The Final Word in Fantasy Adventures, Thirteenth Main Installment
Being approximately the 26th entry somewhere in the series considering direct sequels, spinoffs, and sidestories.
I got Final Fantasy XIII last week and have played a ton of it. I really wanted to do some things on the weekend, but it continuously rained so I didn't. I just played FF13. (I do want to note that I had Monday and Tuesday off and didn't touch the game at all yesterday.)
Overall, I'm really enjoying the game and I'm surprised by that. Twelve started out so pretty and with such a mythic story arc, and in the end it was a lot of carrot and stick running that ended in a way that left me unsatisfied and in fact undermined a lot of what was good in the game. Thirteen seems to be avoiding that. Some of the characters started off kind of whiny, and some of the dialog has come out of translation overly wordy, but the former has improved and the latter is just part of being accurately translated.
When the game started, it seemed very button-mashy but as time went on the subtleties in the system crept in and at a very good pace to match my learning curve. Overall the game plays a lot like Persona 3 but realtime. First, I have to run up and catch monsters in the back before they're alerted to get a pre-emptive strike in. Second, I only control the main and the rest of my team acts based on, basically, an AI stance setting I give them. Third, the team builds up an attack meter on each foe that can lead to us weakening and staggering them so the whole team can blast away, or in the words of Persona 3 and 4, "It's time for an all-out attack!" It's not exactly the same thing but I think the FF dev team must have played a lot of P3/P4.
The abilities system this game uses is an upgrade of the old Job system. Gone are the high fantasy archetypes, instead there are "modern" team roles that work very well with the plethora of abilities in the game. Basically everyone can eventually learn almost every ability, but no one can use abilities (other than team leader only skills) outside their current role. Fortunately the roles are richly-defined. You can create up to 6 preset job combos, or Paradigms, and change them on the fly. The composition also adjusts the team AI somewhat. Though it's realtime, what I find actually happening is that I'm choosing a team composition on a round by round basis. I might start out in Relentless Assault with a Commando and 2 Ravagers (equivalent to a fighter and 2 black mages) and if I suddenly take heavy damage I might switch to the Evened Odds paradigm, swapping in a Medic (dedicated healer and status remover), Synergist (buffer), and Saboteur (debuffer, similar to an Oracle in FFT). Suddenly my team is getting protect cast on it while the enemy is being nailed with slowga and the medic is autohealing whoever's hurt. At that point I might decide the opposition is dishing out too much damage and go back on the assault with a more defensive configuration such as Diversity (Commando + Ravager + Medic) or Solidarity (Commando + Sentinel [tank] + Medic). When I chew up the foe enough I switch to more damage output and push for a finish. Battles are timed, so having a tank or medic around when you don't need them costs you precious damage per second, but not having them when you need them gets you dead. Even though the "holy trinity" of tank/healer/damagedealer comes into play at times, it's just one configuration. Heck, there's a super-defensive stance called Combat Clinic with 2 medics and a sentinel -- exactly what you need during a boss fight when the boss starts going tasmanian devil with a machine gun on the party.
As the main character, when I select my commands I have access to an "autofight" option that's the same AI as my teammates. Whether it's autoattack or autoheal or autobuff, then I can pick a character or target. Sometimes I do want to do it manually; for instance maybe I want to lead with an AoE attack, or if I'm buffing the AI is rather dumb and tries to use melee buffs on dedicated casters. The way the system works though is you have ATB charges and while your initiative bar fills you can be picking different moves and queuing them up. When the whole bar is filled you can then spam them in a sequence so you aren't at a disadvantage going manually unless you're really slow. Overall the strategy is in the team presets and switching to them on the fly as you need them. It probably sounds cumbersome but based on how the game slowly expands your options it's a good learning curve and the whole thing is very fluid.
There are some things I dislike about the game. The buffer AI is shockingly stupid and will badly prioritize buffs. (Seriously, why enfire the entire team before protecting them??) To switch paradigms while on the world map you have to open the main menu; really the quick list of the 6 you have prepped should be on a spare controller button, though to change them obviously you need the full interface. It's just common I'll see an encounter and think, "I need to have ____ out to start the fight" and I'll change my default paradigm just for that fight.
There is no world map, there is just a series of tubes. I don't really mind not having a completely open exploration experience, but the game is taking the feel FF X had to an extreme. I feel like I'm on a continuous series of canyons, hallways, ramps, balconies, elevators, and stairs. There aren't any traditional towns, there are certain streets of cities I've passed through and there have been cut scenes. There is a theme of the party being on the run for a lot of the game but it's so on rails it's getting annoying. I literally started thinking, "this feels like a Level not a Location," a while back. I would be grateful for a proper dungeon; even those are linear. Fortunately though, I have finally reached what there is of "the world map." The equipment system is overworked. Each item can be levelled up and improved based on components you feed to it. However, it's nothing as interesting as X's system where you could use 50 fire stones and make your sword have fiery properties innately. No, you just use stuff to level up the item and increase its stats. It's lead me to pretty much just ignore all that. It's slightly disappointing only the main character can summon, so if you want to see and use all the summons, you have to switch up the main from time to time. As criticisms go, that's a pretty small list.
There are some extra things I like about the game. You know one of my biggest pet peeves is Unexplained Convenient Ruins? All the ruins have been explained and are plot-relevant! The music is really good, and very well used. The actual gameplay has been very exciting. Lightning is a good main character, she's the least-messed-up Square Enix character since Zack in FF VII Crisis Core. Her total baggage is that her parents have died and she enlisted in the self-defense army and she overcompensates a bit on her protectiveness. That's it. No psychosis, amnesia, or father issues.
