Final Fantasy XIII

Final Fantasy XIII

Why, my god, why did I propose a joint writing with Hyeron? I mean, what was my deep goal? To hurt me and inflict multiple runs on a saga I barely touched? Willy-nilly, I did what I could to hold the conversation and be able to dissect a maximum on the saga, and I decided by default to start this vast subject by the very disparaged - what do I say - the conspiracy Final Fantasy XIII. The advantage that I have vis-à-vis my peers who were able to try it at the time is that I am not the victim of any hype, that I have no other expectation than play a title that has divided. Today, you will be faced with two disparate opinions, one from an "expert" of the Final Fantasy saga in the person of Hyeron, the other from a novice just introduced to the universe of this series that continues to expand. And I propose to our veteran to open the ball by addressing the point he wishes before developing probably more than right on a game that has marked his time, and most importantly, it must be said, the decline in popularity of still a big box today, Square Enix. So Hyeron? What will be your first words on Final Fantasy XIII?

Ahem. The last time I got hooked by the hype was for Oblivion. No need to tell you, Walker, that disappointment and rage were at the height of my hopes. When I launched Final Fantasy XIII, I was expecting nothing in particular either, just to take full advantage of the mirettes, to have a more or less convoluted combat system, and to have fun for 40-60 hours. Suffice to say that I was not really disappointed. The thing is that unlike a lot of people, I've never been a monomaniac of Final Fantasy; the series is for me only part of a much larger whole containing between SaGa (and the Makaitoushi Saga) ... What disturbs the lousy who spit on the game is the fact of not having a turn-based combat system / ATB to which they were (supposedly) accustomed ...

Except that this habit had never been one, except for the kids who had only known Final Fantasy VII, and imagined that all the opus were the same. Final Fantasy has always been a series that breaks its own codes and conventions, from character swapping from Final Fantasy X to Final Fantasy III jobs, through the number of characters more or less random (d6 / 2 + 2) and j 'on the way. If anyone thinks he has a negative kikoolol opinion on the title, he can already go his way in the same way that I've been through the age of being blinded by confirmation: when you want to old school that does not evolve, we play Dragon Quest, not Final Fantasy.

It is true that the series Final Fantasy is not known not to move from episode to episode. The change between each opus is far from only in form, but in the background. It's something I've seen playing quite occasionally for some, much more assiduous for others. What we can already say about this Final Fantasy XIII is that it has a structure that is particularly daring, but also very consistent vis-à-vis its context. So we have a real consistency in the way the story is told, as well as how the level design is built; the more the characters are in a state of emergency, and the more the levels are linear, while the more secure they are, the more freedom they have.

But we'll come back to that later. In the profane of the series, or somewhat initiated, I remember a Final Fantasy X relatively similar in its structure, which had not yet shocked anyone unlike a Final Fantasy XII which broke widely the codes of his predecessor to offer a very open vision of the series. With Final Fantasy XIII, we find a more classic construction (Final Fantasy VII was also very linear in the end), but also more dirigiste still, which leads to a more catchy narrative, a true cinematic rhythm that has for the blow not a fault, but also, and this is the flip side of the coin, the impression of crossing a gigantic and magnificent universe without being able to impregnate it even for a moment.

If I greatly appreciate the title for its balls and its design going from the really fabulous (all the sequence on Cocoon is bewildering), the mediocre (Gran Pulse and its big empty fortunately quite alive thanks to the creatures), to the infectious, but it's more personal (... I would love to hit Hope, mess!). I especially regret that he could not more quickly give an opportunity to discover his world through even a village at a time in the title. However, good student he is, it comes to erase its eventual event by reminding us of its context: a leak and a race against the clock looking like a huge tutorial rhythm of 25 hours. What make escape any claustrophobe.

Especially since one would have thought that the following would just fill this gap. However, Final Fantasy XIII-2 never manages to reproduce the superb of its predecessor, nor even to maintain the same interest that one carries to his universe. A shame when we know that it was precisely his intention to allow players to respond to this fantasy, after a first opus that has a great pace of introduction to the world of Fabula Nova Crystallis. I do not know if it bothered you, but to cross this sublime world without ever being able to do anything other than to look at it terribly frustrated me.

