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Final Fantasy: A Review from a few hours...
I grabbed Final Fantasy XIII yesterday on my lunch break and was able to put in about two hours with it last night. I am still getting tutorial pop-ups, so I will definitely have to write another review later once I get more in-depth. There will be some spoilers, but since I am not too far in, there really isn't a reason to concern yourself with them.
Without Further Ado:
Final Fantasy XIII Review
First off, I got this game for the PS3. It is also out for the Xbox 360, but the graphics are much better on PS3. So if you have both, go for the PS3 version.
The game starts off like most other FF's... something terrible is happening and you have to get out. You start of by controlling Lightning, a gal that kicks some serious ass.
She is followed closely by Sazh, who I still haven't completely figured out. I think he is supposed to be the comic relief. You find out quickly that Lightning has special abilities, names one of levitation or... lightning aura... or something that lets her fly.
Sazh:
Eventually a cutscene will happen and you will meet the rest of the cast.
Snow is the male leader. He doesn't (yet) use weapons, he kills shit with his fists. There is also a young boy and a young girl. Snow is the big guy up front in the below picture...
You will quickly find out that Snow is searching for Lightning, while Lightning is searching to kill something. Sazh is stuck following Lightning because there is no other way out and the two young kids are... doing something.
Alright, enough of the storyline...
Combat
The combat is... a bit limited. Unlike other FF's, you only control one character. (For example, in FFX you chose what each character in your party did each round). In this, whoever you are controlling gets to choose between Auto-Attack, Ability, and Item. This is very similar to other FFs but the "Auto-attack" is a bit... too useful. It chooses the best ability in your arsenal for the current situation and executes it. For example, if you are fighting three creatures you might throw a grenade as your opener (or do an AoE attack) then focus fire on one.
The combat works similar to a rogue's energy bar in WoW. You can only execute attacks when you have enough "Energy". Each character has a number of bars that must fill up depending on what they want to do. For example, Lightning has two bars. When both bars fill up you can execute two attacks.
Mobs have two bars. The first is their health. Of course, when that gets depleted they die. The second bar is a "Stagger" Bar. When this gets filled (by causing damage against it), it gets a short stun and a "stagger" status which increases damage done against it. This seems like it is a decent way to add a bit of strategy to flair.
The problem is... with the "auto-attack" you would be a fool -not- to use it. It is quick and smart. So for me, the game thus far has been me walking into enemies and spamming X until they are dead. I am sure down the road the complexity will increase and I will have to choose for myself...
Paradigms
I haven't gotten far enough in the game to where I can use this, but it is fairly exciting. Each character in your party gets assigned a "class".
Commando (COM) : Build attack chains more easily with enhanced strength.
Ravager (RAV) : Charge enemy chain gauges with concentrated attacks.
Sentinel (SEN) : Shield allies from enemy attacks with enhanced defense.
Synergist (SYN) : Support allies with an array of magical enhancements.
Medic (MED) : Focus on restoring HP and removing status ailments.
Saboteur (SAB) : Enfeeble enemies while charging their chain gauges.
A "Paradigm" is the make-up of your party. I.e. one paradigm will be 1 Commando, 1 Synergist, and 1 Medic. Another Paradigm will be 1Sentinel, 2 Medic. You can switch between these paradigms mid-combat, so if you know a boss will be doing heavy damage, you might want the Sentinel with two healers. When he gets "staggered" you will probably want 3 commandos (or 3 dps...whatever that turns out to be).
It should make it a bit more interesting.
Graphics
The graphics in this game are absolutely freaking amazing.
Seeing that clarity on a 48" tv is awesome. I... do question the... umm... age of the... rather developed "child".
So, what do I think?
I like it. The voice acting is good, the storyline seems decent enough. Snow is a bit of a self-righteous jackass (he refers to himself non-stop as a hero), but the comic relief is there to knock him down a few notches. The "world" is (thus far) very linear. Everything is just down a corridor. Apparently 11 out of the 13 "chapters" of FFXIII are like this... so there won't be any open worlds for quite some time.
As of right now, the combat is very simplistic. But I can tell that in the future I will be sweating to take down bosses. It is very very quick and you waste a lot of dps if you don't know exactly what you are doing. If you hesitate for a split second you might miss out on a chain or you might be forced to do a different move. With Paradigms coming in soon, it should make the combat a lot more strategic as well.
