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[nbda1997]

Last night, I got back on the wagon with Final Fantasy XIII again. I hadn't played in almost 3 weeks mostly because I've been distracted by Warioware D.I.Y., which is a whole lot of fun, by the way. If you're like me and have always wanted to try designing games, this is your chance. Although the interface is limited to touchscreen tap gameplay

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[cesarano]

Random: FFX I hated the story and characters, though I wonder if handed off to a different writer it could have been excellent. The combat system is really what kept me playing that game, though when I think back, the dungeons were satanic. Wild Arms 3 spoiled me in my expectations of what a JRPG dungeon should be.

As for 13, it's on my GameFly queue, but I expect to push on through it as I did with Star Ocean: The Last Hope. That had to be the most painful game I've played in recent memory where the ONLY redeeming value was its combat. Even the dungeons were ass. In fact, they were an ass turned inside out so it could wrap around another ass so you had double-ass-power.

It was terrible.

The combat of FF13 sounds awfully tedious to me, though. Maybe in execution it isn't that bad, but Yahtzee's Extra Punctuation column where he discussed JRPG's that he liked brought up FF6, and how battles are not insanely long. They are pretty quick on the whole, even some of the boss fights. It doesn't feel as if the game is wasting your time. I'd say this has been a steadily growing issue with JRPG's. Sometimes they try to make combat more interesting, but at the same time fights are longer.

Only game I didn't quite mind this was the Penny Arcade Adventures, which weren't even Japanese but American. It's a shame that one of my favorite JRPG's of this generation isn't even from Japan.

In terms of beginnings, I actually plan on doing a column on GameKrib with a few entries titled "Don't Waste My Time", and the first topic is going to be the beginning of a game. Honestly, Final Fantasy 7, as over-rated as it may be compared to FF6, had the best opening of the entire series. It's a short cut-scene that says a lot with no words, then cuts fluidly into gameplay. In less than ten minutes you're getting into combat and fighting through your first dungeon.

FF6 didn't do this too badly either, but there was more exposition going on. Plus, the gameplay wasn't really challenging since it was Mechs versus small-town militia. But it did work in a narrative sense.

Yet JRPG's seem to want to artificially inflate gameplay, and the older I get the more I love most game's 8-10 hour sweet spot. The fact that Dragon Age takes so long is what's keeping me from going back to get 1000/1000 gamerscore (same with Mass Effect).