Final Fantasy XIII Impressions (Spoiler-Free) -- 30 Hours In
Final Fantasy XIII was finally announced at E3 2006 and the fact that it had nearly the same team as Final Fantasy X working on it got my hopes sky high. Unfortunately after it was announced nothing much was shown except the occasional extra 2 seconds of video that occasionally appeared up on Youtube. Finally earlier this year the Japanese release date was announced for Christmas. I had to get it was soon as possible and after watching the trailer I became confident that the language barrier, which is more like a small speed bump now, wouldn't be a problem.
I got the game a week before Christmas and spent almost every waking minute playing it. I can honestly say that it is (almost) exactly what I expected and wanted. I'll stay out of the plot since I don't want to spoil it for those still waiting for the English release, but it really does not disappoint. 30 hours in and I'm loving pretty much every character. What surprised me the most is my favorite character (the kid) is the one I thought I would hate. Luckily the writing is excellent and really makes you love and care about every one of its characters.
The world the story takes place in is as vast as the one in Final Fantasy X. Except while the FFX story dealt with the religion, Yevon, FF13 deals with the conflict between the two worlds, Cocoon and Pulse. The story starts in the middle and slowly explains everything that happened and gradually progresses forward.
I was really worried about the music since Uematsu wasn't in composing this time, but don't worry, it is excellent. It's also a step in another direction. Unlike Uematsu's compositions, there aren't as many catchy tunes to get stuck in your head. Instead the music acts more as background music -- really good background music that the game could not have survived without. There are tracks similar to Uematsu's style, but in addition, there are some that seem to have been stolen from Final Fantasy X-2 and everything in between including some blues tracks which felt slighly out of place. My favorites are the ones that have vocals, especially the first Chocobo theme. Unfortunately a lot of these vocals are in Japanese and will likely be taken out/modified for the English release.
Graphically, the game is a masterpiece. Until now I didn't think any game on the PS3 could top Metal Gear Solid 4, but the visuals in FF13 are damn impressive. One area in the game is equivalent to the Calm Lands of Final Fantasy X, but this time you get to see the enemies roaming in the field. It doesn't really feel like the enemies are focused on you but instead are there doing their own thing and will not bother you if you don't approach them. You are just a small part of this world. There are packs of wolves following their mother/leader, giant dragons and eagles soaring through the sky, and even colossal elephants that will crush you in a second if you attack.
The gameplay is what seems to have changed the most. Obviously there are no more random battles so you no longer have to tread cautiously. It is quite easy to evade enemies but you probably need to fight nearly everyone and everything you can to gain enough experience to avoid grinding later in the game. You get to fight with three characters; however, you only get to choose attacks for one. The other two are assigned jobs (which can be quickly changed) such as attacker, healer, or defender and the computer will optimize the commands based on the information you have about the enemy. Finally you get to see the enemies' HP without having to find any special amulets. You can use points from a special gauge to find out the rest of the enemies' stats such as weaknesses, strengths, and resistances as well as short descriptions of the enemies' attacks. The biggest difference in the new battle system is the use of combos. There is a gauge that you fills up as you attack, and when it gets you a certain point you get a type of limit break which multiplies any attack damage by 300 to as much as 1000 percent! If you can manage a preemptive strike the gauge only takes about one strike to fill and the battle will often be over before the enemy knows what hit him.
Final Fantasy XIII takes a big step away from most of the conventions of the franchise. Even the theme song is replaced which seems fitting since the OST has a new composer. The fanfare theme is gone, replaced with something much more subtle. In fact the entire battle process has been sped up due to the lack of load times. Press X a few times and you're back to where you were 30 seconds ago.
Another notable changes is the lack of towns. All through Final Fantasy X you travel from town to town becoming more immersed in the culture and people of Spira. Unfortunately there are only a few instances where you get this chance in Final Fantasy XIII. If I didn't know better I would call it a dungeon crawler -- except there aren't really dungeons. Even so, the combination of the music and the fast battle system make it an enjoyable experience.
Even in Japanese, the story-line is easy to understand. There were only one or two times where I got lost due to archaic Japanese. The hardest part was the vast amount of tutorials that crowd the first 5-10 hours of the game which caused me to reach for my kanji dictionary on more than one occasion. Another difficult part are the names of enemy attacks -- the battle system is so hectic that I don't have any time to ponder kanji meanings. Not that it really matters though. You will learn which set of kanji does which attack soon enough. Also many attacks are in katakana so you can at least get an idea of what they do.
Overall, Final Fantasy 13 is exactly the game I wanted. It definitely has a few flaws, but they can easily be ignored due to the sharp story-line, stellar soundtrack, and stunning visuals. I bought the Japanese version because I liked the Japanese voices much more than the English counterparts. If you can read Japanese fairly well I highly recommend it. Otherwise you will have to wait until March for the English version to be released.
I also realized that Japanese PS3 games provide the best Japanese practice available. I have my eye on Ryu no Gotoku 3 next which is harder to understand and will hopefully help me study Japanese.
Happy New Year ^^