Final Fantasy XIII [split topic]

[MojoJojo]

There was a article in I think Edge magazine fairly recently that said that some games developers are starting to think that there may be more milage in the PS3 as its now starting to become clear that the fact that the 360 is stuck with 9GB of max game size is limiting for that console...

Sorry to pick up on one minor issue, whats the 9GB limit? Is that DVD size or something? ME2 is 2 DVDs

(ah, it's 2 DVDs isn't it? I suppose more than that probably causes problems. But creating data in those sorts of scales basically scales linearly since its the amount of video/voice you shove on there. GTA IV cost £100 million and fit on 2 DVDs, are they really thinking they can extend the "more content"="more sales" paradigm much further, especially when games like MW2 shows there are better ways of making a profit.

[Pseudopath]

Sorry to pick up on one minor issue, whats the 9GB limit? Is that DVD size or something? ME2 is 2 DVDs

(ah, it's 2 DVDs isn't it? I suppose more than that probably causes problems. But creating data in those sorts of scales basically scales linearly since its the amount of video/voice you shove on there. GTA IV cost £100 million and fit on 2 DVDs, are they really thinking they can extend the "more content"="more sales" paradigm much further, especially when games like MW2 shows there are better ways of making a profit.

No...8.5Gb is the size of a single-sided, dual-layer DVD. In comparison, a dual-layer PS3 Blu-ray disc can contain up to 50Gb of data.

[Steve Lampkins]

EDIT: beaten on the DL-DVD.

I went with PS3 basically for use as a Blu Ray player, and I can control it using my Sony Bravia TV remote. I bought a few budget games, but basically only play GTA IV.

[MojoJojo]

I went with PS3 basically for use as a Blu Ray player, and I can control it using my Sony Bravia TV remote. I bought a few budget games, but basically only play GTA IV.

Interesting on the remote issue - that's actually one of the minor downsides of the PS3, it has no IR port, so you can't use most snazzy remotes with it.

But the Blu-ray player pretty much trumps that.

[Steve Lampkins]

You can buy a doodah which makes the Harmony remotes work with it. Which I guess are the daddys of all-in-one remotes.

[Still Not George]

Well that's certainly one reason, Sony were apparently very late getting PS3 development kits to games developers at the start of this generation. The other reason is that the 360 is way more easy to program for, it is after all just a PC in a flashy box more or less.

Well, not quite. There are definite differences, as I'm slowly discovering to my utter horror. But an in-order tri-core with OS-level thread grouping to manage cache is a lot more like a desktop CPU than 7 SPUs with weirdly limited feature sets bolted to one beefy Power PC chip could ever be.

[The Masked Unit]

Anyone play the Just Cause 2 demo yet?  It's fun floating about the place and theres a great sense of scale to it, especially when large structures collapse, and there's an impressive amount of destructibility to the environment.  It's also nice to have a game where a grapple hook is not only a central feature but can be used to such a variable effect. 

When it comes down to earth, though, it's pretty clunky.  No decent cover system, so gunfights seem to consist of standing in an open plain or rooftop, as far away as possible from any enemies and slowly pick them off, all the while hoping that their energy runs out before yours.  The AI is pretty poor and more intricate movements, such as getting inside a building through a window, feel much more clumsy than they should.  In spite of that, I reckon there's a lot to like.

I very accurate mini review, that. The gun play is pretty shit and would benefit from a lock on system, and you're right about the lack of cover. My standard proceduer is to kill a few people, then leg it/grapple my way as far as it takes to me out of their line of sight, then go back and do some more.

However, I've played the 30 minute demo about 10 times and will revisit it again several times this afternoon. It's jaw droppingly gorgeous, not in terms of the close up details necessarily, which are actually a bit shonky, but in terms of scale and the colour pallet it's incredible. Taking a helicopter as far up as it'll go and jumping out of it is genuinely exhilarating, and probably the closest thing I've seen to photorealism as you plummet towards the ground.

