Official Final Fantasy XIII Gaming Diary

[Airlocke 12,014]

So, 5 months after its release, its price finally drops enough for me to justify getting it. I've played about an hour or so, to this point, and already have some pretty deep seeded impressions.

 

 

 

 

 

The game is ludicrously gorgeous. Absolutely incredible.

 

 

 

The game has some pretty impressive video sequences, but over utilizes them at the beginning.

 

 

 

The opening battle sequence is breathtakingly-awesome...until you realize that you are walking in a straight line, fighting in battles in which you have one or two attack options, and are incapable of losing, and are being force-fed cgi movie sequences.

 

 

 

Pretty engaging characterizations, though, as with all FF games, everyone is a walking stereotype.

 

 

 

The game is a culmination of all of the awesome cliches ever seen in gaming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is after only an hour and fifteen minutes of play. I am going to give this more time, but, at the moment, I am torn between orgasming over the graphics and agonizing over the game-play. I'm not sure what to think. Maybe it will improve.

 

 

 

I was either going to buy this or red-dead redemption, and am almost leaning toward wishing I had gone the other route.

 

 

 

Anyway, lots left, hopefully it improves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Addition:

 

 

 

 

 

Some people may be asking, why the fuck are you doing a game diary on a 5 month old game?

 

 

 

Because I want to. I just got the game, and with the amount of money that was spent making this game, it justifies a few late reviews. SO fuck-off, bitches.

[Airlocke 12,014]

More movie sequences to tell the story. Nothing happens in game-play besides walking in straight lines and one button mashing battles. There is some characterization, but there nothing that is influenced by the player, so far. Annoying accents are annoying.

 

 

 

There is this one chick...I can't tell if she is supposed to be like 15 or a tiny 20. If it is the former, she is far too well developed and boner inducing for her age. Why can't tna characters be less...illegal?

 

 

 

I'm still waiting for this to open up, several hours in. This is starting to look like a real waste of money.

[Airlocke 12,014]

YOUR REWARD FOR BEATING ONE OF THE MOST STANDARD BOSSES IN RPG GAMING?

 

 

 

20 MINUTES OF STORY....IN MOVIE FORM!!!!

[Airlocke 12,014]

Seriously, this CGI sequence was SO LONG, that, even though I had just WATCHED A FUCKING MOVIE, itasked me to save my progress. The movie was so long that THE GAME DISC REFUSED TO PLAY IT AGAIN, BECAUSE IT THOUGHT IT MIGHT DIE FROM EXHAUSTION.

 

 

 

Gorgeous, though.

[Airlocke 12,014]

Seriously, though, enough cannot be said about these graphics. They (the designers) have given these character models so much detail, that you can actually pick up subtext by watching their body language. HOLY FUCKING SHIT. The designers took full advantage of this, by clipping of what used to be necessary lines of dialogue, and filling them in with shrugs, and other gestures that have never really made themselves felt to this extent in a video game. Now, I realize that these kinds of things have been making appearances in more and more games recently, but not to this extent. Watching these video sequences really is like watching a real movie, which is why, despite my incessant bitching, I really don't mind so much. There is this one scene

where Snow, one of the main Protagonists, proposes to Sarah, this really cute girl who just happens to be related to one of our other protagonists, "Lady Cloud". I mean Lightning. Anyway, there is this really cool moment where Snow realizes that he will now be related to Lightning. "This...this means Lightning will be my new sister." When he says this his facial expression show real terror, jand you can just hear him saying "HO GOD NO!!!!!!" in his head. Sarah replies with a giggle and an amused grin and says, "Yeah, she is." But you can just hear the "Yeah, you're fucked", subtext, thanks to the stunning use of the graphics in including body language.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, while this is most definitely cool, this had to take a fuck-load of time; time that could have been spent on making this game, I dunno, a game rather than a movie.

 

 

 

More later.

[ESAD 12,045]

IT IS A PIECE OF LINEAR SHIT AND IT HAS DESTROYED ALL THAT I STILL BELIEVED IN, FUCK FFXlll IN THE ASS ITS A DISGRACE TO ALL FINAL FANTASY TITLES.

