FFXIII: now with actual content
Mar. 13th, 2010 06:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
joiedecombatI'm now maybe fifteen gameplay hours into FFXIII, at Chapter 7 (of 14), far enough in to have some actual opinions beyond "ooh, shiny."
As always, I'm not really the person to ask about the actual mechanics since I'll put up with a lot of clunk if I like the characters and story. However, I am faintly disappointed in the return to a Fight Woosh ATB system after the more organic blend of exploration and action in FFXII. Apparently I'm in a minority, but I just don't see the need to bring the progress of the game to a screeching halt every time there's a combat encounter. FFXIII at least continues to allow you to see enemies before you encounter them and therefore allows you to at least try to avoid them - or sneak up on them, which can make fights a lot easier - so it's not quite the hammer-to-the-screen effect that I've been finding so grating on replays of older JRPGs. Still, I've been kind of spoiled by action RPGs like Kingdom Hearts and the BioWare games.
Similarly, although I have no problem with only having direct control over the party leader and having other party members controlled by AI, as is more or less necessary in the action RPGs I mentioned above... if you're going to make it a Fight Woosh ATB system, and furthermore if you're going to set things up so that I'm playing a two-person party for, thus far, the vast majority of the game, there is no reason to not allow some measure of direct control over companion characters' actions. The Paradigm system does allow control over what job they're doing from moment to moment, and the AI isn't too stupid that I've noticed so far, but it's a quibble.
The Paradigm system is interesting and I think I kind of like it, though I'm a lot better with some aspects of it than others. My battle scores took a nosedive when I started tooling around Palumpolum with Snow and Hope and realized I had no earthly idea how to properly use a Sentinel. Unsurprisingly I seem to manage best when I can just mow through everything with a Commando/Ravager combo, occasionally switching to Commando/Medic for heals.
I'm looking forward to seeing more of the eidolons. Which are now Transformers, more or less. Seeing Odin turn into his own horse is kind of weird, but on the other hand, Lightning rampaging around the battlefield on Odinhorse wielding dual swords is pretty awesome. Have not really figured out the command system for gestalt mode yet, but fortunately it's got an auto button for buttonmashers like me.
The story is, at least up to the point I've reached, entirely on rails - areas are almost exclusively linear, branching off only for occasional dead-ends containing extra treasure chest sphere things. I assume it will open up eventually, and I don't really mind being herded very much since, uh, I get lost easily, but it is a nit. I liked FFXII's wide open spaces.
I am not far in enough yet to really have any clue what's actually going on in the storyline itself. More interesting is the regular switching back and forth between parties: like FFXII, it's thus far been kind of vague about who the real main character is, if there is one, but unlike in FFXII there doesn't seem to be anyone in the party who's there solely as a decoy protagonist (poor Vaan). Everybody's been getting more or less equal development, and so far they've shown no signs of banding together into a single party. (Friends who've been listening to my commentary can be forgiven for thinking I was talking about MMORPG team drama with all the complaining about characters staying behind or stomping off in a huff.)
The setting is also interesting, although again I am still not quite far enough in to wrap my brain around it.
The characters are usually the real make-or-break for me, and so far I'm finding them all pretty interesting. In particular:
* The ladies are still making a good showing. Lightning in particular is cool on a number of levels; she's at least nominally the main character (being the one on the packaging and all), she's twenty-one (practically over the hill for a Final Fantasy protagonist), she's not wearing an outfit that she seems in danger of falling out of at any moment, and, oh yeah, she kicks ass. During the sequence in which I controlled Hope, she barely left the poor boy anything to kill. She's got a big chip on her shoulder at the start, but enough depth under it to make her sympathetic. (Admittedly, I like jerkass characters; see also Squall.)
Vanille is more of your standard Perky Girl Mage and I'm mostly reserving judgment on her because I know there's more to her that I am not seeing yet. Fang, on the other hand, seems entirely awesome from what little I've seen of her so far - tough, hot, and snarky. ("Shouting won't make it work better. It's called interference." Snert.)
Also a thumbs-up to Hope's mom. Hope's mom is awesome.
* Snow may be my favorite so far, though Lightning is running him a very close second. He's a big lovable doof, he's made several pretty big foul-ups and pulled at least one really epic save, and he's probably going to get himself shivved by Hope sometime very soon, I'm calling it now.
* Speaking of Hope, I have a sneaking suspicion that they might pull some kind of switcheroo and have him end up as the actual main character in the end, which would be a bit lame (albeit directly opposite to Vaan, who was supposedly the main character of FFXII and ended up having basically nothing to do, and he does sort of look like Vaan with more clothes). But he's got an interesting character arc in progress. I'm sure he's been annoying a lot of people with his particular damage; I personally didn't find him very interesting at first, but now he's providing a healthy serving of dramatic tension while I wait to see whether or not he's going to up and freaking EXPLODE at some point.
* Sazh at first seemed like he was going to be your basic Funny Black Guy comic relief character, but he also has been getting some nice development as the game goes along and is turning out to be probably the sanest person in the whole party. Poor guy.
* Cid Raines: prettiest Cid yet. That's all I've got for now, but gosh is he pretty.
* Absolutely no clue who the villain is yet, although this guy with the silver ponytail who turned up recently seems a likely candidate.
* One more: Rygdea cracks me up. I have no idea how his name is pronounced or where he gets his accent from, but when Fang tells him not to get cute I can just see him thinking, 'Too late, baby.'
One other thing that I'm enjoying is the party commentary - they're not as chatty as the Dragon Age party, but they pipe up from time to time, as well as having individual lines for all sorts of things in combat. For instance, Snow shouting "It's me you want!" when a teammate hits critically low HP. Aw, punkin. Also I really feel bad for poor Hope, because when he gets hit, he really sounds like it hurts.
