They are fast.
They are fluid.
They give a whole new meaning to Active Time Battle.
_____________________
Vanille has a strange accent? So what? Hope is an angry young man? If you saw what he saw during the first half-hour of the game, you'd be upset too! They are the Vahn and Penelo of the game (although HE looks more like Tidus and acts more like Cloud)...
Lightning is the quiet and composed Soldier Woman with a mysterious past. Sooo much better than a prissy Summoner! Terra potential right here!
Yes, Sahz has a Chocobo chick living in his hair...! NOT a big deal. The chick is cute. It isn't overbearing. HE isn't stereotypical or an over the top, Eddie Murphy knock-off. He is the 'every-man' of the game and I QUITE like him! He is the ordinary contrast to the extraordinary Heroes.
Snow is big and Doofy (kinda like a Waka) but is humbled BAD in the first half-hour of the game!
ALL the characters are the most HUMAN of Final Fantasy characters so far. Their mannerisms, even their portraits in the status screen, ALL look like stills and expressions of real HUMAN beings!
Maybe because it takes like 5 years between each of their games, but sometimes I forget the kind of visual presentation Square can put out.
The first Fal'cie confrontation and its aftermath... Wow oh wow!
Just the imagery and the use of colors alone...!
Sometimes their stuff actually gives me chills.
First the fate of the people Snow was attempting to protect in the City, then the Fal'cie... Wow!
Some moving stuff in there!
Dvader said:WOW is FFXIII BEAUTIFUL. I am in awe, I don't remember the last game to do this to me. I spent a good minute just panning the camera around Lightning, slowly moving her around the tube, looking at the lush backgrounds. The colors, its a feast for the eyes. Whatever they are doing with the camera it works, just walking looks and feels incredible, it's sort of a shaky cam and its low so it feels like you are running behind the character but it is pulled back enough to get a perfect shot of the game world.
The fights have been nothing more than hitting attack so far but again it's freaking amazing to look at. There have been a ton of cutscenes, it opens up with a whole rebellion taking place, basically all out war. Voice acting is good so far. There is plenty of Japanese quirkiness all over, but it wouldn't be FF without it. Yes all you do is run straight through, like a tube. I can't wait to see more of this tube. Even the menus are slick as hell.
I just played for an hour or so, I just wanted to try it out. I will now force myself to wait till after GoW3, man it will be painful.
A few hours into FFXIII now. I have seen the Paradigm Shifts. I have tinkered with the Crystarium. I completely "get" what they were trying to accomplish with this game, and I say they succeeded and then some! (More on that later.)
I would absolutely HATE to be a developer in this day and age!
In one breath, little whining-bitch gamers scream: "JRPG's aren't doing anything new! WAAAAH!" Then FFXIII comes out and in the very next breath: "What did they do to my Final Fantasy game? It's nothing like the OLD ones! WAAAAH!"
Yay we now have a thread on this. FFXIII haters be gone. And FFXII haters too while we are at it.
There was no way in HELL they were going to be able to make this game as quick paced and engaging as it is and still give the player control over each and every character. Get over it!
They effectively removed the boredom from the game by eliminating the expansive towns and the need to talk to each and every person you come across. Thank God!
The Linear game keeps you focused on the Story. Keeps you pointing in the direction of your next goal. Urges you ahead to play just a bit more, just a bit more. There are no pointless breaks in the game and that's a very good thing. It is paced like an incredible action game but the battles are still RPG battles.
Even though you are STILL just choosing menu options like you do in every other rpg out there, your decisions need to be quick and efficient. You have to think of your whole party as the "character" you control. Changing Paradigms changes their actions on the fly. You need to keep up with what's going on with THEM while still considering Enemies weaknesses while making quick decisions about your strategy all at the same time. It's hard to describe, but it works WELL, and, again, it keeps you engaged.
One of the best ideas this game has is a "The Story so Far..." kind of option in your Menu. It splits the game into chapters and spells out the story in plain text so you can review events, so as not to get lost. You can read what has just happened. You can look up Monsters. Locations. Character Bios. You get a huge Reference Guide so you can actually keep track and almost understand what's going on in the story! This is BY FAR one of the best things they have ever introduced to this series! Final Fantasy ALWAYS tries to tell a story but whether by poor translation or by losing track of all the volumes of story-line elements they tend to throw at you, it often gets lost along the way, or misunderstood entirely after the game is said and done. Now each and every time you load the game you are reminded where you are and what you should be doing and you are thrown right back into the fray! FINALLY! GREAT JOB, SQUARE!
