Results tagged “Final Fantasy XIII”

Final Fantasy XIII (Xbox 360 Version) - Shock, Awe, and Some Disappointment

By Angela Moseley on May 28, 2010 1:05 PM

This review is a second opinion focusing on slightly different aspects of Final Fantasy XIII. Geoff's original March review of the game of can be found here.

Final Fantasy XIII is the ultimate example of a blockbuster title that suffers from the trope, "your mileage may vary." The game either resonates with gamers who go on to immensely enjoy it, or gamers quickly find themselves giving up entirely on it. FFXIII was originally slated as a PS2 title but underwent a platform change in 2005 in preparation for a PS3 release. While early game footage was shown at E3 '06 it would be another four and a half years before the game would hit store shelves.

In that time the fans became more anxious for the game's release, especially as the PS3 experienced a serious dearth of JRPGs. The game would go on to reach ungodly levels of anticipation among RPG and PS3 fans. But when it was announced at E3 '08 that Final Fantasy XIII would also be released on the Xbox 360 outside of Japan many fans complained. The console controversy faded somewhat, only to be replaced by new controversy when it was discovered that Square's latest flagship title eschewed the open world approach of Final Fantasy XII. Instead the game featured linear dungeons, scrapped town exploration, and chucked mini-games in order to focus solely on the plot and combat system. In many fans' eyes Square turned its back on hardcore, to others Square trimmed away the bloat which had been plaguing JRPGs for years. The approach is definitely a matter of personal taste, but if you're willing to give Final Fantasy XIII a chance you'll find a current generation JRPG experience like no other.

The idiot hero gets the cute girl early on, and then it all goes horribly wrong. Poor Snow is a victim of Murphy's Law far too often for his own good.

Cocoon is a floating paradise that sits high above the untamed world of Pulse. The floating shell in the sky is powered by magical, mechanical god-like beings known as the fal'Cie who play a day to day role in the lives of the human citizens. The fal'Cie provide sustenance and governmental direction for the people. Although Cocoon itself is a peaceful paradise it is at war with the lower world of Pulse. Citizens fear anything and everything from Pulse. The people's greatest fear are the Pulse fal'Cie and their human servants known as l'Cie. Or worse, being transformed into l'Cie themselves. L'Cie are branded by an indelible mark and gifted with supernatural abilities. Humans transformed into l'Cie are also given a task to complete by their fal'Cie masters. Failure to complete a task results in the l'Cie transforming into a grotesque, mindless zombie-like monster known as a Cie'th.

It is in this setting that a Pulse fal'Cie is discovered in a small town and the entire population is set to be relocated to the world of Pulse. Amid the chaos a newly resigned solider named Lightning and four other characters take up arms against the government purge and are incidentally transformed into Pulse l'Cie. With only a strange vision of a gigantic beast laying waste to the world the group is uncertain if their given focus is to save or destroy Cocoon. Before the outcasts can pause to consider their fate they are relentlessly hunted by the military, and feared by the citizens. In the ultimate lose, lose situation the five have to decide between saving themselves by completing their focus (and possibly destroying the world), or ignoring their focus to save the very people who now fear and hate them.

As Hope sits slumped over in the background he's probably thinking along the lines of: Worst. Fucking. Vacation. Ever. I know I would!

The game's overall plot is satisfying at best and is full of wasted potential at worst. The beginning is strong, the middle is lacking, and if you don't follow the events recorded within the game's datalog the ending will feel incomplete. Even if you take the time to read the datalog the story's pacing still feels rushed. Worse yet, important facts and back story are limited to a light novel only released in Japan and partially fan translated into English. Character interaction and development is the real draw of the story. In the beginning many of the characters are difficult to immediately like. Fortunately, the party comes together and interacts ways more realistic than most JRPGs. For a good chunk of the game the characters can't stand one another, only adding to their angst-filled situation. Often they lash out at one another and the group splits up frequently. Eventually, everyone has an epiphany and grows closer. Given the group's original animosity toward one another the camaraderie that emerges is heartwarming to watch.

The battle system in Final Fantasy XIII is best described as fast and frantic. Only the lead character can be controlled in battle, while the AI controls the actions of the other two party members. The actions of the characters are determined by the roles they assume in battle, called paradigms. Six roles are available and range from physical attackers to damage-absorbing tanks. Varying roles can be pre-set for battle via paradigm decks, and characters can switch roles during battle, i.e. a paradigm shift. The ultimate goal in a fight is to break an enemy by filling up its chain gauge with various attacks. Some enemies can only be seriously damaged when in that broken state, i.e., a stagger. Staggered enemies are easier to deal with and can be quickly eliminated. If micromanagement via gambits were the name of the game in Final Fantasy XII, overall dictation and breaking enemies are key in XIII.

My two favorite women of war. Lightning and her "Army of One" skill, she's such a show off. Also full ATB bar skills are the closest you'll get to limit breaks in this game.

The active time battle system has been retained, although it works slightly differently in FFXIII. Once the ATB gauge fills up actions related to a character's role can be executed. Role specific commands can be manually stockpiled or selected by the AI. Actions are determined by scanning an enemy with the Libra command and the AI will automatically select the most effective attack or ability. The ATB bar begins with two slots and reaches a maximum of five. Various techniques may take up one to five ATB bars. Fortunately, items and special techniques can still be accessed while waiting for the ATB bar to fill up. Overall, the AI in FFXIII is pretty intelligent but not without flaws. The selection of area-wide spells over more effective single enemies spells is common. The characters also have an annoying habit of clustering together on the field making them easy targets for enemies that spam area-wide attacks. Also, if your party leader goes down it's an automatic game over, a la Persona 3 and 4. Thankfully Final Fantasy XIII allows players to immediately restart a battle, effectively doing away with death as a penalty. Had the ability to restart battles immediately after death (or avoid them altogether), not been present the game's difficulty level would be insanely high instead of merely being moderate to hard.

It would have been nice to have more than six slots for paradigm decks. It also sucks that once a party member is switched said decks automatically reset. Arg!

Traditional leveling has been scrapped in favor of overall progress via the Crystarium system. HP, strength, magic, abilities, and accessory slots are all determined by progress made on the crystarium via points known as CP. The points are gathered from defeating enemies and progress on the board is unlocked as the story dictates. The crystarium doesn't fully open until after defeating the game's final boss, giving players very little reason to seriously grind for levels--although CP is another matter. Equipment is limited to weapons and accessories. Both items can upgraded by forging parts salvaged from defeated enemies, using the dismantled parts of other items or simply buying needed parts from shops. In a maddening catch-22 money is extremely difficult to come by, and fully upgrading weapons costs lots of money.

Summons that transform into vehicles (a horse, race car, motorcycle, fortress, gun turret, mechanical dragon) you can ride are either stupidly bizarre or hilariously awesome. I felt they were the latter.

Final Fantasy XIII is easily one of the best looking games on the 360, and no detail is spared. Yet, it is not without its flaws when compared to the PS3 version of the game. Colors are less vibrant, noticeable video compression can be distracting on an HDTV, and slowdowns in graphically intense areas are annoying. Considering that each dual-layer DVD can hold about 6.8GB worth of data it's baffling that Square only used about 5.8GB on two of the dics. Surely, that space could have been used to ease some of the compression. Better yet, a fourth game disc would have been acceptable if it meant less compression. If you own both consoles I would highly recommend buying the PS3 version over the 360 version, especially if you own an HDTV. Other than the video compression issue both versions of the game are identical, and it's not worth buying a PS3 just to experience this game if you already own a 360.

Like the graphics, the music found in Final Fantasy XIII is beautiful. The score was composed by Masashi Hamauzu, and is a mishmash of different styles, including fully orchestrated pieces, j-pop, jazz, techno, and even a touch of rock at times. Unfortunately, many of the songs aren't very memorable and many songs are simply remixes. A few songs do stand out, including many of the game's battle, military, and j-pop themed tracks. The voice acting is also top-notch and Square Enix reanimated cut scenes specifically for the English dub to ensure nearly perfect lipsyncs. In short, while much of FFXIII's music is forgettable the voice acting is outstanding.

A sensible token minority? Check. The chocobo chick and Vanille fully approve of Sazh.

Generally speaking, Final Fantasy XIII's entire presentation is greater than the sum of its individual parts. Unlike the many JRPGs of this generation Square Enix took a straight forward approach with FFXIII and scrapped many of the genre's dated traditions. While the approach may not sit well with many longtime fans the game gives the overall genre a needed breath of fresh air. The game itself isn't without criticism, as Square's failure to straddle the handholding in the first half of the game and the difficulty in the second half was mind boggling. I'll never understand why the first half of the game was essentially a tutorial instead of just the first two or three chapters. Additionally, forcing people to essentially read the in-game manual to fully understand the game's story didn't do anyone any favors, as the approach reeks of laziness. Despite its shortcomings, I didn't regret a single moment with this game. Final Fantasy XIII is a solid game all around and worth a try for anyone looking for a departure from the standard JRPG.

