1803: Another Shot at a Final Fantasy Marathon

A couple of times, I’ve attempted a fairly large gaming feat: to play through all the Final Fantasy games in order (with the exception of MMO XI, whose time-consuming nature means that “completing” it is a multi-year project that even many of the most dedicated players haven’t finished) and observe the series’ evolution over time.

For one reason or another, I’ve never made it right through the series, and consequently there are a couple of installments right in the middle that I’ve never played to completion, these being Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI, both of which are regarded as some of the series’ finest work with regard to game mechanics (in the case of V) and story (in the case of VI). It’s not that I’ve never wanted to play these games through to completion, it’s simply that I’ve allowed myself to get distracted by various other things and ended up losing my rhythm partway through a playthrough.

I’ve decided that I’d like to give it another go. This time around, I want to do something slightly different, however: this time around, I’m going to whack all the possible installments I can on my Vita and play them as handheld games. This means that I can do stuff like play through them on my lunch break at work as well as in bed, on the toilet or when I’m away from home. Final Fantasy wherever I go — an appealing prospect, being something of a fan of the series as a whole.

I’m also not going to get too hung up on each one being the only game I play at any given time, too. I will try and get through them in a timely manner, yes, but I’m also conscious of the fact that Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth2 is out soon and I very much want to play that, and I’m also conscious of the fact that I have an astronomical backlog of games to play, many of which contain doe-eyed moe girls that I just can’t resist the allure of for too long before giving in. So if I do feel the need to give in and play something like Akiba’s Trip (which I own but haven’t booted up yet) I’m not going to feel guilty about “betraying” my Final Fantasy mission.

I do, however, want to try my best to work my way through all the main Final Fantasy games (and possibly Tactics) too, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I think it’ll be an enjoyable, cool thing to do: a journey through the very long history of one of gaming’s most recognisable series. Secondly, there are a number of installments in the series that carry a strong degree of personal significance to me — fond memories of my younger days, and the way I felt when I first played them. Thirdly, although there are a couple of installments I’ve played several times — most notably VII, which I think is the game I’ve played through the most times to completion in my entire gaming career over the years — there are also some that I’ve only ever played through once (such as IX, X and X-2) that I’m keen to revisit, in some cases many years after I’ve played them. And then, of course, there’s the matter of V and VI and the fact I’ve never beaten them at all.

What’s brought this on, then? Well, aside from Final Fantasy XIV’s love of referencing old games through both subtle and very obvious means, I got a copy of Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call for Christmas, and it’s just reminded me that this is something I’ve wanted to do for quite some time now. And if I keep putting it off, I don’t think I’ll ever do it. So there’s no time like the present, I guess; I’ve ordered a big-ass Vita memory card which should be here over the weekend, and then I’ll be jumping right in with the first Final Fantasy very soon. I’ll be chronicling my thoughts over at the Squadron of Shame forum as I progress through the various games; watch out for a link once I get underway.

1749: Distant Worlds

Tonight Andie and I (along with her sister Michelle and Michelle’s boyfriend Rob) took a trip up to London for the Distant Worlds concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

For the uninitiated, Distant Worlds is a series of concerts that has been running for the last seven years or so on the international circuit, celebrating the music of the Final Fantasy series through a multimedia presentation of live orchestral arrangements of iconic tracks from the various games accompanied by relevant game and cutscene footage. It’s a similar sort of affair to the Video Games Live series which I had the pleasure of seeing live a few years back: it combines the formality of an orchestral concert in a world-renowned venue with the energy, enthusiasm and passion of an event that is very much “for the fans”.

And for Final Fantasy fans, most of whom feel a strong connection with the series’ music — although the games have long been regarded as some of the most visually impressive titles in their respective generations, it’s the music that has arguably proven the most enduring, enjoyable element of each installment — it was a dream come true, taking in music from a pleasantly wide selection of games including Final Fantasy VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XIII and XIV.

I was particularly pleased to hear Answers, the wonderfully sweeping main theme from Final Fantasy XIV. The performance of it was very strong, with the live voice choir, orchestra and soloist (whose name escapes me at present) all doing a spectacular job at belting out what is already a very powerful piece of music.

One thing struck me as I watched, listened and let the experience wash over me: ultimately none of the perpetual drama of the games industry, with its fragile egos, professional victims and merciless trolls, matters in the slightest. What does matter is that there are talented groups putting out wonderful works of art that bring people together — in this case, enough people to fill the rather large Albert Hall to capacity and then some.

The cheers that went up as favourite games and songs were mentioned; the standing ovation at the end; the possibly slightly inebriated Northern gentleman who bellowed “I LOVE YOU!” at a delighted-looking Nobuo Uematsu who had just taken the stage — all of these things combined to make a wonderfully memorable experience that made me happy to be a gamer; happy to be a Final Fantasy fan; happy to be part of something bigger than me; happy to be far, far away from the rest of the Internet in my very own Distant World.

A great night all round then, capped off nicely by the fact that Andie and I had the welcome opportunity to quickly meet up with one of our FFXIV guildies beforehand; unfortunately we didn’t get a lot of time together and he wasn’t able to get a last-minute ticket to the concert, but I got my promised bro-hug at least. Thanks for not being a chainsaw-wielding psychopath, Cyra.

Anyway, it’s ridiculously late and I need to sleep. Comic strip will be back tomorrow; for now, naps beckon.

1418: Eight and Thirteen

Final Fantasy, once one of the biggest names in gaming, is now something of a laughingstock to many people.

To a lot of these detractors, it was the Final Fantasy XIII sub-series that triggered this feeling. (Many of said detractors have not played Final Fantasy XIV, incidentally, refusing to even try it because it’s an MMO. Fair enough, but it’s also the best Final Fantasy in years.)

To others, though, Final Fantasy VIII is an object of ridicule — and the recent rerelease of the game on Steam has caused all these people to come out of the woodwork once again.

