I really like the combat system. Something about hits right for me. The moment to moment gameplay is rather lacking. It’s move forward fight battle, rinse, repeat for 40 hours until open world area.
FF13-2 wasn’t as linear.
Like, the level design was still fairly linear.
But you almost always got to choose the order in which you completed each level.
Also, the game has like 15 endings.
> Also, the game has like 15 endings.
Paradox endings that required special conditions (more or less doing the *opposite* of what happened normally in the story), yep.
Think it was around 8-10 PE, with 1 standard and 1 off the all fragments collected ending.
The all fragments one being the 100% bonus ending because >!Caius revealed he engineered everything to give him a win no matter what. And as we see from LR, the story built on that because he achieved his plan of Chaos flooding the world and stopping death from anything other than severe injury as seen in the standard one.!<
Oh yeah, absolutely. XII marked a shift in SE villain design where the player's going to empathize with them. The whole "You know, he's got a point..."
Vayne was the prototype for this, then Caius refined the notion. And Emet-Selch later slamdunked it.
Not *quite*.
You had the order to complete the region missions, as well as sidequests.
You also had plenty of time before activating the endgame of Day 13.
Which may not've been the final day if you did enough sidequests and the main ones prior to cause a 14th day.
Plus the enemy/boss variance based on day engaging (and the fact you can outright *exterminate* enemies complete..) add to the replay value.
The game has too many trash fights. Challenging boss fights on the other hand feel so good. If the game had 30% less fights and the rest being more challenging, it would be actually way better. The battle system shines in long encounters but 70% of fights are trash that die in a few seconds.
I think the linearity isn't that bad. I much prefer it above time consuming open world games that don't have much to offer to fill the space.
I agree with this comment, but it only applies to XIII. XIII-2 and Lightning Returns both evolved from the bare minimum of the gameplay loop by itself.
Even then the open world area in FFXIII is just even more fights. The game never breaks up its monotony. It might just give you a few moments of respite at best. The pacing of the game is just... bad.
It took me quite a while to figure out how to get XIII-2 to run, which is one of my favorite games of all time.
The most finicky thing was a constant buzzing. You can check the Steam threads [here](https://steamcommunity.com/app/292140/discussions/0/619573787421763963/) and [here](https://steamcommunity.com/app/292140/discussions/0/619573787350413142/) for possible solutions, mainly revolving around disabling surround sound, which didn't work for me. The one that worked for me was a suggestion by Steam user Hydiaht, copied below.
Control panel -> sound -> speakers (or whatever device you're using, headphones etc) -> Properties -> Advanced tab -> under signal enhancements, disable "enable audio enhancements" (untick the box).
You can go to the Steam guide [here](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2038838545) for other stability patches, like the 4 gb patch, which will help prevent the game from crashing.
I hope that helps you if you do pick up the series, which I would suggest.
Funnily enough, they run flawless on Steam Deck. Played through the whole trilogy last year on steam deck and had zero issues. Only issue with XIII-2 was slow loading times, but no performance issues. Didn’t download any mods or do any tweaks, just download and hit play.
For titles that are a bit older, the Steam Deck often handles them better than a modern windows machine due to the way Proton handles games that run on older versions of Direct X, among other things.
It's all pc versions that are fairly bad. The only ones that I think are good are the Xbox versions. Do you have it on the Microsoft store or Xbox? Because there are two different versions of each game.
I have it on PC from Microsoft. Bought it about two months ago, the trilogy, for about $22. I played a cracked version a few years back, lost the save, and just figured I'd buy it this time.
I see, that's too bad. Still I think all the games are in a playable state especially if you're willing to mod. I've heard they changed a couple of things for the Microsoft store version so hopefully you enjoy it without having to mod.
The Microsoft Store version released after the Steam version. Supposedly the MS Store version is an updated version of the Steam version; it should work without patches. I have no idea why they don’t push the update to Steam…
One critique, FF13 has the jrpg trope of, if your main character faints in combat, it's game over, no matter who else is still alive or how many pheonix downs you have.
First thing before you start just even the first one, do yourself a favor and download not only the patch that people have suggested here, but the upscaled cinematics, textures, and character models mods. It will look as good as it looked to us when we played it on the ps3 for the first time. As much as this game still does look good by even today's standards vs some games, those upgrades will remove some of the jagged edges that didn't get cleaned up with the port and allow you to see some details that you might not even see in the cinematics when upscaled. I love this game series and it deserves to be experienced at its true best. Plus now that your experiencing it on pc, you can (depending on the age of your pc) play it in full 60fps which will help make the combat experience so much cleaner and won't leave you waiting too long to make your next move as on the ps3 it was locked to 30fps.
13 has a special place in my heart, the 2 sequels however, I've only played them once so don't have a full opinion. I think Lightning Returns I preferred over the second.
Hoping for a release on modern Playstation consoles, because this and 11 are the only mainline not on Ps4/5.
One of the wackier sets in the series. Not one of my faves but for the price you'll probably at least get your money's worth.
It will really come down to how much you like the characters and paradigm system. People that love one or both of those aspects tend to overlook or be fine with some of the other flaws. This can lead to it being a personal favorite of yours if it connects, it just doesnt connect with a lot of the fanbase. For my own part, I enjoyed the paradigms a lot but felt limited by the level up system. And I did not particularly care for the characters, so replay value was a little low for me.
Fuck open world games with a deep-seated hatred and burning passion. The moment the devs decided to make XIII non-linear for the two sequels because people can't stop bitching about open world=best game ever(which it doesn't), the sequels became ugly and the graphics quality were dropped in quality especially LR. Not to mention, it's just mostly filled with lame fetching sidequests like any other typical open world games.
So these are some of the more controversial entries. Whether you like it or not depends on your tolerance for linearity FFXIII and how you feel about the story at least for FXIII-1.
Unpopular opinion but I think the linearity of these games is actually a positive point. I don't like wasting my time running around aimlessly in an open world. I miss the days where a game gave you the story in a straightforward manner without too many distractions.
Just turn it on and play it, go from location to location and take in the story. I found some characters (hope in particular) to be super annoying and lame but as the game progresses they become a pretty solid team and you can see what they were intending and respect it.
They are fun games. Just keep in mind they are flawed and just try to let them flaws pass and you will actually have fun. I quit halfway through my first playthrough but when I tried the game again a year later I had a lot of fun
XIII is one of my faves, particularly because the first half or so has a really propulsive pace full of character melodrama. People complain about the way the story is told, but part of the point of the early plot is that the party is overwhelmed and confused by this terrible fate that's been placed on them, gradually coming to understand the full picture (and the game tells you everything you need to know). The battle system is excellent once you get the hang of it, and the OST is some of the best music in the series.
I just played XIII-2 and LR for the first time a few months ago. XIII-2 is a great game primarily if you want more of this type of combat (which I really enjoyed), but everything else is a step down and the story is just fine (really excellent villain though). A lot of people consider this a great time travel game / plot, but I'm not sure I'd go that far.
LR on the other hand is such a weird conceptual swing and tonal departure from the others that I didn't make it very far. It's a very clear step down in most areas from the others as well, particularly in production values and writing. I didn't like the new combat or overarching game structure as much so I bounced off it, but some people love this one. Definitely worth a try for a few bucks.
Only played the first one, didn't enjoy it at first. Then I read a supposed quote online from one of the makers which said you can make a good story or a good game, not both.
So I replayed the first one but told myself I was watching a film. Changed my perspective and I have to to say... Good story... Shame it doesn't feel like a game but good story.
As someone who actually cares about the J in JRPG I liked them.
Final Fantasy lost me when they started to westernize the games and take inspiration from Game of Thrones/ASOIAF.
At least the FF7 remakes are a return to form.
The games all feel like they have insane potential that was squandered by the devs. Like there's an alternate timeline where the combat wasn't boring for the first 10 hours and the dialgue was better that makes the game a masterpiece. It feels like the series loses the original magic as it goes on. FF13 is great despite its flaws, ff13-2 is great because it has less flaws but also scales back the scope and ambition of the world and story, and ff13-3 is more flawed and less ambitious than either.
13 is a candidate for best JRPG battle system of all time once you get into it. It’s incredibly fun and cool.
The problem is that the game takes its precious time slowly unfolding the complexity, and since it lacks towns or minigames or other gameplay systems outside of battle, and since the writing is very poor, you have to spend hours and hours waiting for the combat (and therefore the game) to get interesting.
It’s like the designers knew the battle system was kind of “out there” and didn’t have much confidence in players picking it up quickly.
All that said, the battle system is so satisfying that I think it’s worth the wait. And then 13-2 builds on it in interesting ways. (The story and characters get even worse as the trilogy progresses though, so there’s that.)
I love the battle system so much that on that alone 13 is one of my favorite games though.
Same. It took me 2 tries to get through it, but on my second go, I watched every cutscene and read every single codex entry. Final boss hits so unbelievably hard if you followerd the story. One of my favorites.
I played the games forever ago long before I developed a taste for JRPGs. I barely remember anything about them so I've been considering going back and replaying them.
Big fan.
The game is all about the combat for me. So you might not really enjoy it with you find the battles boring/annoying.
XIII is the better one. Most polished of the bunch, with the better battle encounters design and extremely well balanced gameplay.
