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[ETA: Um, yes, this is the same entry I posted a while back. I accidentally hit Update Date instead of Post. If you've already read it, it's nothing new.]
So I've been playing FFXIII. It's not actually my copy; my boyfriend's roommate owns it. I'm trying to finish it up fairly quickly. (I did finally finish ME2, with no one left behind, so yay. But... they did end it on a scary note. D: I was sitting there, watching the credits roll, wondering how in the world they were going to follow that, because... damn.
Anyway, back to FFXIII.
On the whole, I like it! There are a few quibbles that I have with it, and it took me a while to get the hang of it (and to grow to like the characters - it took me a few chapters) but I'm enjoying it, and I want to see how this ends. (Currently in the middle of Chapter 10. I could be done with it faster, but I try to wait to play this when my boyfriend's around so that he can watch. And so I can mock him for his 'ships, which I only do 'cuz he's my boyfriend. ;p)
General (spoiler-free) thoughts:
Well, it's certainly graphically beautiful. No big surprise. Although I do like the fact that the facial expressions actually match what a real person would be feeling under the circumstances; that's something that you just didn't get in the earlier games, because of system limitations. Good job using their powers for good. The music, on the other hand... eh. Boring, at best. Compared to the rest of the series, especially boring. It fades into the background almost immediately. (Voice acting's pretty good, though. Far cry better than, say, FFX. They sound like real people, not VAs pretending to be real people!)
Another plus: the AI. It actually does what I'd want to tell the characters to do. And it responds to knowing the strengths and weaknesses of specific enemies, which to me is just awesome. (That's partially because I've been burned by NPC AIs before, using magical attacks that I KNOW the stupid enemies are immune to over and over and over again. Star Ocean 2, I'm looking at you here.) Still, the battle system in this game does put a new and particularly ridiculous face on the logical inconsistency that plagues so many RPGs - instead of having the game end while three people are knocked out and the others are still hanging around, the game ends if one person (the group leader) is knocked out, even if the others are still up. I mean... I guess I can see the logic behind it, mechanically, but it's still laughable. Are the others just too lazy to use phoenix downs, or what?
Very happy to see the datalog. I don't think I'd even be able to make this post otherwise, except for vague impressions, without the log there to remind me of what I have and haven't done. (I am slightly irritated by a couple of instances where the datalog actually spoiled a plot development or two, by giving more insight into a character's thought processes than we'd actually been told about. It's not a huge deal, though.) There's a lot of interesting stuff in it, too. If I ever do end up involved in this game's fandom it'll be a very nice reference.
There are so many random references to earlier games in the series. I'll probably mention them later when I start talking about spoilers. My favorite so far was the little girl's doll. Awww. (If you've seen it you know what I mean.)
The structure of the game itself is ridiculously simple, at least for now. Run through an area, which is a fairly linear pathway. There are encounters that (generally) grow progressively harder the further you go and are almost impossible to avoid. Sometimes you can manage to surprise them and make it easier; sometimes you can't. Continue on, seeing storyline stuff as you go, until you meet a boss. Kill the boss. Watch cutscenes before and after the boss. Repeat. Very simple. But I'm interested in the story enough that I don't mind. I want to see what happens next.
The system with weapons and armor, while interesting, is also frustrating, in that I never seem to have enough stuff to upgrade everything I want to upgrade. I hope things get easier to obtain later on. I'm probably just going to have to bite the bullet and look up a guide so that I'll be able to figure out what the heck I'm doing.
And... I think that's it for the spoiler-free stuff.
Next post I make about this game will have spoilers. I need to boot up the system and look at the datalog to refresh my memory.
So I've been playing FFXIII. It's not actually my copy; my boyfriend's roommate owns it. I'm trying to finish it up fairly quickly. (I did finally finish ME2, with no one left behind, so yay. But... they did end it on a scary note. D: I was sitting there, watching the credits roll, wondering how in the world they were going to follow that, because... damn.
Anyway, back to FFXIII.
On the whole, I like it! There are a few quibbles that I have with it, and it took me a while to get the hang of it (and to grow to like the characters - it took me a few chapters) but I'm enjoying it, and I want to see how this ends. (Currently in the middle of Chapter 10. I could be done with it faster, but I try to wait to play this when my boyfriend's around so that he can watch. And so I can mock him for his 'ships, which I only do 'cuz he's my boyfriend. ;p)
General (spoiler-free) thoughts:
Well, it's certainly graphically beautiful. No big surprise. Although I do like the fact that the facial expressions actually match what a real person would be feeling under the circumstances; that's something that you just didn't get in the earlier games, because of system limitations. Good job using their powers for good. The music, on the other hand... eh. Boring, at best. Compared to the rest of the series, especially boring. It fades into the background almost immediately. (Voice acting's pretty good, though. Far cry better than, say, FFX. They sound like real people, not VAs pretending to be real people!)
Another plus: the AI. It actually does what I'd want to tell the characters to do. And it responds to knowing the strengths and weaknesses of specific enemies, which to me is just awesome. (That's partially because I've been burned by NPC AIs before, using magical attacks that I KNOW the stupid enemies are immune to over and over and over again. Star Ocean 2, I'm looking at you here.) Still, the battle system in this game does put a new and particularly ridiculous face on the logical inconsistency that plagues so many RPGs - instead of having the game end while three people are knocked out and the others are still hanging around, the game ends if one person (the group leader) is knocked out, even if the others are still up. I mean... I guess I can see the logic behind it, mechanically, but it's still laughable. Are the others just too lazy to use phoenix downs, or what?
Very happy to see the datalog. I don't think I'd even be able to make this post otherwise, except for vague impressions, without the log there to remind me of what I have and haven't done. (I am slightly irritated by a couple of instances where the datalog actually spoiled a plot development or two, by giving more insight into a character's thought processes than we'd actually been told about. It's not a huge deal, though.) There's a lot of interesting stuff in it, too. If I ever do end up involved in this game's fandom it'll be a very nice reference.
There are so many random references to earlier games in the series. I'll probably mention them later when I start talking about spoilers. My favorite so far was the little girl's doll. Awww. (If you've seen it you know what I mean.)
The structure of the game itself is ridiculously simple, at least for now. Run through an area, which is a fairly linear pathway. There are encounters that (generally) grow progressively harder the further you go and are almost impossible to avoid. Sometimes you can manage to surprise them and make it easier; sometimes you can't. Continue on, seeing storyline stuff as you go, until you meet a boss. Kill the boss. Watch cutscenes before and after the boss. Repeat. Very simple. But I'm interested in the story enough that I don't mind. I want to see what happens next.
The system with weapons and armor, while interesting, is also frustrating, in that I never seem to have enough stuff to upgrade everything I want to upgrade. I hope things get easier to obtain later on. I'm probably just going to have to bite the bullet and look up a guide so that I'll be able to figure out what the heck I'm doing.
And... I think that's it for the spoiler-free stuff.
Next post I make about this game will have spoilers. I need to boot up the system and look at the datalog to refresh my memory.
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Date: 2010-08-06 12:47 am (UTC)From:I was a little disappointed in the structure of the environments, too, and how you don't get to explore much -- but you'll get to a bit later on where you really get to do some exploring, and it is awesome.
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Date: 2010-08-06 12:55 am (UTC)From:Yes, I do wish Vanille wasn't so... forced, I think. Perky in a fake way. I did notice that her VA improved a bit during Chapter 8, when we started seeing more of a dark side to her character. She wasn't faking it so much anymore, maybe. I hope that's the case, because that would be a very nice touch.