The linearity of the game allowed for extremely highly detailed environments, 13-2 still looks pretty good but the game chugs because it's a lot more open and Lightning Returns chugs even harder because the engine is not capable of supporting the environments despite their incredibly low level of detail for the time.
Especially from an era of games that has overall aged pretty poorly, visually. Most PS3/360-era games are brown-grey, and what looked "realistic" at the time now just looks ugly and same-y. The FF games from this time still look fantastic.
I have been a lorediver for the Trilogy for over a decade now, and I have devoted so much work and time to study these games, the details, the connections, the symbolism, the story beneath the surface. There are finer points in here that I would personally go over more in-depth, lore-wise, but I have been there and I know it would take much more than three hours, so your work will definitely reach much more people who might want to give the Trilogy a shot. For so long, we have been screaming into the void, and what we could do individually was very limited-but with people with a larger audience spreading appreciation for this criminally underrated and mind-blowingly complex and deep story, I believe there will be a day in which the finer points will reveal themselves by others' curiosity. So I thank you for taking the plunge and lending us your voice. :)
@@ESPmrBrough I yapped on XIII Trilogy lore as I guided one of my XIV podcast crewmates through his blind playthrough. You can find the entire run of all three games at @lorelinesxiv. We will also soon resume his run of Type-0. :D
One point I'm glad you mentioned in this has been the fact that the characters are actually acting normal per their stimuli. I wholeheartedly agree with this. While this is not my favorite final fantasy, my favorite ff character, Hope, is in it. The way people treat him about his own stimuli on his actions baffle me. Honestly, he acts more like his age than anyone else. He is 15. That age, I was dealing with a l9t and ended up picking up this game as an ff fan. I found kindred spirit in him and his growth helped me quite a bit myself.
@@Djungelurban you definitely were too... Because all teenagers are extremely off and don't understand how to talk to people. If you think 15 year olds are suppose to be like adults in anyway, then you're probably an insufferable adult.
@@snazzydrew Hope has the emotional maturity of a 6 year old, my partner's 8 year old niece is way more level headed and reasonable than him. There's a happy middle ground between being an adult and Hope (or more like an ocean of emotional maturity) and vast majority of teenagers are within that range. Hope is a self-centered brat, if he was a sociopath and in a position of power, he'd literally be Joffrey Baratheon.
I'm gonna politely ask everyone in the industry to stop using the acronym "CP" for in game resources EDIT: Since I get grandstanding replies every other day, I'll make it clearer. The above comment is meant to be a humorous joke pointing out that something innocent and something really bad have the same acronym. It is not me campaigning for the removal of the acronym "CP" from all media.
I'll go as far as to say the FFXIII era was the last time it actually felt like Final Fantasy. Love or loathe FFXIII, it was its own thing not trying to chase after any other trend. It had a complementary blend of soundtrack and visual aesthetic that created that intangible, magical feeling that should be present when playing a Final Fantasy. The paradigm system had some wonderful depth once you got into it too.
Exactly. In all honesty though I miss the turn based system more than anything. I miss the strategy and I loved Saboteur. FF15 was a good style transition but FF16 felt so repetitive and easy. FF16 had a amazing and better story than FF15 IMO, though
You could classify Vanille as the Ravager instead of another Saboteur because her every action, and inaction, unwillingly make things worse for everybody around her. She was an engine of destruction who chose to run away and/or hide things from others for fear of bringing further ruin upon them, as was her nature. This leaves Fang as the Saboteur, which is obvious from her purposeful and direct approach in dismantling the obstacles standing before Vanille and herself - infiltrating Cocoon and attacking Kujata at Euride Gorge, working with Raines to crush the Sanctum Fal'cie and destroy Dysley's status quo, becoming Ragnarok, etc. Vanille cannot be another Saboteur because she is not a willing participant in the misery she causes, whereas Fang consciously engages in it and eggs the others on in their rebellious campaign to veer off the path set before them by the machine gods and fight fate. Even in Lightning Returns we see Vanille's efforts bringing calamity and Fang stopping at nothing to get in her way. Ravager and Saboteur.
@@HopeEsthiem15 It takes a great essay to get the noggin' joggin'. I went through the trilogy again three years ago and was surprised at how carefully and lovingly constructed the characters and themes were. The setting, the sound design, everything about it is nothing short of a masterpiece, corridor-memes aside. Just like the metal version of the chocobo theme from 13-2, the trilogy as a whole had the misfortune of being ahead of its time and suffered for it. I'm glad people like Tetra are spreading the good word with critical analyses like this. Hopefully more people are willing to give it a second chance.
XIII is my favorite game in the series since FFVI, period. I feel like IX, X and XII are extremely over hyped by comparison. I've played XIII about as much as I played VII when it came out. Nowadays I have no desire to play VII but I still play XIII maybe once a year or two. @@MisterMinotaur
@@rabbyd542XII, overhyped??? That's CRAZY. I've seen so much hatred towards XII over the years, almost incessantly the same, 3-point parroting scheme as what happens here with XIII. If anything, XII and XIII are VERY similar in the fact that both of them are incredibly misinterpreted and misunderstood games. That's not to say there aren't defenders of XII either, of course there are, I'm one of them. But the point still stands, XII is FAAAAAAR from an overhyped FF game. X will always be my favourite in the franchise and I doubt that'll ever get topped, even with how much I absolutely appreciate and love so many other entries, but overhyped? That just seems wrong to me. I honestly think X has one of the most accurate feedbacks from the community in the entire series of FF games, more than IX, VIII, all of the earlier 2D entries and heck, even VII. People seem to "get" X a lot more than they understand basically all of the others, for better or for worse with said games. Sometimes, it's completely putting things on a pedestal that were essentially theory crafting or made-up interpretations, or other times, it's unnecessarily bashing the hell out of the thing for a gut feeling people can't seem to properly articulate without resorting to super surface level critiques that hardly even make sense. Just look at how people treat XIII? I think for me? This all came to a close when I finally went ahead and played FFXV for the first time. I really enjoyed it and realise, that even if it was unfinished and all this other stuff on release, the passion was still there by the devs and what came out the other side was still brilliant to play. It's hardly a masterpiece of any sort, but damn, it wasn't all the absolute waves of shit I'd heard online, that's for sure. People are reactionary and we can place equally reactionary judgment on media all too often, but that's kinda why I like videos like these. It's like properly sitting down with a game and having a conversation with it, rather than not hearing it out. Hits all those pros and cons naturally, not with just reaction-bait style aggressive labelling. Alls this to say, in my incredibly convoluted, roundabout way, I don't think those games are "overrated", as much as FFXIII is entirely misunderstood and that it definitely deserves more appreciation for what it wanted to be, not what everyone thought it was trying to copy; that's the true flaw in people's logic to me. It was never "trying to be FFVII" and I always thought that argument made absolutely zero sense.
6:10 - In the example you gave about the man saying he's not a l'cie, the alternative _isn't_ him describing the l'cie on screenーit is the story _showing or hinting to us_ what a l'cie is or what makes a l'cie scary, thus indicating why the boy is scared. The guideline often cited is "show, don't tell". Of course, XIII eventually does that. People forget that this opening is meant as a narrative hook, to get the audience to ask those very questions, like "what is a l'cie?" or "why is this man saying he's not one?", etc. I do think the game's narrative has an execution problem regarding how much important info is relegated to its menu lore book. Of course, if you stay up-to-date with it, like reading, and are invested in the story the game is trying to tell, the game is probably one of the most compelling FF stories ever told (imo). But if you find any of these things hard, uninteresting, or perhaps were ignorant that you were supposed to be reading them, I think it's completely valid to find the overall game's narrative more lacking.
Yea, the alternative isn't to have Sazh exposit about l'cie in that moment, it's to establish what a l'cie is (or at least, that a l'cie is something ordinary people would be scared of) beforehand. Like, maybe have a news broadcast for a moment on the train before hell breaks loose where the term is mentioned.
@@DuskoftheTwilightThat wouldn't be any better than what's in the actual game. Either the newscaster gives the exact same information that Sazh does in this scene - L'cie bad, scary, possibly on this train - or he gives a lecture on what a L'cie is to a train full of people who already know what it is, the same as if our newscasters began every election update this year by explaining what a "president" was in detail.
I think the problem is a lack of middle ground. As stated above, the game has a perfectly good narrative hook that makes the audience ask questions. The problem is that nowhere in the game (not counting the expansive datalogs and supplementary reading) does it ever *answer* those questions. It constantly throws around proper nouns without giving enough time to ever elaborate on any of them, not helping the similarities between the words. I know my first time playing the game I had a hard time keeping up just because just because of the confusion of having fal'Cie and l'Cie getting thrown around in the same breath. I think a lot of the problems here could be remedied if they just chose different words that allowed for slightly more context clues. Just off the top of my head replace fal'Cie with Arbiter and l'Cie with Pawn, just as an example, and you could get a MUCH better picture of things just from the context of what those words mean in general use, refined further as the audience hears it used in the context of the world itself. No need for expository dialogue and no need for extra reading.
Just to add to Vanille and Fang, They are the only 2 characters who learn " Faithra " ( increasing Magic by 80% ) and " Bravera " ( increasing Strength by 80% ) which are DOUBLE of the standard Faith and Bravery ( raises Magic/Strength by 40% ) Both also are the only ones that learn " Protectra " ( 50% physical damage resistance ) Compare to its counter part ( 25% )
Earned a sub out of me my guy. Truly captivating stuff. I've long since been a staunch defender of Final Fantasy XIII. It's a great feeling to no longer be alone.
This is it. This is THE FFXIII video essay. FFXIII has long been my favorite FF game for all the reasons you laid out. While playing it, the story and gameplay and legit woven so TIGHTLY that you can feel the intention of each character. I cry every time I play this game several times because of how much emotion each character has. Also the ending hurts my very soul knowing that in an instant, Lightning disappears.
Lightning is transient. Instant and powerful, then gone. Like it was never there. Eclair Farron is a character I grew to love more as time went on... I rarely have the time to play big jrpgs anymore but I may just return to my old PS3 copies of 13 through 13-3
I'm sorry your favorite Final Fantasy is complete garbage. Hopefully you'll play a good game and reach the age of reason. I challenge you to play the game with the minimap turned off
@@FinalFantasyXDen-br4toX is okay. Just okay. XI needed constant revisions, XII was dull as dishwater with a poorly implemented fake mmo battle system, XIII worked in some ways yet failed in others, Couldn't care less about XIV, XV was never completed and XVI was a big pile of flashy meh. IX is still my favourite.
@@FinalFantasyXDen-br4to wow who hurt you? There’s no need to leave numerous replies to any comment that show different opinions than you. It’s OK to let people enjoy things. Just move on.
Oh, if anyone is going to replay this game... Two tips. Lightning: Look into making her a Sentinel. There's some nasty builds where she's practically untouchable. Snow: Funny enough, due to animation speeds, he's one of the best Ravagers in the game. He can fire off more spells per second because he finishes up his animations faster.
Lightning doesn't get any guard abilities, and snow is actually the slowest caster in the game. This is probably the worst advice possible. I assumed you had mentioned ATb refresh or something
@iamthehobo Sentinel Lightning revolves more around Evade/Elude and Accessories, keeping her alive for the few attacks that do hit her. It's a fun alternative build for when she's the leader and you don't want too many random deaths. It's not the best thing since sliced bread but if you want to make sure Lightning lives while she is your leader then it's a funny gimmick option. Makes it pretty easy to recover from a mess up with Lightning using Pheonix downs after. I'd have to boot up FF13 again to check Snow's cast speed, I don't remember him being faster/slower than anyone else but he is a decent ravager early, I think he gets Aero and Blizzard which is fine. Critically I think he's one of the Ravagers that gets Overwhelm earliest which makes him great in Tri-Disaster or Rav/Rav/Com (can't remember the name of this paradigm) in the mid game. It does fall off late game though from what I felt/remember playing.
@@iamthehoboSnow is the fastest caster in the game, that's in part why he is part of the final team in the speedrun, you must have mistaken with Sahz which indeed has a bad casting animation.
Pro tips: the auto battle commands puts in all the optimal battle commands depending on the targets. Meaning you and your A.I. controlled party might accidentally heal the enemies if they're using random attacks. To prevent this, LIBRA EVERYTHING. Libra and Librascope are your best friends. Unlocking weakness and knowledge on enemies will allow auto battle and party members to perform optimal actions and not throw out random stuff.
