On FFXIII
(Spoiler-free!) Impressions of FFXIII:
Linearity: I've got a lot of patience for linearity, but "Welcome to the tube" keeps scrolling through my mind. The set up is very divorced of context, which to me is more of a problem than being divorced of control. However:
Battle: I like it. It certainly adds some vibrancy to the ATB system. I'd have liked for the paradigms to be named after traditional FF classes, though, even if they wouldn't be totally accurate. The reason for this is... Well, this game doesn't really feel like an FF? It feels more like Advent Children - but then, even Advent Children had the victory music.
Story: There are interesting parts and as far as I can tell none of them are being capitalized on. There's so much tell-don't-show going on it's not even funny, and everything is really too obvious to be meaningful and interesting. They have a few good ideas and do nothing with them.
The premise isn't terrible. The storytelling is. The opening is incredibly weak. I understand why they started us where they did - always good to rush straight into the action - but this isn't the way to do it. What might have worked better is an FFT-style thing where you start sort-of in the future and then play through all the backstory they're uncovering like this is a KH game or something.
The poor setup leads to all kinds of problems. I have no sense of the place I'm in. I, as a genre-savvy player, have no sympathy for the character's viewpoints when I know they are absolutely wrong - and I know they are absolutely wrong not even because I am genre savvy, but because I have been given no setting information to back their viewpoint up. In fact, I've been given setting information that suggests that their viewpoint is absolutely dead wrong and thus it will come as no great surprise to me when this is revealed to be so. I am, however, not supposed to feel this way.
I know I'm not supposed to feel this way not only becaues it's detrimental to storytelling but because the game's datalog tells me how I'm supposed to feel and what my takeaway is supposed to be from every cutscene. However, it's hilariously asynchronous with the actual events of the game, especially where characters are concerned. It's sort of the same experience as watching an AMV, scrolling down, reading the description, and discovering that the KH/Lady Gaga mashup you watched was actually supposed to be some kind of PDA against self-harm. Worst part? It's all painfully written. There is actually a line in there somewhere about hated and loathing burning desperately in Hope's eyes - this does not happen in the cutscene, he just sort of stares a bit blearily off into the distance. It's uncanny.
Everything seems fairly straightforward, thus far. So straightforward, in fact, that I am having trouble shaking this depressing feeling that I knew 90% of the plot by chapter two. Bear in mind I walked into the game only spoiled on one thing - Lightning's first name. Everything else I know came from trailers and promo material. I'm on chapter 5 and thus far, no intrigue, no ambiguity, no tension, no sign of being proven wrong.
My only burning question so far is "Will there be a plot twist?"
Visuals: As much as these are gorgeously rendered, there's a lot of design/usability issues, IMO: Most specifically, half the time I am looking at something and I do not know what I am looking at. I'm at chapter 5 and I still have only a vague idea of what a fal'cie looks like - I definitely can't pick one out on sight. Things I thought were fal'cie have thus far turned out to be airships and elevators - and I can't pick out the actual fal'cie from the wallpaper when my party says I'm looking at 'em.
Similarly, in a rather alien landscape it's difficult, almost impossible, to figure out what I'm actually looking at. In the Whitewood, I never would have known I was in a forest if not for the name, and I still can't figure out exactly what I was supposed to take away from those visual cues. Is this a cyber-forest rather than an actual forest? Is that the idea? I can't tell, I don't have enough visual or narrative information to be able to firmly say one way or the other.
This is such a failing, IMO, and it compounds hugely with the failings of the story. The world is disjointed and the design feels purposeless - like they were just working with what they thought might be cool to run through, and mostly recycling ideas from old games at that.
Characters: I don't have any strong feelings in either direction at this point, but I have to ask: Why is Snow made to look like such a douchebag? Once you get past the first chapter he is very clearly not that much of a douchebag, and yet you have him dressing like that and riding a motorcycle literally made of ladies? I'm getting very mixed messages, Nomura.