Screen shots from the Xbox 360 version of this game are courtesy of GameSpot.

Final Fantasy XIII -- Pulsating Cocoon

By Geoffrey Barnes on March 30, 2010 2:23 PM

Final Fantasy XIII is the most honest Japanese RPG ever. This is bound to tick off quite a few people.

The JRPG genre has always prided itself with a faux sense of exploration and non-linearity in its most common overall design. A problem arises when so few of them actually embrace that, giving the player time to realize that they're actually just going through the motions as the game's designers see fit. And it only got worse in the 32-bit era, when developers started to pad out the length with plenty of "features" that really didn't contribute to the overall game. You could also blame that on the inability to move as fast within a 3D space as opposed to a 2D one, sure, but the sheer excess was actually there. And it's mostly a complete waste of time, a commodity that's lessened as a whole generation of gamers are coming of age.

The immediately laudable aspect of FFXIII is that it doesn't waste your time. Final Fantasy X was the first to get rid of the overworld in the direct franchise, and most RPGs followed in its footsteps. That's mainly because it's pretty expensive to create a realistic, sprawling overworld in 3D in the advent of more realistic graphics, and going HD certainly didn't help. FFXIII follows in its footsteps, but streamlines the experience even further.

They may be straight lines but damn they look nice.

Dungeons no longer appear to be the lengthy, sprawling environments littered with numerous paths you've come to know; a common point of contention among fans of the series upon comparing them to older games in the franchise. That's not quite true, and they really only appeared to be large environs by design; dungeons in the older games were mostly straight lines as well. It's just that FFXIII exacerbates how notable that actually is. And this game has a much faster way of doing that.

The lack of towns is also a common complaint. Keep in mind that your party consists of fugitives, meaning going to a town would be the last thing they should do. Also, it's not like FF games were known for having the greatest towns, because they didn't.

Most of its linearity, like your average JRPG, is done to tell its story, which itself is actually pretty good. Don't rule out any plot holes, though, because there are plenty. There's also some questionable scriptwriting, but it thankfully doesn't get in the way too badly. It tells the story of an ex-solder (a real ex-soldier, thank you) named Lightning, who was a sergeant of the Guardian Corps just before the tale began. She has her own motives for desiring to approach Anima, like most of the other party members. The game begins, right in the middle of the action, with Lightning and Sazh, the latter an afro-donning gun-toting guy with a young Chocobo living in his hair.

Some great direction in the cut scenes.

And the entire tale is delivered with some stellar voice acting as well, and from voice actors you'd probably recognize. Ali Hillis, who Mass Effect players will recognize as Dr. Liara T'Soni, provides the voice of Lightning. The omnipresent Troy Baker provides the voice of Snow. Both Hope and Sazh's voice actors have done plenty in works that you might have seen if you're reading this, voice acted or not. And while Vanille's voice actress, Georgia Van Cuylenburg, doesn't seem too great from the beginning, she improves greatly as the game goes along. (Though that might have been deliberate.) Also, some of the minor voices from Cocoon's citizens may sound very familiar if you play a lot of RPGs or watch anime.

Given what points the developers could immediately focus on, the background artists were able to give plenty of detail to every specific aspect, and man does it show. Usually when a game is stuck in limbo for a good while, the resulting product will look behind the times compared to the then-current commonly accepted definition of state-of-the-art (see Final Fantasy XII and Dragon Quest VII for examples). But FFXIII thankfully doesn't suffer from this, and the amount of attention to detail given to almost every background is staggering. Look up in the sky to see clouds roaming past, along with some random flying objects. Your reflection can also be seen within the water in certain places as well. And the view distance is so amazing that you'll easily find yourself staring at some of the environments for a good while.

You could describe FFXIII's battle system as being and enhancement of the usual Active Time Battle system found in most games in the franchise, but referring to it as merely that is seriously selling it short. It's the perfect evolution of what was found in previous games, especially Final Fantasy X-2, but now it's much more intense. You're still required to use physical attacks on certain enemies, and magic on others. And there's no job switching purely for the gimmick (or, you know, blatant fanservice) on the fly here, of course, because it's substituted for Paradigm Shifting: a necessary maneuver used to switch to different roles for each character currently in battle.

The part when you first encounter enemies may be basic...

And it's something you'll definitely need to master, because this game gets pretty tough in its latter half. It pits you in many predetermined teams earlier in the game, but while playing it, you're likely to think it's just being done for the sake of telling an important story. Not to say that's not part of it, but it helps in teaching you how to manage all of its gameplay systems efficiently; ingraining in you'll head that you'll need to grasp the knowledge of its innards. You're also allowed to make specific Paradigms to use them as you see fit. You can make six total, enough to have some made specifically for attacking, defense, and magic. The easiest way to find enemy weaknesses is to use Libra to find out what you need to do to make an effective strategy.

You'll start off with every character only being able to have two ATB slots, with some techniques taking up more than one slot - usually techniques that hit multiple targets. That number increases as you go along in the game, allowing for more variety in your attacks for each character. As your characters develop, it will be easier to Stagger an opponent for larger damage opportunities. Sometimes you'll need to Stagger them to actually hurt them.

...but it's when you Stagger them that the situation begins to turn in your favor.

Everything with the battle system works out great for the most part, but it's not without its problems. You can sit down and carefully make a number of Paradigms in a list that suit your play style, but god forbid you happen to switch a character out - or worse, when the game switches them out automatically because of a story event - because it will erase every one you made. Also, while you control the leader in battle, the AI will control your accomplices. They're mostly competent, but they're not prone to some silly mistakes like constantly using high level magic when lower level magic would be fine and more efficient, or using less important buffing and debuffing for specific battles.

Also, in a very Megaten-esque twist, if your leader is defeated in battle, the game is over. Thankfully the game allows for quick restarts if you lose, but sometimes the enemy can arbitrarily target the leader for a quick end to the battle, which can be frustrating if it's a boss battle that will last for at least eight minutes or more. Also, it's a shame that you can only use the leader's summon - known in this game as an "Eidolon" - in any given battle.

The game overall develops in a way to help you get to know every character in and out of battle, as somewhat explained before. While starting off slow is OK for the purposes telling its story and introducing you to its mechanics, it also manages to make this one of the least replayable games in the franchise. When you replay a game, you might want to do it to try something different the second time around, but there's minimal experimentation to be made here until around 20 hours in.

The environments look nice by themselves, but the music further enhances their immersion factor.

The music is also of the most beautiful material ever heard in a Final Fantasy game, or a video game, for that matter. Masashi Hamauzu has done plenty of good music in his time at Square Enix (and Squaresoft), but he's really outdone himself here. There are plenty of tunes that use his trademark piano and violin to full effect, and there are plenty of tracks with lyrics that sound great - though that last one won't be out of place of anyone who's played a Megaten game.

Final Fantasy XIII is not geared towards everyone's taste, as you've undoubtedly seen if you frequent a few corners of the internet. It is, however, a neat experiment and an endearing take on the JRPG genre. The Final Fantasy franchise keeps itself relevant by implementing new features in every installment, to the pleasure or chagrin of its fans; and it's precisely what keeps each game interesting. You may not like this game, but it will definitely be an experience to be remembered for years.

Final Fantasy XIII: Gimme 100CPs of Magic, Stat!

By Joseph Daniels on March 19, 2010 10:42 PM

"...the idea behind FFXIII is to streamline the RPG experience and remove the fat that's so plagued it for years." -Geoff

When playing through Final Fantasy XIII, I get a definite feeling that there's something missing. But the game's so good that it's hardly noticeable unless you're actually looking for it, and when you realize what's going on, it seems like the most obvious thing in the world: where have all my stats gone? I have my Attack, my Magic, and my HP, but that's it.

About a day after Final Fantasy XIII was released, Geoff spoke about his early impressions of the game, and it was implied that a lot of the stuff that has cluttered the RPG experience was removed. Part of what was cut was the stat system. Sure, physical and magical attack remain, as well as your hit points, but MP was removed; the battle system might not have worked otherwise. Removal of MP also granted Square-Enix the license to give monsters enough HP that a fight with even one of them would easily deplete your MP if you had it in the first place. The Adamantoise, for instance, has very close to 3.7 million HP to whittle down, something that would make even a maxed out Cloud with HP<-->MP materia cry.

In a way, the removal of stats is a very good thing, for it lets gamers concentrate on what matters the most in a fight: how hard can I hit the monster, and how much damage can I endure before I hit him again? In the past, it seemed like stats available to the player multiplied with each Final Fantasy as the developers thought of more things that could influence the outcome of a fight. Luck was the kind of stat that no two games could agree upon, even outside the Final Fantasy series. Some games don't even tell you what the Luck stat is for, but just includes it. The most extreme case of how useless the Luck stat really is occurs in the Tales series, where Luck randomly changes when you stay at an inn.