I like it. If you want a beautiful game with a storyline that should be incredibly developed, get this game. I'll write up another review once I get through towards the end of the game...
Comments
It's what I hated about FFVII and made me ignore everything ever having to do with the series. I felt like I was 'playing' a movie. The game was incredibly railroaded and that, to me, killed it completely. I honestly also never get why it was called an RPG, as those to me imply some sort of character development where the person playing the game has some influence. Reading a book or watching a movie are about as interactive as the character development in FF7 and I'd call neither of those an RPG.
When even the Japanese themselves complain that a game is too linear, with regards to FF13, then it's pretty much an open and shut case.
Considering they're also the folks who invented the interactive novel, where you do read a story and depending on your response choice, you may end up with a different ending. So, I do think they know what they're talking about. :P
Why do you say they're the folks that invented it? Mostly curiosity as my knowledge of Japanese history is too sketchy to know this.
Well, I think I know of maybe two done in the West and all the others are Japanese. That kinda makes you go hmmm already.
Then there's this.
Sure, somebody could've faked it, but why bother?
Plus there would be the whole notability issue that their editors like so much.
Oh okay. Are you restricting it to electronic medium only? Because otherwise names like Joe Dever pops up. Lone Wolf? Magnamund?
Yup.
The Choose your own Adventure books are, while related, considered a different medium and genre.
In Japan the Queen's Blade series, a visual combat book, serve a similar role/function.
Visual novels are more akin to the old infocom textbased adventures.
Personally, I think this kind of RPG had its place back in the SNES and PS days when consoles didn't have the horsepower to run more complex games. I think FF6 was a very nice SNES game for instance, as it was very rare to get such a large, sprawling game on a console.
Nowadays though, I don't really see the point. Considering how well they sell though, I guess I'm in the minority.
Well, even with the linearity they are still fun games. Take most FPS's (all CoDs for example) and they are all completely linear as well. The only difference is basically the mobs you fight and how you fight them. Get from point A to point B and clear anything between them. At least with the FF series you can upgrade skills and "spec" into different roles and "boss" fights require a bit different knowledge as with RPGs it is generally about resists, combos, etc while with FPS's its about laying claymore appropriately and taking out snipers while laying down cover fire.
It's not so much about linearity per se, but more about storyline railroading. In a role-playing game, I expect to be able to play a role. I don't know if FFs are still like that, but in FF7 for instance I didn't so much play the role of Cloud, I simply controlled him as he interacted with characters in a pre-determined way.
This also happens in other games, like the single player portion of shooters or action games, but I don't mind in these cases because it's not the point of the game. A shooter would have a problem if it didn't let you shoot things, and an action game would have a problem if it didn't let you beat people. An RPG on the other hand has a problem if it doesn't let you play a role. And in my opinion, the FF series doesn't fulfill that criteria. You just control a character, you don't play him/her.
Well said.
The interaction and immersion of games was discussed in the latest Van Hemlock podcast with regards to Heavy Rain, which John Shute had completed. He felt that it wasn't immersive enough. Something as simple as you having to remember to save the game rather than autosaving kind of ruins the sense of being "in" the game.
Another point he made was that at one point one of the NPC's whispers the killers name to your character...but you dont get to know or hear it! Now if youre playign that character surely you ought to know the killer at that point?
I guess this might be why I like FPS games so much, because you are that character, in the heat of the action (albiet for a little time) and you want very much to stay alive. If he dies, essentially its you who are dieing - in an immersive state of course.
I don't translate linearity to lack of character development. And not sure how you took "world" but I meant the physical world that you traverse. It is thus far all corridors... and from reading reviews it looks like it will be until about 30 hours into the game where these corridors open up a bit more. How much more? Not sure. But for "character development", though I haven't gotten there yet, it sounds like there will be a sphere grid-esque leveling/spec'ing system (a la FFX).
With that being said, there are apparently no towns. Which is a huge let down for the RPG fan inside of me. I always loved exploring towns. Finding the weapon shop, armor shop, magic shop, etc. So far (and once again I'm only 2-3 hours in) but from reading reviews, all the purchasing of everything is done from save points.
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