First off, this will have spoilers here and there, but I will try to be generic on character names, etc until I get to my ending thoughts. If you have not finished the game, you may want to only read until then.
I want to start off saying I enjoy the game and have 65 hours or so into it, with plans on at least finishing all the hunts (though trophies is probably a big HELL NO). What I want to touch on are a few points I made in the podcast and a few additional points now that the ending has come and gone.
The gameplay is something that I have gone back and forth on, and now that I have unlocked all the abilities I find that the biggest issue lies with how STUPID the AI is. We are not quite at RE5 Shiva level, but it isn't as far off as you might think, and even taints your auto battle option to the point of ineffectiveness. It gets to the point where you are actually surprised when your teammates use area of effect spells properly. Oh, and those shiny new 5-level skills you just unlocked? If you ever want to see those, better make the character the leader and use the ability list, otherwise they will happen 0% of the time.
If I am trying to juggle an enemy in the air who is weak against magic, why does auto battle decide to alternate spells/strikes? Is it to show me how one does 1/10 the damage and lets the enemy fall? This was probably the first giveaway that the auto battle system is broken, but there are many more. Are you a medic and everyone is missing ~1500 HP? Here is a singular cure spell to a random character! 2 Cura, why would you do that??? It would make too much sense.
What I DO really like is the overall feel of the battle. When your teammates are using the right spells and attacking the right character (Hope seems to get absent minded from time to time) the flow of battle is quick and fun. The only problem I have is that there really aren't that many strategies to use - I found that Relentless Assault is still the best to start out with if you are fighting easier foes, Strategic Warfare (COM-SEN-SYN) if you expect a tough match, and Aggression (COM-COM-RAV) once staggered to do enormous (potentially huge) damage. Part of this issue lies with only being able to control a single character, where I think the most apt game to look at is the previous entry, FFXII. Give me the option to pause, queue up options, or at least set some AI rules of the road PLEASE. Sure, keep the current auto battle features, but give me the option of being anal with my battle choices. Hell, after 65 hours I would appreciate the computer just taking a cue on the previously mentioned single vs area of effect skills.
With the gameplay taken care of, I have to say the overall structure of this game is about as strange as it gets. Completely linear for the first 30 hours, then opens up a bit, then completely linear for the last 5 hours, then open world. What? Also, they aren't kidding when they say the end of the story is only about half of the gameplay hours you can get out of FFXIII. I'm not sure if it comes from a deep desire to limit your strength on the last boss battle or what, but having the last Crystarium level only unlock after beating it is questionable. There is also the ability to teleport and the Chocobo riding that I would imagine many players would miss completely.
Just as haphazard are some of the design choices, both on characters and locations. Until I hit Gran Pulse I really thought the game was kinda bland and ugly, and from there the locations get a LOT better, especially a certain town you go to. The entire end story area would have been cool as well if it didn't drag on for as long as it did. Then again this will be true of most games - there will be strong locations and weak ones. The quality of the summons being all over the place is a little more confusing though.
OK, someone REALLY liked the Transformers remake, I get it. At least stick with some sort of theme though. Shiva makes a motorcycle and Brynhildr turns into a hot rod, OK. Then Odin is more classical and turns into a horse. Then there is the giant turret thing Hecatoncheir and the somewhat goofy version of Bahamut. How can it be that the behemoth (all 10 or so pixel swap versions of it) normal enemy looks cooler than the summon I have grown to love??? Then we have the overly simplified bomb enemy design versus the goofy organic goblins that have a hole in the middle of their body. This game is more hit and miss than any FF game I can think of, almost like completely different people designed each enemy. This would also be forgivable if it was themed by area, but enemies are all over the place, and you will encounter 3-5 versions at least of almost every foe, differing only in name and color. In the end there are some really cool designs - the giant creature eating thing on Gran Pulse, the huge elephant-like enemies, behemoths, and Odin all stand out. There were too many misses though to make this trump even the design of the last entry, FFXII.
Now onto the story, which is just... well, one of the weakest in the series. FFVI, FFIV, FFXII, FFIX, FFVII, all these had gripping tales that pulled you along. This one has its moments, but overall takes a large step back from the last entry. After beating the game, just stop and think about the whole thing beginning to end.
***ENDING SPOILER********************************************
So during the last battle, when your characters die, then one becomes Ragnarok, then the boss wants you to kill it after it kills you, but then your characters are alive again for reasons they don't understand, and then you kill the boss that wants to die (so fighting back makes no sense). WHAT?!?! And the BIGGEST problem is that a game built on the endgame as much as this one forces you to beat it, watching 2 characters die, but has it continue BEFORE THE LAST BATTLE. So we rewind time to do the endgame, except I have the rewards from when I did beat the game. Was there an open bar just feet away from the writer's desks???
