Nick Moore is back with a brand new Games of Time column

It is time for Games of Time to go to the present day of 2010 CE (Scientifically speaking it is Current Era and not After Death), and review the 13^th game in one of the most legendary series ever, Final Fantasy.  I could easily review any of Final Fantasy games and they’d be a good fit for the Games of Time column.  However, I am feeling a little antsy and I wanted to go forward with something on Final Fantasy 13.

As a kid, I had no idea really what the Final Fantasy series was thanks to not having any older siblings to go off of.  All of the games that I played were ones that my next door neighbor had or I randomly picked up at Blockbuster.  It was not until sixth grade that my friends started talking about Final Fantasy 7 through 9.  I had a Playstation 2 at time and the only two RPGs at the time that I had really played were Earthbound and Chrono Trigger, both of which were great RPGs.  I was really into playing SNES ROMS on my family computer at the time so I ended up downloading Final Fantasy 3 which is actually the sixth game in the series.  I cannot explain and still do not understand the reasons for skipping over the games.  I really enjoyed the simplicity of this game hence why I have this column over just reviewing recent games.  As a 12 year old, I had some trouble convincing my parents to allow me to play certain games and I curiously wanted to play Final Fantasy X. The first attempt at getting this game, my parents denied me the opportunity.  I tried again by comparing the game to a Playstation version of Legend of Zelda because it would not make any sense to my parents what a RPG game is.  I successfully persuaded my parents to allow me to buy this game after playing the beginning at my friend’s house.

In 2002 as well as compared to games now, Final Fantasy 10 has some great cut scene graphics and I remember watching in awe with everything going on in it.  Gameplay wise, Final Fantasy 10 has the best gameplay out of the Final Fantasy series thus far.  Everything from summons to certain character’s specialty attacks is to the point and is error free and each battle takes awhile to beat.

Eight years later, the third major Final Fantasy game that has come out since 2000 is born and called Final Fantasy 13.  Not playing Final Fantasy 11 or 12, I could only expect that it would be levels above Final Fantasy 10 in not only graphics but gameplay as well.  I’ve always been a fan of great graphics as long as it has a decent storyline and dialogue.  Unfortunately, right off the bat, I was not able to enjoy the dialogue. I mean, I can understand to a certain point how it’d be hard to write the English dialogue for a game that the animations were made for the character’s mouths to move in Japanese, but the dialogue is so sophomoric to the point of me not wanting to listen to them talk.  I want to be interested in what they’re talking about and be able to understand everything.  I had to actually start a new file and read up a little bit on it on the internet and I was able to slowly take in what was going on.  Usually if I am watching a television show or a movie, I can get right off the bat what is going on and what is going to happen, and usually my predictions are right now.  The graphics however are amazing and I’d rather have games look like this compared to that of Heavy Rain and Modern Warfare 2.

As far as the gameplay goes, 13 is so much different from what I was used to in 10, in the sense that you can only use one character per party while the computer controls the rest.  It almost makes you think that what gives the developers the idea that the computer will make a better choice for the character’s actions than the player would.  It also kind of bugs me that you have to be quick about attacking your opponents or using potions/phoenix downs because your enemies do not have to wait for you to attack to attack you.  So while they have a chance to attack you twice, you have to wait until your “Action Time” Battle gauge fills up.  It is never clear why they do this and I have not had a problem getting battles done with this, it is just an annoyance.  Another problem I have with the game is that the game actually judges you on your performance for each battle.  This is the first RPG that I’ve played that has this in the game.  To me, RPGs have never been about how fast it takes to beat your enemies but as long as you get it done.  But I have a feeling that in this day and age due to the whoring of the achievement system, which they are trying to appease to that audience.

A system new to the Final Fantasy games called the Paradigm system is brought to Final Fantasy 13, in which you have three different roles for your team once you get into Chapter 2.  The different roles that you can play as in 13 are Commando, Ravager, Sentinel, Synergist, Saboteur and Medic. Each role plays a major part in what each member of the party is able to do like every Final Fantasy game have you do.  Commando is more of an offensive kind of role while a role like Ravager is more for characters that want to be on the sidelines and be more of a mage.

The summons called Eidolons that originally were in Final Fantasy 8 and 4 DS make their way back to Final Fantasy 13 and the different summons interact differently with each character.  Like most of the Final Fantasy games, you have to beat your summons in order to obtain them.  As far as interacting with the characters, it is as they are almost transformers.  For example, Snow’s summons act as a motorcycle.

Graphics wise the game is delicious and while I cannot stand the dialogue and the gameplay is not what I am used to, it does not make it a bad game.  I would recommend it really for anybody since it seems as though it is less complicated to play than the past Final Fantasy games.

 

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Tags: enyx, final fantasy 13, games of time, square

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 14th, 2010 at 12:01 am and is filed under Columns, Featured Stories, PS3, Top Story, Xbox 360. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.