It will undoubtedly prove somewhat unsurprising to you to hear that I played and enjoyed both, and feel that they both get an undeservedly bad rap.

Let’s start with Final Fantasy VIII. After my friends and I discovered JRPGs with Final Fantasy VII and promptly played it through a good seven or eight times, Final Fantasy VIII shot straight to the top of our most-anticipated lists. And it looked amazing; gone were Final Fantasy VII’s weird super-deformed polygonal models, to be replaced with much more realistically-proportioned character models along the lines of what we now recognise as the “Final Fantasy look” today. Gone was the “magical disaster threatening to destroy the planet” plotline, to be replaced with something that was, above all else, a love story.

Final Fantasy VIII did a bunch of weird, unconventional things, and I loved it for it. Its character-driven story was much more intimate and personal than my limited experience with the genre at the time — hell, it was much more intimate and personal than a lot of games I’d played up until that point, period. It was one of the few times I’d encountered a convincing love story in the context of a video game; Squall and Rinoa were both interesting, flawed characters and I felt myself rooting for them throughout the game.

The battle system was enjoyable, too. The Junction system was really, really odd, but made sense once you got your head around its extremely abstract nature. The reflex-based actions, where you had to pull the trigger on Squall’s gunblade for additional damage, or hammer in button combinations while performing Limit Breaks, or repeatedly bash the Square button while summoning a “Guardian Force”, gave the battles a feeling of “action game” intensity when they were essentially still sort-of turn-based.

And the final boss? Easily one of the most spectacular final confrontations of the PS1 era, even if the plot in the immediate run-up to it started veering into seriously odd plot-related territory. “Time kompression” was a bit weird, yeah, but it certainly didn’t undo all the good work for the many hours beforehand, and damn, those last battles were genuinely exciting.

Fast forward a whole bunch of years (I’d work it out, but I can’t be arsed right now) and we have Final Fantasy XIII. Again — I’ve covered this before — this did things markedly differently to past Final Fantasies, replacing the open-world MMO-style gameplay of Final Fantasy XII with more linear progression that opened up into an interesting, enjoyable open world towards the end.

People hated Final Fantasy XIII for its linearity, but in practice it really wasn’t all that much more linear than previous Final Fantasies — it was just more obvious about it. Previous Final Fantasies had provided the illusion of freedom through their world maps, you see, but your progression was still railroaded by being unable to cross certain types of terrain until the story dictated that you got your hands on a particular vehicle. And, like Final Fantasy XIII, these games would tend to open up towards the end, giving you freedom to explore.

There’s always been a reason for that linearity in Final Fantasy games, however, and that’s to push the story along. Because you didn’t get a lot of opportunity to stray from the path set out in front of you, the story was kept pacy and snappy, and maintained its momentum — something which many more open RPGs, and not just those of the J-variety, really struggle with. By the time you reached the more open part, you had an extremely firm grounding in the game’s mechanics — more than enough to take on some of the extremely tough challenges that said open world presented you with.

As for the characters? I liked them a lot. Sazh was an interesting character in that he was an older, black character who didn’t resort to Mr. T stereotypes like Barret in FFVII. Vanille was cute and adorable. Fang was badass. Lightning was enigmatic, intriguing and all-business; Snow was her perfect foil with his laid-back attitude. And Hope, whom many people accuse of being “whiny”, watched his parents die towards the beginning of the game. I think being a little emotional is perhaps understandable in this instance, no?

Ultimately I know that if you’ve made up your mind about Final Fantasy VIII and XIII I’m probably not going to change your mind, and that’s fine; this post simply outlines what I feel about these much-maligned installments in the long-running series. The thing that annoys me, I think, is how people feel the need to declare them unequivocally “crap” when what they really mean is that they didn’t personally like them.

But then this is nothing new to the games biz, and I’ve spent the best part of the last couple of years playing and adoring games that many people think are “crap” if you believe Metacritic scores and the like. Each to their own, I say, and if you can eke out enjoyment from something that isn’t popular, I say good on you. And if you can’t, maybe try not to make other people feel bad about liking it?

1288: Final Fantasies

I’ve been thinking a lot about the Final Fantasy series recently, prompted in part by the impending release of the third Final Fantasy XIII game Lightning Returns, which is actually looking rather spiffy. It’s a series that, as I’ve noted a few times before, I’ve followed from VII onwards, though I later went back and educated myself on earlier installments in the series.

As such, here’s a few thoughts on each mainline entry.

FINAL FANTASY I: Generic as hell, right down to the monsters ripped straight from the D&D Monster Manual and its high fantasy setting. Minimal plot, incomprehensible plot twist right at the end. Worth playing to see the series’ origins, but feels very grindy these days.

FINAL FANTASY II: Very interesting, particularly when you compare it to other JRPGs around at the time. Not only was it an early example of a Final Fantasy game focusing on plot, its mechanics were kind of cool. Okay, they had their problems, too, but indirectly Final Fantasy II set the template for the “use it to improve it” skill system seen in, among other things, the Elder Scrolls series.

FINAL FANTASY III: By now, the pattern of odd-numbered Final Fantasy games focusing on mechanics and even-numbered ones focusing on plot was set in place. Final Fantasy III had minimal plot, even in its later 3D remake, but it’s a game worth playing to see the genesis of the Job system that made frequent reappearances throughout both the mainline series and its numerous spinoffs.

FINAL FANTASY IV: Heavy on the plot, light on the mechanics. In Final Fantasy IV, you’re stuck with whatever party members the plot dictates you have at any one point, with minimal customisation. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though; it allows you to focus on the plot which, while basic and clichéd these days, was impressive, epic stuff back when it first came out, and noteworthy for having characters with distinct personalities.

