Post by Farulosonoth on Nov 1, 2010 10:46:47 GMT -5
Final Fantasy XIII... Ok, Final Fantasy XIII is an RPG(Role Playing Game)… an RPG with a lot of expectations from its fans, myself included. Final Fantasy started off as a turn based RPG, and was so for the majority of its lifespan (counting up to now at least). Then there was Final Fantasy XII, (XI was an MMO, Massively Multiplayer Online RPG). Final Fantasy XII stepped away from its long heritage and went to real time combat where you only controlled 1 character and the rest were on auto-pilot. Ok I am getting off track here, I will address that part in the gameplay area. Suffice it to say that if you are a Final Fantasy Fan and have been for a while, Final Fantasy XIII has some big shoes to fill, and in this writer’s opinion, doesn’t fall quite as short as some people say, although it still does.
Story
The story of Final Fantasy XIII is nothing special, but not bad. It does the usual Final Fantasy thing which is make up new words for the English language. I suppose it’s possible that these words are some derivative of Japanese, where Square originates from, but have no idea. They do this a lot. This time around it’s Fal’cie, L’Cie, I feel uncomfortable knowing what these words mean, they just feel a little too made up. It's like, "Hey we ran out of ways to put letters together for new words... I know, lets use apostrophes!" But ignoring that… The story is your standard hero’s band together to fight the big bad guy at the end… and really, would we have it any other way?… no. Although that just gave me a cool idea to have an end boss fight that is actually just like a whole lot of smaller enemies… anyway, I digress. The story is sufficient and the voice acting is really good. Also of note, the same voice actor that did Yuri from another game I reviewed here, Tales of Vesperia, does the voice for one of the characters in this game.
Gameplay and Controls
Ok, this is the one in debate. gameplay and controls are a mixed bag. The control scheme is fine, nothing seems out of place and its very straight forward. No problems there. gameplay has its ups and downs. There is basically zero exploration in this game. People had comments about this being linear, but I had no idea. Final Fantasy XIII is the most linear game I have ever played, and that is saying a lot. Shops are relatively useless, there are no real “towns” in the traditional RPG sense. As others have stated, there is no down time, no rest for the characters or story. It’s pretty much a non stop train from the beginning to the end of fight after fight, and a plentiful helping of cut scenes (a few too many perhaps). One reviewer wrote, that he likes to play his games, not watch them, and I can understand his sentiment. There is an area at around 85% completion of the game, where it opens up and there is somewhere to roam. I don’t like to refer to other’s reviews in my own review but it’s kind of part of the game at this point. Although it is too little too late as they say, I don’t think they give this open area enough credit. It is huge and incredible looking, possibly the most beautiful outdoor area I have seen in a game to date, at least in the top 5. The clipping plane (how far out you can see) is massive. The large dinosaur like creatures and flying creatures. It’s really quite amazing and needs to be seen to be appreciated. When I got to it, I told my wife, “This almost makes up for the linearity of the rest of the game.”. Note the “almost”.
I almost forgot the battle system, the battle system is surprisingly quite good. It is a decent mix of turn based and real time., bringing back the ATB started way back as FF6 I believe and made popular with 7. The only problem is that the combat is so fast that the computer has to control the other 2 characters and you are left with only 1 to control manually. Also, once you know a creatures weaknesses, you can pretty much just mash the A button to keep attacking. Sometimes the harder battles require use of the paradigm system, but that doesn’t happen much and only later in the game.
The in game map is very functional, though for 80% of the game, completely unnecessary as there is but 1 path to follow. Seriously, you don’t know what the word linear means until you have played this game… for all intents and purposes, in the realm of RPG’s at least, this game re-defines linear. It would be fine for a FPS or a game like God of War, not an RPG.
Graphics and Sound
Graphics… if you know Square, then you know that their graphics are always top notch. If you don’t, let me just tell you that, Square Enix’s graphics are always top notch. Even way back in the days of the SNES, they were pushing the limits of the system, and the same is true today. The sound is all very good, but as far as the soundtrack goes… bleh… It seems like the same 3 or 4 songs just keep repeating and then to add insult to injury the very end is tainted with R&B, wtf? I mean, it’s tolerable, but really… R&B in a Final Fantasy? R&B and RPG go together like Oil and Water…. They don’t. Thankfully it’s only the very last song that plays.