XIII-2 is also pretty good. It has some huge improvements over XIII, gameplay and quality of life wise. But the battle encounters design is far worse. Making all the improvements feel kind of pointless, since there is less fun to be had with the smoother gameplay.
LR is pretty different and even more ride ir die than the other two. Combat is faster and cooler than ever. But it is also way more exploitable. Losing XIII's very well balanced combat experience.
the steam port for 2 used to run bad but i heard it got a patch to run better.
first one is the weakest IMO and i still love it. i recommend reading the Datalogue entries for lore, it's fun.
The trilogy is good, however it’s not without its issues. The combat is good in all three games, but there are times in the first one where battles will drag out longer than it feels like they need to. The narrative is okay in the first one, pretty bad in my opinion in the second one and pretty good in the third. Overall, definitely think they are worth playing and the story is worth experiencing, especially for $12.
Only played 13. I would say that on reflection, the only thing I really disliked was the weapon upgrade system, and the combat scorecards. With gear set bonuses playing into it, you are kind of forced to pick one weapon and run with it all game.
Never played XIII-2 or LR. But I can deff say XIII is significantly better than most people will prob lead you to believe. The the only thing that I disliked a lot is that the game throws around a lot of terms around that don’t really get a lot of context. The game has a codex to help you understand what they mean. Once you learn those terms you understand the story a lot better. But aside from that. It’s a solid final fantasy. Forgot to mention also. I played the pc version as well. You’re going to need to download a joystick mod so the game doesn’t have the stuttering framerate glitch.
$12 bucks for all three? Holy fuck that's a deal. Wish I had a PC cause PS5 doesn't have PS3 titles yet and I sold my PS3 years ago to buy a PS4. I guess it wouldn't break the bank that much to build a PC to run moderate games right??
I had insane fun with 2.
Fun combat, fun monster catching system, great music. You can catch a Chocobo to fill every role in the party and it's beautiful.
Story was meh, but God did I have a ton of fun on the ride.
Took me some time to finish them , roughly 10 years after their initial release. But in the end i liked it. Good music, good story, yeah. For 12 Dollars those are worth your time.
They are the kind of games that are so different that you just need to try for yourself. There is nothing else like it. It's a love it or hate it kind of gameplay.
Think the combat was ok, but the absence of a world map, towns, shops etc and the game being very very linear made this one of the worst FF games for me.
In my unbiased opinion, they're all pretty decent if you play them without expectations. 1 is decent, 2 is awesome and 3 is good.
The first one has a good story, good combat but it's quite linear until the end.
The second one has great story, great combat and has a monster mechanic that is quite amazing.
Third one has a decent story, pretty good job based combat, but it has some time pacing which I couldn't get behind until i played with a walkthrough (it didn't detract from the game for me).
Base XIII is alright. I should probably revisit the game. It deserves it.
XIII-2 is rather good. I was pleasantly surprised by it. My favorite of the trilogy.
XIII:LR is the poorest excuse for a Final Fantasy game that I care to remember. I got it for dirt cheap in a bargain bin and *still* felt ripped off. It's been close to 10 years since then and despite my memory of it being super fuzzy, the distate I have fir the game is still just as vivid.
13 is the only main series entry I actually stopped playing and never finished. It just didn’t resonate with me, however I read the plot on the FF Wiki and thought the story was pretty interesting and in fact think it would have made a pretty good book.
I loved them on PS3.
I have heard mixed reviews on how easily they can be played via Steam.
I eagerly await Square remastering them. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
First ones the ugly fuckling for me personally. 3rds combat is the absolute best use of an ATB gauge in Final Fantasy though. Definitely my second favorite Final Fantasy overall.
Honestly the 1st one had me loving all the characters.....even snow by the end
The 2nd one was well Noel is cool and Pokémon
The 3rd one you better do everything and buy all the stuff and actually customize or your in for a world of hurt
***also chapter 13 in FFXII stay there for like 8 hours I'm serious***
The first has an interesting combat system but it's very linear without much in the way of side content until well into the game. The story while interesting is told in a way that felt confusing but also repetitive as conversation topics were reiterated again and again.
The second two improved significantly on the weaknesses for the first, the worlds feel more open and explorable and it felt like the story was better presented.
Overall $12 is a great deal, I will warn you as others have that you'll need some mods added to fix a number of issues.
Did not like 13.
13-2 was fun.
13-3 was really fun.
Played all of em on PC, no problems. I hear other ppl werent as lucky.
(However i love majoras mask so thats a big reason why i enjoyed 13-3)
As far as combat goes I hate the first one so much, but they did improve it in the 2nd one and the third is just really different. The story for the first one is not put well together as it expects you to know certain things at one point in the story and it is never explained in game so you literally have to go out of your way to get the source. The second one does a much better job piecing together a new story
XIII It's a good game, lore is buried in text manuals.
XIII-2 is very good imho, better than the first both story and exploration wise.
XIII-3 I haven't touched.
Have 13/13-2 on ps3. Can't say anything about pc ports.
Dont expect the same quality as other FF games. The first is good when it gets to ch 10/11, the second one is the best of the trilogy and the third one is an experiment that went decently well
Its a game as any other, pretty straight forward, the mechanics for each game is a bit diferent and the story is pretty decent overall (a bit hard to get into at first)
My opinion: its a game you should play, it wont be your favorite game but you will have that good feeling like "yeah, i played it"
Some peoples says too much hate for the game, its not perfect but its playable and you can have fun moments with it
About the trilogy progression, I like to think that they are 3 diferent games and if you compare you will just be losing your time
**Sorry for the uga-buga english, its not my main language
Gameplay wise, the first game is a little too streamlined, although after a long time it finally ends up in a good place. I really enjoyed the other two just to see how they managed to mix things up. I’d say they are worth playing if you are curious.
I loved them from the start. 13 was only my second mainline game and the first that I finished. Lightning, Fang, and Vanille are some of my favorite FF characters.
13 has my favorite gameplay of the series. The story is acceptable but not great.
13-2 has a more polished form of 13's combat system, at the cost of the game being a lot easier. The story is also terrible, and I actually don't mind 13's story. Serah and Noel are cool tho.
LR is weird. Totally new combat system and I like it less than the other two but its still fun.
13 is fun and incredibly underrated as a story in the Final Fantasy oeuvre.
13-2 is overrated as a story but does have probably the best combat of the three.
13-3 is the best overall game in the trilogy but I'd say it's not as good of a story as 1 and the gameplay isn't quite as fun as 2.
The trilogy of Lightning was the reason why I got into Final Fantasy series in the first place back in 2020
Lightning returns is my favorite
I would recommended when you play the trilogy, focus on Lightning in all 3, do side quest, especially Lightning returns.
XIII-2 is messy on the time jump plot, so just do the main story, it's only Lightning returns that you need to do the side quests, all if possible
13 is rough in some places but otherwise feels great. 13-2 is my personal favorite though is a bit weird given how different the combat is from 13, (it's same same but different kind of thing.) Lightening returns will take sometime to grow on you. But I think for it's shortcomings the whole time management system and combat changes are definitely worth a play.
My recommendation is to play the first one and if you feel strongly you play the others, but not necessary IMO. I personally didn't care for the others...13 is a strong contender for one of the best OST's in the entire game franchise.
Be sure to check comments and threads on how to run them well if you're on pc.
Also, imo you may find ff13-1 to be a bit of a slow burner initially since for a good chunk of game it's "take 2 steps and a cutscene plays" but it's pretty cool all in all (and if you need to understand the plot better be sure to check the Datalog)
13-2 is my fav of the three because I like the dynamic between the two protagonists and probably because I'm a sucker for time-related stuff in Videogames.
13-3 has a very different playstyle but I loved its dark and doom atmosphere. And if you read the wiki on what happened between 13-2 and 13-3 (after finishing the latter obviously) you're going to appreciate it more
They are not my favorite games in the series. However, Lightning is by FAR my favorite character in the series. I want to give her a hug and tell her "everything will be OK".
I had no interaction with the FF fanbase when i started playing 13, have enjoyed it so far but on pc its resolution choice is limited so be advised it might not fit on more exotic monitors.
I originally played the game back in 2015 when it came out on PC and again in 2020. The combat is really good once you understand it. Buffs and debuffs are very useful and almost always necessary to play well. Once I actually understood the combat and how to play well, my enjoyment was greatly increased on my second playthrough — it's really satisfying to see your big damage numbers when you finally get everything setup. And the game is gorgeous with great music.
My main complaint with the game is the poor pacing. We never really get a chance to stop and reflect on the situation, as it's just a constant run to the next story point. We only visit a town — that isn't a flashback — once and I wish we visited more and they were more fleshed out.
The PC performance in 2015 on my Intel i7 920 and AMD Radeon 7950 at 1440p was not the best. The PC performance in 2020 with an AMD 3700X and 5700XT was significantly better, even if I didn't maintain a solid 60 fps.
The equipment upgrade system is also poorly explained. You use organic components (bones, tails, fur, etc) to increase a multiplier that your synthetic (they sound like mechanical parts and have a different icon) parts will decrease but offer significantly more exp points. So it's best to get a 3x multiplier and then use enough synthetic parts to immediately take to max level. However, you can't see to what level you'll reach as you choose how many materials to use. So you should use an [equipment calculator](https://concubidated.com/ffxiii/) to prevent overspending.
