As with many of you out there, I’ve been giving Final Fantasy XIII a good run through, when I’ve had the time. I went into FFXIII expecting the worst, though was surprised as to what Square Enix provided me. I don’t intend on reviewing this game, for the simple fact that I’m only 20 hours into it, and don’t think I’ll have the time to beat the game for a while yet. I just want to extend my views on what I did like about my first 20 hours, as well as what I disliked.
The Good
- The musical performance is actually one of the best I’ve heard in any game for quite some time. There’s a range of emotion throughout each song that you rarely encounter in video gaming as a whole. While not as poignant as Suikoden, Final Fantasy VI, or even Persona 4, there’s a magical feeling to the soundtrack that intensifies your journey throughout the game (or at least up to hour #20)
- This is one drop dead gorgeous game. The stunning scenery, although it suffers from repetition early on (long stretches of time in an area that becomes decreasingly interesting) as well as the character models, both humanoid and otherwise, have a distinct polish to them. It’s extremely challenging to positively identify which scenes are CG and which are in game models. That’s how commendable the visual efforts were.
- The battle system is quite exhilarating….once the game stops slowly unlocking different aspects throughout the first dozen hours. Once you are given enough reign over how to properly utilize your Paradigms, battles become more engaging than spamming the X button repeatedly. Later battles, you’ll be required to masterfully weave between different Paradigm sets in order to not only survive, but properly distribute damage to your enemies.
- You won’t find any dialog boxes, as just about everything is done through vocal cues. This does leave out the hard of hearing from enjoying the title as much as everyone else though, and with no way of adding closed captioning (to my knowledge), it is a major disadvantage. However, the natural evolution of storytelling is apparent with this predominant use of voice acting which, for the most part, comes off superb.
- Lightning is perhaps the most attractive female lead in a video game since Alicia of BulletWitch. Her character model, from top to bottom, isn’t a huge step forward in originality, but she’s quite a pretty face to feature on the cover of your title.
Final Fantasy XIII is a breathtaking game from every visual angle.
The Bad
- The character names are absolutely absurd. Through strong storytelling and emotional investment, you could argue that the point is moot. But really, how can I get too invested into characters named Snow, Lightning, Hope and Fang? Could Square Enix have come up with something a little more mature? I was about to drop the game cold turkey if I encountered a character named Dandelion.
- The first 15 hours are plagued with an overabundance of tutorials, restricted gameplay access, too much dialog and too little action. It’s quite an exciting thing to unlock new aspects to the battle system, but when you’re fighting two fights, and then enduring ten minutes of dialog, followed by another four fight, and then another seven minutes of plot development, it chops up the fun a bit too much. Role playing games are supposed to have a multitude of character and story development through your journey, but Square Enix went a bit too overboard on this aspect. Early on, you’ll have to worry about how restricted the battle system is, with nothing but Fight spamming and little else in-between, with too many tutorials popping up constantly.
- Save points. Final Fantasy XIII seems to be a bit too generous with save point layouts. There’s one point where you’ll save your game, march forward about 45 paces with no enemy interactivity, enter a cut scene, be prompted to save once its complete, enter another cut scene and when that is complete, yet another save point pops up. Then there seems to be rare moments where you’ll expect a save point, hope for a save point and pray for a save point, yet it’s just out of reach, past a few more fights you can’t really avoid.
- Having long stretches with only two characters to play as, gets a bit monotonous. While it’s understandable from a story standpoint, it’s just not that thrilling to play as Hope, Sazh or Vanille. While I really do enjoy how Sazh is developing, as well as the quirkiness and overall airheaded nature of Vanille, they are not that fun to command. While I sit through long stretches of plot and gameplay as Vanille and Sazh, I’m wondering when I’m ever going to take control of Snow again. To my displeasure, I don’t get to do so until hour 18 or so, in a sort of implausible way. Not to spoil what happens and why, there’s no clear exposition as to why he suddenly appears, after the circumstances of his hiatus. It’s sort of like “BLARGH, I’m back!”
- Having the game over screen pop up because the leader of your party reaches zero hit points, is an absolute pile. Square Enix could have easily taken a cue from its previous title, Final Fantasy XII, in which you had the ability to shift over your leader role to another member of your party. Having the game end due to the leader of the party becoming incapacitated, is a brainless way to add some artificial difficulty to the game
- On the subject of difficulty, the fluctuation of difficulty can really grate on your nerves. While the early portion is woefully easy, you’ll encounter your battle with the Eidolons Odin, with no proper distinction as to how he can be dealt with best. In fact, Odin and Shiva’s battles are some of the more frustrating battles I’ve experienced in an RPG. Defeating those Eidolons after dozens of attempts however, is incredibly gratifying.
- The experience is far too linear. Again, from a storytelling standpoint, it’s understandable. However the lack of freedom early on really makes large portions of the game drag on, and almost act as a deterrent to playing any further. I definitely cannot wait and see how the linear feeling is broken up later on in the game. But for the early portion of it, be prepared to be restricted and try not to succumb to the urges you might get of shelving the title for a while.
Although the Summons that double as Transformers come off as a bit tacky, having them in battle with you does even the odds considerably.
Twenty hours is barely scratching the surface to this game, but when you encounter such a range of emotion towards a plethora of aspects to a game, it’s definitely worth noting and sharing. While I still don’t feel like I’m playing a Final Fantasy title, the RPG I am playing does feel fresh enough to keep me interested and give a legitimate attempt at completing the title, despite my already hectic schedule. I don’t see myself completing the game until sometime in late April, but I do expect to see the experience fully develop as I progress. My only wish is that the shortcomings to Final Fantasy XIII were at least cut in half. Difficulty fluctuation and ample supplies of save points are tolerable enough, but the bombardments of tutorials, 2nd grader chosen character names and lack of battle enjoyment due to constant cut scenes and story development could have been curbed some.
Perhaps when I do get the chance to finish the game off, I’ll leave my complete analysis, though I do not think I’ll go as far as to review it. Oddly enough, with as much as I’ve gone into this matter, I should have just reviewed and rated the first 20 hours. Regardless, look for a complete analysis of the rest of my experience with Final Fantasy XIII sometime in the future, which I feel will take an upward swing from here, and continue to right the wrongs of the first twenty hours of gameplay.
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