[Airlocke 12,014]

I tend to agree. I haven't played since my last entry.

[ESAD 12,045]

i have to say i own all of the games, its the only one i could not play through to the end, even FF10 i liked least, i have completed 4 or so times.

[enigma 521]

I've only played X and X-2. Not impressed.

[ESAD 12,045]

play 7,8,9 <--- ps1 ALL FUCKING EPIC MASTER PIECES.

 

 

 

Play 12 on ps2 <--- MASTERPIECE

 

 

 

Play 1-6 on pc i will send them to u if u require.

 

 

 

[enigma 521]

play 7,8,9 <--- ps1 ALL FUCKING EPIC MASTER PIECES.

 

 

 

Play 12 on ps2 <--- MASTERPIECE

 

 

 

Play 1-6 on pc i will send them to u if u require.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nah that is ok. Don't have the kind of time to play 1-6 or the rest. At least right now. Maybe once my wife and I get our own place and she gets her own computer then I'll have the time.

[Tyralak 12,068]

7 was truly amazing. It's my personal favorite.

[Airlocke 12,014]

7-Incredible. Fucking masterpiece.

 

 

 

8-Meh-ish. I have heard that Japan lauds it as the greatest RPG of all time. I didn't like the characters, magic system, or the setting.

 

 

 

9-Meh. Never finished. Started too slow for my tastes.

 

 

 

10-Great fucking game. Loved it.

 

 

 

x-2- MEH

 

 

 

12-Great game. never finished, though. Just got bored at the end. The rest of the game was fantastic. I just got too sidetracked by the amazing hunting sidequests and then lost interest in the story. On my to do list.

 

 

 

5-6. MEH. Couldn't finish them.

 

 

 

When I look back on the series, 7,10, and 12 are the only ones that stand out. Out of 14 games. I loved them so much, however, that I will continue to eat this shit until they produce another masterpiece. Also, I am told that xiii opens up after about twenty hours, and is a fantastic game after it opens up. I sure as hell hope so.

[Legendm 1]

I heard the same thing about FFXIII, in a day in age where most games are only 10 hours, this one simply opens up at 20 hours. I like lengthy RGPs, but there's a limit.

[Khas 12,158]

I've only played IX, and that was years ago.

[ESAD 12,045]

all of you are wrong, what i said is correct thankz

 

 

 

8 is great.

[Airlocke 12,014]

I tend to agree. I haven't played since my last entry.

 

 

 

Well, I have spent about 4 hours on the game today. The first time I have played it in a month. I got tired of all of the glitches on my copy of KoToR(doesn't work well with 360. Must original xbox so I can play it), so I thought I'd give it another go.

 

 

 

It is monotonous. The game basically consists of 20 minutes of walking down narrow corridors and fighting, 2 minutes of cut-scene, 10 minutes of walking/fighting, 3 minutes of cut-scene, 20 minutes of walking/fighting, 1 minute of cut-scene, boss, 7-20 minutes of cut-scene. My God is it repetitive. Lightning is unbearably dull and stubborn, as well a having a tendency of making rash, destructive decisions. Very impulsive. Snow is worse. Nails on a chalkboard, man. But, at least he has some decent character development(albeit very predictable). At least I have Sahz. The only reasonable character. Oh, I do love that cynical black man.

 

 

 

Anyway, very monotonous, very repetitive, and not just with the pacing and game play. The environment is gorgeously crafted, but it all looks the same. There are like three different background designs for each platform, and they are just repeated over and over. Combine that with near-constant direction changes and you spend half the time wandering in circles. If it weren't for the NPCs constantly pointing out the right direction, I would never be walking in towards the right area.

