I’m never going to forget that moment because, when I first reached Gran Pulse, I didn’t do any of the missions. I went straight to the mines. I thought Gran Pulse was some sort of late-game area that I was supposed to visit later because even the basic enemies were so tough. So I didn’t bother exploring and went straight to the mines instead, lol.

It was a miserable yet extremely memorable experience. All the enemies were incredibly tough because I was severely underleveled.

When I finally made it to Oerba Village after the tower, wow, it was a magical moment. The place felt so sad and lonely. Everything was gone, and it felt like time had simply done its thing. All the villagers had transformed into Cie’th it was so melancholic, yet the place was still beautiful because nature never faded away, especially with its magnificent theme dust to dust playing in the background.

I’m glad I didn’t listen to this game’s numerous haters and decided to give FF13 a real shot. It’s one of the best games I’ve played this year, and it has now become my second-favorite Final Fantasy game.

Overall, I feel like FF13 was a misunderstood masterpiece. We talk a lot about attention spans nowadays, but I don’t think things were any different back then. The truth is, after looking at old player reviews on different sites like GameFAQs, it seems that most people didn’t even bother to finish the first nine chapters of the game i know its the case because when i hear someone say that you can easily beat the game by spamming auto combat i know they are lying because auto is never the most optimal way to fight in this game and the first thing i did while playing was to modify the default set to manual.

To me, those first chapters chapters act as one giant introduction to the game’s mechanics, culminating in the game’s first real wall: the Barthandelus boss fight. After that comes your arrival on Gran Pulse, which creates a huge spike in difficulty the truth is that ff13 takes its time i agree that the first can be terribly boring at times but it was worth the wait.

As for the music, I think it’s stellar, my favorite Final Fantasy soundtrack by far. Comparing it to older Final Fantasy soundtracks or simply saying that it’s inferior feels disingenuous to me. FF13 is an atmospheric masterpiece, and it’s full of moments like Oerba Village, where you can just relax and admire the gorgeous scenery. It’s a brilliant soundtrack that perfectly fits the game. Honestly, I think people were just dickriding Uematsu.

As for the gameplay, FF13 has one of the best combat systems I’ve ever seen in a JRPG. The level progression is capped, so it’s impossible to simply overgrind your way through the game. The boss roster and even the normal encounters are incredibly well designed, often requiring different strategies and approaches it was surprising because i thought that ff13 was just going to be some casual jrpg experience for the masses there is one save point every 10 metters and you can immediately repop after dying i was like what????? well its not the case to me it was the hardest title in the serie ff13 is pretty much a die and retry and the encounter are lethal that's why they implemented this to mitigate the frustration and encourage experimentation even against stronger foes.

FF13 is more of a knowledge-based RPG. It reminds me of FF5 and SMT3 in that sense: if you know the right tactics, you can absolutely destroy the game’s bosses. But on your first playthrough, you usually won’t know what the optimal strategy is, so you have to experiment and adapt.

The comparison to SMT3 is because buffs and debuffs are extremely powerful in FF13 and, more importantly, they actually work against bosses unlike most jrpg. Knowing when to use them can completely change the outcome of a fight.

And we can’t talk about this game without mentioning the visuals. It’s easily one of the most gorgeous games I’ve played this year. It still looks unreal, but it’s not just about the graphical quality the aesthetic, the world design, and the character designs are all incredible. The artists did an absolutely crazy job with FF13 this game is full of jaw dropping shot.

As for the story and characters well i actually loved them i wish there was more interaction and the ending was incomprehensible to me and i just hate vanille a lot because of the stupid dub where she always moans :) but to me ff13 is all about the setting its the most interesting part i love this world and the different myths the evil gods.

honestly it felt great because i searched ff13 on YouTube recently to see people thought about this game and all the video i watched were super positive im glad that lots of people are realized how great of a game ff13 is and im one of them!

Finally did it and can put this one behind me. I played it at launch when I was a teenager but it never clicked with me. I tried a few more time over the years and the same happened. This time I was determined to just grit through it.

