» Thu Dec 08, 2011 8:57 pm
Final Fantasy XIII - As a game in general I didn't mind it, but as a Final Fantasy it was a massive disappointment. While nowhere near my favorite, Final Fantasy XII touched upon a number of things that I figured would become standard for "next gen" JRPGs, and then XIII pretty much dropped all of it. Large areas, a flexible combat system, etc. Instead XIII gave us long hallways, useless summons, next to no variety in combat and a story that I hard a hard time following until I read the in-game synopsis. The characters were also much less memorable than previous games, the exceptions being Sazh and Hope (yes, Hope).
XII wasn't much different in that regard though. I didn't care for anyone but Balthier, Ashe and sometimes Fran. Also hated its story, which despite originally being penned by Yasumi Matsuno (known for his excellent stories), was changed by Daisuke Watanabe. I'd love to see what the original script was.
Long story short, Tetsuya Nomura needs to stick to Kingdom Hearts.