Morning Hangover: I Don't Get Final Fantasy XIII

rkmoney

I'm a huge fan of the series, but I was a little unexcited to get this one until I actually played it. I'm 40 hours in, and even though there are some choices I just don't like, I still like this game a lot.

In FF13, the plot switches between 2-3 groups of people within the first few hours. For awhile. The series did this before in FF6. 13 is the same as that, but longer and more relevant. 13 can get irritating around the 10 hour mark (whenever you're forced to play as a whiny little kid), but it gets better, especially when they stop teasing you about which characters you get to play as.

The pacing of the story is good. What I mean is, the plot is completely coherent, well-paced, character-driven, somewhat emotionally engaging, and all that, for the most part. There are also some twists that I wasn't expecting. I think the game is designed to have the plot propel you forward until they reveal the open world aspect of the game, where the players and the characters are taking a break from the plot, sort of.

I'm okay with the lack of towns, but what I'm not okay with is the lack of mini-games. They have opportunities. In 7, the Gold Saucer was an amusement park that allowed players to play minigames that had been incorporated into the main plot. In 13, so far there has been only one non-main-adventuring mode (you ride a robot for about a minute), but during some cutscenes, I found myself thinking, "this could have been a mini-game". I was playing the God of War 3 demo, and pretty much every cutscene links to a new kind of gameplay. When Kratos Icarus-flies through the vent, it transitions (fluidly) from the player jumping, to the game making Kratos fly, back to the player flying and dodging obstacles. That's an interactive game. I was not excited with GOW3 until I played the demo. So he gets new gauntlets. Big whoop, I thought.. But they are actually fun to use, which no preview could have told me. Still, FF13 is fun.

The reviews of 13 are a little critical. This game isn't anything it isn't. "There are no horror elements in this game" -- it's a JRPG. Have you played any other JRPG (general rhetoric question)? Because the disc-changing in Star Ocean was completely arbitrary and did detract from gameplay. And that game was basically a lazyman's backtracking adventure across the universe. It was a prequel.

13 consists of: cutscenes, fights, some exploring, mission hunts, upgrading characters/weapons. But the fights are ridiculously addictive (which is why they could have, but didn't, incorporate a colosseum).

I'm a huge fan of the series, but if I wasn't, I'd still enjoy the game. The plot works universally, except for some clear Japan moments (in the US, nobody bows in the army, and I don't remember the last time I pounded my heart to express my love to a teenager). The battles are fun, and the pacing is great. Also, all this restriction (just like everything else in the game) is designed to be that way. About 2 hours in, the characters learn to Paradigm shift because of a plot point. They get their first Eidolon because of another plot point. The world is restricted because of the plot points put in place, which will later be replaced by openness because of another plot point. This game is planned, and precise, and if you are willing to suspend your disbelief and just play the game the way developers want you to, it's good.

Like I said, I'm a fan, and I could talk about this forever, but I won't. Two last things: 1. one of my favorite new aspects is the Paradigm deck, which you will get to fully customize later in the game. Your characters get 6 roles (eventually), and you can assign 6 Paradigms before battle. It's fun to make different combinations of roles and finding out which ones can kill enemies fastest. It's fun to guess and check, to try out new spells, and it's fun to summon. 2. Who the frak cares? Rabanastre was ridiculous HUGE and the only memorable town of ff12. Are people really complaining that there are no towns when they could be like Rabanastre all over again? Really guys? I like walking half an hour to find a save crystal that can teleport me to another exit of the town closer to a guy I have to talk to before I can hunt some monster and then return back to the same place only to walk another half hour to get my prize. The only thing I like more than that is finding out the weapon store on the east side of town half an hour away is cheaper and has more things that the weapon store in low-town, all apart of the same town. At least the 50+ hours in 13 isn't walking around looking for shops and is actually (loosely) gameplay.

13 could have been bigger with more things to do, but it isn't. But since it isn't, the little things that are there are really good. Imagine the best of the past games in the series, then filter out the bad stuff, and you get some concentrated good fun stuff. You get ff13.