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Final Fantasy XIII: First Impressions
11 years ago
General
I have been a Final Fantasy fan since back when 8-Bit graphics was the pinnacle of the video game industry, when everyone was still learning who Super Mario was, and when Sonic the Hedgehog was actually a contender for most popular video game character rather than the wreck of a man (hog?) he is today.
I played Final Fantasy on the original NES back when I was still just barely old enough to read the dialogue, I played Final Fantasy 5 on an emulator before it ever came to the states because I was a poor kid in high school who couldn't buy his own games, one of the first games I got when I got my first computer with a CD-ROM drive was the PC release of Final Fantasy 7, and Final Fantasy 9 remains one of my all time favorite titles and one of the reasons my old PS2 is still sitting hooked up to my TV to this day.
However, when the series went into double digits it began to lose favor in my eyes. We all remember the complaints about Final Fantasy 10 and how Tidus was the whiniest of the whiny protagonists who could be summed up as 'daddy issues', we all remeber how Yuna was just a wuss who apologized to her friends for getting kidnapped by the Al Bhed, we all remember how Wakka was just a collection of stereotypes, how Lulu was fetish fuel, how Rikku was jailbait for the teenagers to spank it over, and how Auron was the only character who was worth a squirt of piss.
I still remember the 'laughing scene' despite my attempts to remove that memory via repression combined with blunt force trauma.
So, after FF10 and 10-2 I pretty much gave up on the series for a while. I played Final Fantasy XIV when the free trial version came out, but I can only devote so much time to an MMO and eventually my black mage was left to fend for himself... and then the other day I saw that Final Fantasy XIII was on sale for just eight dollars.
... I had heard all the complaints about the game. The linearity, the music since Nobuo Utematsu left Square Enix, the whinyness of Hope, the 'grr serious business' of Lightning, the black guy who's sole role seems to be the group's 'black guy', Snow and his severe case of 'bro-ness', and Vanille who is basically completely bonkers, and so on...
But! I realized, I had only ever HEARD about these. I had never actually sat down with Final Fantasy XIII, demo or otherwise, and actually given the game an honest chance. I never bought a new Sony console past the PS2 (though after seeing the trailer for Persona 5 I'm going to start adding the word 'yet' to that sentence) and now I had the chance to actually give the game a shot for less than I'd pay for one of the Buffalo Chicken Pizzas that Pizza Hut makes. This game may be said to not be worth $60 at release, but is it worth me missing dinner?
Well, I said damn the torpedoes and decided to give it a shot... and gods help me I like it. I am a Final Fantasy veteran. I can recite the names of the series villians and their motivations from heart:
Garland: Knocking you all down.
The Emperor: Being an Emeperor (evil is a job requirement)
The Cloud of Darkness: Oogaboogabooga I'm evil.
Golbez: Aid Zeromus in conquering the world.
Exodeus: Pulling the world into the void.
Kefka: Mwehehehe!
Sepheroth: More mommy issues than Norman Bates.
Ultimecia: Time compression, whatever the hell that means.
Kuja: Achieve trance and destroy his masters.
Seymour: ... dunno, never finished that one. Boink Yuna?
Point is, I'm a Final Fantasy Fucking Fanboy. I loved the series growing up with all it's sidequesting, unique characters, reoccuring tropes, moogles, and so on... so Final Fantasy XIII should be a bucketfull of piss for me right?
Well... Its not.
Lets go down the list:
Linearity:
Yes its linear so far, but I'm only at chapter three. The group has just gotten their magic brands of doom, and so far I find myself drawn in and wondering more and more about the group and the motivations behind the creature that did this to them. If they're supposed to be the enemies of cocoon then why did Serah tell them to SAVE the place?
Linearity can be bad, but if it's used to tell a narriative it can be very good too. Sidequests are fun too, but the reason why Batman: Arkham Asylum is more fun for me than Arkham City or Origins is because the tight linear focus allows for more interesting storylines that involve the player more. Besides, some of the Final Fantasy games could be pretty damn linear in the early bits. I remember the first time my group left Midgar in Final Fantasy 7 I was shocked because, after how long I'd spent there, I thought the whole game was going to take place there! Same can be said for Final Fantasy 9. The story doesn't really get into sidequesting until after you leave Lindblum for cripe's sake, the first disk is over half over by then!