Then there was Accuracy and Evasion, two stats that measure the possibility of hitting and dodging in a battle. In other words, two more ways of saying "Luck". After all, let's say you have a weapon that only has a 1% chance of hitting the enemy, but instantly kills whatever it does hit. You'd have to be pretty lucky to kill the final boss with that weapon, should you choose to use it. In the end, most gamers will just use a weapon with a higher accuracy rating, since there's nothing more annoying in a battle than seeing "Miss" pop up above an enemy every time you try to use something.

Evasion wasn't that bad as long as you're talking about the physical kind. Someone swings their fist at you, you're going to want to dodge it. Sometimes you will be able to dodge it, and this stat generally controls how often you can do that. A 1% chance of dodging means you'll be getting hit a lot, and a 99% chance means you might as well be insubstantial. On the other hand, Magic Evasion was broken: let's say you've got a very good magic evasion stat, somewhere around a 75-90% chance of dodging a magic spell, and the enemy uses a spell with a large area of effect, pretty much covering the entire battlefield. Suddenly, "Miss" appears above your head. What? I'm sorry, but that would be like standing naked in the middle of a rainstorm without an umbrella but staying dry since you have a high enough ability to dodge water. You can't stand in the middle of a magical firestorm and say that you dodged it.

But that is not to say that the stats are gone for good. Certain accessories can simulate some of the former stats, like the Royal Armlet, which increases physical and magic resistance by a certain percentage (which hints that the stats are present, but hidden). Another piece of evidence that there is a hidden defense stat and/or defense algorithm is the presence of the aforementioned Adamantoises. The first time I tried to face them, I was dealt over 16000 HP in damage. After a decent amount of time earning and spending CP, I found that although I hadn't increased anyone's defense capabilities with accessories at the time, I was now being dealt a little under 9000HP damage. Still a one hit kill, but I might not need to advance my HP to five digits to stand a chance against the colossal monsters.

Chances are, the hidden stats have been discovered and are discussed on message boards and in FAQs, but I haven't been reading them, for fear of being spoiled. TV Tropes is borderline, but they've been hiding the spoilers anyway. I'm sure I'll go and find out everything I need to know about how everything works as soon as I finish the game.

Final Fantasy XIII - In the Break Zone

By Angela Moseley on March 17, 2010 3:45 PM

Staggering an enemy in this game is very satisfying experience.

As if there wasn't enough Final Fantasy XIII banter around here I've decided to add my own two cents to the mix.

I've finally been able to sink a few hours into Final Fantasy XIII, not as many as Geoff or Joseph mind you, but enough start forming an opinion of the game thus far. Going into FFXIII I didn't have many expectations beyond a game with pretty graphics. I just hoped the game would be good, the story would be interesting, and it wouldn't feel like an HD rehash of Final Fantasy VII. So far I'm impressed with the game overall-- naysayers who've already judged the game only based on what they've heard from others should really shut it. Anyway, as I play through the game I'm finding that it is in fact linear compared to its predecessor Final Fantasy XII, but that linearity isn't a problem at all. Sure, dungeons are more or less a straight path compared to FFXII where you can explore just about any area in the game at any time, and low levels and/or incomplete skill sets are your only hindrance. I know as I get further into the game I'll be able to make more comparisons to XII, but for now I'm superficially reminded of another JRPG. Namely, the sci-fi epic Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Bose.

When I scratched the surface of FFXIII's battle system and the concept of staggering foes (i.e. striking the same enemy multiple times in order to force it into a state where more damage can be inflicted), I was partially reminded of Xenosaga II's break system. In Xenosaga II enemies have multiple zones ranging from high, medium, and low which correspond to the letters A, B, and C. By exploiting these zones a foe can either be given the "air" or "down" status which allows the party to deal extra damage. On side note, unlike XIII where just enemies are staggered, party members in Xenosaga II can also be broken and given an "air" or "down" status.

As you'd expect finding and breaking zones in boss fight can become a real pain in the ass. Being broken by enemies can be a nightmare scenario.

Breaking an enemy's zone is crucial to finishing a fight quickly, although finding the said zone is fairly difficult, especially in boss battles. Not only do you have to guess to find the correct combination of zones (A, B or C) in order to break a foe, but much of it is done in trial and error unless you have a strategy guide on hand. Even then battles can take five to ten minutes to complete depending on the enemies. Staggering foes in XIII is so much easier and the battle system isn't needlessly complex. XIII's fast paced system actually rewards you for dispatching a foe quickly. Hitting an enemy multiple times to "break" it immediately made me declare, "This is how they should have done it in Xenosaga II!" Naturally, staggering and breaking enemies is where the battle system similarities end.

Nonetheless, the games share some other superficial aspects including enemy encounters and limited exploration. Final Fantasy XII did away with random encounters as have many JRPGs in recent years. (To be fair, the first Xenosaga did away with random encounters long before FFXII saw a retail release.) Getting back to XIII comparisons, the way enemies are encountered along linear paths has more in common with Xenosaga II than FFXII. In XII it's possible to run away from just about any fight except bosses, but enemies will relentlessly chase you. In Xenosaga II enemies standing in your way can be avoided and they'll stop chasing you rather quickly. The same can be said for XIII. Xenosaga II's dungeons are more or less straight paths without the opportunity to deviate from that said path, save to find a hidden treasure chest much like XIII. There's also the ability to save in FFXIII just after or sometimes during a series of longer cut scenes. Of course the Xenosaga series as a whole takes the prize for some of the longest cut scenes in video games. The joke about Xenosaga being more of an interactive movie than a game at times is well-earned.

Even with their similarities Final Fantasy XIII and the Xenosaga episodes are vastly different games. I suspect that the likenesses I feel are simply an example of convergent evolution in gameplay and a few analogous themes. With that said, I wouldn't be surprised if I felt like jumping back into the Xenosaga series to finish the final game after XIII. For now I'm content with playing the latest numbered Final Fantasy and delving much deeper into the gameplay and story.

I promise my next post will be something completely unrelated to XIII. Honest.

Final Fantasy XIII: Feeling its Pulse

By Geoffrey Barnes on March 16, 2010 9:07 PM

So! Final Fantasy XIII. This game is a tad monotonous, isn't it? In its outset, it feels like it's really somewhat of a new take on the RPG genre; perhaps you could argue that it ventures beyond being given a generic "JRPG" term. But it's around Chapters 9 and 10 that you realize that you're just going through the numbers, walking from one straight line to another and from one battle to the next. Its battles are incredibly fun and fast paced, but sometimes going through dungeons that can't be completely explored can be a drag.

This is not to say that I think that FFXIII is bad. It's just doing its own thing; and in that respects, it succeeds.

It's after the aforementioned chapters that the developers decided to say, "OK, we've let players walk in a straight line for long enough. Let's give them some freedom." The eleventh chapter presents the entry to Gran Pulse, a world that begs exploration and is full of secrets. The world, I hear is reminiscent of Final Fantasy XII's overall style: it's full of missions (or "hunts," as some call them) that give you specific rewards upon finishing them. And though some of them are pretty tough (like the Behemoth Kings, good grief), they can be rewarding with plenty of Crystarium Points (CP).

(Yeah, I've never played FFXII. Whoops! I hope to rectify that soon.)

There are also a few story points here and there as you walk around some areas of Pulse. Some of them seem to mainly serve as character development and bonus scenes, but some of them may also hint at possible sidequests in the future - though if they didn't, I'd sure be disappointed. The entire place is also a sight to behold, with some of the most beautiful sights in the game. Said sights are even better when you can capture an image of Cocoon looming ominously in the background.

There's nothing quite like the feeling of trying your hand against opponents that seem to great for you to handle, since the punishment for death in this game is so much more lenient than its predecessors. Though it can be a little time consuming waiting for a chance to get a preemptive strike on something, especially if their senses are pretty high. I'm not sure if you're like me, and you don't want to waste any deceptisols on them, since they cost an utterly ridiculous 30,000 gil.

I have the feeling that I'll be spending a lot of time here, though I don't plan on filling up the blog with too much more FFXIII content. It's a lot to read already! And I hear that even the best things can be bad in excess. Plus, I'll need to save a few thoughts for a review in the future.

P.S. The soundtrack, in addition to being available on Square Enix's website, is also available on iTunes if you prefer your music digitally. The catch? They're selling each song individually. I...don't think they thought this through.

Final Fantasy XIII: Digging Deeper

By Geoffrey Barnes on March 13, 2010 7:33 PM

A little over 20 hours in, and I can finally change my party now! It's pretty liberating, actually.

But yeah, I've put a lot more time into Final Fantasy XIII in these last few days, and during that time, you can usually expect a game, especially an RPG, to have developed quite a bit. And it has! Sure, it's had its slow parts (like Chapter 4, and especially Chapter 5), but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't having a good time. It's not just the game and its inherent gameplay systems that have developed either: Its characters have also had ample time to develop a relationship with both the player and themselves. They've had time to really grow on you, especially Hope and Vanille.

