Avatar and FF13
I'm really behind on making journals- which is a good thing, means I'm busy! Before heading up to the Lake District on Friday though, I thought I'd take a look back at Cameron's 'Avatar' and Final Fantasy XIII.
Both had a lot of hype, high production costs, and concerns that their visual impact would be their sole focus rather than actually being any good. One was a movie, the other a console game, but actually I found a range of similarities between the approaches.
I liked Avatar. It was pretty, fairly immersive, had reasonable dialogue, some great set pieces and action scenes and the antagonist Colonel Miles was very effective and hardcore. I think the real hero of the film in my eyes, Trudy, was sidelined which was a shame- it was nice to have a character whose actions were dictated by their ethics and principles; most other characters had an agenda, or were following orders, or similar.
It was not what I'd call a great movie although it was a fantastic visual experience. Take away the visuals and you'd be left with a paint by numbers affair with not only a predictable plot, but every event signposted well in advance with neon flashing lights. It was a bit ham fisted with its message too. But it was a solid understandable plot with relatively few loose ends or inscrutable motivations.
Final Fantasy 13... people have talked about FF games being increasingly like interactive movies. You can't make your party a fully programmed auto fighting unit like in FF12 but as much as they gave back they took away in other ways (ffs cast Protect first not frakkin' Bravery and Faith!).
It was pretty, and had some great set pieces and action scenes. The antagonist was... pretty lame and uninteresting, the dialogue was often iffy and pretentious, and the game went to great lengths to tell you what you should be thinking: 'ooooh, look, this character has a mysterious motivation!'.
I liked the game, though I wonder how much of that is brand loyalty as when I think about it I'm not sure why I enjoyed it. My issue is its lack of immersion- you cannot interact with ANYTHING except monsters (you hit them), occasional levers, and save points.
Other party member chat occasionally, regardless of your actions. You can overhear people if you wander past them, but can't chat with them. The closest thing to a minigame or anything other than hitting things and watching set pieces is if your chocobo wants to dig for a moment.
Whether or not you like FF7, I'm sure most would agree that if the bike escape from Midgar, crossdressing to infiltrate Don Corneos, snowboarding, etc. were all cut scenes because hey, players can't be trusted with anything but fighting, it would have made FF7 much worse.
I don't mind the linearity, can get over the slow combat of repetition against bosses with millions of hit points, will excuse Hope of his irritating emo ways, and even ignore the amount of walking up and down empty lengths of scenery with no purpose other than to make the game area feel large.
The lack of ability to DO anything but hit things however, made the game feel much like Avatar to me- a visual experience, albeit one which keeps pausing itself and you have to press 'Play' on the remote over and over again.
Out of time, will probably tweak / expand later.
Both had a lot of hype, high production costs, and concerns that their visual impact would be their sole focus rather than actually being any good. One was a movie, the other a console game, but actually I found a range of similarities between the approaches.
I liked Avatar. It was pretty, fairly immersive, had reasonable dialogue, some great set pieces and action scenes and the antagonist Colonel Miles was very effective and hardcore. I think the real hero of the film in my eyes, Trudy, was sidelined which was a shame- it was nice to have a character whose actions were dictated by their ethics and principles; most other characters had an agenda, or were following orders, or similar.
It was not what I'd call a great movie although it was a fantastic visual experience. Take away the visuals and you'd be left with a paint by numbers affair with not only a predictable plot, but every event signposted well in advance with neon flashing lights. It was a bit ham fisted with its message too. But it was a solid understandable plot with relatively few loose ends or inscrutable motivations.
Final Fantasy 13... people have talked about FF games being increasingly like interactive movies. You can't make your party a fully programmed auto fighting unit like in FF12 but as much as they gave back they took away in other ways (ffs cast Protect first not frakkin' Bravery and Faith!).
It was pretty, and had some great set pieces and action scenes. The antagonist was... pretty lame and uninteresting, the dialogue was often iffy and pretentious, and the game went to great lengths to tell you what you should be thinking: 'ooooh, look, this character has a mysterious motivation!'.
I liked the game, though I wonder how much of that is brand loyalty as when I think about it I'm not sure why I enjoyed it. My issue is its lack of immersion- you cannot interact with ANYTHING except monsters (you hit them), occasional levers, and save points.
Other party member chat occasionally, regardless of your actions. You can overhear people if you wander past them, but can't chat with them. The closest thing to a minigame or anything other than hitting things and watching set pieces is if your chocobo wants to dig for a moment.
Whether or not you like FF7, I'm sure most would agree that if the bike escape from Midgar, crossdressing to infiltrate Don Corneos, snowboarding, etc. were all cut scenes because hey, players can't be trusted with anything but fighting, it would have made FF7 much worse.
I don't mind the linearity, can get over the slow combat of repetition against bosses with millions of hit points, will excuse Hope of his irritating emo ways, and even ignore the amount of walking up and down empty lengths of scenery with no purpose other than to make the game area feel large.
The lack of ability to DO anything but hit things however, made the game feel much like Avatar to me- a visual experience, albeit one which keeps pausing itself and you have to press 'Play' on the remote over and over again.
Out of time, will probably tweak / expand later.