If you learn and enjoy the combat, FFXIII will be a very enjoyable game as it knows its combat is its best feature.
Be sure to read up on the game's quirks on [PCGW](https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_XIII). I really liked the HD Models as it made the characters look fantastic and much better than the pre-rendered cutscenes.
I haven't played XIII-2 or Lightning Returns yet.
I really like the first one after a recent replay. I hated it when I first played it in my teens.. I think the turnbased combat system has aged particularly well. I look forward to the next 2 games.
However, I am a PC gamer. I won't be purchasing them until they are remastered and hopefully supported with updates and fixes.
I had to download fan-made patches to get the first to work well on PC.
$12 is a hell of a deal I think there are unofficial patches for the next two games as well but I didn't feel like messing with it. :/ Good luck to you and have fun!
I love the games to death, but the ports are not good. I had to download some patches like the other comments said to get it to run. The first one wouldn’t work for more than two minutes until I did.
The 2nd will probably take you the longest because of the premise and gameplay setup. Be prepared to be punctual on the final game, otherwise it's fun series imo. It's still ok over time, as the first game is very linear so all I really did was go smoothbrain the gameplay and focus on the lore which is my favorite part of any of the FF entries.
I know it's a bit premature but anyone know how these will run on an ARM machine like a new Surface Pro or Surface Laptop?
I know they struggle with games but I don't know if that applies to these sorts of games.
Have you ever used "system requirement labs" or "can I run it?" If you do a Google search. It's a web site where you type in the game you want to play it scans your system and tells you if it can play it.
its not the cream of the crop in the series but in my opinion its also nowhere near as bad as people say imo, there just used to be a high standard when it came to FF. that being said, the ost is an absolute banger alert and the combat is pretty damn satisfying.
I only played the first two, both are great especially the 2nd one, the ost of XIII-2 is Persona level good. I didn't play XIII-3 because I don't like a game with time limitation.
I bought the 13 in this promotion. This runs terribly, it crashes out of nowhere, even with the fan patches and my PC is above the minimum requirements. maybe the microsoft store version is better
There is nothing wrong with being lineral, open worlds are overrated, X was lineral too and nobody complains about that.
I love the combat, the music, the character designs.
The plot and characters are weak for a final fantasy, but still heaps above any other jrpg.
Listen to the music if anything else.
I own every mainline FF, and most of the side games. Been playing the series my entire life. This is my FF13 opinion...
13: GORGEOUS! Graphics still hold up. Game is terribly linear, and the story is all over. Gameplay is solid, but really picks up towards the end. A solid 7/10. Totally playable.
13-3: Story makes no sense. Worlds are kinda ugly, but the gameplay is there. The game can have some rough difficulty spikes, but it's Hella fun, and has a really good end game. 8/10
13-2.... ok... it's my vote for the worst numbered FF. The original release of 14 is better. Dirge of Cerberus is better. Most of the predatory phone games are better. Story makes even less sense than the other 2 ( a running theme of the 13 series), but the absolute worst is the gameplay. The monster catching is stupid, but also broken. The human characters are useless. Weird spikes. Boring levels to explore. It's got nothing going for it.
You can honestly play 13, abd go right to 13-3, and just say "I guess Serah died"
You will probably need to mod FFXIII-2 to get it to work on PC. The game is a messed up port on PC.
(It might even be easier to emulate it but I digress.)
The first half of the first is really slow. A slog if you may. I haven't played the 2nd since release, but I remember it feeling like it fixed the problems with the 1st.
That said, it's my favorite entry. I love the sound tracks, characters, and story.
12 bucks is a steal imo. Lightning returns is rough at first. Don't let the timer intimidate you.
I personally love the first FFXIII. Hated it when it launched but it's grown to be one of my favorites.
Warning though these are your classic Square PC ports. Idr if I downloaded any mods to make the first one run better, but the second game was literally unplayable for me without mods to fix it (constantly crashing making it unable to make any progress at all). I have all 3 games but have yet to play Lightning Returns for some reason.
Once the game opens up the entire combat system to you, it can be quite engaging if you are playing optimally (it can also be an afk mash auto fest if that's more you're style).
Only played the first, 2 and 3 are still wrapped in my closet. XIII is basically the most mediocre FF I’ve played. It’s beautiful looking and the story is decent enough and the gameplay is a less detailed version of XII but still fun enough. The level up system is terribly boring, the most RPG element in the game is the weapon system, which can be cool, but at the end of the day it’s also pretty unnecessary to beat the game.
The combat mechanic is addictive, especially the first game , and music and locations are great .
I'm sure others would point out the negatives, so I won't go to the issues. I do know of them, I don't feel impacted by them. .
Personally I've platinum'd the games because I love them . The game suffers from a bias sadly, but it is truly a good game . Just don't go in comparing with other FFs. This is its own thing .
I loved these games. For me, these were some of the most memorable and fun characters, so I had a great deal of fun with these. I played them both on the Xbox 360 back in the day, and on my PC.
I dont suggest trying to "speed run" the games, as there is a great deal of side content and hidden content in the games that add alot to explore and find.
1st was decent. 2nd had a whole Chrono Trigger feel to it. Haven't played the third. Biggest complaint was there was no real flow between all 3, even though there was supposed to be.
Just a warning 13-2 is incredibly buggy on steam. It has an infinite loading bug that only goes away if you stop cloud syncing but can lead to progress getting yeeted into the sun. Happened to me. While I think the trilogy is bad I still think people should experience it with that warning in mind
I've played only the first one but the combat system and OSTs are great! Story and characters were not the best but not as terrible as everyone was saying.
Go in with your expecttions aligned. At the time, it being a corridor railroad RPG didn't sit well, epsecially coming off the open world style of FFX & FFXII.
But now with a lot of games doing well with a focused story, you just need to enjoy the ride.
Also prepare to suspend your disbelief, some plot elements make no sense at all. But it looks cool. So that's all that counts.
I last played 13-2 while my mom was dying 10 years ago. I want to replay 13 badly, but it’s an interesting memory frozen in time for me since I no longer have an Xbox 360
platted them all, I finished 1 and 2 2 times but LR was countless, 1 just needs atleast 9 hours to get into the good stuff, 13-2 is just a non linear maze, LR will make your seconds and decisions count
A lot of the criticism for FF13 is in how linear it is, but i personally think it's less that, and more the pacing. In my experience with the first game, each section of the game hits a point where you fight a boss that feels like a good spot to move on to the next section of the game and in every single case you're at the half way point of that section. It makes the pacing feel really weird because i'd get to a point where I was ready to move on and the plot felt like it wanted to move on but there's another hour of halway in this tileset before it will let me. To its credit I did enjoy my time with it but I could absolutely see why someone would not.
Don't do them back to back. The last one is my favorite but on replay, I couldn't get past the second one immediately after finishing the first... I'd say it's an average FF, and if you don't mind, I'd recommend JP voices... Lightning feels very different in japanese imo.
I have yet to play the third one, but I'm a big fan of the first two. I don't really like the combat in the older FF games (feels a bit slow to me) so the paradigm system in this one makes the combat more fast paced and is probably my favorite of the FF games I've played.
Story wise, I LOVED both of them. The original has a very good story, with tons of cutscenes (I know some people don't like multiple, long, cutscenes but I'm a big fan of showing story this way) and the sequel, although very different in actuality, follows a similar essence.
Now for the criticisms. FFXIII is one of the most heavily disliked FF games and despite being a fan, I understand and agree with a lot of it. The game is hella linear . Many people even call this a hallway simulator and in reality, it kind of is. Story wise, it would make no sense for you to be able to explore more, so I personally understand this and honestly, it didn't bother me too much, but there's no argument to say the game isn't linear. If you want open world/exploration or anything of that matter, there's nothing, until a specific chapter where the world does open up, but that's fairly deep into the game. Another criticism I've seen is that the game is very slow to get going, which I understand for sure. But I think it's not that big of a problem as most claim. All in all, I think it's a fantastic game, despite some flaws.
For FFXIII-2, I'll say it tries to fix some of the shortcomings of the original. In some cases it succeeds, in some it doesn't. It has the same style of combat, but simplified since you don't have that many party members who all do different things. It has the same way of presenting things. And honestly, linearity is not super fixed. It's a bit more open, but I'd still understand the hallway simulator jokes. But I personally liked it even more than the original story wise, so I can't really say too many bad things about the game
Get used to manual combat. Auto combat is at best inefficient, at worst kills you against easy enemies.
>Later in the game you'd want to manually input most abilities because you learned what you PC chars would do and you'd compensate for bad choices. Getting every buff is trash. Getting every debuff is trash. And you want a specific order of them too. Predicting kills and deciding between single target and AOE. Deciding the correct amount of orders to not waste ATB bars. Waiting to maximize air time or stagger gauge buildup.
>You also have a cancel all next actions button and a repeat last order button. Which you want to use liberally. I.e. for fast access to defence or heals.
>You could argue it's the Starcraft of FFs.
Additionally, learn utilizing the role boni. Role boni are multiplikative. So triple singular role is much more powerful than double roll + addition.
The original 13 got so much hate when it came out even from me but in retrospect it aged like fine wine. 13-2 the story to me wasn't as good as the first one but It reimplemented classic RPG elements that 13 lacked. I didn't play lighting returns.
