For most games I review, to be honest, I play them for the bare minimum I can to give it an honest rating. But there's something about Final Fantasy that makes me want to play it a little bit longer, because in the past it has been proven that the story and gameplay could change considerably near the end of the game. Therefore I've played this game for 70 hours and I'm just now ready to give my educated view.
Story
Final Fantasy 13 follows the story of main character Lighting. She lives in Cacoon with her sister but one day finds herself and her sister marked I'Cie, enemy of the state. And all enemies will some day fulfill their focus and turn into crystal. To change this faith Lighting and her friends, also marked l'Cie, turns against the government in bid to save Cocoon and more importantly rescue the ones she loves.
Battle system
Ever since the Final Fantasy franchise moved away from its turn-based roots, a search has commenced for the successor of the famous battle system. Question is have they finally found it with Final Fantasy 13?
Well it depends on the gamer. In final Fantasy 13 manual control is possible but discouraged, instead you can set "strategies" and change them dynamically during the fight. Strategies are formed, by giving your three party members curtain roles like: medic, sentinel, saboteur, commander, ravager etc. This way you can for example make a strategy with in mind staying alive, or a strategy to give the enemy all it can take, in the battle you can then change back and forth as the fighting progresses.
Another strategic aspect emerges later in the game when you can decide which three characters out of six you want to use. The game tries to emphasis each character's specific qualities and does so to some extend, but most gamers will probably settle for three to successfully use them the whole game through.
It's a nice system for the passive gamer but a far cry from the manual control of past Final Fantasy titles. Nevertheless I liked this new approach.
Gameplay
The game reminds me of a mice cage with the many plastic tubes, because most of the time you will be going walking on a 1-way path to your objective. At times you will meet an obstacle, go past it, and continue on your way. But then, just when you're about to give up, you're presented with a huge area called Grand Pulse.
In Grand Pulse the gameplay becomes more dynamic and allows for secret treasure hunting and missions. The 64 missions are pretty straightforward, just walk to a mission, hunt down the mark, and receive a reward. Still there's a feeling of surprise when you complete the missions and accept your mysterious price, and this will definitely keep you going for hours.
On your adventure to helping society, many items and CP points will cross your path. The items can be sold in the shops, approachable from every save point, and used to upgrade your weapons.
And CP points can be spent developing your character in Final Fantast 13's revamped development system. Now your characters won't level up automatically but you must decide where you make the gains with your character.
Because unlike developments like more HP, spells and techniques you learn will only be available when your character is in that specific role. So if character Snow learns Fira in the ravager role, he can only use that spell when he's a ravager, he win't have access to it when he's playing a medic.
This probably sounds very flexible and difficult but it isn't, because all you can decide is which roles you develop. The benefits and the order are already determined by the game. All in all I don't like this system much as the game only gives you access to so much upgrades, meaning that you can't be completely overpowered until the very end.
More user-friendly
With the new battle system in mind you've probably figured that fighting new mysterious enemies can be quite difficult as you struggle to change your strategy accordingly. Luckily Square Enix has compensated for this by implementing a more user-friendly system compared to previous games. Now you'll find a save game every 5 minutes and after a battle your health restores back to 100%. On top of that if you die you can simply re-do the battle without having to redo the game from your last save.
This makes the game far less frustrating and perfect for new gamers. And it's a far better system than before, where at times you had to face three forms of a boss without the possibility of saving in-between.
Presentation
Final Fantasy 13 is based on Square Enix's new White engine and boy does it look good. The graphics are very crisp and in Grand Pulse I literally stopped for a second to admire the surroundings and all the monsters and mystical creatures walking around me.
The same goes for sound. The soundtrack is great and the sound of Lightning's sword hitting its target is a joy to behold. But the music can become really repetitive. Some of the larger pathways and areas all feature the same music which is looped, and sticking around for an hour will actually cause the same song to be re-run for 20-times.
Conclusion
Final Fantasy 13 is a great game with a few really big shortcomings. The graphics and sound quality are amazing, and the battle system and new approach to dying are a breath of fresh air. But it comes at the expense of a very linear experience and a story I couldn't care less about. And it masks the feeling of just having experienced the adventure of your life and replaces it by a feeling of feeling somewhat underwhelmed.
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