The Cast:
So far the cast seems to fit, well, the usual tropes... but I find them endearing for it. Lets go down the list:
Lightning: Yeah she's full of angst and all broody... but, well, she found out her sister had a magical death sentence that would either turn her into a nightmarish monster or the world's biggest hunk of diamond. I'd be pretty ticked too. Still, she's at least shown some signs of human emotions so far in that she's clearly feeling guilty about what I must assume is a fight between her and her sister as shown in the scene where she tells Szah to cover his ears before apologizing to the door and hoping Serah can hear her. She wants to keep up her image of a strong and well-trained warrior type, but she can't completely hide the fact that she's still afraid for her sister.
Szah: ... dammit I love this character. He acts pretty much how I think I'd act in this sort of situation. Trying to play the voice of reason and attempting to keep everyone calmed down and alive despite Snow and Lightning being angry at each other, Hope wanting to give Snow a good swift kick in the danglybits because of his mother's death, and Vanille being kooky. That and the chocobo chick in his hair. That alone makes him endearing to me. His personality is fun, his movements are fun, he's like what I think would happen if Barret grew his arm back and got some damn prozac. Also helps that he's the oldest in the group and I'm almost 30 myself these days so I can relate when he complains about the younger members moving too fast for him to keep up.
Snow: Snow is relatable to me too. Y'know why I started gaming as a kid? I wanted to be the hero. Same thing with Snow here. He leads the resistance against the military when they begin their purge and his rallying cry is that heroes never give up. He's cocky yes, but the scene after Hope's mother dies shows a very human reaction. He sees exactly what his rebellion could cost. Would it really have been worse to let them drag them all out of the cocoon to uncertain death, or to stay in the cocoon and fight only to be slaughtered by a military force that's better trained and better equipped? Yes he snaps out of it, but only after his friend helps him.
Hope: I know, I know. Whiny whiny wah wah baby boy... well, he is. He's like, what, fourteen? That kid's balls probably haven't dropped yet and... in the span of a single DAY he's been detained, told he's being sent to quote 'the hell on earth' unquote on the lands below the cocoon, been thrust into a warzone, had his mother die before his eyes, and gotten branded with a magical mark that will either turn him into a crystal or a monster. Yeah, he's a crybaby... BUT given all that I'd say he's got a damn good reason to be one, hell SEVERAL good reasons! He's barely into his teens and his life has been thrown into turmoil and uncertainty... I'd say he's definitely got reason to blub over it. That being said, I do expect him to eventually face down his fears and uncertainty and help his allies (again, only at the third chapter) but at the same time I don't begrudge him being this upset over what's going on.
Vanille: I gotta say, I like her. Its what I think Radical Edward would be like when she gets a bit older. Perky, cheerful, just slightly off kilter, and she makes a good 'big sister' type to Hope's uncertainty and nervousness as well as being the one who's trying to keep the group together and raise everyone's spirits. Something about her constantly upbeat personality makes me smile. That and her weapon is pretty neat too. Reminds me a lot of the gloves that the butler in Hellsing used. I kinda like weapons like that.
The Combat System:
Again, I'm not very far into the game, but the combat so far seems fast paced and engaging. I just got the ability to use the whole paradagim... pardagam... paradigrym... look this up later... system and I'm still learning the basics, but I do find this makes the battles whiz by a lot faster. I did this in games like Persona and Dragon Quest a lot too, set my group's AI to where I'd only enter the commands for my character. Not only does it make the battles a lot faster, but it feels like I'm actually part of a group of adventurers rather than one adventurer with three remote controlled robots.
The battle animations are interesting and enjoyable to watch (I really like Szah's battle animations, he almost looks like he's dancing which is kinda cool), and so far the combat comes off as simple to learn, difficult to master but rewarding if you do.