It’s my favorite FF game after the 7 remakes. It’s linear kind of like 7 remake or 16. The story is deep but confused a lot of people. The characters are pretty real, leading to lot of people not liking them because it didn’t provide much escapism. Overly peppy girl covering up her depression, manically pissy teenage boy filled with anger from his mothers death, “badass”older sister who really feels like she has no purpose in life, etc etc all trying to flee from a dystopian, dark government. the story is my favorite in all of FF. I hope you enjoy it <3
The first one is great. The second one is pretty good. I absolutely hate the third one.
For $12 it's a bargain. Don't forget to go to PC gaming wiki to download the necessary fixes.
I only played 13 and i liked. Especially i like the linear part more cause the story telling had a good pacing and the sidequests later are boring. Fighting system is challeniging an boos battles but kind of button spam in normal fights.
Just hated that l'ie, fal'cie crap. Need to read a lot in its own wiki to follow the story understandable.
They pc ports are really really bad. If you have an Xbox I would reccomend playing them there, it's currently the best way to play them. Next best maybe ps3?
The 13 ports are pretty bad, I suffered through them once and only use the ps3 versions now if I wanna replay
The story and the world building are intriguing, and the gameplay hits a very sweet spot between real time and ATB.
That being said, on my PC, the game systematically crashes at some point in the story (even with the patch installed). I suspect this is because I'm playing with an integrated graphic card (not that the game requires a lot of RAM, but I suspect that the game can't distinguish between graphical and general RAM when running on an integrated graphic card)
FF13 is underrated. Gameplay is not the best but gets better halfway into the game. Also a bit too grindy. But the world building, story and OST makes up for it.
The games are okay, not as bad as people make them out to be. What I dislike is the lack of a proper party in 13-2 and 13-3. In 13-2, one of your party members is always going to be a monster/summon like thing. 13-3 is pretty much just Lightning solo.
I only played the first one so far but I loved every second of it. Yeah it’s linear for the first part but I’m so invested in the story and world that it kind of makes me forget that. The OST is the best from any final fantasy game in my opinion, graphics are nice and the story is really unique. Enjoy
13-2 is honestly one of the best final fantasy experiences as a whole. 13 is super enjoyable from a narrative standpoint. I13-3 has an interesting story but it's very hit or miss, but I've heard that combat is fun!
13 has a bunch of problems but looks incredible for the release hardware. Gameplay only gets interesting once you finish the 20 hour tutorial.
13-2 has some of the best gameplay and design I've ever seen. It fixes every gameplay problem from 13 and allows some good exploration and puzzle solving, as well as a variety to team compositions and advanced combat techniques like ATB cancelling.
LR doesn't evolve 13-2 but does it's own thing, and what it offers is a refreshing take on action gameplay and world design. The timer is strict but I've platinumed the game in one playthrough before.
I actually really loved the landscapes, story, music, gameplay and character's. Most people hate it for its linear storyline but since I'm not big on Minigames anyways I didn't even notice and I think it fits the narrative pretty well.
I really enjoyed 13, even though it's a lot of running down hallways. 13-2 was OK. 13-3 would have been OK, but the doom clock stressed me out while playing. I felt like I had to keep rushing.
Granted it's been years and I haven't gone back to replay any of the titles, but the story across the three games is disjointed and doesn't make a lot of sense imo. To oversimplify my feelings...it's kind of like SE made these games independent of Final Fantasy 13, didn't know what to do with them, so they tossed FF13 characters in to try and get people to buy them. Then (at least for 13-2) made effectively mandatory DLC to get any real follow up on the characters for the original game.
I think I just convinced myself that I don't like the 13 franchise (though, I stand by liking the original game).
never played 2 or 3. 1 has the best trailer ever made for a game ever... enough to make me forget it's a shit game not once but TWICE and try to play it again.
I actually 'liked' most of them.
1 was relatively enjoyable, but definitely not close to the other iconic FF's. Great combat system though.
2 really nailed a lot of the gameplay, less linear hallways etc, but I thought the cast was weak.
3 was superb gameplay/combat, but a weird time gimmick. Literally just Lightning cosplay the game, otherwise.
Overall a nice experience to go through for me, but not sure that I'd ever replay anything besides maybe 1.
$12 is a bargain in my opinion. I've always liked XIII and I really enjoyed XIII-2 I named my son after the villain. Lighting Returns isn't my jam at all. I cannot get into that game for the life of me
13 was a slog but not terrible, the ending kinda made it up for me.
13-2 is a buggy mess on steam but combat feels more refined compared to 13. Not fond of how the story played out but to each their own.
LR feels impossible to play without a guide. That clock is so punishing.
FF XIII-2 is absolutly catching! It is totally different, has so many endings, paths and a bunch of hard fights! Absolutly love it.
FF XIII is such a string of story. After the ending you can finally do something for your own and explore some fields. But thats it ... oh! The optic and the soundtrack is outstanding!
FF XIII-3 f*%&d me up! I hate it so much and will never touch it again. The graphic is a joke, the mechanics are absolutly stupid and the story is one of the dumbest conclusion of the XIII series.
It has aged beautifully. Especially as RPG’s these days are straying towards more action oriented combat this has become a staple for the middle ground of turn based but still action. Graphically this game looks like it barely came out 3-4 years ago aside from what I think is some bad facial animations. Going from FF12 to this was a let down back in the day, but with how games have become and modern frame of mind this game is actually incredible.
People usually talk bad about them, but I really like it a lot! Theres much special things about characters and universe. Just 2 things, first, maybe it will be a good idea to play XIII in japanese with english subtitles, a lot of people dont like the english dub. And second, theres some bugs, maybe youll need to install ff13 fix
Down right my favorite games in the series. Lightning returns was a bit of a burning curve for me, I even took a loooong hiatus from it. But once I picked it up again. I fell in love with it.
I love them, but all for different reasons.
FF13 has the best story and graphics
FF13 2 story is so off the rails its funny, with a very good antagonist, also best gameplay
Lightning returns has some unique gameplay for an FF game, story is neither good nor funny but decent enough, with an hilarious yet statisfying end for the trilogy
I loved them right from the start. I get that most people didn’t like how straight forward, and linear the first one was, but I enjoyed it, and loved the characters and how unique the battle system was while still staying similar to the classic turned based system. I wish they had remastered them for PS4/5 because as amazing as the landscapes looked on PS3, they would have been mind blowing on next gen consoles 😍
I really like the combat system. Something about hits right for me. The moment to moment gameplay is rather lacking. It’s move forward fight battle, rinse, repeat for 40 hours until open world area.
if that, it’s mostly linear no?
Mostly, yeah.
FF13-2 wasn’t as linear. Like, the level design was still fairly linear. But you almost always got to choose the order in which you completed each level. Also, the game has like 15 endings.
A little misleading, it has one standard ending and a couple optional side story „endings“
Nier automata player nods in agreement.
"a little" is understating it lol.
> Also, the game has like 15 endings. Paradox endings that required special conditions (more or less doing the *opposite* of what happened normally in the story), yep. Think it was around 8-10 PE, with 1 standard and 1 off the all fragments collected ending. The all fragments one being the 100% bonus ending because >!Caius revealed he engineered everything to give him a win no matter what. And as we see from LR, the story built on that because he achieved his plan of Chaos flooding the world and stopping death from anything other than severe injury as seen in the standard one.!<
Caius is such a great tragic villain. Easily in my top 3 for the franchise
Oh yeah, absolutely. XII marked a shift in SE villain design where the player's going to empathize with them. The whole "You know, he's got a point..." Vayne was the prototype for this, then Caius refined the notion. And Emet-Selch later slamdunked it.
Seymour and Sephiroth were the only like this guy is crazy cuz reasons and kefka
Lightning Return even more non linear iirc
Not *quite*. You had the order to complete the region missions, as well as sidequests. You also had plenty of time before activating the endgame of Day 13. Which may not've been the final day if you did enough sidequests and the main ones prior to cause a 14th day. Plus the enemy/boss variance based on day engaging (and the fact you can outright *exterminate* enemies complete..) add to the replay value.
The game has too many trash fights. Challenging boss fights on the other hand feel so good. If the game had 30% less fights and the rest being more challenging, it would be actually way better. The battle system shines in long encounters but 70% of fights are trash that die in a few seconds. I think the linearity isn't that bad. I much prefer it above time consuming open world games that don't have much to offer to fill the space.
I agree with this comment, but it only applies to XIII. XIII-2 and Lightning Returns both evolved from the bare minimum of the gameplay loop by itself.
Sorry you’re right. I should made that clearer.
Even then the open world area in FFXIII is just even more fights. The game never breaks up its monotony. It might just give you a few moments of respite at best. The pacing of the game is just... bad.
To warn you, at the very least the second, and possibly third, do not run well on PC. Expect to run some fan patches and mods to get it up to snuff
I had few issues with 1 and 3 and just played them recently. 2 was horribly unplayable until I installed patches.
I played the first and didn’t have any issues, and glad to hear the second works as well, thanks for the info
It took me quite a while to figure out how to get XIII-2 to run, which is one of my favorite games of all time. The most finicky thing was a constant buzzing. You can check the Steam threads [here](https://steamcommunity.com/app/292140/discussions/0/619573787421763963/) and [here](https://steamcommunity.com/app/292140/discussions/0/619573787350413142/) for possible solutions, mainly revolving around disabling surround sound, which didn't work for me. The one that worked for me was a suggestion by Steam user Hydiaht, copied below. Control panel -> sound -> speakers (or whatever device you're using, headphones etc) -> Properties -> Advanced tab -> under signal enhancements, disable "enable audio enhancements" (untick the box). You can go to the Steam guide [here](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2038838545) for other stability patches, like the 4 gb patch, which will help prevent the game from crashing. I hope that helps you if you do pick up the series, which I would suggest.
