Right now I feel so propelled to play Final Fantasy XIII. I’ve always tried to act nonchalant towards the FF series, claiming not to really like any of them that much, but the fact is, I really do owe so much to these games. I tried to deny it for a time, but FFX really gave me some of the best memories in my life and helped to shape my meaning of existence for such a long time. Really, it was only FFXII that truly disappointed me. That game had few redeeming factors, besides a beautiful world. The characters were too bland and lifeless. The story was complicated, not worth the effort.
But ah, FFXIII. Now, this is what I call a true, beautiful masterpiece of a game. I’ve only gotten through ten hours of the game so far (actually, less – though I’m already onto the second disc strangely enough), but from what I’ve played I believe I will have much, much more to look forward to. I had my doubts in the game at first due to my dislike towards FFXII (and fear that this was more of the same bland convolutedness), and the fact that the gamerankings score for this game has hardly been extremely enthusiastic. It must just be that the Western audience for this game is getting a little tired of the FF series formula, or perhaps this game deviates too much from what people consider “Final Fantasy”? Is it because neither Uematsu or Sakaguchi are participating in this project? Is that why this game apparently only deserves an “above average” (85%)?
I think all those buffoons are completely wrong. I see nothing wrong with this game, absolutely nothing so far. Okay, I’ll admit the story has me a little lost and many of the cutscenes are rather… strange, shall we say. Well, how shall I put it, the story seems a little too jerky for my tastes. Starts too far into the action, doesn’t explain enough, not exactly fully coherent as a whole. I’ll admit that: the story is weak, regarded as a whole.
But ah, the individual parts! In the ten hours of play so far, I haven’t encountered a single environment, scene, or character that I have disliked, found boring, or that lacked detail and effort. In my opinion, the highest crime that a game (or movie, book, anime – any story-related material for that matter) can commit against the player is to bore him/her. You can do a lot of other things, such as confusing them or even frustrating them, and it’s not as bad (to me) as boring them. Boredom is an absolute no-no in a game. We play games for excitement, new experiences, interesting personalities, absorbing gameplay, engaging worlds. We do not play games to find ourselves in a bland world, with a predictable story, unoriginal gameplay, uninteresting characters. That is the worst that one can do for a game.
While FFXIII may not be quite as coherent and conventional as some other RPGs (or Final Fantasy games), the fact remains that it is a thoroughly interesting game. At this moment, I am utterly addicted to progressing through the game; I find it so very hard to detach myself. The characters and the care and effort with which they are presented are a big draw for me. I also love the battle system, character development system, and other customization systems. To me they are not only full of originality and depth, but they are very fun to use. The music is very distinct in this game and creates a feeling I quite like, that I think is quite appropriate…. Final Fantasy has indeed evolved greatly from its roots, and the new style of music aptly reflects this. The English localization and voice acting for this game is also absolutely phenomenal. Hands down the best I’ve seen for any game, period. I’ve yet to encounter a bad or even mediocre voice actor in the game, and the dialogue and other text is translated to perfection as well.
Okay, I think in order to get my points across more efficiently, it might be best to make a list of things I love about this game, or that it does right at least, and expand each one in greater detail, one by one. There are really too many things I love about the game to talk about them all at once. Many of the things listed below may seem strange or even undesirable at first glance –because they are a deviation from usual RPG conventions – but there is a definite wisdom and creativity involved in these choices. I heartily applaud FFXIII for making some rather strange-seeming (initially) decisions in order to improve the game experience or otherwise boost the uniqueness of the game.
1. Stats are reduced from the usual full array of about six or eight stat parameters to a mere three: HP, Strength, and Magic.
Yes, you heard right. In FFXIII, all the characters have only three stat parameters: HP, Strength, and Magic. I can imagine some people already groaning at the “stupidity” of this move. I mean, what happened to character individuality? Don’t we need parameters like Magic Defense or Speed in order to truly give uniqueness to each character and create balance between them?
