Yesterday I picked up the mildly anticipated Final Fantasy XIII 2. I have to say, I haven't been this unexcited about a major Final Fantasy release, ever. It's not because I'm getting old, and it's not because I'm losing interest in the genre or the Final Fantasy franchise. But dammit... It just seems like ever since Final Fantasy X 2, the games have been going to hell.
I always imagined what it might feel like to be in this position. I remember when I jumped on the FF bandwagon back in 1997. My first FF was VII, and at that time all of the old-school purist Final Fantasy worshipers proclaimed that the latest (at the time) installment that was Final Fantasy VII on the Playstation had completely bastardized the entired series of games; that Final Fantasy VI was the last "true Final Fantasy game." Of course I argued (on countless threads throughout a vast network of forums) against that kind of logic. I encouraged my fellow gamers to embrace the changes that had come to the series.
The changes, at that time, were not so great. Of course with the change of hardware came the expected visual and aural upgrades, and the gameplay didn't suffer. It was the same old Final Fantasy formula in my opinion.
Final Fantasy XIII came along and challenged even my forward-thinking...ness.
When comparing the entirely new battle system that has been presented in the Fabula Nova Crystalis to many of the other games of the franchise, initially, I couldn't help but cringe at how drastic of a change had been made. This was no substitution of certain musical themes or a different color scheme in the menus system. This change was so great, that I didn't understand why Square Enix didn't just call the game something else. Honestly, my first impression was that this game was NOT a Final Fantasy.
Fast forward to yesterday.
I went and purchased Final Fantasy XIII 2, reluctantly. I have never missed a major release (XI doesn't count at all), and I don't intend to. Upon returning to my apartment, I popped the game in and did what I usually do: Just let the game run. I like to take in what the creators have put together. It's all about first impressions, and I wanted Square Enix to Impress me.
In games past, we have been introduced in a number of different ways. In FFVII it was a simple screen that said "Final Fantasy" with the traditional Prelude music playing. In VIII it was a compilation of rugged black and white photographs of the games different characters and environments (one of my favorite intros). In IX it was a small montage of cut scenes from the game with a homely track playing overhead. Same thing in FFXIII. In this game? I watched what seemed to be some strange fight event between a lady and a purple haired man. It could have passed as a montage similar to that of Final Fantasy IX, or even XIII, but what struck me was that it was almost like it was just one continuous cuts scene. You could see that the characters were speaking to each other at times, but because this was the opening introduction... there was "introduction music" playing.
Come to find out, when you press start and select new game, the EXACT SAME cut scene plays, only this time with the actual music and voice acting! How shoddy is that!? Needless to say, I was upset.
I've played what is perhaps the first 6 or 7 hours of the game, and I have not been won over yet.
One of my gripes with the Fabula Nova Crystallis games is the battle system in FFXIII and XIII 2. As mentioned earlier, with this series, the battle system has been completely overhauled. It almost feels like real time, but it's still turn based. I suppose if you were an optimistic person you could say (as I tried to argue with myself) that at heart, this is still very much Final Fantasy style battling. If you wanted to be optimistic about it, you could point out the fact that your characters are still taking turns, and that things just move a little faster... that's all ^_^
UNFORCH.... (short for unfortunately), I'm not so optimistic when it comes to my Final Fantasy battle system. You see, one of the things that I enjoyed so much about the turned based system was that you had time to think and plan out your moves; much like a game of chess. You could get into a battle and, think about what had happened in the opening scenes of this confrontation and adjust the way that you responded accordingly. With this new system, things are constantly going, and you have to constantly switch your settings out. They're called Paradigms, and I don't like that mainly because the game wants you to switch Paradigms in the heat of battle which, to me, wastes a lot of time... I could go on, but at this point, I really think I should make a video about this rant because I don't think I've ever typed this much for a blog ever.
Anyway.... huff huff....
I conclude this first FFXIII 2 entry by saying this: The game hasn't won me over, and it doesn't look like it will. I'm only playing it because I have played every Final Fantasy that has come out (XI does NOT count). If it's anything like FFXIII, I may not finish it. SN: I didn't finish FFXIII either.
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