Final Fantasy XIII - Story Recap w/ Me! <3

[GamerChick26]

Hey everyone! I wasn't too sure, but I thought this to be the correct forum category to share this under, since it has entirely to do FinalFantasy13.

I made a "Story Recap" video to help refresh everyone memory before FinalFantasy13-2 comes out, so I thought maybe you guys would like to watch it? All narration and edits have been done by me, and I've put a lot of hard work and effort into making it! So I really hope you guys might enjoy it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NI-sblHgn0&feature=g-u&context=G24d5429FUAAAAAAAKAA

While we're on the topic, what did everyone think of the story line in FinalFantasy13? Honestly the only reason why I even bothered to play the game time-and-time again was because i loved the story line! I know a lot of people had complaints about the "horrible" voice acting, but I beg to differ, although some things could have been improved on. <3

 

[Lirael]

Ooh this is handy. I can remember most of the story but would quite like to have my memory refreshed!

By the way, your voice is cute! I could imagine you being a voice actor.

I personally love the story of XIII too. I love the fact the characters become so dedicated to one another. The relationship between Snow, Serah and Lightning is beautiful. I've heard it said that the game is meant to show the importance of family - I really did feel that! The links to mythology are also very interesting and it's something I need to read more into; I have the Prose Edda, which contains a story that also links to Freya and Fratley in IX.

In regards to the voice acting, yes, I think it was good too. Lightning, Serah, Sahz, Snow and Fang were perfectly cast. Hope was a little whiny at times, but the voice suited him and as a character he did mature over time. I only came to appreciate Vanille after playing through the entire game and seeing her mature decision towards the end - before that, I felt she was a little babyish. Her noises are a little strange, but I can forgive them I guess. I'm still not so keen on the actor herself.

 

[Fusionist]

Kudos for compiling all that. Now I wish I hadn't restarted FFXIII myself

I thought FFXIII's story was unnecessarily complicated in regards to l'Cie/fal'Cie/Focus/Ragnarok (and in fact, I'm playing again to understand stuff I didn't figure out the first time around), but...I honestly liked it a lot. The simpler parts about prejudice, fear, and the whole "sheep" mentality was very engaging. I loved the characters (I still have a crush on Lightning >.>), but Hope especially for how downright realistic he is. The relationships they built were also quite heartening, but not without the friction (which I loved ^^).

Though I have to say it get's pretty cheesy sometimes xD

And who said the game had bad voice acting? I thought the VA work was flippin' amazing! I can honestly say Square-Enix knows how to do good voice work for their games, Final Fantasy especially.

 

[GamerChick26]

By the way, your voice is cute! I could imagine you being a voice actor.

I only came to appreciate Vanille after playing through the entire game and seeing her mature decision towards the end - before that, I felt she was a little babyish. Her noises are a little strange, but I can forgive them I guess. I'm still not so keen on the actor herself.

haha thank you! I'm actually told this quite often! Voice acting isn't something I considered going into as a profession, but who knows?

Vanille actually came to be one of my favorite characters. Although her noises were pretty strange at times xD

Kudos for compiling all that. Now I wish I hadn't restarted FFXIII myself

I thought FFXIII's story was unnecessarily complicated in regards to l'Cie/fal'Cie/Focus/Ragnarok (and in fact, I'm playing again to understand stuff I didn't figure out the first time around), but...I honestly liked it a lot. The simpler parts about prejudice, fear, and the whole "sheep" mentality was very engaging. I loved the characters (I still have a crush on Lightning >.>), but Hope especially for how downright realistic he is. The relationships they built were also quite heartening, but not without the friction (which I loved ^^).

Though I have to say it get's pretty cheesy sometimes xD

And who said the game had bad voice acting? I thought the VA work was flippin' amazing! I can honestly say Square-Enix knows how to do good voice work for their games, Final Fantasy especially.