What do I think about this? I think it’s a brilliant move. I’ve always wondered whether we really need a bazillion stats for each character when (1) generally speaking, characters with high Magic tend to also have high Magic Defense, and (2) Defense in general is a rather redundant parameter when there’s already HP to help determine how easily a character falls in battle. I love how simplified FFXIII makes stats. So much easier to manage and understand. And to me, it’s like a whole new artistic statement. It’s like saying, “Ha, we can do the same with 3 stats what you guys do with 10.” And I think they’re absolutely right. I hope more games go in this direction in the future.
So far I have seen no disadvantages to this reduction method. Characters who are supposed to have less physical stamina still fall faster than characters who are supposed to be hardened and tough; there’s no need for clunky Defense stats when HP handles all that stuff.
Speed is a moot point in this battle system, which is active and essentially gives the same chance to act for every character and enemy. This is one move that I don’t agree with quite so wholeheartedly. I do think it might be better if faster characters charged their action gauge more quickly than slower ones. Allowing this option would’ve helped to balance the characters more evenly, to give a chance for the less “naturally endowed” fighters in the team to be just as useful as their more buff companions.
Which brings me to the next thing…
2. The characters are actually not balanced. Not naturally, anyway.
I still have yet to discover everything about the way the systems in this game works, but I believe that the characters are naturally unbalanced. That is, some of them are simply better than some of the others. A noticeable example is how Lightning, in the same point of the game and with the exact same level of opportunity to be developed, is consistently much stronger in every one of the three stats than most characters – most noticeably, Hope.
To be honest, I find it quite amusing that Hope (who happens to also be my favourite character, of course) has such horrible stats. I remember when I got him in my party I eagerly looked at his stats, comparing them to the others and wondering what he was good at. At first I assumed he was a Magic type of character (which he is, really) – then I switched to Lightning and noticed that not only was her Strength and HP far greater than his, but also her Magic! How could this be? I wondered. After all, there’s this unspoken rule in RPGs that characters must be balanced. At least somewhat. If they’re unbalanced, it must not be too obvious. But here was this strikingly obvious example of a character who just wasn’t really good at anything. I mean, Lightning could beat Hope in every respect. There’s nothing that Hope is better at than Lightning.
To me, as a hardcore RPG enthusiast for such a long time, this is quite surprising. Obviously, it’s not just Hope that suffers from sucking-ness, and not just Lightning who is way too good for everyone else. It’s a strange choice that the designers made, and at first I thought it rather peculiar and not something I wanted. But then I realized, I’d really been waiting for an RPG to do this for such a long time.
I mean, screw balance. Face it, some characters should be better than others. The fact is, Hope is some random kid who just happened to be there at the wrong time, and Lightning is a trained and highly gifted soldier with some years of experience. It would be rather laughable, actually, if Hope excelled in some area that Lightning didn’t. And besides, lack of balance only means that the characters are allowed to show their individuality more. In a weird way, it makes me feel prouder when I choose to use Hope, even knowing that his stats are inferior to other characters. When I use him, it’s not, “Oh, that’s ‘cause he’s best mage in the group” – it’s “because I like the challenge of using Hope, I like the character himself, therefore I use him.” I don’t feel obligated to use any of the characters just because they’re extremely good at something the other characters aren’t good at. And I like that.
And it’s not like there’s no way that Hope can ever be stronger than Lightning. There are many mechanisms in the game that allow for balancing, if you really want to use them that way. For example, upgrading weapons and accessories, the Crystarium system (basically the “experience point/leveling” system), and the various “roles” that characters are given according to the Paradigm system (sort of like job classes, I guess). For example, even if Hope’s stats are pretty crappy, he has some useful roles (such as Medic) that can really come in handy. And if you choose to concentrate on upgrading his weapons and accessories he can become quite powerful, just like the other characters.
I like the lack of balance between the characters. It’s really refreshing. Too much balance honestly annoys me. I’ve always wished that characters who really, truly have the training and experience in battle could actually reflect their skills and toughness in their stats; and those who are serious chicken-wusses can also have their weakness reflected in their stats. It only makes sense.
3. The battle system is fun and engaging.
Okay, so it was a little hard to get the hang of at first and it’s still a touch too clunky to feel extremely natural to me, but I really enjoy it. It’s quite innovative and certainly isn’t like anything I’ve played thus far. Basically, in each party of up to three characters, only one character is actually controlled manually. And even then, much of the control is automated, facilitated by a “Auto-Attack” sort of command. Yes, it sounds boring at first – I mean, isn’t this just like more of FFXII? But really, it’s not.
