Should I buy FFXIII? If so, PC or PS3?

[Bigbazz]

I've been playing a few JRPG's lately and really enjoying them, specifically Skies of Arcadia and Grandia II... So much so that it got me thinking about the Final Fantasy games I played when I was younger, FFVII, FFVIII and FFIX on the PS1 and then later FFXII on the PS2.

I can say that I loved them all but at some point really lost interest in the franchise. I own FFXIII-2 on the PS3 that I picked up for cheap at a supermarket but have only played it briefly before putting it down.

How is the PC port? I've hear mention on the other games about having to sign into additional accounts outside of steam and I've read about numerous issues here on these forums. I run an I7 2600k, 16gb ram and a GTX670 and really I'd expect to run it flawlessly on high settings, but a few threads suggest performance issues.

Would I be better just looking out for a PS3 copy and playing it on the PS3? Or is it even worth me playing the game at all? There are more games than I have time to play at the moment, so I have to choose carefully!

[tiornys]

I'd say it depends a lot on why you enjoy the RPGs you enjoy. FFXIII has really awesome combat and a pretty entertaining cast/story, with great production values, epic music, and amazing visuals for the platform. It does not have much in the way of exploration or adventuring elements, and is pretty limited in terms of character customization (although that means the characters do have strong mechanical identities). It is also completely lacking in non-combat gameplay; the major sidequest in FFXIII is a set of missions similar to FFXII's hunts, and outside of that it has minimal sidequesting and almost no mini-games.

I enjoyed all of the RPGs you listed, and FFXIII is one of my favorite games, but it's definitely not a game for everyone. If it sounds like something you'd enjoy, I'd suggest getting it wherever you can find it the cheapest. I'm no expert on computer specs, but I don't see any red flags in your hardware.

[GravityLoL]

if you like, PC is better but make sure first it'll run good for you, if it'll run good, then get it.
Two voiceovers, 1080p, more graphic options, etc

[ArtVandelay]

PC for graphics, PS3 for Trophies. Load times are faster on PC. You also don't need a beefy PC to run this at max.

As for the game itself, it's a hallway simulator where you run from point a to point b, enjoying the cutscenes, battles and occasional treasure chests. Near end-game a giant zone opens up giving you missions to kill higher-HP enemies.

Since you battle alot, the battle system in place is really fun and well done though can get monotonous and you end up just doing auto-battle and switching paradigms.

Beware PC is a 60GB d/l because it includes both English and Japanese Audio. You can then delete the audio you don't want afterwards freeing up 30GB's. There's a Guide here telling you what to delete.

XIII-2 is 28GB's off the bat and includes both audio as well. Also I find XIII-2 to be the better game but short. Had XIII-2 been the original XIII, I don't think there would have been as much backlash.

Edit - further reading your post, 1 - there's no extra accounts/sign-in to play the game. Install, press play, a launcher w/ graphic options shows up and then you hit play from there and you're in the game. Performance issues you shouldn't have any outside the fact the game is 'locked' to 30FPS.

2 - Since you have XIII-2, then XIII is the same but way more streamlined (e.g. casual). Play some more of XIII-2 and if you like that, get XIII.

[BlueEyedRevenge]

Definitely buy it on PS3. The PC port is crap, check out the "We need a performance patch" thread for details on the issues with the port. Essentially the game will only use about 30% of your hardware's power meaning you need like 3-4x the GPU and CPU you should need to play the game, to play it.

I've tried it on four different PCs (all with different CPUs and GPUs) and though the performance is different on each, the behaviour of the game is exactly the same on all of them; that is, GPU usage will be about 25-30%, CPU usage about 30-60% and the framerate jumping around like mad. It is "playable" on the better PCs but the framerate issues and the game not being able to actually use your hardware like it should is simply annoying and frustrating.

Requiring a Haswell quad-core CPU and a GTX 970 or R9 290X to run the game well at 1080p when it should run fine with the same res/settings on a Clarkdale dual-core and a R7 260X or GTX 750 Ti, is simply stupid IMO. BTW, the game uses like 300MB (yes megs) of VRAM in 1080p, so that's just another pointer telling you what kind of hardware should be able to run it vs. what it actually needs in practice.

Personally I think it's a much better idea to just get a cheap/used copy of the game for PS3 than bother with the PC port. It's up to you though.

OTOH if you have played the sequel to this game and had little interest, you might be better off just forgetting about the first one altogether. Heck sell your copy of the second game too, lol.

[Bloodhawk]

Regardless of the quality of the PC port, it's still a far better experience than either the 360 version or the PS3 version. The console versions can't even maintain a steady 30 FPS at 720p. The PC version can easily give you that, and more. Even if you cap the FPS at 30 and play at 1080p, you're getting a better experience than the console versions.

No, I don't see any reason to play the PS3 version over the PC version.

