Final Fantasy 13 (the first 5 hours)

Yeah, I say 5 hours because unlike some idiots, I got school and mid-terms to deal with and I can't take time off from school when I got spring break and the like in between that noise. So with that, I've only logged 7 hours so far, but I'll only talk anout the first 5 and make comparrisons like I usually do.

This game is cut and dry at the beginning. Lightning, the chick who would be Cloud but refuses to Emo at the moment, is in search for saving her Sister, Serah. Searh is being held in this giant thing called a fal'Cie (Fall See). With the help of the Token Black Guy named Sazh, who is the only voice of reason to any outsider playing this game, Lightning tears through a train of soldiers, and blows up more things than are required by most games to explode. This isn't a bad thing, Final Fantasy is known for bombastic starts but 13 takes the cake, even if it took a few nods from Final Fantasy 7.

We cut to Snow, the Bandana wearing self proclaimed Hero, who is running towards the fal'Cie and started a rebellion just to distract the government long enough for him to rescue his blushing bride to be. The manual already states that Serah, Lightning's Sister is also Snow's fiancee`, but if no one bothered to read then this point that out fairly quickly.

The reason Serah is in such trouble is because she's a l'Cie (La See) and is cursed to fufill her mission or turn into a butt ugly monster with no soul. Her mission, she doesn't really know but from my best guess, I think it was to unite Snow and Lightning in the same room so they could be turned into l'Cie themselves and carrying out the big mission of saving everyone's asses. During this escapade, a kid by the name of Hope and a girl named Vanille are dragged into the conflict because Hope's mom took up with the resistance and help Snow. She's killed saving Snow and falls off a bridge after a bomb goes off and let's go of Snow's hand after she goes limp. This leads to Snow emoing out for about 15 seconds before ultimately getting over this problem and returning to the primary objective to save his girlfriend. Hope wants to beat Snow down for killing his Mom, not knowing it wasn't Snow's fault, and Vanille pushing him to chase after Snow.

It's funny, I think the same voice actor for Hope is the voice actor for Vaan from Final Fantasy 12, which ultimately means that he's a cardboard cut out in place of a good character and will fall to the way side because of this. No matter, you rarely play as him through the first part as the story mainly focuses on Lightning, Snow and Sazh who are the primary interests for these beginning hours.

Upon arrival on the fal'Cie, the group meets up on the large scale behemoth and find Serah who tells them to save Cocoon (Their big floating hometown/city/giant sphere thing). She turns to crystal and Lightning get extremely mad. She beats up Snow (One punch leaid him out flat.). Snow remarks that they need to protect Cocoon and Lightning, too bitter and enraged to listen storms off to kill the fal'Cie at the core of the place. Snow, realizing that killing the fal'Cie might make himself feel better as well joins Lightning as they take on this guy. The is quick but killing a demi-god proves a poor decision as now the entire group are branded l'Cie and given unholy amounts of magical and physical prowess. The government, realizing this floating object that's well over a tall building is a dangerous thing, destroys the fal'Cie and it plumets into the large lake at the bottom of the area where all the fighting began. In its death throughs, it turns the entire lake to crystal and the lake itself is arguably 100 times larger than a cruise ship, you can say that's a lot of crystal.

The group rejoins and they all realize they're bound and screwed by fate because of the l'Cie mark they all have. They run into the crystal form of Serah again. Lightning says good bye quietly and walks off before Snow gives her another reason for her to deck him and she seizes the opportunity. She lays him out twice before he stays down. He still argues they need to save Cocoon and Lightning could care less, choosing to make her own path rather than die a slave to a now dead demi-god.

Leaving Snow chipping away at the crystal to dig out Serah, Lightning, Sazh, Hope and Vanille move out to find a way of escape this place. The find a ruined base and an airship that will allow them to escape. The cutscene ensues and you see arguably some of the best action displayed in a game as this aerial dogfight goes through canyons, clouds and a giant floating fal'Cie named Pheonix that is apparently one of the good ones. With that, they crash land in a junkyard miles from everything.

Meanwhile, Snow is captured after a long fight with not only the army but the Eidolon (Eye Dole On) Shiva who transforms into the bike we see him riding in some of the trailers. A woman with a light australian accent sub dues him and takes him and Serah away. Snow notices the woman was also branded with the l'Cie mark but it is twisted and off from the more obvious one that Snow is brandishing.

My thoughts stem to this game giving a shout out to its previous ones and my hope is that this series gets a few different games as the world is rich and diverse and you can feel it when the characters speak. Gameplay is a mix of 10's and 12's gameplay with a simplified gambit system that works much like a manual shift for a car and attack animations that are wild and enjoyable to watch. The characters don't level up but get stronger by moving around a grid much like FF10 with the sphere grid. It uses a shifting narrative like Final Fantasy 9 and cuts to the characters exactly when you might raise a thought to how the other characters might be doing at that moment.

Lightning is more or less an amalgam of Terra from 6 and Squall from 8, showing that she's extremely strong willed and tireless in her pursuits but still vulnerable in spite of this. Snow is the first final fantasy male lead who hasn't got a serious emotional problem on them since Zidane. There's no major worrying or fear of making an ass of himself, he just does things and works through the consequences regardless.

You have the weak willed Hope who under Lightning gains a pair and you have Vanille who helps Sazh find a reason to actually throw the dice of fate and try and make a difference instead of giving up. Vanille is the strangest of the characters as she chooses blind optimism and go get'em attitude and a stark contrast to Lightning's grumpy demeanor.

For the first 5 hours, I'm impressed. People said that it'd take 20 hours to get going hard and heavy on this game and I didn't really need even that much. It offered up a plot and characters I can actually understand. It has heroes I can relate to but there's no over arching villain aside from a barely mentioned old guy who runs the government that might be the final boss but problably isn't. I'll give the first 5 hours of a game a lot of leneancy but I'm just glad it didn't fall flat on its face.

I was scared of it being linear but I looked back through final fantasy 10 and remembered it was retardedly linear. I was worried about the party being fully healed after each fight but the amount of fights you get into and the lack of potions makes that just less maintence in the long run. The game has been sped up to suit a more growing need to get up and go attitude that the gaming market is going with. People don't like slow and methodical as much as they like hectic and fast paced. The next 5 hours I'm sure the plot will thicken up to a large scale and possible threat that might give me the overall fightening factor I will be looking forward to overcoming in the finale.

Hope you all dig,
Drew "Duo" Misemer