Not only do you actually have a decent amount of control over your “leader” character, but you can control the other party members quite effectively by way of “Paradigm Shifts” during battle. These are basically changes of the roles or “job classes” of various characters, including the “leader” character. For example, a character that was previously ordered to attack using magic spells could then be changed to healing only, or to attack with physical attacks. When using Paradigm Shifts, the roles of all three members change at the same time. The set-up of these Paradigms is easily customizable in any combination you want, within the limits of the characters’ capabilities (as far as I know, each character has 3 different “roles” available – maybe more are gained later, I don’t know).
In effect, what you mostly do is spam “Auto-Action” for your leading character while changing between various Paradigms as needed. For example, at the beginning of the battle you might want one member in the “Synergist” role to boost the capabilities of other members and another in the “Saboteur” to give negative status effects to the enemies. After this, you might switch to a more directly offensive Paradigm in order to build chain attacks (chaining attacks – in other words, landing many hits on one enemy consecutively – leads to the enemy becoming “Staggered,” which generally means they take more damage and are easier to defeat), and as the battle wears on and your members take hits, you might switch to a Paradigm with at least one Medic so that you can get back to top health.
Even though this all sounds very clunky and somewhat circuitous (after all, wouldn’t it be easier just to order the members of your party directly?), but in actuality the battles are very fast-paced, exciting enough (visually and auditorarily flashy, that’s for sure!), and they play much more like a strategy battle than a button-mashing tactical battle. I find that I actually have to use my brain somewhat more than most other RPGs when playing this game (a good thing, in my opinion). The actions in these battles go by very, very fast. If you’re not alert and thinking all the time, you can easily get to dangerous levels of health and end up spending lots of time defeating the enemies, even in a “normal” battle. On the flip side, if you do take the effort and have the mental alertness to keep switching between Paradigms all the time, the battles are not at all unfairly difficult. In fact, they are some of the most satisfying random battles I’ve played in a long while.
I should, however, note that FFXIII follows a general trend I’ve been noticing recently (or maybe I’ve just gotten too old and played too many RPGs?) in that it’s quite easy. I really love a good challenge in my games, but most of the battles, especially bosses, in the game are really child’s play. Well, they’re definitely not much easier (or harder) than most RPGs these days, but I was really hoping for something more. Hopefully the game will get more difficult as it progresses and/or there will be some very, very challenging side quests and boss monsters later.
So far there has only been one battle which I found to be of a satisfactorily challenging level. I actually failed this battle three or four times (mostly so I could enjoy the challenge again, heh heh…). It’s one where you have only two characters, Lightning and Hope, and you fight against an Eidolon (a summon, basically), Odin. Not only does Odin look super bad ass but he’s also tough as hell. Relatively speaking, anyway. The thing with Eidolon battles (which I also love to bits, by the way) is that there is a time limit on defeating them (by way of a “doom counter”) and that they are not defeated in the conventional way (ie, by reducing their HP to zero). Instead, you must use various actions to “impress” them into joining you; for example, one Eidolon is impressed when you defend against its attacks, another likes to see you healing the injured.
This one particular battle against Odin was extremely enjoyable because of the challenge presented by: (1) having only two characters (one of whom is “Hope”lessly deficient in HP); (2) the super-fast attacking speed of Odin, who often unleashed combos of three or four moves, each one capable of taking out a sizable chunk of HP; (3) the time limit, which made sure I didn’t spend too much time healing or doing other non-attacking actions. I don’t think I had to switch between Paradigms as many times during any other battle as I did in this one. Every time I healed up to full HP again, it was just as easily reduced to critical levels within five or ten seconds. The hard part was balancing healing (mostly keeping Hope alive, as the battle is basically impossible without his healing help) and attacking, always trying to make the right decisions at every point of the battle.
4. Characters’ HP is restored after every battle.
That’s right. Another RPG convention discarded. Yes, in this game, HP only matters within the battle. Afterwards, even if party members were downed or their HP was reduced to critical levels, it doesn’t matter. Everything is restored to full after the battle.