Story:
Apparently this is what causes a lot of the complaints about the game is the weird ass storyline... but, well, I can't make a judgement call on it entirely because I'm still only three chapters in. So far though I'm finding it rather intriguing. Like what was that massive statue and why was it there to begin with? Why was there this war? Why do these things enslave people with magic marks in the first place, if they're so powerful why not just get the job done themselves?
Also, as far as story goes... lets not forget some of the earlier Final Fantasy games were pretty whacked out in their own right.
Final Fantasy 4: Son of a guy from the moon rides a whale to the moon to defeat an evil spirit.
Final Fantasy 5: Group splits a world into two halves to seal away an evil entity... somehow.
Final Fantasy 7: Did we ever get a clear answer as to what the fuck Jenova was? I mean yeah yeah 'a calamity from the sky'... but what does that mean? Alien lifeform? Evil goddess? Bioweapon from another world? Lavos's kid sister?
Final Fantasy 8: Time compression. Seriously. What the hell does that even mean?
So yeah, the story may be a bit bonkers in some respects... but if you ask me that makes it MORE like the older Final Fantasy games. Its like the Power Rangers, the halfway goofy plotlines are why the fans like it.
Repetitive and Grindy:
I'm just going to say it. If you're complaining that a JRPG is this, much less a Final Fantasy game... then you may be playing the wrong type of games.
Yes you have to grind, but you have to do that in almost ANY RPG, not just ones that come out of Japan. I had to grind my balls off in Final Fantasy 7 to get my matiera leveled up, I had to grind myself half to death in World of Warcraft to get my characters raid geared, I had to grind my fingers to the bone in Skyrim to master alchemy. Welcome to RPGs, Role Playing Grindfests!
You play these games to get invested in a story and to watch a heroes journey unfold via interactive storytelling. If you want a fast paced button mashing adrenaline bursting stabby shooty hooha then go grab Serious Sam or Street Fighter 5 or something along those lines.
Mind you, I LIKE Serious Sam, I just don't play it unless I want to skip story and just focus on making a pile of bodies big enough to reach past the top of a pyramid.
Overall:
So far I can't say overall whether I liked it or not, but it has made a very strong first impression. I can see why the gameplay would turn some series veterans off, but I'm a series veteran and I'm enjoying myself so you can take that for what it's worth.
I played Final Fantasy on the original NES back when I was still just barely old enough to read the dialogue, I played Final Fantasy 5 on an emulator before it ever came to the states because I was a poor kid in high school who couldn't buy his own games, one of the first games I got when I got my first computer with a CD-ROM drive was the PC release of Final Fantasy 7, and Final Fantasy 9 remains one of my all time favorite titles and one of the reasons my old PS2 is still sitting hooked up to my TV to this day.
However, when the series went into double digits it began to lose favor in my eyes. We all remember the complaints about Final Fantasy 10 and how Tidus was the whiniest of the whiny protagonists who could be summed up as 'daddy issues', we all remeber how Yuna was just a wuss who apologized to her friends for getting kidnapped by the Al Bhed, we all remember how Wakka was just a collection of stereotypes, how Lulu was fetish fuel, how Rikku was jailbait for the teenagers to spank it over, and how Auron was the only character who was worth a squirt of piss.
I still remember the 'laughing scene' despite my attempts to remove that memory via repression combined with blunt force trauma.
So, after FF10 and 10-2 I pretty much gave up on the series for a while. I played Final Fantasy XIV when the free trial version came out, but I can only devote so much time to an MMO and eventually my black mage was left to fend for himself... and then the other day I saw that Final Fantasy XIII was on sale for just eight dollars.
... I had heard all the complaints about the game. The linearity, the music since Nobuo Utematsu left Square Enix, the whinyness of Hope, the 'grr serious business' of Lightning, the black guy who's sole role seems to be the group's 'black guy', Snow and his severe case of 'bro-ness', and Vanille who is basically completely bonkers, and so on...
But! I realized, I had only ever HEARD about these. I had never actually sat down with Final Fantasy XIII, demo or otherwise, and actually given the game an honest chance. I never bought a new Sony console past the PS2 (though after seeing the trailer for Persona 5 I'm going to start adding the word 'yet' to that sentence) and now I had the chance to actually give the game a shot for less than I'd pay for one of the Buffalo Chicken Pizzas that Pizza Hut makes. This game may be said to not be worth $60 at release, but is it worth me missing dinner?