@@Spootington not just you, but i definitely don't think it's the popular opinion unless you're a narrow-minded contrarian, then i think it might be the holy grail of spicy gaming takes amongst your gang
@@splitprune Both companies were doing fairly well for themselves beforehand. I actually think Enix benefited more - SO3 was really something, 4 was good but had a dumbly named mc, heard V is dreck but VI is worth.
Havoc Skytank is the only enemy in the game who's long ranged. And since it's a long ranged battle, Lightning has a special way to use her Attack animation (though you can only use it if you manually select Attack) : Lightning will shoot at high speed with her gun. This is the fastest attack animation in the game by no small margin.
Someone else mentioned that. I had no idea because I just assumed it was impossible since Auto-battle never uses it. All the more reason to avoid auto-battle lol
@@Tetramorre Well I didn't know she had that animation before fighting Lightning in her DLC in 13-2 and I saw her using her gun for attacks and I wondered why I wasn't able to do that myself xD Later I learned it was in 13 (and 13-2) from the beginning.
I was hoping someone would mention this. It's probably THE most niche fact about this game alongside the existence of Cut and Keep. If anyone hasn't ever watched HCBailly's playthrough of the game he honestly understands the game so thoroughly and completely it is the definitive game mechanics guide. Although I will say the tech of giving Lightning Faith to lock her in place is really clever and I didn't think of utilizing that at all in my playthrough.
Absolutely the best video essay on FFXIII on UA-cam. This was actually my first Final Fantasy game and I love it to bits. I didn't think anyone else thought about this game and every aspect of it as much as I have, but I'm happy to be proven wrong. Great analysis and takeaways. Here's to a hopeful re-release of this game on PS5 and Xbox, even just with 4K/60fps options and a few quality of life improvements. Fingers crossed!
@@TheRogBG the point is that the camera is shit and you can't see anything, so you must rely on the minimap. The battel system is dogwater, the story sucks, and the characters are forgettable. There is nothing good about Final Fantasy Transformers.
As someone who has multiple XIII themed tattoos, it's actually really gratifying to see someone that basically gets this entry in a pretty similar way that I do and appreciates this game for the Good and the Messy. There's so much to love on this game, a lot of heart clearly went into this game despite its troubled development and it always sat wrong with me how the game often has a lot of detractors repeating criticisms of the game that are actually factually untrue. Personal point of annoyance has been a bit of the music. The OST can be really incredible but it relies really heavily on motifs in a lot of it's tracks. The main melody of "Promise" features a lot and echoes around a lot of games areas. "Blinded by Light"s beats are repeated in a lot of basic tension tracks and Hope's theme feels universally applied to a lot of the more emotional scenes. It's likely the reason why the OST kinda blends together for myself, you, and a lot of others. Despite the sequel's flaws, I will give it to that game that it has a lot more track diversity that keeps the soundscape fresh (even if there is a lot of motif repetition in that as well). Another bit I really like is how the mechanics of progressing through the Archlyte Steppe and surrounding areas really reinforces the theme of Pulse. You are at the bottom of the food chain fighting for survival as you start off fighting easy plant-life, moving onto small wolves, needing to take advantage of 3-way fights to get the upper hand, to fighting behemoths and monstrosities unaided. I think it really does convey the feeling of rising to the top in a fight for survival in a pretty organic way.
I f love Pulse! The game finally leaves you alone and on you're own, you can progress at youre own pace and come across challenges that can really kill you❤
But now I gotta know what tattoos you have. 😭 I really hope to get a brand one day, Blazefire Saber, Overture and Crimson Blitz, and Mog and a chocobo.
The rise to power on pulse is also reinforced by how the stat progression starts to baloon about that point. The party starts to rise from the realm of mortal soldiers and simple wildlife to epic monsters of legend and finally the settings demigods. In other words, they stop simply surviving and begin thriving.
It's true for some abilities (like Lightning's Haste and Reprieve and Vanille's Faithra), but for specific abilities (Lightning's Imperil, Enthunder or Elude) or for the role itself (Sentinel needs only Provoke if you want to better tank big hits like Bart3's Ultima, Hope's Ruin needs 6000 CP), there's good enough and don't need much.
It is. But by the time they become accessible you're already gaining so much CP that it's easy to start a new role and reach the height of the currently available ones. I gave everyone in my party a fourth role and it wasn't so bad when the benefits allowed me to grind for more
This is just a great video! I loved how you chose to go with the flow of the story, because that's exactly one of the strongest elements of the game to me
You missed an important thing with the accessories system: Equiping similar accessories, or accessories in a set, can yield secondary bonuses (like physical wall +5 or +10). This actually showed up in your video while you were mixing and matching accessories. As an example of how useful this can be: In the section in Palenpoem where you control Snow and Hope, there is a regular enemy that can one-shot Hope with an attack that deals a ton of small hits. Preach in his recent playthrough had to deal with this and kept getting destroyed. Putting the Physical Wall ability on by mix/matching accessories made it much more tolerable for Hope to survive this ability.
The game over music happens after Brynhildr fight. I think there's a 3rd one but I don't remember where. Also, a bit sad you didn't talk much about chapter 12's context. The hatred and fear against Pulse the governement put in its citizens heads came to fruition. 3 armies (our group, the PSICOM/Guardian Core and the Cavalry) that have the same goal (to save Cocoon) are against each other thanks to the Fal'Cie's manipulations. It's an all out war between 5 sides (Cocoon Fal'cies, Pulse L'Cie, Cocoon Army, Pulse Army and the Cavalry) whom I know no story that did the same. It's further shown in the gameplay with many triangular battles and unreachable fights.
My personal theory on the L'Cie 'focus' is that there simply isn't one. I think what happens is that whatever fragmented vision they are shown is them seeing a glimpse of their own future and they are manipulated by the Fal'Cie into believing that this is instead a purpose given to them and that whether they become Cieth or turn to crystal is more to do with their own state of mind. If they think they have failed or have become doomed to fail then they'll become Cieth, if they think they have succeeded or reach a level of personal satisfaction then they turn to crystal. It is the Fal'Cie that muddy the water about what is actually happening in order to manipulate the L'Cie due to not wanting their human weapons to realise just how much free will they retain. The reason that the 'focus' of a L'Cie is so fragmented and vague is that it is not actually what it is claimed to be. As an example - when Serah turned to crystal Snow claimed 1 purpose for her focus and Barthandy later claimed another but their is no proof to either and it is just as possible that it was simply a result of her mental state as her fiancee and sister both appeared together to save her when she was lost and alone. With the vagueness of everything about being a L'Cie it is relatively simple to confuse the truth and create a fiction about how it works. Vanille and Fang are/were fated to become Ragnarok, it is/was in their future, but this does not mean they are fated to do what Barthandelus says they are. He is just doing his best to make them _think_ that they are. This is my head canon at least... Probably influenced by the Legacy of Kain series where such manipulations are all aimed at making those with free will not realise that they have it.
This definitely isn't an impossibility and I like the way you are thinking with this. There are 2 times in the plot, though, that nay contradict this. The first is that Fang and Vanille turned into crystal after blowing a hole in Cocoon - by the way both of them act, as they are not bloodthirsty mass-murderers, I doubt they were extremely satisfied with themselves when their joint Ragnarok did that. The second is that the whole party turns to crystal after defeating Orphan, and the only ones who are really at peace with that result are Fang and Vanille. I doubt the rest if the party feels very happy at the thought that their 2 friends just sacrificed themselves to save them and all of Cocoon and Pulse. That all said, I completely agree that free will and choice are major aspects of the story. Even if the focus puts a L'cie on a leash, it is a much longer leash than the Fal'cie let them believe. The fact that L'Cie are also given the power to summon Espers, which the Fal'Cie notably can't do, definitely leads me to believe that the power ceiling of a L'Cie is greater than most Fal, and they are actually afraid of letting their dogs realize how much freedom and power they truly have. At the very least, I don't think a Fal'cie can just snap its fingers and crystallize or Cieth a L'Cie, that's all on the L'Cie and their own brand growth/mental state.
@@EZog58 Thank you. One thing I forgot to mention in that comment was that the Fal'Cie clearly have _some_ influence over when a L'Cie reaches the end of their time, perhaps they can speed or slow it. And in the case of the subject becoming Crystal they seem to be able to restart the process again (unlike if they turned Cieth) but that their control over both these processes and the actions of the L'Cie in general is a lot weaker than they allow the humans to believe.
The Eidolons are directly linked to that concept, Cieth are people who have given up their humanity and become husks for one reason or another, but Fal'Cie do retain the ability to transform L'cie into Cieths at will, which is further explored in 13-2. When the L'cie are about to give in, their Eidolon appears to challenge them and if they overcome they gain a new lease on life as a result.
Great analysis. The story/gameplay cohesion of ff13 seems really interesting. I'll definitely be rewatching this one, if only to try and figure out the whole fal'cie l'cie pulse cocoon thing.
I disagree. I like FF 13 but these sound like excuses. "The characters already know the story so there's no point in exposition". Good writers find a way to insert exposition in movies and games. Lord of the Rings explains terminology like Mordor and Rivendell when they become relevant. The Truman Show hides the exposition in a TV interview with Christoff. This author is throwing away hundreds of years of good writing practice just to defend the game. I will defend FF 13's combat and characters but I will never defend the storytelling.
@@One.Zero.One101 I agree that there are ways to include exposition in a way that feels natural. I also think that exposition doesnt have to come at the earliest opportunity. Concealing information from the audience that a character already knows can be used to make good dramatic stories.
@One.Zero.One101 brah a staple of lord of the rings is to to go on lore tangents, somtimes endearlingly pointless tangents...doeant really worknin games...i dont need or want evertging spelled out for me, if my 11 year old brain could figure it ou..the target audience can too
I don't think auto-battle is really a problem. I finished the game a couple of times and i really like the battle system a lot. I actually think they made it worse in XIII-2. Selecting commands manually is like starcraft korean level of skill given the amount of time, maybe not at the start but definitely later when you have access to many commands. I consider auto-battle a tool to streamline the fight. The real meat is in selecting the right paradigm shift at any given time to make the fight as efficient and fast as possible.
This is 100% true. At high level it's mostly impossible to actually select the right attacks in most situations without losing time. It should be noted that the Japanese version in fact never calls it "Auto" at all. The gameplay is about timing, planning and switching paradigms and reacting. It's far too fast to select individual attacks.
@@mellymellymellymellyIt's very possible actually to do it manually, and one thing to help that the game never tells you is if you press right on the Ability command, you can select "Repeat" which as the name imply automatically pick the chain of command you have previously use, which is incredibly usefull for repeating attack chain and even for buff as you can repeat the chain but change target to buff your party members one by one.
Gambits from FFXII was also the contentious feature in the same way. Probably FFXIII just expanded the idea of gambits to become the main way to interact with the combat system.
At 1:19:47 , when fighting the sky fortress, Lightning actually uses her Gunblade as a gun only when manually using the Attack command as a Commando, while the Auto Battle AI defaults to Ruin at that range (especially as with normal stat progression, magic and physical power are about even). This is the only time in the game she does that as far as I can tell. It's an insanely fast animation, with some STR accessoires it pushes her DPS so hard that this became the default strat in the Speedrun.
This was my first Final Fantasy game! I stopped the first time I played it in chapter 1 because I didn’t understand what was going on at all, but went back to it and learned what was going on as I played and fell in love with this game. Love Lightning and am sad this game and its sequels have a negative reputation, I liked the whole trilogy and love the lore and backstory of this world, it feels very rich which i appreciate as someone who loves story
Thank you for all of this. I am not a long videos type of person, but I really enjoyed this. You brought some nostalgia back and made me take out my PS3 again. Looking forward for more content on this saga!
My uncle gave me this game because he liked it, and I let everyone tell me how bad it was until my boyfriend made me play through the entire trilogy. 13's story is AMAZING
I never got into the combat system. I remember disliking never controlling the ai sidekicks and that it felt like the whole game was a tutorial thill the final chapter where it finally got good. And then it was over. Thanks for putting this together, definitely gave me a better perspective on what the guys were trying to acheive with the story and combat and where I went wrong with how I approached combat in ffxiii.
Saw the video, realized you're the same guy from Patrician's Metal Gear Survive video. I didn't ever play the rest of the FFXIII trilogy, but I always liked FFXIII despite most people telling me it's crazy that I considered it a good game in it's own right. Your analysis of the story granted me a lot more in understanding exactly why I felt the story was compelling without being able to explain it myself when the game was still fresh.
@@OriginalDrGonzo Dude he obviously has a PlayStation. And is sad he can’t play 13 on it. But you gotta be weird and make it about something no one is talking about.
