T5W#244-Top 5 Reasons Everybody Hates Final Fantasy XIII

 

No franchise of any kind is perfect in anyway.  Even those universally adored like Star Wars, Game of Thornes, Dragon Ball or Gundam have their fair share of stinkers in their resume (The Rise of Skywalker, GoT Season 8, Dragon Ball GT, Gundam Seed Destiny).  Final Fantasy is no different.  Across 15 games and multiple spin offs, some succeed more than others.  One that many can nearly unanimously agree is pretty bad is Final Fantasy XIII.  I’ll admit it took me a couple of times to get the game started and though I finished it, the reasons why people despise this one were pretty clear to me before barely the ¼ mark.  I’ll also admit there were a couple of things I did like about the game too like the music, the visuals and actual character growth where it showed.  Overall though, this wasn’t the best of the Final Fantasy games by a long shot and I’m gonna go over my Top 5 Reasons Final Fantasy XIII Sucks today on Top 5 Wednesday.

#5-Combat System

Most JRPGs require you to learn a lot about the combat systems and the multitude of choices you need to make in the heat of battle.  While the Active Time Battle element is there, there’s a strange sort of…hand holding to things this time around.  It is an interesting change at the beginning but it doesn’t feel the same as the usual Final Fantasy turn based fare. There’s strategy involved in taking down enemies with the right classes sure but it feels like the combat portion of the game can be almost played on autopilot.  I guess this was done to make Final Fantasy action a lot more faster but sometimes the slower, more methodical approach works best.

#4-They threw in a random Pop Song for the US Version

Normally when a Final Fantasy game comes to the US, it comes with an English dub and that also includes English versions of the theme songs.  They did it for Final Fantasy X-2, frak Hikaru Utada did two versions herself for every Kingdom Hearts game.  And you know what, they all sound fantastic in Japanese and in English.  And yet for reasons beyond getting someones name out there, they attached a random American pop song that honestly has nothing to do with the game itself…besides being a possible guilty pleasure song for Lightning to listen too when she isn’t brooding in public.  My Hands is an ok song itself, it just doesn’t belong with Final Fantasy (and also, the original Japanese end theme Kimi ga Iru Kara is much better anyway).  Funny enough, Florence and the Machine’s cover of “Stand By Me” was the main theme for Final Fantasy XV and it fit so much better with the themes and story of that game…so a US song can work sometimes, it’s just gotta be the right one.

#3-The Linear Progression

When you think of Final Fantasy games, you think of epic stories with epic journeys across epic worlds.  And while XIII’s world looks beautiful and grand, it also feels like there’s something missing.  Oh riiiiight, that ability to traverse those wide open fields and tackle side missions and even main mission quests in any particular order you’d like.  You cant even really explore many of the area you visit or pass through because you’re relegated to a single straight line for traversing.  There is a more classical Final Fantasy wide open field you can explore very late in the game.  But let’s be honest, by the time you get to Pulse after all the hype around it, you just want Final Fantasy XIII to be over and done with so you can play a better Final Fantasy or better JRPG in general.

#2-The Story and World Building

After countless hours of playing, I still had one question on my mind: What the f*** is a L’cie?  What’s the difference between a L’cie, a Pulse L’cie, a Fal’cie a WHATEVER CIE!!!!???  They keep throwing around those freaking terms and I cant tell you WTF anyone is talking about.  The bare bone basics of the story is that the lead cast is cursed and must save the world to lift that curse…or something like that, it does get complicated because why not.  I feel like a lot of this lore, terminology and world building was meant to be expanded in the other games meant to be part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis series that was launched by Final Fantasy XIII.  While Final Fantasy Type 0 also has L’cie in it, Final Fantast XV (once Final Fantasy Versus XIII) has nothing to do with XIII anymore and does it’s own thing.  As a stand alone game, XIII’s story is pretty boring, confusing and at times infuriating.  At one point, I think I was just focused on finishing the game to just finish it rather than fulfil any meager investment in saving the world or its cast.

#1-The Cast

Yikes, where to start with this one?  How about the lead?  Long before I even played the game, I was excited to get to know Lightning, who looked like a very sexy and powerful leading lady.  And while she is a hot character, Lightning is easily one of the most depressingly dismal characters in any Final Fantasy, arguably more than Squall or Cloud.  What about Snow and his annoyingly eternal optimism?  Or Hope and his constant need to blame people for problems out of their control?  Or Vanille and her…well Vanille existing is kind of my problem with her actually.  Some of these people do go through actual character growth and my God, Fang is the lead heroine we should’ve been following instead of eternal Debbie downer Lightning.  But when you ask people which game had their favorite cast of characters, it’s doubtful Final Fantasy XIII is at the top of anyones list.