Thank you! I worked on that video for about a week-straight, It took a LOT of work putting everything together. xD

I do agree that playing the game the first time around, it was rather difficult to understand some of the concepts, which is one of the reasons why I think some people didn't like the game; because they couldn't understand the story clearly, but once you understand those concepts the story is very very enjoyable

I haven't seen many comments regarding the voice acting on this website, however I have seen a number of people complaining about "the bad voice acting". Can't make everyone happy I suppose, but I'm glad i'm not the only one who agrees that the voice acting was wonderful!

 

[Linnaete]

I give FFXIII credit where credit is due. There is an abundance of character interaction that was sorely lacking in the previous game when they decided to lend more focus time instead on the goings-on around Ivalice, the threat of war and the exclusive importance of certain main and side characters. I can easily do a good page or so describing Sazh, compared to only a few sentences for Penelo. Unfortunately, they haven't done it right. To this day, I still find Snow horribly obnoxious and a bit dumb, while Hope and Vanille just make me want to grind my teeth to dust for two very different reasons.

The overall story in my opinion, is just dire. No, it didn't seem consistently dire when I played it. It was from Chapter 9 onwards that the game decided to completely drop the ball and nosedive into the seventh circle of hell or something. That isn't to say that the first half is perfect either. While the basic premise of fugitives escaping from the claws of an authoritarian regime seemed fascinating to begin with, it did quickly become aimless. While the characters ran, the plot seemed to be missing - there was no actual goal, bar maybe Lightning wishing to charge into Eden, for all the good that would do, and crucially, no actual villain. It grew samey and I just wished that something would happen. Around 8 chapters or so of aimlessness - it would be no surprise that by this point the average player would quit the ball park by now.

Chapter 8 however, quickly became perhaps the best part of the storyline, not only because I bloody love Nautilus (such a breath of fresh air after all the linear dungeon crawling - too bad the only minigame there was to chase a baby Chocobo), but because of what we see with Sazh and Vanille. At this point, you see another side to Vanille - a side you can actually put down your prejudice towards her for her ignorance and feel for her. Too bad that this wouldn't last, however. For Sazh, you are witnessing a man whose options and hopes have been so cruelly stripped away from him, that he comes on the verge of suicide. This chapter actually attempted dramatics successfully without the obnoxious melodrama of much of FFX.

Then Chapter 9 came and the story would go straight to hell, with the abrupt disposal of a certain villain that could have done so much more, and the entrance of an "Oh my goodness, I never expected him to be a villain! What a shocker!" main antagonist who seemed horribly flat and uninteresting. His motives aren't very interesting either, and the methods used to carry them out are just ridiculously stupid. To groom some L'Cie warriors to destroy Cocoon, you went through all of that? Seriously? The rendering of Cocoon's populace to sheep who fear Pulse L'Cie, the indirect assistance to grant them safe passage from the claws of PSICOM? Why couldn't you just personally go up to them, make them L'Cie and tell them to go blast Orphan out of the sky? It's like the writers were thinking of things up as they were going along, and the overarching story just clumsily executed.

The incorporation of the Eidolons into the story is also problematic. If an Eidolon is delivered to a L'Cie to rescue them from the verge of complete breakdown, despair and inability to go on, then why did Vanille's for instance, appear when it did? Surely at Nautilus it would have made more storyline sense to have had it show up at that point, rather than where it did, when Fang was just bitching at her not to lie. I know in terms of gameplay, having two Eidolon fights next to each other would have sent players hurling controllers at their TV screens, but it made little sense in terms of plot.

I actually read nearly every Datalog entry on characters and story, but I can see why some people would not want to have to read an encyclopaedia. The ability to weave in some good exposition into the plot is also a part of good writing, and to leave it all to read in a virtual textbook would easily put off new players who have next to no prior awareness of any of the plot. I shouldn't have to read to get a sense of what is what, who and who and why this is going on. But anyway, a lack of exposition was no real problem for me.

I had little hope for FFXIII-2's story as well. The very moment the words time and paradox were thrown around, I sort of knew what would come. A nonsensical mess of a plot that would make the previous game look like literary genius in comparison. Fortunately since, a bit of it does make more sense now, but it's still a mess. Toriyama's protege should probably just stop right there.