It's the battle system that's really had time to shine. Throughout the lengthy "opening" hours, the game has spent time placing you into arbitrary teams and has forced you to abide by their setups. Part of the reason for that is that the developers had a story they wanted to tell, so they placed the game's specific characters in these situations to let one particular character (or multiple characters) develop with each other. But another reason they've done this is to teach you how to skillfully utilize the game's particular mechanics.

The game may start off as being a mindless cakewalk, but the further it goes, the more it shows its depth. Paradigm Shifting isn't just way to shift to another moveset for the hell of it. No, there will come a time where you'll need to shift to another set of classes for the sake of strategy. The game places you with arbitrary characters in its earlier moments to teach you what each class consists of. Think of it as an extended training session, because you'll need to learn how to analyze enemies and buffing and debuffing on the fly, or you risk the potential for death - even in normal enemy encounters.

As you could expect, the game looks incredibly nice. In the comments section to my last entry, Joseph was talking about how he liked to just look that the environments to absorb them in. It's something you can easily do in this game. Heck, I recommend that you do it, just to see how much detail Square Enix put into this game's graphics. You can actually see the clouds moving in the sky, along with other objects. The cutscenes are also gorgeous.

And so is the Hamauzu soundtrack, which I hope makes more fans for him. This is the first high profile game he's composed the soundtrack to, and you can tell he gave it his all. Some of the songs during specific stages also have lyrics, which will probably blow the minds of some players - though it probably won't if you've played a Megaten game or maybe Tales of Legendia before. I can't stop listening to "Sazh's Theme," personally. It's ingrained in my mind as I type this.

I'm personally glad to see that I'm firmly in the "like" side for this game, but I can understand how quite a few people don't like this game. It's an RPG whose style differs quite a bit from its predecessors, and some of its changes could rub people the wrong way (like the lack of towns, for instance). But again, in spite of that, I think it's a game that everyone should try to see if they like or hate.

Final Fantasy at Launch

By Angela Moseley on March 9, 2010 5:24 PM

With much ado Final Fantasy XIII is finally here. Taking advantage of GameStop's midnight national launch party I was able to pick up my copy along with the mini strategy guide at my local retailer just after 11pm last night. While the atmosphere was less than festive quite a few gamers did trickle in to purchase copies of Square Enix's latest game. I was one of the few people who actually got the 360 version of the game. Admittedly, Final Fantasy XIII is the first Final Fantasy on console that I've actually picked up at launch. I didn't actually play Final Fantasy until around 2003, with Final Fantasy VII being my first title in the series and FFIII on the DS being the last game I actually finished. With FFXII on hold for the moment I'm looking forward to sinking my teeth into FFXIII.

In terms of graphics Final Fantasy XIII on the PS3 definitely has the edge. The differences are noticeable when compared side by side but I would hardly call the difference detrimental. When I loaded game up on my HDTV I found myself impressed with the graphics. Despite owning a 360 for nearly a year I haven't dabbled in very many current generation games. Compared to the string of PS2 games I've been recently playing FFXIII on the 360 with compressed graphics is still an awesome looking game. Switching discs on the other hand feels like a throwback to the PS1 era but I'll probably be having too much fun to notice.

Treasure Hunter: The Real March Madness

By Angela Moseley on March 1, 2010 2:10 PM

March is already upon us and for fans that only means one thing-- March Madness. And no, I'm not talking about sports fans or college basketball. The real March madness lies in the sheer number of high profile video game releases coming out this month. From Final Fantasy XIII on the PS3 and 360 down to Pokémon HeartGold on the DS and everything in between, March promises to be an insanely awesome month. Included with so many awesome games is a fair amount of bonus items or swag, ripe for collecting. If you're interested in keeping track of all of the games coming out this month a complete listing can be found at VGRleases.

First up is the highly anticipated Final Fantasy XIII release. As Joseph mentioned in a news roundup Microsoft is releasing a special FFXIII 360 Elite Bundle which includes the new 250GB model and two wireless controllers (ironic for a single-player game). All and all, the bundle is pretty lackluster until you toss in the free bonus faceplate featuring Lighting. If you're a fan of Final Fantasy and you haven't already bought a PS3 for the game and you currently don't own a 360 (or you want one with more hard drive space) this bundle could be for you.

If you already own a 360 and you're interested in the FFXIII branded faceplate Microsoft is releasing a standalone faceplate for a whopping $49.99. I chalk the price up to Microsoft being well, Microsoft! Personally, I think Lighting would look good on my black Xbox but not for $50. Sure the price isn't unheard of just look at the MadCatz Gears of War special edition faceplate, but the average price of $19.95 is a tad more reasonable. Hopefully these FFXIII special edition faceplates will eventually make their way out to Amazon's Marketplace and eBay for sane prices. Until then, if you pre-ordered your game with GameStop there's always the free 32-page mini strategy guide. The guide is included with both versions of the game.

Normally a new numbered Final Fantasy game is more than enough to steal the gaming spotlight for the month but FFXIII also has to share with another highly anticipated Triple A title, God of War III. Unlike the RPG, this action game sports an impressive collector's edition. The God of War III Ultimate Edition ships with a sculpted replica of Pandora's Box, a collector's edition art book with interviews, and downloadable items. Downloadable swag includes the game trilogy soundtrack, a documentary of the God of War franchise, a combat arena, a Dominus skin, and "God of War: Blood and Metal EP," an MP3 song of a heavy metal tribute to the series. The GoW III Ultimate Edition retails for $99.99, but is sold out or unavailable at many retailers. To put it simply, if you waited until now to reserve a copy of the Ultimate Edition you may be out of luck, unless you're willing to pay up to $300 on Amazon or you're willing to try your luck on eBay.

If you're a fan of Pokemon and portable RPGs no doubt you already have your eyes on the upcoming Pokémon HeartGold and Pokémon SoulSilver games. A pokéwalker, or pedometer is already included with every new copy of the games and is no doubt a must have. The ability to transfer pokémon to the pokéwalker and then level them up is a bonus in a game that requires lots of grinding. In addition to leveling up monsters the Pokéwalker can be used to find special items and pokémon and to receive gifts from other players also using the pedometer. The pedometer alone is reason enough to buy the game new. However, every GameStop pre-order of HeartGold comes with a special Ho Oh figure. While figure isn't a deal maker or breaker it is nice to have one. Unfortunately there no longer appears to be a special Lugia figure included with SoulSilver, so the best a collector can do is hope that their local GameStop employees will include a Ho Oh figure with their pre-order of SoulSilver.

According to the early reviews Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey is an awesome DS game. If you enjoyed Nocturne on the PS2 you should feel right at home with this title. Even if you're unfamiliar with the SMT games but you love RPGs Strange Journey should still be an enjoyable experience. As with Persona on the PSP Atlus is releasing the soundtrack together with every new copy of the game. If you pre-order the game at GameStop you'll also receive a mini-poster (pictured above). The gorgeous sci-fi themed artwork alone is enough to make the trek down to a local GameStop to pre-order. If GameStop isn't your thing this poster will undoubtedly make its way to eBay and Amazon's Marketplace.

The GameStop exclusives for March continue with the exclusive soundtrack to Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon. Unfortunately with a release date of March 16th Fragile Dreams is already on shaky ground with God of War III, Dragon Age Origins: Awaking, and Resonance of Fate all releasing on the same day. Fragile Dreams promises to be a dark RPG that is character and plot driven. Exploration and emotion provide a break from the average combat driven RPG titles. Fragile Dreams could be worth looking into for RPG fans who are not interested in the big RPG title of the month or who simply want to support XSEED. If I wasn't already tapped out on games this month I'd certainly try this title on the Wii.

And if you're looking for Lunar: Silver Star Harmony which releases tomorrow Geoff already wrote about it here.

Geek News Roundup for 02/07/10 -- 恭喜發財

By Joseph Daniels on February 14, 2010 11:12 PM

A happy year of the Tiger to everyone!

Well, a happy year to everyone except those who were butthurt over the Google logo of a luger that was posted and then taken down again. As much sympathy as I have over the death of Nodar Kumaritashvili (whose name is so hard to spell, I had to copy/paste it), there are people who would consider such a logo to be a tribute to his death. Besides, the logos are done up in advance, and we can't blame Google for being insensitive. Perhaps it is those who drink too much from the cauldron of Olympic cheer complain about such logos who are really the insensitive ones. (Oh no, I very nearly said something negative about the Olympics!)