You might be thinking this reduces the difficulty of the game, but it doesn’t really. It actually just makes the game more streamlined, convenient, and easy to play. I love being able to say goodbye to constantly opening the menu after every battle, locating my healer, and using Cure repeatedly until satisfied. Really, it just saves a lot of time and doesn’t eliminate anything necessary to the game. The difficulty isn’t compromised by this decision because, in exchange for auto-healing at the end of battle, the characters all also have quite ridiculously low HP stats and very slow rates of growth.
For example, after nearly 10 hours of play (I’d probably be around level 12 or 15 if there were real “levels” in this game – oh yeah, did I mention they took those out, too? I love that about this game! So reductionist!), most of my characters’ HPs are still around the 500-600 range. When the average single attack from an enemy does about 50 HP of damage, that’s quite a low number. My characters usually start to hit critical levels of HP after about 40 or 50 seconds in the average battle (where most battles last about 35 seconds), if I withhold on the healing. I suspect in a “normal” RPG at about the same level of development as I am at right now, most characters would have more like 1000 HP, which is only gradually chipped away by successive battles.
As for why I think the designers chose to eliminate after-battle healing and the like, it’s probably because none of the magic in this game actually costs MP. Another thing I like about FFXIII. Yes, no longer are mages limited in using their spells. No longer must one conserve “Cures” for boss battles. Magic is really a lot more useful in this game because of the lack of MP. I mean, it’s become less potent than is the custom in other RPGs, but it’s also become a lot more easy to use and accessible. And since there’s no such thing as MP in this game, of course it wouldn’t make sense to have players manually heal characters after battle. Thus, smartly, they made the decision for auto-healing.
5. Save-points galore!
There is literally a save-point for every 5 to 10 minutes of gameplay (sometimes even less). Yes, crazy isn’t it? I think one single level in this game has about as many save-points as many games do in their entirety (okay, that’s stretching it a little… but not much).
I’m not sure exactly why there are so many save-points, but I sure as hell like it. I’m a save-point whore. I love having a file just before every major cutscene, especially the CG ones. Luckily, due to the amazing abundance of save-points, I actually do, in this game. Oh yeah, and FFXIII allows you to save as many files as you want on your hard drive (as far as I know). There seems to be no limit to the number of files saved. Hurray!
Also, the save-points in this game have the additional functionality of allowing you to shop and upgrade weapons. I really like this. Even though at first I thought that would make the game too easy (especially seeing as there’s no end of save-points in all the levels and dungeons in the game), it actually just makes it more convenient. No longer do you have to travel all the way to that one special store in the game just to buy the weapon or accessory you need – just find any save-point and you can get to your shopping right away, with no hassle!
6. I like the Crystarium.
This is the “leveling up” system in the game, since there are no actual levels in FFXIII. The system acts pretty similarly to the Sphere Grid in FFX (though that’s a little hazy in my memory), just with an updated look and also being more tailored to individual characters than before. Although it’s slightly more on the gimmicky side than it is truly innovational, I do like it. It’s at least as good as the Sphere Grid, which I had few problems with. And light-years better than a conventional level-up system. I mean, people like having control over characters’ development and customization options – even if the control is somewhat illusory as in this case. Even recognizing its limitations and its slightly phoney character, I still think the Crystarium is a fun way to level up and is definitely good enough to be in this game.
7. Upgrading weapons is fun.
It’s hard to explain exactly why this is, but I’ll give it a try. Basically, in FFXIII, when upgrading weapons/accessories you use parts and pieces you obtained (mostly as loot from slaying enemies) in order to “level up” the weapons/accessories. Each loot item has an inherent “EXP” value, and each equipment item to be upgraded has its own required EXP for each level of upgrade. Thus, you use up loot items in order to level up equipment. Not only does this make upgrading equipment convenient and gives a real purpose for those “useless” loot items you’re always picking up, but it’s actually quite fun. You see, at certain points in each level of the equipment (I’m not sure if these points are random or deliberately assigned), you’ll gain EXP bonuses that can be applied to the next loot items that are being used. For example, a “EXP x2 bonus” means that you earn twice the amount of EXP from each loot item than you would normally. Somehow, this system really works to encourage me to keep upgrading my weapons and to find the best parts for upgrading.
