Working as Intended

/witz

It's 3:00am here. I'm waiting for Alien Swarm to download off Steam (it's within my budget range). I have two days left on my four-day weekend thingy. I'm looking for something to kill the time!

I my usual traversing of the Interbutts, I found an interesting interview regarding Square-Enix's goals over the past year. Not much of it is really worth noting here, except this little blurb about Final Fantasy XIII.

YW: Looking at the numbers alone, it is pretty good, because we were able to release the latest Final Fantasy in all three markets of Japan, United States, and Europe in a very short period of time, and we were able to reach 5 million units rapidly -- and I think this product will grow further. But when it comes to the customers' reaction to the quality of the game, some value it highly and some are not very happy with it.


YW: I think this is a product that was able to meet the expectations for those who know Final Fantasy. There are all kinds of games around in the market today. Should Final Fantasy become a new type of the game or should Final Fantasy not become a new type of game? The customers have different opinions. It's very difficult to determine which way it should go."



I find this sort of thing intriguing, since I'm one of.. two/three people I know that actually liked Final Fantasy XIII. And probably the only one that loved almost everything about it. This journal is usually a place for me to rant angrilly about games I dislike, but I always like writing about games that I have an upopular opinion of. Especially if my opinion is, shockingly, the more positive one.

Which is to say the correct one!

Well, not really.

I should probably clarify. When I mean 'unpopular', at least in the case of XIII, I don't mean in sales or anything like that. As the interview states, Final Fantasy XIII has done pretty darn well for itself. It's nearing 6 million sales now, and is the fastest selling title in the franchise. By 'unpopular' I mean the general opinion I've seen from both the Internet and people I know. So if you're surrounded by people who loves them some XIII (and why wouldn't they?) then this post won't make a terrible lot of sense.

Not that any of my posts ever do to someone who isn't myself.





Final Fantasy XIII really is an odd game. It's a game that, as said, I love practically everything about, but I can still easily see why it'd annoy a lot of people. It's a game that comes very close to what I want out of a JRPG. Which seems to be vastly different than what most vocal peeps on the wacky ol' Internet want out of one.

Now would probably be a good time to explain what makes a game special in my books, as it's probably pretty darn important here. To me, what can turn an okay game into a good one, and a good game into a fantastic one is personality. I can forgive an awful lot about a game if I feel it has a certain quality to itself. For example; Silent Hill 2 has abysmal combat and some of the most vague and useless puzzle designs ever seen in gaming. But I love the game (as previously shown) because it has personality up the ying-yang. As did a lot of other players.

Main reason I stuck with Final Fantasy XI for so long, and even still go back to it (for one reason or another) is because it has something pretty much no other MMO has: Personality. All in all, they're games that, regardless of the mechanics/gameplay or anything, really strive themselves to be special in one way or another.

Another example would be the Uncharted series. The gameplay is ripped right from Tomb Raider and Gears of War, and the story from Indiana Jones and National Treasure. Looking right at it there's almost nothing worth mentioning about the series, but it presents everything in itself with such flair and charisma that it really does make it feel like you're taking part in something special.

To me, Final Fantasy XIII is like that. There's no JRPG out there like it, regardless of your opinion of it. Everything in that game is done to drive one major factor, and it's one I really enjoy, so it probably doesn't come as much surprise why I loves me it so much.

So let us discuss this one factor, shall we?

And by 'discuss' I mean I write everything and you sit there and read it, or hit the Back button on your browser. It's hard to have a discussion in an already posted article, aint it?

Or is it?




Every single thing in Final Fantasy XIII is done to drive the plot forward. It's actually very similar to Silent Hill 2 in that regard. Even XIII's gameplay mechanics play some sort of mention in the story (as an example, Vanille starts off with an extra ATB bar at the start of the game, which is a hint to the fact that she's already a l'Cie. As every character gains a bar when they when they turn into one). That's the reason why there are no towns, why the game's design focuses (witz) heavily on linear travel and all that jazz.

I will say this as a pretty big problem with XIII's design. Unless you get invested very early on, the game will most likely bore you to tears. For better or worse, the first 10-12 hours of the game are mostly the same thing. If you're not interested in the characters, the world and the plight that slowly engulfs both of them, you're not going to like the first major chunk of the game. I was personally on-board rather quickly, so I can't say much about being bored with this part.