I will admit you no, it did not frustrate me. Linearity in the first half of the game is pretty constant in Final Fantasy. No offense to the haters, the opening is never apparent in a FF VI / VII / VIII / ...: we must always go from A to B, and next to that, there is nothing or almost to see. Admittedly, we can go to Triangle Island too early in FF VI. But what does this bring? Nothing. At all. What is the point of returning to the Chocobo ranch in FF VII? Easy: There is none. My first twenty hours of Final Fantasy VI (god that it is far), it was as much in a corridor-tutorial as my first twenty hours of FF XIII: exhibition, learning of the capacities of each one, progress of the scenario, one takes the same, and we start again.

As for Hope ... There are those who would strangle Hope, and there are those who would strangle Snow. Then there are those who would strangle the two well. Question of archetypes. Personally I can understand Hope even if I do not appreciate it, and I can understand Snow even if I do not appreciate it. Unfortunately, Hope is well portrayed: he's a kid. With kid reactions.

On the other hand, where I am not, where I will never agree, is the need for a village or any other camp. FF XIII is a dehumanized world, where humans are only dispensable resources. From the totalitarianism of the Sanctum to the savagery of Gran Pulse, nothing allows us to be at peace ... The only respite granted to the protagonists on Cocoon is the few hours spent at Bartholomew's, but even these few moments of calm pass in an atmosphere which leaves little room for hope. And that's fine like that. That's what gives all the rhythm to the first part, which makes it possible not to be pissed off, which makes it possible not to say to oneself: "Oh hold a comet will hit the planet, if we were going to grind during two or three years " . We do not have time to linger? This is normal. Cocoon is only a facade, an empty shell, a hollow planet that breaks apart like the security mask given by the Sanctum.

Once on Gran Pulse, things are not so different. The planet is only a huge playground for the most powerful monsters. This is not a place where one can survive easily, quiet in his little homeless village well sheltered ... That's what the cocoons are for. The main characters can certainly blow, but only because they are inhumanly powerful. They come out of their cocoon at all levels: they have become stronger, and are out of their comfort zone and all they have known, far from any security and tranquility (and no it is not contradictory).

It's funny, when you think about it: the players crave all the time to have "realism" (sic - that one does not come to claim me that they do not want the plausibility and not the realism), and when we give them, they're complaining because we've given them what they want ...

Oh well, Snow, I would die well also, even if his side "always optimistic I want to help everyone" reminds me a little ... me everyday. It makes me want to kill him all the faster. In short, we go astray. For the "village" of which I speak, it would be more a way to explore the company of Cocoon a little, even if the cinematics and dialogues between the characters (casting rather cool elsewhere, Lightning is class despite its pink hair candy, Sahz is cool with his company chocobo, Vanille is surprisingly interesting, and Fang is clearly the badass of the group while being cute (End of the parenthesis) are doing a decent job, I have remained on my hunger. And no I would not read the record, because damn I hate codices!

Well, to get back to the context and more to writing in general, level ludo-narrative consistency, we are in the very top of the basket with a bestiary really well adapted to each place, varied situations that seem likely, and a justification of many fights and a noticeable rise in combat, but also in cinematics with characters who assert themselves. Too bad it says that the game suffers from the syndrome of "more or less philosophical monologue" that makes you want to tarter certain, including the moments of awful embarrassment inflicted by this little cunt Hope.

Otherwise, overall, dialogue level is rather interesting, although I would tend to say that the main antagonist force a little too the line on "moahahahah pooooouissance destiny! And, far from the silliness I so much dreaded, it is surely also the most idiotic character in his design that deserves a great reward in terms of writing in the person of Vanille. It's really dubious to have made this character, because casually, we go through the full range of emotions towards him: tenderness, hatred, understanding, and we end up attaching to a character sufficiently heavy to place "Yah! Niah! Hey! Oh "every attack, and who is ecstatic in front of a fucking flower on a wild planet covered with plants ... Finally, pay your challenge what!

