Final Fantasy XIII: Initial Impressions

By -


Even with my Final Fantasy XIII baggage I dove into the game this week.  I'm playing the PC version via Steam.

My first reaction to Final Fantasy XIII was, "It's so pretty!"  I forgot how beautiful this game looks.  Final Fantasy developers are always trying to push the envelope in graphics and it shows the most when they jump between console generations.  Final Fantasy XIII was the first Final Fantasy for Xbox 360 and PS3.  It looks so much better than Final Fantasy XII did.

The only downside to the graphics is that they're locked to 720p on PC.  Supposedly there is a patch coming soon to allow for higher resolutions, but it's not out yet.

Music is much improved over Final Fantasy XII.  It's still no Nobuo Uematsu but it's so much better than the last game.  It actually has one of my favorite battle themes in all of Final Fantasy.  It gets stuck in my head and I'm totally ok with that.

It's especially amazing when the violin kicks in around the 1 minute mark

But not all the sound design is great.  Lightning's footsteps are already bugging me.  They are extremely loud and monotonous.  I remember these footsteps being something that drove me crazy by the time I finished Final Fantasy XIII the first time.

One thing I hated about this game during my first playthrough was the linearity of it.  It's basically long corridors with no exploration.  Surprisingly, this time I appreciate the linearity after just finishing the open world grind fest that is Final Fantasy XII.  Playing the games in order like this is giving me a fresh perspective on the series.  Hopefully I can keep this new-found appreciation for the linearity throughout my entire time with Final Fantasy XIII.

I'm a few hours in and so far battles feel quick and fluid.  Not much of the modified ATB system is being shown off yet, but it does look nice.  But while it looks nice and is smooth, it's not challenging so far.  I know that most of the battle system is still hidden behind tutorials that I haven't reached.  At this point the battles are basically "hit A to win with autobattle."  I'll follow up later after I actually get full access to battle options.

Along those lines, there's no progression system in sight.  Again, I know this is just around the corner and I'm not there yet.

The story of Final Fantasy XIII starts mid-action.  I think it works for this game.  After that there is a lot of character set up mixed in with action and battle sequences.  The pacing is working for me so far.  From what I remember, pacing really struggles later in the game, but I have no complaints yet.

I'm actually enjoying the story more this time because I don't have to try to figure out all their stupid terms.  I mostly remember it from my first playthrough of the game.  They really need to do a better job explaining to new players what all the unique terms in the game mean but at least it's not an issue this time around.  I do want to note that it was frustrating to no end the first time I played.

One thing I'm extremely grateful for are the plentiful checkpoints.  Rarely do I have to go more than ten minutes without getting the chance to save.  As I've said before, being able to save anywhere or suspend/resume a game is a huge feature for me these days.  Final Fantasy XIII doesn't quite have that, but the checkpoints aren't spaced out as far as they used to be in old Final Fantasy games.  I appreciate it.

Overall, I'm about 3 hours in and I'm still having fun.  It's a good sign and I hope it holds true throughout the game!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Latest Board Gaming

By -
Image
Besides video games I also regularly play board games when I'm hanging out with people face to face.  My brother, my wife, and I end up playing a lot of 3 player board games, but sometimes we get other players involved too. I realized I haven't talked much about what I've been playing in the world of board games, so here goes: Ticket to Ride - We own 3 different base versions of Ticket to Ride, 2 expansion sets, and an extra map set.  We love this game.  This is the game that gets the most overall table time when I'm playing board games with friends.  It's super accessible but still holds fun for people who have been playing the game for a long time.  I recommend this as a great beginner board game for anyone. Masquerade - A hidden role game where roles are constantly switching hands.  You're limited in actions on your turn and can only take one action.  This means that a lot of the time you're not entirely sure what role you currently ...
Read more

S2E22 - E3 2017 - “Who doesn’t want to be a dinosaur?!”

By -
E3 Hype! E3 2017. Not comprehensive. Not VGNN.  Only talking about things we think are interesting enough to talk about.  You have video game news sites for the rest :) We’re talking about Press Conferences, if more news comes out throughout the rest of the week it won’t be here because we’re recording on Tuesday night! http://e3recap.com/ has been my friend Overall trends Esports being forced onto games that aren’t even out yet “Influencers” being put front and center BJ: torn on the current “influencer” boom. Feels like a bubble that’s totally disingenuous Shorter press conferences with less big game announcements Really hard to tell what is actually exclusive Microsoft “Console Launch Exclusive” Most of these press conferences would have been better pre-recorded as just a series of trailers instead of having a stage show, honestly. Updates on games we already knew existed.  This is what we get for so many years of announcing g...
Read more

What is Blaugust? 2023 Edition

By -
Image
I jumped right into the previous post without actually explaining Blaugust.  So... what is it?  Blaugust is an excuse to get people blogging... in August.  Hence, Blaugust! I'm not the best person to pitch it, but Blaugust is put on by a long time friend of mine, Belghast.  Here's what he had to say about Blaugust for the 2023 kickoff: Blaugust is a month-long event that takes place in August each year that focused on blogging and other serialized content. The goal is to stoke the fires of creativity and allow bloggers and other content creators to mingle in a shared community while pushing each other to post more regularly. For years blogging has been dwindling, and in part, Blaugust was my attempt and reversing that course by compiling a bunch of veteran bloggers in one place and making it super easy to ask questions and get answers. The idea is that this festival of blogging can help reignite dwindling fires for the next year and give folks a sense of kinship as a...
Read more