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Old 2012-12-20, 11:47   Link #97
Kyero Fox
Tastes Cloudy
 
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Snake Way
Age: 35
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xagzan View Post
Most of them aren't to me. It's a major problem I have with the XIII franchise- the characters don't actually feel like human beings. Watching them, listening to them speak, it's like robots who are emulating human behavior but just can't quite capture that essence. Like their concerns aren't human concerns. Take FF9 - Garnet wanted to stop her mother's aggressive expansionist policies, Steiner wanted to uphold his chivalrous duty to the protect the princess, Zidane iirc is searching for the place he can call home, and Vivi is trying to gain some bravery and not be so afraid of the world. These problems feel real, and I can identify with them, see them as issues an actual person might have had--and one of them isn't even human!

Meanwhile, with some exceptions, and most egregiously in XIII-2, the characters' troubles and motivations don't feel real or relatable, and at best they merely rise to the cliche "I want to protect X," and no higher. What is it they try to do then? To "be a hero?" To avoid turning to crystal? To save the flow of time? Yes, grand, apocalyptic motivations are appropriate in FF games (stopping Gaia from becoming Terra), but it's usually coupled with deep, meaningful motivations, like the ones I described above, that really give you a sense of the characters' humanity and help you identify with them. Not so much with XIII, and again especially 2. They feel artificial to me, forced and shallow, like their issues and motivations were just there for the story's sake, rather than their own.



Not sure. She said "In 13 days the world will come to an end."

I guess she meant "again."
Whatt about Zack? Is he. Robot imitating human emotion too?
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