8. Gil and other items are quite scarce in this game.
So far, I only have about 2500 Gil. Yep. And I haven’t spent a single penny of it in a shop yet. Considering that the average beginner’s weapon costs about as much as the total sum of my current “bank account” right now, it really is quite a big deal.
Yet somehow I find it doesn’t actually matter very much. It only makes the game more realistic and makes money that much more valuable in this game.
9. They’ve eliminated a lot of conventional RPG systems in this game.
Another I almost forgot to mention is the lack of equipment in this game. There are only weapons and accessories. To start with, each character only has one slot for each. That’s right, there are no “armor” items such as helmets, gloves, body armors, etc. And guess what? I’m sure you can predict my reaction to this by now, but nevertheless, I have to say I really like this. How annoying I always found it to be to have to constantly be purchasing and equipping, again and again and again, new pieces of armor for all the members of my party. I mean, sometimes we just want to stop micromanaging with everything and just get on with the game, damnit. FFXIII recognizes this in its players and cuts away everything unnecessary and time-consuming. It’s refreshing not to be swimming in hundreds of various pieces of armor and equipment and weapons.
So far, every character has only about two or three choices of “starter weapon” to purchase or have found somewhere in the game. Since weapons can be upgraded, I don’t really see this as a deficiency in any way.
Okay, now that we’ve gone over most of the “game system”-related points I wanted to make, let’s talk about other important elements of the game… characters, story, music, fields, etc.
Overall Feel of the Game
1. The game, so far, seems to be predominantly sci-fi, and spends most of its time in urban environments, industrial settings, the sky, inside airships, in futuristic places, etc. While I’ll admit that sci-fi is not exactly my favourite genre and I was expecting less of an influence on this Final Fantasy game, I have to say I don’t really mind it one bit. It’s just done so well. All the environments feel very real, detailed, thoroughly created and designed. They’re imaginative. Definitely very few clichés here. There is a great feeling of “fantasy” in most of the environments as well.
Most places are absolutely gorgeous. Even the “random dungeons.” I especially enjoyed spending time in one place, Bodhum, a seaside city with a lovely beach, futuristic buildings, and an overall feeling reminiscent of the living Zanarkand in FFX.
2. Running and so on on the field is pretty functional and there’s nothing wrong here. The camera is easily controlled (unlike the static environs of FFX) and there are many opportunities (similar to FFX-2) for “jumping” around, say from ledge to ledge, up and down a pile of boxes, etc. These are pretty basic and don’t involve much control. Enemies are also encountered by running into them directly, rather than random battles (thank God!!), which is a definite improvement. Due to the very narrow, linear nature of most of the environments, enemies are rarely avoided. Not that I mind, of course, since I actually find myself voluntarily running into enemies and enjoying every battle quite a bit.
The control of the leading character in the field screen (by the way, all characters can be controlled in the field screen – not just Lightning…. This is a very team-oriented, individual-oriented game that lets every single character shine and have a piece of the action – I love it) is a little awkward and imprecise. The characters float around a bit too much and are slow in reaction time. It might take some getting used to if you’ve just played a game that has very accurate, tight controls. But nothing major, definitely.
3. There are many, many, many, many cutscenes. If you’ve played any one of a number of J-RPGs recently that just have a complete explosion of cutscenes, far too many, one after the other… try playing FFXIII. You’ll probably be astounded by the frequency of cutscenes, which probably number more than any other game I’ve played. Luckily, all cutscenes (in fact, every line of dialogue in the game!) are fully voiced (and beautifully so), and they’re often quite short – not exactly full-blown cutscenes with whole paragraphs of dialogue. Sometimes it’s just a brief exchange between two characters, taking less than thirty seconds to watch. Still, it can be slightly overwhelming. It’s definitely a different experience, since you can expect to have only five or ten minutes of unbroken gameplay before the next cutscene.
Personally, I like it. Especially since cutscenes are actually advertised in advance on the field map (there’s a little icon that shows up on maps indicating forthcoming cutscenes!). It’s actually a lot less annoying to be interrupted when you know you’ll be interrupted. I find the cutscenes, for the most part, to be very well integrated into the game and not too jarring or abrupt.
