Should i play the previous games?

[Comguitoz]

Or can i play this one without knowing the backstory and its not a big deal?

[SonBlocked]

you should play the previous game as the stories are linked together. you can, however, play this game without previous games but there will be holes in the story that you might not understand. if you decided to play previous game, i recommend getting them on your xbox 360 or ps 3 as the PC version of those is poory optimized.

[DarkChaplain]

Don't worry too much. Its not like the story is actually consistent with that of the predecessors, and there are plenty of retcons as it is. You'll miss out on character bonding, but then, a lot of them were drastically changed here as it is.

I'd also recommend the PC version over the console ones of the other two XIII entries. Even as "poorly optimized" as they may be (and they actually run well enough on my old as balls graphics card), lacking options and what not, they still run better and at higher resolutions with more tweaks than the console versions, and the price is about the same. There's no reason to go for consoles with any midrange PC.

[Comguitoz]

yeah i know. i wouldnt go to console... i just am finding alot of interest in starting this game. my was just a little worry about the the previous games. FFXIII was really boring... i had for xbox. but i hope lighting returns can redeem my experience :P

thanks for ur comments

[Comguitoz]

im thinking of playing XIII-2 and then this one. what do you guys think?

[DarkChaplain]

Originally posted by Sensei Reborn:

im thinking of playing XIII-2 and then this one. what do you guys think?

XIII-2 has an okay-ish "the story so far" primer for XIII, but the story is quite different. A lot of characters are more like cameos, and there's a bunch of mythical and timey-wimey stuff in it that makes little sense if you think about it for 5 seconds. But then, so does Lightning Returns.

The combat system in XIII-2 can be seen as better or worse than XIII's. There are tweaks to it, but your party size is limited to two characters, with added monster summons (think pokemon) to supplement the party's needs. There were a bunch of changes all over, though.
Gameplay-wise it is less linear than XIII, but the hallway problem still exists. There are some hub areas, but they're not as good as in previous FF titles.

If you can put up with the plot that doesn't make much sense, you can give it a try. I'd however encourage you to wait a week or two for the Holiday sale. It will likely be 50% off.

[Comguitoz]

Originally posted by DarkChaplain:

Originally posted by Sensei Reborn:

im thinking of playing XIII-2 and then this one. what do you guys think?

XIII-2 has an okay-ish "the story so far" primer for XIII, but the story is quite different. A lot of characters are more like cameos, and there's a bunch of mythical and timey-wimey stuff in it that makes little sense if you think about it for 5 seconds. But then, so does Lightning Returns.

The combat system in XIII-2 can be seen as better or worse than XIII's. There are tweaks to it, but your party size is limited to two characters, with added monster summons (think pokemon) to supplement the party's needs. There were a bunch of changes all over, though.
Gameplay-wise it is less linear than XIII, but the hallway problem still exists. There are some hub areas, but they're not as good as in previous FF titles.

If you can put up with the plot that doesn't make much sense, you can give it a try. I'd however encourage you to wait a week or two for the Holiday sale. It will likely be 50% off.

thanks a lot mate. do you think lighting returns is better than the previous ones?

[DarkChaplain]

I'm honestly not sure. They all come with their ups and downs compared to the other XIII entries. LR is somewhat of a glorified dress-up game for Lightning with some decent mechanics, but makes away with a lot of the series staples that even XIII-2 tried to maintain in some fashion.

XIII as a whole flip-flops a lot from one part to the next. They could really all be telling entirely different stories with entirely different characters, and would likely be better for it.

It really comes down to what you want out of a Final Fantasy game. LR is certainly wacky and weird, but it is a far cry from the serious kinds of stories we used to get. But as far as story goes, XIII missed a giant amount of opportunities and focused on the wrong things while leaving out others. Your mileage WILL vary no matter what, so there's no clear answer to make in my opinion.

[Jimamania]

i loved 13 way more then 13-2. but they are both good. i would play all of them again! 13 had a more interesting story. 13-2 was kinda hard to follow at first... but its always kind of hard to follow a story thats hopping around time with paradoxs in the way. 2nd time through made more sense haha

[Wisp]

I will drop my cents: playing only this is PLOTWISE is like having only the desert of a meal, gamewise it can be the full meal, but since most FF games are a lot about its characters and plot ... yes, please play the first games, the first is almost a "movie" you play (linear as hell) but still safisfying, second is less linear but also not as open as this one, but both contribute to the plot of this "ending". The main quest on each city pretty much is about closing loose ends of the other games.

note: And you haven't really enjoyed FFXIII if you didn't play with Fang >.>

[cozar]

You must play previous games, no way jumping direct for LR. I played just a few of LR, but for the few i saw i think it is a must.

For previous games, XIII is the best overall, but it has a leak, you must get far into the game to have full acess to combat system and even far to be able to explore the game. But i can say it is worth it, i think the XIII has the best combat system between all FFs (but it's complete based on personal opnion and will vary from person to person, but i can say for sure is the most strategic game).

XIII-2 cut the leak where you need go far into the game to be able to explore and use all combat system functions, but you can have only 2 chars at your party, this make the combat system much more poor imo, you can use monsters at your party to "try to fill the gap", but isn't the same. The upside is that it has great puzzles if you are a fan from that (the hard ones won't be at main history).

The game history is good, but i lot of people don't like it, i can't understand why, or they didn't play the first game until the end and the first half of the game is really doubtfull, or they didn't read anything in the datalog (place where history goes after new things happens). Don't expect a FF7 or FF8, but it's good.

The soundtrack is perfect, both are good but the musics from XIII-2 is so perfect and has a strong bound with each one of the chars of the game.

About the quality of ports, i can't say anything, never played at console, but i could play perfect at PC, the graphic is beautiful imo, controls respond well (xbox controller), nothing to bother with.