Just a correction on Steelguard: It has a ramping damage resistance which makes it really good against attacks that have multiple hits, like guns. The resistance resets when the character drops the stance, but with good timing against something that goes full auto you can get full damage immunity for the rest of the duration.
One thing the game doesn't teach you and you'll just have to notice it while playing, is that debuff spells have a much higher chance of sticking to targets the higher their stagger percentage is, especially if they're broken/staggered. Which is why Ravagers/Blasters and Saboteurs/Jammers are a match made in heaven. Vanille's Marlboro wand (evolves from a Belladonna wand) is one of the best weapons in the game with its unique properties for higher chances of debuffs sticking so that you waste less time coughing and farting on enemies.
I've been saying that since release that this game was way ahead of it's time. Graphics were mind blowing for its time, especially the cutscenes and only running on a 360. I hope one day we get a remaster!
I started XIII on a whim after seeing it sit in my Steam library for a while, and I came out thinking "....wait, this was the FF title that everyone said was mostly a big interactive cutscene?" I loved the style most of all, and didn't mind the linearity since there was generally still a challenge that needed to be overcome. "Mash auto-battle to win" is a myth that got passed around by casual observers and others that wanted to be funny over factual. I mean, I told some of my family members, who weren't interested in FF to begin with, about this auto-battle feature and presented it in the way the memes did, and it was fun to watch their reactions thinking that it was "stupid" to have a video game where you click a button, click an enemy, and then sit back and watch the game play itself. I feel bad for writing this game off for the longest time as if the devs mistakenly thought that players just wanted to click a button and watch all of these flashy moves be performed by characters after offloading all thought and strategy onto the game itself. I'd love to see the detractors try to take down an adamantoise on their own without looking up a way on how to cheese the fight.
I gave this trash a second chance after 14 years and it's worse than I remember. When you can't play a hallway simulator without a minimap, you know it's dogwater. The battle system is complete garbage.
@@FinalFantasyXDen-br4to I don't see how much different it is compared to the traditional turn based or ATB format. Yes, auto-battle does a lot of heavy lifting, but there is still a challenge at hand, and it's very easy to lose if you think you can just press "auto battle" over and over again. I'd love to see detractors try to take down a Long Gui on their own without looking up a guide on how to cheese the fight.
Most people didn't fight the adamantoise. You shouldn't have to get 40 hours into a game before the autobattle doesn't win the game for you. I say this as someone who actually likes this game. It still has problems.
@@uberculex Of course it has problems. I know it won’t appeal to everyone, but even throughout the story, “auto-battle to win” will send you straight into brick walls at various points that you can’t get past unless you apply thought and planning to your decisions.
I think many people forget that XIII sat in development hell for an incredibly long time. And because of this they underestimate the thought processes that went into creating the combat system in this entry, as well as the story's attempts to stand alongside the beloved entries like VII and VIII. The mainline game that preceded this was FFXII, a legacy that is incredibly obvious from a visual sense if you're familiar with XII, but almost entirely invisble to many of the players of this game. XII on release was divisive. It completely abandoned the traditional approach with 3/4-man in a row turn-based combat, in abandoning this it adopted a more active world and combat system, playing on the idea that like other games that were gaining popularity, being able to see enemies rather than using random encounters helps ground the players in the world. We see the enemies, we can learn things about them and ultimately choose whether or not to engage. Similarly, XII introduced the Gambit and License systems, which did away with the characters being slotted into a specific role like X did, but instead allowed you to customize which party member you wanted to take which role, and then manually upgraded them by acquiring license points to increase their equipment options and statistics. While the License board was seen as a clunky, but ultimately more customizable Sphere Grid; the Gambit system was a solution in want for a problem. Gambits allowed the player to custom tool the game's AI to perform conditional actions. For example, you can specially request that a Ninja will always try to steal from enemies at >90% HP, followed by the command that
I'm sure this comment section will be full of healthy respect for everyones' opinions. As has always been the case for the many discussion of this game.
Duuuude, I absolutely LOVED this video essay! (Granted, I can't include myself in the "We" because after I finished XIII, I was preaching the gospel LOL). There's sooooo much good stuff you touched on! I'm so glad you purposely took time to discuss the combat, but specifically Sazh's storyline. Though I'm not a father, I'm a teacher and big brother/big cousin. On initial playthrough, I couldn't stand him. But after I played the game a second time (and to completion), I *really* appreciated Sazh's character arc. He's a 40yo widowed father who lost the one thing that kept him going. He bumbles through the beginning and, rightfully so, because he's trying to keep up with the teens/young adults (especially amidst their angst). Yet, he ends up developing a lot of love for the crew (it helped me appreciate the narrative decisions to have Sazh and Vanille being paired together). In that lens, I really appreciated the decision to keep things linear, explore character progression through parity, and truly dive deep into healing strained relationships. Light learning how to be a big sister and to lean on others through Hope (aptly named), Hope needing guidance and working through his rightful resentment with Snow, who's so optimistic that he doesn't quite grasp the impact of his actions on others. (I'd also argue Hope was exploring his own sense of boyhood to manhood, especially with his relationships w/ Snow, his dad, and being granted Alexander). Sazh unintentionally filling his longing for Dahj and stability while with Vanille, while she's grappling with hiding the truth of her actions to someone who's in deep pain. You gave me more insight on Fang, as I wasn't the biggest fan of her initially. The combat is chef's kiss. I'm a fighting game player, so the combat reminded me of a fighting game but also the stocks from Xenosaga 2. Once I made that correlation, I sunk HOURS into combat just to explore strategies. A buddy of mine worded it perfectly for when I first played XIII - "I see why you like it! It's a working man's Final Fantasy!" I laughed, but it's true. Each boot up, you get a good recap of what's happening in the game. And because I enjoy reading (and, like you, am not the biggest fan of unnecessary grinding), I would read through the Datalog, play after work, and never felt too lost in the story since it was straightforward. Plus, I loved X, so the linearity didn't bother me at all. In truth, I think it truly set the tone for the current games, particularly the FF7-Rs. I can ramble all day about my love for XIII, but this video was so wonderful and truly, THANK YOU for all of your work on this! Truly looking forward to supporting your channel!
I know this is weird, but this video made me cry. This game has flaws, but this story - these characters - are something so special and I’m just … really glad there’s people out there who see that. Each of the characters resonated with me so much and it gets tiring hearing that they were terrible or had no character development (what?!), or that I’m not a “real Final Fantasy fan” - whatever tf that means - because this game is my favorite. Thank you for loving this game as much as I do.
About Hope and Vanille side cutscene, Vanille mentions it in the first chapter of the game. But you can completely miss what she meant if you don't watch the cutscene in Yaschas Massives.
1. I love how you talk about the voice lines in combat. I’ve seen so many analysis videos for 13 and you may be the only person to point those out. 2. I love how you flat out say Fang and Vanille are partners. 3. I love how your southern accent sometimes slips with certain words haha
Pro tip: always pair a Ravager/Blaster with a Saboteur/Jammer. Debuffing spells slow the rate at which the stagger bar drops while Rav/Blasters kick it up and break through while they're debuffed and opened up. Third party members would be like Sazh handing out Haste and buffs at the beginning of battle so that your party can run circles around the enemies all yoked up.
This is quite honestly the most outstanding FFXIII video essay I’ve seen. Thank you so much for making it. I feel incredibly vindicated knowing that someone else saw what I did in FFXIII all those years ago when I played it as my first FF. I was ridiculed everywhere I went for proclaiming how this game had an emotional impact on me. I’m so happy this stigma is finally starting to be chipped away at.
You’re not alone. This game - the whole trilogy - resonated so freaking much with me. Hell, I have/had cats named after the characters (Vanille and Snow; Snow passed last year). The level of hate and lack of respect for people who enjoy this game is why I stay the hell away from the fandom.
Not all of us. I liked ff13 a lot. The graphics were fantastic and hold up to this day, the character design(especially female ones) was very kpop-ish, fang was absolutely gorgeous, voice acting(only played japanese) was good, the combat system could have used some improvements but it basically served as a template for ff7 remake. I also think its the most difficult main entry in the franchise which was a pleasant surprise Edit after watching the entire thing: phenomenal video, showed me a few things i didnt know such as battle banter being affected by story, hope you keep making vids like these because you have earned my sub
A few Bosses that have interesting mechanics that you didn't talk about : - Aster Protoflorian is the classical changing weaknesses Boss. Except that Lightning doesn't have access to Blizzard and Hope doesn't have Bar-Thunder and Bar-Water. - Dahaka can also change element resistances (and debuffs immunities) with its different storms... who also triggers Dahaka to use -ga spells (Aeroga can be considered as a game over nothing less xD ). This is canceled when Dahaka is staggered (down Dahaka has his own stats). - The second fight against Barthandelus can be tricky if you're underdevelopped and/or play way too defensively. Barthandelus casts Doom after 20 minutes (Cid Raines, every Bart fights and Attacus cast Doom after 20 minutes, Vercingetorix and the first Orphan after 30 minutes). So you have a timelimit for all of this fights. - Orphan 1 has 3 phases with different patterns and attacks. The most annoying one is Progenitorial Wrath who has 50% chance to one-shot the target. Orphan also has the most convulated AI in the game (for example, Progenitorial Wrath targets the Medic or Sentinel in the group during Consumate Light, the target is random during Extreme Opposite and most importantly doesn't care at all of the Provoke/Challenge). You're lucky to have never seen that, Orphan is one of the most unfair Final Boss in the series.
While FF XIII isn’t my favorite game in the series, I don’t think it deserves the hate. A lot of the complaints I’ve heard could also be applied to other JRPGs. Especially in the FF series. “It’s too linear!” So is FF X, but no one complained about that. Yes, you don’t get a lot of freedom to explore different towns like in X, but it’s like you pointed out: it makes sense with the narrative. Hell, even when you were a fugitive in FF X, no one really treated you like it, so it didn’t have much weight to it. “The characters are annoying” I’ve heard similar complaints about VIII and XII, but those got ported to modern consoles. “The combat sucks!” It’s not that different from the combat that’s been around since FF IV. Auto play? Don’t like it, then don’t use it
half of the reason people hate 13 is because it's defenders use these terrible talking points. you debunk your own comparison with 10, without even mentioning the airship or the arena. you don't even defend the characters, just say 8 and 12 have dumb characters too. you argue you can just not use autoplay when 2/3rds of the party are permanently AI. these things make 13 fans look delusional.
@@AlexanderMartinez-kd7cz It's all just what-about-ism, but I think the point OP is trying to make is that XIII is almost unnecessarily turned into a sacrificial blacksheep of "this sucked" the same way XIV 1.0 is made one, to the point of excess.
I just spent the past 6 hours trying to defeat that stupid gunship boss in Palumpolum. The fight where I finally beat it took more than 25 minutes. I nearly switched to Easy mode. This game is HORRIBLE!
My problem with XIII isn't linearity, is that there wasn't anything else to do except fight. And since I though the story was mediocre it's reason for not having any side content didn't endear itself to me either.
but this is character driven and plot heavy. Having just played FFVII Rebirth and suffering through 100 mini-games of various qualities, I prefer this.
@j.r.cilliangreen4083 Rebirth over did it on the Minigames, but I'd still choose it over 16 which doesn't have any. Minigames are a chance to break the tension and relax a little, or that's why they typically exist. There's to many in Rebirth but to few is even more detrimental in my opinion.
13-2 for sure overcomes the lack of side content, it was a common complaint/criticism of the first game that was addressed just like the linearity of environments. Chocobo racing is a lot of fun, I spent like 2 or 3 days on that alone.
13 was the first FF I ever finished, despite loving 8 and 10 beforehand. it will always have a special place in my heart. excellent video and i hope you cover the other 2 games ^_^ this makes me want to platinum the steam version lol
1:19:53 one thing I learned while on a replay of the game is that Lighting and even Fang do in fact have access to her physical attacks. she uses her gun while Fang throws her spear but for some reason the game defaults to magic
Just finished listening, fantastic video! It always intrigued me that people criticized this game for being a hallway simulator but most people adore FFX when it has the exact same level design in favor of a strong narrative. Ironically at the end you said this game is your personal FF7 and wished they'd return and make another game like this. Well my friend you'll be happy to know the team behind FF7 Remake is the same team that made 13 and they implemented the same stagger system with vast improvements that addressed all the issues this game had!
