// Excuses, Excuses


So what happened to Final Fantasy XIII? Well, a few things. First was the fan reaction to FFXII. A lot of people got on the knee-jerk reaction wagon and disparaged the open-world concept because of how they felt towards MMORPGs, particularly Everquest and World of Warcraft. I can’t blame them. I’ve played a lot of MMORPGs and, outside of a brief stint with FFXI, never really had a good time. I’m sure this isn’t true for most of you, considering how popular a lot of these Skinner Box games are. Yet I couldn’t shake the feeling that MMORPGs had a lot more to offer traditional RPGs where world building and life-like elements were concerned. FFXII did a lot to incorporate those elements.

Because of the fan reaction, Square-Enix ended up going the other direction. They decided to use a system which more fully incorporated cinematic elements and designed the game around a linear pathway. Instead of the sprawling world and life-like elements of FFXII, the new title would shave off all the excess. No more functional towns, no more branching paths, and a lot more attention to J-pop inspired fashion. It worked for FFX, why wouldn’t it work again?

FFX didn’t really work in such extremes. Sure, it was a bit more linear and had a J-pop aesthetic, but it also allowed for exploration and fleshed out its world with a lot of different cultures. That made it kinda neat. Being honest, I’m not much of an FFX fan, but I really appreciate what it brought to the table. In fact, re-implementing the multi-cultural world building element from FFX is one of the reasons I like FFXIII so much. FFXIII just didn’t do that.

FFXIII has a lot of flash and glitz, but it’s hollow inside. There’s a popular fan notion that it’s just a retread of FFVII, which I’m willing to believe given how successful that franchise has been. But unlike FFVII, its characters never really grow beyond their archetypes. They never manifest complex egos or realistic motivations. In the end, the cast comes off as kind of… dumb, I guess? It might just be me, but I really couldn’t believe in any of them as people, and I’ve had to suspend a lot of disbelief in gaming over the years.

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Categories Gaming, Media, Philosophy

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4 Comments to Excuses, Excuses

  1. by big dick
    On March 30, 2011 at 4:53 pm

    I keep telling you. Square-enix is no longer a gaming company. it’s a interactive movie company. FF13 and FF14 proves that.

  2. by Lania
    On March 30, 2011 at 5:58 pm

    My god Mark, this is really well written! I so enjoyed reading this and I agree with what you say. I still need to complete FF XIII, and I see that as quite an arduous task. We’ll see how it goes…
    Again – awesome writing!

  3. by Julie
    On March 30, 2011 at 7:06 pm

    Interesting read. You made me want to play FFXII when I had blown off the whole series for years.

  4. by Mark
    On March 30, 2011 at 7:54 pm

    Lania > Thanks kindly, I’m glad to be of service. :)

    Julie > You really should, FFXII has a lot of good points.

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