I'm only 12 hours into this sucker, but I have good reason to believe that FFXIII is the direction JRPGs will and should take in the future. There's been a lot of criticism going around, probably moreso than any other FF to date (FFXI notwithstanding), but I'm convinced those naysayers are all RPG geezers who can't stomach a change in their tired, old gameplay formula.
FFXIII is about efficiency. There is no bullshit, fluff, or filler to be found. I'm 12 hours into this game and I have yet to step into a town and shoot the shit with a villager about the impending meteor/magi war/tree of life. And I love that. There's still a story in this game, but it's all told through (beautiful) FMV which I would much rather be rewarded with after a tough boss battle instead of a scavenger hunt across the world trying to find some old wise man.
The argument against this style is that it's too "linear." Protip: JRPGs are all pretty much linear. Just because they pad it with some side quests and a town full of ye olde slack jawed yokels doesn't make them any less linear. You're still moving from point a to point b according to the game's script; any sense of exploration or discovery is wholly concocted inside the player's head.
FFXIII chose two things to focus on (pun intended) in this new FF iteration: story and battle system. Now the story itself may not be as coherent as I would like, but I do admire the amount of effort put into fleshing out the characters and the diversity of personalities and histories portrayed. Square-Enix also gets big points for combining all the previous themes in FF games into separate storylines that'll please all kinds of FF fans (Hope/Lightning=emo kids, Vanille/Sazh=happy kids, Snow=overly romantic kid).
The battle system has also been completely overhauled to stress efficiency. I'm not completely in love with the Paradigm system because I often feel like things are out of my direct control. I'm more of a general looking down at his troops and telling them how to fight as opposed to doing everything for them. But in the end, the system works and it's FAST. It's a tradeoff: I have a hard time pinpointing specific targets in combat when necessary, but also don't have to worry about that same problem when it's tedious (e.g. healing party members). I think I prefer FFXII's style of automation over FFXIII's. In FFXII all party members' actions were chosen by the player, it was just done beforehand and setup in programming, conditional syntax. In FFXIII, Square Enix did all of that programming and I simply have to say "be offensive!" or "time to heal." The former is a more fun battle system, but both are an improvement over the micromanaging nightmare of most RPGs.
One other thing that stresses efficiency is the shopping/crafting system. First off, it all takes place inside of the Save point. This comes off kind of weird and sometimes makes me feel like I'm playing PSO, but ultimately it's a big timesaver and a big F-U to RPG tropes. Square Enix KNOWS you're going to want to shop for potions and shit. They know you wanna make your weapon badass. Square Enix is all like DO IT, you don't have to wait for a town or anything. Go ahead and have fun. It's jarring, shocking even for RPG diehards but why bother going to the trouble of town traveling if you can just do it on the spot? Makes sense to me.
I also must say, I love the crafting syste. Upgrade your weapon as much or as little as you want, Sqaure don't care! I'm currently putting all of my resources into Lightning's Gladius and I've got it rocking at Lvl 15 with a full 90 more points of damage than any weapon on other characters. There's nothing linear about the crafting system and I can't wait to see where my weapons end up once I pump components into them.
So yes, that's my mid-game report. I wish all RPGs would follow this no-bullshit formula. I can see myself finishing this game in 30 hours and that's a nice round number for RPGs instead of the 60 or 70 hours some other games demand. Turns out those extra 30 hours were spent just traveling back to town to by items and talking to NPCs. FFXIII doesn't need that and the result is the first JRPG that I cannot put down.
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I prefer FF12's battle system, too, in that it's much quicker to just run your character into the on-screen monster and hack the shit out of it than to have to cut to a separate battlefield every single time - and these battles all take about 1-2 minutes, which feels like forever!
ReplyDeleteDon't be so sure you'll finish in just 30 hours, though. I thought the same, but somehow, at Chapter 11 of 13, I've already logged over 35, and I haven't even touched the side quests yet.
Also, I wanna punch Snow in the face. Every time he talks/shows his face, it's like an invitation - "Let's connect!" - to my fist. Now that I have Fang in my party, the only two characters I like are her and Sazh. Pfft.