It looks like I wasn't the only one who decided I had better things to do than watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympic games. Over in Port Alberni (which is close to my neck of the woods), a video gamer was logged into the Xbox Live network when he noticed someone on the network talking about a school shooting he was planning, saying that the headlines would be remembered forever. The gamer called the police, who contacted Microsoft, and soon enough, the kid uttering the threats was tracked down to San Antonio and arrested. What the kid probably should've been playing was a single player game. Nothing spoils a killing spree like telling people you're going to go on a killing spree.

Here's a single player game for you: Adventures in Sex City. According to the articles that have suddenly sprung up about it, the game must've just been released. I can tell you right now that the game would be rated AO if the ESRB got their hands on it. While I'm on the subject of endorsing stuff, there's a gaming centre in Arizona that's promoting friendly competitive play on the PS3 and Xbox 360 and providing a place for gamers to go to play. If you happen to be in the vicinity of Tucson, give Arcade-in-a-Box a try.

Microsoft has been pulling out all the stops to steal Sony's Final Fantasy XIII thunder. Not only does a special FF XIII edition 360 exist, but they've also been advertising the game heavily and not bothering to mention that the game is cross-platform, possibly hoping that gamers will be fooled into buying their system instead of a PS3. A special edition 360 would be awesome to have; I've already made my decision on which system I'm going to buy for Final Fantasy XIII: it's a secret.

There are more colours available for the Wii remote: blue and pink! Personally, I want a pink one. It'll go well with the lilac PSP I don't have yet. Hey, there's something Sony needs to do: release a completely pink PS3! There's a Wii gamer down under who won't be able to afford such accessories for quite a long time: he currently owes one and a half million dollars for pirating New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

Last but not least, the Church of England is still crying about violence in video games.

I hope those Chinese characters say what I want it to say.

Adventures of a Canadian Gamer #15 -- A PlayStation Fan's Diary, Part 2: The Future

By Joseph Daniels on February 6, 2010 11:15 PM

When Final Fantasy XIII was announced for the PS3, I knew right then that I would buy myself a PS3 when the game came out. I didn't care of the console still possessed a high price tag. At the time, I thought to myself, "I will somehow acquire this console and this game." At the time, I didn't have a steady job, and so I didn't have the income necessary to support a current generation gaming habit. Previous generation games seemed the best I could hope for at the time.

I began making a list of games that I wanted to get for the PS3, and as they continued to release, my list grew longer. I liked the first two Disgaea games, so Disgaea 3 was added to my list rather quickly. Valkyria Chronicles was highly recommended, and I've heard good things about Eternal Sonata. Not only that, but Star Ocean: The Last Hope's been ported to the PS3. I may not want as many games for the PS3 as I own for the PS2, but I'm still working through my PS2 library anyway.

Then the price drops started happening. It was definitely the right way for Sony to go, after arrogantly declaring that the console would be something that you would want to save up for, work harder for.* But while the price was being lowered, features were being dropped, and one of the first features dropped was the backwards compatibility that Sony was famous for. Nintendo is notorious for being spotty at best when it comes to backwards compatibility in their consoles. Microsoft blatantly broke their promise when it came to backwards compatibility in the 360. In fact, they broke it twice. But Sony's always supported their older titles. With the PS2 still on the market, it's not as much of a blow as it could've been, but still, you can't claim that the PS3 does everything when it doesn't do some of the things it used to do.

When Final Fantasy XIII was suddenly announced as being cross-platform, all of the Sony fans suddenly cried foul and all but demanded that everyone at Square-Enix commit seppuku, and also demanded that the 360 version be canceled. Microsoft fans crowed about their victory. Considering that no 360 version is being released in Japan, it kind of negates both sides' arguments in a way. Besides, FF XIII is not the only game in the series to appear on a Microsoft console. Final Fantasy XI has appeared on the original Xbox. And way back when, Final Fantasy VII was cross-platform, as well as Final Fantasy VIII. It appeared on Sony PlayStation... and MICROSOFT Windows. Final Fantasy VII on a Microsoft platform. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, Sony fanboys.

But the latest thing that's given me pause is the way Sony handled their release of some of their latest firmware versions (notably, 3.0 and 3.15, but others seem to have the same issues). When they first began to brick consoles, Sony decided that they would charge money to replace the consoles, which is kind of like a doctor punching you in the face with brass knuckles, then expecting you to pay him for the surgery. It takes dogged determination for even one customer to get their hardware repaired. Most, if not all of the bricked consoles are the old models that contain PS2 backwards compatibility.

Firmware 3.15 used to be optional, you didn't need it if you wanted to run stuff on your console. Then, the middle of last month, they decided that this firmware that renders consoles inoperable was to be a required update, and this subsequently caused my co-worker's PS3 to brick.

Final Fantasy VII is largely credited as having sold the PS1 and killed the N64, ending Nintendo's dominance in the video game market. Sega may have done what Nintendon't, but Sony did what Sega couldn't. With the Wii currently dominating the market and Final Fantasy XIII cross-platform outside of Japan, Sony doesn't need the kinds of problems that they're having right now, especially considering the number of people who bought the old, backwards compatible PS3s back when Final Fantasy XIII was announced. Now that their beloved game is near release, suddenly Sony's breaking their consoles and charging a substantial sum of money to fix them. The last thing Sony needs is for FF13 to sell the 360 instead of the PS3.

It's enough to give me pause, and despite my history of supporting Sony (I even bought their PSP), seeds of doubt have been planted in my mind. I may just buy a PS3 anyway, but I wouldn't be surprised if my PS2 outlives it.

*I can't seem to find a quote where Ken, or someone at Sony, declared that the PlayStation 3 is something the whole family will save up for, and it's possible that I may be imagining it. There's not many family friendly games on the PS3 anyway as there are on the Wii. Nintendo seems to have had a lot more success in selling their console to entire families, but that is a story for another time. Instead, the PS3 has remained well within the realm of the hardcore gamer. I doubt that Grand Theft Auto 4, Metal Gear Solid 4, Call of Duty: World At War and MAG would be considered family friendly games, but that's just me.

Video of the Week:

This is why I wish I understood Japanese:

Yes, he's going all Yahoo! and seems one step away from going like this as well:

All I know is, if I knew Japanese, I'd have played this already and laughed at Sazh's silly summon animation. Bonus video:

His summon animation again! ^^ Yahoo! Yo.

WRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

Currently Playing: Tales of Symphonia (GC)

You know, I bought my GameCube back in late 2007, and I have yet to beat a single game for it. I own seven. Anyway, I finally decided to give this game a go because I'd just beaten Puzzle Quest and needed to play another game right away, but no other PlayStation 2 games were calling out to me. The game seems much better than the release of Tales of Phantasia that we got in North America on the GBA. Whatever they did wrong there, they did right here.

The story is fantastic so far and I'm liking the synopsis option in the menu that keeps track of the story. Only Xenosaga comes close, of the games I've played, to having something like that. It makes things a lot simpler for reminding the gamer where he needs to go,and what he was last doing, especially since the plot points are time stamped in real time. For instance, I made it to Lake Umacy on the 4th of February, this year, while at level 16. Then again, I only started the game on the 4th of February, so that's amazing.

I wouldn't mind seeing the original version of Tales of Phantasia ported to the Virtual Console, but that's just me. The GBA version sucked. Now I should see if I can get the PS1 Tales games without having to pay an arm and a leg.

And Operation Kill The Backlog continues...

Looking Forward To: Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (DS)

I didn't mind the portion of Eragon on the GBA that I played, and the graphics don't seem to bother me too much in the screen shots, so I figure, what could it harm to try this thing out? Besides, RPGamer's been kinda dropping the ball lately on DS games (we reviewed Sands of Destruction a week and a half sooner than they did), but then again, this blog does cover all games and ideally anime as well, and they did have a review of Mass Effect 2 posted a couple days after that game was released (heh, they probably had a head start and a review copy).

The biggest things that fascinate me about this game:

-this is a video game based on a movie based on a book, so there has to be things lost in the translation. If the book wasn't super popular at the local library, I'd borrow it, read it first, then either watch the video or play the game, whichever gets to Revelstoke first, and see what's been left out of each.
-the last game that the developer, 20th Century Fox, released (according to GameFAQs) was back in 1983, probably right before the video game crash. It was called The Earth Dies Screaming. Twenty seven years later, they finally release their next game. Hey, maybe there's hope for Duke Nukem Forever after all.
-this is probably one of the few things that reference the Olympians and anything olympic that VANOC and/or the IOC hasn't tried to sue into the ground. Did you know that the Olympics are a brand name, and that if you have, say, a pizza joint that has existed long before VANOC got formed, you're still fair game? Also, did you know that VANOC won't allow anyone else in Canada to make anything related to the Olympic brand until the end of the Mayan calendar? It makes me wish that all the disasters that happen in the movie 2012 happen to VANOC. Preferably during the games.

