Adus

Final Fantasy XIII. The flaws are mostly in the story and the pacing. Two hours of having no abilities but attack. 20 hours or so of only using 2 characters. The battle system's full potential isn't realized until the game is half over. I used to get annoyed at people saying the game has a 20 hour tutorial, but when they don't even give you a full 3 person party for all that time I have to admit there is at least some validity in the claim.

The story was also a total mess because of the ending. I didn't hate the story while going through it, but I kept hoping for something really big to happen and it never really did. I would have considered this just mediocre but the ending ruined everything.

That said I did like a couple of the characters. Graphically it was very nice, and the battle system was pretty fun once you get everything going. Hopefully the sequel will be an improvement.

I find it odd that so many people are stating Mass Effect. While that game has flaws for sure, mainly inventory management, I don't think it's severely flawed as the topic title suggests.

Nier's the only one I haven't played. I've heard a lot of good things about it, though.

I loved both Lost Odyssey and Resonance of Fate, but I think Lost Odyssey pulls slightly ahead for two reasons, one being a great soundtrack, and the other being the 1,000 Years of Dreams stories. They're very well written and interesting. Quite unlike what you might expect from a JRPG. They're also super depressing most of the time, so that could count against them if you're looking for a more lighthearted experience.

RoF's battle system is unique, but has kind of a steep learning curve. Once you get into it it's pretty fun, however it doesn't change much over the course of the game, so when you're nearing the end the battles start to feel kind of repetitive. The story also makes very little sense.

I'll second what someone said above about Tales of Vesperia. Gameplay-wise it's probably the most fun JRPG. The story isn't great but it's not terrible either. The lead character is also pretty cool, with a mature worldview as opposed to the sort of typical childish or brooding JRPG protagonist.

Think of something really bad. Now make it worse and also a pedophile.

That is the gamefaqs community.

I haven't played this game for many many years and I can't remember the story details.  I don't remember the Huge Materia portion of the game.But, as for Cloud.  I certainly believe he feels he wasn't in control of his actions but why do the friends believe him?  In fact, they didn't even ask him about it.  Anyway, doesn't the out of control excuse sound like something a person with anger management issues would say?  It sounds like the words that would come out of the mouth of one who has blackouts due to out of control rage.  But that person with that rage is still responsible for their actions.  I know, in the game, the out of control fits are explained away by something Sephiroth is doing.  But, at this point in the game, this isn't known for sure yet.  I would argue it hasn't even been given as a probable excuse yet.  All we know as the audience and the characters in the game is that Cloud has out of control fits.  So why are his friends so nice to him after he literally beat the shit out of a defenseless woman?  If we only know that he has out of control fits, and not that he is being controlled by an outside source, shouldn't the characters in the game have some sort of a reaction to this behavior?  I'm not saying he should be arrested that's silly from a story-perspective.  But they should at least be weary of him.  Maybe control him in some ways.  Keep him away from women.  Be on guard when he's around.  Have him checked out by a doctor.  Something.  But to gloss over it is bad writing and takes the seriousness of what he did lightly and I have a hard time with that when it is a man beating a defenseless woman. "

" I've been replaying Final Fantasy 7 and near the end of the first disc there was a really weird story moment.  Right after the Temple of Ancients, the dungeon right before Aeris dies, Cloud freaks out and attacks Aeris.  He does this while he is in one of his 'out of control' fits he has from time to time.  Just as this happens, Cat Sith #2 (#1 dies in the Temple of Ancients), appears and announces his appearance.  Then Barret jumps toward Cloud and knocks him out.  First, the Cat Sith thing was really out of place considering what was happening.  Why would the writers have him appear and announce his arrival just as something really serious is going on?  Anyway, Cloud wakes up in a bed in a small town with Barret and Tifa looking over him.  You'd think they'd be upset with him for beating a helpless woman right?  Nope.  That whole 'beating helpless woman' thing is just glossed over.  It was so weird.  I'm not very far in the game passed that point (Aeris hasn't died yet) but there have been no consequences to Cloud beating up Aeris.  The only thing that came of the moment was that Cloud, in a hazy dream state after being knocked out tells Aeris he's sorry and immediately gives her an excuse rather than taking responsibility for his actions (i.e. "I couldn't control myself.").  It was so odd and disjointed.This got me thinking about other weird story moments in video games.  So, in your opinion, what was the oddest story moment you've experienced in a video game? "