***ENDING SPOILER END***************************************
All that being said, the game has done something right when I have put 65 hours into it. I think this may now be the most polarizing game of the series though, even if the truth places it somewhere in the middle of the series as far as overall quality. There is no HUGE weakness, which helps it overall, and the hunts are much more enjoyable than a card game/chocobo race/blitzball/dodge lightning strikes crap that normally fills out a Final Fantasy game. Upgrading weapons is also a nice touch, and I like how the characters have the ability to do everything but are clearly better at a few roles in battle, if not just one or two. At the least I have gotten my $$$ worth and then some, even if it wasn't the evolution of FFXII I was hoping for (in many ways it was a step back - it is quite silly as seeing your two other characters brush against enemies undetected, btw). This is always the risk in a series that has each release have a Cid, a chocobo, and that's about it as far as common ground.
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Dragon Age Day 2023
4 months ago
Where to start...
ReplyDeleteVISUALS: As for enemy designs the generic types differ more than just color. I think for the Behemoths and a few other big types that is true, but the others are fairly different. Sure the goblins all have a hole in the middle but their heads, legs and arms are were drawn differently.(I'm looking right at the bestiary in the guide as I type this). The color swaps you mention seem to be an indicator as to what type of elements the enemies are weak against. I like that.
The bosses are what I enjoy the most. I thought Cid Raines was pretty rad as well as the giant elemental turtle, pope, and so on. As for the characters themselves, I really like Lightning and Sazh's designs.
I can't argue with the Summons. Vehicles - ugh.
Environment wise, I feel that there has been a good enough variety from chapter to chapter. The carnival level early on was really nice and like you said when things open up in Gran Pulse. I am in the Tower right now and this is the first place that I haven't actually cared for.
COMBAT: I haven't had any issues with the AI being "dumb", but I understand what you mean about cure vs. cura. I suppose I don't pay attention to which spells my healer is using.
I don't need to micromanage my team during battle (that's what Dragon Age is for), BUT it would be nice to change who I control during battle - or at least have access to all three members summon.
My biggest gripe with the battle system is not being able to create each character how I want. I want a blank canvas for each character and the freedom to choose who I want to be the healer, mage, soldier, etc... That is what I LOVED about FF12. I could pick my three favorite characters based on personality and appearance and form them they way I see best fit.
What FF13 reminds me of is less of an RPG and more of an RTS without multi-player. It is like the campaign is there to teach you how to play the game and then after the story ends (which I haven't reached yet) is where you can go and enjoy the openness of Gran Pulse, hunt, get ultimate weapons, etc... Maybe I am way off, but that is what this feels like to me.
I don't have an opinion of the story yet, but I think the music is really, really good. Very enjoyable.
One last thing...
I hope one day we get a single player FF game that includes customization of character appearance. I love that about Western RPGs. I can't explain why, but the ability to put my own personal flavor on my character is what makes a game like Fallout 3 all the more enjoyable.
I noticed it sounds like I find the goblin designs good, I actually don't like them - or the Bombs (never really liked bombs in FF games). I do however like the Flan designs in this game more than I have in the past.
ReplyDeleteSomething I forgot...
I don't feel like FF13 is a step back from FF12, but more of a step sideways. I think the art direction is superior to FF13 overall and I can tell that is having a big impact on your opinion - which is fair. Hell, FF12 is my personal favorite in the series.
If the best parts of both games could be combined, that would be awesome. I'm very interested to see what Versus brings to the table.
I think at this point it is safe to classify Final Fantasy as it's own genre.
I will do a tiered response here. I realize I basically made you type it twice, but thought that I could expand a lot more on what I said in the podcast, especially now that I am pretty far into seeing everything the game has to offer.
ReplyDeleteVISUALS: I was saying they reused quite a few designs due to often not knowing if I was fighting a new enemy until I hit R1 to check out the weakness, etc. I'm sure I could find little differences looking at pics side by side, but overall I saw a lot of repeats, including the soldiers (which to be fair, most FF games have generic soldiers) and almost all my hunt targets, where I thought they could have been much more creative instead of basing all of them on earlier enemies. The space pope was also horribly designed in my opinion, and came off as just silly in what should have been an incredibly climactic fight. The Cid fight and a couple of the other ones (there is one hunt that is original that I really dug) had good design, but I think there were just too many ones that stuck out as BAD (and were reused on top of that) that it soured my overall opinion a bit. I did think that the character design was a step up from X though, except for Auron.
As for the locations, the early stages were incredibly generic in my opinion, and could be described as just 'generic future city' or 'cave' - something that is remedied a bit later on, but also something that made early areas feel like they were dragging on quite a lot (I really think they could have cut the length of some of the earlier stages before Gran Pulse, the game has enough length as it is). Ironically the carnival stage was ok, but the thing I remember is that it featured cool looking summons in a cutscene. What a tease.
