Final Fantasy XIII - First Impressions

[Arep]

From just over one hour in....

So, one of the things I read about FFXIII before playing it is that it breaks away from the patterns of previous installments. After only an hour in, obviously I haven't experienced the full impact of that yet but I can make a few observations.

1. The game is very pretty. You'd be hard pressed to find a game with better CGI cut scenes. Even the walking around bits are nice so far and I only expect the graphics to continue to impress.

2. The game plays like a movie...for good or ill. The acting isn't bad so far but the mannerisms lose a little in the translation from Japanese...it makes at least one of the characters seem a little more borderline psychotic than they probably intended. So far the pattern seems to be: cut scene, battle, battle, cut scene, battle, battle, cut scene, scene change, cut scene......etc. Its a little choppy and it leads me to my next point.

3. Early battles are meaningless. I was warned that your characters don't start developing RPG-wise until later in the game....much later in the game. FFXIII is also not as focused on loot as the other installments were. This leads the battles to seem almost meaningless. Sometimes you'll get some kind of loot reward but its been very sparse so far.

That's all I really have for now. I'll be spending a lot more time with it tomorrow.

[Ancient_One]

GoodGame on Monday night was not impressed with the game.

Can't remember some of the comments but they scored it 7 and 7.5 rubber chickens our of 10.

[Pure Mongrel]

Thanks for the feedback Arep. JRPG's are not my thing, but I know there are quite a few fans of FF in the division.

Are you playing it on PS3 or XBOX 360? I heard the graphics got dumbed down for the 360 so the game would fit on the media. The word I am hearing is play it on PS3 or don't bother.

While the 360 is still my console of choice (I think ... I seem to be getting a lot of my games on PS3 these days ... Did A_1 take up hypnosis as a night course I wonder?) I have a feeling as games get bigger graphics wise, the PS3 may start to pull ahead of it's Microsoft rival due to the advantage of Bluray.

[Resolve]

Im a bout 20 Hrs in now. All I can say is the more you play the better it becomes.

[Pure Mongrel]

So is it a "must buy now", "Buy when it gets cheaper", "Rent it" or "Give it a miss"?

[Resolve]

Originally Posted by Pure Mongrel

So is it a "must buy now", "Buy when it gets cheaper", "Rent it" or "Give it a miss"?

Like you said Mongrel, If you havnt liked a FF game before now, this wont make any difference.
I would not reccomend a rental. 60 hrs to finish main story, plus you can prob double that with sidequests and after end game stuff. That is if you dont die and need to start from a save point.

[Chief]

I'm about 16 hours in, really enjoying it. I hear it opens up a lot more around 20 - 25 hours in. They've made a lot of changes but most of it is to keep the story moving forward.

The levels are all a bit too linear though, don't really understand why they made basically all of them just corridors, though that combined with the simplification of equipment and skill management makes the game a lot more action based than the previous titles since you don't spend half the game messing with gear.

Combat is great though, really like the system as trying to micromanage a group of characters in the previous titles can get quite frustrating and tiresome.

[Bawheidbob]

That is one thing i do not get why it is getting bombed for its linearity i have played FF games VII VIII XI and X and really all it did was push you along 1 road, ok you could wander off and walk down another road but much of the time there was nothing there or some random npc that had nothing to do with anything.

Maybe some just like to waste time doing nothing for the right to explore, me i just want to play the game and get through it unlike every other FF game

Must Buy for me but again you do not like JRPGS so i would give it a miss PM

***

As an after thought the CE box is WIN everything inside it is pure quality just like the CE guide book

[Pure Mongrel]

Thanks for the info guys.

[exploit]

I am hanging for this, but will wait till easter when i fly to Cairns. Might even be on sale by then