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Shazam!
01-15-2010, 01:46 PM
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Final Fantasy XIII Preview
Our first try at the English-language version, complete with sky robots.
by Ryan Clements
IGN

January 14, 2010 - Final Fantasy XIII is arguably one of the most anticipated Japanese role-playing games around. We've seen Square Enix's beautiful title several times before, but usually the version on display is for the Japanese market and subsequently less accessible for a U.S. audience. At last year's Gamescom show, an English-language version was available to view, but no one was allowed to play it. This made many eager game journalists cry bitter, bitter tears.

Yesterday, however, Square Enix kicked off an official bus tour for Final Fantasy XIII. A Lightning-branded black bus will be driving around San Francisco for a few days and offering the public (and journalists, too) a chance to actually play the English-language version of Final Fantasy XIII for the first time. Being a Final Fantasy enthusiast and having a long and complex history with buses, it made sense for me to hunt down the tour bus and pop inside to play. I was joined by my colleague and friend Ryan Geddes, whose only real concern was finding as many chocobos as humanly possible. He, as an advance note, did not find any.

The interior of the Lightning Bus, as I'll call it, was lined with eye-catching flat panel TVs, which were running the recently-released International Trailer as well as playable demos. Both PS3s and 360s were being used to show off the game, which was great as I was able to see both versions running side-by-side. As expected, the 360 version was noticeably less crisp than its PS3 counterpart, but it still ran nicely.

There was very little story or context given to the playable demo, as I was thrown right into the action in order to experiment with the battle system and -- perhaps even more fun -- peruse the intricate menus which dictate character growth, equipment upgrades and job classes. Although our time with the game was still limited, this was one of the first times that I began to fully wrap my head around Final Fantasy XIII's complex battle system.

The demo party consisted of main character Lightning (who is, might I add, looking as lovely as ever), newly-revealed Fang and Hope. Snow, the bandanna brawler, was also on the reserves list. Our heroes were fighting on what looked to be the underbelly deck of a massive airship, so clouds drenched the backdrop and wondrous machinery stretched above the character's heads.

The only enemies in this environment were Deckdrones -- slender, humanoid machines that seemed to defend the airship. There were also larger opponents to face, though I was unsure if these foes were also drones or humans with some sort of cybernetic armor. As far as playable demos go, this Final Fantasy XIII session was surprisingly tough, as the enemies were viscous in their attacks and could easily KO one of your characters.

In Final Fantasy XIII, players will only directly control one character at a time. The other two characters are controlled by the AI, though players will have some say in how they behave. The complex Paradigm system dictates how each character acts in battle and will frequently dictate what skills you as a player have access to at one time. A Paradigm is essentially a group or set of "roles." Roles will be familiar to Final Fantasy fans, as they are very much like the classic jobs from previous Final Fantasy games. For example, a Medic will focus on healing the party, just like the White Mage we all know and love.

http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/106/1061264/final-fantasy-xiii-20100114042544370-000.jpg

Players can customize a Paradigm, or grouping, so that each Paradigm has a specific role assigned to the three characters in the battle party. During actual combat, players can hit a button to activate the Paradigm Shift, which instantly changes the roles of all three party members depending on which Paradigm the player selects.

I soon found that players must switch Paradigms constantly to suit the flow of battle. This adds a noticeable element of strategy to the system. Otherwise, players must command their main character during battle directly. A segmented gauge located above the command menu steadily fills as the character remains in a neutral position. Players can select a number of different techniques, as long as those techniques don't cost more than the available segments in the gauge. Once the player has made his or her selections, those actions play out all at once, be they physical attacks or spells.

This might sound overly complicated and terrifying -- perhaps even the stuff out of your worst nightmares -- but it's not too difficult to learn. It's certainly overwhelming at first, but I was more comfortable with the system after a few extended battles. I'm also a strategic mastermind, so that clearly helped the situation along.