COMBAT: I think that once I got 5 ATB sections it started to break the AI, as well as being able to launch enemies. Try out Aggression (COM+COM+RAV) sometime with multiple enemies - I cannot get both Lightning and Fang to ever attack the same enemy unless it is the only one left, which is shitty when fighting 3 tonberries and needing the extra damage and juggle to kill one before it heals. To be fair I did not notice it until the fights got hard and involved multiple targets, so I would be interested to see if your opinion changes after doing all the hunts (I just finished the Titans Trials, I think I have about 8 left or so out of the 60).
I think we will just need to agree to disagree on characters being blank slates. Two of my favorite FF games as far as characters/gameplay are FFVI and FFIX, mostly due to character gameplay helping to define them further and play important parts in the story, as well as making them very different in the way you would have to play them. I think the reason this doesn't work as well in XIII is because even though they have strengths and limits in skills, there is only one truly 'unique' move for each character (two if you count the summon, but even those are generic in how they are used - no healing summon vs offensive etc from what I have seen) and the computer will NEVER use it, making party leader that much more important. This comes off as making the characters generic in combat to some extent by arbitrary determination, not because they each have truly unique strengths/weaknesses that are reflected as many different spells/abilities.
I think being able to craft a main character and set their abilities, etc would actually be pretty fun in a future game, but with how many more CG cutscenes are used in the series it would be impossible unless your character was never in any of them.
STORY: I will anxiously await your opinion. I will agree on certain music tracks, especially the one in the city you reach after the tower, but there was one track I hated more because of their use in certain parts where it just didn't fit. Otherwise it is a very good score, except for the obvious 'main song' that they licensed.
BLAM! Long response to my comment. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI can't say that I have ever used (COM+COM+RAV) when facing more than one enemy, I use Dela (RAV+COM+RAV) the most. That way one character launches and then I time my attacks to keep it up in the air. This works well with Lightning as my leader because she has magic based strikes. I just wish I could have someone other than Hope or Vanille as a healer. Which leads me to...
Blank slates. You just made me realize that the reason I want it that way is because of voice acting. The games you mention were prior to voiced characters and the voices are the main reason I don't like to use certain characters.
I totally agree that all the chapters prior to 11 could have been trimmed. Especially if for some strange reason I had the urge to replay the game from the start - which I most likely won't do because of the design. It is like this game was made to NOT be replayed.
A reason the Summons seem to be more important to you than me is definitely because you have invested way more into the series. FFX was the first one I ever finished and they were worthless in FF12. In a way, I have been programmed to view them as an afterthought.
The Pope - I loved his transformed state (there they go again). It was very much silly, like the end boss in ME2, but I thought it was very cool to look at. Basically, from an artistic view I liked it a lot. From a technical standpoint he was a push over and not very hard to beat - is that why you hated it? I'm not one to complain about games being easy, I dislike being frustrated from my games these days. (I did complete ME2 on insanity though - go figure).
Overall it is a fair to be disappointed in how often enemy types and designs were re-used. It just didn't feel that much different from the previous FF games I've played. How many times did we have to fight Seymour in 10? Ugh. Maybe I just need to go back and play some of the earlier games that have been ported to the DS and iPod.
Anyway, we will definitely revisit the story when I finish.
Interesting note on the voice acting - it definitely influences my character likes/dislikes, but generally no character is that much worse than any other in the FF series since you will hear them all talk equally in cutscenes. In ME2 it actually had a much larger impact since I would hear the other characters a lot more, same with Dragon Age.
ReplyDeleteSpace Pope actually rocked me hard in the second fight due to the death timer, however in my second try he never even cast it, so I guess I just had really bad luck?
As far as difficulty I just did a hunt where I had to retry until I got the instant stagger to trigger, otherwise it was hopeless as you would take the following every 5 seconds - 10k dmg, fog, pain, and all buffs cleared. There is just no way to heal from it other than to go all out and hope for the best. When you get to fights like that the idiocy of the computer will really sink in, ugh.
I think you might be able to get away with a Snow/Fang/Light party with Light as a Medic if you wanted some power? Or replace Snow with Sazh and give that a try? The main reason to do Com/Com/Rav later on is that it is easier to hit 700%+ with a stagger, and going Com changes Light from dealing 20k or so with the strikes to 40k+ plus and hitting hard when the stagger ends (normally 99999) - allowed me to kill quite a bit in one stagger vs two. Also seeing Fang do 300k in one hit on the smite (or whatever the stagger end hit was) is pretty nice when Light does the same.