A Strike Gamer Review
The Good, The Bad, and the Meh
The Good
Battle systems, Ready, Set, Go!
Fast, Strategic, and Flashy would be the words that I would use to describe the battle system of ff xiii. It removes a lot of the micromanagement of the previous final fantasys, even though the option is there. It may seem like a negative, but this system allows you to over look the overall flow better. Trust me, its better than it sounds, but be ready it takes a while to fully grasp.
The basic jist of the battle system centers around paradigms. In Final Fantasy, paradigms are prearranged class setups for your party that you can switch in the middle of battle. For example, Lets say you start the battle and your party consists of a synergist, a class that allows a character to cast spells that enhance your party, a sentinel, a character that gets the focus of your enemies and is much soak up much more damage, and a ravager, a mage that builds up the stagger bar for your enemies. You can choose a preset class setup that you have setup in the menu before the battle and switch to it. Once you choose a paradign, your characters will automatically change classes that correspond with that setup. This allows you to look at the battle situation and change your classes based on what your strategy is mid battle.
Each character has a few classes that they are able to choose from at first. The classes are: Commando, Ravenger, Medic, Saboteur, Sentinel, and Synergist. Each character has three of the classes, even though the option to add other classes becomes optional later in the game, but it is not very necessary. Characters are better at certain classes than others and they sometimes have unique class techniques. Every class is very different from and you need to use all the classes or you will be in for a challenge. You will need to develop and use your entire party and all of your classes in order to gain victory.
Stagger bar, how I love thee. You have no Idea what I am talking about, but I know you will come to appreciate it once you play the game. Basically, this bar is part of every enemy and is required for taking down many opponents. Ravagers are the most efficient at raising this bar, but the commandos are pretty much required to prevent the bar from falling back down. Once this bar is filled up, your enemies become more vulnerable or sometimes you cannot deal damage to an enemy without filling up the stagger bar. Some enemies are even almost impossible to get their stagger bar full.
Auto commands are interesting to evaluate. You select the auto command button and it will choose a chain of attacks for your character to use. You do choose the enemy though when using it though. You can choose to manually do it, but I want to state why I think it is a given. Battles are fast paced and it is sometimes hard to enter commands in before your bar fills. You are only controlling one character and it is still hard to choose your actions in a speedy fashion. The computer does a pretty good job too. Once you cast Libra, a spell that allows you to view the stats, the weaknesses, and the strengths of the enemy the auto command will change the series of commands based on that info. If it sees that an enemy is weak to fire from the knowledge then it will cast fire based spells to help the fight. Even more, if you find out that an enemy can do attacks that cast status effects on you then it will tell your synergist to cast anti status effect spells on your party members. The AI for the Auto Command is extremely intelligent. The AI for the other non controlled characters are just as impressive, since you control one character in battle. Now, Now I am sure your saying Scott doesn’t that mean that a computer is doing all the work for you? Well, Sorta. All you pretty much have to do is worry about paradigm shifts and when to use your summons and items. Paradigm shifts will take up a lot of your focus as a tactician. You will be switching your classes many times throughout battle and you will be looking at all the variables in the battle. Without the auto battle, the battle system would be get really stressful and would wear you down.
I forgot to tell you that there are no random battles. You see your enemys in the map and if you run into them or if they run into you, you will enter the battle mode. You wont have the freedom of moving around in battle and you cant runaway once in battle. Battles go quickly either way. You can evade monsters on the map most of the time. This lessens tedium.
All of these elements allow for a complex and fun battle system that doesn’t lack speed. In my opinion, I think its one of the best battle systems in the series.
