Final Fantasy XIII

Part 2:

The place made entirely of crystal, which is apparently a lake, is the first time the game has actually felt like Final Fantasy for me. I like it. After a brief argument between the characters, something attacks. Snow is first to react; the brand on his arm glowing and causing him to tear the monster a new one with one blow. He doesn't know what happened, but Hope thinks it was magic, he says they're all l'Cie now. Some more monsters show up, and it's battle time!

Time to learn about Paradigm Shifting! It seems a paradigm is a general role for the party that determine how each character will fight. Finally the battle system is developing a little more substance! I like it! I'm not sure I care for the names though. Commando? Sentinel? Medic? Whatever happened to the classics like Fighter or White Mage? I'm not sure I like where this is headed, but I shall persevere.

Oh my, I like the placement of Vanille's brand, I hope it plays a bigger role in future. Hope is still feeling sorry for himself and throws another tantrum, and Vanille is once again there to comfort him. The girl is still far too calm for her situation and her accent is still bizarre and bad.

Apparently none of them know their focus, but they all had the same, ambiguous dream. Snow decides that, although the fal'Cie is apparently an enemy of Cocoon, their focus is to protect it, and nobody seems inclined to disagree. We've also unlocked Crystarium! At first glance, this looks a lot like the Sphere Grid system in FFX, only with a more confusing layout. Still, character growth, yay!

It looks like I have no way of changing who is in my party. I don't particularly mind, as I have the 3 best characters already, but since everyone is here it seems strange that it isn't an option. After a brief stroll, our friends have another chat. Snow is sure that their focus is to protect Cocoon, offering Serah as proof, while Sazh thinks otherwise. He reminds me of a fundamental religious person, convinced everything about Pulse and the fal'Cie is evil, even though I'm pretty sure there's been no proof of this other than what the Sanctum says. But on the other hand, Snow is overly optimistic and will believe anything that makes Serah look good. We shall see I suppose.

Some PSICOM soldiers have found there way down, and have us a gunpoint. Just like last time, Lightning pulls off a bunch of awesome ninja moves and disarms a few of them. Looks like we're going to have to fight the rest. The new tutorial explains that now Lightning is l'Cie, she has 3 segments on her ATB gauge. I recall that Vanille already had 3, does that mean she's been an l'Cie this whole time? It would explain her lack of caring about being inside the Vestige and the ever-present threat of becoming one. Interesting thought!

The soldiers were incredibly weak, and Sazh takes note of this. Lightning, however, insists that while the grunts are pathetic, the higher ups would make short work of the party. Vanille decides they should run away, and takes off, giggling all the while. The datalog is again updated. I find I spend as much time reading updates to this thing than actually playing (and more time writing this). I'd be fine with this, but the bulk of each new entry is simply reiterating old information and if I'm lucky, contains a line of something new. I would simply stop reading them, but the idea of missing something eats away at me. Damn my OCD tendencies, and damn this datalog!

I've now had my first battle with Paradigm Shifts, skills other than Attack, and knowing how to execute commands without waiting for the full ATB bar, and I must say, it was quite fun! Even if I don't like the classes, I'm confident I'll enjoy the battle system. Character behaviour outside of battle is quite interesting. Rather than breathing down my neck constantly like in FFVIII, they seem to just run wherever the hell they want, and I'll make my way along a path and find a couple of them just staring at some monsters. It's certainly different!

A correction on the previous entry: What I interpreted as the fal'Cie going into hypermode after the fight with it was apparently not right, and it in fact did die. All the action was due to PSICOM successfully destroying the Vestige, and everything inside falling down to Pulse. How wrong I was!

After walking and jumping along the path, we find Serah. Snow grabs the nearest sharp object to try and dig her out of the crystal or something, perhaps to lug her around for the remainder of the adventure, I'm not sure, and is assisted by Sazh and Vanille. Lightning is prepared to say goodbye and escape before PSICOM show up, and when Snow's optimism becomes too much, she gives him a couple of right hooks to the face. Predictably, in the time they spend arguing, PSICOM show up, and it's on.

After the fight, they finally convince Snow they have to keep moving, with the help of Sazh, who's quickly gone from comical idiot to the most level headed of the bunch. So 4 of them move on, but Snow apparently wants to stay and continue his futile dig. Hope tries to speak his mind on the way out, but still doesn't have the stones. Sadly this means Snow has left my party for now. Shame, he may be all talk, but he was a good tank, and I can't see Sazh being half as good.