FINAL FANTASY V: I must confess to never having finished this one, but it has one of the best implementations of the Job system of the whole series, allowing you to blend abilities from two different Jobs, assuming you’ve already learned some from the Job you’re not actively equipped with. Once again, it’s an odd-numbered Final Fantasy so the plot is somewhat disposable, but again, the mechanics are the reason to explore this game.

FINAL FANTASY VI: For many, the best Final Fantasy but again, I must confess to never having beaten this, and somehow never having had the ending spoiled for me. VI gives a good balance between the predefined characters of IV and the customisation of V by having distinctive characters whom you could teach spells to. The plot, meanwhile, was excellent, if arguably overly ambitious for the technology it had available to tell it.

FINAL FANTASY VII: I’ll always have a soft spot for this one, what with it being the reason I like JRPGs as much as I do today. I haven’t played it for probably a good ten years or so, but I’m open to the idea of revisiting it at some point. Those awful field screen character models bugged me even back then, though; I believe the PC version allows you to mod them.

FINAL FANTASY VIII: Much-maligned, but this is one of my favourites of the series. A touching love story coupled with some world-shattering silliness, with one of the best final encounters of all time — even if the finale itself was somewhat nonsensical.

FINAL FANTASY IX: One of the best battle themes in the series, though the child-like characters looked a little strange after the realistically proportioned people in VIII. IX has a ton of series fanservice, as it was the series’ swansong on PS1.

FINAL FANTASY X: The change to PS2 and full 3D was very jarring to me, especially when combined with the move to a fully turn-based system. Said turn-based system was great, though, particularly the way you could manipulate the turn order to your advantage. This mechanic would later be seen in a whole bunch of other JRPGs — Trails in the Sky is one that springs to mind — so it proved to be massively influential. Also noteworthy for having a cool level-up system that made for highly customisable characters… and for having a terrible conversion to PAL consoles, with ugly black borders at the top and bottom of the screen and a frame rate significantly slower than the NTSC (Japan and US) versions.

FINAL FANTASY X-2: Gloriously camp, and delightful as a result. Final Fantasy X-2 may have taken place in the same world as X, but it had a completely different character. X was melancholy throughout; X-2 was rambunctious and joyful. This ultimately wasn’t to everyone’s taste, but the game certainly didn’t suffer as a result. A non-linear structure combined with a fantastic implementation of the Job system made Final Fantasy X-2’s small party of three immensely customisable, and there was a ton of stuff to do in the game, much of it optional. Highly recommended.

FINAL FANTASY XI: The first of the two MMOs in the series, Final Fantasy XI is noteworthy for being one of the first games of its type to actually make an effort with narrative progression alongside the otherwise relatively straightforward MMO gameplay. There was a story, there were bosses, there was even a final boss. Subsequent expansions continued the stories into ever more exciting encounters, but you had better be ready to invest a lot of time — the game had one of the slowest rates of levelling of any MMO, and though this was marginally improved over time, it’s still painfully slow and dependent on playing in parties.

FINAL FANTASY XII: XII took a bunch of ideas from the MMO XI and transplanted them into a single player game. It was the biggest shift the mainline Final Fantasy series — many fans don’t count Final Fantasy XI due to its online nature — had seen for a long time, since it abandoned the old-school turn-based or active time battle systems in favour of a quasi real-time system somewhat akin to that seen in a Western RPG like the later Dragon Age. In fact, Dragon Age pinched a few ideas from Final Fantasy XII itself, such as being able to program the game’s AI to respond to specific circumstances.

FINAL FANTASY XIII: The first HD Final Fantasy divided opinion significantly. I really liked it, but others didn’t appreciate the streamlined first 20 hours or so, in which you have a bunch of options locked off as you’re forced by the game to familiarise yourself with specific party setups with limited — but still some — customisation. The battle system shifted from micromanagement to switching character classes on the fly, and was very fast-paced. When the game opened up very late on, there was a ton of side content to do, and you could go back and do more after you’d beaten the final boss. Whatever you think of the game, though, it’s hard to deny the fact it’s one of the most beautiful games you’ll ever see on any platform.

FINAL FANTASY XIII-2: Many of the criticisms against Final Fantasy XIII were addressed with XIII-2, but the previous game had built up such an inexplicable bank of ill-will that many people never even bothered with it. The time-travelling story was convoluted and hard to follow, but the non-linear game structure provided a lot of interesting things to do. There were also some actual puzzles in the game, which the series hadn’t seen for quite some time.

Lightning Returns: FINAL FANTASY XIII: Details are relatively thin on the ground for this upcoming new entry in the series too because everyone’s so angry about the fact that Lightning has jiggly boobs, but it sounds like it’s going to be more “actiony,” but provide you with a number of different means of tackling various situations. An open world section is also promised, along with some Final Fantasy X-2-style dress-up funtimes that I’m looking forward to very much.

FINAL FANTASY XIV: The second massively multiplayer incarnation of the series was reportedly awful, but I never played it.

FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn: The second incarnation of the second massively multiplayer incarnation of the series is simply marvellous, however, and I’m looking forward to playing it when it releases later in August. It takes the good things about Final Fantasy XI — the Final Fantasy-like presentation, the music, the diverse characters, the implementation of a plot into a massively multiplayer game — and throws out the grindy stuff in favour of a wide variety of stuff to do, friendly to both solo and group players, and a number of mechanics inspired by other successful MMOs such as Guild Wars 2.

FINAL FANTASY XV: Details are scant on this one as yet, but early videos look pretty spectacular. Will it be a next-gen system seller? Who knows? I’m certainly looking forward to finding out.

#oneaday Day 791: Give Me More J

The Squadron of Shame recently tackled the subject of Japanese role-playing games in the first of a new format show that we’re experimenting with. You can check out the show here, or if you’re on something Flash-enabled, you can use the fancy-pants player below. (If you’re not, you’ll simply see a white space, for which I apologise.)

