X-2 was the first FF I had. At the time someone gifted it to me thinking it would be a nice start to the series. I haven't started it yet.

Do you have to be an FF fan to understand why this is scary?

I haven't played 13 yet. It was on my list of things to do this coming year. I though that the combat in 12 was way too dumbed down though, so now im not so sure. How did they manage to make it even more simple?

And let's not forget about Ultima 7

PST, BG2 and FF6 :)

Health (and I think status effects) reset after reach fight, and there's an auto-battle button that tells the AI to pick a move for you. Also, you only control the main character now.

gotta admit that the auto-battle was a wrong move.and of course it's WAY to linear to be considered an RPG

What, no Fallout love?

You only controlled the main character in 12 as well, and the battles were pretty much all auto battles anyway. I guess I might just be done with the series. It has really gone down hill once they decided that they should make them play like an MMORPG. sadface

All final fantasy games were linear though. They just gave the illusion of not being that way. You still had to do everything in a set order.

It gets worse if you look at the classes. The 6 jobs are essentially 3 usual classes split in half: fighter (physical damage, damage absorption), offensive mage (damage, debuffs) and a cleric (healing, buffs). Oh, and skill trees are mostly the same until you reach the highest tiers - below that specific characters simply get some crap a bit earlier and cheaper than others.

On the bright side 13-2 is a flop even in Japan.

What version did you have? On the American PS2 release I could control all the characters.

And as far as the auto battling goes, that was entirely different. On the PS2 version you collected gambits and "programmed" your characters, and part of the game was seeing how clever you could be with the gambits. In XIII, you just click "auto-battle" and it does it for you. -.-

Hated FF13 with a fiery passion. Can say honestly that the first FF is probably my favorite. Have no idea why, i just love that goddamn game. Only thing i can think of is because of Dragon Warrior 3 and how much i played that game as a kid.

I found it okay,expected more but at least it wasn't VIII.

The gambits were just something that you set, and then just let them stay that way for a while. The actual combat was more or less just pressing a button, and then watching everybody hack at the enemies till they are dead. Its been a few years since I played the game, so I suppose you may be right about being able to switch characters. I never did it though. The gambit system takes care of them for me, so I don't have to. I got about 40 hours into that game on two different playthroughs before giving up each time. It just gets boring after a while. But hey, If you like it then that's great. Most people did, so I don't mean to criticize you or anything. My wording probably did make it seem as though I feel the game is bad. I don't. Its just not the sort of gameplay that I am looking for I guess. I like my JRPGs to have more strategy then what 12 had. Its sounds as though 13 is probably the same way. So thanks for the replies. I might still get it if I can find it for really cheap. That way its not a big deal if I don't like it.

One more question though: Do you have to auto battle?