Conclusion
All in all, Final Fantasy XIII was a pretty good game. The battle system is well done, and if your just looking for an entertaining story to play though with minimal backtracking and getting stuck, this game is for you. If you’re a follower of the series then it’s a no brainer, you pretty much have to play it, just don’t go in expecting that they created another breakthrough like FF 4, 6, 7 or 10… it’s just a rung on the ladder. Maybe 15…
I give it [glow=red,2,300]5 out of 7[/glow]
Story
The story of Final Fantasy XIII is nothing special, but not bad. It does the usual Final Fantasy thing which is make up new words for the English language. I suppose it’s possible that these words are some derivative of Japanese, where Square originates from, but have no idea. They do this a lot. This time around it’s Fal’cie, L’Cie, I feel uncomfortable knowing what these words mean, they just feel a little too made up. It's like, "Hey we ran out of ways to put letters together for new words... I know, lets use apostrophes!" But ignoring that… The story is your standard hero’s band together to fight the big bad guy at the end… and really, would we have it any other way?… no. Although that just gave me a cool idea to have an end boss fight that is actually just like a whole lot of smaller enemies… anyway, I digress. The story is sufficient and the voice acting is really good. Also of note, the same voice actor that did Yuri from another game I reviewed here, Tales of Vesperia, does the voice for one of the characters in this game.
Gameplay and Controls
Ok, this is the one in debate. gameplay and controls are a mixed bag. The control scheme is fine, nothing seems out of place and its very straight forward. No problems there. gameplay has its ups and downs. There is basically zero exploration in this game. People had comments about this being linear, but I had no idea. Final Fantasy XIII is the most linear game I have ever played, and that is saying a lot. Shops are relatively useless, there are no real “towns” in the traditional RPG sense. As others have stated, there is no down time, no rest for the characters or story. It’s pretty much a non stop train from the beginning to the end of fight after fight, and a plentiful helping of cut scenes (a few too many perhaps). One reviewer wrote, that he likes to play his games, not watch them, and I can understand his sentiment. There is an area at around 85% completion of the game, where it opens up and there is somewhere to roam. I don’t like to refer to other’s reviews in my own review but it’s kind of part of the game at this point. Although it is too little too late as they say, I don’t think they give this open area enough credit. It is huge and incredible looking, possibly the most beautiful outdoor area I have seen in a game to date, at least in the top 5. The clipping plane (how far out you can see) is massive. The large dinosaur like creatures and flying creatures. It’s really quite amazing and needs to be seen to be appreciated. When I got to it, I told my wife, “This almost makes up for the linearity of the rest of the game.”. Note the “almost”.
I almost forgot the battle system, the battle system is surprisingly quite good. It is a decent mix of turn based and real time., bringing back the ATB started way back as FF6 I believe and made popular with 7. The only problem is that the combat is so fast that the computer has to control the other 2 characters and you are left with only 1 to control manually. Also, once you know a creatures weaknesses, you can pretty much just mash the A button to keep attacking. Sometimes the harder battles require use of the paradigm system, but that doesn’t happen much and only later in the game.
The in game map is very functional, though for 80% of the game, completely unnecessary as there is but 1 path to follow. Seriously, you don’t know what the word linear means until you have played this game… for all intents and purposes, in the realm of RPG’s at least, this game re-defines linear. It would be fine for a FPS or a game like God of War, not an RPG.
Graphics and Sound
Graphics… if you know Square, then you know that their graphics are always top notch. If you don’t, let me just tell you that, Square Enix’s graphics are always top notch. Even way back in the days of the SNES, they were pushing the limits of the system, and the same is true today. The sound is all very good, but as far as the soundtrack goes… bleh… It seems like the same 3 or 4 songs just keep repeating and then to add insult to injury the very end is tainted with R&B, wtf? I mean, it’s tolerable, but really… R&B in a Final Fantasy? R&B and RPG go together like Oil and Water…. They don’t. Thankfully it’s only the very last song that plays.
Conclusion
All in all, Final Fantasy XIII was a pretty good game. The battle system is well done, and if your just looking for an entertaining story to play though with minimal backtracking and getting stuck, this game is for you. If you’re a follower of the series then it’s a no brainer, you pretty much have to play it, just don’t go in expecting that they created another breakthrough like FF 4, 6, 7 or 10… it’s just a rung on the ladder. Maybe 15…
I give it [glow=red,2,300]5 out of 7[/glow]