If I had to pick a favourite genre of interactive entertainment, it would, without doubt, be the Japanese role-playing game. I came to the genre relatively late (yes, I was one of those people who discovered RPGs in general through Final Fantasy VII) so I didn’t really have the NES-era epiphany of realising that RPGs were the only genre of games that were attempting to tell a story — for a while, at least. I also didn’t discover the earlier Final Fantasy games until much later, though I have, to date, played every one of them (except XIV) and have finished most of them. I still have V and VI outstanding. Shameful, I know.

There’s something about the JRPG genre that has resonated with me ever since I first got off that train in Midgar and that awesome music started up, though. For one, I find the sort of over-the-top wackiness and melodrama that typifies the genre to many people to be entertaining and fun to get invested in. For another, I have absolutely no objection to a bit of moe in my games, and generally find anime characters of this type very appealing despite the fact that in many ways they’re just as generic and widespread as the bald space marine with no neck. And for yet another, I enjoy the creativity frequently on display in the genre, both from an artistic and a narrative perspective.

It’s a cliché to say that Japanese RPGs are clichéd, and a lot of people who accuse the genre of that probably haven’t played one for a while. Sure, there are certain thematic elements and tropes which many of them have in common, but all are unique in some way. I can remember pretty much every JRPG I’ve played over the years in great detail — contrast this with the fact that there are a whole bunch of shooters I struggle to distinguish from one another, and it’s pretty rare than I can even remember characters’ names from Western RPGs like The Elder Scrolls. Each JRPG has its own unique cast of characters who are (in most cases) well-developed and display plenty of growth and change over the course of the story. Sure, some of them start their journeys as unlikable arseholes (Squall from FFVIII and Neku from The World Ends With You spring immediately to mind) but having a strong emotional reaction to a character — “I really don’t like this guy” — is surely a sign that the writers have done their job well. It’s sometimes a difficult experience to play a game with a seemingly dislikable protagonist, but often this is a sign that he’s going to go through some experiences to soften that stony heart of his, and I’m a big fan of that particular narrative trope.

Leaving narrative aside, I’ve always been a fan of the often abstract, creative battle systems that populate Japanese role-playing games. This is perhaps best exemplified by the Final Fantasy series, which significantly shakes up its core mechanics with every single instalment. Don’t believe me? Here’s how the battle system and related mechanics differ from game to game:

Final Fantasy — Traditional D&D-style turn-based combat without movement. Spells split into levels, like D&D, and characters have a limited number of casts per level that increases with their character level. Characters have set classes and, later in the game, may promote these to “prestige” classes.
Final Fantasy II — Turn-based combat, but progression is tied to an Elder Scrolls-like system whereby using something makes it improve. Whack things with a sword and your sword skill will increase. Take a lot of damage and your hit points will increase. Use a lot of magic and your magic points will increase. This system proved rather divisive at the time, and predated Bethesda’s implementation of a very similar levelling system into its flagship Western RPG series by six years.
Final Fantasy III — Turn-based combat, with progression tied to a “Job” system where characters could switch classes almost at will, allowing players to dynamically build a party to fit the situation at hand.
Final Fantasy IV — The first appearance of “Active Time Battle”, the almost-real-time-but-not-quite system which has been present in most of the subsequent titles. Progression and skill unlocks were static and unique for each character.
Final Fantasy V — The Job system returns in a much more well-implemented fashion. Players may develop Jobs at will, and may also equip certain skills that they have learned from another Job to build multi-purpose characters.
Final Fantasy VI — Each character has unique special abilities but everyone has the opportunity to learn the same spells by fighting with “Espers” equipped.
Final Fantasy VII — The Materia system allowed for deep customisation of characters with a slightly puzzly element — how best to fill the available slots in a character’s weapon and armour?
Final Fantasy VIII — By drawing magic out of enemies and “junctioning” these spells to statistics, players could create powerhouses that made their character level practically irrelevant. A bizarre and abstract system that didn’t quite work.
Final Fantasy IX — Characters learned skills from their equipment. Once they had learned the skill, they could use it any time, otherwise they had to keep the equipment in question in use to perform the action.
Final Fantasy X — A brief break from the Active Time Battle system brought a clever turn-based system where certain actions could rearrange the turn order. Also saw the first appearance of a non-traditional levelling system in the form of the “Sphere Grid”
Final Fantasy X-2 — A return to the Active Time Battle system and a variation on the Job system came with X-2’s Dressphere setup, whereby each of the game’s three playable characters could equip several Jobs and switch between them mid-battle.
Final Fantasy XI — The first MMO entry in the series had another variation on the Job system whereby a single character had levels in every Job, but could only have one active at a time, with a “Sub-Job” becoming available after some progression had been made and allowing characters to use skills from this second Job.
Final Fantasy XII — Taking the combat of XI and applying it to a single-player game allowed XII to have a real-time feel while still feeling strategic, as players were able to pause the game to issue commands to characters while battling without being sent to a separate screen. Progression was split between a traditional levelling system and the “License Grid”, whereby characters had to purchase licenses to use specific pieces of equipment and abilities, then purchase the equipment and abilities separately.
Final Fantasy XIII — Active Time Battle on a separate combat screen returns, this time with players taking control of a single character in fights that focus more on carefully-timed Paradigm Shifts (effectively Job changes by another name) rather than using specific abilities. Had a distinctly unconventional levelling system whereby characters could gain levels and abilities from six different classes independently.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 — Similar to XIII, but with only two characters available. Players could catch various monsters to fill the third party slot. Characters could once again develop down the six different paths, though monsters had a fixed class which could also be developed. Unlike XIII, where you were stuck playing as the party leader, in XIII-2 you could switch between the two characters at will, and one of them getting knocked out did not mean failure.