FFX is also a linear game yet considered one of the best in the franchise. Both games explained linearity thru story, in X you are doing the pilgrimage, in XIII youre running from the government
The issue is yhe pacing. X breaks up the hallways by having you visit towns and do cloister trials. You're also mostly free to backtrack at your leisure, and there are a few minigames for variety. Plus, most importantly, the sphere grid gives you profundity control over your party growth, especially in the International/HD version. XIII is a straight shot in both exploration and character growth. You can never go backward, never re-explore an area, and with two exceptions the whole game is linear dungeons. If you enjoy thr combat you can't even freely engage with it because of how enemies spawn on the overworld, although there's little incentive to do so anyway because the game caps your crystarium level every chapter. Being linear isn't inherently a bd thing-- my first RPG was Grandia, where the storyline frequently resulted in points of no return as it propelled you forward. But the pacing really presents a high hurdle for XIII, made worse if you don't click with the characters (which are the focus of yhe storytelling, so if you don't care about them, the gameplay emergence simply can't do the heavy lifting to carry you to the end.) I say this as somebody who really WANTS to like XIII, its themes hit all the right buttons for me and I didn't hate my experience, but it is flawed on a number of fundamental levels that can make it frustrating to engage with.
God I love this game, I’m so glad it’s getting the love now that it deserved, brilliant video, just made me realise how much I love this game, and just the series in general.
This analysis is such a loving tribute to my favorite Final Fantasy game. I never thought of it as being overly dramatic because all the characters are struggling with grief, and its fairly easy to see myself and my own grief in someone like Lightning. Thank you for a lovely video
Honestly, I've loved this game since I've first played it. Ive never understood why people don't like it. This game to me is one of the best final fantasy games I've ever played.
I think the combat system is the reason why I never finished this game back when it was released. It was just really new to me, and my fish brain did not get it then.
The game did an ok job of explaining the combat system but did so in an extremely slow manner which left a horrible first impression, not to mention you spend the majority of the game's story with just two active party members and well, autobattle existing. I think the combat is at its peak when you unlock its full potential in chapter 10.
Sadly a common problem with many RPGs, even the Western ones. You spend such a long time with normal attack as your only option. It makes the tutorial and first act such a slog. That's why I appreciate games that start you with magic spells and physical combat skills. If I remember correctly FF 13-2 fixed that by making Serah a Ravager from the start.
Once again I have to say "You mean, You/Yall were wrong about FF13 and or FF7 Advent Childen" Because I was all about it back in the day and tried to tell people how they missed the point on it. It's the same everytime, gotta let people sit on something for long enough until they see it differently. Wake me up when "We Were Wrong About: Final Fantasy Spirits Within" bro.
I remember enjoying Spirits Within back when it came out, but I was also a child. I should watch it again sometime to see if it was actually good or if everyone who hates it is right.
I have such fond memories of this game. Me and my little brother are wildly different in terms of personality and interests. But one day he got sick and had to be confined in a hospital, I snuck in my laptop to play this game with him. We got much closer after that up to this day.
I love FF13, I read all Ultimania, have the soundtrack listening nearly every week since its release, fantasize about living in the world. I like Oerba village a lot, I go there to relax sometimes
So fun fact about the fight at 1:20:01, apparently the,speed run makes lighting fire her gunblade as a gun when attacking and it uses her physcial stat, and it's this,weird quirk thah onlu comes up in this fight?
I think the main thing with the "using terms the viewer doesn't understand" is just with how similar l'Cie and Fal'Cie are. I get why that's the naming convention symbolically but I know it confused me for several hours
Barthandalus design is crazy to me, (all falcie are, but Orphan and bart especially ) , otherworldly machine life from, the strange scriptures directly carved onto their twisted machine body , twisted yet clean ,their is a disturbing grace to them i believe . The music during the fight only add to that feeling. I'm big fan of the design of ff13 enemies. Great video btw. 3 hours well spend i say. thx you
When describing each of the characters into their signature roles, I'd argue that Lightning is the RAV and Fang is the COM by the end. Lightning definitely *starts* as a COM, but the story pushes her to using her strength and abilities to support others to grow. Her signature ability (that is RAV), Army of One, encapsulates that, making the stagger gauge raise incredibly fast and synergize incredibly well with a few of her weapon abilities. She ends up as a *decent* COM at the end, but not the best. The best COM by the end is Fang. Her connection to Vanille is evident in her SAB ability to slow enemies, which is an incredibly useful ability, but she grows into the true lone wolf, attempting to turn on the party not once, but twice (even by the end of the game) to do what she feels needs to be done. Her signature attack (from COM), Highwind, is something she even uses against the party to instantly end that "conflict." The rest of the roles are definitely spot on, tho I sincerely wish their signature abilities were made according to their role like Lightning, Vanille, and Fang. Give Hope an instant, teamwide 100% ress/heal. Snow can keep his Sovereign Fist, just give it the properties of instantly Taunting all enemies with 100% success rate so it's not left up to chance. His face so punchable, after all. Then Sazh would absolutely love an ability that gave a unique party-wide buff that only he can give. This way, everyone would have a legit reason to be the party lead in different scenarios.
Sazh's Cold Blood is a better version of Army of One. Cold Blood has a longer animation, does more hits (17 against 13) and the most important : Cold Blood can not miss.
@@GrandAngel8000 Controlling Sazh is a mistake ? Well you should tell this to the speedrun community, Sazh has been the team leader of pretty much every category for more than 10 years ^_^ More seriously, why Sazh is a great leader ? 1) He has access to every offensive buffs early (Haste being accessible after beating Havoc Skytank) including all En-Spells. Synergist is generally more effective when used by the leader. 2) His Blitz is OP. Huge and/or close enemies can take up to 7 bullets in one Blitz. Blitz also has a faster animation than 2 Attacks. 3) Cold Blood. With the help of Vigilance he can even stunlock Bosses outside of stagger for a while. In conjunction with the Sentinel Role, it's also the most reliable way in the game to kill Attacus (in 13 only, the Sentinel role ignores chain resistance... yes it's broken on some enemies). 4) Hyades Magnums, the strongest tier2 weapon in the game (and the reason why Sazh is used in every speedrun category). At full level, Hyades Magnum has 1140 in strength (normally tier2 weapons don't go much higher than 500). The Paper Tiger ability is a drawback, but since Sazh does stupid damage with it you can rely on a more defensive oriented team and only count on Sazh strength to deal damage. 5) Sazh does not need the secondary roles to be good. Fang and Lightning ask a huge investment in secondary roles to stand the comparison to what Sazh can offer just with his main roles.
Great Video. I think XIII is a great divider of tastes. How much you enjoy it depends on what you consider a "good story" and whether you are willing to see the sacrifice of exploration and a living world as worth it for telling the story.
I personally always loved final fantasy XIII when it came out I played it start to finish both me and my brother used it as a competition to see who can always get further which was me because little brother always win. But over the years I fell more and more in love with the game I bought it when I still had my PS3 and I own two different copies of it I also bought it on my Xbox series s because I couldn't give it up I still play it till this day
Still watching but great video. Personally I loved and defended this game from day 1, was allready a longtime FF fanboy by the time it came out, my favs were 9, 7 and tactics, and 13 made the list immedietly. I allways felt that people hating this game hated it not for what the game itself did but for what they expected it to do. If you meet it where it's at, this game is phenomenal.
Melodrama is very fitting for FFXIII based on perspective. When you look at it as an average citizen of Cocoon they main cast are being overly dramatic, and that isn't a bad thing as it gives people an excuse to pay attention instead of letting things continue to drift on by. now to mechanics, it bugged me more how limited the main focus of the battle system the "Paradigm Shift" was handled until you finally had all six characters to switch between at your choice. This system already had a test run alongside the ATB in FFX-2 but the Sphere Grid system for determining class archetypes didn't lock characters into specific rolls needlessly, and gave an extra incentive to be as fluid as possible with you switching classes as rotating through every class assigned to a grid gave bonuses that really evened out some fights that you otherwise HAD to grind to be able to handle properly if you weren't intimately familiar with the encounter. And screw Hope and Vinniel's eidolons they were more difficult than needed and had very little utility compared to everyone else's eidolons
Great video also don’t know if anyone else has said it but in Chapter 7 for the final boss Lightning can actually use her gun as a physical attack. You just have to manually select it and it’s quicker and does way more damage
I'm going to be that guy. This was the first Final Fantasy game I didn't finish on the first playthrough. I still didn't like it even after revisiting it years later and forcing myself to finish it. I didn't like any of the characters except Vanille and Sazh. I didn't like the combat. The level up system felt like a bootleg sphere grid.
I always loved XIII. Played it on release as a teen and didn't really get it, but I loved the paradigm system and the ending HIT. I was so confused when i heard about a sequel coming since the game wrapped so completely, and then the sequel ending with a TBC felt like a CHOICE. Never ended up playing Lightning Returns, but XIII-2 was honestly kinda great, too. I didn't realize how much Etro was there in the first game. Guess I never got those secret reports. Great vid, definitely earned my subscription!
That’s a powerful “we”
Please speak for yourself, I rode the trilogy from start to finish.
2 and 3 are better too!
Damn straight.
Lightning Returns is probably my most replayed game. Not even Dark Cloud got that many ojtta me and I bought it on every release
I did as well. Day one purchases and loves. All three.
Thank you.
Just watching all the footage, it's astounding how good this game still looks. As good if not better than many games coming out today
The linearity of the game allowed for extremely highly detailed environments, 13-2 still looks pretty good but the game chugs because it's a lot more open and Lightning Returns chugs even harder because the engine is not capable of supporting the environments despite their incredibly low level of detail for the time.
The game has you looking at the ground most of the time. I challenge you to play without the minimap and see what you think.
Especially from an era of games that has overall aged pretty poorly, visually. Most PS3/360-era games are brown-grey, and what looked "realistic" at the time now just looks ugly and same-y. The FF games from this time still look fantastic.
Definitely looks better than most jrpgs coming across the pond. Every time I see a new jrpgm like is this really what they're using the hardware for?
I have been a lorediver for the Trilogy for over a decade now, and I have devoted so much work and time to study these games, the details, the connections, the symbolism, the story beneath the surface. There are finer points in here that I would personally go over more in-depth, lore-wise, but I have been there and I know it would take much more than three hours, so your work will definitely reach much more people who might want to give the Trilogy a shot. For so long, we have been screaming into the void, and what we could do individually was very limited-but with people with a larger audience spreading appreciation for this criminally underrated and mind-blowingly complex and deep story, I believe there will be a day in which the finer points will reveal themselves by others' curiosity. So I thank you for taking the plunge and lending us your voice. :)
Do a video essay dude
@@newyorknole2225I agree. You need to do a video essay. Make it as long as you need. Doesn’t have to be fancy. I’ll watch it
@@AgnusDheir if you yap about lore, I'll listen. Deal?
@@ESPmrBrough I yapped on XIII Trilogy lore as I guided one of my XIV podcast crewmates through his blind playthrough. You can find the entire run of all three games at @lorelinesxiv. We will also soon resume his run of Type-0. :D
Do a video essay! Also hell yeah Emet-Selch.
One point I'm glad you mentioned in this has been the fact that the characters are actually acting normal per their stimuli. I wholeheartedly agree with this. While this is not my favorite final fantasy, my favorite ff character, Hope, is in it. The way people treat him about his own stimuli on his actions baffle me. Honestly, he acts more like his age than anyone else. He is 15. That age, I was dealing with a l9t and ended up picking up this game as an ff fan. I found kindred spirit in him and his growth helped me quite a bit myself.
I personally love Vanille, Fang, and Hope more than most characters in the franchise. They feel so well realized by the end of 13.
Hope is the heart of the game frfr.
If you think Hope was acting like a normal 15 year old, you were almost guaranteed absolutely insufferable at that age.
@@Djungelurban you definitely were too... Because all teenagers are extremely off and don't understand how to talk to people. If you think 15 year olds are suppose to be like adults in anyway, then you're probably an insufferable adult.
@@snazzydrew Hope has the emotional maturity of a 6 year old, my partner's 8 year old niece is way more level headed and reasonable than him. There's a happy middle ground between being an adult and Hope (or more like an ocean of emotional maturity) and vast majority of teenagers are within that range. Hope is a self-centered brat, if he was a sociopath and in a position of power, he'd literally be Joffrey Baratheon.
I'm gonna politely ask everyone in the industry to stop using the acronym "CP" for in game resources
EDIT: Since I get grandstanding replies every other day, I'll make it clearer.
The above comment is meant to be a humorous joke pointing out that something innocent and something really bad have the same acronym. It is not me campaigning for the removal of the acronym "CP" from all media.
Let's normalize crystal points and not child predators.
I'm gonna politely and with force demand that people stop using children for porn.
