In my very first article for GamingTillDisconnected.com, I mentioned how Final Fantasy 7 was the first game that reduced me to tears, much to the mockery of some of my co-writers, but those who truly experienced the Final Fantasy franchise understands just how good a story the tell, how they are able to pull at your heartstrings.
Since Final Fantasy 7 I have fallen in love with Square’s masterpiece. As with most gamers my age, it was my introduction to the RPG genre as a whole and since I have been hooked. As I write this I am wearing a golden saucer t-shirt from Insertcoinclothing.com, my love for the Final Fantasy series cannot be questioned at all which is why I was amazingly excited at the announcement of Final Fantasy 13-2.
Final Fantasy 13 seemed to split Final Fantasy fans directly down the middle, some loved it happy that the series had leaped to the next gen consoles, the visuals were glorious and aside from slightly confusing voice acting, it looked and sounded like the next gen Final Fantasy that the world was ready for. However others didn’t like how linear the game was, not really opening up until the last few hours at ‘Grand Pulse’.
I loved Final Fantasy 13, to those who argued about just how linear the game is I would point them to every other Final Fantasy game, ask them to try to reach the Northern Crater in disc 1 of Final Fantasy 7, they have always been linear but it’s been disguised into the game play. Final Fantasy 13 chose to highlight, just how linear the game was so that when Grand Pulse opened, there was the huge sense of open world finally revealed.
Anyway I digress, but I hope that I’ve got the point across just how much I love Final Fantasy. As such when the FFXIII-2 demo was announced I couldn’t wait to get home to give it a try, I downloaded both the FFXIII-2 demo and Asura’s Wrath at the same time and blasted through Asura’s Wrath to build up my anticipation for my return to Cocoon.
I played through the demo and then slowly picked up my phone and text my two friends Jamie and Paul and simply wrote.
“So what did you make of the Final Fantasy 13-2 demo then?”
The replies came.
Paul – I had to turn the FF Demo off after 5 minutes man. Quick time events in battles (sad smiley face) not a good start. It felt like I didn’t actually need to do anything because of the auto battle. It might just be because I was fighting a boss that QTE’s were in it. Still not acceptable though, they need to think Lost Odyssey to make things right again.
Jamie – Terrible. I won’t be buying it. I was so looking forwards to it. Oh well saved me £40.00
And sadly I was inclined to feel the same.
It just didn’t feel right. Graphically it gave me a sense of nausea as I played, I’m not sure if it was due to the code being unfinished, but the images were not focused at all, the camera, even though manually controlled seemed to do it’s utmost to make it the most awkward view possible. As Paul touched upon, Auto Battle has now essentially reduced the game to a series of repetitive clicks, the Paradigm Shift from Final Fantasy 13 simplified to ridiculous levels.
Between the three of us our total Final Fantasy game time is easily within the 1000′s of hours and that is not a mistype, so what has gone wrong with Final Fantasy? Were our expectations too high? Is Final Fantasy beginning to go down the route of casual gamer with cop out quick time event’s mid combat? Or was it simply a case that Square had a bad day at the office when developing the demo?
Yeah, I can fight. Just not sure i want to mate....
The game has been acclaimed in reviews in both Japan and the UK, Famitsu giving it a perfect 40/40 mark, something which only 17 other games have received including Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim so it can’t be a bad game. In fact it could be argued it is an excellent game.
The concept behind the game remains wonderful, anything which looks to exploit time will always be a draw, due to the sheer level of possibilities
Has my time as a Final Fantasy RPG fan, come to an end? After my initial disappointment I will still buy the game, but it won’t be a release day purchase which prior to the demo it was, however that niggling feeling will remain in the back of my head that the demo didn’t look or play like a Final Fantasy Game I had grown accustomed to.
You know, I’m wondering if I should use the money I was going to spend on FFXIII on a copy of FFX and a PS2.
FF7 was my intro to the series as well, i loved that game, wrote FF7 Fanfiction, even today i have FF7 on my PSP, it feels like to me the series has been going down hill, i’ve played 8,9,10, and 13. and sadly none of them left me feeling the way 7 did.
The Final Fantasy series has turned into what i call Final Fantasy Cut Scene, that’s one thing this series has no problem giving you is gorgeous cutscenes, the few i saw in FF13 were no exception.
13 was a bargain bin purchase for me and rightly so, i only made it a few hours in, combat while pretty left a bad taste in my mouth, i pine for the days of Materia and simply junctioning them in weapon slots….so simple but so fun and rewarding.
13-2 i think i’ll miss entirely, probably the only way i’d buy a FF title again is if they remade 7 or they stopped trying to reinvent the wheel with every game they make.
I soooo do agree with JB !!! I think most of the fans do think they way!!