As you can see, Final Fantasy is a series which has evolved significantly over the years, and yet many accuse Square Enix of letting it stagnate. Sure, they’ve arguably made a few missteps over the years — XII, XIII and XIII-2 have all proven somewhat divisive in particular (though I enjoyed all three of them) — but one thing that the Final Fantasy team really can’t be accused of is sitting on their laurels and churning out the same old thing year after year. The same is true for many other JRPG developers. It’s one of the richest, most creative genres out there.

So why has it fallen from grace? A combination of factors. With the increasingly-busy lives people lead today, a 100-hour game is no longer necessarily seen as a good thing. Budgets for high-definition games spiral out of control, making the production of an HD JRPG an impractical prospect for many studios, particularly when they can’t necessarily count on huge sales numbers to recoup their expenditure. (This is perhaps why MonolithSoft and Mistwalker chose to release the gobsmackingly brilliant Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story on the Wii rather than the more popular/”hardcore” Xbox 360 and PS3.) And the eye of “the average gamer”, whoever that might be, has drifted towards the West these days for the majority of their gaming fixes, rather than the East as once was.

There’s still a rich back catalogue of excellent titles out there to explore in this deep genre, however — even more so if you learn Japanese. I’m making a point to go back and revisit some titles I missed the first time around at the moment — having recently played Shadow Hearts I’m now on to its excellent sequel, for example — and I’m having a great time. For the vast majority of these games, they’re a reminder of a simpler time — no “Your friend is online!” notifications, no party chat invites, no DLC, no controversy over endings even when they sucked — and they’re great.

So while the rest of the Internet yells and screams about each other about Mass Effect 3 (still!) I’m more than happy to immerse myself in a world of HP, MP, Attack, Magic, Item, Escape.

#oneaday Day 762: So, Should You Play Final Fantasy XIII-2?

I’ve been playing Final Fantasy XIII-2 for most of today and am almost at the end. I have reached the final boss, in fact, though haven’t beaten it as yet.

You are doubtless wondering whether or not it is worth playing this game, as you may have heard mixed reviews from around the Internet. I therefore present a list of bullet points which you may wish to take into consideration when deciding whether or not you actually want to pick up a copy and try it for yourself. I am going to present each point as neutrally as possible, as some people may react strongly one way or the other to each factor, and those reactions may not coincide with my own feelings!

I’m assuming at least passing familiarity with Final Fantasy XIII here.

The main story can be completed in approximately 25-30 hours, making it significantly shorter than a lot of other RPGs in this generation.
Following completion of the main story, there is a veritable shitload of stuff to do. Progress in the game is measured through your collection of 160 fragments. At my current point (final boss) I have 62. There is plenty more I can go back and do after the credits have rolled.
The main story is somewhat confusing, and all the more so thanks to its non-linear structure. The antagonist’s motivations are not made entirely clear until the very end of the game.
You play the same two characters all the way through the game. Neither of them have particularly “personal” stories to follow, though there is an underdeveloped narrative thread regarding Noel’s memories.
There is a squeaky-voiced companion character present throughout the entire game. It is a Moogle, true in every way to past incarnations in the series, right down to ending almost every sentence with “kupo”.
Final Fantasy XIII‘s characters all put in at least one guest appearance throughout the course of the game, but only one plays a major role in the story.
When you meet Hope, he is older than he was in Final Fantasy XIII and seems to have got over his “issues”.
The time travel mechanic is more of a location menu. There aren’t any particularly clever time manipulation puzzles throughout the course of the game, though there are a few sections where you revisit the same areas in different eras.
There are puzzles in certain areas. These take the form of “anomalies” in which you have to complete one of three different types of puzzle — finding a route over a board of tiles which disappear when you step on them while collecting crystals; joining like-coloured crystals with lines to form pictures; and a complex clock-themed puzzle that requires either forward planning or a lot of patience.
The game does not hold your hand as much as Final Fantasy XIII-2. This is most apparent around about 15 hours in when you are given a quest to go and find five items throughout time out of a possible seven, and given only vague clues and a picture to help you locate them. Said items are almost invisible in the field, but the Moogle reacts to them when you are close.
There is a quest system, where certain characters will exchange a Fragment for completing a small task, which usually takes the form of either a fetch or kill quest. There is no means of visually distinguishing questgivers from just people you can normally talk to, though once you have accepted their quest they get a marker above their head and on the map.
Collecting set numbers of fragments rewards you with extra special abilities.
Gameplay has a much stronger focus on exploration and observation than Final Fantasy XIII‘s straight-line corridors.
The automap is good and tells you how much of an area you have successfully explored. There is a quest late in the game to 100% as many maps as possible. Areas which you visit in different time periods share map completion percentage.
The weapon upgrade system from Final Fantasy XIII is no longer present. Instead, certain new weapons which you purchase require certain components acquired from monsters.
The Crystarium level-up system is a little different to Final Fantasy XIII. Both Serah and Noel do “laps” of a single crystal formation rather than having a longer “map” per role. On a lap, they can distribute their levels across any of their available roles. On completion of a lap, they can either unlock another role, enhance the bonus of one of their existing roles or extend their Active Time Battle bar, allowing them to complete more actions in succession.
After 25 or so hours, I have maxed out 3 of the 6 possible roles for both Noel and Serah. Progress slows with each lap around the Crystarium, requiring more Crystogenesis Points (acquired by defeating monsters and recovering Fragments) for each level gained.
There’s a monster collection and training aspect. You can equip up to three monsters at once, each one specialising in a single role. These can then be incorporated into the Paradigm system to create custom party lineups.
Monsters are levelled up by feeding them special items rather than spending CP. When a monster completes a lap of its own Crystarium, it starts requiring rarer and/or more expensive items to level up further.
Monsters can be renamed by choosing from a large list of preset names, and adorned with decorative items found throughout the game.
Content has been withheld for DLC. This is most apparent in the “casino” area, where asking an attendant to explain the card games pops up a window that simply says “reserved for future DLC.”
The music is very good and features a mix of both brand new tracks and recognisable ones from Final Fantasy XIII.