Well, I said damn the torpedoes and decided to give it a shot... and gods help me I like it. I am a Final Fantasy veteran. I can recite the names of the series villians and their motivations from heart:
Garland: Knocking you all down.
The Emperor: Being an Emeperor (evil is a job requirement)
The Cloud of Darkness: Oogaboogabooga I'm evil.
Golbez: Aid Zeromus in conquering the world.
Exodeus: Pulling the world into the void.
Kefka: Mwehehehe!
Sepheroth: More mommy issues than Norman Bates.
Ultimecia: Time compression, whatever the hell that means.
Kuja: Achieve trance and destroy his masters.
Seymour: ... dunno, never finished that one. Boink Yuna?
Point is, I'm a Final Fantasy Fucking Fanboy. I loved the series growing up with all it's sidequesting, unique characters, reoccuring tropes, moogles, and so on... so Final Fantasy XIII should be a bucketfull of piss for me right?
Well... Its not.
Lets go down the list:
Linearity:
Yes its linear so far, but I'm only at chapter three. The group has just gotten their magic brands of doom, and so far I find myself drawn in and wondering more and more about the group and the motivations behind the creature that did this to them. If they're supposed to be the enemies of cocoon then why did Serah tell them to SAVE the place?
Linearity can be bad, but if it's used to tell a narriative it can be very good too. Sidequests are fun too, but the reason why Batman: Arkham Asylum is more fun for me than Arkham City or Origins is because the tight linear focus allows for more interesting storylines that involve the player more. Besides, some of the Final Fantasy games could be pretty damn linear in the early bits. I remember the first time my group left Midgar in Final Fantasy 7 I was shocked because, after how long I'd spent there, I thought the whole game was going to take place there! Same can be said for Final Fantasy 9. The story doesn't really get into sidequesting until after you leave Lindblum for cripe's sake, the first disk is over half over by then!
The Cast:
So far the cast seems to fit, well, the usual tropes... but I find them endearing for it. Lets go down the list:
Lightning: Yeah she's full of angst and all broody... but, well, she found out her sister had a magical death sentence that would either turn her into a nightmarish monster or the world's biggest hunk of diamond. I'd be pretty ticked too. Still, she's at least shown some signs of human emotions so far in that she's clearly feeling guilty about what I must assume is a fight between her and her sister as shown in the scene where she tells Szah to cover his ears before apologizing to the door and hoping Serah can hear her. She wants to keep up her image of a strong and well-trained warrior type, but she can't completely hide the fact that she's still afraid for her sister.
Szah: ... dammit I love this character. He acts pretty much how I think I'd act in this sort of situation. Trying to play the voice of reason and attempting to keep everyone calmed down and alive despite Snow and Lightning being angry at each other, Hope wanting to give Snow a good swift kick in the danglybits because of his mother's death, and Vanille being kooky. That and the chocobo chick in his hair. That alone makes him endearing to me. His personality is fun, his movements are fun, he's like what I think would happen if Barret grew his arm back and got some damn prozac. Also helps that he's the oldest in the group and I'm almost 30 myself these days so I can relate when he complains about the younger members moving too fast for him to keep up.
Snow: Snow is relatable to me too. Y'know why I started gaming as a kid? I wanted to be the hero. Same thing with Snow here. He leads the resistance against the military when they begin their purge and his rallying cry is that heroes never give up. He's cocky yes, but the scene after Hope's mother dies shows a very human reaction. He sees exactly what his rebellion could cost. Would it really have been worse to let them drag them all out of the cocoon to uncertain death, or to stay in the cocoon and fight only to be slaughtered by a military force that's better trained and better equipped? Yes he snaps out of it, but only after his friend helps him.