What was even more interesting to me than fighting battles was tinkering around in the main menu, which happens to be one of the most badass menus of all time. It's clear that Square Enix invested some time and energy into making the interface as fancy and eye-catching as possible, as everything is neatly organized, character portraits stylishly animate when equipment is selected and the Crystarium system is mind-blowing.

The Crystarium system, which is used to level-up your character and improve stats, is a thing of beauty. When selecting Lightning, a crystal rose opens with a flourish on the screen and her leveling paths unfold like something out of Minority Report. This system was so complex and visually overwhelming that I didn't actually know what to do, so I immediately closed the menu. It was essentially the Pandora's Box of Final Fantasy XIII. I'll get to it eventually!

Although I'm still hesitant about the linear nature of Final Fantasy XIII, I still look forward to playing the game from start to finish and riding plenty of chocobos. If you're interested in trying the game out for yourself and you live in or around San Francisco, perhaps you too can enjoy the Lightning Bus.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/106/1061264p1.html

MasterShake
01-15-2010, 02:14 PM
I'm dying to play this game, but I agree with the article. Final Fantasy X was extremely linear, and Final Fantasy XII was more open but only for notorious monster quests. I kind of miss the old free exploration after getting ships/chocobos/airships. One of the coolest ever was finding the mimic in Final Fantasy III on the SNES after getting sucked into a cave by those worm things. And Final Fantasy VII and VIII were full of fun dungeons and secrets to explore and get new weapons.

They seem more focused on complex battle and leveling systems and story than exploration and level grinding. Change is good, but I miss the latter.

Shazam!
01-15-2010, 02:23 PM
IMO Square (I'll never call them Square Enix) has downgraded the entire series since FFX. The last one I really liked was FFIX, which was more traditional. I prefer the more traditional RPGs.

IMO Bioware is the new RPG king, with Mass Effect, KOTOR and the new Dragon Age which was awesome. It was clear that FFXII took a lot of influence from Bioware's RPGs..

MasterShake
01-15-2010, 02:36 PM
IMO Square (I'll never call them Square Enix) has downgraded the entire series since FFX. The last one I really liked was FFIX, which was more traditional. I prefer the more traditional RPGs.

IMO Bioware is the new RPG king, with Mass Effect, KOTOR and the new Dragon Age which was awesome. It was clear that FFXII took a lot of influence from Bioware's RPGs..

I agree. I like the new Final Fantasies just fine, but it feels like watching a damn movie for 30 minutes before you can do anything. Dragon Age is easily my favorite RPG of the last 5 years, followed by Mass Effect and Lost Odyssey.

Speaking of, Lost Odyssey is a good example of what Squaresoft (:)) should strive for. It was relatively linear, but gave you options to branch out a bit. And the leveling was fun, not tedious like the license system in Final Fantasy XII.

FanInAZ
01-15-2010, 04:58 PM
How much longer will it be before this final fantasy finally ends? The name Final Fantasy suggests that its the end of the road. This is apparently the 13th time that this fantasy has reached the end of the road.

MasterShake
01-15-2010, 05:01 PM
How much longer will it be before this final fantasy finally ends? The name Final Fantasy suggests that its the end of the road. This is apparently the 13th time that this fantasy has reached the end of the road.

Like the Neverending Story 2? :lol: It had to do with the fact that Square thought it would be their last game. Turns out it saved their ass:


Looks like Final Fantasy director Hironobu Sakaguchi and composer Nobuo Uematsu might disagree as to how Square Enix’s world-famous RPG got its name.

Last Friday, Wired.com photographer Jon Snyder was shooting Uematsu after our interview, and had him turn to me and engage in some small talk while he snapped pictures. What to talk about? I remembered that a Game|Life reader had just emailed me asking if I knew, definitively, how the game got its name.

There are two different stories out there. One is that Square was going bankrupt, and thought this would be their last game, hence “final fantasy.” The other is that Sakaguchi was going to quit Square and go back to college, but make one final game before he left.