So there you go. A series of facts about Final Fantasy XIII-2 which may assist you in the decision of whether or not you want to give it a go. For what it’s worth, I’ve been enjoying it more than I thought I would at the bewildering outset, but it’s not the strongest Final Fantasy there’s ever been, not by a long shot. It is significantly better than Final Fantasy XIII in most respects, however, so those who disliked that may wish to give this one another chance.

I’ve got a few days to finish this off, and then a copy of The Last Story is on its way to me. Given that that game is made by many members of the old Final Fantasy team (notably Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu), I am very interested to see what it offers.

#oneaday Day 761: I Think They Were Lying When They Said “Final”

In an about-face from recent activities, I’ve been playing a relatively mainstream game today in the form of Final Fantasy XIII-2. Despite being a big release, however, one could put forward the argument that the Final Fantasy series is actually becoming somewhat niche again thanks to mixed opinions on the more recent titles.

Said mixed opinions are largely due to the fact that here is a series that is absolutely not afraid to reinvent itself every so often — with varying results.

Up until Final Fantasy IX, you pretty much knew what you were getting — a traditional-style JRPG with random battles. Sure, each one had its own unique ability system, some of which worked better than others (FFV‘s Job system was a highlight for many, while FFVIII‘s ridiculously abstract Junction system was both needlessly overcomplicated and far too easy to game) but for the most part, you could rely on the fact that you’d have a lengthy quest involving dungeons, towns, a world map, an airship and eleventy bajillion random battles along the way which, from FFIV onwards, used the series’ iconic Active Time Battle system, offering gameplay somewhere between real-time and turn-based.

It was said prior to FFIX‘s launch, however, that that particular game would be the last “traditional” Final Fantasy title. And in many ways, that game did feel like a farewell to the series, featuring numerous references to all the previous entries in the franchise, a great story, some lovable characters and an utterly bewildering finale. It was also to be the last Final Fantasy to grace the PS1.

Final Fantasy X, the first entry in the series to arrive on the PlayStation 2, shook things up. While it was still fundamentally an RPG with random battles, a lot of elements which people had taken for granted had changed completely. Gone was the traditional experience and levels progression system, replaced with the Sphere Grid, a flexible system that allowed for a degree of character customization — or a lot of character customization if you elected to play in the “Advanced” mode. Also gone was the traditional world map, with the whole game structured as one continuous journey through the world rather than jaunts through key locations punctuated with running across a peculiarly-scaled map screen. Also gone was the Active Time Battle system, replaced by a more cerebral turn-based system in which players could manipulate turn order with the use of certain abilities. It was a neat system, but Active Time Battle returned with Final Fantasy X-2 — itself a departure for the series by being the first ever direct sequel to a previous Final Fantasy game.

Final Fantasy X-2 was great. Some people hated it for the fact that its tone and attitude was so different to that of its predecessor which, despite all its changes, told a pretty good tale, despite having one of the most irritating main characters the franchise has ever seen. Some people hated it for the fact it was as camp as a row of pink tents. Some people didn’t even give it a chance after seeing the seriously cheesy intro sequence. But beneath the girlish nonsense lay a deep JRPG with an excellent character development system that combined elements of FFX‘s Sphere Grid and FFV‘s Job system.

Then came Final Fantasy XI, which was an MMO. This caused even series mainstays to shy away, and also proved that Square Enix had a lot to learn about making MMOs. It was difficult, progress was painfully slow and its tech was rather janky — due in part to the fact it was a cross-platform release on PC and PS2 (and later Xbox 360). But somehow despite this it was still recognisable as a Final Fantasy on some level — particularly once you started getting into the story missions and boss fights. You’d be forgiven if you skipped this one, however, as it required a time investment that many players aren’t able or willing to give. That said, it’s still going relatively strong today, meaning there must be something there that people like.

Final Fantasy XII reinvented the series once again, taking a few lessons from Final Fantasy XI and applying them to a single-player game. Ditching the concept of random battles altogether, Final Fantasy XII took place in an open world divided into zones, much like an MMO, and saw combat taking place on the field. There was a far greater focus on exploration and freedom than in any previous Final Fantasy game (except, arguably, the very first one, which pretty much plonked you down in the world and told you to get on with it with nary a hint of coherent plot) and, for the first time in the mainline single player series, the game focused far more on game mechanics than plot. This wasn’t a bad thing — it was great fun to play, and the new systems worked brilliantly — but the plot was rather lacking, ending up as a rather poor imitation of Star Wars without the space combat. It just wasn’t a very interesting story, which caused it to suffer. This, coupled with the fact that the game was so fundamentally different to what people thought Final Fantasy was — despite the fact it had been continually reinventing itself since X — caused many people to treat it with a degree of caution. The soundtrack was a bit rubbish, too — a big deal in a series that was known for its stirring, memorable music.

And then came Final Fantasy XIII, the first “next-gen” Final Fantasy. Conscious of the fact that some JRPG fans had shied away from the Westernness of XII, XIII took on a much more traditional JRPG structure. It was linear for the most part, it featured battles which took place on a separate screen, it had a levelling system somewhat reminiscent of FFX‘s Sphere Grid and it had a strong cast of characters participating in a plot best described as “bewildering”. It was certainly a spectacle to watch, and remains one of the best-looking games of all time to this day. Unfortunately, its extreme linearity coupled with the fact that it was still throwing tutorial messages at you by the time you were a good 20 hours into it caused many people to, again, respond negatively to it.