Oh no, I said something bad about the games! VANOC is going to sue me! Bell Canada's going to try to have me fired from whatever job I hold!** No one in British Columbia would allow this kind of thing in a blog!***

**This is a claim I cannot back up with an article on the Internet, despite diligent Google usage, but I have found an article about other insane Olympic-related restrictions.
***It's a good thing we're not an accredited blog at the 2010 games, then. It seems that if your blog is too negative, you can face consequences. ...Damn it! I wanted to link to the scene in Babar: The Movie where Babar tells Rataxes that the loud trumpeting he hears is the consequences, but it's not on YouTube!

Geek News Roundup for 01/24/10 -- Small of Two Roundups

By Joseph Daniels on January 31, 2010 11:07 PM

The iPad is probably the most talked about new gadget right now. This may or may not be good for the device. My thoughts on this device are: I don't care, let's talk about games.

Yoshinori Kitase revealed that part of the delay in development for Final Fantasy XIII was due to the PlayStation 3's arrival on the market. In other words, it's all Sony's fault. It makes me wonder what effect the decision to create a version for the 360 had on the development time for the game. So what Kitase is saying is that if they'd just stuck with the PlayStation 2, the game would be out by now? And speaking of March releases on the PS3 for games that are also available on the 360, Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City is being ported to the PS3.

Mass Effect 2 is out for the Xbox 360 and it's been selling very well. Unless you live in certain places that, for some reason, haven't received copies of the game yet. This doesn't seem to be Microsoft's main worry, though, for they have other fish to fry. Microsoft's lawyers have filed a motion to dismiss an anti-trust lawsuit filed against them by Datel, a company that made unauthorized memory cards and game controllers for the Xbox 360, citing an earlier precedent set by Apple. An observation: it seems like the only times anyone working for Microsoft are brutally honest about their products are when companies like Datel threaten the dominance that Microsoft tries to get on the market. One could argue, though, that it's not really a monopoly as long as there's competition, and it's not like anyone's allowed to make unauthorized games for these systems.

Is it possible that video games can improve your sex life? That's what Lara Roberts is saying. She is a mother of two who says she lost over a hundred pounds while using Nintendo's Wii Fit software, and claims it saved her life. And trust me when I say there is a major difference between her before and after pictures. And come to think of it, I wouldn't be surprised if this is why Jann Arden looks like she's lost weight on the cover of her new 2009 album, "Free".

And last but not least, Google Street View seems to have caught some illegal tree cutting in Vancouver. Given that a lot of this kind of thing happens over there, it's good that some of it happened on camera. And since I missed last week, stay tuned tomorrow for more geek news!

Adventures in Canadian Gaming #12 -- All A-twitter (How Original)

By Joseph Daniels on January 15, 2010 9:07 PM

I was playing Suikoden recently, and I beat the game last night. Unfortunately, it was too late to start the brand new Sands of Destruction game and still have time for work, but that's beside the point. During the playing of the game, I came up with some comments about the game that would've made good tweets, but I've long since forgotten them. But I mulled such an idea around in my head, and eventually decided to add a Twitter account to my weekly column. Starting with Sands of Destruction, I'm going to be tweeting the random comments I think of when I play a game. I suppose it'll count as a mini-review until a full review is written, especially if I pepper my comments with "This game sucks!" all the time. I can just imagine what I would've tweeted when I was playing Dragon Song.

The Twitter account can be found here.

Also, a correction submitted from a friend in Japan (you're still in Japan, right?) to a recent news article I posted about the Child's Play charity. In my haste to write the news round-up this week, I posted the wrong total and then proceeded to make a joke based on that total. The charity itself took in nearly 1.8 million dollars in cash and toys (which would be over 9000, nearly 200 times). The total previously reported by me only covers the total raised by the Ars Technica web site.

There were nine Canadian hospitals taking part in Child's Play last year, along with one in Egypt, one in Great Britain, one in New Zealand, two in Australia, and plenty in the United States (including a hospital in Philadelphia).

At any rate, I screwed that one up. Oops.

Video of the Week

Let's hope none of you experience a date like this. Scene is from season 1 of Numb3rs.

Currently Playing: Sands of Destruction (DS)

As soon as I remove the shrink wrap, of course. You'll hear all about it on my Twitter account. I can tell you right now that some of the team that made Xenogears made this game as well, and from screen shots, it definitely looks like it. I'm looking forward to playing this one. I'm almost looking forward to this game:

Looking Forward To: Final Fantasy XIII (PS3)

It's getting closer! Lightning will strike soon (hmm, I think Geoff already made that joke), and I'm buying a PS3 for it. I'm so glad I wasn't one of the people who bought a PS3 when Square first announced this game, for it would've collected all kinds of dust by now and I'd have wasted a couple hundred dollars in discounts. Angela already has a 360, so when she plays the game, she gets to switch discs. I am jealous of this: one of my favourite moments when playing PS1 games was when the Please Insert Disc X screen came up. Finishing a disc felt a lot like finishing a chapter in a book. For me, Final Fantasy XIII will only be a one chapter story. For her, she'll be able to gauge how far along in the game she is, a lot easier.

Games to Worry About in 2010: Part II (of II)

By Geoffrey Barnes on January 5, 2010 11:17 PM

Continuing the inane madness from yesterday, here are two more games that you might (emphasis!) be worrying about. The intention isn't hating on games for the sake of hating them -- because we're not solely out for hits, and we're not jerks here -- but merely stating some worrying concerns with an upcoming product.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (Playstation 3, Xbox 360)

Though it's been over six months after its initial announcement back at E3 2009, there's been little to assuage the fears for how Castlevania: Lords of Shadow will actually turn out. It has a lot to live up to, and it's a new installment in a franchise whose 3D offerings have been middling at best. It was also originally revealed as simply Lords of Shadow, not involved in Castlevania at all (though admittedly a few people acknowledged its initial resemblance to a Castlevania game). Not to mention that it's coming from a developer - that's MercurySteam -- known for releasing something not well received like Clive Barker's Jericho. Unfortunately, it seems that Kojima Productions' involvement has them only overseeing the project to help maintain its quality.

And it's until you stop and think about that last sentence when you realize that it may not be so bad. Kojima Productions is probably the best development studio Konami has right now, so they have judgment you can usually trust. With games like the Metal Gear Solid titles, Lunar Knights/Boktai, and Zone of the Enders, they have a pretty good resume. There's also no denying that the game looks very good, and very God of War-inspired (which makes sense, actually, since God of War occasionally felt like what Castlevania should be in 3D). Look for it sometime this year.

Final Fantasy XIII (Playstation 3, Xbox 360)

You don't need anyone to tell you that Final Fantasy XIII is nearly upon us - or already upon you if you live in Japan. Because it's available in the east, fans who couldn't wait for the American release or happen to know the language couldn't help but import it. And the results from them are...well, pretty mixed actually.

There's everything about the game looking beautiful and having a soundtrack to match, but an apparent key problem in the game is that it's apparently very linear - much more so than any of the previous games (yes, even Final Fantasy X). What you think of the initial impressions will depend on your personal tastes. It appears that Final Fantasy XII isn't the last game that will have a series of mixed reactions, despite XIII definitely playing things a little safer. The ostensible thing about FFXIII is that it appears to be more honest about its straightforward approach. You'll see whether you like it or not come March 9th.

(Wow. Could there have been any more conjecture in that last paragraph?)

Again, I have to say that I'm in no way hoping that these games will be bad. I might be a pessimist, but I'm not that sadistic or masochistic. In fact, I'm actually looking forward to playing all of them! (Yes, that includes Front Mission Evolved) But there's just one - or more, in some cases - thing that throws the entire perception of it off. In the meantime, I really hope I'm wrong in worrying about some of these.

Cover Art Chronicles Update: Keeping Tradition

By Geoffrey Barnes on December 14, 2009 11:46 PM

You could also call this somewhat of a Final Fantasy XIII cover showcase. Yeah, I've got nothing else.

With the cover for Final Fantasy XIII, it's been said around the internet by fans of the franchise that they're breaking tradition by using the chosen cover for America and Europe. Of course, since this is the internet, some people are expressing a little more emotion than what should be usual. Some of you guys are crazy. In a way, though, they're actually not breaking tradition. Well, kind of.

That cover is also being used for the Lightning Edition PS3 bundle releasing in Japan along with the game this week. See! They really are using the Japanese cover. Well, one of them, to be precise. Personally, I think the cover we're getting is fine, and much simpler than the cover we're used to receiving. However, I also agree that it could be better. It's definitely not as bad as some people around the internet have made it out to be; but the internet has a funny habit of doing that a little too often.

Also, that wasn't the cover they were going to use for the LE cover in Japan at first. The one revealed at TGS displayed Lightining postured on Odin in a very classic Napoleon-like style. It looked a little awkward, but it came off as pretty nice.

But if you're not a fan of the American and European cover, a limited edition has been confirmed by Square Enix. For Europe. It's likely that we'll get it here in America as well, but Square Enix USA has been silent on it for now. Here's hoping it's not a Gamestop-exclusive this time around.