"Don't shake the slippery tube!" says Sazh, as we continue along the path. Quite a good line if I don't say so myself. I have to wonder about the 'treasure chests' in this game. Actual treasure chests being placed all around the world in past games was enough of a stretch, but who's been leaving these high tech orbs everywhere? Perhaps they're PSICOM supplies and we're basically raiding them?

After quite a while with no save points, I finally come across one, which can only mean there's a boss fight in the in air, and it's another Behemoth!. This battle again offers me a tutorial, this time for battle techniques. These are apparently special techniques that make use of the yellow bar below Lightning's HP that I've been curious about for a while now. Seems the only technique I have at the moment is Libra, which not only shows me enemy weaknesses, but makes auto-battle abuse these weaknesses…automatically. Sadly the TP bar is not replenished between every fight, but I suppose they needed to bring some difficulty into it at some point.

That fight gave me less CP than half the regular encounters did. *thumbs down*. We approach some kind of military base and have a nice cutscene. Sazh is reflecting on the inhumanity of the whole process, and Hope is still being all self-loathing. Some aircraft zoom in, and we have to get moving again.

I just had to fight a flying motorcycle. That was quite strange. After another stroll we reach another cutscene, and apparently Vanille has just caught on to the fact that whole place is made of crystal. Lightning believes Serah didn't think she could trust her enough to tell her what her focus was. Her negativity is a bit of a downer.

I just realised that whenever I'm walking around, Sazh and Vanille are usually running off ahead or standing around, but I don't remember the last time I even saw Hope. Maybe I lost him. Hey, I can dream. In other news, I just reached some stairs that aren't made of of crystal. Chances are something interesting is about to happen.

I eventually had to fight a Garuda. It was a 2 part fight, with the second being more difficult, but it was still little trouble. Unfortunately, Hope is still around, so that's a bummer. The party have found an aircraft, which Vanille believes will work.

After the screen fades and it asks me to save, we're back with snow. He appears to have made no progress digging, and the authorities have spotted him. After taking out half a dozen troops with little effort, he has to fight an Eidolon, the Shiva Sisters. There are some weirdos on a hill nearby that appear to be responsible for their presence. It's an interesting fight. Rather than trying to kill them, which is apparently impossible, he has to fill gauge by performing actions, somewhat like impressing them I suppose. The catch? He has Doom cast on him. I got the gauge to about halfway before the counter ran out. I guess I'll try again tomorrow.

IMPRESSION: I'd comment on the linearity that people were so concerned about prior to release, but I don't think I'm far enough into the game yet, it's still practically in tutorial mode. However, the controversial lack of towns idea may have been a lazy development move, but conveniently enough I think it will fit with the story; if Pulse is supposed to be basically an uncivilised, wild area, having no towns seem fine. Gameplay wise, It does seem quite slow to open up; I only just gained access to character growth and abilities beyond attack, but the system does seem interesting; I like Paradigm Shifts a lot better than Dress Spheres in FFX-2. The Crystarium system also seems a little restrictive; my characters are a measly few CP away from maxing out the jobs that are currently available to them. At this stage, I definitely liked the Sphere Grid system better. The story still has me interested and wanting to play on.

Lightning: Lightning is coming across very cold and negative, and without the amusing streak Cloud or Squall had. I have no doubt she'll have a revelation and come good down the track, but for now she's not my favourite.

Sazh: He started out as the goofy black guy from every second movie ever made that I always hate, but he's come good since. While the others all have a real personality flaw in terms of being heroes and saving Cocoon; Lightning is too negative, Snow is too optimistic, Vanille is too carefree, and Hope is useless, Sazh is very level headed, if a little too brainwashed by Sanctum bullshit.

Snow: This guy, as stated by several characters in game, is all talk. He rambles on about saving Serah and Cocoon and the world, but does nothing to suggest he's capable of any of it. I certainly can't doubt his passion, but his optimism and lack of competence is getting slightly tedious.

Vanille: She's still happy, and still adorable, but so much so that she's basically in another world. It wouldn't kill her to pay a little more mind to her situation. Though I still think she was already a l'Cie, so isn't as shellshocked as the rest. And once again, the location of her brand is awesome.

Hope: I hate this kid.

Final Fantasy XIII!

