Final Fantasy XIII Impressions

[Ginkasa]

I finished the game about a week ago or so. I have mixed thoughts on the game as a whole. If I were to rank the core FF games XIII would be right on the line of the games I like and the games I don't really like (say, right before VIII).

I thought the story started out really strong. Not having a clear antagonist and have the cast just stuck in an awful situation was a different direction and a good change of pace. I liked thinking that I wasn't going to be able to tell how things were going to play out. I also like the high moral ambiguity with the main cast; they weren't really "good guys" in the beginning of the game. They were doing whatever they needed to do to accomplish their own personal goals and survive, not save the world.

Unfortunately the whole thing falls apart when the "main villain" is revealed. The reveal is completely wasted since you don't really get to know the character at all. Its just, "Oh, yeah, and this is the big bad guy." The same goes for pretty much any character beyond the main cast. Nobody is developed at all beyond whatever very minor role they play in the story. They have no real character or personality.

I also got really annoyed with the datalog. At first it very handily filled in the information that all the characters would know (what is Cocoon and Pulse, what's a fal'Cie and l'Cie, who are the Guardian Corps, etc.). It brought me into the world without resorting to silly forced exposition. Once the big villain is revealed, however, it starts giving out essential plot info that was not revealed in the cutscenes or game proper. I would be reading the newest datalog entry and I'd come across something and think, "Wait, what? Since when?" At first I thought I had missed something or maybe it was a mistake; they programmed the datalog to be unlocked too early or something. It kept happening and I realized it was just really bad storytelling.

Ultimately I was left dissatisfied with the story.

I did, however, like the battle and Paradigm system. Mostly, anyway. I was annoyed by the "Party leader" thing. Basically, if the Party Leader dies the game is over. This doesn't make sense from a gameplay or story perspective. Any character can be the party leader and eventually you can decide who is the party leader, so there's not some silly "in-game" explanation for it. I can't think of any "real world" reason behind it either. Its just frustrating. I also don't like how the different paradigms/jobs grow differently for the different characters. I felt like the game expected me to be able to use "Haste," but only one character had it despite having two well-developed synergists. It basically prevented me from having exactly the team I wanted until near the end of the game.

Overall, though, I enjoyed playing it. I didn't mind the linearity itself, although I would have liked some "downtime" in between the constant flow of battles. It got especially tiring when there constantly enemies that could a while to wear down and defeat. Near the end I just started avoiding the battles.

Anyway...