As far as linearity goes (which some people just can't stop harping about), I had no problem with it either. Don't get me wrong, a bit more freedom when running about before hitting Gran Pulse would've been nice, but I actually like have a set and very clear goal to run to. I'm the type of player that goes into a JRPG, however rare it may be when I do play one, for the story. Miniquests and exploration always play second fiddle. If the game very clearly points me at a goal/cutscene, I'm more than happy to run to it as long as I get to bash some things over the head along the way.

I don't know, it's kinda hard to really hammer down why I don't mind the linearity. I think it's a factor of both:

1) I really don't like massively open-world RPGs. (ie: Fallout 3, Oblivion, ect)
2) Final Fantasy X was just as/slightly more linear than XIII, and I quite liked it back then.

When FFX was first released, most reviews pointed out that it was rather linear, but that was nothing more than a passing note at the bottom of the page. These days XIII's linearity is/was being treated as if it was the end of gaming as we knew it, for all the melodrama that was being spewed out.

I don't like getting hideously lost in a massive over-world in an RPG. Nor do I enjoy having to run for 20-30 minutes over the same terrain constantly just to get to a cutscene or fight something in particular. If a game wants to go, "The awesome stuff is right in front of you. Go to it!" I'll hardly complain. I consider Uncharted 2 and Final Fantasy XIII to be rather similar, design wise, despite being in different genres. Both were created entirely to drive their storyline to the gigantic climax and both have no problems setting the player on a fixed path to do so, since they throw all kinds of interesting scenarios at them.

The genre of a game when it comes to how it's designed doesn't bother me. It's not what a game is in that's important, it's what it does.

So let's move onto the next factor of XIII, that goes hand-in-hand with the story.



The characters.

I'll just go through 'em in list format, as it's a lot easier to get my point across.


=- Lightning -=
I think Lightning is probably the least developed character of the bunch (but given the sheer amount of character development this game has, that's still quite a lot). She starts off pretty interesting, and it's nice to see a female lead in a JRPG that can kick arse and doesn't need to be rescued at all. But her story, and importance to the plot, kind of fades away around Chapter 8, as Vanille and Fang come into the spotlight. She helps Hope become a stronger character, and then the only thing she has left is to be around for the resolution with Serah at the end, which is more Snow's shtick than hers.

That's not to say I don't like Lightning. Her initial dislike and slowly warming up to Hope was a nice little story arc. It also helped bring about one of the more interesting bits of her character, which was that she's just as scared/nervous as everyone else about the situation they're in, but the persona she essentially created to help take care of Serah when they were younger was what was keeping her intact.

It's also probably worth noting that Lightning seems to follow the tradition of Tidus and Vaan, in that she's really not the main character of the story.


=- Snow -=
Also known as Lightning's Punching Bag. Snow doesn't get as much focus as Lightning, but I feel he's a better developed character as he really does change as the story goes along. He goes from being an overly cocky, but oddly insecure at times, leader of a rag-tag group to being a much more humble, but determined, member of a focused team. It's an interesting reversal for someone like him to go from being a leader of something to being a member of another, but it shows pretty well both the uneasy side of his character as well as the overwhelming circumstances everyone's up against.

I may as well mention it here, since that's pretty much all I have to say about Snow, except that I didn't like the guy at first, but he did warm up to me. I really wish we saw more of the NORA crew that Snow was in charge of, as they could've made for some really interesting side-characters. I know they feature quite a bit at the start, and appear at the end, I just wish we got to see a bit more about them. Like why they dislike Sanctum so much, how they joined NORA, what they think of the whole l'Cie thing, ect.

Though given how they still treat Snow as a friend during Chapter 12, despite them knowing he's a l'Cie, I guess the last one sort of answered itself.

Also, STEELGUARD!


=- Sazh -=
Easily the character that surprised me the most. I was expecting him to be nothing more than a somewhat goofy background character, whose only real claim would be to have an awesome Chocobo in his afro. Granted he's a bit of that, but he's both an excellent comic relief and an excellent character, full stop.

What really made Sazh stand out as a great character was the whole storyline involving his son being turned into a l'Cie by accident. He's lively personality went really well with it, as we could see finding who was responcible for it was something incredibly important to him, but he didn't drown endless in wangst, as usually happens when a JRPG goes down this road. He and Vanille played really well off each other through the story, especially in Chapter 9, though it's kinda sad that after they hit Gran Pulse in Chapter 11 it falls away to allow the main story to shine until the end.

