Video Games Discussion

[tendokiddo]

Didn't find a general videogame discussion thread, so here goes nothing!

Just played a game and want to share your opinion on it? Tempted to buy a game but want a second opinion from this community? Just want to express your hype for a game release? Then post here. The title should say it all, really.

Spoiler: Final Fantasy Rant

Decided today to put Final Fantasy XIII on the shelf. Beat the game last week and was going to make an attempt at beating some post-game content, but after being mocked by Gigantuar (ie Jumbo Cactuar) and never ending needle outbursts, I think it's time to call it quits. Overall, this game is by far not one of the better FF titles on my list.

If you've played FF12, then the battle system will feel somewhat familiar as you're not controlling the actions of your teammates and instead need to setup things beforehand how they should act or behave. Except in this game it's called paradigms, where each paradigm has a certain classes set on your character and teammates, which affects what moves and spells they can use. Except you're entirely reliant on the AI to decide what moves are appropriate, and if your teamleader (character you control) dies, then it's game over even if the others are still standing. That last part has definitely caused some significant grief during the gameplay.

The battles feel very passive, since you're for the most part just using automatic suggestions made by the AI and instead focusing on what paradign is appropriate depending on the flow of the battle. It's just barely engaging enough to warrant your presence, but still uneventful to such a point that you feel you could spend your time multi-tasking something else. Coupled with how there are so many cut scenes in the game, along with the fact how you're pretty much expected to read pages of raw information in order to stay tuned with the plot (rather than weaving it into the dialogue (still don't get the plot tbh)), there were plenty of occasions where I didn't feel motivated to continue playing but continued doing so anyway just to say that I've beat it. There were some good moments, mostly when I got to explore new areas and just generally anticipating what I'd find. But since most of the new weapons only differed from your old ones through passive abilities, and most of the stuff you found where upgrade materials, you rarely felt excited to find a treasure chest.

Lastly, the post-game content is a complete grindfest. The last stage of the grid you're used to enhance your characters is only unlocked after beating the final boss (hence the existence of post-game content), but since the best grinding ground cannot be accessed after that point, you're stuck with beating low level foes or risk being pummeled to the ground by the foes that actually give good experience. And given the hardest opponents the game has to offer, well, you'll be spending a loooooooooong time either maxing everyone out or expanding the possible roles they can excel at.

I bought the game while it was on steam sale, so thankfully, I didn't spend that much money on it. Granted, I probably didn't grasp the full potential of the battle system, and there may have been easy grinding posts I've missed, but since I've played all other FF titles (FF11 excluded), this one certainly didn't leave me with any lasting impressions. I'm glad I'm done with it.

Today I started playing Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians. Initially I couldn't remember why I bought it since the videos on the Store Page made it seem more complex than anything, but now that I've gotten into it, it's surprisingly entertaining. Have only beaten 2/6 levels though, so there's plenty more before making a final verdict, but currently, it feels fun. Which given my sour review above, is just about what I needed right now.

 

[Alex_Among_Foxes]

I started playing Smash Bros. Melee again last night for my 'game of the month', and am finding it really hard to get into. The controls feel archaic and the response time for my inputs is absolute trash. I have a really hard time understanding why people consider it the best in the series honestly. And this is comming from someone who pretty much grew up with it as well, so it's not just trying out a game for the first time and not liking it lol. It's really making me wish I'd have picked Brawl instead, even though the 'story mode' is much longer.

 

[gimmepie]

No rules broken or anything but, in this section, we'd rather see new threads created for new topics and old threads replied to for topics that already exist. So we're going to be closing this thread. If you want to just chat about which games you've played recently, I'd recommend using this thread or creating a Game Journal.