I have no idea what this board is about, but I have no pie for you.

Just a question really? Do we have any Final Fantasy fans in the house?

I find that Final Fantasy fans are crazy, and hold FF with so much regard.

That being said, I value FF games as if they had any other name.

I think they're losing their steam. I mean, honestly its getting a bit repetitive at this point. The same tropes just loaded on top of each other over and over again, terrible voice acting, and an uninspired combat system. I really liked playing FF6,7,10,10-2; but I just don't see anything interesting in any of the trailers for 12 or 13.

Well 14 as you may or may not know is the next massively game. And having spent three years in 11, I must say it is a very different experience from that of the single player series.

Has the series forsaken us? Sure. But ever since SquareSoft's demise, it has been a corporate journey towards stealing your lunch money. Never the less, I am one such loyal fan and sadly will continue to buy and play their games as long as they continue to release them. Whether they are uninspired or not. With that being said, I did enjoy 13. The story was unfulfilling but the voice acting was good, the CG was like seeing Avatar all over again. Most importantly chapter 12 spiked the difficult of the game back to old school. Hardcore boss fight patterns and deadly precision is what you need to defeat some of those guys. Do you have to play through 10 boring chapters before you get to the meat of the combat. Yes you do.

Back on topic. I wanted to have a go at the community and see how many of you folks I could recruit to play with us upon release sometime towards the end of the year.

This is exactly what I said.

What was especially crazy for 13 is when people were saying this exact same pair of sentences, some people were still going out and purchasing copies for PS3 and 360.

But to answer the question of whether or not I will play on release: No. I'll wait for reviews to come out.

I've played the odd FF and I have to say that all the newish ones I played were ass and that FFVI (or III if you played it on Super NES like me) is the best FF I've played and I assume the best ever because it's pretty much perfect in every way.

Don't trust game reviews. They too have forsaken us.

I might play FFXIV, provided Cataclysm doesn't cause me to come back to WoW.

I've played XIII though, and I really didn't like it. I wanted to, but I just couldn't. That makes this the first FF game I haven't liked, which is sad =(

FFXIII is the one of the few FF games I've actually been able to really get pulled into and continue playing from beginning to end, the other beings FFVII and FFX. Not even FFVI, which I love, I was able to get into enough to play non-stop. Most FF games are the kind I will pick up and play a portion of, set it down for a good long while, pick up play some more, set it down again, etc.

I would actually say FFXIII is the second best FF game, following behind FFVII. I have never played FFII or FFXI though so I don't know where they stand. FFVIII and FFXII are towards the bottom in my opinion. FFVIII just seemed to fail at doing what FFVII did correctly and had a god awful magic system, while FFXII is just extremely boring at times.

^You left out my favourite, FFIX.

Oh...kay?

But it is due to reviews that I know that FFXIII is not very good, or rather that it takes forever to become good. I also understand that there is very little exploration.
Are these things which are not true?

@QuizMaster

They are. If the game is good or takes awhile to become good is a very subjective thing indeed. For example, what is it that you most enjoyed about the FF series in the past? Is it the storytelling, well if it, then it is likely that you will enjoy this episode of the series more than the ones in the past because it maintains the story focused and ever moving forward. On the other hand if you were someone who really liked the turn based systems of the past you will claim to hate the combat system in 13, where someone else could find it innovative.
Exploration is ever present in this game, while it is true that it does come much later in the series, their are 60 side quests that can be taken and quite a large lush terrain to explore. Now I'm not arguing that the game could have been done differently or that it doesn't adhere to the old formula with it's lack of proper mini-games. Never-the-less I am simply trying to make a point that subjecting a game to single digit score will never justify the game's overall experience for everyone.
Their is one game magazine I subscribe to and it's Edge. They avoid the whole rating bit, and more so than not are actually very accurate with their "descriptions". Pretty much I'm making the same point so many made in the 90s. Use your own judgement when buying games and don't rely on a numeric value that is so often skewed by pop.

I'm not talking about numbers. I'm referring to somebody I trust telling me how good it is. As of this point, I don't intend to play it.

Now, you've piqued my interest by the mention of 60 sidequests. Please, do go on. How are these brought to the player's attention?

Chapter 11 (it takes about 16 hours to get there). Your introduced to an open world. You come across l'Ice (sp?) that have failed to execute their focus. The quests closer resemble Monster hunter, and u simply follow towards a given dot (although their are a few that are tricky to figure out how to span) and duke it out. This is where you'll come across the most interesting fights in the game. Sadly your not going to be able to complete them all until after you've beaten the game and unlocked all your abilities like "Army of One". Also upon returning back to the storyline you will be greeted by the most jaw dropping CG sequence I have ever seen. Rivaling good ol-avatar.

I'm with the people who think that FF is losing its steam. I'm bored to tears playing FF13, and have recently quit at ch:11 to replay Jade Empire.(really and under rated game in my opinion.) I'll get back to FF13 after finals at school are over I guess.

FF13 is like way too linear for me. The story isn't that interesting, and I'm not liking how long it took me to get to anything resembling a free-roam. Not that it is really all that free roaming. If you go off of course you will get your ass kicked. If I wanted to run through boring repetitive stages while killing random enemies I'd play Dark Tower! LOL

I'm a big FF fan, and I partially agree, I thought 12 was incredibly disapointing, but so far I have quite enjoyed 13 (I'm only about half way through so cant pass judgement) but so far the story remains pretty good, I do get the linearness though, but I thought 10 was more linear and I'd say that was my third or fourth faviourte (1st, IX, 2nd, VII, 3rd/4th, VI).

I thought IX was phenominal, in my opinion, the best game ever made, the story, characterisation and battle system are all brilliant. (though I did think VIII had better graphics than IX :S)

Finally! I can stop searching through the internet now. I can rest.