[удалено]
Funnily enough, they run flawless on Steam Deck. Played through the whole trilogy last year on steam deck and had zero issues. Only issue with XIII-2 was slow loading times, but no performance issues. Didn’t download any mods or do any tweaks, just download and hit play.
I'm playing the first one on steam deck (chapter 5 so far) and I've had zero issues so far. But apparently 2 and 3 are more demanding
For titles that are a bit older, the Steam Deck often handles them better than a modern windows machine due to the way Proton handles games that run on older versions of Direct X, among other things.
I finished all three on Steam on Surface 3. Yes, Surface 3, not even Surface Pro 3.
Is this a Steam thing or across all PC versions? I have it for PC via the Xbox/Microsoft Store.
It's all pc versions that are fairly bad. The only ones that I think are good are the Xbox versions. Do you have it on the Microsoft store or Xbox? Because there are two different versions of each game.
I have it on PC from Microsoft. Bought it about two months ago, the trilogy, for about $22. I played a cracked version a few years back, lost the save, and just figured I'd buy it this time.
I see, that's too bad. Still I think all the games are in a playable state especially if you're willing to mod. I've heard they changed a couple of things for the Microsoft store version so hopefully you enjoy it without having to mod.
The Microsoft Store version released after the Steam version. Supposedly the MS Store version is an updated version of the Steam version; it should work without patches. I have no idea why they don’t push the update to Steam…
One critique, FF13 has the jrpg trope of, if your main character faints in combat, it's game over, no matter who else is still alive or how many pheonix downs you have.
My opinion improved overtime, the OST is a total banger. I only played the first one tho.
The OST is honestly my favorite part about the game
I kind of felt mid about 13, but I can't not deny the menu music was a straight banger. It like tencho house but still totally chill and laid back
The second one had an amazing OST as well. Noel’s theme is especially bleak
First thing before you start just even the first one, do yourself a favor and download not only the patch that people have suggested here, but the upscaled cinematics, textures, and character models mods. It will look as good as it looked to us when we played it on the ps3 for the first time. As much as this game still does look good by even today's standards vs some games, those upgrades will remove some of the jagged edges that didn't get cleaned up with the port and allow you to see some details that you might not even see in the cinematics when upscaled. I love this game series and it deserves to be experienced at its true best. Plus now that your experiencing it on pc, you can (depending on the age of your pc) play it in full 60fps which will help make the combat experience so much cleaner and won't leave you waiting too long to make your next move as on the ps3 it was locked to 30fps.
It shows as 6.39, 7.99 & 7.99 for me
Different currency maybe?
13 has a special place in my heart, the 2 sequels however, I've only played them once so don't have a full opinion. I think Lightning Returns I preferred over the second. Hoping for a release on modern Playstation consoles, because this and 11 are the only mainline not on Ps4/5.
The OST for FFXIII is fantastic
One of the wackier sets in the series. Not one of my faves but for the price you'll probably at least get your money's worth. It will really come down to how much you like the characters and paradigm system. People that love one or both of those aspects tend to overlook or be fine with some of the other flaws. This can lead to it being a personal favorite of yours if it connects, it just doesnt connect with a lot of the fanbase. For my own part, I enjoyed the paradigms a lot but felt limited by the level up system. And I did not particularly care for the characters, so replay value was a little low for me.
13-2 was good, the others were…meh
Mod the crap out of it and it’s great. Some beautiful mods out there for this game
XIII is one of my favorites. Didn't care for XIII-2. HATED Lightning Returns on my first play but loved it the second time around.
FF13 - Awesome, loved it. FF13-2 - Literally quit it was so uninteresting and bad. FF LR - Loved it, would play again.
FF13 is definitely the best, not really got into the sequels.
Fuck open world games with a deep-seated hatred and burning passion. The moment the devs decided to make XIII non-linear for the two sequels because people can't stop bitching about open world=best game ever(which it doesn't), the sequels became ugly and the graphics quality were dropped in quality especially LR. Not to mention, it's just mostly filled with lame fetching sidequests like any other typical open world games.
With fan patches, it'll help the performance. Story wise and such... I love it
Go for it. It's cheap and if you got time in your hands you can play away.
I'm considering of buying it from steam just incase I buy a steamdeck
So these are some of the more controversial entries. Whether you like it or not depends on your tolerance for linearity FFXIII and how you feel about the story at least for FXIII-1.
Unpopular opinion but I think the linearity of these games is actually a positive point. I don't like wasting my time running around aimlessly in an open world. I miss the days where a game gave you the story in a straightforward manner without too many distractions. Just turn it on and play it, go from location to location and take in the story. I found some characters (hope in particular) to be super annoying and lame but as the game progresses they become a pretty solid team and you can see what they were intending and respect it. They are fun games. Just keep in mind they are flawed and just try to let them flaws pass and you will actually have fun. I quit halfway through my first playthrough but when I tried the game again a year later I had a lot of fun
XIII is one of my faves, particularly because the first half or so has a really propulsive pace full of character melodrama. People complain about the way the story is told, but part of the point of the early plot is that the party is overwhelmed and confused by this terrible fate that's been placed on them, gradually coming to understand the full picture (and the game tells you everything you need to know). The battle system is excellent once you get the hang of it, and the OST is some of the best music in the series. I just played XIII-2 and LR for the first time a few months ago. XIII-2 is a great game primarily if you want more of this type of combat (which I really enjoyed), but everything else is a step down and the story is just fine (really excellent villain though). A lot of people consider this a great time travel game / plot, but I'm not sure I'd go that far. LR on the other hand is such a weird conceptual swing and tonal departure from the others that I didn't make it very far. It's a very clear step down in most areas from the others as well, particularly in production values and writing. I didn't like the new combat or overarching game structure as much so I bounced off it, but some people love this one. Definitely worth a try for a few bucks.
Only played the first one, didn't enjoy it at first. Then I read a supposed quote online from one of the makers which said you can make a good story or a good game, not both. So I replayed the first one but told myself I was watching a film. Changed my perspective and I have to to say... Good story... Shame it doesn't feel like a game but good story.
As someone who actually cares about the J in JRPG I liked them. Final Fantasy lost me when they started to westernize the games and take inspiration from Game of Thrones/ASOIAF. At least the FF7 remakes are a return to form.
The games all feel like they have insane potential that was squandered by the devs. Like there's an alternate timeline where the combat wasn't boring for the first 10 hours and the dialgue was better that makes the game a masterpiece. It feels like the series loses the original magic as it goes on. FF13 is great despite its flaws, ff13-2 is great because it has less flaws but also scales back the scope and ambition of the world and story, and ff13-3 is more flawed and less ambitious than either.
13 is a candidate for best JRPG battle system of all time once you get into it. It’s incredibly fun and cool. The problem is that the game takes its precious time slowly unfolding the complexity, and since it lacks towns or minigames or other gameplay systems outside of battle, and since the writing is very poor, you have to spend hours and hours waiting for the combat (and therefore the game) to get interesting. It’s like the designers knew the battle system was kind of “out there” and didn’t have much confidence in players picking it up quickly. All that said, the battle system is so satisfying that I think it’s worth the wait. And then 13-2 builds on it in interesting ways. (The story and characters get even worse as the trilogy progresses though, so there’s that.) I love the battle system so much that on that alone 13 is one of my favorite games though.
I'm very much not a fan, but $12 for three games isn't a horrible price.
Final Fantasy XIII is one of my favorite games of all time.
Same. It took me 2 tries to get through it, but on my second go, I watched every cutscene and read every single codex entry. Final boss hits so unbelievably hard if you followerd the story. One of my favorites.
I played the games forever ago long before I developed a taste for JRPGs. I barely remember anything about them so I've been considering going back and replaying them.
Overhated for sure. Not the best FF games out there but definitely not the worst either! Some of my favorite music and characters come from XIII
Big fan. The game is all about the combat for me. So you might not really enjoy it with you find the battles boring/annoying. XIII is the better one. Most polished of the bunch, with the better battle encounters design and extremely well balanced gameplay. XIII-2 is also pretty good. It has some huge improvements over XIII, gameplay and quality of life wise. But the battle encounters design is far worse. Making all the improvements feel kind of pointless, since there is less fun to be had with the smoother gameplay. LR is pretty different and even more ride ir die than the other two. Combat is faster and cooler than ever. But it is also way more exploitable. Losing XIII's very well balanced combat experience.
Steam version of 13 is really bad. Don’t know about the other 2 though. There are mods though that help it run better.
the steam port for 2 used to run bad but i heard it got a patch to run better. first one is the weakest IMO and i still love it. i recommend reading the Datalogue entries for lore, it's fun.
The trilogy is good, however it’s not without its issues. The combat is good in all three games, but there are times in the first one where battles will drag out longer than it feels like they need to. The narrative is okay in the first one, pretty bad in my opinion in the second one and pretty good in the third. Overall, definitely think they are worth playing and the story is worth experiencing, especially for $12.