As somewhat of a fun fact, despite Sazh being a secondary character of the group, he has the most lines of any character in the game. The More You Know~!


=- Hope -=
Poor, poor Hope.

He's the only really young character on the team, which makes him the focus of most of the character bashing the game gets. Not that it's entirely unwarranted, as he does spend an awful lot of the first half of the game either complaining or saying he'll show Snow what's what for accidently letting his mother die, but then he does absolutely nothing of the sort.

Hope falls in place with Tidus, in that I feel his general disposition is entirely justifiable. He's fourteen years old, his mother was just killed, and he's been forced into a situation where it seems no matter what he does he's going to die in one way or another. I'd be pretty damn mopey too!

What always made me enjoy Hope as a character, even at his most whiniest, is that he always wants to improve himself. One of the main reasons he follows Lightning at the start of the game is so he can become stronger and learn from her example. Whenever he does delve into wangst territory he doesn't stay there terribly long. At least as long as someone's there to remind him what he's managed to accomplish, or could do.

Hope also seems to have this strange quasi-romance/crush thing going on with Vanille in a few cutscenes. I'm not sure if that's the intention, but it certainly seems that way (especially during the optional cutscene in Yaschas Massif). If it is intentional then it seems even stranger that it doesn't go anywhere, but oh well.


=- Vanille -=
You could probably trigger a really huge debate on most Final Fantasy XIII forums over who the main character in the game is, but I'd definitely have to side with Vanille, at least halfly. Especially during the second half of the game. Which is kinda weird, because I don't think anyone was expecting it, especially since the obligatory perky-teenage character is never assigned such a role.

Her quirkiness and chipperness (now totally words) can get a bit odd if you've been playing for a while, but overall I really liked Vanille as a character. As just mentioned, she's a lot more developed than most characters who are assigned the hyper-girl role, and she manages to play really well off of Sazh/Hope/Fang. Though, come to think of it, she barely says a word to Lightning or Snow throughout the entire game. Though they're arguably the two least important to the plot, so I wonder if that's meant to mean something. To the forums for a tedious and flame-riddled debate!

Or not.


=- Fang -=
The last character in the game to be announced, but arguably the most important to the plot. She and Vanille pretty much become to sole focus from Chapter 10 onwards, and especially once they hit Gran Pulse. Though that should be rather obvious.

Fang's easily my favorite character of the lot, though Sazh comes close. She's wonderfully snarky, kicks major arse in battle, is awesomely voiced (who isn't in this game?) gets Bahamut as a summon and gets some really great character development and scenes that you probably wouldn't expect from her when she's first introduced in Palumpolum. She has some really heartwarming scenes with Vanille as the game gets closer and closer to the finale, though that's done nothing but create a thousand fan-fics/DeviantArt drawings involving the two as a couple now.

The ending of the game was almost entirely made by the really bittersweet conclusion for the two characters, which kinda irks me. Why does Square-Enix suddenly seem fit to get rid of the awesome arse-kicking character at the end of their games? First Auron, then Balthier (kinda) and now poor Fang.

Curse you, Square-Enix, and your getting me invested in your likable and endearing characters!


-= Barthandelus =-
Can't go through a Final Fantasy game without mentioning the villain at some point!

Barthandelus most certainly won't go down as the most memorable/cool looking villain in the series, but he's certainly a contender for being one of the better ones that's been produced. What's interesting about him is that at almost every single step in the game he's doing more than he lets on. He always says just enough to make the group play into his hands, while still making them mostly unaware they're even doing so. Hell, he does this for the entire population of Cocoon. Human, l'Cie and even fal'Cie included.

The dude knows how to manipulate.

Actually the whole idea behind Cocoon and the fal'Cie plan on it is much more interesting than I think even the game gives itself credit for. Everything you need to know is all there in one way or another, but I really wish we got to see a lot more of the fal'Cie of Cocoon, as the whole plan to destroy Orphan was really quite well done.

I mean, it stands to reason that Cocoon fal'Cie/l'Cie couldn't hurt one of their own kind, but yet they need to kill Orphan so all life on Cocoon can be sacrificed for Barthandelus' plan (though he failed to tell 'em that fal'Cie would also die. Whoopsie!)

