In a rather surprising move from a Hong Kong gaming magazine, Final Fantasy XIII gets a just below average score of 4/10. The article was not translated completely, though the summary and some passages of the written review were made available and it was less than flattering. Some scores and their comments include:
Scenario: 2.0 — “An epic tear jerker”
Sound: 7.0 — “Mostly quality.”
Enthusiasm: 1.0 “As if you could play this for 100 hours! I could put up with 8.”
I would presume “Scenario” meant the storyline, which I think is humorous that the publication used a very sarcastic remark to address it. The only real high score FFXIII managed to snag from the reviewer was the graphics, which most can agree, look rather dazzling. The gameplay received a rating of 1/10 and was called “crude.” When it came to the actual review… well, see for yourself:
“I had heard the opinion that “It’s amazing once you get to Chapter 11,” but why should you spend 20 or 30 hours on a game to get to the only enjoyable part? Just how do they intend to make me play this? Do they think I’m some kind of masochist?”
“biggest swindle in gaming history”
And the other comments aren’t nice in comparison. I’m incredibly amazed and shocked that a game that was so high in anticipation can be a flop like this. Obviously, there are many games that have had a similar kind of welcoming, but when it’s a Final Fantasy game, this kind of reaction isn’t exactly expected by anyone at all. There’s also a comment on the linearity of the game that I had mixed feelings on when I had initially read it on Tim Rogers’ Impressions article on Kotaku and still have mixed feelings on.
I can say I wasn’t a huge fan of FFXII. The game, while having a very good story, just didn’t hold me with the game system and now that it’s been revamped to be a more action-oriented/scripted event hybrid, I guess some weren’t as receptive to it as others might be. I’m certainly going to play the game when it releases on March 9, 2010 and try to reserve most of my judgment until then, but it’s been really hard for me to get excited over any Final Fantasy game since FFX. It’s very perturbing to think that one of the greatest game franchises, RPG or not, might not be able to keep up with the times.
You can read the original article and the rest of the translated review at the source, linked below.
Source: AGB
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wow huge dissapointment.
It's hard to really judge the validity of a game review because if the reviewer doesn't finish it, then it won't really have as much punch in its opinion. That being said, I have played a few bad games to the end if only for the reason I wanted to just finish it. The game in question is “The Getaway”, a rather old GTA3 clone for PS2, I had high hopes for it…until I actually started attempting to play it. The fact that I finished it at all was a huge achievement for me as a gamer.
Now that I'm done being side tracked, I did put in 100+ hours in FFX and if the reviewer is struggling to keep playing after 8? That doesn't sound too good.
Maybe they do backwards reviews in Hong Kong. 1 is the best score you can get? lol.
I'll let someone else play and pretend Im watching a movie. That really how the new final fantasy games are meant to be played.
@ Alex
Or maybe Rogue Warrior has created a parallel universe where terrible games are actually good.
I can care less about some chinese reviews on a japanese game.
I never played FF for the gameplay. The story and storytelling and the beautiful visionary designs are just way to sweet.
It is like Avatar: I wanna make my eyeballs bleed and shut of my brain !
I'm curious to get my hands on it to see for myself but with the gameplay style, I totally understand some of the complaints before even playing it.
After watching the international trailer, while there was plenty of storyline related items being presented, I had almost no idea what the hell was going on at all. And no, I was not talking about the combat system, which looked REALLY hectic. Again, I'd have to play it find out, but I'm not entirely excited for the game at all.
I'm curious to get my hands on it to see for myself but with the gameplay style, I totally understand some of the complaints before even playing it.
After watching the international trailer, while there was plenty of storyline related items being presented, I had almost no idea what the hell was going on at all. And no, I was not talking about the combat system, which looked REALLY hectic. Again, I'd have to play it find out, but I'm not entirely excited for the game at all.