So yeah, here too, some satisfaction on the side of the treatment of each character, which seem human and which, contrary to what I read, have a real background. We could also talk about Lightning and his vanity coupled with a stubborn character, accentuating a little more the animosity that can be attributed to him because of his lack of expressiveness in all circumstances. She is particularly adorable when he happens to smile ... Damn, I did one of these spoil there. Yes-yes, Lightning is able to wrinkle his face to sketch what looks like a sign of contentment, of fleeting joy. Finally, it's not just a protagonist made to please the audience amateur character badass and flawless. She also forms a particularly successful duet with the unbearable Snow that comes somewhere counterbalance the character of Lightning; two extremes that learn to coexist for Serah's sake. I think it's time to get your hands on the characters, otherwise I'll compose a few more hours!

Oh well it's not complicated, you have pretty much everything summarized. What's nice is that if you have a little more than a pair of neurons, you realize that there's a hell of a difference between the merry and stupid limitless vanilla, and his heart. The fact that she is the owner of the bottom of the story and the narrator help not bad, but especially: she is probably the most balanced character and the most moving of the band. This allows to give particularly strong moments, like his face-to-face with Sazh. After, yes, there are the monologues you mention, but it's a Japanese constant, that. We can not really blame the game for its origins, or we can also start talking about Radiant and other Western shits, the complete lack of mastery of storytelling on this side of the Rising Sun, the lack of script interest also. But I go astray.

It's a shame not to read the codex, if only to put the events in context and in chronological order ... In all honesty, the idea is good and the execution not so bad, in that it is readable diagonally and that it allows anyway to refine its perception of things.

Houla pays attention to your claims about the lack of mastery of the storytelling of the West! There are still very good in some titles, even if, overall, the video game is sclerosed by a total lack of ambition on this point! Here are a few examples of "interesting" games in the West: Cyanide Game Of Thrones, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, Fallout New Vegas and by extension its DLC Dead Money and Lonesome Road. We can also mention Divinity 2: The Dragon Knight Saga and for the crush: Pirates of the Flying Fortress by Two Worlds 2! Still, indeed, despite all that can be blamed in the form: Final Fantasy XIII has a very ambitious scenario and deep enough to largely satisfy me.

For moving situations, you do well to quote the face-to-face of Sahz and Vanille, because it is certainly one of the most beautiful scenes of the game, not on the aesthetic level (the game is an artistic slap not common anyway), but on the human level. It's really well played, with a treatment of sobriety that contrasts with the overall aesthetic. It's quite paradoxical to say, but I think Final Fantasy XIII is one of the few games among blockbusters coming to be human, but also very impressive. He marries the two and even makes them juggle with talent. It is quite remarkable. That said, on the emotional level, Lost Odyssey has done better thanks to an even more sober staging, a more intimate, more posture, but it does not have the explosion of the senses that can propose Final Fantasy XIII when it offers sublime cinematics, staging much better than all the shots of the film Kingsglaive, which makes me personally die of laughter.

Well, we're not here to make comparisons that can make sense in the context, but we're here to talk about Final Fantasy XIII, and as I think we did a global tour of what the game offers in its narrative background, let's talk about the game system and the gameplay more generally. Already, I salute Square Enix for its dynamic strategy system that made me love a game system, which could reconcile turn-based school and action (well, turn-based amateurs will pretend that it's okay too fast, but they are just soft bulb), and it's a real boost especially after Lost Odyssey (shit, again!). It's really a beautiful smart system.

After the Cristarium, I find it very linear, but at the same time we ended up having a very wide choice for each character. Everyone is not in a fixed role necessarily, so linear, yes, but knowing that we have quickly enough to choose between three branches to specialize, difficult to sulk his pleasure, especially as the gimmick sound when you spend levels are just addictive. No, on that side, I find that the game is really trying to boost its fighting, while allowing the less responsive to be able to optimize their characters to small onions.

In any case as you have seen and contrary to the general trend that emerges from the press and players, Hyeron like me have agreed on this point: Final Fantasy XIII is not a failed game. Unlike Final Fantasy XV, the title has strong narrative ambitions and respects them from beginning to end, even if it is cleavable. It seemed to me to be a highly recommendable game if you know what to expect. So we both advise you to try it on PS3, Xbox 360 and even PC as Square Enix discovered Steam a year ago; for a dozen euros, six times less than the Go that will require the game to settle. She is not beautiful life?