[BlueEyedRevenge]

Originally posted by Bloodhawk:

Regardless of the quality of the PC port, it's still a far better experience than either the 360 version or the PS3 version. The console versions can't even maintain a steady 30 FPS at 720p. The PC version can easily give you that, and more. Even if you cap the FPS at 30 and play at 1080p, you're getting a better experience than the console versions.

No, I don't see any reason to play the PS3 version over the PC version.

Really? Oh wow, well you know that explains a lot then. This game was crap to begin with it sounds like. I mean maybe not the game/story but its performance. Knowing this now makes me feel a lot better about the PC port because if the above is true, it was never too good on PS3 either.

[Bigbazz]

I'l give XIII-2 another go on the PS3, it was not that I didn't like it but that I just could not be bothered to put in the effort, these games take a lot of time. I'l see if I can pick it up cheap or maybe wait for a steam sale for XIII.

Thanks for the replies.

[Nintonito]

Originally posted by Bloodhawk:

Regardless of the quality of the PC port, it's still a far better experience than either the 360 version or the PS3 version. The console versions can't even maintain a steady 30 FPS at 720p. The PC version can easily give you that, and more. Even if you cap the FPS at 30 and play at 1080p, you're getting a better experience than the console versions.

No, I don't see any reason to play the PS3 version over the PC version.

You're overlooking the fact that the numerous pre-rendered video files are encoded with a low bandwidth bink encoding on PC (and 360, but LOL f that), while the PS3 version has pristine 1080p h.264 ludicrous bit rate video. Considering how many hours of pre rendered scenes the game has, I would say that's a big reason. Plus getting a real locked 30FPS actually requires quite a powerful GPU, because of the horrid performance. So I would not say the PC version is definitively better. Certainly not if you don't have a $2000 computer to brute force proper frame rates.

[Lobstersaurus]

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHz, 4001 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
Graphics Card: NVIDIA 970 GTX MSI 4GB
OS: Win 8.1
850 Watt Power Supply
250 GB SSD
2 (2TB HDD's)
16Gb of RAM
(All Drivers are up to date)

I take FPS drops even with my setup....
That certainly isn't very kawaii....

[Dellicious]

Not very kawaii at all. In fact, make sure you are absolutely kawaii before even thinking of buying this game, you need to be on the top of your kawaii game to even think about installing this.

[Bigbazz]

I've spent some time with XIII-2 and I must say I feel a bit lost with it, it's a sequel to a game/story that I know nothing about, so I'm out of touch with the characters and the plot. It throws you in to a fairly epic opening scene of mostly cut scenes with a few quick time events and a tutorial of the combat. I pushed on for about 3 hours after the intro to get a feel for it.

It's obviously a very different type of game to oldschool JRPGs and I'm not sure It will catch on with me, which is why I think it would have been better for me to play XIII first so I'd at least have a starting point for the story. Definitely felt the music was a bit out of place and at times was a point of annoyance (some woman belting her face off singing, and some random metal style rammstein wannabe music for a boss, and some other out of place sounding guitar track)..

I don't know, the music grated on me at times as it took away from what was happening rather than complimenting the scene or setting the right mood. Performance for XIII-2 on the PS3 was pretty decent, some noticable drops in FPS at times but nothing that really hurt the gameplay. If I play XIII i'l probably just pick it up for the PS3 now as it seems I can get it dirt cheap, rather than getting burned on the PC.

Dunno if it's for me though, I felt there was more effort put into the flashy visuals than the dialogue and story from what I played of XIII-2 so far and so far it hasn't captured the charm of the older FF games I've played.

[sammykneen]

I absolutely LOVE the first XIII and since you are on Nvidia and Intel I'd go for it as it performs MUCH better with those brands of hardware :)

[Aya]

If you're genuinely interested in the game, PS3. If you wish to prove the demand for future FF titles on Steam, then Steam.

[Mac]

If you are willing to fiddle, you can get a better experience on PC than on PS3 (minus trophies). With fiddling you can hit a steady 30fps, just like the PS3 version, but with higher resolution than the PS3 version (which the game REALLY benefits from). Video compression is worse on the PC, but this is generally not noticeable for most people. (*I* notice, but most won't).

Without fiddling, it's the same framerate issues others have described. We stand a good chance at getting a real performance patch that will let us play at 60fps when Lighting Returns hits Steam. But no guarantees.

[old Charlie]

I heard suikoden 2 is nowadays available on PSN. Its arguably the best JRPG ever. And its only 9,99$ (a physical copy is one of the most expensive PSX-games - 150$+). You also don´t need to play Suikoden 1. But you´ll want to. Seriously, check it out.

Only get FFXIII, if you have either played every single other rpg out there or none at all and you want to check out the genre for the first time. I gave it a chance for 10h and its soooooooo dumb. Characters, story, gameplay, everything but the graphics (+fanservice) is lacking. FF13 is a nice beginners RPG and should be compared to its spiritual prequel: Final Fantasy Mystic Quest.