Final Fantasy XIII Hands On Preview
Hands-on with Final Fantasy XIII
PS3/XBox 360
A pair of enticing new missions joins a phenomenal trailer.
by Ryan Clements
September 8, 2009 - Tonight (or yesterday, depending on your current location in the world), Square Enix held its Final Fantasy XIII Premiere Party, which delivered a number of exciting bits of news to Final Fantasy fans across the globe. As covered in my live blog of the event, Square Enix officially unveiled the release date and price point for the game, as well as the news that Japan will be bestowed with a Final Fantasy XIII PS3 Slim bundle. Unfortunately, no details were given on whether or not this bundle would make it to the United States, but I imagine there's at least a slight possibility that it will.
But there were even more intriguing things on display at the party than these formal announcements. Shortly after the event began, curtains were pulled back to reveal playable builds of the game, which I had the pleasure of trying out. The last two events I attended (E3 and Gamescom) both had Final Fantasy XIII sessions, but neither session was playable. This was the first time I had played the game since my initial impressions of the Advent Children Blu-ray demo, so it was great to finally get my hands on the controller again.
The demo on display was actually divided into two separate missions that occur at different points in the game. The first mission places you in control of Lightning, the fierce main character, with silver-haired boy Hope along for the ride. Set in Palumpolum, the Capital of Commerce, this short mission finds Lighting and Hope sneaking through a government-controlled area in a massive harbor town. Before the demo began, I was treated to a stunning cinematic that depicted the government soldiers and ships deployed at the capital and on a mission to hunt down the L'Cie. The forces were being controlled by the oddly named Yaag Rosch, who can be seen shouting out orders into a sleek headset.
At the start of the playable section, players must guide Lightning and Hope through the dangerous territory towards some sort of drainage pipe they can covertly crawl through. Of course, seeing as how my time with the game was incredibly short, I opted to charge into battle head-first and kick ass as loudly and flamboyantly as possible. To hell with stealth -- that's what Metal Gear Solid is for.
I was glad to play this portion of the demo because the environment was not only stellar looking for an RPG, but also much more open than the bridge environment used in previous demos. Although the path was ultimately linear (I didn't have much time to explore), there were a lot of different smaller paths you could take towards your goal, which is hopefully a recurring trend with the rest of the game.
Palumpolum immediately reminded me of Junon from Final Fantasy VII, which brought back quite a few fond memories. Perhaps more striking then the vistas, however, are the game's character models, which really do look phenomenal. When the camera gets up close and personal, a huge amount of detail comes out in those models, like the intricate textures of the clothing to the superbly detailed hair. Regardless of how you feel about Final Fantasy XIII's gameplay, there's no getting around the fact that this is a very pretty RPG.
Nothing overly dramatic took place during my play time, but the few short battles I participated in ran smoothly. Players can queue up a number of actions (depending on how many action points are available) and then can execute these custom combos all at once. Although I've been pleased with the battle system so far, I worry about only being able to directly control one character at a time, which I found a bit disappointing. In fact, it sounds like players will have little choice about the characters they use, as certain portions of the game must be played through as one particular character.
After a few uneventful battles, I personally used Lightning's summon, Odin, for the first time. I must say I've always been a big fan of Final Fantasy summons and Final Fantasy XIII is no exception. The incredible summoning sequences are only outdone by the grand spectacle of seeing Odin stomp into battle alongside Lighting and lay waste to dozens of soldiers. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to give Odin's Gestalt mode a try, so I made it a special point to give it a go during the Snow mission. This was met with hilarious results.
But before I describe those hilarious results to you, let's set the stage. Snow was joined by Sazh and Vanille during the demo, and the three characters were fighting their way through what looked to be ancient stone ruins. I didn't have nearly as much context for this portion of the demo as I did for Lightning's portion, but all you need to know is that Snow and Co. are seriously invested in roughing up the masked soldiers of the government.
It was during the first few Snow battles that I took notice of the "Optima Change" system, or "Paradigm Shift" system here in the United States. This allows you to set the AI routines of your teammates on the fly in combat, which is a nice little layer of strategy to consider. In the Japanese build at the event, some of the classes included Healer, Enhancer and Blaster. Women have called me all three of those things on various occasions.
But as I mentioned before, I wanted to experiment with the Gestalt system for at least one of the summons, so my only chance was with Snow, as my time with the demo was running short. After summoning Snow's semi-robotic version of Shiva onto the screen, I activated Gestalt mode. This essentially combines the summoned creature with the character in question, increasing their powers and making them a formidable force overall. So after sitting through two incredibly elaborate cutscenes (one depicting the initial Shiva summon and the other showcasing the flashy transformation) and eagerly awaiting my chance to ride around on the Shiva motorcycle, the battle instantly ended.
Yes, I never got the chance to drive the Shiva-cycle. Apparently, one of my teammates landed a killing blow on the last remaining enemy right as I pressed the Gestalt mode button. So close, yet so far...
Following my session with Final Fantasy XIII, the event ended with the premier of the newest trailer, which was one of the most spectacular trailers I've seen in a long time (I'm sure the dizzyingly massive HD screen and reverberating sound system helped the viewing experience quite a bit). As taking video or pictures of the trailer was strictly prohibited, the best I can do is describe the surprisingly long video for those interested.
The trailer began with an extended CG sequence following Snow and newly announced Serah, the vibrant, schoolgirl-esque beauty that apparently has a romantic connection with the bandanna-wearing brawler. In the scene, the two rode a small hover ship around a spectacular egg-shaped structure, the walls of which were clear enough to see the dazzling fireworks show going on inside. Snow and Serah talked for a time as they drifted through the night sky, showered in the glow of the lights, before leaning in to give each other a gentle kiss. When they pull apart, Serah's face was definitely colored with a certain amount of melancholy. Could this foreshadow the character's untimely death, which seems to be hinted at throughout the trailer? Am I just being overly sensitive again?
The scene eventually transitioned to a lengthy mix of CG cutscenes and in-game footage, most of which was entirely new. Highlights include a colorful festival environment (which could be connected to the egg structure), a green field populated by lumbering stone creatures, Serah and Snow talking on a dock that's bathed in the light of a sunset, the bespectacled villain Jihl tormenting Sazh with what appeared to be disturbing news (perhaps a threat against Sazh's son, or worse), Vanille falling to her knees in front of Serah on what appears to be the same dock (Foreshadowing!), and Sazh frantically pointing a gun at Vanille. This assortment of scenes shows just how dialogue-heavy the trailer was, but the emotional payload was still very noticeable. On top of all the excellent direction of these segments, the Final Fantasy XIII's engine still continues to amaze me.
There were two other notable sections of the trailer. The first was a gameplay clip that revealed Sazh's summon: a creature whose fiery skin could only be Ifrit. The level of "badass" is exponentially raised when Ifrit transforms into a ridiculous hotrod with side-mounted machine guns. This leads me to believe that Sazh has the most over-the-top Gestalt summon yet.
The last section worthy of note introduced a new character, though there was little context surrounding her appearance. Sporting dark brown/black hair and a number of tattoos, this woman was definitely on the "cool looking" side, though she might be working against our heroes in some capacity.
So, to summarize: enjoyable demo and an amazingly sweet trailer. I'd call that a "successful event."
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/102/1022081p1.html
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