O Cocoon world, don’t desert me now
Cocoon and Pulse are magical and unique places and they will make your gaze in wonder at their environments. Cocoon is pretty much a moon that orbits around a planet called Pulse. Most of the game takes place on Cocoon, which is heavily industrialized and futuristic. It mixes a lot of sci fi and fantasy elements together. Pulse is more of a primal and natural place that has giant enemies that move about the open landscapes. All the environments vary and they will continue to surprise you the whole game through. The actual depth behind both worlds is stunning and each world contains a culture of their own. Character and Monster designs are creative and colorful. They seem so foreign and unique that you will grow to appreciate the world. Some monsters and background characters look meh though. They do bring back a lot of the favorite creatures from the universe, but they bring them back with a twist. You will be quite surprised with
Enemies, Straight ahead
Enemy design is rather good I must say. Each monster and boss usually needs different strategies in order to take down and there are diverse amount of monsters as well. The developers do rinse and repeat some monsters, but they change them ever so slightly to keep you on your toes. Some bosses do lack variety though and require you to spam the attack button. Some times you can be forced to fight the same monsters in a row, but I never saw it as much of a problem.
Grind Free Coffee
Its pretty much grind free most of the game, except for the post game shanagans. All the enemies during the main story can be defeated through the use of tactics. Monsters are not hard enough in the main story to grind for. The post game is another story. There are ridiculously tough bosses and they will require grinding and leveling up of your weapons. The Post story is pretty much a save spot right before the final boss and they allow you to progress your characters further in an open world area. They allow you to go to Pulse and do missions. These missions include killing bosses, getting loot, and to leveling up. These post game missions really help prolong the re playability of the game
The Musical Master Doesn't Strike Again?
Music has always been a strong point of the Final Fantasy series and it is no different in this game. It may not have as many memorable songs like Final Fantasy 7, but the music is really strong in the game with out a date. You know the music is THAT good when you can hear the same song over and over during the many battles that you will have and never get old of it. Jrpgs may have a bad rap with a lot of western gamers, but one has a tough time arguing that Final Fantasy XIII has good music..
Its pretty much grind free most of the game, except for the post game shanagans. All the enemies during the main story can be defeated through the use of tactics. Monsters are not hard enough in the main story to grind for. The post game is another story. There are ridiculously tough bosses and they will require grinding and leveling up of your weapons. The Post story is pretty much a save spot right before the final boss and they allow you to progress your characters further in an open world area. They allow you to go to Pulse and do missions. These missions include killing bosses, getting loot, and to leveling up. These post game missions really help prolong the re playability of the game
The Musical Master Doesn't Strike Again?
Music has always been a strong point of the Final Fantasy series and it is no different in this game. It may not have as many memorable songs like Final Fantasy 7, but the music is really strong in the game with out a date. You know the music is THAT good when you can hear the same song over and over during the many battles that you will have and never get old of it. Jrpgs may have a bad rap with a lot of western gamers, but one has a tough time arguing that Final Fantasy XIII has good music..
The Bad
Kill the Leader!
Definitely the most annoying part of the game is the fact that you can’t switch you’re the character that you control on the fly and the fact that if the character that you control dies the whole team fails. You need to start the battle over again whenever the battle leader dies. This is extremely annoying when you feel like your enemies know this fact and attack your main character. It may not happen all the time, but it can make you want to drop kick your controller off the empire state building.
Vanille
Now this character is not the spawn of evil, but I will assure you that she is the most annoying character of THE WHOLE ENTIRE FF SERIES! She is like a high pitched japanese school girl that spews corny dialog every few seconds. She may have secrets and a mystery behind her, but that doesnt prevent you from wanting to duck tape her mouth. Now that I think of it, she continues the trend of annoying hyperactive chicks in final fantasy games. There was Yuffie in ff VII, Sophie in ff VIII, that little girl with the purple hair in ff VIIII, Rikku in FFX, and now Vanille. Congratulations Vanille, you have outdone yourself.
The Tale of no Exporable Cities
I know this game is linear, but why did they have to take out the towns. They are supposed to be breaks in the action where you are supposed to soak up the atmosphere and to interest with the people of the world. I mean, you do go through city settings, but you cannot freely roam a town and talk to the townspeople. Towns in final fantasy games are meant to be breaks in the action in order for the character to take a break before taking on the struggles ahead. Cut scenes now take the spot of being the breaks for Final Fantasy 13, but it it’s not the same. I may be old school for thinking about it in this way, but I’m not gonna stop complaining until I have my towns back!