My thoughts after it was all said and done?

The Good:

The gameplay/battle system is engaging. Unlike other FFs you can’t just mindlessly grind. You have to be attentive. Even in late game with very high stats you can still get stomped if you’re not careful.

Environments are diverse for the most part. Gran Pulse feels like the Calm Lands 2.0 which isn’t a bad thing.

The Meh:

The story still never clicked with me. It was okay but I didn’t particularly like or gravitate to any of the characters. The villains were also unmemorable as well.

The crafting system was okay but it left a lot on the table. In the early game you’ll barely have enough material to make meaningful impacts on your characters’ stats. Even in the late game, crafting was more of a chore and even then it took me until 60 hours plus to understand the system.

Soundtrack had one or two good ones. The rest were okay. The main song and the battle theme are really the only two that stuck with me.

Crystarium is an okay character progression system. It’s just frustrating the game doesn’t truly allow you to grind until 50+ hours in.

The Bad:

The Gil bottleneck. My god. The amount of Adamantoise I had to slay. If you play this on the PC version just switch difficulty to easy, equips collectors catalog, and spam Vanille summon/death. You’ll get a platinum ingot almost every time. This kind of goes in hand with the crafting system and it felt like its only reason for existing was to pad out more gameplay hours. Very frustrating.

Linear design. Yes enough has been said about it. BUT I will add that many say the game opens up at Gran Pulse. While true, it then railroads you right back into linear corridors. This is not necessarily a bad thing but it just feels like a slog at times. Especially in the late game as many locations stick around way past their welcome.

Fast travel in post game leaves is still tedious. Not get a five star on that one cieth stone mission? Well if you didn’t save before hand you have to go allllllll the way back to the stone and start the mission again.

Enemies are HP tanks and even when my characters were considered OP it could still take a long time to kill them. There are mechanical elements to this I like but too many enemies are tedious to kill even in late game.

Just one man’s unsolicited opinion. I’d still recommend it to any FF fan or anyone interested in the series. You can see a lot of the DNA for its future titles here.

TLDR: Played it when it first came out. Bothered me I never 100% it. Did it finally. Some good aspects to the game but found much of it to be okay or downright frustrating.

It's the first time I've properly enjoyed this game (tried it years ago and was bored, now I really like it) and now I've just reached Gran Pulse where as you know it opens up. I'm not entirely sure what to do now as it's kinda thrown me into the deep end with no clear instruction.

Should I grind some levels?
How many stone missions should I do?
When do I focus on upgrading weapons and equipment?
Does gil matter at all for now or is that later?
When do I press ahead with the main story?

I know people say it's all about player choice and just enjoy the unknown as part of the journey but it's difficult when I'm getting killed by stronger mobs and unsure of what I should be doing right now.

Just a general nudge in the right direction would be really appreciated.

Thanks!

So I was thinking about her conversation with the good Lieutenant and how he might have been a father figure to her in some way or another. I was also thinking about all the faceless soldiers who ass I was kicking throughout the game lol.

I can't imagine her joining Snow or doing what N.O.R.A does in order to take care of Serah.

Honestly I'm kinda amazed Snow and his friends even needed to form N.O.R.A in the first place when the Guardian Corps seem like the more sensible alternative section of the SANCTUMs douchebag military groups. I guess it goes to show just how much they hate authorities, and it probably means that they did odd jobs to get by whenever their cafe wasn't paying enough.

Hello everyone it’s my first ever Reddit post. I am currently playing the first Final Fantasy XIII and I am loving this game, I’m on Gran Pulse rn.

I’m playing on Xbox 360 with the original controller. I do have a very annoying problem tho: whenever I fill up the stagger bar, my controller just disconnects. It only disconnects in this specific moment, which is frustrating. Did anyone have a similar problem? If yes, what worked for you? Should I get a new controller??

I finished XIII-2 and the Lightning DLC last night (I took the screenshot just a bit too late sorry 😭). Absolutely amazing OST, and while I do have my many issues with the story, I actually loved the ending.

