More thoughts on the construction of video games.

[eva_kasumi]

I was thinking about my post the other night, and I realized my criticisms of FFXIII reminded me of something: fucking Folklore. My complaints about Folklore's pitiful excuse for "gameplay" are uncannily similar to those that I and many others before me have made about the "gameplay" of FFXIII: largely, that all you get to do is run down a

Comments

[rionaleonhart]

Five hours into FFVIII, you have completed a training mission to acquire a summon, passed your field exam (of securing a city against invading forces), attended your graduation ball, been hit on by your teacher, been assigned your first mission, passed out on the train and had weird dreams, and met the crazy chick who hired you to kidnap the president.

Unless you're me, in which case five hours into FFVIII you have completed a training mission to acquire a summon. FOUR HOURS TO FIND THE FIRE CAVERN. FOUR HOURS. I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHY.

This is an interesting entry! I haven't played Final Fantasy XIII and don't know when I'll get the chance to, but evidently I shouldn't be too distressed by my lack of PS3-ownership.

[eva_kasumi]

IT IS A LITTLE CONFUSING TO FIND. I suppose I should acknowledge that the 5 hours file was a second playthrough. My first playthrough it took me at least half an hour to find the train station in order to travel to Timber. D8

I want so badly to like XIII, I really do. But apparently I have become elitist in my gaming or something. You're not missing much, alas. (I will make a post when I beat it regarding whether it improves, though, as I've been told it does. But that still doesn't justify the first 15+ hours. At least the PS3 has other fantastic games, like Assassin's Creed 2 and Uncharted 2.)

[rabanastre]

ohohohoho I totally agree with everything you've said in this entry and the previous one. I've wasted about 10 hours of my life watching one of my friends play FFXIII, and it's just. I can't even imagine why anyone would ever want to play this game for an extended amount of time.

My friend is about 65 hours into the game, and she can't even explain the plot to me. To be fair, I can't even explain what the fuck FFVII was going on about 'cause apparently I'm stupid, but at least FFVII had other facets going for it. FFXIII is just FAL'CIE L'CIE CIE CIE CIE CIE CIE fjaslkdjfalks

I absolutely despise the PRESS A TO WIN type of gameplay. Who the fuck thought auto-attack was a good idea? When someone who has played the game for over 65 hours (my friend) can hand the controller to me (who hasn't played at all), and both of us do the exact same thing in regards to combat, something is wrong.

And Vanille makes me want to punch things.

[eva_kasumi]

I knew what I was getting into, and still. I am going to beat this game so that no one will be able to say I didn't give it a fair chance. I am going to beat this game just so that the game won't have beaten me.

Nobody can explain the plot of FFVII because it is obscenely complicated and on crack. Nobody can explain the plot of FFXIII because the plot never happens. I think I might be getting it spoon-fed to me in flashbacks but if I can't be involved in the damn thing then I really can't be assed to care. And the first five hours of the game were the worst introduction to a story that I've ever seen--how the hell am I supposed to understand a sentence that contains five unknown nouns and not an ounce of context with which to figure them out?

I absolutely despise the PRESS A TO WIN type of gameplay. This was my disdain for Heavy Rain before it came out--it seemed like the entire game was a glorified quicktime event. But the reviews were exceptional, so though I haven't played it yet I'm willing to give it a fighting chance,

[coppelius]

Inre: soundtrack - I'm wondering if the music you're objecting to is primarily Sazh's theme? I'm not entirely sure if that's the case, but for my own part I kind of like how it's not patently peppy JRPG techno.

(Granted, though the game developers made an effort to do something different, there are issues to be had with how Sazh and Dajh appear to be the only PoC in all of Cocoon.)

[eva_kasumi]

Not sure if it's Sazh's theme specifically or a Sazh-and-Vanille theme which, yes, sometimes feels very out of place given the subject matter (though when they're just running around? no, I don't mind; they're the "perky party" or something, whatever--it's when this same "funky" music plays during his depressing backstory that it puts me in mind of Ernie Anastos smirking while he tells us about the latest tragedy). But no, that song is not my primary gripe. It's not any one song--it's the way the music is poorly integrated with the cutscenes, crescendoing dramatically when someone is... not saying something particularly dramatic, and then becoming invigorating and inspiring "now we're resolved to do something! music" while they're in the middle of an argument and not agreeing on anything. It's completely incongruous and distracting

[rikkoshaye]

I've been waiting for a nice, in-depth review of whether FFXIII is worth buying. Thank you for spelling it all out like this. I think I'm gunna pass on this game, maybe the next will be better. >.

[eva_kasumi]

Yeah, you're not missing anything. Here's hoping Versus XIII will be better, with its promised world maps and airships and action-based battle system. *fingers crossed*

[arks]

God damn, now I want to play 8 and X again. Thanks.