Last night I ran out and picked up a game that I have been waiting for awhile. I would go into my history with Final Fantasy games, but I’m sure no one cares. So anyway, I get home, crack open a beer, and pop in the disc. The hairs on my arm stand as I watch the intro CGI scene. This CGI is beautiful.
I’m sure you’ve seen the opening sequence on youtube or wherever, but in HD on my 52” LCD Samsung TV combined with 5.1 surround sound (just trying to grow my e-peen a little), there is really no comparison. For those of you that haven't seen it:
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The game dumps me into the first fight, and I quickly realize that they have really stream lined the whole fighting sequences. They’ve added components to the ATB Gauge (active time battle) where you select different moves to perform that take up different amounts of time. Strategy comes more into play than ever before. After the fights are done it shows you a few statistics, one being the Points Per Second, which really reminded me of mmorpg’s and DPS (but PPS). I love DPS and trying to calculate what armor combined with what skills will be most effective in that area, so I think that the points per second will be a great addition to the game.
One thing that immediately catches my attention is that the camera, when just walking around, is going to be a pain in the ass to deal with. I’ve already had to fight with it while it wouldn’t turn a corner to see what was up ahead, stared at a wall and I couldn’t turn it around (well, I eventually turned it around or I’d still be there) and just generally pissed me off. Come on, it's 2010, the chase camera has been around forever and done again and again, they still can't get it right...
So after you fight for a little with one of the main characters called Lightning and her afro wearing chocobo owning friend Sazh, you switch over a slightly different story line with a few different characters, the main character being Snow. At first I was unsure if I really liked the idea of switching back and forth between two different story lines. But, after about 3 minutes into switching I realized that this was the best way for them to really saturate you with as much storyline as possible while you still got familiar with the game mechanics.
So far, from the small amount I’ve played, Square Enix is really trying to get us to focus more on the storyline, and less on just getting from fight to fight to finish the game. I know in previous Final Fantasy games, I got so caught up in just trying to finish that I would start rushing through speech bubbles, and not getting a total sense as to what is going on in the storyline. Perhaps it is because I’m just still a little noob running around a giant world that I have no idea the depth of yet, and they are focusing in the beginning to really immerse you into their world and really jam the story line in your face. So when you level up, play for hours and really get into the deep game mechanics you are still really drawn into the storyline and don’t get into the habit of just skipping through it. To be honest, I haven’t played a game with a rich storyline in a long time. I have been sticking to FPS’s and if this game can deliver this kind of attention to the detail of this story, I’m going to be in for a good ride.
Speaking of attention to detail, the voice acting is another amazing feature in this game that just amplifies the storyline, from the in game cut scenes, to the full CGI. Even the mouths match up the best I have ever seen in a game to the words that are coming out of their mouths.
Whoa, side tracked, so back to Snow. Ok so this guy has grenades as his “skill,” I’m not really 100% sure what kind of skill it takes to just chuck a grenade at a tight group of enemies, but whatevs. The thing that confuses me is that when he’s not throwing grenades he chooses to punch these giant metal machines and men in armor with his bare fists. Which is either very badass or completely crazy, because the landscape is literally littered (oh an alliteration) with guns. Don’t be a hero man, just pick up one of these guns and blow the fuck outta these guys already.
A few things to note:
The introduction of the datalog is a nice feature, but may eventually get lost. Basically it is a database of everything you’ve done, items you’ve encountered and beasts you’ve fought. I think it will be helpful for boss fights because it shows the weaknesses of the monster you’re fighting. This is another aspect that reminds me of an mmorpg (Atlantica online had one of these called the “Bestiary”).
Using potions to heal does not take up ATB Gauge (active time battle), making it easier to play through the fights so you can focus more on the storyline.
Well that’s all I have this time. I’m going to try to keep updates as long as I have interesting things to say…
ATB has been around for a long time...and this is not the first FF game that has used it.
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Yes, I also heard that the game looks better on the PS3 because the CGI scenes are in full HD, being on Bluray and all.
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I'll be playing this on my ps3 (that's a fat ps3 btw, old school). So I can't say anything about the comparison of the graphics vs the 360, but what I've been told is that the ps3 looks a bunch better, but the 360 has a better constant framerate.
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