HP, MP, AP, XP is all you need
Old meme I don't think it comes up anymore
"It's an old meme, sir, but it checks out."
@@davemarx7856 🤓
I'll go as far as to say the FFXIII era was the last time it actually felt like Final Fantasy. Love or loathe FFXIII, it was its own thing not trying to chase after any other trend. It had a complementary blend of soundtrack and visual aesthetic that created that intangible, magical feeling that should be present when playing a Final Fantasy. The paradigm system had some wonderful depth once you got into it too.
Exactly. In all honesty though I miss the turn based system more than anything. I miss the strategy and I loved Saboteur. FF15 was a good style transition but FF16 felt so repetitive and easy. FF16 had a amazing and better story than FF15 IMO, though
You could classify Vanille as the Ravager instead of another Saboteur because her every action, and inaction, unwillingly make things worse for everybody around her. She was an engine of destruction who chose to run away and/or hide things from others for fear of bringing further ruin upon them, as was her nature. This leaves Fang as the Saboteur, which is obvious from her purposeful and direct approach in dismantling the obstacles standing before Vanille and herself - infiltrating Cocoon and attacking Kujata at Euride Gorge, working with Raines to crush the Sanctum Fal'cie and destroy Dysley's status quo, becoming Ragnarok, etc. Vanille cannot be another Saboteur because she is not a willing participant in the misery she causes, whereas Fang consciously engages in it and eggs the others on in their rebellious campaign to veer off the path set before them by the machine gods and fight fate.
Even in Lightning Returns we see Vanille's efforts bringing calamity and Fang stopping at nothing to get in her way. Ravager and Saboteur.
That's a pretty thoughtful perspective I haven't considered
@@HopeEsthiem15 It takes a great essay to get the noggin' joggin'. I went through the trilogy again three years ago and was surprised at how carefully and lovingly constructed the characters and themes were. The setting, the sound design, everything about it is nothing short of a masterpiece, corridor-memes aside. Just like the metal version of the chocobo theme from 13-2, the trilogy as a whole had the misfortune of being ahead of its time and suffered for it. I'm glad people like Tetra are spreading the good word with critical analyses like this. Hopefully more people are willing to give it a second chance.
XIII is my favorite game in the series since FFVI, period. I feel like IX, X and XII are extremely over hyped by comparison. I've played XIII about as much as I played VII when it came out. Nowadays I have no desire to play VII but I still play XIII maybe once a year or two. @@MisterMinotaur
@@rabbyd542XII, overhyped??? That's CRAZY. I've seen so much hatred towards XII over the years, almost incessantly the same, 3-point parroting scheme as what happens here with XIII. If anything, XII and XIII are VERY similar in the fact that both of them are incredibly misinterpreted and misunderstood games. That's not to say there aren't defenders of XII either, of course there are, I'm one of them. But the point still stands, XII is FAAAAAAR from an overhyped FF game.
X will always be my favourite in the franchise and I doubt that'll ever get topped, even with how much I absolutely appreciate and love so many other entries, but overhyped? That just seems wrong to me. I honestly think X has one of the most accurate feedbacks from the community in the entire series of FF games, more than IX, VIII, all of the earlier 2D entries and heck, even VII. People seem to "get" X a lot more than they understand basically all of the others, for better or for worse with said games. Sometimes, it's completely putting things on a pedestal that were essentially theory crafting or made-up interpretations, or other times, it's unnecessarily bashing the hell out of the thing for a gut feeling people can't seem to properly articulate without resorting to super surface level critiques that hardly even make sense. Just look at how people treat XIII?
I think for me? This all came to a close when I finally went ahead and played FFXV for the first time. I really enjoyed it and realise, that even if it was unfinished and all this other stuff on release, the passion was still there by the devs and what came out the other side was still brilliant to play. It's hardly a masterpiece of any sort, but damn, it wasn't all the absolute waves of shit I'd heard online, that's for sure.
People are reactionary and we can place equally reactionary judgment on media all too often, but that's kinda why I like videos like these. It's like properly sitting down with a game and having a conversation with it, rather than not hearing it out. Hits all those pros and cons naturally, not with just reaction-bait style aggressive labelling.
Alls this to say, in my incredibly convoluted, roundabout way, I don't think those games are "overrated", as much as FFXIII is entirely misunderstood and that it definitely deserves more appreciation for what it wanted to be, not what everyone thought it was trying to copy; that's the true flaw in people's logic to me. It was never "trying to be FFVII" and I always thought that argument made absolutely zero sense.
6:10 - In the example you gave about the man saying he's not a l'cie, the alternative _isn't_ him describing the l'cie on screenーit is the story _showing or hinting to us_ what a l'cie is or what makes a l'cie scary, thus indicating why the boy is scared. The guideline often cited is "show, don't tell". Of course, XIII eventually does that. People forget that this opening is meant as a narrative hook, to get the audience to ask those very questions, like "what is a l'cie?" or "why is this man saying he's not one?", etc.
I do think the game's narrative has an execution problem regarding how much important info is relegated to its menu lore book. Of course, if you stay up-to-date with it, like reading, and are invested in the story the game is trying to tell, the game is probably one of the most compelling FF stories ever told (imo). But if you find any of these things hard, uninteresting, or perhaps were ignorant that you were supposed to be reading them, I think it's completely valid to find the overall game's narrative more lacking.
Yea, the alternative isn't to have Sazh exposit about l'cie in that moment, it's to establish what a l'cie is (or at least, that a l'cie is something ordinary people would be scared of) beforehand. Like, maybe have a news broadcast for a moment on the train before hell breaks loose where the term is mentioned.
@@DuskoftheTwilightThat wouldn't be any better than what's in the actual game. Either the newscaster gives the exact same information that Sazh does in this scene - L'cie bad, scary, possibly on this train - or he gives a lecture on what a L'cie is to a train full of people who already know what it is, the same as if our newscasters began every election update this year by explaining what a "president" was in detail.
I think the problem is a lack of middle ground. As stated above, the game has a perfectly good narrative hook that makes the audience ask questions. The problem is that nowhere in the game (not counting the expansive datalogs and supplementary reading) does it ever *answer* those questions. It constantly throws around proper nouns without giving enough time to ever elaborate on any of them, not helping the similarities between the words. I know my first time playing the game I had a hard time keeping up just because just because of the confusion of having fal'Cie and l'Cie getting thrown around in the same breath.
I think a lot of the problems here could be remedied if they just chose different words that allowed for slightly more context clues. Just off the top of my head replace fal'Cie with Arbiter and l'Cie with Pawn, just as an example, and you could get a MUCH better picture of things just from the context of what those words mean in general use, refined further as the audience hears it used in the context of the world itself. No need for expository dialogue and no need for extra reading.
Just to add to Vanille and Fang, They are the only 2 characters who learn " Faithra " ( increasing Magic by 80% ) and " Bravera " ( increasing Strength by 80% ) which are DOUBLE of the standard Faith and Bravery ( raises Magic/Strength by 40% )
Both also are the only ones that learn " Protectra " ( 50% physical damage resistance ) Compare to its counter part ( 25% )
Earned a sub out of me my guy. Truly captivating stuff. I've long since been a staunch defender of Final Fantasy XIII. It's a great feeling to no longer be alone.
Defending garbage doesn't make it stop being garbage
I challenge you to play with game with the minimap turned off. I wish you good luck!
much appreciated for another hour plus long video essay on a subject I love, it makes getting art done so easy.
13 needed to keep the programmable characters from 12, at least some part of it, and then allowing bigger parties
This is it. This is THE FFXIII video essay. FFXIII has long been my favorite FF game for all the reasons you laid out. While playing it, the story and gameplay and legit woven so TIGHTLY that you can feel the intention of each character.
I cry every time I play this game several times because of how much emotion each character has.
Also the ending hurts my very soul knowing that in an instant, Lightning disappears.
Lightning is transient. Instant and powerful, then gone. Like it was never there.
Eclair Farron is a character I grew to love more as time went on... I rarely have the time to play big jrpgs anymore but I may just return to my old PS3 copies of 13 through 13-3
you cry??? no wonder you like it. Misery likes company.
I'm sorry your favorite Final Fantasy is complete garbage. Hopefully you'll play a good game and reach the age of reason.
I challenge you to play the game with the minimap turned off
@@FinalFantasyXDen-br4toX is okay. Just okay. XI needed constant revisions, XII was dull as dishwater with a poorly implemented fake mmo battle system, XIII worked in some ways yet failed in others, Couldn't care less about XIV, XV was never completed and XVI was a big pile of flashy meh.
IX is still my favourite.
@@FinalFantasyXDen-br4to wow who hurt you? There’s no need to leave numerous replies to any comment that show different opinions than you. It’s OK to let people enjoy things. Just move on.
Oh, if anyone is going to replay this game... Two tips.
Lightning: Look into making her a Sentinel. There's some nasty builds where she's practically untouchable.
Snow: Funny enough, due to animation speeds, he's one of the best Ravagers in the game. He can fire off more spells per second because he finishes up his animations faster.
Lightning doesn't get any guard abilities, and snow is actually the slowest caster in the game. This is probably the worst advice possible. I assumed you had mentioned ATb refresh or something
@iamthehobo Sentinel Lightning revolves more around Evade/Elude and Accessories, keeping her alive for the few attacks that do hit her. It's a fun alternative build for when she's the leader and you don't want too many random deaths. It's not the best thing since sliced bread but if you want to make sure Lightning lives while she is your leader then it's a funny gimmick option. Makes it pretty easy to recover from a mess up with Lightning using Pheonix downs after.
I'd have to boot up FF13 again to check Snow's cast speed, I don't remember him being faster/slower than anyone else but he is a decent ravager early, I think he gets Aero and Blizzard which is fine. Critically I think he's one of the Ravagers that gets Overwhelm earliest which makes him great in Tri-Disaster or Rav/Rav/Com (can't remember the name of this paradigm) in the mid game. It does fall off late game though from what I felt/remember playing.
@@Layonbedge you know what if she isn't leader that is actually a really cool build sorry if it seemed like I was coming at you personally
@@iamthehoboSnow is the fastest caster in the game, that's in part why he is part of the final team in the speedrun, you must have mistaken with Sahz which indeed has a bad casting animation.
@@nesoukkefka1741 okay that's two for two guess I'm super wrong LOL
Pro tips: the auto battle commands puts in all the optimal battle commands depending on the targets. Meaning you and your A.I. controlled party might accidentally heal the enemies if they're using random attacks. To prevent this, LIBRA EVERYTHING. Libra and Librascope are your best friends. Unlocking weakness and knowledge on enemies will allow auto battle and party members to perform optimal actions and not throw out random stuff.
The combat system is hot garbage.
@@FinalFantasyXDen-br4to hey now
Is it just me or did the franchise go into a tailspin after the merger with Enix?
@@Spootington not just you, but i definitely don't think it's the popular opinion
unless you're a narrow-minded contrarian, then i think it might be the holy grail of spicy gaming takes amongst your gang
@@splitprune Both companies were doing fairly well for themselves beforehand. I actually think Enix benefited more - SO3 was really something, 4 was good but had a dumbly named mc, heard V is dreck but VI is worth.
Lightning was always fated to meet bunivelze. The 1st game is just the first prophecy of the return of bunivelze
As someone who loves the lore of this whole trilogy, we need a 13-2 video. Fantastic work!
Trash game with a trash story
@@FinalFantasyXDen-br4toWILL YOU SHUT UP AS YOU HAVE NOTHING TO ADD TO ANYTHING HERE
@@FinalFantasyXDen-br4toyou know nothing
Havoc Skytank is the only enemy in the game who's long ranged. And since it's a long ranged battle, Lightning has a special way to use her Attack animation (though you can only use it if you manually select Attack) : Lightning will shoot at high speed with her gun. This is the fastest attack animation in the game by no small margin.
Someone else mentioned that. I had no idea because I just assumed it was impossible since Auto-battle never uses it. All the more reason to avoid auto-battle lol
@@Tetramorre Well I didn't know she had that animation before fighting Lightning in her DLC in 13-2 and I saw her using her gun for attacks and I wondered why I wasn't able to do that myself xD Later I learned it was in 13 (and 13-2) from the beginning.
No efin way. I have finished 13 20 times and I have never seen this😮
I was hoping someone would mention this. It's probably THE most niche fact about this game alongside the existence of Cut and Keep.
If anyone hasn't ever watched HCBailly's playthrough of the game he honestly understands the game so thoroughly and completely it is the definitive game mechanics guide.
Although I will say the tech of giving Lightning Faith to lock her in place is really clever and I didn't think of utilizing that at all in my playthrough.