^ Despite the widely varying reviews, THIS game's STORY may be the most memorable of all FF games due to the STRONG sense of Focus and the Well-done recaps! Very impressed!
Again something JRPGs have over WRPG. I can't recall one song from Dragon Age, I already have the FFXIII battle tune stuck in my head.
Ravenprose said:Final Fantasy sucks.
I SUCK!
oh. wait. that didn't work right.
Dvader said:
FFXIII haters be gone.
*walks away with sad face*
I don't hate it.
gamingeek said:Dvader said:
FFXIII haters be gone.*walks away with sad face*
I don't hate it.
Time to hate
I played some more last night, it took 3 hours to finally get past the press X all the time and win phase of the battle system. At that point there was still no exp, no magic, no leveling up. The game was beautiful and the story is somewhat interesting even with the over-exaggerated acting, which I guess is common for Japanese stuff.
I finally got to the point where I opened up the paradigm shift gameplay. As it stands now, what you do is change your parties classes on the fly to match the situation. So when the fight starts have your attack classes out, when you get damaged switch to healing and defense. Then back to offense. You still only control the main character. Here is the problem I have with this, I don't feel in control of anything, I still feel like the fights are fighting themselves and I am no longer in direct command of the team, instead I am like a general giving out basic squad commands and they do the rest.
The fights move so quickly, half the time all I am doing is staring at the life bars to make sure everyone's health is ok as all these actions go whizzing by. For your main character you can kind of get by with just hitting the auto attack button which chooses the best attacks for you. Sometimes I like to choose myself but I notice all the choices I make are basically the same ones the auto one makes, so why am I wasting my time doing it manually. Teammates all chose the correct spells or attacks to use based on enemy weaknesses (which you can cast a technique libra to learn the weaknesses).
I don't feel like I have the controls of past FF games. What happened to creating a strategy to win battles. Having someone cast haste on the strongest character, dispelling any buffs the enemy has, putting the right enemies to sleep, mixing and matching spells and attacks to your advantage. Now it seems like the computer will do all of that for you, all you need to do is say you want a dispeller guy, or a buffer character, or a healer, or a defender and it seems like the computer does the rest of the work for you. Everything is fast paced but at the cost of me actually being in control of the battles.
I'll see how this works latter as more actions get added on but my first impression is not a good one.
Dvader said:, I still feel like the fights are fighting themselves and I am no longer in direct command of the team, instead I am like a general giving out basic squad commands and they do the rest.
The fights move so quickly, half the time all I am doing is staring at the life bars to make sure everyone's health is ok as all these actions go whizzing by.
So like an SRPG? Is it turn based or does it all sort of happen in real time while you are just selecting stuff from menus?
There is an auto fight option? Sounds good to me. 
Then I can just sit and watch the pretty action, with a cake in one hand.
(nobody edit this post - that joke is old!)
Every time I try to start a current game to be able to participate here... I am either the only one playing or everyone else doesn't like it ! ! !
WAHHHHH ! ! !
I assume he talking about me not liking it so much. Quality game all around except I still don't care for the fighting system which is a big deal since that is basically all the gameplay. Don't feel bad Leo, GS is filled with people that love it.
Quick FFXIII impressions:
Amazing HD, fluid graphics, a bit hampered by the camera, but the world it envisions is a unique one!
I don't know why but the whole Technology meets Magic meets the Anti-Magic Empire meets a Strong Female Lead meets Protect the Children...
...it all reminds me of Final Fantasy 3 (SNES) and that's a VERY good thing! I would ABSOLUTELY L-O-V-E to see the story of Terra retold with modern graphics and High-Definition!
One thing I LOATHE about JRPG's is how towns get bigger and bigger and bigger as the game progresses. By the time I get to the obligatory "capital city" and a 24 screen wide, 2D map unfolds around me and I see 112 wandering NPCs whom I invariably have to question to find the next cave with the next key to get to the next tunnel which leads to the next kingdom so I can get thrown in the dungeon by the evil magistrate... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
...it makes me want to turn off the game then and there!
Bring on streamline...! Make the world a straight line but make it fantastical and mysterious, let me focus on the character's nuances and engaging battles...
Well, whadaya know... I just described FFXIII!