FF13: Brief First Impressions
I'm about three hours in now, to the point where the Paradigms and Crystarium really start to come into play. So far, I'm liking it. I'm not minding the fact that there's been a lot of dialogue and not so much exploration and fighting. We'll see if I still feel that way after a while. I'm appreciating the fact that the entire new sort of battle system isn't being thrown at me all at once; as someone who's not got the best reaction times or hand-eye coordination, I like being eased into things. It's fun to watch fights unfold... that is, if I'm not spamming the confirm button to pick my next set of actions.
Interestingly enough, the combination of characters and settings is currently reminding me of FF7, FF10, and FF12. I really like Sazh - and his adorable little chocobo, which needs to be made into a plushie or something. Lightning reminds me a bit of Cloud, but she's fairly cool, and she and Snow have an interesting relationship, which is not one I think we've seen in an FF game yet. Vanille is a bit annoying; she's overly cheerful and touchy-feely, but I get the impression there's more than she's letting on (having narrator duty helps). Hope is... well, he's better than Vaan so far, which is good because from everything I'd heard, it sounded like he was *worse* than Vaan.
The story is very interesting so far; like I said, I'm not minding the comparative lack of action while watching things unfold. I'm guessing that chapters get much longer as the game goes on, or let the player do some exploring to pad things out.
Overall, a good experience so far. We'll see how the Paradigm System works out as I do more fights, and if the linearity of the game stays as an interesting narrative or starts becoming an annoying limit.
Interestingly enough, the combination of characters and settings is currently reminding me of FF7, FF10, and FF12. I really like Sazh - and his adorable little chocobo, which needs to be made into a plushie or something. Lightning reminds me a bit of Cloud, but she's fairly cool, and she and Snow have an interesting relationship, which is not one I think we've seen in an FF game yet. Vanille is a bit annoying; she's overly cheerful and touchy-feely, but I get the impression there's more than she's letting on (having narrator duty helps). Hope is... well, he's better than Vaan so far, which is good because from everything I'd heard, it sounded like he was *worse* than Vaan.
The story is very interesting so far; like I said, I'm not minding the comparative lack of action while watching things unfold. I'm guessing that chapters get much longer as the game goes on, or let the player do some exploring to pad things out.
Overall, a good experience so far. We'll see how the Paradigm System works out as I do more fights, and if the linearity of the game stays as an interesting narrative or starts becoming an annoying limit.