QUOTE (Dαrkrєrsŧ @ Dec 24 2012, 03:34 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
"The problem with the overall plot is not that it's horrible; it's that it is poorly delivered. The game offers bits and pieces of dialogue during breaks between combat sections, but most don't last very long or go into too much detail. Only the six main party members really receive any development, but that's only after the player spends over forty hours with them. Even then, there are still sections of the plot that feel forced and unfinished. The antagonists are very poorly established and get so little screen time players will have a hard time getting to know them. Many ancillary characters are met for only a few brief moments, but the party often has a strong reaction when something happens to them, which will leave players puzzled as to why a character met five minutes ago created such an emotional response. Lots of events in the story feel like a stretch, as if there were scenes that would have helped build a more believable foundation behind what actually happens, but were cut without working in a new transition. For every moment the plot of Final Fantasy XIII starts to shine, it is cut short and not explained well enough to care about."
So you quoted someone else's opinion? That's not what I asked.
The main six are characterized well enough. Dialogue is incorporated to give a decent balance between pacing and characterization. At some point scenes become encumbered if drawn out too long. They've been branded; they have to complete their objective before they become Cie'th. That becomes the doomsday clock. The authors are given leeway to combat this, and it even allows for some wiggle room. But like I said, at some point it would screw up the pacing. The narrative drive would no longer exist.
As for the auxiliary characters providing emotional responses. People will sympathize with those that are in the same situation (aka Cid). It's an egotistical reaction, not altruistic.
And antagonists do not always have to be known or characterized - that's a highly modern concept that sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. The fact that they aren't known provides a more mystical approach, which works considering the context.