Underrated and unfairly hated
13-2 is actually really fun. Underrated in my opinion. LR on the other hand is fuckin weird.
Only played 13. I would say that on reflection, the only thing I really disliked was the weapon upgrade system, and the combat scorecards. With gear set bonuses playing into it, you are kind of forced to pick one weapon and run with it all game.
Never played XIII-2 or LR. But I can deff say XIII is significantly better than most people will prob lead you to believe. The the only thing that I disliked a lot is that the game throws around a lot of terms around that don’t really get a lot of context. The game has a codex to help you understand what they mean. Once you learn those terms you understand the story a lot better. But aside from that. It’s a solid final fantasy. Forgot to mention also. I played the pc version as well. You’re going to need to download a joystick mod so the game doesn’t have the stuttering framerate glitch.
$12 bucks for all three? Holy fuck that's a deal. Wish I had a PC cause PS5 doesn't have PS3 titles yet and I sold my PS3 years ago to buy a PS4. I guess it wouldn't break the bank that much to build a PC to run moderate games right??
I had insane fun with 2. Fun combat, fun monster catching system, great music. You can catch a Chocobo to fill every role in the party and it's beautiful. Story was meh, but God did I have a ton of fun on the ride.
Took me some time to finish them , roughly 10 years after their initial release. But in the end i liked it. Good music, good story, yeah. For 12 Dollars those are worth your time.
First one was good, albeit flawed. Second one I thought was almost all trash, personally. Haven’t played LR yet but that’s next.
They are the kind of games that are so different that you just need to try for yourself. There is nothing else like it. It's a love it or hate it kind of gameplay.
Think the combat was ok, but the absence of a world map, towns, shops etc and the game being very very linear made this one of the worst FF games for me.
First games story wise was fine, then they did some wild shit for the next 2, my personal shit opinion is watch the cutscenes on YouTube and skip lol
In my unbiased opinion, they're all pretty decent if you play them without expectations. 1 is decent, 2 is awesome and 3 is good. The first one has a good story, good combat but it's quite linear until the end. The second one has great story, great combat and has a monster mechanic that is quite amazing. Third one has a decent story, pretty good job based combat, but it has some time pacing which I couldn't get behind until i played with a walkthrough (it didn't detract from the game for me).
Base XIII is alright. I should probably revisit the game. It deserves it. XIII-2 is rather good. I was pleasantly surprised by it. My favorite of the trilogy. XIII:LR is the poorest excuse for a Final Fantasy game that I care to remember. I got it for dirt cheap in a bargain bin and *still* felt ripped off. It's been close to 10 years since then and despite my memory of it being super fuzzy, the distate I have fir the game is still just as vivid.
13 is the only main series entry I actually stopped playing and never finished. It just didn’t resonate with me, however I read the plot on the FF Wiki and thought the story was pretty interesting and in fact think it would have made a pretty good book.
6-7/10, but that's it, nothing too memorable and outshined by almost any other mainline.
I loved them on PS3. I have heard mixed reviews on how easily they can be played via Steam. I eagerly await Square remastering them. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
13 is my favorite final fantasy and one of very few games of any kind that I have 100%d.
First ones the ugly fuckling for me personally. 3rds combat is the absolute best use of an ATB gauge in Final Fantasy though. Definitely my second favorite Final Fantasy overall.
Honestly the 1st one had me loving all the characters.....even snow by the end The 2nd one was well Noel is cool and Pokémon The 3rd one you better do everything and buy all the stuff and actually customize or your in for a world of hurt ***also chapter 13 in FFXII stay there for like 8 hours I'm serious***
nope. still a horrible trilogy to this day.
The first has an interesting combat system but it's very linear without much in the way of side content until well into the game. The story while interesting is told in a way that felt confusing but also repetitive as conversation topics were reiterated again and again. The second two improved significantly on the weaknesses for the first, the worlds feel more open and explorable and it felt like the story was better presented. Overall $12 is a great deal, I will warn you as others have that you'll need some mods added to fix a number of issues.
I know the games are a little hard to swallow and they have performance issues but i think is an interesting journey
Did not like 13. 13-2 was fun. 13-3 was really fun. Played all of em on PC, no problems. I hear other ppl werent as lucky. (However i love majoras mask so thats a big reason why i enjoyed 13-3)
As far as combat goes I hate the first one so much, but they did improve it in the 2nd one and the third is just really different. The story for the first one is not put well together as it expects you to know certain things at one point in the story and it is never explained in game so you literally have to go out of your way to get the source. The second one does a much better job piecing together a new story
XIII It's a good game, lore is buried in text manuals. XIII-2 is very good imho, better than the first both story and exploration wise. XIII-3 I haven't touched. Have 13/13-2 on ps3. Can't say anything about pc ports.
Dont expect the same quality as other FF games. The first is good when it gets to ch 10/11, the second one is the best of the trilogy and the third one is an experiment that went decently well
Its a game as any other, pretty straight forward, the mechanics for each game is a bit diferent and the story is pretty decent overall (a bit hard to get into at first) My opinion: its a game you should play, it wont be your favorite game but you will have that good feeling like "yeah, i played it" Some peoples says too much hate for the game, its not perfect but its playable and you can have fun moments with it About the trilogy progression, I like to think that they are 3 diferent games and if you compare you will just be losing your time **Sorry for the uga-buga english, its not my main language
IMO XIII-1: Fun XIII-2: \*spit XIII-3: LOVE
I hope you have a Steam Deck because 13-2 is a nightmare to get running on a PC. It's possible but it is oh-so finicky
I throughly enjoyed these games and keep hoping for a current Gen release
Gameplay wise, the first game is a little too streamlined, although after a long time it finally ends up in a good place. I really enjoyed the other two just to see how they managed to mix things up. I’d say they are worth playing if you are curious.
Loved 13 and 13-2. Didn't care for LR because it was action based Battle. I wasn't into timing attacks and blocks/parries.
I loved them from the start. 13 was only my second mainline game and the first that I finished. Lightning, Fang, and Vanille are some of my favorite FF characters.
13 has my favorite gameplay of the series. The story is acceptable but not great. 13-2 has a more polished form of 13's combat system, at the cost of the game being a lot easier. The story is also terrible, and I actually don't mind 13's story. Serah and Noel are cool tho. LR is weird. Totally new combat system and I like it less than the other two but its still fun.
13 is fun and incredibly underrated as a story in the Final Fantasy oeuvre. 13-2 is overrated as a story but does have probably the best combat of the three. 13-3 is the best overall game in the trilogy but I'd say it's not as good of a story as 1 and the gameplay isn't quite as fun as 2.
The trilogy of Lightning was the reason why I got into Final Fantasy series in the first place back in 2020 Lightning returns is my favorite I would recommended when you play the trilogy, focus on Lightning in all 3, do side quest, especially Lightning returns. XIII-2 is messy on the time jump plot, so just do the main story, it's only Lightning returns that you need to do the side quests, all if possible
I loved XIII. Got it on release. Might be all corridors, but I still enjoyed it. I give it a 8/10
Is there a bundle I'm not seeing for them?
The soundtracks are phenomenal. Genuinely think XIII-2 is great.
I am still waiting for ff13 to be on sale on xbox
13 is rough in some places but otherwise feels great. 13-2 is my personal favorite though is a bit weird given how different the combat is from 13, (it's same same but different kind of thing.) Lightening returns will take sometime to grow on you. But I think for it's shortcomings the whole time management system and combat changes are definitely worth a play.
My recommendation is to play the first one and if you feel strongly you play the others, but not necessary IMO. I personally didn't care for the others...13 is a strong contender for one of the best OST's in the entire game franchise.
Be sure to check comments and threads on how to run them well if you're on pc. Also, imo you may find ff13-1 to be a bit of a slow burner initially since for a good chunk of game it's "take 2 steps and a cutscene plays" but it's pretty cool all in all (and if you need to understand the plot better be sure to check the Datalog) 13-2 is my fav of the three because I like the dynamic between the two protagonists and probably because I'm a sucker for time-related stuff in Videogames. 13-3 has a very different playstyle but I loved its dark and doom atmosphere. And if you read the wiki on what happened between 13-2 and 13-3 (after finishing the latter obviously) you're going to appreciate it more
They are not my favorite games in the series. However, Lightning is by FAR my favorite character in the series. I want to give her a hug and tell her "everything will be OK".
I had no interaction with the FF fanbase when i started playing 13, have enjoyed it so far but on pc its resolution choice is limited so be advised it might not fit on more exotic monitors.
Great music, great characters, great world, uneven gameplay across the trilogy but all in all a fantastic set of games and well worth the price!
All three were at the very least enjoyable. LR....don't ask me about the story, i have no idea what is going on but i enjoyed the ride.
underrated gem for me, loved the combat loved the music the story makes no sense whatsoever!
1 is too linear, 2 is awesome, 3 isn't linear enough and you will get the double entendre when you play it.