If you liked Crackdown you'll love this. It was not really on my radar at all until I saw what people had to say about it on Neogaf and Edge, but I'll definitely be putting in an order for it now.

[Little Hoover]

hmm, is this actually the FFXIII thread?

I'm a bit confused by the criticism I've read of the game, complaining about linearity, and there being lots of cut-scenes, well yes it's a Final Fantasy game, it sounds like it'll appeal to me more than XII's failed attempt at blending a Western MMORPG ideas with the FF traditions. But still I've pretty much lost interest in FF anyway, and yet for nostalgic reasons, I still feel compelled to get this, even though so much I've seen about it puts me right off and just looks like shit for kids.

[Borboski]

I'd been looking forward to this and planned to buy - but I've been playing Eternal Sontata as a JRPG taster.. I must have played about 15 hours and just concluded "oh what's the point" and given up.  So I might think the same of FFXIII within a similar timeframe, if ti just feels like your hammering X for hours...

That said I was unashamedly pleased with Metal Gear Solid and all the cutscenes - I thought they were great.  It really felt like a next-gen experience...  I also quite like games that give me some challenges but let me make progress.  Dantes Inferno - and Batman probably- are good example.   The fight v your old man in Dantes Inferno was one of the best gaming experiences I've had in a long time - it must have taken me 12+ attempts over two nights, but each time I got closer and closer until I worked out a technique.  And the majority of the game was easy enough for you to experience most of the content.

[jimmy jazz]

This game has a character that is not only funny and likeable but ALSO black and not insulting.

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS GAME? THIS IS NOT A MODERN FINAL FANTASY!

EDIT: Wait, sorry, he has a Chocobo living in his head. Back to normal.

[jimmy jazz]

TINY FIRST HOUR SPOILERS

Can somebody else please be playing this game. Some of the dialogue in Snow's story is hilarious.

Spoiler alert

"Real heroes don't make plans"

"Are you sure [you want to fight]?"
"I'm sure... Mum's are tough."

[close]

And now I've gone from

Spoiler alert

asking if there are any volunteers among those I've rescued to forcing guns on children in a matter of seconds. Also, if you have subs then it's easy to see who dies as they don't bother to name expendables. I have a feeling Mother and Man are in the shit but Hope and Vanille will be fine.

[close]

[Milo]

EDIT: Wait, sorry, he has a Chocobo living in his head. Back to normal.

Such a lazy stereotype for black people.

I'm playing it - just taken control of the man in the hat but not sure of his name yet. Is that Snow? He does have blonde hair.

[vrailaine]

What happened Agito?

[jutl]

I'd been looking forward to this and planned to buy - but I've been playing Eternal Sontata as a JRPG taster.. I must have played about 15 hours and just concluded "oh what's the point" and given up.  So I might think the same of FFXIII within a similar timeframe, if ti just feels like your hammering X for hours...

Eternal Sonata is a bit of an odd one, but probably a good preparation for FF XIII as it was also almost completely linear (and where it wasn't it was just fucking annoying as in the Fort Fermata section). If you want to play a Final Fantasy game with some substance I'd give FF IX a go (on a PC-based emulator or a hacked PSP). VII is lovely - and available for the PS3 - but the character graphics outside the battles look like they are constructed out of sex toys, and this can have a distancing effect on the player.

[vrailaine]

Why's linear such a negative word?

[jutl]

Why's linear such a negative word?

I think it implies lack of freedom, and we're all pre-programmed to value liberty above virtually everything else.

[Milo]

And also the fact that in these sorts of games the combat is so trivial that without a free world to explore there can sometimes be little else left beyond some cutscenes.

[jimmy jazz]

And also the fact that in these sorts of games the combat is so trivial that without a free world to explore there can sometimes be little else left beyond some cutscenes.

This is pretty much the case. Linear JRPGs very seldom work as relying on the combat alone to entice you into playing 80+ hours of a game is hopeless. Plus world maps are pretty.