Absolutely the best video essay on FFXIII on UA-cam. This was actually my first Final Fantasy game and I love it to bits. I didn't think anyone else thought about this game and every aspect of it as much as I have, but I'm happy to be proven wrong. Great analysis and takeaways. Here's to a hopeful re-release of this game on PS5 and Xbox, even just with 4K/60fps options and a few quality of life improvements. Fingers crossed!
Big fan of your content. Awesome to see you love Final Fantasy just as much too!
The only reason you think it's the best is because this dude glazes it hardcore. Games trash buddy
I challenge you to play it with the minimap turned off.
This game is complete trash.
@@FinalFantasyXDen-br4to So the game is trash because you dont like mini maps?
Im not going to do that because theres no reason to do that.
@@TheRogBG the point is that the camera is shit and you can't see anything, so you must rely on the minimap.
The battel system is dogwater, the story sucks, and the characters are forgettable. There is nothing good about Final Fantasy Transformers.
As someone who has multiple XIII themed tattoos, it's actually really gratifying to see someone that basically gets this entry in a pretty similar way that I do and appreciates this game for the Good and the Messy. There's so much to love on this game, a lot of heart clearly went into this game despite its troubled development and it always sat wrong with me how the game often has a lot of detractors repeating criticisms of the game that are actually factually untrue.
Personal point of annoyance has been a bit of the music. The OST can be really incredible but it relies really heavily on motifs in a lot of it's tracks. The main melody of "Promise" features a lot and echoes around a lot of games areas. "Blinded by Light"s beats are repeated in a lot of basic tension tracks and Hope's theme feels universally applied to a lot of the more emotional scenes. It's likely the reason why the OST kinda blends together for myself, you, and a lot of others. Despite the sequel's flaws, I will give it to that game that it has a lot more track diversity that keeps the soundscape fresh (even if there is a lot of motif repetition in that as well).
Another bit I really like is how the mechanics of progressing through the Archlyte Steppe and surrounding areas really reinforces the theme of Pulse. You are at the bottom of the food chain fighting for survival as you start off fighting easy plant-life, moving onto small wolves, needing to take advantage of 3-way fights to get the upper hand, to fighting behemoths and monstrosities unaided. I think it really does convey the feeling of rising to the top in a fight for survival in a pretty organic way.
I f love Pulse! The game finally leaves you alone and on you're own, you can progress at youre own pace and come across challenges that can really kill you❤
But now I gotta know what tattoos you have. 😭 I really hope to get a brand one day, Blazefire Saber, Overture and Crimson Blitz, and Mog and a chocobo.
The rise to power on pulse is also reinforced by how the stat progression starts to baloon about that point.
The party starts to rise from the realm of mortal soldiers and simple wildlife to epic monsters of legend and finally the settings demigods.
In other words, they stop simply surviving and begin thriving.
Tell you have a very low IQ without telling me you have a very low IQ
What tattoos are they? Like l’cie?
The cost of secondary roles is criminal.
It's true for some abilities (like Lightning's Haste and Reprieve and Vanille's Faithra), but for specific abilities (Lightning's Imperil, Enthunder or Elude) or for the role itself (Sentinel needs only Provoke if you want to better tank big hits like Bart3's Ultima, Hope's Ruin needs 6000 CP), there's good enough and don't need much.
By the time you get to Gran Pulse you are making so many points so quickly that the cost becomes entirely negligible
It is. But by the time they become accessible you're already gaining so much CP that it's easy to start a new role and reach the height of the currently available ones. I gave everyone in my party a fourth role and it wasn't so bad when the benefits allowed me to grind for more
What a great video dude. Watching the rest at work rn.
Just finished 😊
This is just a great video! I loved how you chose to go with the flow of the story, because that's exactly one of the strongest elements of the game to me
You missed an important thing with the accessories system: Equiping similar accessories, or accessories in a set, can yield secondary bonuses (like physical wall +5 or +10). This actually showed up in your video while you were mixing and matching accessories.
As an example of how useful this can be: In the section in Palenpoem where you control Snow and Hope, there is a regular enemy that can one-shot Hope with an attack that deals a ton of small hits. Preach in his recent playthrough had to deal with this and kept getting destroyed. Putting the Physical Wall ability on by mix/matching accessories made it much more tolerable for Hope to survive this ability.
The game over music happens after Brynhildr fight. I think there's a 3rd one but I don't remember where.
Also, a bit sad you didn't talk much about chapter 12's context. The hatred and fear against Pulse the governement put in its citizens heads came to fruition. 3 armies (our group, the PSICOM/Guardian Core and the Cavalry) that have the same goal (to save Cocoon) are against each other thanks to the Fal'Cie's manipulations. It's an all out war between 5 sides (Cocoon Fal'cies, Pulse L'Cie, Cocoon Army, Pulse Army and the Cavalry) whom I know no story that did the same. It's further shown in the gameplay with many triangular battles and unreachable fights.
My personal theory on the L'Cie 'focus' is that there simply isn't one. I think what happens is that whatever fragmented vision they are shown is them seeing a glimpse of their own future and they are manipulated by the Fal'Cie into believing that this is instead a purpose given to them and that whether they become Cieth or turn to crystal is more to do with their own state of mind. If they think they have failed or have become doomed to fail then they'll become Cieth, if they think they have succeeded or reach a level of personal satisfaction then they turn to crystal. It is the Fal'Cie that muddy the water about what is actually happening in order to manipulate the L'Cie due to not wanting their human weapons to realise just how much free will they retain.
The reason that the 'focus' of a L'Cie is so fragmented and vague is that it is not actually what it is claimed to be. As an example - when Serah turned to crystal Snow claimed 1 purpose for her focus and Barthandy later claimed another but their is no proof to either and it is just as possible that it was simply a result of her mental state as her fiancee and sister both appeared together to save her when she was lost and alone. With the vagueness of everything about being a L'Cie it is relatively simple to confuse the truth and create a fiction about how it works.
Vanille and Fang are/were fated to become Ragnarok, it is/was in their future, but this does not mean they are fated to do what Barthandelus says they are. He is just doing his best to make them _think_ that they are.
This is my head canon at least... Probably influenced by the Legacy of Kain series where such manipulations are all aimed at making those with free will not realise that they have it.
This definitely isn't an impossibility and I like the way you are thinking with this. There are 2 times in the plot, though, that nay contradict this. The first is that Fang and Vanille turned into crystal after blowing a hole in Cocoon - by the way both of them act, as they are not bloodthirsty mass-murderers, I doubt they were extremely satisfied with themselves when their joint Ragnarok did that. The second is that the whole party turns to crystal after defeating Orphan, and the only ones who are really at peace with that result are Fang and Vanille. I doubt the rest if the party feels very happy at the thought that their 2 friends just sacrificed themselves to save them and all of Cocoon and Pulse.
That all said, I completely agree that free will and choice are major aspects of the story. Even if the focus puts a L'cie on a leash, it is a much longer leash than the Fal'cie let them believe. The fact that L'Cie are also given the power to summon Espers, which the Fal'Cie notably can't do, definitely leads me to believe that the power ceiling of a L'Cie is greater than most Fal, and they are actually afraid of letting their dogs realize how much freedom and power they truly have. At the very least, I don't think a Fal'cie can just snap its fingers and crystallize or Cieth a L'Cie, that's all on the L'Cie and their own brand growth/mental state.
@@EZog58 Thank you. One thing I forgot to mention in that comment was that the Fal'Cie clearly have _some_ influence over when a L'Cie reaches the end of their time, perhaps they can speed or slow it. And in the case of the subject becoming Crystal they seem to be able to restart the process again (unlike if they turned Cieth) but that their control over both these processes and the actions of the L'Cie in general is a lot weaker than they allow the humans to believe.
The Eidolons are directly linked to that concept, Cieth are people who have given up their humanity and become husks for one reason or another, but Fal'Cie do retain the ability to transform L'cie into Cieths at will, which is further explored in 13-2.
When the L'cie are about to give in, their Eidolon appears to challenge them and if they overcome they gain a new lease on life as a result.
Only raziel has free will in legacy of kain
Wrong.
Great analysis. The story/gameplay cohesion of ff13 seems really interesting. I'll definitely be rewatching this one, if only to try and figure out the whole fal'cie l'cie pulse cocoon thing.
I disagree. I like FF 13 but these sound like excuses. "The characters already know the story so there's no point in exposition". Good writers find a way to insert exposition in movies and games. Lord of the Rings explains terminology like Mordor and Rivendell when they become relevant. The Truman Show hides the exposition in a TV interview with Christoff. This author is throwing away hundreds of years of good writing practice just to defend the game. I will defend FF 13's combat and characters but I will never defend the storytelling.
@@One.Zero.One101 I agree that there are ways to include exposition in a way that feels natural. I also think that exposition doesnt have to come at the earliest opportunity. Concealing information from the audience that a character already knows can be used to make good dramatic stories.
@One.Zero.One101 brah a staple of lord of the rings is to to go on lore tangents, somtimes endearlingly pointless tangents...doeant really worknin games...i dont need or want evertging spelled out for me, if my 11 year old brain could figure it ou..the target audience can too
Your character analysis starting at 2:46:33 is one of the best things i have ever heard. Thank you
It was an amazing analysis, keep up the good work, (no pressure, but would love to see xiii-2 and lightning returns analysis)
I don't think auto-battle is really a problem. I finished the game a couple of times and i really like the battle system a lot. I actually think they made it worse in XIII-2.
Selecting commands manually is like starcraft korean level of skill given the amount of time, maybe not at the start but definitely later when you have access to many commands. I consider auto-battle a tool to streamline the fight. The real meat is in selecting the right paradigm shift at any given time to make the fight as efficient and fast as possible.
This is 100% true. At high level it's mostly impossible to actually select the right attacks in most situations without losing time. It should be noted that the Japanese version in fact never calls it "Auto" at all. The gameplay is about timing, planning and switching paradigms and reacting. It's far too fast to select individual attacks.
@@mellymellymellymellyWhat is it called in the Japanese version?
@@mbrillon765 追撃（ついげき / tsuigeki）translates to pursuit
@@mellymellymellymellyIt's very possible actually to do it manually, and one thing to help that the game never tells you is if you press right on the Ability command, you can select "Repeat" which as the name imply automatically pick the chain of command you have previously use, which is incredibly usefull for repeating attack chain and even for buff as you can repeat the chain but change target to buff your party members one by one.
Gambits from FFXII was also the contentious feature in the same way. Probably FFXIII just expanded the idea of gambits to become the main way to interact with the combat system.
At 1:19:47 , when fighting the sky fortress, Lightning actually uses her Gunblade as a gun only when manually using the Attack command as a Commando, while the Auto Battle AI defaults to Ruin at that range (especially as with normal stat progression, magic and physical power are about even).
This is the only time in the game she does that as far as I can tell.
It's an insanely fast animation, with some STR accessoires it pushes her DPS so hard that this became the default strat in the Speedrun.
this has been a great companion video during my playthrough, thanks for all the work put in to this :)
This was my first Final Fantasy game! I stopped the first time I played it in chapter 1 because I didn’t understand what was going on at all, but went back to it and learned what was going on as I played and fell in love with this game. Love Lightning and am sad this game and its sequels have a negative reputation, I liked the whole trilogy and love the lore and backstory of this world, it feels very rich which i appreciate as someone who loves story
Thank you for all of this. I am not a long videos type of person, but I really enjoyed this. You brought some nostalgia back and made me take out my PS3 again. Looking forward for more content on this saga!
My uncle gave me this game because he liked it, and I let everyone tell me how bad it was until my boyfriend made me play through the entire trilogy. 13's story is AMAZING
It's about as good as Scarlet Nexus and Code Vein
3 hour video about my favorite Final Fantasy, subbed
I never got into the combat system. I remember disliking never controlling the ai sidekicks and that it felt like the whole game was a tutorial thill the final chapter where it finally got good. And then it was over.
Thanks for putting this together, definitely gave me a better perspective on what the guys were trying to acheive with the story and combat and where I went wrong with how I approached combat in ffxiii.
Saw the video, realized you're the same guy from Patrician's Metal Gear Survive video. I didn't ever play the rest of the FFXIII trilogy, but I always liked FFXIII despite most people telling me it's crazy that I considered it a good game in it's own right. Your analysis of the story granted me a lot more in understanding exactly why I felt the story was compelling without being able to explain it myself when the game was still fresh.
I loved these games, and it’s a shame that they’re the only mainline final fantasy games unavailable on PlayStation store and PS4/5
They are on Steam at least if you have a decent pc
@@Hrotriks with insanely well done AI 4k cutscenes that take up an extra 100gb lol worth it.