What better way to start proceedings than a Final Fantasy XIII playthrough/first impressions post? Here goes!

We start of with the obligatory opening cinematic, starting with some winged creatures flying through mountains. It's silent at this point, so naturally I thought my sound was not working and started pressing buttons, only to skip it and find that my sound was indeed working. Okay, redo.

After the winged creatures, we see an aircraft flying to towards an ominous shape in the sky. This is followed by a few quick shots of scenery that is presumably inside said shape, and then a bunch of action shots, to show how awesome the game is. Looks good, and has successfully piqued my interest. I press new game, and off we go!

Our characters are in a train. It appears as though they've been captured and are being transported somewhere. A guard comes in with his big gun and points at people, feeling all tough. Suddenly, a girl jumps out and puts him out of business in an instant. Naturally, this alerts a bunch of other guards, which she does the same to.

Now there are flying machines shooting at the train itself. There are people on the ground shooting at god knows what, and people up high doing the same. A weird electric blue.. thing… starts spawning what are apparently digitally generated monsters, and things start exploding. I have no idea what's going on at this point but it's awesome. One of the things lands on the train and cuts the top off, so the girl naturally runs out to fight it. I like Lightning already. First battle!

All I can do is attack so far, so I do so, and defeat the robot. Of course, it's not dead yet, and picks up whatever I'm standing on, forcing Lightning and Sazh to jump off action hero style. Now it's back for round 2. I repeat my previous actions, and this time a battle results screen comes up. Apparently it gives a battle rating. I don't like this. I got 4 stars, and 6 potions!

The robot scorpion thing falls down to whatever is below all these tracks. Sazh seems like the typical comic relief black guy. I don't like this either, though I like the little chocobo that lives in his 'fro, even if it can fly.

I continue to run along, swiftly avoiding the countless explosions and shooting happening all around. At certain points I can jump over obstacles, which is quite a cool feature. A highly unnecessary tutorial on items forces me to use a precious potion when I have full HP, but these things happen I suppose.

As I'm running along the middle of the particular road/bridge/path we're on falls away, almost taking my characters down with it. Lightning tries to use cool flying magic to ditch Sazh, who ruins it for her. This is disappointing. But luckily, another path is on it's way toward us. Upon the flying… thing is of course a big scary boss, but with the help of chaining and staggering he is easily disposed of.

We leave Lightning and Sazh to go and check out how some other folk are doing. A voice played over a speaker talks of the very voluntary relocation to the lovely world below Cocoon that is totally optional and not forced at all, until someone puts his foot through it. He explains to his companion that the people need heroes, and he apparently fancies himself one of them. I gain control of him, and proceed to read through a number of new entries in the datalog, filling me in on exactly what Cocoon and Pulse are.

It would seem the government of Cocoon, known as the Sanctum, have complete control of the people, who live totally tranquil existence, and this is achieved through fear. Stories are invented regarding the Pulse to dissuade them from even thinking of venturing near it, for reasons not yet known. Even suspected association with Pulse is grounds to banish entire cities of people, such as is happening now. This banishment, however, involves the people being taken to an isolated location and slaughtered. This is known as the Purge, and our characters apparently intend to stop it.

We are a group called NORA, and we're up against PSICOM, the elite military unit of the Sanctum, who are apparently responsible for the Purge. I like the outfit of Lebreau. Nice and revealing. After a handful of civilians decide they'd rather get themselves killed than let NORA do the fighting, we're off again. with Snow talking it up all the way.

PSICOM have called in reinforcements, and in what is just about the first instance of the game that actually resembles Final Fantasy, I get to fight a Behemoth! It's all fancy and cyber-looking, and puts up a laughable fight, but it's a Behemoth none the less.

Cutscene time! In a touching scene, Snow goofs up and is saved by the tough mom, just moment before PSICOM blow up the bridge everyone is on and they all fall to their death. Hope (I can tell I'm going to hate this kid, if only for his name), who was standing some distance away, is in shock seeing his tough mother go, and has to be physically persuaded by some young girl.

Snow is alive somehow, and is quite solemn about someone named Serah. The screen fades as he hears a woman's voice in his head.

Back with Lightning, she and Sazh have a heart to heart; he finds all this appalling, she's not surprised. We're attacked by a Myrmiadon, who while no trouble, does consume a couple of potions. Suddenly, a huge glowing green thing floats down from above, spouting more nonsense about justice and the Purge. This is apparently the fal'Cie, or contains the fal'Cie, and Lightning wants to kill it.

