battle theme in the series
Of course!! And yeah it’s wonderful and fluid! And the music is great as well!!
With regards to combat and auto-battle, I'd also like to add that while the game is mostly playable by using auto-battle, the game actually rewards entering commands manually if you know what you're doing. For example, Sazh spamming Blitz can be better dps than him using Attack if you're fighting a large enough target due to the unique way his Blitz functions, and Lightning's Attack command can be better DPS than using Ruin on a specific ranged boss during the story - auto-battle will usually pick Ruin iirc, due to it doing more damage per attack, but the attack animation for her attack in that battle is so fast that it's higher dps in practice.
Another, much more applicable optimization, is that auto-battle will often alternate between a spell and an attack. This is especially common in XIII-2. The issue with this is that there is a significant animation delay when a character swaps between attacking and casting, so your whole turn can take almost twice as long if you let auto-battle handle it. This is less of an issue when an enemy is more resistant to one type of damage, as auto-battle will choose only one type of action, but if they're equally vulnerable to both and your character has balanced stats, this is a big issue.
The game heavily rewards knowing the game well, and that's awesome, but most people will never encounter these nuances because the game never encourages you to do it, so you'll usually only find this stuff out very late in the game, often from guides written by other players.
These are some good and fair points!!
I love replaying this game every now and then. Actually gonna start another play through in a couple minutes! I enjoy that there's a lot of ways to play the game. It's heavily story oriented but the characters are so well done
Great video. I agree on most points. I appreciate the fact that you talk fast because I dislike slow-talking RUclipsrs
Thank you!!
Played on Xbox360 long time ago, sadly people hated it cause was not open world and too much tutorials. As a dungeon crawler was fun as hell, and the race cinematic I found up epic till this day.
Yeah it was a great experience!
Laughing bc same I’ll never forget that moment when they burst in and the Orion robot gets close to Hopes face.
Just finished playing ff16 and I can say this from all the main ff titles 13 by far is my favourite and I agree with everything you said about the game. 13 years later and it still looks and plays beautifully
That’s awesome!! 13 is a wonderful game!
I first played this game in 2019. It deserves more credit, in my opinion. I should make some time to replay it.
Totally agree!!
i played it when it came out and now i just started my secound time and am enjoying it
It's a great game!!
Finished it now I’ll play 13-2 and then lightning returns, am so glad I still have my play station 3 😂
this game takes me back... I was just 16 when i bought it using my first pay packet...
That's awesome!!
The 13 series is what made me want to platinum a game(s) for the first time ever when it came out. Such a treat to play and do a 100% completion. I really don't get why it was donked on so much.
That's awesome! Glad you love it and yeah I don't get the hate either!
It's honestly my favorite Final Fantasy and in my top 10 favorite games of all time. I never played any other FF before it and never understood the hate long time fans had. Having played the older titles the hallway argument always made me laugh because so many other FF games are strictly linear with the story.
Just because you were five when it came out doesn't mean the game is good, little boy.
Same here! It's a wonderful game!
its trash
FF13 is good, it's flagship to SE's Crystal Tools, my only complaint of the game is that later in game you realize that you're playing a movie instead of actual RPG, even every fight is predetermined from how your paradigm setup was, it's good during its time of release
Very fair take!!
Great vid. This is a top 5 fav game of all time for me
Thank you so much!! And honestly I think it's the same for me!
I've been revisiting the franchise and am now up to FF 13-2 so FF13 is very fresh to me.
I totally get why people knock this game or even outright hate it...but in my revisit of the franchise its sitting at number 1. I absolutely love the WWE style party drama that make up the first 9 chapters. The game then opens up build options and combat progression while backing off story and in doing so it becomes my favorite combat system in the entire franchise. The characters are iconic to me but so are many in the franchise as a whole.
This is also a game that just plays wonderfully with my modern gaming sensibilities of a dual monitor setup for podcasts and shows. Its excellent for playing for 15 minutes...getting a nice little story chunk and then 15 more minutes and repeat. Perfect flow of demanding your attention for a while but letting you enjoy a zen experience for a nice little chunk. This aspect paints my opinion of FF13 a LOT because in a vacuum, if I had to rank FF games on their own played without any other distractions there is no way I'd rank this game number 1 anymore. Games like FF6 and FF4 would quickly rise to the top in that case. But that's not PC gaming for me in 2023 and I suspect its not PC gaming for many of us.
Edit: I HATED FF13-2 back in the day and I can safely say that I still absolutely hate that game now on this revisit. Its bottom 3 in the franchise for me.
That's a really good point about the Zen experience! As I was playing through the game again for this video I noticed that I would watch a video on my phone or on a secondary monitor or listen to a podcast in between major story chunks and I really enjoyed that playthrough
I loved this game. Once the crystarium and map open I found it way more interesting and fun
Totally agree!!
I think one of my favorite characters in this game was in fact Snow. Snow and Lightning were by far my two favorite characters.
Totally fair!!
Great video. Agree with everything you were saying except for the linearity because I actually like linearity to keep focused on the story. Whenever I play games like Skryim I just end up sidequesting for 20 hours or more, becoming too OP, and losing track of the story. I actually liked having shops at the save points too because I can craft and buy stuff on the fly in dungeons vs needing to go to a town
FF13 is an awesome game
That’s a really good point! And thank you! Glad you enjoyed the video!
@@thechance-lore4711 I could have sworn my comment was much longer than this 🤔 ah anyway whatever
Other than FF16, which I’ll get into on my birthday next week, I’d say the eventual FF13/13-2 remaster is the game I’m looking forward to most.
I’ve been playing FF16 and it’s great so next week should be fun for you! And I hope they remaster these too
This was an excellent video essay and I can’t believe it’s your first upload! New subscriber here excited for more content 🙏
Thank you so much!! More to come soon!
