By Phoenix.Demonjustin 2014-04-18 07:07:57
Having played through the game a few times now I can safely say only 3 things stick out to me as glaring flaws that stop this from being one of my favorite games.
1. The XP/leveling system being based on nothing more than quests while killing every monster literally provides no benefit is a terrible system and I hate that they made that choice. On extra playthroughs it's easy to get bored because while you want to progress your character you don't want to repeat the same old fetch quest for the 10,000th time. Which brings me to point #2.
2. The quests are nothing but fetch quests really. There's hardly any quests in the game that deviate from the standard quest telling you to go get something for the NPC. The few that go outside of this are as simple as killing a specific monster or family really, the variation is so lacking that it just becomes a bore. While the first playthrough it's bearable due to some story being included to entertain or the feeling of a need to explore a new area you lose that completely once you hit the second playthrough and instantly are hit with the truth of just how much a boring grind this is.
3. The last thing is the time based system. First playthrough I didn't mind this because the first time through it made me pick and choose, it gave some feel of urgency. While I don't like the idea of having a limited time to do things and having to stress to get everything done I have to say it helped me actually feel like I had to get things done.
It's not like Final Fantasy X for instance in the fact that I never once cared how much Sin wrecked Spira because, well, he didn't wreck Spira, there was no time limit to fear or cater to. Whether Tidus & Yuna took a day or 3 months to kill Sin it was all the same. So in a way I felt like that was a good thing at first. But once you get to the second playthrough, and the third, and the fourth, it becomes a pain because just like the quest issues it's a repeat, and especially because quests themselves are involved too.
I guess when you think about it my real issue is the quests, the others are problems but they're caused by the quest issue which is just bad. Unless I spam quests I won't hit the extra day, I miss out on the final dungeon, I fail to get some extra stuff, if I don't hurry and do certain ones a certain way each playthrough I won't get the most stat boosts I can through it all. This really only such an issue because they made quests tie into everything in the end rather than making them side things.
If they'd left it to give extra boosts and items but implemented a real leveling system and at the same time made the days based off only killing bosses while the super boss(Aeronite I think it is) unlock the extra day for the extra super boss, it would've been fine. The fact they didn't do any of this and made the game so completely reliant on repeating boring fetch quests that require so much running around and repeatedly going back to the same areas again only makes the game itself feel boring even when the rest is well done.
This flaw took this game from what was in my opinion potential for a great game and made it one I'll probably forget about in a few months after I stop playing back through it again, which right now I only do to play with the new DLC weapons/gear and visit the world again because I do like the world of FFXIII.