Story
1. Okay, I’ll admit it, the story has me lost most of the time. Yes, it’s quite complicated. There are a lot of terms that are not really explained, just thrown out there (you’ll have to do your own research in the stupendously-detailed “Datalog” to find out just what’s what). Characters’ backstories are pretty much never given and only rarely explored or discussed. Even after 10 hours, I have little idea just who exactly any of the characters in my party are, let alone what their motivations are, where they’re from, or why they’re actually sticking with the rest of the party. The main story itself is pretty hard to follow. I’ll admit I think they could’ve done a slightly better job making the story clear and intelligible. As it is, you’ll probably be left guessing most of the time. However, of course this is not without its advantages, as it lends an air of mystery to the events and characters of the game and makes the player curious to progress through the game.
The story is interesting enough. That’s for sure. You can tell the creators spared no effort in making the story and its world as detailed as humanly possible, and it really shows. Everything seems to happen for a specific purpose – I just have to wait to find out what exactly that is later, it seems.
Characters
1. One of the things I love the most about this game is the way it gives every character the chance to take center stage and shine in his or her own way. Not only does the game do a great job of introducing each member of the eventual party separately at the beginning of game (only to have their stories intertwine later, of course), but the game also tends to “split up” the characters frequently, dividing them into pairs or individuals and mixing up the combinations often. I really like this. More games should be like this. You know, I really get bored of always following a single character, controlling a single character on the field, letting a single character lead. What if I don’t like that character so much? This game opts for diversity by letting you control every character individually at some point in time.
It also allows each character to develop a bit more individually through separating them. When there’s five characters all together all the time, some of them may have almost no say in what happens in the events of the story; their individual voices are drowned out and, if there’s one special character that you like (who’s not the main character), it’s rather annoying that you’re rarely able to control him/her or see them really make a difference in the story. I like having the spotlight shone on each character for a time. Really makes it seem like each one matters. So they’re not all just random “followers” or obligatory “members of the party.”
And the way in which the party is split up is often quite interesting. It’s not just some kind of arbitrary splitting up of the party into groups to “explore multiple paths” often seen in RPGs. The characters actually decide for themselves, through different events, which way they want to go, who they’ll go with. Their stories are all actually different throughout the game; they’re not all on the exact same path. This is very refreshing. It’s also more fun to see pairs of characters interacting together, alone, having to rely on each other alone. The bonds that are formed between pairs seem more real when they were formed alone than when it’s within a huge party.
2. I’ll admit I don’t love all the characters. They’ve done a good job making them all come to life, but I don’t love all of them to death. Lightning is very cool and has a definite personality, a very refreshing one, and I do like her. But to be honest, she hasn’t been developed as much yet as I would’ve expected (ditto for pretty much all the other characters) and she’s somewhat more of a goal-oriented, cold bitch than I at first assumed. Okay, not really, but still, she is pretty damn “no-nonsense” and can be kind of a bitch at times.
Snow, I surprisingly like more than I expected. He’s really a good guy and has an interesting and surprising character. He’s soft, naïve. He’s pretty courageous. He’s funny and a good leader. I like how he looks. I like his obsessive devotion and reckless determination when it comes to anything involving Serah (his fiancée).
I still don’t really like Vanille or Sazh extremely much. Vanille was pretty fun at first, when she was with Hope at the beginning (constantly hyperactive, hugging him, etc). But as the story went on, I just don’t really get who she is or why she’s so damn energetic and enthusiastic about everything. I can’t figure out her personality. She’s rather 2-dimensional to me right now. As for Sazh, he’s okay, honestly, he’s not that bad. But he doesn’t have a very distinct personality. He’s pretty much like a “token black comic relief” kind of guy that I was expecting. Sure, he’s got a more serious side than that and is actually quite intelligent and leaderly, but besides this, he’s a rather flat character who seems to have few intricacies.