The Meh
The Voice of the People
Yay! No more text bubbles. The whole game has voice acting and they even synched all the lips for the English voiceovers. The voice acting is good overall with a few gripes, like Vanille. Yes, I want to bash her upside the head whenever she speaks, but that’s beside the point. Writing for the game is…not the best. It is not that it’s a bad translation or something. The writing for the game is extremely corny at points and can make the serious story seem iffy at times.
To be Linear or not to be Linear, that is the question
The game, to say it bluntly, is extremely linear versus the other final fantasy games. This may seem like bad thing, but it does have its positives. It causes the game design and story to flow better, but at the sacrifice of freedom I may not completely disagree with their decision, but I wish they would have made a balance between Freedom and Linearity. There is a Open world segment of the game that opens up later in the game and it allows you to return there near the end of the game, but I still think that there should be more opportunities to explore the environment.
Weapons, Weapons, Weapons
The weapon upgrade system is kinda iffy. You basically take weapons and pour items into them for experience. That, in turn, levels them up. Once they reach a certain level, you can evolve them and continue pouring exp into them.Yep that’s it. No customization, not many evolutions, and no real focus on weapon upgrading as a whole. There may not be many weapons, but all weapons are very different and play to different game styles. There is no super weapon to upgrade that dominates all other weapons. You must choose the weapon that goes with the strategy that you want to use. I really appreciate this diversity and it really brings more depth to the battle system. A better Upgrade system would be awesome though.
Summons, yeah, they’re here. So what?
Summons are not that powerful and are underpowered. They are cool looking, and they have some effect, but they don’t have that same power as the other final fantasys. Well, except for ff XII in which they sucked especially. Players are not allowed to use them very often either way. The summons in this game just feel tagged on.
Slow.....Game.....Progression
It takes quite a while to get into the meat of the game. With in the first 5 ours I was not the biggest fan of the game, but as it continued I grew to like it. I know, they progress it slowly in order for the player to grasp all the concepts of the battle system, but I still feel like 15 hours is too long for a game to open up. I felt at times that I was just playing the game just to try and open up the battle system to its fullest and that really should not be the case. A player should be able to enjoy the battle system from the beginning and as the game continues depth is introduced to the game. AKA they should have allowed the paradigm system to be available from the very start.
Slow.....Game.....Progression
It takes quite a while to get into the meat of the game. With in the first 5 ours I was not the biggest fan of the game, but as it continued I grew to like it. I know, they progress it slowly in order for the player to grasp all the concepts of the battle system, but I still feel like 15 hours is too long for a game to open up. I felt at times that I was just playing the game just to try and open up the battle system to its fullest and that really should not be the case. A player should be able to enjoy the battle system from the beginning and as the game continues depth is introduced to the game. AKA they should have allowed the paradigm system to be available from the very start.
The Story of the L’Cie
L’ what? I know, it sounds weird and maybe a little French, but its name goes well with the fantasy that they were going for. The basic story setup ,without spoilers, is that these main characters have chosen by the Fal Cie, these magical god like creatures, to be L’Cie s, humans that are forced to do a mission for the Fal’ Cie or else they will be turned into a brainless and brutal creature. Did I forget to tell you that all of Cocoon wants their head because they were selected by a Fal’ Cie from their enemy’s world, Pulse? To further beat that, the characters home is Cocoon and they want to stay their, but they cannot since they are considered outlaws. This is all while the characters are trying to figure out their mission and trying to save the world at the same time. I know, this is the barebones and I would tell you more, but I would ruin the experience. It has good twists and a development. It’s a solid presentation overall. It may get a little predictable at times and the voice acting can be iffy in spots, but it’s a decent story overall. It still has a lot of the same themes as previous games of the series and a few new ones though. If you cannot stand Japanese melodrama, you may be turned away from the story though. It’s a required taste either way.
Overall Impressions
It’s a good game without a doubt. It is the best game in the Final Fantasy series? Its tough to say, because, for me, the older games have not aged well. They may have been great for their time, but games these days have higher standards and have more modern innovations. It may not have the best Final Fantasy story and it is slow at the beginning, but the presentation, the battle system, the world of Cocoon makes it one of the finest in the series. It may be quite different than the rest of the series, but it’s a guaranteed a breath of fresh air, whether you view it is a good or bad breath.
