We survive
My mom gave me $50 for my birthday, so I bought a new Xbox 360 controller (the A button on my old one was broken). This meant I could now play games again instead of just using my Xbox as a media player, and so I played Final Fantasy XIII.
I wasn't impressed with the trailer for this game, so I didn't have high expectations going into it. I was pleasantly surprised to find it quite enjoyable. The story is solid; each of the characters had a reason for their actions.
The battle system is turn-based. You control the leader of your party; the other two party members are controlled by AI. As the ATB charges, you can enter commands for your character to perform. The commands vary depending on the role of the characters: Commando and Ravager (damage dealers), Medic, Sentinel (tank), Synergist (buffer) or Saboteur (debuffer). You can make paradigms for your team with different roles set for each member. For example, I often used Relentless Assault (RAV COM RAV) or Combat Clinic (MED SEN MED). You can freely change between paradigms during battle, but I found that most of the time this wasn't necessary. Also, instead of inputting commands myself, it was easiest just to choose Auto-battle, which meant that fights were pretty much just mashing the A button. Pretty boring.
There were not many sidequests in this game. There's a series of 64 missions you can do; I did most of them, except for the ones which the guide I was following warned were extremely difficult. I wish there had been a quest line to make some ultimate weapons; if there was, I didn't discover it. This game was also missing out on the feeling of getting new, powerful weapons as you progress in the game. You can upgrade weapons you have; once upgraded, they tended to be better than new weapons you find. So my characters used their initial starting weapons for most of the game. I did change some of them to weapons with more favorable passive abilities, but never did I have the feeling of having an uber-weapon.
I was a bit alarmed when it asked for disc 2 after a mere 9 hours, worrying the game would be short, but in the end I put about 86 hours into it, which is decent-sized. I'm sad it ended, though, because I was enjoying it and now I don't know what I'll do. I will probably start a different Xbox game after I finish reading my library books. I'm thinking of doing Mirror's Edge next.
This entry was originally posted at http://xnera.dreamwidth.org/729451.html. Please comment there (you can comment using OpenID if you don't have a Dreamwidth account). There's
comments waiting for you to read!
I wasn't impressed with the trailer for this game, so I didn't have high expectations going into it. I was pleasantly surprised to find it quite enjoyable. The story is solid; each of the characters had a reason for their actions.
The battle system is turn-based. You control the leader of your party; the other two party members are controlled by AI. As the ATB charges, you can enter commands for your character to perform. The commands vary depending on the role of the characters: Commando and Ravager (damage dealers), Medic, Sentinel (tank), Synergist (buffer) or Saboteur (debuffer). You can make paradigms for your team with different roles set for each member. For example, I often used Relentless Assault (RAV COM RAV) or Combat Clinic (MED SEN MED). You can freely change between paradigms during battle, but I found that most of the time this wasn't necessary. Also, instead of inputting commands myself, it was easiest just to choose Auto-battle, which meant that fights were pretty much just mashing the A button. Pretty boring.
There were not many sidequests in this game. There's a series of 64 missions you can do; I did most of them, except for the ones which the guide I was following warned were extremely difficult. I wish there had been a quest line to make some ultimate weapons; if there was, I didn't discover it. This game was also missing out on the feeling of getting new, powerful weapons as you progress in the game. You can upgrade weapons you have; once upgraded, they tended to be better than new weapons you find. So my characters used their initial starting weapons for most of the game. I did change some of them to weapons with more favorable passive abilities, but never did I have the feeling of having an uber-weapon.
I was a bit alarmed when it asked for disc 2 after a mere 9 hours, worrying the game would be short, but in the end I put about 86 hours into it, which is decent-sized. I'm sad it ended, though, because I was enjoying it and now I don't know what I'll do. I will probably start a different Xbox game after I finish reading my library books. I'm thinking of doing Mirror's Edge next.
This entry was originally posted at http://xnera.dreamwidth.org/729451.html. Please comment there (you can comment using OpenID if you don't have a Dreamwidth account). There's
comments waiting for you to read!