Of course, my favourite character is Hope. I hope it doesn’t say anything about me that I already knew he’d be my favourite character a long, long, long time before I ever even considered buying this game? Well, honestly speaking, he’s even more gorgeous and somewhat more interesting than I expected. I definitely love his voice (well, yes, all the voices in this game are perfect – but especially his. It’s literally like spot-on… not a single bad line, not a single imperfection or awkwardness in it). His character model, both in CG and the in-game version, is just… delectable. It’s not really just the way he looks. I mean, when you see a still image of him, he’s not that gorgeous. It’s really the way they animated his face.
The facial movements, bodily mannerisms, and other such animated personality features in this game are really, really, really good. Even the way the characters’ eyes move – something as simple and innocuous as that – seem to give them so much life, character, wonder. I love the way they animated Hope especially, though they’re all good. One look at his face, the way his eyes shift, the look of faint desperation in his features, and you can tell what he’s feeling: doubtful, nervous. It’s easy to see why the voice acting in this game is so damn good, so damn spot-on: it’s because the in-game animation makes it crystal clear what the character is feeling, what the words mean, the tone of the phrase, etc.
Which gets me to my next point…
3. The voice acting is so damn good!!! I know this doesn’t really have to do with the characters, but I figured I’d add this in anyway. After all, without the voice acting, the characters wouldn’t be half as wonderful as they are to me now (okay, that’s exaggeration, but still; Hope wouldn’t be Hope without his voice; Lightning wouldn’t be Lightning).
All the voices in the game are good. I can’t really pick out any noticeable bad eggs, even among the NPCs and characters who only appear for several lines. They’re just all so damn good. And it’s not just the voice acting in itself. It’s the way it’s so skillfully, so seamlessly integrated into the cutscenes. There’s literally not a single line that’s not matching the mouth movements of the character models. I find this extremely amazing. Not only that, but there are no awkward pauses, spaces, strange phrasing, etc, that’s often inevitable when dubbing to precise mouth movements. It’s absolutely perfect. I have no idea how they managed to do it, but it’s amazing. Not just the voice actors, of course, but the localizing team. How they managed to choose phrases that were just the right length in English to match the Japanese ones… I really don’t know.
And what’s so damn amazing about the voice acting is not just the quality, but the quantity. There is a lot of it in here. A lot. Every single line of dialogue in this game is voiced. Yes. Not just the cutscenes or main characters, but even the NPCs you talk to along the way. And many NPCs have many more than one line of voiced dialogue. Some have just loads and loads of it… 10 or more lines. Not an exaggeration. To have so much voiced dialogue is just a perfect feat. I can hardly imagine how they managed to do it.
Music
I find the music very appropriate and quite memorable, addictive, and overall good quality. Some people may disapprove of the continued lack of Uematsu’s “special Final Fantasy touch” but I honestly couldn’t give a damn. I love Uematsu’s work as much as the next person, but I think the feeling of the new composer and his work is quite in line with the game and its own new, unique feel.
The music is generally quite complex. It’s not like the old, catchy repetitive themes of yore. The pieces are pretty long by game standards, they use a lot of instruments (almost entirely orchestral), and they generally have a feeling in them that I can only describe as mystical and urgent. Many of the themes are quite moving. I, personally, enjoy the battle theme a lot.
Oh yeah, one last thing. The Eidolons (summons) in this game are soooo cool. Even if they’re the same-old, same-old from the other Final Fantasy games, they’ve just been given a serious cosmetic upgrade in this one. They look a whole lot cooler, their summon animations are awesome, fighting against them and using them in battle are super cool. All around good job they did with the Eidolons. They just look so stylin’. I mean, the Shiva sisters transform into a motorcycle and Odin becomes a horse with a long double-bladed sword. It’s just incredibly cool to see them summoned and use them in battle. Very, very, very cool.
Hmm… what else shall I say? I’m almost out of thoughts about FFXIII. Well, I know there are other things I want to say, but I think I’ll leave it there for now. This is long enough already, as it is….