Cover comparison image courtesy of...well, some Japanese blog/message board somewhere, but uploaded by Final Fantasy-XIII.net forums.

Cover Art Chronicles: Final Fantasy XIII

By Geoffrey Barnes on December 2, 2009 11:22 PM

By this time, you're already well aware that Final Fantasy XIII has an official release date for America and Europe, and that the game is due for release outside of Japan two weeks from tomorrow. It's been a long time in coming, sure, and we won't have to wait too much longer. To help us be a little more patient, and to naturally hype the game, Square Enix has been keeping gamers generally interested in it, and the latest attempt at this the official unveiling of the box art outside of Japan. And it's...well, uh...

It's times like this where I wish I was a cover art designer, because I'd love to be able to slap something together in, oh, three or so minutes in Photoshop; and that's sure what this thing comes of as! This cover also breaks tradition; usually, the European covers were always the same as the Japanese covers, but that won't be the case this time. Ouch. Though I'm sure some people will be thankful for the panty shot. And that's just wonderful.

The main problem here that's bothering fans isn't specifically that the cover reeks of a lazy effort -- even though it is -- but that it just doesn't look all that nice. The Japanese covers, admittedly, don't look that complicated either, but it's the result of it that matters. What that cover has is elegant simplicity, something that will catch a person's eye through nostalgia of the name itself and with it keeping in line with previous covers, along with something aesthetically pleasing. The cover above is simple, but hardly elegant. At the same time, it's not bad, but merely acceptable. And for a game that's the next main installment for the biggest Japanese RPG franchise worldwide, we expect a little more than something that qualifies as the bare minimum.

But it's not too late! March 9th is quite a long way away, and though Square Enix doesn't listen to its fans as much as a company like Capcom -- who changed the cover to Street Fighter IV for the American and European versions to the same as the Japanese cover -- but that's not to say it's not possible. Just don't be surprised if it stays the same. And in that case, there's still hope for a limited edition with a different cover.

Lightning is Preparing to Strike

By Geoffrey Barnes on November 16, 2009 6:35 PM

It's been a long, long time in coming, but Final Fantasy XIII is coming very soon. Sooner than you think, actually. And that's not just for Japan either; Square Enix announced Friday that the game releases in North America and Europe on March 9, 2010 (which you might have known already), which isn't too far after Japan's December 17 release date. It's kind of like the Final Fantasy X surprise that America had in 2001, the difference being that this time the process will only take under three months. And they announced it just in time to prevent importers from nabbing the Japanese PS3 version too!* Timely. They provided the date in a presentation video with the biggest "don't you want to punch this guy in the face?" dude ever conceived.

It's been a long time since FFXIII was revealed to the public; about three-and-a-half years in fact. And here we all thought the "announcement followed by a release nearly four years later" format was dead and buried after Final Fantasy XII went through almost the same thing. It's OK though, since the same fate is still befalling Final Fantasy Versus XIII. In fact, given reports from the behind-closed-doors Tokyo Game Show presentation, it might be even worse, since people said it barely resembles a game at this point. Well, at least you'll have Final Fantasy XIV to buck the trend, right?

The American and European versions will also be using a different theme song, as stated in the video. Instead of Eternal Love from the Japanese version, performed by Sayuri Sugawara, we'll get My Hands, performed by Leona Lewis. Fans around the internet seem to be split on the decision, but the only criticism that really holds any water is that while the Japanese theme -- while like any Final Fantasy theme; i.e. not great -- is composed by the actual game's composer, Masashi Hamauzu, the English version will have licensed music -- which also isn't great. There always has to be something to raise a ruckus over.

(And for Christ's sake, don't read the comments under those videos unless you're willing to sacrifice a few brain cells.)

Meanwhile, Japanese gamers are keeping themselves busy with Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers, which just released there on Thursday. OK, probably not, given that word circulating around the internet is that it only sold 26,000 copies on day one. That's not good! Apparently, Japanese gamers are using DS games to hold them off. Well, as long as they're in plentiful supply.

Hard to believe that the day will be finally here, which means we won't be able to make any more jokes about how much development hell the game has almost definitely been going through. That's a shame. No wait, we've still got Versus XIII. And Final Fantasy Agito XIII. And The Third Birthday. And Alan Wake. And...well, you get it.

*Well, that's if it stops importers.

Geek News Roundup for 11/08/09 - "We're Fighting Time Itself, and I'm Gonna Win!"

By Joseph Daniels on November 15, 2009 9:29 PM

Fans of Doctor Who have waited half a year to see what happens to the Doctor on Mars... and now they have. "The Waters of Mars" aired today on BBC, and is the third of five special episodes intended to bring David Tennant's tenure as the Doctor to a close. The final specials, currently titled "The End of Time" (how ominous) are set to air December 25, 2009, and January 1, 2010.

"The Waters of Mars" is less a straight-up adventure like the previous special, "Planet of the Dead" was, and more a cerebral tale of what it is like to be a Time Lord. Knowing when things are supposed to happen, knowing what can and can't be changed, and trying to follow the laws of time. And of all the people that he's saved, and all the people that he's tried to save, are there people that even he is not allowed to save? Is he supposed to serve history or is history supposed to serve him?

In a way, this is a good thing, for if it was a straight-up adventure, then it would've sucked to have waited half a year just to see a story that could've easily been another episode of a regular season. It's also even better, for it sets up the next special, which Who fans only have to wait a month and ten days for. (And then the next one after that airs a week later.)

In promotional materials, Adelaide Brooke, played by Lindsay Duncan, is called the Doctor's new companion for the special. But the story is less about the Doctor and his companion saving the day, and more about the Doctor's internal debate about his role in time. In the end, I don't consider anyone to be the companion in this episode, and would have rather had the Doctor be considered alone, for that's what he seems to be for most of the episode. Alone. He's been deliberately ostracizing himself for a while now, ever since saying goodbye to everyone he'd met over the past few seasons (everyone who survived, at least), and he even denied Lady Christina de Souza a lift at the end of "Planet of the Dead". It remains to be seen what changes his mind at the end of "The End of Time", but fortunately we won't have long to wait.

Anyway, forget about water on Mars, NASA's found water on the moon! Back in June, they attacked the moon with everything they had (which, due to funding cuts, apparently wasn't much), and in October, the attack was shown to be successful. So what's next? It's obvious: moisture farms! (But only if the water isn't contaminated, of course.)

But speaking of New stuff on the Moon... actually, I'd rather not talk about that. I'd rather talk about Square-Enix! They've made a few key announcements this past week, but I'm not holding my breath. First of all, the long awaited Final Fantasy XIII is set to be released on March 9, 2010 for both North America and Europe. Given past delays for some of Square-Enix's other offerings, I will only believe this when I see the game with my own eyes. The second announcement will come as a major surprise to the fans of a lesser known series. A new game is in the works called "The Lands Cursed by the Gods", in a series known as Estpolis in Japan, and Lufia in North America. The game will be developed by the original team that made the Lufia series, but apparently Square-Enix has picked up publication rights. It'll be so weird to see a Lufia game with the Square-Enix logo on it and not the Natsume logo.

Meanwhile, the Call of Duty series has smashed records. The new game, Modern Warfare 2, has sold 4.7 million copies! Now if we had more games like this coming out in the next few weeks, the recession would be over. Or everyone will have declared bankruptcy after buying them. I don't know which it is, and right now, I don't care. I need to get back to my NaNoWriMo novel, which currently stands at 28031 words.

Geek News Roundup for 08/16/09 - Slim Pickings for Sony Fans

By Angela Moseley on August 23, 2009 10:05 PM

It was officially confirmed at Gamescon last week, the PS3 slim is real and it'll arrive on store shelves next month. Like the new PSP Go, this latest news comes another one of Sony's worst keep secrets. At a lower price of $299 consumers, developers, and retailers are getting exactly what they've been asking for from Sony. Demand on Amazon.com via pre-order is already high, making the new PS3 the current best selling video game item on that site. The new PS3 features a smaller design and uses a third less power. Sadly, PS2 backwards capability is gone for good. Although it may come as little consolation, at least you can play all of your old PS1 games on the PS3 without any problems. If backwards capability means a lot to you there are alternatives. 60GB PS3 models are now selling at GameStop.com for $330.

A new Persona 3 game has been confirmed for the PSP and will be simply titled Persona 3: Portable. The game has been confirmed as an enhanced PSP port due to release in Japan on November 1st. Siliconera reports P3: Portable will feature both the original male protagonist and the choice of a new female protagonist. Players will have to choose a gender at the start of the game and events in the game vary between the different protagonists. Other game changes include new music, and the ability to directly control every party member. It's unclear if this title will see a release in the West, but given the popularity of the Persona series the possibility is very high. Unlike this newest Persona release we do have a solid estimate of when Final Fantasy XIII will make its way to the West. A simultaneous PS3/Xbox 360 release in spring 2010 is all but confirmed, and Xbox 360 owners can expect the game to span three discs compared to one Blu-ray disc on the PS3.