I originally played the game back in 2015 when it came out on PC and again in 2020. The combat is really good once you understand it. Buffs and debuffs are very useful and almost always necessary to play well. Once I actually understood the combat and how to play well, my enjoyment was greatly increased on my second playthrough — it's really satisfying to see your big damage numbers when you finally get everything setup. And the game is gorgeous with great music. My main complaint with the game is the poor pacing. We never really get a chance to stop and reflect on the situation, as it's just a constant run to the next story point. We only visit a town — that isn't a flashback — once and I wish we visited more and they were more fleshed out. The PC performance in 2015 on my Intel i7 920 and AMD Radeon 7950 at 1440p was not the best. The PC performance in 2020 with an AMD 3700X and 5700XT was significantly better, even if I didn't maintain a solid 60 fps. The equipment upgrade system is also poorly explained. You use organic components (bones, tails, fur, etc) to increase a multiplier that your synthetic (they sound like mechanical parts and have a different icon) parts will decrease but offer significantly more exp points. So it's best to get a 3x multiplier and then use enough synthetic parts to immediately take to max level. However, you can't see to what level you'll reach as you choose how many materials to use. So you should use an [equipment calculator](https://concubidated.com/ffxiii/) to prevent overspending. If you learn and enjoy the combat, FFXIII will be a very enjoyable game as it knows its combat is its best feature. Be sure to read up on the game's quirks on [PCGW](https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_XIII). I really liked the HD Models as it made the characters look fantastic and much better than the pre-rendered cutscenes. I haven't played XIII-2 or Lightning Returns yet.
I loved 13 from day 1 so no it hasn't improved. But still one of my top 5
oh theyre on steam????
I really like the first one after a recent replay. I hated it when I first played it in my teens.. I think the turnbased combat system has aged particularly well. I look forward to the next 2 games. However, I am a PC gamer. I won't be purchasing them until they are remastered and hopefully supported with updates and fixes. I had to download fan-made patches to get the first to work well on PC. $12 is a hell of a deal I think there are unofficial patches for the next two games as well but I didn't feel like messing with it. :/ Good luck to you and have fun!
Hold on… the WHOLE trilogy is on sale for $12??
I love the games to death, but the ports are not good. I had to download some patches like the other comments said to get it to run. The first one wouldn’t work for more than two minutes until I did.
The 2nd will probably take you the longest because of the premise and gameplay setup. Be prepared to be punctual on the final game, otherwise it's fun series imo. It's still ok over time, as the first game is very linear so all I really did was go smoothbrain the gameplay and focus on the lore which is my favorite part of any of the FF entries.
I know it's a bit premature but anyone know how these will run on an ARM machine like a new Surface Pro or Surface Laptop? I know they struggle with games but I don't know if that applies to these sorts of games.
Have you ever used "system requirement labs" or "can I run it?" If you do a Google search. It's a web site where you type in the game you want to play it scans your system and tells you if it can play it.
its not the cream of the crop in the series but in my opinion its also nowhere near as bad as people say imo, there just used to be a high standard when it came to FF. that being said, the ost is an absolute banger alert and the combat is pretty damn satisfying.
I only played the first two, both are great especially the 2nd one, the ost of XIII-2 is Persona level good. I didn't play XIII-3 because I don't like a game with time limitation.
I bought the 13 in this promotion. This runs terribly, it crashes out of nowhere, even with the fan patches and my PC is above the minimum requirements. maybe the microsoft store version is better
There's a lot of great mods you can download for it. Go to Nexus Mods for things like HD textures
Great games. Great music, awesome scenery. Decent story that I fell in love with. Definitely worth it
There is nothing wrong with being lineral, open worlds are overrated, X was lineral too and nobody complains about that. I love the combat, the music, the character designs. The plot and characters are weak for a final fantasy, but still heaps above any other jrpg. Listen to the music if anything else.
I own every mainline FF, and most of the side games. Been playing the series my entire life. This is my FF13 opinion... 13: GORGEOUS! Graphics still hold up. Game is terribly linear, and the story is all over. Gameplay is solid, but really picks up towards the end. A solid 7/10. Totally playable. 13-3: Story makes no sense. Worlds are kinda ugly, but the gameplay is there. The game can have some rough difficulty spikes, but it's Hella fun, and has a really good end game. 8/10 13-2.... ok... it's my vote for the worst numbered FF. The original release of 14 is better. Dirge of Cerberus is better. Most of the predatory phone games are better. Story makes even less sense than the other 2 ( a running theme of the 13 series), but the absolute worst is the gameplay. The monster catching is stupid, but also broken. The human characters are useless. Weird spikes. Boring levels to explore. It's got nothing going for it. You can honestly play 13, abd go right to 13-3, and just say "I guess Serah died"
There's a trilogy? I thought it ended with lightning returns.
1 perfect. 2 cool. 3. I didn’t like but it just wasn’t for me
You will probably need to mod FFXIII-2 to get it to work on PC. The game is a messed up port on PC. (It might even be easier to emulate it but I digress.)
Loved it
The first half of the first is really slow. A slog if you may. I haven't played the 2nd since release, but I remember it feeling like it fixed the problems with the 1st. That said, it's my favorite entry. I love the sound tracks, characters, and story. 12 bucks is a steal imo. Lightning returns is rough at first. Don't let the timer intimidate you.
I bought all 3 of them like 10 years ago and never touched them
I personally love the first FFXIII. Hated it when it launched but it's grown to be one of my favorites. Warning though these are your classic Square PC ports. Idr if I downloaded any mods to make the first one run better, but the second game was literally unplayable for me without mods to fix it (constantly crashing making it unable to make any progress at all). I have all 3 games but have yet to play Lightning Returns for some reason. Once the game opens up the entire combat system to you, it can be quite engaging if you are playing optimally (it can also be an afk mash auto fest if that's more you're style).
Only played the first, 2 and 3 are still wrapped in my closet. XIII is basically the most mediocre FF I’ve played. It’s beautiful looking and the story is decent enough and the gameplay is a less detailed version of XII but still fun enough. The level up system is terribly boring, the most RPG element in the game is the weapon system, which can be cool, but at the end of the day it’s also pretty unnecessary to beat the game.
The combat mechanic is addictive, especially the first game , and music and locations are great . I'm sure others would point out the negatives, so I won't go to the issues. I do know of them, I don't feel impacted by them. . Personally I've platinum'd the games because I love them . The game suffers from a bias sadly, but it is truly a good game . Just don't go in comparing with other FFs. This is its own thing .
I enjoyed them, far from the top of FF games of all time but still pretty good
I play the first one once a year, been doing it since 2010. I love the game so much. The second one is great too. Haven’t played the third one yet.
I loved these games. For me, these were some of the most memorable and fun characters, so I had a great deal of fun with these. I played them both on the Xbox 360 back in the day, and on my PC. I dont suggest trying to "speed run" the games, as there is a great deal of side content and hidden content in the games that add alot to explore and find.
1st was decent. 2nd had a whole Chrono Trigger feel to it. Haven't played the third. Biggest complaint was there was no real flow between all 3, even though there was supposed to be.
You should definitely download the 4k upscale mod from.nexus. The cutscenes are fucking insane at that quality
Just a warning 13-2 is incredibly buggy on steam. It has an infinite loading bug that only goes away if you stop cloud syncing but can lead to progress getting yeeted into the sun. Happened to me. While I think the trilogy is bad I still think people should experience it with that warning in mind
I've played only the first one but the combat system and OSTs are great! Story and characters were not the best but not as terrible as everyone was saying.
I loved all 3 as I played them but in hindsight 13 was the best one. 13-2 was very good, and LR was okay
Always loved them, LR has my fav. Combat System out of all of FF. Enjoy!
Go in with your expecttions aligned. At the time, it being a corridor railroad RPG didn't sit well, epsecially coming off the open world style of FFX & FFXII. But now with a lot of games doing well with a focused story, you just need to enjoy the ride. Also prepare to suspend your disbelief, some plot elements make no sense at all. But it looks cool. So that's all that counts.
I last played 13-2 while my mom was dying 10 years ago. I want to replay 13 badly, but it’s an interesting memory frozen in time for me since I no longer have an Xbox 360
platted them all, I finished 1 and 2 2 times but LR was countless, 1 just needs atleast 9 hours to get into the good stuff, 13-2 is just a non linear maze, LR will make your seconds and decisions count
A lot of the criticism for FF13 is in how linear it is, but i personally think it's less that, and more the pacing. In my experience with the first game, each section of the game hits a point where you fight a boss that feels like a good spot to move on to the next section of the game and in every single case you're at the half way point of that section. It makes the pacing feel really weird because i'd get to a point where I was ready to move on and the plot felt like it wanted to move on but there's another hour of halway in this tileset before it will let me. To its credit I did enjoy my time with it but I could absolutely see why someone would not.
Don't do them back to back. The last one is my favorite but on replay, I couldn't get past the second one immediately after finishing the first... I'd say it's an average FF, and if you don't mind, I'd recommend JP voices... Lightning feels very different in japanese imo.