Hope: I know, I know. Whiny whiny wah wah baby boy... well, he is. He's like, what, fourteen? That kid's balls probably haven't dropped yet and... in the span of a single DAY he's been detained, told he's being sent to quote 'the hell on earth' unquote on the lands below the cocoon, been thrust into a warzone, had his mother die before his eyes, and gotten branded with a magical mark that will either turn him into a crystal or a monster. Yeah, he's a crybaby... BUT given all that I'd say he's got a damn good reason to be one, hell SEVERAL good reasons! He's barely into his teens and his life has been thrown into turmoil and uncertainty... I'd say he's definitely got reason to blub over it. That being said, I do expect him to eventually face down his fears and uncertainty and help his allies (again, only at the third chapter) but at the same time I don't begrudge him being this upset over what's going on.
Vanille: I gotta say, I like her. Its what I think Radical Edward would be like when she gets a bit older. Perky, cheerful, just slightly off kilter, and she makes a good 'big sister' type to Hope's uncertainty and nervousness as well as being the one who's trying to keep the group together and raise everyone's spirits. Something about her constantly upbeat personality makes me smile. That and her weapon is pretty neat too. Reminds me a lot of the gloves that the butler in Hellsing used. I kinda like weapons like that.
The Combat System:
Again, I'm not very far into the game, but the combat so far seems fast paced and engaging. I just got the ability to use the whole paradagim... pardagam... paradigrym... look this up later... system and I'm still learning the basics, but I do find this makes the battles whiz by a lot faster. I did this in games like Persona and Dragon Quest a lot too, set my group's AI to where I'd only enter the commands for my character. Not only does it make the battles a lot faster, but it feels like I'm actually part of a group of adventurers rather than one adventurer with three remote controlled robots.
The battle animations are interesting and enjoyable to watch (I really like Szah's battle animations, he almost looks like he's dancing which is kinda cool), and so far the combat comes off as simple to learn, difficult to master but rewarding if you do.
Story:
Apparently this is what causes a lot of the complaints about the game is the weird ass storyline... but, well, I can't make a judgement call on it entirely because I'm still only three chapters in. So far though I'm finding it rather intriguing. Like what was that massive statue and why was it there to begin with? Why was there this war? Why do these things enslave people with magic marks in the first place, if they're so powerful why not just get the job done themselves?
Also, as far as story goes... lets not forget some of the earlier Final Fantasy games were pretty whacked out in their own right.
Final Fantasy 4: Son of a guy from the moon rides a whale to the moon to defeat an evil spirit.
Final Fantasy 5: Group splits a world into two halves to seal away an evil entity... somehow.
Final Fantasy 7: Did we ever get a clear answer as to what the fuck Jenova was? I mean yeah yeah 'a calamity from the sky'... but what does that mean? Alien lifeform? Evil goddess? Bioweapon from another world? Lavos's kid sister?
Final Fantasy 8: Time compression. Seriously. What the hell does that even mean?
So yeah, the story may be a bit bonkers in some respects... but if you ask me that makes it MORE like the older Final Fantasy games. Its like the Power Rangers, the halfway goofy plotlines are why the fans like it.
Repetitive and Grindy:
I'm just going to say it. If you're complaining that a JRPG is this, much less a Final Fantasy game... then you may be playing the wrong type of games.
Yes you have to grind, but you have to do that in almost ANY RPG, not just ones that come out of Japan. I had to grind my balls off in Final Fantasy 7 to get my matiera leveled up, I had to grind myself half to death in World of Warcraft to get my characters raid geared, I had to grind my fingers to the bone in Skyrim to master alchemy. Welcome to RPGs, Role Playing Grindfests!
You play these games to get invested in a story and to watch a heroes journey unfold via interactive storytelling. If you want a fast paced button mashing adrenaline bursting stabby shooty hooha then go grab Serious Sam or Street Fighter 5 or something along those lines.
Mind you, I LIKE Serious Sam, I just don't play it unless I want to skip story and just focus on making a pile of bodies big enough to reach past the top of a pyramid.
Overall:
So far I can't say overall whether I liked it or not, but it has made a very strong first impression. I can see why the gameplay would turn some series veterans off, but I'm a series veteran and I'm enjoying myself so you can take that for what it's worth.
