Final Fantasy XIII
OH MY GOD ESSAY. Essay that I am not currently writing, but is due Monday, and so I must. I'm just not sure which prompt to pick. I find the writers of SparkNotes, Stallings and Phillips, to be egregiously wrong about almost everything, so picking one interpretation - and not a jumble of them - is difficult.
In other, more lighthearted and awesome news, I started Final Fantasy XIII last night. It came in the mail late Friday afternoon, but my brother's been sick and his room houses the XBox, so I courteously waited for him to wake up before I played. (I'm the best big sister EVER. ^_^)
(As an aside, I've only gotten as far as the beginnings of Lake Breasha, so I might be jumping the gun here, but ...)
Background spoilers as far as the beginnings of Lake Bresha, just so you know. :)
Our main character is Lightning. She has fabulous pink hair, and for that alone I should love her. Allegedly, she is supposed to be very taciturn; but when I think of "Final Fantasy taciturn" I think of Cloud, who says very little, or Squall, who says very little and is a disinterested ASS ... and she speaks a HELL of a lot more than them.
She also weilds gunblades, and may I just say, FUCK YES GUNBLADES. Squall may be a dick, but as far as I'm concerned he's always had the best FF weaponry. I'm glad they've brought it back. :)
Lightning is a career soldier for the Cocoon Guardian Corps. I really haven't figured out if the government of Cocoon or the inhabitants of Pulse are the bad guys yet, so I'll just leave it at that. She's cunning, fearless, calm and calculating. And perhaps some more words that start with "C". She's extremely dismissive of Snow, probably because he's engaged to her younger sister.
Oh, fuck, just wait till we get to HER.
Sazh is the next character we meet - he was on a deportation train for ... some reason ... with Lightning and everyone else. He's basically a Japanese caricature of African-Americans: his hair, his clothing, the way he speaks and moves, his ... sidekick. Which, I mean, in the Final Fantasy worlds, Chocobos are very important, but ... I just can't look past the implications at face value: he's a Black man with a pet chicken. Seriously.
I don't really know much about him other than that he's the clear comic relief (Well, him and the Chocobo that apparently has no name), but I suspect he was going to confront the Pulse fal'Cie because his brother became a l'Cie, failed his Focus and got all squidgy. We'll see how that plays out.
He also fights with standard pistols, and seems - somehow - the least combat ready of all the characters. Which will mean more when we get to the children. YES, CHILDREN.
Snow is highly optimistic. He believes everything will work out fine, regardless of the evidence to the contrary, and is content with making the best of what he's given. These are, I suppose, traits you would prefer in a real person, but somehow he just ... annoys me. I find myself siding with Lightning more often than not in their squabbles, and I don't even know the half of what they're fighting about yet.
It's probably the ridiculously saccharine proposal scene on Day 11. Blech.
He has an interesting combination of fighting styles: he uses his fists, like Tifa, but also throws grenades, like Rikku. It makes for interesting combos. :)
Man, is that Hope a whiner and a complainer, or what? He's almost as bad as Kira Yamato from Gundam SEED - and thank the stars for that, because if he was I wouldn't be able to play the game. But I have an irrational hatred of Kira and Flay so ... there's that.
On Hope's side of things: his mother volunteered to fight with Snow's freedom fighters from Bodhan, NORA ... and died. Hope saw it, and blames Snow, which is why he's on this journey. To ... tell him. I guess.
He gets mixed up, somehow with the awesomeness known as Vanille, and now apparently they're a package deal.
Vanille ... is like the Selphie of this game, and beyond that I just don't get her. Why is she here? Why does she care about Hope and his hilarious vendetta?
Ignoring that, she also has pinkish hair, an Australian accent, and fights with this weird antler-y stick thing. :)
Serah, the ubiquitous sister. I don't really know much to say about her, because they pulled a Aerith and offed her. Well, not really, but she is now a big floaty crystally thing, thus not playable. Or doing anything of interest at all.
She has fabulous clothes and hair, so I'll cut her some slack on the whole, "I'm a l'Cie and a crystalline broach" thing.
We got a side view of Fang in a flashback, but she hasn't shown up in-narrative yet.
Honestly ... I don't know I really feel about this game yet. It's beautiful, there's no doubt about that. Even the game portions vs events have little graphical difference between them. It makes for an almost seamless sphere of play. I have yet to decide if I think the plot makes sense ... mostly because I haven't made sense of it yet.
If they turn out to be chosen to DESTROY the world rather than SAVE it, I will be completely on board. I would LOVE to see a game where a bunch of good people are forced to do something they don't want to do for the greater good of their enemies. That sounds like a lot of fun to play!