What I’d said to that reader was that I believed that the story about Square going bankrupt sounded like baloney — after all, wasn’t making Famicom games in the eighties in Japan like a license to print money? But more than that, Sakaguchi himself had repeated the college story in many different interviews, and I couldn’t find any source for the bankruptcy story.

So I asked Uematsu.

Is it true, I asked, that the game is called Final Fantasy because Sakaguchi was going to go back to college and quit the game biz? Uematsu laughed: It’s true that Sakaguchi was going to quit, he said, but the bigger reason, the real reason, was that Square was going to go bankrupt and the designers believed that it would be the company’s swan song.

So there we have it, from someone who was there when it all happened: the Square-was-going-bankrupt theory of the game’s unique moniker is, at least, supported by Uematsu, which takes it out of the “baseless rumor” category.

Now, someone just needs to ask Koichi Sugiyama about that rumor that Dragon Quest games can’t be sold on school days in Japan…



Read More http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2009/07/final-fantasy/#ixzz0cilFeFZw

Shazam!
01-15-2010, 06:03 PM
Dragon Age is easily my favorite RPG of the last 5 years, followed by Mass Effect and Lost Odyssey.

Speaking of, Lost Odyssey is a good example of what Squaresoft () should strive for. It was relatively linear, but gave you options to branch out a bit. And the leveling was fun, not tedious like the license system in Final Fantasy XII.

LO is easily one of the most unappreciated games of all time IMO.

FanInAZ
01-15-2010, 07:20 PM
Like the Neverending Story 2? :lol: It had to do with the fact that Square thought it would be their last game. Turns out it saved their ass:

In other words, Uematsu is the Brett Favre of the gaming world?

Shazam!
01-15-2010, 09:49 PM
Each iteration of FF is different. They are not a continuing saga.

Devilspawn
01-16-2010, 08:44 AM
FF7 is still the best to me. FF8 wasn't half bad. I barely played 9 and 10. I will play this one, but I have a feeling that after all is said and done, FF7 will still be my #1.

jrelway
01-16-2010, 12:01 PM
FF7 is still the best to me. FF8 wasn't half bad. I barely played 9 and 10. I will play this one, but I have a feeling that after all is said and done, FF7 will still be my #1.

i agree. final fantasy 7 was thee best. next to FF3

jrelway
01-16-2010, 12:02 PM
what happened to the simple (fight, run, magic, summons) commands. the game has gotten a little too hectic for me now.

Shazam!
01-16-2010, 02:17 PM
jr, if you never played Lost Odyessey I highly recommend it. Old school RPG in the traiditon of classic FFs. Best non-Bioware RPG I've played the last decade, hands down. Anyone else would tell you the same thing who owns an XBox 360. It ****ing pwns.

drewloc
01-18-2010, 12:05 PM
jr, if you never played Lost Odyessey I highly recommend it. Old school RPG in the traiditon of classic FFs. Best non-Bioware RPG I've played the last decade, hands down. Anyone else would tell you the same thing who owns an XBox 360. It ****ing pwns.

No lie, especially if you like that old style RPG play. Like Shazam said, it's easily the best non-Bioware RPG in the last decade. I can't recommend it enough. I was glad that I followed Shazam's advice and picked it up last year. Kept me entertained for hours, and if it weren't for Mass Effect and Dragon Age, I probably would still pop it back in. :salute:

MasterShake
01-18-2010, 12:11 PM
No lie, especially if you like that old style RPG play. Like Shazam said, it's easily the best non-Bioware RPG in the last decade. I can't recommend it enough. I was glad that I followed Shazam's advice and picked it up last year. Kept me entertained for hours, and if it weren't for Mass Effect and Dragon Age, I probably would still pop it back in. :salute:

I'm going back in after Mass Effect 2 to get my 1000 gamerpoints. I just need to complete the Lost Dreams stuff and find all the treasure. I'm only missing a few.

Shazam!
01-18-2010, 05:18 PM
I was glad that I followed Shazam's advice and picked it up last year.

You're welcome! :)