They couldn't ask the Sanctum to kill a Cocoon fal'Cie, as that'd instantly raise alarms, but they still need a powerful group to do it. The next logical conclusion would be Pulse l'Cie, as they'd have no problem with anything of the sort. Even less so if you can guide them along on the path to this goal. Overdramatic as he may be at times, it's clear that Barthandelus had a really well and long thought out plan going on. Manipulating every force he could to play their part, constructing the giant Ark underneath Eden eons ago so the Sanctum would be in complete chaos when the time came for the Pulse l'Cie to sneak into the entrance to Orphan's Cradle, and so on.

Shesh, the entire construction of Cocoon itself was Barthandelus' doing.

Surprisingly sophisticated for a Final Fantasy villain. And, with the exception of Kefka, the only one to actually have their goal be achieved. Just not in the way he wanted..

The level of planning doesn't reach that of Vayne's from Final Fantasy XII, but it's still pretty darn good for a series where a lot of the villains want to destroy everything just to get more power or whatever. Or make their mummy happy.


Overall I don't think there's a character in the game I don't like. I don't always like them, but they're a well developed bunch and seem to skirt wisely around the annoyances and general cliches most characters of their sorts fall into. Except Hope.

Poor fellow.




There's really only one more major point to discuss about Final Fantasy XIII, and that's the battle system, which seems to divide people more than any other aspect of the game.

Once again, I'm going to have to leap to its defense. I personally think the battle system is the best in the series, and one of the best of any JRPG. It's certainly not perfect, but I found it a damn sight more entertaining than any other out there. Though the battles in the Tales of ____ games come rather close.

Let's face it, in a 40+ hour game your battle system is going to get tedious at some point. I think adding in the Auto-Battle command put people in the entirely wrong mind-set, and if I was given the power I'd have personally removed it. It made a lot of people fall into the "Well the game just plays itself now, doesn't it?!" mentality.

I find this rather irksome, since XIII actually has some great little mechanic quirks to it. Being able to not only uppercut a Behemoth into the air, but keep him constantly juggled up there through use of certain abilities (Hint: Thunder spells hit the target nigh-instantly, making timing much easier!) and filling up just the right amount of the ATB bar for your character was really, really enjoyable. The ability to turn what would normally be a drawn-out battle into something pretty straight-forward and fun by learning the combat mechanics is always a joy.

Paradigm Shifting was a great touch as well (and essential in many-a battle). It made you think a lot about timing and what your general party/class set-up was going to be. It was a downright necessity to plan accordingly on the more annoying bosses (ie: any time you fought Barthandelus, the fucker).

Again, like the story, the main problem with XIII's battle system is that if you're not invested in it early on it becomes really old for the first 10-12 hours, since it hardly changes then. I think if you started the game in Palumpolum and told all the essential story-points before it in little flashback segments (like the little Bodhum skits) the whole thing would've been recieved much more warmly. But it entirely depends what sort of pacing you expect from a title like this.

It's definitely a game that even the most devote fan has to admit takes a while to get going (When exactly it does is a source of debate). It's a real slow-burning title, which comes with both pros and cons. The game gives itself plenty of time to introduce the characters, the problem they face, and the general feel of the world.

However, if you just want to game to get to the really good stuff, you're going to be sitting there for absolute yonks. I personally kinda like the slow-burn, though even I wished around Chapter 5-6 that the game would pick up the pace a bit, although it does allow you to become immersed in the world a bit better than most JRPGs. The worlds of Cocoon and Pulse are extremely well designed and are just smothered with personality, which I think partly contributes to the annoyance when it comes to linearity. Some areas look so awesome that you really do just want to see so much more of it.

One of the coolest little things I think the developers did, at least regarding the world itself, was that they created their own Pulse/Cocoon languages. The game never calls attention to them, but they appear a lot on signs/in the background, and you actually can translate them if you know what means what. Kinda like what Futurama does from time to time.

It doesn't elevate the game by any means, by I always really like attention to detail like that.




I think what throws a lot of people off as well is that this game does ditch a lot of the usual Final Fantasy marks. It may not seem like much, but the lack of the usual victory Fanfare music, Prelude ditty and other small touches really can make you look at the game differently. You're sort of wired to naturally expect those things in the series, if you're a long-time fan, so for them to be absent in XIII probably also helped in putting people in the wrong mind set.

