Comments on: Final Fantasy XIII: A Linear Story

By: Dragon Overlord Areku

Dragon Overlord Areku — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:25:38 +0000

@Kid. Side quests don’t count as “non-linear” to most people because they typically have little or (in most cases) no impact whatsoever on the story. It’s usually just helping out a random person with no significance for a small reward, sometimes a new awesome sword that will help you beat the enemies faster, sometimes a crappy potion that you’ll probably end up selling. Let’s look an example. Say you’re playing a game where you’re some rich stuck-up snob on your way to attending a party with your rich stuck-up friends. Along the way, you might see a hungry homeless person that gives you a quest to go buy him some bread so he may eat. You, being the rich stuck-up snob you are, decide to ignore the hobo and continue on to enjoy your party. In a non-linear story, that hobo snaps after seeing an obviously well-off person show no signs of compassion and comes to crash said party with his friends, who somehow came across AK-47′s. The hobo and his friends open fire, wounding some and killing others. Later on, you struggle against the final boss, because one of the rich snobs killed at the party was a mage who could have disabled the boss’s force field, but is now too dead to do so. Now lets look at that same sidequest and how it affects a linear story. You reach the party and enjoy it unharmed. Later on the mage disables the force field surrounding the boss. She was able to do so because she is still alive at this point. Did the hobo die? Did someone more charitable come along and help? You don’t know, because you never see him, hear from him, or think about him ever again. Who needed that Small Health Potion anyway? Bit of an extreme example but…see the difference?

@Steve. Love the chibi xD I can’t wait for FFXIII to reach the states…so that I may then wait 5 years later to find a cheap copy used FF stopped being worth buying brand new when Sakaguchi and Uematsu left

By: Kid

Kid — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:18:40 +0000

Ok, if side quests don’t count as ‘non-linear’, then let’s just say FFXIII don’t have side quests at all. That way you all feel better?

By: Riaayo

Riaayo — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 01:45:25 +0000

Couldn’t you contribute the drop in sales to the fact that most people who wanted FFXIII probably bought it when it came out?

Also like a few others have mentioned, I was never under the impression any FF game was non-linear; side-quests are hardly an escape from a linear storyline, they’re just tagged on to give you something to do to take a break. You could say side-quests are like getting up to make a sandwich while reading a book; it didn’t exactly change the story in the book did it? The ending might seem better on a full stomach, though.

The thing about a linear storyline is, yes, you do not get to make decisions that affect the course of the storyline. However, a linear storyline allows the writer to make every moment really matter to the entire flow and importance of the story. When you get non-linear it’s extremely hard to make every storyline as awe-inspiring as the others, or every moment as meaningful. If you like a very well-thought-out story, you are much more likely to get it by being linear… and I personally don’t really see a huge problem with that.

As for release times… these kind of next-gen games take a lot of development, and with how much gamers expect out of their titles I’m honestly not all that shocked by having only one title in a five-year generation. I mean really, it takes years for hollywood to put together a movie that lasts you maybe 2 hours, and the movie isn’t even interactive.

I’d just say be patient about it; I mean there’s plenty of studios and teams putting out multiple titles anyway, and I’d rather see new game ideas than continuations in old franchises anyway.

By: Tomo

Tomo — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 23:55:23 +0000

overall, i think that once the final fantasy series became 3d, the gameplay started dropping. sure ff7 was a half-decent story, ff8 was pretty(for its time) and 9 was pretty well rounded(i think that was their last cap) but ffx was too easy and linear(despite the coolness of the sphere system), x-2 was just atrocious, and unlike many people, i hated xii. as soon as i saw the gameplay, the cloud rehash that is lightning, and the trailers, advertising the fact that it only has the shadows of final fantasy left, this game lost all interest.

i think the drop in sales is due to the millions of fans going t get the game, hoping for their good-ole final fantasy, and getting what could only be described as a WRPG wrapped in a JRPG-universe.

btw, i love the comic.

By: A.L.

A.L. — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 08:09:31 +0000

Like Pierski and a few others feel,Final Fantasy VI and XII are probably the best numerical FF games we have gotten story wise and gameplay wise,FFVI more so for story and FFXII for gameplay.For the most part,these games have been linear in the scheme that you couldn’t really diverge from the predetermined plotpoint of the story outside of actually moving around a world map and doing sidequests that could affect the outcome of the story,but not by much.Later entries in the series,at least up until XII,had less of these instances even though they were pretty good games in their own right,but for the most part,the games have not been very linear as far as go off and doing other things from the beaten path.

There are quite a few JRPGs that are like that,but many more that are more opened where you can make your own choices and the direction of the game i.e. The Shin Megumi Tenshi series and the Growlanser series.For what its worth,JPRGs have always had the most engrossing stories with many that game you characters you could care about.WRPGs on the other had have always been about exploration and the decisions you make,but the stories for many had not always been fantastical.

In retrospect,WRPGs are enjoying a nice little boom pretty much due to new innovations to game experience and the fact that many gamers of this day and age have never played them.But like someone else pointed out,they are nothing but flawed 3D versions of table top games,but there’s no way a pc can compensate for a true Dungeon Master.On the contrary with the japanese counterparts,many themes are rehashed time and time again and it make it hard to make something is absolutely refreshing.With these flaws however,I think both veins of these RPGs aren’t necessarily better than the other and offer a different way for players to experience taking on a role to save a land or end it.