It's available on Xbox, but let's only remember what Xbox does wrong. 😃
@@OriginalDrGonzo Dude he obviously has a PlayStation. And is sad he can’t play 13 on it. But you gotta be weird and make it about something no one is talking about.
Just a correction on Steelguard: It has a ramping damage resistance which makes it really good against attacks that have multiple hits, like guns. The resistance resets when the character drops the stance, but with good timing against something that goes full auto you can get full damage immunity for the rest of the duration.
One thing the game doesn't teach you and you'll just have to notice it while playing, is that debuff spells have a much higher chance of sticking to targets the higher their stagger percentage is, especially if they're broken/staggered. Which is why Ravagers/Blasters and Saboteurs/Jammers are a match made in heaven. Vanille's Marlboro wand (evolves from a Belladonna wand) is one of the best weapons in the game with its unique properties for higher chances of debuffs sticking so that you waste less time coughing and farting on enemies.
This 2009 game looks better than some 2024 games.
I've been saying that since release that this game was way ahead of it's time. Graphics were mind blowing for its time, especially the cutscenes and only running on a 360.
I hope one day we get a remaster!
I started XIII on a whim after seeing it sit in my Steam library for a while, and I came out thinking "....wait, this was the FF title that everyone said was mostly a big interactive cutscene?"
I loved the style most of all, and didn't mind the linearity since there was generally still a challenge that needed to be overcome. "Mash auto-battle to win" is a myth that got passed around by casual observers and others that wanted to be funny over factual. I mean, I told some of my family members, who weren't interested in FF to begin with, about this auto-battle feature and presented it in the way the memes did, and it was fun to watch their reactions thinking that it was "stupid" to have a video game where you click a button, click an enemy, and then sit back and watch the game play itself.
I feel bad for writing this game off for the longest time as if the devs mistakenly thought that players just wanted to click a button and watch all of these flashy moves be performed by characters after offloading all thought and strategy onto the game itself. I'd love to see the detractors try to take down an adamantoise on their own without looking up a way on how to cheese the fight.
I gave this trash a second chance after 14 years and it's worse than I remember. When you can't play a hallway simulator without a minimap, you know it's dogwater. The battle system is complete garbage.
@@FinalFantasyXDen-br4to
I don't see how much different it is compared to the traditional turn based or ATB format. Yes, auto-battle does a lot of heavy lifting, but there is still a challenge at hand, and it's very easy to lose if you think you can just press "auto battle" over and over again.
I'd love to see detractors try to take down a Long Gui on their own without looking up a guide on how to cheese the fight.
@@UndertakerU2ber 👌
Most people didn't fight the adamantoise. You shouldn't have to get 40 hours into a game before the autobattle doesn't win the game for you. I say this as someone who actually likes this game. It still has problems.
@@uberculex
Of course it has problems. I know it won’t appeal to everyone, but even throughout the story, “auto-battle to win” will send you straight into brick walls at various points that you can’t get past unless you apply thought and planning to your decisions.
Loved this video man! Hopefully you can do another on XIII-2 and Lightning returns?
Maybe some day! i still need to finish both of them
I think many people forget that XIII sat in development hell for an incredibly long time. And because of this they underestimate the thought processes that went into creating the combat system in this entry, as well as the story's attempts to stand alongside the beloved entries like VII and VIII. The mainline game that preceded this was FFXII, a legacy that is incredibly obvious from a visual sense if you're familiar with XII, but almost entirely invisble to many of the players of this game.
XII on release was divisive. It completely abandoned the traditional approach with 3/4-man in a row turn-based combat, in abandoning this it adopted a more active world and combat system, playing on the idea that like other games that were gaining popularity, being able to see enemies rather than using random encounters helps ground the players in the world. We see the enemies, we can learn things about them and ultimately choose whether or not to engage.
Similarly, XII introduced the Gambit and License systems, which did away with the characters being slotted into a specific role like X did, but instead allowed you to customize which party member you wanted to take which role, and then manually upgraded them by acquiring license points to increase their equipment options and statistics. While the License board was seen as a clunky, but ultimately more customizable Sphere Grid; the Gambit system was a solution in want for a problem. Gambits allowed the player to custom tool the game's AI to perform conditional actions. For example, you can specially request that a Ninja will always try to steal from enemies at >90% HP, followed by the command that
I'm sure this comment section will be full of healthy respect for everyones' opinions. As has always been the case for the many discussion of this game.
Duuuude, I absolutely LOVED this video essay! (Granted, I can't include myself in the "We" because after I finished XIII, I was preaching the gospel LOL). There's sooooo much good stuff you touched on! I'm so glad you purposely took time to discuss the combat, but specifically Sazh's storyline. Though I'm not a father, I'm a teacher and big brother/big cousin. On initial playthrough, I couldn't stand him. But after I played the game a second time (and to completion), I *really* appreciated Sazh's character arc. He's a 40yo widowed father who lost the one thing that kept him going. He bumbles through the beginning and, rightfully so, because he's trying to keep up with the teens/young adults (especially amidst their angst). Yet, he ends up developing a lot of love for the crew (it helped me appreciate the narrative decisions to have Sazh and Vanille being paired together).
In that lens, I really appreciated the decision to keep things linear, explore character progression through parity, and truly dive deep into healing strained relationships. Light learning how to be a big sister and to lean on others through Hope (aptly named), Hope needing guidance and working through his rightful resentment with Snow, who's so optimistic that he doesn't quite grasp the impact of his actions on others. (I'd also argue Hope was exploring his own sense of boyhood to manhood, especially with his relationships w/ Snow, his dad, and being granted Alexander). Sazh unintentionally filling his longing for Dahj and stability while with Vanille, while she's grappling with hiding the truth of her actions to someone who's in deep pain. You gave me more insight on Fang, as I wasn't the biggest fan of her initially.
The combat is chef's kiss. I'm a fighting game player, so the combat reminded me of a fighting game but also the stocks from Xenosaga 2. Once I made that correlation, I sunk HOURS into combat just to explore strategies. A buddy of mine worded it perfectly for when I first played XIII - "I see why you like it! It's a working man's Final Fantasy!" I laughed, but it's true. Each boot up, you get a good recap of what's happening in the game. And because I enjoy reading (and, like you, am not the biggest fan of unnecessary grinding), I would read through the Datalog, play after work, and never felt too lost in the story since it was straightforward. Plus, I loved X, so the linearity didn't bother me at all. In truth, I think it truly set the tone for the current games, particularly the FF7-Rs.
I can ramble all day about my love for XIII, but this video was so wonderful and truly, THANK YOU for all of your work on this! Truly looking forward to supporting your channel!
Glad you enjoyed it! Great comment too
I know this is weird, but this video made me cry. This game has flaws, but this story - these characters - are something so special and I’m just … really glad there’s people out there who see that. Each of the characters resonated with me so much and it gets tiring hearing that they were terrible or had no character development (what?!), or that I’m not a “real Final Fantasy fan” - whatever tf that means - because this game is my favorite. Thank you for loving this game as much as I do.
About Hope and Vanille side cutscene, Vanille mentions it in the first chapter of the game. But you can completely miss what she meant if you don't watch the cutscene in Yaschas Massives.
Please keep it up man. Your vids are really good!
1. I love how you talk about the voice lines in combat. I’ve seen so many analysis videos for 13 and you may be the only person to point those out.
2. I love how you flat out say Fang and Vanille are partners.
3. I love how your southern accent sometimes slips with certain words haha
Pro tip: always pair a Ravager/Blaster with a Saboteur/Jammer. Debuffing spells slow the rate at which the stagger bar drops while Rav/Blasters kick it up and break through while they're debuffed and opened up. Third party members would be like Sazh handing out Haste and buffs at the beginning of battle so that your party can run circles around the enemies all yoked up.
Ten seconds into the video, and I'm already amused. Man made us read an excerpt from the crystarium journal lore at the top of the video.
UA-cam algorithm coming in clutch rn.
Love the vid my bro, another subscriber in me
This is quite honestly the most outstanding FFXIII video essay I’ve seen. Thank you so much for making it. I feel incredibly vindicated knowing that someone else saw what I did in FFXIII all those years ago when I played it as my first FF. I was ridiculed everywhere I went for proclaiming how this game had an emotional impact on me. I’m so happy this stigma is finally starting to be chipped away at.
You’re not alone. This game - the whole trilogy - resonated so freaking much with me. Hell, I have/had cats named after the characters (Vanille and Snow; Snow passed last year). The level of hate and lack of respect for people who enjoy this game is why I stay the hell away from the fandom.
13 was like my 8th FF game and it’s my fave. I like how straight forward it is. The only game I beat 9 times, and I plan on beating it more and more.
Not all of us. I liked ff13 a lot. The graphics were fantastic and hold up to this day, the character design(especially female ones) was very kpop-ish, fang was absolutely gorgeous, voice acting(only played japanese) was good, the combat system could have used some improvements but it basically served as a template for ff7 remake. I also think its the most difficult main entry in the franchise which was a pleasant surprise
Edit after watching the entire thing: phenomenal video, showed me a few things i didnt know such as battle banter being affected by story, hope you keep making vids like these because you have earned my sub
A few Bosses that have interesting mechanics that you didn't talk about :
- Aster Protoflorian is the classical changing weaknesses Boss. Except that Lightning doesn't have access to Blizzard and Hope doesn't have Bar-Thunder and Bar-Water.
- Dahaka can also change element resistances (and debuffs immunities) with its different storms... who also triggers Dahaka to use -ga spells (Aeroga can be considered as a game over nothing less xD ). This is canceled when Dahaka is staggered (down Dahaka has his own stats).
- The second fight against Barthandelus can be tricky if you're underdevelopped and/or play way too defensively. Barthandelus casts Doom after 20 minutes (Cid Raines, every Bart fights and Attacus cast Doom after 20 minutes, Vercingetorix and the first Orphan after 30 minutes). So you have a timelimit for all of this fights.
- Orphan 1 has 3 phases with different patterns and attacks. The most annoying one is Progenitorial Wrath who has 50% chance to one-shot the target. Orphan also has the most convulated AI in the game (for example, Progenitorial Wrath targets the Medic or Sentinel in the group during Consumate Light, the target is random during Extreme Opposite and most importantly doesn't care at all of the Provoke/Challenge). You're lucky to have never seen that, Orphan is one of the most unfair Final Boss in the series.
Always loved this game. As an orchestra nerd growing up I fell in love with all of the arrangements first.
I cannot wait to get out of work and watch this! Your videos are great!
What a great video so far, 1/3rd in and im impressed. Thanks for such a comprehensive analysis of one of my favorite games!
While FF XIII isn’t my favorite game in the series, I don’t think it deserves the hate. A lot of the complaints I’ve heard could also be applied to other JRPGs. Especially in the FF series.
“It’s too linear!” So is FF X, but no one complained about that. Yes, you don’t get a lot of freedom to explore different towns like in X, but it’s like you pointed out: it makes sense with the narrative. Hell, even when you were a fugitive in FF X, no one really treated you like it, so it didn’t have much weight to it.
“The characters are annoying” I’ve heard similar complaints about VIII and XII, but those got ported to modern consoles.
“The combat sucks!” It’s not that different from the combat that’s been around since FF IV. Auto play? Don’t like it, then don’t use it
half of the reason people hate 13 is because it's defenders use these terrible talking points.
you debunk your own comparison with 10, without even mentioning the airship or the arena.
you don't even defend the characters, just say 8 and 12 have dumb characters too.
you argue you can just not use autoplay when 2/3rds of the party are permanently AI.
these things make 13 fans look delusional.
@@AlexanderMartinez-kd7cz It's all just what-about-ism, but I think the point OP is trying to make is that XIII is almost unnecessarily turned into a sacrificial blacksheep of "this sucked" the same way XIV 1.0 is made one, to the point of excess.
I just spent the past 6 hours trying to defeat that stupid gunship boss in Palumpolum. The fight where I finally beat it took more than 25 minutes. I nearly switched to Easy mode. This game is HORRIBLE!
@@FinalFantasyXDen-br4to it's better than FFX
@@shizuwolf 🤣🤣In an alternate reality
Honestly this is one of my favorites and watching this video was amazing. Thanks so much for putting it together.
This is the best FFXIII retrospective on the Internet. Thank you.
One of the most enjoyable video essays I've seen in a minute!
My problem with XIII isn't linearity, is that there wasn't anything else to do except fight. And since I though the story was mediocre it's reason for not having any side content didn't endear itself to me either.