[there may be spoilers from here on. Don’t read if you don’t want to potentially be spoiled! This next part is more a commentary for those who have already enjoyed FFXIII]
Hope… Stupid Name, Cute Face
Ah, but I do love Hope. It’s funny, because I don’t really understand his character yet (same goes for the others, really). But I just feel so drawn towards him. Unlike the other characters, he at least seems to have changed significantly since the beginning of the journey (though a predictable change, it’s a change nonetheless). I find his supposed “hatred” of Snow (he doesn’t really show it much, though, does he?) to be kind of awkward and unbelievable. I mean, didn’t he see how hard Snow tried to keep his mother from falling to her death? And it’s not like Snow forced her to join him or anything; it was her decision alone. I understand Hope’s just a kid and he’s got to be irrational and stupid once in a while, especially after something like that (his mom’s death) happened to him. But still, I don’t really get it.
And why can’t he just spit it out already, if he really hates Snow so much? Why wait forever and ever just to tell Snow that he killed his mom? I don’t really see the point in that, except to build up the tension in the story. I get that Hope lacks confidence and he’s not really the confrontational, up-front type, but that’s just going a bit too far.
Oh yeah, and does anyone else think Snow reminds them of Seifer? Heh heh.
Anyway, back to Hope…. Yeah, I’m definitely in love with him. I love his voice. It’s perfect. Not one of those annoying fake-sounding “young puberty boy” sort of voices, and definitely not a woman’s voice thank God (not that there’s anything wrong with that in general, just that Hope looks like he’s definitely past that stage). He actually sounds like a young man. Wow. Seriously, that’s more than I can say for just about 90% of video game or anime characters below the age of 17 (16 seems to be the magical age threshold for which you’re still a “kid”… at 17, you’re ready to be a full-fledged hero, according to RPG convention).
Unlike Tidus (who Hope does, unfortunately, frequently remind me of – he’s not nearly, not even one fraction, as annoying as Tidus though), Hope doesn’t have a whiny or irritating voice in any way. He sounds mature for his age, like a thoughtful, reserved, studied young person. He clearly lacks confidence and is often frightened of things that don’t seem to frighten the other hardened members of the party (seriously, I think he’s the only member of the party who doesn’t have previous battle experience or is somehow strangely impervious to feeling afraid or uncertain in any way (ie, Vanille), but his fear is not exaggerated or emphasized in a particularly unflattering way, and he rarely appears cowardly or weak like Tidus did. The things he’s afraid of, I’m willing to suspect that pretty much anyone in this real world, playing the game, would be afraid of. And he doesn’t complain. He doesn’t whine about going home. He doesn’t even seem to show much outward emotion at his mom’s death. It’s like he hasn’t accepted it happened, yet. He’s pretty brave about all that’s happened to him so far, I feel.
I love the parts of the game where he’s alone with Lightning. I don’t know, I just get a good vibe from seeing those two together. The softest member of the party with the hardest. It really works well. Hope clearly has respect for her (unlike with Snow), so he doesn’t get annoying or anything, and his efforts to try to keep up with her, learn from her, and not get in her way actually make sense and seem believable. He doesn’t question her decisions, complain about them, or mess up in an annoying way. I like this.
I kind of wondered why he chose to stick with Lightning so many times instead of being around Vanille, who he was with originally in the first place. But I think it’s pretty obvious now. She’s probably a more admirable and motherly sort of figure to him than Vanille, who’s too hyperactive and touchy-feely for his tastes. He’s a pretty serious person despite his age, so I figure he wants to learn from Lightning and become more like her. He doesn’t seem like the type of person who wants to have “fun” and do trivial, frivolous things. Hence his natural incompatibility with the other party members.
I liked the scene where he goes to sleep against a rock and Lightning watches him. She notices him mumbling “Mom?” in his sleep and smiles. “Not by a long shot.” It’s just a good scene because it shows how Lightning is taking a liking to him and also that she does indeed have a soft, caring side. It also reveals Hope’s vulnerability, something that he makes an effort to hide when he’s awake.
I just really like all the exchanges between Hope and Lightning, in general. Like when she asked him to call her “Light.” I found that kind of cute. (not that Hope actually took her suggestion afterwards) And when Lightning got extremely vexed at having to “babysit” him and started yelling harshly at him; after Odin appears and is defeated, she apologizes for being hard on him and tells him: “We’ll toughen you up.” I liked seeing Lightning’s soft side as much as I admired Hope’s determination to get stronger and be of some use to Lightning.