Now enter Final Fantasy XIII-2, a game where Square Enix seem to think they’ve learned from the mistakes of the past. And in some senses they have done — gone is the straight line corridor design of XIII and in are much more open-plan areas which require exploration to discover all their secrets, for example. But in some senses, they’ve taken a few steps backward, too — the plot, for one, which is complete nonsense, even for a Final Fantasy game. There’s a lot of time travel, though it’s not until a good while into the game that you start to see this used in an interesting manner with parallel timelines and whatnot. Chrono Trigger it ain’t. For the most part, it’s used as a bit of a lazy excuse for whatever disastrous event is afflicting the next location you go to — it’s always “a paradox”, and dealing with it usually involved beating the snot out of some giant monster. 16 hours in and this format is starting to change up a bit, though, so I’m hoping for a bit more variety later in the game. (Yes, obligatory disclaimer here: I haven’t finished it yet.)

There’s a few technical issues which mar the experience, too. While XIII was criticised somewhat for its relative lack of character interaction, it did at least have properly-directed and blocked scenes for all the important conversations. XIII-2 occasionally takes the lazy way out, with characters standing woodenly in place and flapping their mouths at each other. This wouldn’t be so bad were it not for the fact that the character you aren’t controlling at the time you initiate the conversation freezes in place when the conversation starts, meaning that if they’re in a position where they block the camera, the entire cutscene might be watched through their back. And sure, Serah has a nice bum, but it’s nice to see the faces of people you’re talking to.

All that said, these considerations don’t stop XIII-2 from being an enjoyable game. They stop it from being a truly great, essential purchase game, but they certainly don’t stop it from being fun. The battle system is straightforward and satisfying (if a little easy for the most part) and there is certainly plenty to do — and usually plenty of options for things to do at any one time rather than forcing the player down a linear path, too. There’s a lot to like and a bit to dislike. If you hated XIII, it’s worth a look to see the changes that have been made. If you hate Final Fantasy or JRPGS in general, it’s probably not going to change your mind. If you’re one of the relatively few people who enjoyed XIII, you’ll enjoy the new (if batshit crazy) plot with numerous guest appearances from recognizable characters. And if you passed up playing XIII because of its mixed reviews, you can still get an enjoyable experience out of this thanks to its “Beginner’s Primer” feature as well as numerous explicit explanations of past events throughout the course of the game.

Were I to believe in review scores (which I don’t, really) I would give it a solid 7. Good, not great. Worth playing, but not essential. Flawed, but enjoyable.

#oneaday Day 71: Want Not

I haven’t bought anything “new” for some time now, be it a book, CD, DVD, Blu-Ray or game. (Actually, that’s a lie, I picked up Deathsmiles recently but only because if I didn’t grab a copy now I doubt I’d ever see it on store shelves ever again, but that’s beside the point. I probably shouldn’t have started on this aside as it is taking away from my original point somewhat. Forget I said anything and let’s start again.)

I haven’t bought anything “new” for some time now, be it a book, CD, DVD, Blu-Ray or game. (Actually… (No! Stop it!) What? (You know what.) Oh all right.) And you know what? I don’t miss it. (I’m going to focus on games here.) I don’t feel like I’ve missed out on Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood and I don’t feel like I’m missing out on Dragon Age II. There are many other things I could list but I won’t because it would be terribly boring.

There are many reasons I haven’t missed buying these things. Firstly and most obviously, it’s saving money, something I’m woefully short of at the minute. Secondly, though, there’s really no need to constantly have the latest and greatest the second it comes out. What does it achieve, really? You pay full price, have to enter six bajillion redemption codes to download all the DLC that should be on the game disc (don’t get me started!) and know that there’s going to be more of it in the future. Wait a few months and you could likely have a better edition for less money and more Stuff. You also get to avoid all the “pre-order bonus” bullshit that big publishers are starting to pull these days, because the content in question is often then included in that newer edition.

The third and probably most important reason, though, is that not rushing out to buy something awesome the second it comes out is the fact that you can then just enjoy what you’ve already got. I’m currently playing through Final Fantasy XIII, a game which I picked up months ago, played approximately 20 hours of, stopped due to something else coming out, and never went back to until recently. Now, those who dislike FFXIII will undoubtedly say that I shouldn’t have bothered, but I’m having a blast, and the fact I’m not feeling “pressured” to beat it as quickly as possible means that I can savour the beautiful world that makes up that game, take my time to explore and enjoy the extra content it has on offer, and move on to beat it when I’m good and ready. When I’ve beaten that, I have Demon’s Souls, Disgaea 3, Darksiders, Resident Evil 4, killer7 and a whole host of other things to play through—a backlog of games that literally covers years. Eventually I’ll get through them all—hopefully in time for a Dragon Age II game of the year edition or even Mass Effect 3.

Of course, this will all go out the window once Catherine comes out in the States and I immediately import it but hey. That’s another one that might end up being hard to find, so it’s an investment, hey?

#oneaday Day 65: Character Sheet

RPGs, as everyone knows, are nonsense. No amount of battering your way through the world’s wildlife with a stick repeatedly makes you powerful enough to take down, say, a helicopter with your bare hands. But that’s not to say that we don’t have our own special skills and abilities of our own. So here, in the style of Final Fantasy XIII thanks to the many and varied roles I have taken on over the years, is my official Character Sheet. (Bonus points if you can figure out how I calculated my EXP, amount of EXP to next level, HP and MP, because yes, I am nerdy enough to work out a system to do just that.)

Pete
Hume M
Level 29

HP: 1557/1557
MP: 5/358

EXP: 261696
NEXT: 1320

Role: WRITER (WRI), Lv. 25
Bonus: Adds to party’s Grammatical Error detection radius.

Abilities
Literate: Read and write.
Literata: Read and write well.
Literataga: Read and write well enough to do professionally.
Literataja: Read and write super-fast to borderline-inhuman deadlines.
Barego: Protect against bruised ego.
Bolster: Restore morale.
Enhumor: Add Comedy element to attacks, cancel Sadness status.
Eninform: Add Knowledge element to attacks, cancel Ignorance status.
Yankbrit: Toggle stance between British and American English.

Role: TEACHER (TCH), Lv. 3
Bonus: Double EXP acquisition for other party members.