 

 

 

Nice level of difficulty. Paradigm changes are very important.If you aren't constantly changing the roles of your party members(basically tanks, healers, buffers, attackers, mages, and debuffers[yes, each character is limited to only one role at a time. If you want a character to attack physically, that is all that character is capable of, until you change their role]), then you can be easily overrun by enemies. This is one thing that I do like. Some strategy is involved. I also like the battle rating system after each fight. Gives you 0-5 stars based on how quickly you defeat the enemies compared to your target time. Some battles have target times of more than 3 minutes! FOR NORMAL ENEMIES. This wouldn't be so bad if the battles system didn't revolve around auto battle commands. Yep, you just pick a target, and the AI does everything else. GAY! You can do the stuff manually, but it takes longer, and since these battles are timed, it is much wiser to use the auto-chain commands. Sadly, this results in battles being reduced to mindless button mashing. *sigh*

 

 

 

Another thing that is getting very irritating; your party is constantly being broken up into smaller groups for plot and character development purposes. While I will never complain about fleshing out characters and moving the plot, these splits really fuck with the pacing. Because, see, you have to play through the story of each sub party of your original group of characters. This means that you are constantly switching back and forth between two man pairings, with several different stories being shoved in your face at once, bit by bit. While this does add to the excitement level, it also makes the game play much more quickly than it should, and it causes confusion about different plot points, as things are described in different manners by different characters.

 

 

 

Still, I am actually kinda enjoying it, despite the despicable linearity and monotony. Also, I kinda think Lightning is hot, but I am not sure whether or not that makes me gay. Bitch is more masculine than fucking Barret.

[Airlocke 12,014]

Just finished disc 1. Only took 8 hours. I find this disheartening. At that rate, the game will only be 24 hours long, and if it doesn't open up until 20 hours......I do not find this promising. So far, I have found the game enjoyable, but it is nothing more than mediocre. I really hope it picks up.....

[Tyralak 12,068]

Does this game seem like it was done kind of halfheartedly like KTOR 2, or is it just the style that bothers you?

[Airlocke 12,014]

You can't really say that the game was done halfheartedly. The graphics are fucking incredible. I was a bit too critical of the reused platforms and backgrounds...but, yeah, it is well crafted. The characters, whether you like them or not, are well done and go through actual character development, even if they are a bit uni dimensional. You kinda expect that from a Final Fantasy. The story, while occasionally confusing, goes along at a nice pace and is fairly well done. The battle system and level up system are even fairly decent. No, my issue is not that the game is half-assed. It most assuredly is not. My issue is that it is less a game than an experience. If you are willing to let the game whisk you along, and to just sit and watch literally hours of cut scenes, then it can be enjoyable. But if you want to play and explore, do side-quest and unlock secret weapons, well, you are fucked and will hate it. You literally spend most of the time following various narrow paths, and now, there are no alternate paths. There is only one way to get to a destination. I switch back and forth between the two. I enjoy it one second, and hate it the next.

 

 

 

 

 

But, if you are willing to wait it out, the side-quests and exploration play their part later in the game. If what I hear is true.

 

 

 

So, yeah. I would say the style. It isn't a game. Not really.

[Airlocke 12,014]

Put in a couple more hours. Love the Weapon upgrade system. Would be a little better if the weapons actually gained some attributes from the components you used to upgrade them, rather than them just getting a chunk of xp and working in a lv. format, but it still works fine. I am raping the Crystarium(tweaked Sphere Grid from X. Man, I loved that fucking sphere grid.) right now, and am uber-powered because of it. Also, i figured out a trick in the weapon upgrade system, so I now have a character with a lv. 17 weapon, when the average level seems to be a bout 5 or 6.

 

 

 

I find myself liking this game more and more as it goes on. Really grows on you. At this point, I may even recommend it when I am done. Maybe.

[Airlocke 12,014]

Just a side-note. I cannot believe I haven't mentioned this yet. Final Fantasy XIII was the reason I bought a 360, back in March. That was the one game I wanted to play. But, I didn't want to commit 60 dollars to a game, right after spending hundreds on the system, so I decided to wait a couple of weeks. Then, the negative reviews started to flood in, and I said "I'll wait till the price drops." It didn't drop low enough for quite a while, and during that waiting time, I had friends who bought or rented the game. They hated it. Everyone who bought it, has since sold it, and everyone who rented it to see if they would buy, well.....they didn't buy it.

 

 

 

I got discouraged, and finally decided not to get it for a while. Months passed, and I saw a deal that I could not pass up. I got excited again.....only to be disappointed.....again. Needless to say, I am very happy that the game is starting to become enjoyable. I gave it so many chances, and it looks like I am finally going to get my pay-off. THANK GOD.