And... I think I'm done for now. No doubt I'll have more to say later when I actually figure out where the plot's going.
As always, I'm not really the person to ask about the actual mechanics since I'll put up with a lot of clunk if I like the characters and story. However, I am faintly disappointed in the return to a Fight Woosh ATB system after the more organic blend of exploration and action in FFXII. Apparently I'm in a minority, but I just don't see the need to bring the progress of the game to a screeching halt every time there's a combat encounter. FFXIII at least continues to allow you to see enemies before you encounter them and therefore allows you to at least try to avoid them - or sneak up on them, which can make fights a lot easier - so it's not quite the hammer-to-the-screen effect that I've been finding so grating on replays of older JRPGs. Still, I've been kind of spoiled by action RPGs like Kingdom Hearts and the BioWare games.
Similarly, although I have no problem with only having direct control over the party leader and having other party members controlled by AI, as is more or less necessary in the action RPGs I mentioned above... if you're going to make it a Fight Woosh ATB system, and furthermore if you're going to set things up so that I'm playing a two-person party for, thus far, the vast majority of the game, there is no reason to not allow some measure of direct control over companion characters' actions. The Paradigm system does allow control over what job they're doing from moment to moment, and the AI isn't too stupid that I've noticed so far, but it's a quibble.
The Paradigm system is interesting and I think I kind of like it, though I'm a lot better with some aspects of it than others. My battle scores took a nosedive when I started tooling around Palumpolum with Snow and Hope and realized I had no earthly idea how to properly use a Sentinel. Unsurprisingly I seem to manage best when I can just mow through everything with a Commando/Ravager combo, occasionally switching to Commando/Medic for heals.
I'm looking forward to seeing more of the eidolons. Which are now Transformers, more or less. Seeing Odin turn into his own horse is kind of weird, but on the other hand, Lightning rampaging around the battlefield on Odinhorse wielding dual swords is pretty awesome. Have not really figured out the command system for gestalt mode yet, but fortunately it's got an auto button for buttonmashers like me.
The story is, at least up to the point I've reached, entirely on rails - areas are almost exclusively linear, branching off only for occasional dead-ends containing extra treasure chest sphere things. I assume it will open up eventually, and I don't really mind being herded very much since, uh, I get lost easily, but it is a nit. I liked FFXII's wide open spaces.
I am not far in enough yet to really have any clue what's actually going on in the storyline itself. More interesting is the regular switching back and forth between parties: like FFXII, it's thus far been kind of vague about who the real main character is, if there is one, but unlike in FFXII there doesn't seem to be anyone in the party who's there solely as a decoy protagonist (poor Vaan). Everybody's been getting more or less equal development, and so far they've shown no signs of banding together into a single party. (Friends who've been listening to my commentary can be forgiven for thinking I was talking about MMORPG team drama with all the complaining about characters staying behind or stomping off in a huff.)
The setting is also interesting, although again I am still not quite far enough in to wrap my brain around it.
The characters are usually the real make-or-break for me, and so far I'm finding them all pretty interesting. In particular:
* The ladies are still making a good showing. Lightning in particular is cool on a number of levels; she's at least nominally the main character (being the one on the packaging and all), she's twenty-one (practically over the hill for a Final Fantasy protagonist), she's not wearing an outfit that she seems in danger of falling out of at any moment, and, oh yeah, she kicks ass. During the sequence in which I controlled Hope, she barely left the poor boy anything to kill. She's got a big chip on her shoulder at the start, but enough depth under it to make her sympathetic. (Admittedly, I like jerkass characters; see also Squall.)
Vanille is more of your standard Perky Girl Mage and I'm mostly reserving judgment on her because I know there's more to her that I am not seeing yet. Fang, on the other hand, seems entirely awesome from what little I've seen of her so far - tough, hot, and snarky. ("Shouting won't make it work better. It's called interference." Snert.)
Also a thumbs-up to Hope's mom. Hope's mom is awesome.
* Snow may be my favorite so far, though Lightning is running him a very close second. He's a big lovable doof, he's made several pretty big foul-ups and pulled at least one really epic save, and he's probably going to get himself shivved by Hope sometime very soon, I'm calling it now.
* Speaking of Hope, I have a sneaking suspicion that they might pull some kind of switcheroo and have him end up as the actual main character in the end, which would be a bit lame (albeit directly opposite to Vaan, who was supposedly the main character of FFXII and ended up having basically nothing to do, and he does sort of look like Vaan with more clothes). But he's got an interesting character arc in progress. I'm sure he's been annoying a lot of people with his particular damage; I personally didn't find him very interesting at first, but now he's providing a healthy serving of dramatic tension while I wait to see whether or not he's going to up and freaking EXPLODE at some point.
* Sazh at first seemed like he was going to be your basic Funny Black Guy comic relief character, but he also has been getting some nice development as the game goes along and is turning out to be probably the sanest person in the whole party. Poor guy.
* Cid Raines: prettiest Cid yet. That's all I've got for now, but gosh is he pretty.
* Absolutely no clue who the villain is yet, although this guy with the silver ponytail who turned up recently seems a likely candidate.
* One more: Rygdea cracks me up. I have no idea how his name is pronounced or where he gets his accent from, but when Fang tells him not to get cute I can just see him thinking, 'Too late, baby.'
One other thing that I'm enjoying is the party commentary - they're not as chatty as the Dragon Age party, but they pipe up from time to time, as well as having individual lines for all sorts of things in combat. For instance, Snow shouting "It's me you want!" when a teammate hits critically low HP. Aw, punkin. Also I really feel bad for poor Hope, because when he gets hit, he really sounds like it hurts.
And... I think I'm done for now. No doubt I'll have more to say later when I actually figure out where the plot's going.
