I’ve just finished FFXIII tonight. It’s harder to grasp my feelings about it than I at first thought. A strange mix of joy, relief, disappointment… and a strong yearning for something more, much more. (It’s hard to think straight when it’s this bloody cold, too! Is this really June? Feels like March? Damn Vancouver!)
I still feel that FFXIII had so, so much potential. I keep imagining what the game would feel like if just a few simple steps had been taken:
1.) The story was straightened out and delivered in a less roundabout, confusing manner
2.) The characters were actually developed
3.) There was just a little more to do in the world other than defeating boss monsters (missions). Just one little side quest for each character and it would’ve been enough.
The most important, of course, is #2. I can tolerate a story that doesn’t really make sense or go anywhere – hell, as long as it’s not completely dull or predictable, it’s basically fine with me. But they can’t eliminate the character development. It just won’t work that way.
I mean, I’m pretty brilliant at thinking up my own imaginary pasts, imaginary character relationships, imaginary thoughts, fears, desires or regrets for the individual characters (see: my fanfiction collection) – but this game is really just giving me nothing to work with. I try to imagine how things will be for the group after they save the world (as in, where would a sequel start?). But I just can’t, really.
Character Bonding – Where the Hell is it?
[Warning - spoilies ahead!]
The characters have almost no bonds with each other. In FFX, every character was strongly related to the others somehow. They couldn’t be separated just like that. Tidus knew Auron. Auron had strong ties with Tidus’s father and is connected to Yuna through her father as well. Lulu, Wakka, and Kimahri are all devoted to protecting Yuna and have known her since long before the start of the story. Rikku is Yuna’s cousin and deeply cares about what happens to her. Even the villains are connected – Jecht is Tidus’s dad and Seymour was engaged to be married with Yuna. They weren’t just random beings or Gods or Fal’cie or whatever, out to murder the world.
But in FFXIII how are the characters related? Okay, Serah and Snow will be married. Lightning finally accepts their union. Those guys, I get. And Fang and Vanille are sorta… dead (crystallized, anyhow). But how ’bout Sazh? Guess he just goes home with Dajh? No more hanging around the others? And Hope goes right back to where his dad is? Like as if the whole “saving the world” stuff didn’t even exist.
Well, that kinda sucks.
I just can’t imagine what happens next. The ending is just so incredibly vague, like the rest of the story. I keep feeling like the writers left crucial parts of the story purposely confusing and impossible to understand so that they could fudge it a bit and twist it around to suit any of their needs, without threatening the credibility of the story.
The Quote Unquote “Ending”
I didn’t understand 90% of what happened after I confronted Barthandelus (the first final boss).
Okay, so he was some kind of puppet himself, after all. So Orphan came out and tried to make Ragnarok destroy the world. Fang actually became Ragnarok and all the others (barring Vanille, mysteriously) turned into Cie’th. Then, due to some cheesy flashback sequences and the “awakening hope in their hearts,” the heroes all magically transformed back into humans and Fang also returned to normal. After that, they easily defeated Orphan (who had only moments ago seemed so much more powerful).
Umm… okay.
Finally, Vanille and Fang become some powerful creature (or summoned it?) who somehow helps stop Cocoon from crashing into Pulse and also makes everything on that planet messed up and crystallized. Surprisingly, no one is hurt in this entire process. Afterwards, the world is saved and everyone (except for Fang and Vanille?) is happy-happy, buddy-buddy.
And that’s what I understand of it.
…
Oh well, at least Hope was cute in the closing scenes (^^;; )
Closing Remarks
They really need a sequel for this game. In fact, I’d be pretty damn surprised if they didn’t eventually come out with some kind of addition or spin-off for this game. The ending is practically begging continuation.
Well, in the end, this was a very, very confusing game that did indeed revolutionize some things… while sorely messing up some others. If they’d just added in about an hour more of development for each character, the game would literally be twice as good. I just want to know who these people are exactly and what’s important to them.
Then again, that’s the way of Final Fantasy (at least since FFX) and it seems to work for them. “Make the characters as enigmatic and mysterious as possible. Let fans fill in the blanks.” I guess that works… in a way. But they used to talk about pasts and likes and dislikes and fun things in the FFVII – FFIX range. Wonder what changed?
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