The first two hours of this game are ridiculously fucking slow and they dripfeed you the battle system, meaning attack is your only option for hours. However, once you finish the first section it gets pretty good. Now I just wish the two kids would fucking die. Oh, and the music is awful, I just found out that Nobuo Uematsu didn't do this game, so there isn't anything nearly as good as the FFVII World Map theme.

[Fry]

I can't stop looking at that black dude's hair. It looks like it is animated by someone who hss seen a picture of an afro, and guessed how it reacted to wind and movement from that alone.

[jimmy jazz]

Sazh is the best Final Fantasy character since Cid Highwind, he's genuinely brilliant. Shame the rest are the usual crap.

[Clone Army]

Amusingly, according to 'kipedia this forms the start of a new sub series of games spinning off from FFXIII...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabula_Nova_Crystallis_Final_Fantasy_XIII

According to Square Enix, they all take place in separate worlds and there is no cooperation between the teams of the various titles -- the only connection being a "vague crystal theme".[1]

Oh, these new Final Fantasy games will have a "vague crystal theme". You know, as opposed to the other games.

[Borboski]

Just a few mins into it - and although I'm a bit cautious about signing over 40 hours of my life to it... the production values on this and so high, it looks amazing.  Even if it's linear, if it rewards me with decent cut scene product I'll be happy.  I loved the Metal Gear Solid stuff. 

[Little Hoover]

So did anyone else play or care about this then? I eventually got it and it wasn't all that bad. The battle system worked quite well despite the lack of control people complain about it. It became about adopting the right strategy at the appropriate time, rather than individual moves. It just really drip feeds everything as has been said. For a game that was so linear to make the story work, very little happened. Which is fine to an extent, it focused on the character relationship of the main party more. I mean I sort of like that for once in a FF game they main party do all have a good reason for travelling together, but they don't get on and all end up splitting up. But by the ending very little seems to have happened, not much was really resolved or explained and it ends with a bit a deus-ex machina. Sort of enjoyable in spite of all it's flaws, but it just feels like everything takes twice as long as it needs to.

After finishing it I replayed FFIX and that's a proper FF story, so much more happens, in the main story alone, but then it's also got about 20 secondary characters with their own subplots that all got resolved properly. The battle system is a little a broken though, but it still works and there are just a lot more other things you can do.

[Cerys]

Finally got it - not sure what I think of it yet.  Very beautiful, though.

[Consignia]

I got as far as the final dungeon on chapter 13, but the fights were just too easy to get devesated quickly, and I just gave up. I'd have loved to finish the game, but 13th chapter curbed my enthusiasm for it, with the afformentioned difficulty and uninspiring design.

[Big Jack McBastard]

I also recently picked this up on a whim (Grainger Games trade-ins have been my bitch lately) and am finding it sort of typical of the series, ie: drops you in the middle of a weird land, vaguely explained 'alien thing' threat, hugely emo/dopey characters, turn(ish)-based fighting and going from pitifully easy grunts to ball breakingly hard bosses at the drop of a hat.

It's flying by though which is something FFX certainly didn't do (though I did make it a point to max out the sphere grid for everyone in that so I could do the Monster Arena bosses) I've only played it for a couple of lengthy sessions and am already around the halfway point.

[Cerys]

I'm on Disc 3, and I'd just like to observe that Hope is a whining, utterly brainless little twat.  Even his character picture makes me want to punch him repeatedly in the face.

[Consignia]

For me it was Vanille. All those stupid noise she made absolutely grated.

[Cerys]

The noises aren't too bad - it's the way she runs that makes me want to flay her alive.

[Johnny Textface]

I gave up as it was just too repetitive, I didn't care about any of the characters and the plot is very hard to follow. But mainly because its so linear - there no exploration needed at all, no secrets to find, no strange places hidden away.  Paths that look initially like they could go off in a different direction tend to just be immediate dead ends - whats the point?
It's such a shame they've gone in this direction with FF. I'm one of the many whos first experience of a JRPG was FF VII - and I loved it. It did seem to be the least linear game available at the time and I think that's why alot of people found it so enjoyable. To now do the complete opposite of this in the underlying game design is a leap backwards IMHO.