While on the subject of Blu-ray, in Japan the disc format is big business. Not surprisingly, anime makes up about 50 percent of Blu-ray disc sales in Japan. Although Blu-ray sales are up, DVD sales are down by 20 percent and other forms of media such as manga, music, and video games are also down. With such bleak news it seems as if online video streaming will become more important than ever for the anime industry in the future. On the domestic anime distribution side FUNimation, Bandai, Viz Media, and even 4Kids understand the importance of online streaming. It's just a shame that as soon as 4Kids began to stream the original uncut episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! online the project was suspended due to rights issues in Japan. Furthermore, because of these rights issues the original Japanese version of Yu-Gi-Oh won't be seen in any other medium outside of Japan either. If you bought the first few DVDs a few years back consider yourself lucky.

A national broadband network that consistently achieves high speeds may be more than a pipe dream in the future. Currently, plans for such a network are still being debated by the regulators. The regulators in charge of such a plan would be none other than the FCC (Federal Communications Commission). Unfortunately, it's become painfully obvious that such a plan is off to a bad start when the FCC itself is clueless about the term "broadband" and asks the public for a definition.

Even if government regulators are clueless at least we have scientists to turn to for other solutions. Namely, mathematical formulas on how to counter zombie outbreaks and attacks.

Image courtesy of Joystiq.

Edit on August 25th at 8:21am: Added more details to Persona 3: Portable. Previously I mentioned there were very few details about the game, but in fact the opposite was true. I apologize for any confusion my original article may have caused. Thanks to Geoffrey for pointing out the additional Siliconera articles!

A Massively Square Post

By Angela Moseley on May 22, 2009 2:53 PM

Some very vocal Final Fantasy fans most certainly feel betrayed by Square Enix's decision to bring Final Fantasy XIII to multiple platforms outside of Japan. In fact, many of them rushed off to buy a PlayStation 3 years before the title even had a confirmed release date (it still doesn't as if this writing). But with last week's news of FFXIII most likely being monolingual on the Xbox 360, PS3 owning Final Fantasy are a little happier now. In an interview with IGN UK, Square Enix Producer Yoshinori Kitase brought up the possibility of having multiple languages on the PS3 version of the game. As for the 360, the producer said "...when we talk about XIII it's for PS3 and Xbox - with PS3 being on Blu ray there would be enough memory, but on Xbox probably not." Such a move would definitely give the PS3 version of the game another one-up over the 360 version. It works out fine for the PS3 owners who prefer subtitles over dubs. In other words, the majority fans who'd want a multiple language release of FFXIII probably already own a PS3. Not to say there aren't 360 owners out there who care about multilingual options. Square Enix's reason for a probable monolingual release for the 360 version is baffling at best. All fans deserve a multilingual option if it is technologically and economically feasible.

It is interesting to note that Mistwalker was able release two RPGs on the 360 (Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey) with multiple languages. Sure those games were released over multiple discs, but Final Fantasy XIII is already speculated to be a multiple disc release on the 360-- what's an extra disc or two? Additionally, many game developers and publishers also make language packs available as downloadable content through Xbox Live. It's a bit surprising that a company with so many resources such as Square Enix can't or won't when a smaller studio like Mistwalker can. The company has multiple options when it comes to the 360 console, why not take the time to utilize them? With the North American release more than a year away it's still too early to say what Square will ultimately do, as nothing has been solidly confirmed or denied. But at this point the company once again seems out of touch with North American fans.

Check out the video of the fan project, Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes. The original trailer is available here.

Square Enix also didn't help matters last week when it sent a Cease and Desist letter to the team behind Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes. Crimson Echoes was a promising five-year fan project that centered around the modification of the Chrono Trigger ROM to create a new derivative game. The fan-made game is roughly 35 hours long, has 23 chapters, and 10 multiple endings. The game was designed to be a sequel and a bridge between Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross. It would have been distributed to fans via an emulator on May 29th. The game was 98% complete when Square Enix delivered the C&D letter. The letter itself threatens the team with legal action and fines up to $150,000 dollars. Similar legal threats were made against the fan site Chrono Compendium, because it demonstrated how to hack and modify ROMs.

On one hand it is amazing to see the lawyers at Square admit they saw the Crimson Echoes project as a threat, considering how little they've done with the Chrono Trigger franchise. Yes, we've had multiple ports and a messy sequel, but none of it even remotely compares to the company's flagship series, Final Fantasy. Given the fact that small modified ROM projects have been released in the past without objections from Square, and that Crimson Echoes had been worked on for five years already is frustrating. Does the company really see the new game as a major threat to Chrono Trigger DS, or do they have something more planned for the franchise in the future?

On the other hand, despite Square Enix sometimes looking the other way on fan projects, it isn't difficult to see why the company would want to protect its intellectual property. After all, the argument that Chrono Trigger is hard to find, or no longer in print (and therefore has been completely neglected), no longer works as it did five years ago. Even if the Crimson Echoes team had the money to mount a Fair Use defense by arguing the game has transformative value there would be no guarantee they would win such a case. The fact that game itself is a modified ROM is the biggest strike against it, even if it could be likened to an interactive fan story. It is a shame that Square does not seem interested in working out something with the team, because the dedicated CT fans who crave new material for the franchise are the ones who really suffer.

To end this post on a positive note Sony announced via its blog, that Dissidia Final Fantasy will be released on August 25th with a GameStop exclusive bundle. If you were hoping that this bundle would include the Limited 20th Anniversary Special Edition PSP Japan got back in December you're going to be disappointed. There is no special edition PSP, but the bundle itself is still pretty impressive from an economical standpoint. The bundle includes a mystic silver PSP-3000, a 2GB memory stick, Dissidia Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, although most fans have probably already seen or own Advent Children. Nonetheless, a bundle is better than no bundle, especially if you've been holding out for a PSP, or you're looking to upgrade to the newest PSP. For fans who are not impressed with this PSP bundle it is interesting to note that Amazon.com is running their own special. Every order of Dissidia ships with a bonus soundtrack CD. The CDs are in limited supply but no one else seems to be offering the CD. So unless you want or need a new PSP, Amazon.com might be the best way to go.

Square has been both wonderful and frustrating lately. I'm happy that Dissidia has a release date, but I am unhappy with the fact that Square can't seem to figure out how to utilize the consoles of this generation three to four years in. Not to belittle the hard work of the Chrono Trigger fans, but Square's C&D letter is not surprising. It's just stupid they let the project go on for so long if they had no intention of looking the other way. Still, if the company were to give Sigma Harmonics a domestic release I could easily overlook their recent flaws.

Geek News Roundup for 05/03/09 - The lots of gaming news edition

By Angela Moseley on May 11, 2009 11:21 PM

I've managed to tear myself away from Persona 4 long enough to realize I haven't done the geek news update yet. The day isn't officially over until midnight, so even if this entry is posted at 11:59PM it still counts as Monday. Surprisingly, this same logic worked on a section editor of my old college newspaper when articles were due on a certain day. And no, I wasn't reprimanded at all. Good times.

Which is more than Final Fantasy fans could say when they learned Square Enix would not be bundling the Final Fantasy XIII demo with the U.S. version of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete. The company officially stated that a Playstation 3 Blu-ray exclusive would be unfair to Xbox 360 fans who would also be expecting a demo. However, the company did leave the possibility of a downloadable demo open for Western gamers. Considering the demo is 5GB in size it'll be interesting to see if Square Enix could even pull such a move off. At the very least it is always entertaining to watch the fanboys (and girls) whine on various forums and comment sections

Even with the lack of a localized FFXIII demo Final Fantasy fans have more to look forward to than, oh, say Duke Nukem fans. 3D Realms, the developer of Duke Nukem Forever, shut down last week. In other words, Duke Nukem Forever (a title that has been in development since 1997) is officially dead. Unless of course another company picks it up and actually releases it in a timely manner. Even if another studio were to pick up the series tomorrow, I can almost guarantee the Pokemon Gold and Silver DS remakes would be out first in the United States. Personally speaking, I can't get excited about a game that has been in development for 12 years. I can however get excited about idea of playing Pokemon Gold and Silver again after 8 years.

On the non-video game news front, Amazon unveiled the Kindle DX e-reader, the anime industry is going through a sharp contraction, and Dom DeLuise passed away at the age of 75 last Monday. The Kindle DX sounds nicer than the original Kindle, if you're into reading e-books on the go. But the price tag of nearly $500 could be deal breaker for many people. The reasons given for declining anime DVD sales aren't surprising, although it is nice to see the industry take a reasonable approach with consumers. And as a fan of domestic animation I'm going to miss Dom DeLuise. I'll always remember him in the role of Itchy in the All Dogs Go To Heaven movies.

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A Massively Square Post

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