Abilities
Teach: Able to explain general things in some detail.
Teacha: Able to explain complicated concepts to inexperienced types.
Teachaga: Able to explain complicated concepts without getting frustrated.
Teachaja: Able to adapt explanations on the fly while teaching several targets.
War Cry: Inflict Silence on all targets temporarily.
Bolster: Restore morale.
Eninform: Add Knowledge element to attacks, cancel Ignorance status.
Patience: Cancel Berserk status on self. Usable once per day.

Role: BARD (BRD), Lv. 25
Bonus: Increased success rate of party buffs.

Abilities
Piano: Equip Piano-class equipment.
Clarinet: Equip Clarinet-class equipment.
Saxophone: Equip Saxophone-class equipment.
Bellowing Honk: (Requires Saxophone) Knockback and Stun all targets.
Piercing Screech: (Requires Clarinet) Silence and Slow all targets.
Shine on Me: Buff the party with Barbershop Power.
Pinkapingpangpong: Confuse all targets.
Rachmaninoff’s Fury: Inflict punch damage over a slightly wider-than-usual radius.
Perform: 50/50 chance to Impress or Depress friendly target.
Accompany: Double attack power of any Soloist in the party.
Accompanya: Triple attack power of any Soloist in the party.
Accompanyaga: Max out Soloists’ attack power and add your own.

Role: NERD (NRD), Lv. 25
Bonus: Bolster party’s performance in video game-related quizzes.

Abilities
Score Attack: Spend an entire ATB bar increasing your score on Geometry Wars.
Recognition: Increased chance to recognise obscure music from Japanese games.
Unfazed: Impossible for bizarre/impossible events to inflict Confusion status.
Desensitised: Think of the children!
Persistence: Extra chance at all failable actions, chance of Boredom status increases.
Fix: Restore HP to Mechanical or Electrical targets.
Break: Damage Mechanical or Electrical targets with increased efficiency.
Google: Impossible to be inflicted with Ignorance status if in an area with Wi-Fi.
Maru: Summon cat videos.
Marua: Summon a cat video appropriate to the occasion.
Maruga: Summon the perfect cat video for the occasion to escape from danger.

Role: RETAIL MONKEY (RMK), Lv. 2
Bonus: Double Gil from sold items.

Abilities
Sell: Sell items.
Sella: Sell junk items.
Sellaga: Sell junk and regular items for increased profit.
eBay: Sell items to people in other zones.
eBaya: Sell junk items to people in other zones.
eBayaga: Sell junk and regular items to people in other zones for increased profit.
Packin’: Equip Packing Tape Dispenser-class equipment.
Cable Management: Remove Tangled status from Mechanical or Electrical targets.

Role: EMPATH (EMP), Lv. 10
Bonus: Decreased chance for friendly party members to suffer Debuffs.

Abilities
Listen: Listen.
Listena: Listen without judging.
Listenaga: Listen without judging or offering stupid advice.
Empathy: Transfer all negative status effects from friendly target to self.
Empatha: Remove one negative status effect that both you and target are suffering.
Empathaga: Remove all negative status effects from target, inflict Confusion on self.
Bolster: Restore morale.

Did I miss anything? Obviously I’m leaving my Limit Breaks a secret as I don’t want to play my hand too early.

#oneaday Day 56: Trendsetter

Trends are bizarre, inexplicable and ultimately meaningless if you have a mind of your own. I find it impossibly difficult to fathom sometimes how one minute something can be excellent, popular, wonderful, critically acclaimed and all manner of superlatives, then the next it is shit, awful, bollocks, crap and proof that you are a complete fuckwit if you dare to admit you like it in the company of anyone with a face.

There are few places where this is more apparent than in the world of “celebrities”—and my God how much I hate that word, but that’s an entirely different story. I have one specific example in mind and that is the comedian Michael McIntyre. He appeared on the scene a year or two pack, mostly on panel shows such as Mock the Week, and he proved himself to be an entertaining, clever, well-spoken funnyman with floppy, silly hair that I could relate to. We started seeing some of his stand-up on TV, and I thought his material was very funny and a little different from other acts around at the time. At some indeterminate point in about the last year or so, it became fashionable to hate him and slag him off.

To be perfectly honest, I wonder exactly how many people who use Michael McIntyre as a whipping boy for what is supposedly the lowest of the low comedy have actually watched his whole act, and how many of them are simply following the trend. Who decided it was time to hate McIntyre? Why? Where did that “trend” originally come from? It must have started with someone and spread virally. Public opinions don’t do complete U-turns without some sort of influence—and McIntyre himself is the same as he’s always been.

It happens in all media too; Square’s Final Fantasy series, once beloved by most gamers (or at least the ones who liked JRPGs) is now belittled and complained about by almost everyone. The games aren’t any worse (I’m playing FFXIII right now and while it could be argued to be a step backwards from the complete change of direction that was FFXII, it’s certainly not a bad, boring, stupid, dumb game like some people have ranted at great length about) and sure, Square could probably stand to re-release the first four games in the series a few less times and the others a few more times… but Square hate is also in fashion right now.

I’m not objecting to anyone having opinions, you understand. People are free to like or dislike whatever the hell they want, whether it’s music, games, movies, books, celebrities, foods or even abstract concepts. The idea of people belittling each other based on what they enjoy, though? That’s just stupid. I hate The X-Factor and related TV shows, for example, and have even moaned about them a great deal in the past. But I figured out that there was absolutely no point in doing so, because even if it is the shittest of the shit (and it is) there are people out there who enjoy it and aren’t going to listen however much you try and convince them otherwise.

So here’s a thought, then. Why don’t we start a new trend—a trend of saying “I like this, give it a try, it’s cool if you don’t”? Okay, sure, as slogans go it’s not the catchiest one out there. But it’s better than “I hate this and you should too even if you have no idea what I’m talking about!”