What an awesome video, not a boring minute and the most refreshing review. I've loved this game for so long but didn't understand it completely. The way you've explained the battle system and everything else was better than the countless times i've tried to AND it made me understand it better for my 2nd playthrough. You are now appointed the official FF13 spokesperson for everyone i'm sending this video to so they could play it!!
Thank you so much!!! I'm glad you enjoyed! And I'm glad to help out!!!
One thing I tried when I got back to the game (played it on ps3 and got it on steam a few years later) was doing manual battle. And man did combat open up even more. If you time it right, you can have Lightning do just 1 attack and she can backflip away from a melee attack. Also, when the leader is not being targeted, you can spam 1 ruin and it will trigger "blindside", causing the player to move backwards, separating the leader from the rest of the group, which can prevent you from getting hurt from AOE attacks. I highly recommend it (but healing is a pain so I just use the auto command for that 😭😭😭😭😭)
That's really good advice!! Thank you!!
Thanks for the video! I legitimately was thinking about playing this again and buying it, since I had good memories playing with a friend in middle school. We had just gotten to Chapter 11! Lol
But the battle music! So good :D
Thank you so much!! And you should give it another play through! And the music is wonderful!!
I have always loved the music of this game personally. Man, I really need to do this stage in theatrhythm.
Watching your video makes me want to get the trilogy on my new PS5. I’ll have to research the best way to play.
Thank you!! I played on a Xbox series and it was great! The game was upresed as well!
The linearity in FF13 would have been fine if the gameplay actually switched it up, but it didn't. FFX works because you're going from battles to puzzles to towns to blitzball and that sort of thing, so it doesn't feel like you're doing any one thing for too long. FF13 is pretty much walk forward, find hidden sphere chest and do boring battles for 20 hours until the combat system opens up later on in the game. It wouldn't have taken much to fix this - just add some puzzles and add more depth to the towns.
There are some areas in FF13 that are just LONG and very samey, where the corridors really do feel like they are copy-paste from others that you just passed through. That's also a problem.
Fair points!
I always thought FF13 was fine. Not amazing, but not the disaster so many fans of the series treat it as. I always say that if they want to know what a truly bad FF game is, play FF2.
What's more interesting to me is that despite what a MASSIVE success XIII was commercially for the series, it has never gotten any form of re-release on hardware after the PS3 and 360. I think it has been long enough after the XIII trilogy came out that nostalgia is setting in, so doing a remaster would probably net Square a good amount of coin and spark renewed interest in XIII. But they're just... leaving it alone.
I hope they do a remaster!!
Yeah I felt generally similar after finishing it for the first time last year.
I bought it on the Xbox 360 back in the day, but gave up during the open world section (Chapter 13?) with all of the hunts.
I tried to skip ahead and ignore that section, but found myself hitting a brick wall of a boss later, and wasn't able to progress.
It's probably fair to say that the open world section is probably mandatory for grinding the hunts, unless you've specced your characters 'correctly'.
Perhaps I was just bad at the game, I don't know, but it felt a breeze for me until that point, and I was using the role system properly too.
Regardless, I found it much easier last year and finished it for the first time. I felt it was a surprisingly competent game.
I didn't feel that way when I initially bought it in college, but without those expectations I had back then, I found it to be a 7/10 game for sure. Nothing bad, pretty good in fact.
This is top-tier quality for a 1st video , ill would definitly watch more of your stuff !
Thank you so much!! I’ll have more soon!!
This is my first final fantasy series that only gain 20.000 gil until chapter 11, 25 times retry to beat last boss and almost cry because last form had a time limit to beat, so nostalgic 😅😅😅
Great video. Your analysis was spot on. I love FF13, it is my favorite (dont @ me) but every time I consider replaying it I give up bc of the hurdles you have to jump through with mods to make it playable on the PC.
Thank you so much!! And yeah I definitely feel that!
@@thechance-lore4711 Shortly after watching your video and making that comment I did get the game and mod it into stability and I am loving it. You are so right about the music, it slaps.
I still hum the opening theme every now and again, i absolutely adore this game, i remember in HS waiting for school to end so i could come home and play this, i struggled at first but once you get a grasp of the job combos that work well the game becomes more manageable, mystic tower was my favorite combo
That's awesome! I listen to the soundtrack all the time! and my favorite was relentless assault
This was my first final fantasy game on the PS3. It isn’t my favorites but I definitely hold a special place in my heart of the trilogy. This game got me into JRPs and RPGs. I love the characters and the soundtrack. Good video!
Thank you so much and I'm glad that you love the game!
Just ordered a 360 copy! Can’t wait to play it 🙏🏼
That's awesome! Hope you enjoy!
Do you think this will get a switch release? Never played this one
Definitely not lol we can’t even get it on current day consoles so there’s no way it’s going to switch unfortunately 😢
That was a high quality review/commentary.
And i am not even exaggerating if i say it was on par with IGN if not better.
i foresee that u will be having tens of thousands subscribers.
i wish u the best.
Thank you so much!! I really appreciate it!! More to come soon!!
This was my 1st final fantasy and despite the flaws, I loved it!!! Introduced me to the world of final fantasy games.
That's awesome!! glad you had a good experience with it!
I did enjoy the game overall. I found the combat extremely easy and very hands off. Story was ok, probably would be better if i read the story notes in the game, but im not into doing that. Beautiful game and incredible music.
That’s fair! It’s definitely not for everyone but I’m glad you found aspects of it enjoyable
Thank you for a great video. I love this game. I was no rookie to FF in 2009 as I grew up with the NES and SNES. I feel as if this game easily stands up against any FF out there
Thank you so much!! And I totally agree!