Linearity: I've got a lot of patience for linearity, but "Welcome to the tube" keeps scrolling through my mind. The set up is very divorced of context, which to me is more of a problem than being divorced of control. However:
Battle: I like it. It certainly adds some vibrancy to the ATB system. I'd have liked for the paradigms to be named after traditional FF classes, though, even if they wouldn't be totally accurate. The reason for this is... Well, this game doesn't really feel like an FF? It feels more like Advent Children - but then, even Advent Children had the victory music.
Story: There are interesting parts and as far as I can tell none of them are being capitalized on. There's so much tell-don't-show going on it's not even funny, and everything is really too obvious to be meaningful and interesting. They have a few good ideas and do nothing with them.
The premise isn't terrible. The storytelling is. The opening is incredibly weak. I understand why they started us where they did - always good to rush straight into the action - but this isn't the way to do it. What might have worked better is an FFT-style thing where you start sort-of in the future and then play through all the backstory they're uncovering like this is a KH game or something.
The poor setup leads to all kinds of problems. I have no sense of the place I'm in. I, as a genre-savvy player, have no sympathy for the character's viewpoints when I know they are absolutely wrong - and I know they are absolutely wrong not even because I am genre savvy, but because I have been given no setting information to back their viewpoint up. In fact, I've been given setting information that suggests that their viewpoint is absolutely dead wrong and thus it will come as no great surprise to me when this is revealed to be so. I am, however, not supposed to feel this way.
I know I'm not supposed to feel this way not only becaues it's detrimental to storytelling but because the game's datalog tells me how I'm supposed to feel and what my takeaway is supposed to be from every cutscene. However, it's hilariously asynchronous with the actual events of the game, especially where characters are concerned. It's sort of the same experience as watching an AMV, scrolling down, reading the description, and discovering that the KH/Lady Gaga mashup you watched was actually supposed to be some kind of PDA against self-harm. Worst part? It's all painfully written. There is actually a line in there somewhere about hated and loathing burning desperately in Hope's eyes - this does not happen in the cutscene, he just sort of stares a bit blearily off into the distance. It's uncanny.
Everything seems fairly straightforward, thus far. So straightforward, in fact, that I am having trouble shaking this depressing feeling that I knew 90% of the plot by chapter two. Bear in mind I walked into the game only spoiled on one thing - Lightning's first name. Everything else I know came from trailers and promo material. I'm on chapter 5 and thus far, no intrigue, no ambiguity, no tension, no sign of being proven wrong.
My only burning question so far is "Will there be a plot twist?"
Visuals: As much as these are gorgeously rendered, there's a lot of design/usability issues, IMO: Most specifically, half the time I am looking at something and I do not know what I am looking at. I'm at chapter 5 and I still have only a vague idea of what a fal'cie looks like - I definitely can't pick one out on sight. Things I thought were fal'cie have thus far turned out to be airships and elevators - and I can't pick out the actual fal'cie from the wallpaper when my party says I'm looking at 'em.
Similarly, in a rather alien landscape it's difficult, almost impossible, to figure out what I'm actually looking at. In the Whitewood, I never would have known I was in a forest if not for the name, and I still can't figure out exactly what I was supposed to take away from those visual cues. Is this a cyber-forest rather than an actual forest? Is that the idea? I can't tell, I don't have enough visual or narrative information to be able to firmly say one way or the other.
This is such a failing, IMO, and it compounds hugely with the failings of the story. The world is disjointed and the design feels purposeless - like they were just working with what they thought might be cool to run through, and mostly recycling ideas from old games at that.
Characters: I don't have any strong feelings in either direction at this point, but I have to ask: Why is Snow made to look like such a douchebag? Once you get past the first chapter he is very clearly not that much of a douchebag, and yet you have him dressing like that and riding a motorcycle literally made of ladies? I'm getting very mixed messages, Nomura.