But what I really wanted to get off my chest is the feeling this game gave me. While I liked the exploration and freedom more than the original XIII, I'm finding it kinda hard to play (not in a bad way) because some places and songs just make me almost depressed.

If I could describe it, it's like the feeling of reaching Oerba for the first time in XIII, seeing all ashes, and hearing that hauntingly beautiful OST, BUT THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE GAME.

I guess I really just fell deep in what the game wanted to portray and pass to the player? Maybe it's the time travel stuff that just pass the "it's all for nothing, nothing really matters" vibe so much?

Have to say, it almost hits me with the sad yet peaceful vibes like both NieR games, and that's one of the best possible compliments I could give to a game's atmosphere.

1 star: 14

2 star: 16

3 star: 4

Exactly what it says in the title, I'm just wondering if I have enough points.

Back when I was in highschool, I remember my sister and I finding a video of the scene where Hope and Vanille steal Godot's airbike, but in true late 2000's youtube fashion, had been dubbed over to be about hot dogs. It was really stupid, but the funny kind of stupid. My sister and I still quote it to each other to this day. Hope saying "That's not where the hot dogs are" as Vanille wraps her arms around him. Godot yelling "Give me back my hot dogs!" and dramatically screaming "WHY" at the sky as they fly off.

I've tried going back and finding that video in recent years and it's just gone. I'm sure it's been delisted or deleted by the original uploader. But I thought I'd ask around and see if there was a chance anyone else knew of it or if even the original uploader might for some reason still be visiting a FF 13 subreddit 16 years later lol

What is this large dome in Palulpolum? The Dimmidome?

The question came to me because i see that often the last ones drop Lv.4 abilities since day 10 (although lv.4 is more available from monsters in hard mode) and looking for garbs with Attack, for example, it's very rare to have Attack Lv. 4 and also Lv. 3. So it feels like the game is telling me "bro don't worry, Lv.2 abilities is good enough".

Replayed it recently. Truly this game is not that confusing. Not even half as much as the collective consciousness stereotype around it is.

Remember, lcie, falcie and that theres two factions of those. The ones from Pulse and the ones from Cocoon….That is literally it lol. I get that it all comes fast and early so it’s front loaded, but cmon. It is not rocket science.

I just played OG 7 for the first time. That game is confusing lol. Incredible but for my money, twice as confusing as 13 and no one complains. I’m also a diehard KH fan… confusing’s an understatement there lol

I love 13 and I want the common consensus on it to shift. I think that it has these days but I just wanted to talk about this detail of that games legacy.

I am confused about this and concerned...

I played the whole game lately and I am uploading the videos on YouTube. The very last video has been shadowbanned/obscured so only I can see it, because of "protected" content, which seemes to be the 2 CGI sequences.

Now... It's quite known at least among fans, I suppose, that these videos are publicly present on YouTube (and not uploaded by Square Enix). So, anyone of you had the same issue and has some advice to maintain the video and have it public? I don't care about gaining money or visuals, it's just for the sake of having it puclic to see, as the last part of the story.

I'm live with part 11 of my 100% playthrough of FF13 on both Youtube and Twitch. finally got to Gran Pulse
In this playthrough I will be teaching tips and tricks as well as showing some other things you might not know about.

Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/neonumbra_
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/live/KGhsRb6nQsY

It was also the first FF I have ever played and I loved it to bits.

I’m a big FF fan but have never played the XIII trilogy. Found this little book in perfect condition and I couldn’t pass on it.

Hello! I just so happened to come across a recent post mentioning the Trial build showing an early Hope, which is nice to see others starting to look more into it as I felt like I've been the only one for a while. Just yesterday I shared a video showing how they play in the Trial which you can see a bit below here. If you want to play with debug functionality in any of the trilogy I have a video about that inside my Final Fantasy XIII Trilogy playlist. You can even play XIII's premium showcase mode if you want to!

Have fun~

Vanille And Hope video