Well that's all I have time for. Those are my thoughts. Oh, and I'm in chapter 11.
I got Final Fantasy XIII last week and have played a ton of it. I really wanted to do some things on the weekend, but it continuously rained so I didn't. I just played FF13. (I do want to note that I had Monday and Tuesday off and didn't touch the game at all yesterday.)
Overall, I'm really enjoying the game and I'm surprised by that. Twelve started out so pretty and with such a mythic story arc, and in the end it was a lot of carrot and stick running that ended in a way that left me unsatisfied and in fact undermined a lot of what was good in the game. Thirteen seems to be avoiding that. Some of the characters started off kind of whiny, and some of the dialog has come out of translation overly wordy, but the former has improved and the latter is just part of being accurately translated.
When the game started, it seemed very button-mashy but as time went on the subtleties in the system crept in and at a very good pace to match my learning curve. Overall the game plays a lot like Persona 3 but realtime. First, I have to run up and catch monsters in the back before they're alerted to get a pre-emptive strike in. Second, I only control the main and the rest of my team acts based on, basically, an AI stance setting I give them. Third, the team builds up an attack meter on each foe that can lead to us weakening and staggering them so the whole team can blast away, or in the words of Persona 3 and 4, "It's time for an all-out attack!" It's not exactly the same thing but I think the FF dev team must have played a lot of P3/P4.
The abilities system this game uses is an upgrade of the old Job system. Gone are the high fantasy archetypes, instead there are "modern" team roles that work very well with the plethora of abilities in the game. Basically everyone can eventually learn almost every ability, but no one can use abilities (other than team leader only skills) outside their current role. Fortunately the roles are richly-defined. You can create up to 6 preset job combos, or Paradigms, and change them on the fly. The composition also adjusts the team AI somewhat. Though it's realtime, what I find actually happening is that I'm choosing a team composition on a round by round basis. I might start out in Relentless Assault with a Commando and 2 Ravagers (equivalent to a fighter and 2 black mages) and if I suddenly take heavy damage I might switch to the Evened Odds paradigm, swapping in a Medic (dedicated healer and status remover), Synergist (buffer), and Saboteur (debuffer, similar to an Oracle in FFT). Suddenly my team is getting protect cast on it while the enemy is being nailed with slowga and the medic is autohealing whoever's hurt. At that point I might decide the opposition is dishing out too much damage and go back on the assault with a more defensive configuration such as Diversity (Commando + Ravager + Medic) or Solidarity (Commando + Sentinel [tank] + Medic). When I chew up the foe enough I switch to more damage output and push for a finish. Battles are timed, so having a tank or medic around when you don't need them costs you precious damage per second, but not having them when you need them gets you dead. Even though the "holy trinity" of tank/healer/damagedealer comes into play at times, it's just one configuration. Heck, there's a super-defensive stance called Combat Clinic with 2 medics and a sentinel -- exactly what you need during a boss fight when the boss starts going tasmanian devil with a machine gun on the party.
As the main character, when I select my commands I have access to an "autofight" option that's the same AI as my teammates. Whether it's autoattack or autoheal or autobuff, then I can pick a character or target. Sometimes I do want to do it manually; for instance maybe I want to lead with an AoE attack, or if I'm buffing the AI is rather dumb and tries to use melee buffs on dedicated casters. The way the system works though is you have ATB charges and while your initiative bar fills you can be picking different moves and queuing them up. When the whole bar is filled you can then spam them in a sequence so you aren't at a disadvantage going manually unless you're really slow. Overall the strategy is in the team presets and switching to them on the fly as you need them. It probably sounds cumbersome but based on how the game slowly expands your options it's a good learning curve and the whole thing is very fluid.
There are some things I dislike about the game. The buffer AI is shockingly stupid and will badly prioritize buffs. (Seriously, why enfire the entire team before protecting them??) To switch paradigms while on the world map you have to open the main menu; really the quick list of the 6 you have prepped should be on a spare controller button, though to change them obviously you need the full interface. It's just common I'll see an encounter and think, "I need to have ____ out to start the fight" and I'll change my default paradigm just for that fight.
There is no world map, there is just a series of tubes. I don't really mind not having a completely open exploration experience, but the game is taking the feel FF X had to an extreme. I feel like I'm on a continuous series of canyons, hallways, ramps, balconies, elevators, and stairs. There aren't any traditional towns, there are certain streets of cities I've passed through and there have been cut scenes. There is a theme of the party being on the run for a lot of the game but it's so on rails it's getting annoying. I literally started thinking, "this feels like a Level not a Location," a while back. I would be grateful for a proper dungeon; even those are linear. Fortunately though, I have finally reached what there is of "the world map." The equipment system is overworked. Each item can be levelled up and improved based on components you feed to it. However, it's nothing as interesting as X's system where you could use 50 fire stones and make your sword have fiery properties innately. No, you just use stuff to level up the item and increase its stats. It's lead me to pretty much just ignore all that. It's slightly disappointing only the main character can summon, so if you want to see and use all the summons, you have to switch up the main from time to time. As criticisms go, that's a pretty small list.
There are some extra things I like about the game. You know one of my biggest pet peeves is Unexplained Convenient Ruins? All the ruins have been explained and are plot-relevant! The music is really good, and very well used. The actual gameplay has been very exciting. Lightning is a good main character, she's the least-messed-up Square Enix character since Zack in FF VII Crisis Core. Her total baggage is that her parents have died and she enlisted in the self-defense army and she overcompensates a bit on her protectiveness. That's it. No psychosis, amnesia, or father issues.
Well that's all I have time for. Those are my thoughts. Oh, and I'm in chapter 11.