Hope is still standing around in shock, though he, like others, has shed the strange robe he had earlier. A girl with pink hair does the same before sharing some wisdom, giving him a hug, and running off. She's unbelievably upbeat and cutesy for a time like this, and Hope naturally chases after her.

Sazh is wondering what the difference is between the Pulse and Sanctum fal'Cie's. I can't help him, and apparently Lightning isn't inclined to either. She simply announces it is time to jump, and does so, falling a great distance before conjuring some kind of electrical thing to break her fall. Sazh makes a real show of comically lowering himself off the edge, before falling, conveniently landing in the electric thing Lightning was kind enough to leave.

Gadot is also still alive, though he appears to be the only other one, and with a bit of persuasion, swiftly pulls Snow out of his depressed stupor. It seems they also have a date with this fal'Cie. After a brief stroll and a few fights, they find themselves a couple of fancy vehicles, and naturally, commandeer them. They land elsewhere, finding the other NORA members, who are apparently still kicking as well. Hope apparently has something to say to Snow, but can't pluck up the courage, and the latter takes off again before the pink haired girl can do it for him, but not before some love related teasing and banter between pals.

I'm now in control of zombie boy Snow, who I can tell I'm going to like as much as the famous Vaan from the previous instalment. But I'm always open for surprises, hopefully he can deliver one. Apparently he wants to tell Snow, but can't, and can't even explain why. He then awkwardly grabs the girl's arm. She decides they need to borrow Gadot's stolen vehicle. She's still too happy and her voice is very high pitched. Hope continues to hesitate but she's hearing none of it. He's too hesitant and she's too carefree, so they could make a decent team. When they're sprung by Gadot, they hit the gas, though they don't look too adept at flying.

…And they promptly crash, though they at least made it to the fal'Cie. The girl finally reveals her name to be Vanille, and for the first time, actually shows an inkling of concern for the situation, though not as much as Hope, who is petrified of becoming an l'Cie, a tool of the evil Pulse fal'Cie. Vanille has an odd accent at times that I Can't place.

Vanille is quickly back to her usual self and starts playing with things, extracting a bizarre looking weapon and trying it out, pulling a number of unknowingly provocative poses that would have made Hope quite happy in any other situation. Sadly, the party is ruined by a monster, who they make short work of. Apparently I'm ion control of Vanille now, who shakes off the attack as though it never happened and is ready to explore. Her running style is very reminiscent of Yuna in Final Fantasy X-2, which is to say, it's not a good one. On the bright side, though, she's not half bad in battle.

As I run around fighting and snagging and treasures around, I realise there is no experience or character levels. This sadly means I can't grind for hours and become awesome, but I'm sure they implemented a system just as good.

Hope is still terrified of the potential consequences of being here, and Vanille still doesn't seem to care. I like her style. She captures him in another hug, but he shakes her off to go and sulk some more. The boy must really be a mess to be turning that down. A yell echoes throughout the room. Apparently Snow is nearby! He is searching for Serah, who, according to the datalog, is his fiance, though none of the characters have yet mentioned this face. I get to control him briefly, and make him push a button that makes the very restricted room re-arrange itself, before moving on to Lightning, who is unsuccessfully trying to hack her way through a door.

Making Sazh cover his ears, she changes approach, and apologises to the door, asking it to open for her, to which it obliges. It seems she may have a secret she hasn't yet let on. A helpful popup teaches me about aerosols, temporary use items that grant advantages for battle. I continue on, fighting a bunch of pantheron and a couple of Myrmidon, who seem to have a sever hatred of Sazh, picking up a new weapon for Lightning along the way.

Apparently Snow has kindly made his way through the re-arranged room without me, and is now just steps away from the next pillar. Activating it makes a platform appear at the end of the path, and after calling himself a hero for the 300th time, Snow is off.

His statement is loud enough to be heard by Hope and Vanille, at least one of whom doesn't agree with it. Hope decides he doesn't have the stones to stand up to Snow, so he and Vanille go off looking for a way out of the Vestige. Of course, this doesn't work, and they wind up surrounded on all sides by Cie'th, l'Cie who failed their focus, with Snow coming to the rescue in the nick of time. It seems that Snow's fiance is a l'Cie, and he's off to save her. Hope considers this an outrageous idea, but nobody cares, and he and Vanille tag along.