Aaaaaand I'm going to go procrastinate by playing some more. Ciao!
In other, more lighthearted and awesome news, I started Final Fantasy XIII last night. It came in the mail late Friday afternoon, but my brother's been sick and his room houses the XBox, so I courteously waited for him to wake up before I played. (I'm the best big sister EVER. ^_^)
(As an aside, I've only gotten as far as the beginnings of Lake Breasha, so I might be jumping the gun here, but ...)
Background spoilers as far as the beginnings of Lake Bresha, just so you know. :)
Our main character is Lightning. She has fabulous pink hair, and for that alone I should love her. Allegedly, she is supposed to be very taciturn; but when I think of "Final Fantasy taciturn" I think of Cloud, who says very little, or Squall, who says very little and is a disinterested ASS ... and she speaks a HELL of a lot more than them.
She also weilds gunblades, and may I just say, FUCK YES GUNBLADES. Squall may be a dick, but as far as I'm concerned he's always had the best FF weaponry. I'm glad they've brought it back. :)
Lightning is a career soldier for the Cocoon Guardian Corps. I really haven't figured out if the government of Cocoon or the inhabitants of Pulse are the bad guys yet, so I'll just leave it at that. She's cunning, fearless, calm and calculating. And perhaps some more words that start with "C". She's extremely dismissive of Snow, probably because he's engaged to her younger sister.
Oh, fuck, just wait till we get to HER.
Sazh is the next character we meet - he was on a deportation train for ... some reason ... with Lightning and everyone else. He's basically a Japanese caricature of African-Americans: his hair, his clothing, the way he speaks and moves, his ... sidekick. Which, I mean, in the Final Fantasy worlds, Chocobos are very important, but ... I just can't look past the implications at face value: he's a Black man with a pet chicken. Seriously.
I don't really know much about him other than that he's the clear comic relief (Well, him and the Chocobo that apparently has no name), but I suspect he was going to confront the Pulse fal'Cie because his brother became a l'Cie, failed his Focus and got all squidgy. We'll see how that plays out.
He also fights with standard pistols, and seems - somehow - the least combat ready of all the characters. Which will mean more when we get to the children. YES, CHILDREN.
Snow is highly optimistic. He believes everything will work out fine, regardless of the evidence to the contrary, and is content with making the best of what he's given. These are, I suppose, traits you would prefer in a real person, but somehow he just ... annoys me. I find myself siding with Lightning more often than not in their squabbles, and I don't even know the half of what they're fighting about yet.
It's probably the ridiculously saccharine proposal scene on Day 11. Blech.
He has an interesting combination of fighting styles: he uses his fists, like Tifa, but also throws grenades, like Rikku. It makes for interesting combos. :)
Man, is that Hope a whiner and a complainer, or what? He's almost as bad as Kira Yamato from Gundam SEED - and thank the stars for that, because if he was I wouldn't be able to play the game. But I have an irrational hatred of Kira and Flay so ... there's that.
On Hope's side of things: his mother volunteered to fight with Snow's freedom fighters from Bodhan, NORA ... and died. Hope saw it, and blames Snow, which is why he's on this journey. To ... tell him. I guess.
He gets mixed up, somehow with the awesomeness known as Vanille, and now apparently they're a package deal.
Vanille ... is like the Selphie of this game, and beyond that I just don't get her. Why is she here? Why does she care about Hope and his hilarious vendetta?
Ignoring that, she also has pinkish hair, an Australian accent, and fights with this weird antler-y stick thing. :)
Serah, the ubiquitous sister. I don't really know much to say about her, because they pulled a Aerith and offed her. Well, not really, but she is now a big floaty crystally thing, thus not playable. Or doing anything of interest at all.
She has fabulous clothes and hair, so I'll cut her some slack on the whole, "I'm a l'Cie and a crystalline broach" thing.
We got a side view of Fang in a flashback, but she hasn't shown up in-narrative yet.
Honestly ... I don't know I really feel about this game yet. It's beautiful, there's no doubt about that. Even the game portions vs events have little graphical difference between them. It makes for an almost seamless sphere of play. I have yet to decide if I think the plot makes sense ... mostly because I haven't made sense of it yet.
If they turn out to be chosen to DESTROY the world rather than SAVE it, I will be completely on board. I would LOVE to see a game where a bunch of good people are forced to do something they don't want to do for the greater good of their enemies. That sounds like a lot of fun to play!
Aaaaaand I'm going to go procrastinate by playing some more. Ciao!