This is why I enjoyed 13-2 a lot more. Lots more side content, challenges, mini games, exploration and a much more interesting hero/villain dynamic.
but this is character driven and plot heavy. Having just played FFVII Rebirth and suffering through 100 mini-games of various qualities, I prefer this.
@j.r.cilliangreen4083 Rebirth over did it on the Minigames, but I'd still choose it over 16 which doesn't have any. Minigames are a chance to break the tension and relax a little, or that's why they typically exist. There's to many in Rebirth but to few is even more detrimental in my opinion.
13-2 for sure overcomes the lack of side content, it was a common complaint/criticism of the first game that was addressed just like the linearity of environments.
Chocobo racing is a lot of fun, I spent like 2 or 3 days on that alone.
Some of the characters and their dialogue were a major cringe for me. And what's up with the chicken coming out of the guy's head? lol
Holy crap, dude. What an amazing video essay. Well fucking done my man. Subbed!
13 was the first FF I ever finished, despite loving 8 and 10 beforehand. it will always have a special place in my heart. excellent video and i hope you cover the other 2 games ^_^
this makes me want to platinum the steam version lol
1:19:53 one thing I learned while on a replay of the game is that Lighting and even Fang do in fact have access to her physical attacks. she uses her gun while Fang throws her spear but for some reason the game defaults to magic
Really wish Square enix would rerelease this Trilogy on modern systems.
Do you really think it wouldn't be a huge crashfest like the PC release?
Just finished listening, fantastic video! It always intrigued me that people criticized this game for being a hallway simulator but most people adore FFX when it has the exact same level design in favor of a strong narrative.
Ironically at the end you said this game is your personal FF7 and wished they'd return and make another game like this. Well my friend you'll be happy to know the team behind FF7 Remake is the same team that made 13 and they implemented the same stagger system with vast improvements that addressed all the issues this game had!
It took time and a decade of exhausting open world games fatigue but people finally understand and started to appreciate XIII’s.
FFX is also a linear game yet considered one of the best in the franchise. Both games explained linearity thru story, in X you are doing the pilgrimage, in XIII youre running from the government
I wanted to like this game but man I just could not get into it at all
The issue is yhe pacing. X breaks up the hallways by having you visit towns and do cloister trials. You're also mostly free to backtrack at your leisure, and there are a few minigames for variety. Plus, most importantly, the sphere grid gives you profundity control over your party growth, especially in the International/HD version.
XIII is a straight shot in both exploration and character growth. You can never go backward, never re-explore an area, and with two exceptions the whole game is linear dungeons. If you enjoy thr combat you can't even freely engage with it because of how enemies spawn on the overworld, although there's little incentive to do so anyway because the game caps your crystarium level every chapter.
Being linear isn't inherently a bd thing-- my first RPG was Grandia, where the storyline frequently resulted in points of no return as it propelled you forward. But the pacing really presents a high hurdle for XIII, made worse if you don't click with the characters (which are the focus of yhe storytelling, so if you don't care about them, the gameplay emergence simply can't do the heavy lifting to carry you to the end.)
I say this as somebody who really WANTS to like XIII, its themes hit all the right buttons for me and I didn't hate my experience, but it is flawed on a number of fundamental levels that can make it frustrating to engage with.
The best thing about FF13 is being linear iMO
@@MmeCShadow Well said.
God I love this game, I’m so glad it’s getting the love now that it deserved, brilliant video, just made me realise how much I love this game, and just the series in general.
Vanille being described as quiet when she’s making the sexy fun time noises every time she moves tickled me. I knew what you meant but still 🤣🤣
This analysis is such a loving tribute to my favorite Final Fantasy game. I never thought of it as being overly dramatic because all the characters are struggling with grief, and its fairly easy to see myself and my own grief in someone like Lightning.
Thank you for a lovely video
Honestly, I've loved this game since I've first played it. Ive never understood why people don't like it. This game to me is one of the best final fantasy games I've ever played.
Didn't they make two more? Were those good?
Haven’t played em, maybe I will someday
I think the combat system is the reason why I never finished this game back when it was released. It was just really new to me, and my fish brain did not get it then.
The game did an ok job of explaining the combat system but did so in an extremely slow manner which left a horrible first impression, not to mention you spend the majority of the game's story with just two active party members and well, autobattle existing. I think the combat is at its peak when you unlock its full potential in chapter 10.
Sadly a common problem with many RPGs, even the Western ones. You spend such a long time with normal attack as your only option. It makes the tutorial and first act such a slog. That's why I appreciate games that start you with magic spells and physical combat skills. If I remember correctly FF 13-2 fixed that by making Serah a Ravager from the start.
Amazing video! Thank you for this impeccable analysis of my favorite FF game
Once again I have to say "You mean, You/Yall were wrong about FF13 and or FF7 Advent Childen"
Because I was all about it back in the day and tried to tell people how they missed the point on it.
It's the same everytime, gotta let people sit on something for long enough until they see it differently.
Wake me up when "We Were Wrong About: Final Fantasy Spirits Within" bro.
I remember enjoying Spirits Within back when it came out, but I was also a child. I should watch it again sometime to see if it was actually good or if everyone who hates it is right.
I have such fond memories of this game.
Me and my little brother are wildly different in terms of personality and interests. But one day he got sick and had to be confined in a hospital, I snuck in my laptop to play this game with him.
We got much closer after that up to this day.
I love FF13, I read all Ultimania, have the soundtrack listening nearly every week since its release, fantasize about living in the world. I like Oerba village a lot, I go there to relax sometimes
Nah, man. Village of Dali or Black Mage Village from ff9. Or Daguerreo!
So fun fact about the fight at 1:20:01, apparently the,speed run makes lighting fire her gunblade as a gun when attacking and it uses her physcial stat, and it's this,weird quirk thah onlu comes up in this fight?
Finally a good video about ff13. Thank you so much
Finished the video. Great criticism and praise where they are deserved
you just showed me i've been playing this game wrong for years great work!
I think the main thing with the "using terms the viewer doesn't understand" is just with how similar l'Cie and Fal'Cie are. I get why that's the naming convention symbolically but I know it confused me for several hours
Barthandalus design is crazy to me, (all falcie are, but Orphan and bart especially ) , otherworldly machine life from, the strange scriptures directly carved onto their twisted machine body , twisted yet clean ,their is a disturbing grace to them i believe . The music during the fight only add to that feeling. I'm big fan of the design of ff13 enemies.
Great video btw. 3 hours well spend i say. thx you
easy sub. great video!
Can you make a video for Final Fantasy 13 two as well?
When describing each of the characters into their signature roles, I'd argue that Lightning is the RAV and Fang is the COM by the end.
Lightning definitely *starts* as a COM, but the story pushes her to using her strength and abilities to support others to grow. Her signature ability (that is RAV), Army of One, encapsulates that, making the stagger gauge raise incredibly fast and synergize incredibly well with a few of her weapon abilities. She ends up as a *decent* COM at the end, but not the best.
The best COM by the end is Fang. Her connection to Vanille is evident in her SAB ability to slow enemies, which is an incredibly useful ability, but she grows into the true lone wolf, attempting to turn on the party not once, but twice (even by the end of the game) to do what she feels needs to be done. Her signature attack (from COM), Highwind, is something she even uses against the party to instantly end that "conflict."
The rest of the roles are definitely spot on, tho I sincerely wish their signature abilities were made according to their role like Lightning, Vanille, and Fang.
Give Hope an instant, teamwide 100% ress/heal.
Snow can keep his Sovereign Fist, just give it the properties of instantly Taunting all enemies with 100% success rate so it's not left up to chance. His face so punchable, after all.
Then Sazh would absolutely love an ability that gave a unique party-wide buff that only he can give.
This way, everyone would have a legit reason to be the party lead in different scenarios.
Sazh's Cold Blood is a better version of Army of One. Cold Blood has a longer animation, does more hits (17 against 13) and the most important : Cold Blood can not miss.
@@groudonvert7286 But then you have to be controlling Sazh lategame to do the move, which is a mistake lol
@@GrandAngel8000 Controlling Sazh is a mistake ? Well you should tell this to the speedrun community, Sazh has been the team leader of pretty much every category for more than 10 years ^_^
More seriously, why Sazh is a great leader ?
1) He has access to every offensive buffs early (Haste being accessible after beating Havoc Skytank) including all En-Spells. Synergist is generally more effective when used by the leader.
2) His Blitz is OP. Huge and/or close enemies can take up to 7 bullets in one Blitz. Blitz also has a faster animation than 2 Attacks.
3) Cold Blood. With the help of Vigilance he can even stunlock Bosses outside of stagger for a while. In conjunction with the Sentinel Role, it's also the most reliable way in the game to kill Attacus (in 13 only, the Sentinel role ignores chain resistance... yes it's broken on some enemies).
4) Hyades Magnums, the strongest tier2 weapon in the game (and the reason why Sazh is used in every speedrun category). At full level, Hyades Magnum has 1140 in strength (normally tier2 weapons don't go much higher than 500). The Paper Tiger ability is a drawback, but since Sazh does stupid damage with it you can rely on a more defensive oriented team and only count on Sazh strength to deal damage.
5) Sazh does not need the secondary roles to be good. Fang and Lightning ask a huge investment in secondary roles to stand the comparison to what Sazh can offer just with his main roles.
@groudonvert7286 Thank you reminding me about his Blitz. I did forget how good his Blitz is.
I take back what I said.
Don't diss my homeboy Snow.
He's so manly that he rides a motorcycle made out of women.
How do you even top that?
Great Video.
I think XIII is a great divider of tastes. How much you enjoy it depends on what you consider a "good story" and whether you are willing to see the sacrifice of exploration and a living world as worth it for telling the story.
I personally always loved final fantasy XIII when it came out I played it start to finish both me and my brother used it as a competition to see who can always get further which was me because little brother always win. But over the years I fell more and more in love with the game I bought it when I still had my PS3 and I own two different copies of it I also bought it on my Xbox series s because I couldn't give it up I still play it till this day
Still watching but great video.
Personally I loved and defended this game from day 1, was allready a longtime FF fanboy by the time it came out, my favs were 9, 7 and tactics, and 13 made the list immedietly. I allways felt that people hating this game hated it not for what the game itself did but for what they expected it to do. If you meet it where it's at, this game is phenomenal.
Melodrama is very fitting for FFXIII based on perspective. When you look at it as an average citizen of Cocoon they main cast are being overly dramatic, and that isn't a bad thing as it gives people an excuse to pay attention instead of letting things continue to drift on by.
now to mechanics, it bugged me more how limited the main focus of the battle system the "Paradigm Shift" was handled until you finally had all six characters to switch between at your choice. This system already had a test run alongside the ATB in FFX-2 but the Sphere Grid system for determining class archetypes didn't lock characters into specific rolls needlessly, and gave an extra incentive to be as fluid as possible with you switching classes as rotating through every class assigned to a grid gave bonuses that really evened out some fights that you otherwise HAD to grind to be able to handle properly if you weren't intimately familiar with the encounter. And screw Hope and Vinniel's eidolons they were more difficult than needed and had very little utility compared to everyone else's eidolons
FF13 was my first game in the series. It’s one of my favorites. This was a beautifully written analysis, keep it up.
Great video also don’t know if anyone else has said it but in Chapter 7 for the final boss Lightning can actually use her gun as a physical attack. You just have to manually select it and it’s quicker and does way more damage
So ruin, ruin, ruin, attack, eh? Fascinating.
amazing video nnow i have ony one question ,when the ff13 sequels video?
Maybe someday, still gotta play them
That’s the issue with most fans. Stop comparing each game to ff7. Each game is its own.😊
Thank you so much for this perspective. I always felt there was something there but I struggled to follow the games story properly.
I'm going to be that guy. This was the first Final Fantasy game I didn't finish on the first playthrough. I still didn't like it even after revisiting it years later and forcing myself to finish it. I didn't like any of the characters except Vanille and Sazh. I didn't like the combat. The level up system felt like a bootleg sphere grid.
Same. I have tried to finish the game on multiple occasions but cannot get through the first 10 hrs. IMO this is the worst FF game.
I always loved XIII. Played it on release as a teen and didn't really get it, but I loved the paradigm system and the ending HIT. I was so confused when i heard about a sequel coming since the game wrapped so completely, and then the sequel ending with a TBC felt like a CHOICE. Never ended up playing Lightning Returns, but XIII-2 was honestly kinda great, too.
I didn't realize how much Etro was there in the first game. Guess I never got those secret reports.
Great vid, definitely earned my subscription!