Was this game really that bad?

Lately I've been trying to fill in the gaps in my vidya collection, and was reminded of one of the mainline FF games that I never got around to playing. This was mainly caused by fans who at the time trashed the game and said it wasn't worth your time. In hindsight, was the game really that bad? Would I be severely disappointed if I tried it out now?

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this game pioneered waifu pandering

Yes it was. I'm saying this as a big FF fan, it was my first video game I saved up money to buy at launch. I can still feel the disappointment, the game was and still is a fucking shitshow.

i doubt you can be disappointed about a game that you've no expectations from. it's very mediocre. maybe you like or don't

It's a pretty good game if you never level up Chrystarium and turn the audio to japanese and turn subtitles off

Lightning is my wife

Npt at all.
I myself used to shat pn it, until I actually played it. Not the best game or anything, but it sure picks up towards the end. The cast, OST and visuals are great, and combat is fun.
The sequels ironed out many inconveniences and shortcomings of the first XIII.

FFXIII is absolute trash with combat that is 2/3 automated. It was so bad that I will likely never finish it, nor will I likely never play FFXV because it killed all faith in the series that I once had.

>The good
the visuals are good. not as impressive as they were at the time but the art direction and enemy design holds up.
Sazh is one of the best written characters in the franchise. Fang and Vanille are okay.
Music is great, the main battle theme is easily the best of the series
combat can be somewhat enjoyable sometimes, when you start piling on massive damage and combos

>the bad
the characters other than the above mentioned decent ones are terrible. Lightning in particular is one of the worst and least likable video game protagonists ever. Snow is a faggot in the first game but is cool in the third.
The story is awful, almost nothing seems to happen event-wise and yet nothing makes sense or is explained well. by the time you get to the final boss it just kinda happens.
game is a hallway. it makes FFX look like Fallout 3 in comparison.
no towns, leveling system is jank

>not the best game or anything
You sure got that right!
>it sure picks up towards the end
LOL
>the cast are great
Vanille exists
>combat is fun
No
>sequel ironed out many inconsistencies and shortcoming
This game is a massive pile of shit, but hey, it's (mostly) fixed in the sequel

I've never in my life seen such pathetic cope. Trust me, OP, if you love FF, you really don't want to play this game

>In hindsight, was the game really that bad?
Worse actually.
Back then a lot of the defense centered around "it gets good after 25 hours!" which meant when you got to Gran Pulse, the open world area.
Problem is that Gran Pulse is a piece of shit ugly and empty field where you run between statues and do boring side-quests.

I honestly preferred the hallways. But no, it's a legit 5/10 game. I like Lightning and the combat and music for the most part, but the structure of that game is kind of nightmarish.

>combat that is 2/3 automated
How?

Quick someone post the dude who gave his girl a copy of this and she hocked it for $2!

You program moves for your party members before the fight starts. Then you just sit on your ass and watch. It's TERRIBLE

the game is pretty much all combat and cutscenes. the only exploration is in chapter 11 (besides occasionally walking down a small side path to grab a treasure chest). cutscenes are skippable though if they start to annoy you.
unfortunately combat is literally 'press X to win' in chapters 1 and 2. it does improve after that though. it's still pretty easy - at least up until chapter 8 or so.
you can increase the difficulty by leaving initial equipment on (that's what I did for my 3rd and 4th runs).
some people don't like the combat at all but there are people like me who find it appealing. it is certainly unique. I would love to play more games with similar combat but the only one I've seen is 13-2

>You program moves for your party members before the fight starts

that's XII, not XIII

paradigm shifting at the right time is the majority of combat.

It's ok. Not good as 7 or 6 and not as bad as 12 and 9.

>not as bad as 12 and 9.
uh oh

>not as bad as 12 and 9.
I'm one of the few people on Zig Forums that hates 9 but you are insane if you think 13 is better than either
it's probably the worst or second worst in mainline depending on how you feel about 15

Its not "bad" but it's never gonna be anyone's favorite game. Yes it does indeed open up near the end, but its still just an okay game. Easier to replay than FFIX-X I guess.

yes. yes. yes.

I love cutscenes but this game had too many and they were often boring. The trilogy as a whole has a good story but the first game was not my taste. I got used to the battle system at the end and the endgame missions can be fun but the overall the lack of towns and not being able to really talk to npcs ruined XIII for me. 4/10

FFXV can be quite good if you do all the sidequqest. The character interactions are very well written. However, the battle system is just like Kingom hearts and towards the end the game seems unfinshed. It appears like they cut out too much story content from versusXIII. But it's worth buying in a sale.

XII gives you the freedom to use gambits or not use them. XIII took the worst part about XII and made it mandatory.

It nearly killed the franchise a second time all because one man insisted on creating his ideal wife.

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>FFXV can be quite good if you do all the sidequqest.

the "sidequests" in XV were one of the following:
Go kill something
Go fetch me something
Go here to take a photo

>However, the battle system is just like Kingdom hearts
you wish. It's THIS the entire game because Tabata wanted to pander to casuals

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Yes and no. It is not as bad as you've heard, but it still isn't a great FF game. It's worth playing, just know that you really have to muscle through the first half as it's agonizingly slow to give you full reign over the battle system.

It has the best, deepest combat mechanics of all Final Fantasy, tons of brainlets get fucking filtered that's why you have complete retards saying shit like "the combat is 2/3 automated," it's actually much closer to Devil May Cry with weapon switching and keeping your momentum than it is to a normal turn based/atb final fantasy.

It's alright

>the amount of people itt that have never played this game
Fuck all of you and fuck OP if he takes your advice. XIII is a top-5 final fantasy.

It was that bad, play FF14 instead if you haven't.

It has some nice aesthetics/music, and the sequels were kinda OK. The kafkaesque cosmic horror setting is also very unique. But all in all it's not worth your time over better games.