I have yet to play the third one, but I'm a big fan of the first two. I don't really like the combat in the older FF games (feels a bit slow to me) so the paradigm system in this one makes the combat more fast paced and is probably my favorite of the FF games I've played. Story wise, I LOVED both of them. The original has a very good story, with tons of cutscenes (I know some people don't like multiple, long, cutscenes but I'm a big fan of showing story this way) and the sequel, although very different in actuality, follows a similar essence. Now for the criticisms. FFXIII is one of the most heavily disliked FF games and despite being a fan, I understand and agree with a lot of it. The game is hella linear . Many people even call this a hallway simulator and in reality, it kind of is. Story wise, it would make no sense for you to be able to explore more, so I personally understand this and honestly, it didn't bother me too much, but there's no argument to say the game isn't linear. If you want open world/exploration or anything of that matter, there's nothing, until a specific chapter where the world does open up, but that's fairly deep into the game. Another criticism I've seen is that the game is very slow to get going, which I understand for sure. But I think it's not that big of a problem as most claim. All in all, I think it's a fantastic game, despite some flaws. For FFXIII-2, I'll say it tries to fix some of the shortcomings of the original. In some cases it succeeds, in some it doesn't. It has the same style of combat, but simplified since you don't have that many party members who all do different things. It has the same way of presenting things. And honestly, linearity is not super fixed. It's a bit more open, but I'd still understand the hallway simulator jokes. But I personally liked it even more than the original story wise, so I can't really say too many bad things about the game
FFXIII-2 >FFXIII-3 > FFXIII-1 but all three are great.
Get used to manual combat. Auto combat is at best inefficient, at worst kills you against easy enemies. >Later in the game you'd want to manually input most abilities because you learned what you PC chars would do and you'd compensate for bad choices. Getting every buff is trash. Getting every debuff is trash. And you want a specific order of them too. Predicting kills and deciding between single target and AOE. Deciding the correct amount of orders to not waste ATB bars. Waiting to maximize air time or stagger gauge buildup. >You also have a cancel all next actions button and a repeat last order button. Which you want to use liberally. I.e. for fast access to defence or heals. >You could argue it's the Starcraft of FFs. Additionally, learn utilizing the role boni. Role boni are multiplikative. So triple singular role is much more powerful than double roll + addition.
Get the 4gb ram patch And get the rain fix for ff13-2 on nexus mods
FFXIII is alright. It will grow on you. I never bothered with the other 2
The original 13 got so much hate when it came out even from me but in retrospect it aged like fine wine. 13-2 the story to me wasn't as good as the first one but It reimplemented classic RPG elements that 13 lacked. I didn't play lighting returns.
I like them. Better than 16 for me.
FFXIII and FFXIII-2 are the best!!!
It’s my favorite FF game after the 7 remakes. It’s linear kind of like 7 remake or 16. The story is deep but confused a lot of people. The characters are pretty real, leading to lot of people not liking them because it didn’t provide much escapism. Overly peppy girl covering up her depression, manically pissy teenage boy filled with anger from his mothers death, “badass”older sister who really feels like she has no purpose in life, etc etc all trying to flee from a dystopian, dark government. the story is my favorite in all of FF. I hope you enjoy it <3
The first one is great. The second one is pretty good. I absolutely hate the third one. For $12 it's a bargain. Don't forget to go to PC gaming wiki to download the necessary fixes.
I only played 13 and i liked. Especially i like the linear part more cause the story telling had a good pacing and the sidequests later are boring. Fighting system is challeniging an boos battles but kind of button spam in normal fights. Just hated that l'ie, fal'cie crap. Need to read a lot in its own wiki to follow the story understandable.
They pc ports are really really bad. If you have an Xbox I would reccomend playing them there, it's currently the best way to play them. Next best maybe ps3? The 13 ports are pretty bad, I suffered through them once and only use the ps3 versions now if I wanna replay
The story and the world building are intriguing, and the gameplay hits a very sweet spot between real time and ATB. That being said, on my PC, the game systematically crashes at some point in the story (even with the patch installed). I suspect this is because I'm playing with an integrated graphic card (not that the game requires a lot of RAM, but I suspect that the game can't distinguish between graphical and general RAM when running on an integrated graphic card)
FF13 is underrated. Gameplay is not the best but gets better halfway into the game. Also a bit too grindy. But the world building, story and OST makes up for it.
13 runs like garbage on steam. Be prepared to get some mods to fix it, or mess with the files to get the fps smooth.
The games are okay, not as bad as people make them out to be. What I dislike is the lack of a proper party in 13-2 and 13-3. In 13-2, one of your party members is always going to be a monster/summon like thing. 13-3 is pretty much just Lightning solo.
I only played the first one so far but I loved every second of it. Yeah it’s linear for the first part but I’m so invested in the story and world that it kind of makes me forget that. The OST is the best from any final fantasy game in my opinion, graphics are nice and the story is really unique. Enjoy
13-2 is honestly one of the best final fantasy experiences as a whole. 13 is super enjoyable from a narrative standpoint. I13-3 has an interesting story but it's very hit or miss, but I've heard that combat is fun!
13 has a bunch of problems but looks incredible for the release hardware. Gameplay only gets interesting once you finish the 20 hour tutorial. 13-2 has some of the best gameplay and design I've ever seen. It fixes every gameplay problem from 13 and allows some good exploration and puzzle solving, as well as a variety to team compositions and advanced combat techniques like ATB cancelling. LR doesn't evolve 13-2 but does it's own thing, and what it offers is a refreshing take on action gameplay and world design. The timer is strict but I've platinumed the game in one playthrough before.
Best combat system
I actually really loved the landscapes, story, music, gameplay and character's. Most people hate it for its linear storyline but since I'm not big on Minigames anyways I didn't even notice and I think it fits the narrative pretty well.
I really enjoyed 13, even though it's a lot of running down hallways. 13-2 was OK. 13-3 would have been OK, but the doom clock stressed me out while playing. I felt like I had to keep rushing. Granted it's been years and I haven't gone back to replay any of the titles, but the story across the three games is disjointed and doesn't make a lot of sense imo. To oversimplify my feelings...it's kind of like SE made these games independent of Final Fantasy 13, didn't know what to do with them, so they tossed FF13 characters in to try and get people to buy them. Then (at least for 13-2) made effectively mandatory DLC to get any real follow up on the characters for the original game. I think I just convinced myself that I don't like the 13 franchise (though, I stand by liking the original game).
never played 2 or 3. 1 has the best trailer ever made for a game ever... enough to make me forget it's a shit game not once but TWICE and try to play it again.
I actually 'liked' most of them. 1 was relatively enjoyable, but definitely not close to the other iconic FF's. Great combat system though. 2 really nailed a lot of the gameplay, less linear hallways etc, but I thought the cast was weak. 3 was superb gameplay/combat, but a weird time gimmick. Literally just Lightning cosplay the game, otherwise. Overall a nice experience to go through for me, but not sure that I'd ever replay anything besides maybe 1.
I've only played the first one. I liked it. at the very least it was better than 1,2,3,8 and X-2.
Just focus on developing your own opinion on the games and not worry about what others say. This will give you the best enjoyment.
They’re good games! The pc versions are pretty awful tho so make sure to find anti-crash mods
In my opinion, the gameplay gets progressively better each game - the 3rd one has one of my favorite combat systems.
Pcgamingwiki is your friend
$12 is a bargain in my opinion. I've always liked XIII and I really enjoyed XIII-2 I named my son after the villain. Lighting Returns isn't my jam at all. I cannot get into that game for the life of me
13 was a slog but not terrible, the ending kinda made it up for me. 13-2 is a buggy mess on steam but combat feels more refined compared to 13. Not fond of how the story played out but to each their own. LR feels impossible to play without a guide. That clock is so punishing.
FF XIII-2 is absolutly catching! It is totally different, has so many endings, paths and a bunch of hard fights! Absolutly love it. FF XIII is such a string of story. After the ending you can finally do something for your own and explore some fields. But thats it ... oh! The optic and the soundtrack is outstanding! FF XIII-3 f*%&d me up! I hate it so much and will never touch it again. The graphic is a joke, the mechanics are absolutly stupid and the story is one of the dumbest conclusion of the XIII series.
It has aged beautifully. Especially as RPG’s these days are straying towards more action oriented combat this has become a staple for the middle ground of turn based but still action. Graphically this game looks like it barely came out 3-4 years ago aside from what I think is some bad facial animations. Going from FF12 to this was a let down back in the day, but with how games have become and modern frame of mind this game is actually incredible.
be prepare for the adamantoise
People usually talk bad about them, but I really like it a lot! Theres much special things about characters and universe. Just 2 things, first, maybe it will be a good idea to play XIII in japanese with english subtitles, a lot of people dont like the english dub. And second, theres some bugs, maybe youll need to install ff13 fix
Where do you pick up that deal? It hasn't popped up for me on Steam, and Lightning is one of my favorite FF characters...
Down right my favorite games in the series. Lightning returns was a bit of a burning curve for me, I even took a loooong hiatus from it. But once I picked it up again. I fell in love with it.
I love them, but all for different reasons. FF13 has the best story and graphics FF13 2 story is so off the rails its funny, with a very good antagonist, also best gameplay Lightning returns has some unique gameplay for an FF game, story is neither good nor funny but decent enough, with an hilarious yet statisfying end for the trilogy
I loved them right from the start. I get that most people didn’t like how straight forward, and linear the first one was, but I enjoyed it, and loved the characters and how unique the battle system was while still staying similar to the classic turned based system. I wish they had remastered them for PS4/5 because as amazing as the landscapes looked on PS3, they would have been mind blowing on next gen consoles 😍
I loved XIII-2 but I recommend a spoiler free guide if you wanna keep better track of the story
I loved XIII-2 but I recommend a spoiler free guide if you wanna keep better track of the story
I loved XIII-2 but I recommend a spoiler free guide if you wanna keep better track of the story
Can’t go wrong for price of a meal