This isn't your old Final Fantasy title. A lot of the old things are either missing or changed almost beyond recognition. I like that Square-Enix decided to take a pretty large risk with this title, and that it's paid off quite well for 'em.

I think it's a damn shame that the game isn't more warmly recieved amongst the more self-important gamers, especially when soulless, corporate-designed whosits like Modern Warfare 2 is out getting 10/10 scores and has sold well over 10 million copies. I mean I can see where the criticisms are coming from, but I guess I just feel the overall product more than makes up for any of those flaws.

Then again I consider Final Fantasy IV to be vastly overrated, liked XII and have felt the series has actually been getting better since Final Fantasy IX, so what the hell do I know?

As I blurbed about for a little bit in my Final Fantasy ranking entry a while ago, XIII is my favorite in the series. I still strongly stand by that. I imagine to people that think a Final Fantasy game should stick to a specific gameplay/story structure would be rather ticked off with XIII, but I've always viewed the series as more of a sandbox. There's little things that stay the same (monster designs, Cid, item names, crystals, evil organization/empire), but the creators are given free-reign to create whatever their minds can come up with. For me it's often the more 'out there' Final Fantasy titles that strike me as the most interesting.

I like games that happily mess with established formula for a good reason, and not just for the sheer sake of it.

Final Fantasy XIII feels like an experiment to see just what people want out of a JRPG in this generation, since the genre as a whole has been doing very poorly. Actually, XIII is the only JRPG to have been a commercial success. Not to say it's the only good one (Lost Odyssey was pretty cool), but it's definitely the only one that's managed to sell a lot of copies. If you come into the genre wanting a tight story, fantastic/unique backdrops, and a heavy emphasis on themes and progression to a finale, then XIII does that job incredibly well.

Buuuuut, if you want vast exploration, mini-games/side-quests, and a general focus on the game keeping you away from finishing it for as long as possible then Final Fantasy XIII offers practically nothing of the sort.

I've seen a lot of people comment that Final Fantasy XIII isn't a 'true' game in the series. I really don't get where this line of thought comes from, aside from "I don't like it, so it DOESN'T COUNT!!!" At its core, XIII carries the same emphasis and themes that the series has become extremely well known for. They've been played around with and tinkered, but everything that made a Final Fantasy title stand out from the rest of the JRPG crowd is still there in spades.

I'd say ever since Final Fantasy X the series has become more and more like a creative sandbox for writing/designing. IX was created to be the swan-song of the 'old-school' series, and from that point onwards the series was really allowed to mess around and try new things. I mean, after you've just created a 40+ hour loving tribute to everything that's come before what would be the point of just making more of the same?

Final Fantasy X ditched the EXP system, created a disturbingly vast character progression mechanic, introduced voice acting and had an interesting narrative hook where you started near the end of the story.

Final Fantasy X-2 was the first attempt to create an actual sequel to a game in the series, and played around a lot with the general mood and atmosphere. Whether it worked or not is a question of strong debate, however.

Final Fantasy XI took the series online and really, when you think about it, is the only main-series title to be in an entirely different genre (well, not anymore, since XIV is just around the corner). XI's odd, in that while it did take a massive leap away from the usual JRPG formula, it's actually the most like the old-school games since IX when it comes to setting and themes.

Final Fantasy XII took the series back to the JRPG, but still kept many of the MMO mechanics that XI founded. It also let the story take a step into the background, making it more subtle and putting the emphasis on gameplay and exploration. Really, it's almost like the opposite of what XIII became.

People feel very strongly about the series, which I think is the reason it's managed to stay around since the NES days. People come in to every new Final Fantasy title expecting something. When they don't get what they personally feel the series is about they get really upset. On one hand I can perfectly see where they're coming from, but I've always enjoyed seeing just how different each title in the series can be from the others, while still keeping that fantastic Final Fantasy feel to it.

Final Fantasy XIII doesn't do everything perfectly, but it's entirely dedicated to getting what it wants across. If you don't like it, then there's little else in this game to appease you. If, however, you do like what it's trying to do, then it becomes something to truly behold.

If nothing else can be said about the game, it knows what it wants to do and just goes for it with complete enthusiasm. Not many games can make claim to have this mentality anymore.