As an added twist, it turns out Lightning's sister is also a l'Cie, and she is determined to save her, despite Sazh's grim observation that it's probably already too late. We fight out way through a bunch of Cie'th until we find a body on the ground. It's Lightning's sister. It's also Serah! Woah! Snow and the kids turn up a second later, and Serah reveals her focus. It has nothing to do with the destruction of Cocoon, but rather, it's protection. Apparently Snow and Lightning vowing to do so is enough to fulfil this, and Serah turns to crystal, and according to the legends, gains eternal life, though I suspect this isn't the case.

Outside, PSICOM is busy raining death down upon the Vestige in a rather dazzling cutscene, prompting a rare loss of composure from Vanille, or as close to it as she seems capable of. A door nearby Serah opens up, presumable leading to the fal'Cie. Snow announces he's going to visit the fal'Cie, which is apparently a completely insane thing to do. As Lightning appears inclined to do the same and nobody pays any heed to his objections, Sazh reluctantly follows. Although the battles so far are dead easy and involve nothing more than hitting X over and over, it's nice to have 3 party members, though I wish one was Vanille.

Inside is a dark room with lots of shiny things floating around, and at the end, is the fal'Cie. Snow tried begging and bargaining with it, Lightning tries to kill it by attacking the metal enclosure, and Hope just tries to run away. All 3 fail, and we're soon engaged in a fight with the dreaded fal'Cie. Our attacks seem to just piss it off, and at the end of the fight the place transforms and it grows huge, or shows it's true form, or something. It snares the characters with glowing tentacles and brands appear on them, so unless I'm mistaken, this means we have a bunch of l'Cie on our hands. We see a vision through Snow's eyes as they all fall into nothingness.

-------------------

Happy place, happy music, happy people and fireworks. We see snow meeting out in private. It's revealed that she already knew at this point that she was an l'Cie, they don't know her focus, and she's worried about telling Lightning. Snow puts on a brave face and insists it'll all be fine, and proposes. They spend the evening flying around on some vehicle and watching the fireworks, almost flying into them at one point.

Back in the present, they all awaken in a room that appears to be made entirely of crystal.

And that is it for day one.

FIRST IMPRESSION: Very full on and plenty of action right from the word go, but I'm struggling to find Final Fantasy amongst this visually superb, sci-fi extravaganza. With no magic, no experience or levelling, the battle system is very bare-bones so far, and with futuristic technology galore, were it not for occasionally finding a Phoenix Down or 10 gill, I'd have no trouble believing it to be something else entirely at this stage.

CHARACTERS:

Lightning: Has the cold, ex-military personality once seen in Cloud of Final Fantasy VII, and although she has shown a few instances of emotion so far, they've been mostly anger. She's definitely strong, and seems to have no trouble looking after herself.

Sazh:The incompetent black guy who doesn't know what he's doing there, and makes a comical mess of most things he tries to do. He's also quick to throw around his Sanctum-brainwashed wisdom, despite the fact that his companions are clearly past caring about the rules the used to live by.

Snow: The self proclaimed hero is good at getting others' spirits up, even when he's unsure himself, and fighting what looks to be a hopeless cause. Seems generally likeable so far, even if he does call himself a hero too often.

Hope: All I know of Hope so far is that he has 0 self confidence, and is apparently hell-bent on bringing Snow to justice over a misunderstanding, though so far he hasn't had the guts to confront him.

Vanille: This girl is bizarre. She's far too happy and upbeat given the situation, has a strange accent with a high pitched voice, and runs as badly as Yuna. But despite all this, she's just so damn adorable, and is apparently supplying Hope's share of the group's bravery quota.

Very different, but still enjoyable, and if nothing else so far, the desire to get down into Pulse and start causing some hell has left me wanting more for now.

And so it begins!

After much deliberation, I decided it was time to grab myself some blogspace, for the purpose of getting myself writing, at least from time to time. As I am not qualified to write about anything at all, all that will be found here will be my thoughts and rants on the likely highly nerdy subjects of my choosing, but hey, that's what these things are for, right? And besides, unless specifically told to by me, nobody is likely to ever find it, and if I had anything of value to say, I'd probably be getting paid for it!

But, I'll write and publish my nonsense, and who knows, someday I might just be in the position to author something of value!