Final Fantasy XIII

13 was always an unlucky number

So I finally finished it, 6 years after I bought it and played most of it. Some may recall when I talked about during that year about how I felt about it and I wasn't that negative against it... and then I stopped playing it for 6 years. So something must have happened, what? Well, the talked about corridor disappeared, opening up the world and allowing side quests together with taking of the roof of the level up system. And the roof forced me grind up to the max each step before a boss and suddenly I'm thrown into this open world where I must grind and grind to max out. Also the side quest monsters were way above my league so grinding was the only option. So no wonder I stopped. I was tired of running back and forth on this damn map accumulating a couple of million crystallise points to level up my characters. Before that I had no problem since even though it didn't allow me to explore it at least gave me story segments in different intervals and the roof on my level up system forced me onward since what was the point of grinding?

The area that broke me, Gran Pulse

Grinding is also some of the most mind numbing exercises I've ever done in a game. But the system should be right up my ally. I've hardly ever using status ailments or buffs if the game doesn't requires it (like Skies of Arcadia) so this automatic version is perfect. As soon as the enemies are "read" the AI instantly knows which are the most effective spells and strategy working for it. As a player all I have to focus on is choosing the appropriate Paradigm for buffing, rebuffing, healing, defending or what type of attacks I should do. But the battles takes forever since the strategy to defeat the enemies are as fast as possible to stagger them which often destroys their shields and makes them vulnerable. And I just mash X until the health goes down when the medic paradigm sets in. I actually can watch my tweeter feed while playing since all I need for the most is pressing X. It's almost as if the game wants to be an action-rpg, but chickens out due to the ATB/turn-based roots of the Final Fantasy-series. So I've changed a bit from my initial reactions to the game, is it due to everyone else saying it's bad or is there something else? So why was I able to overlook the flaws when I began playing? Because the story had some interesting elements to it that sadly didn't fulfil their potential.

Cocoon... was it some sort of moon?

So as far I can remember of the plot (it's been 6 years since I played it last and I quit just before the end, no way am I playing the game from start). The Fal'Cie are entities that gives the world of Cocoon food, light, warmth, protection and what not. They serve the humans on the order of the Maker. In turn the people are more or less apathetic and care free to their surrounding. An interesting start. I think this is supposed to parallel the welfares state problems in that the more welfare the government provides the more apathetic it's citizens get and are more easily manipulated (remember I'm a political scientist so I probably read to much into this). Meanwhile the Fal'Cie are tired and hatch a plan to release themselves from this non-existance. They are gonna kill the humans in order to get the attention of the Maker. Also an interesting story point. It's basically Skynet becoming self-aware. How can you mess something like this up? The background so to speak it interesting, but the foreground, aka the main protagonist, are just boring. All six main protagonists are Le'Cie, branded humans that are given a mission by the Fal'Cie and if they don't fulfil them they are transformed to Cie'th. And if they perform there's so called "Focus" they get crystallised. Not the best incitement to do as the gods tell you really. 4 of them are from Cocoon while the other 2 are humans from Gran Pulse, Cocoons enemy and the planet below Cocoon and they have been crystallised before. Most of these met up when the Sanctum looked down this town where a Le'Cie was spotted and the whole town was scheduled for purging. They join up as Snow and Lightning looks for Serah (Lightnings sister and Snow's girlfriend) near the awakened Pulse Fal'Cie. Sarah get crystallised so Snow and Lightning want to save her. Hope wants to kill Snow due to his mom being killed in their escape from the Purge train. Vanilla and Fang are from Gran Pulse and Sazh... well, he looks for his son? Now, in battle you only have 3 characters... so why couldn't it just been 3 people? I mean, I don't care for anyone of them and I say that since I can't remember much about them. Nothing stand out. Compare that to Grandia which I also took a break from, but I still remembered the characters and what defined them. Here I had to look on summaries to remember what the hell happened.

Why should I care about you?

Really, had they minimised it to 3 characters and giving them clear motivations instead of being puppets led by the puppet master it would have been more interesting. Another problem is that a lot of the story isn't told by the game, but lies in the datalogs you unlock. Why? Show, don't tell, and especially not make me read in a video game in 2010 to explain the story unless I can explore a library within the world itself, you know, in a town maybe. It can flesh out the story, but here it is needed to tell me basic ideas of what the Fal'Cie and so on is. Really, make the main character a Pulse human that have amnesia from waking up and let two supporting characters tell me what the world is about. Even more so, instead of purging people for being in contact with the Le'Cie, purge towns due to a limited amount of resources the Fal'Cie can create, forcing a population control. Let the Fal'Cie be an overprotective dictatorship and that humans must move out of their comfort zone to really achieve greatness. Make them conserve the society. Really, much better settings and for the love of god, let me talk to humans so I can care about their daily life. The only ones talking is the protagonist and antagonist in this game. Why should I care about all the other humans. Are they decent or just pigs? They seem to hate me out of fear, but come on why? They destroy a town, but why should I care? Make me talk to villager and then purge it if you have to. That makes me at least invest a bit more in this world. 

This was... Serah?

You notice that there can have been great improvement to the story. That is the greatest sink of the whole game, I don't connect with the characters or the setting. Here the minimised exploration hurt it even more. On the other hand the game looks absolutely gorgeous for being 6 years old and the music is fine enough. Mind you it isn't Nobuo Uematsu and they seem to have taken away classic tracks like the Final Fantasy intro and the victory fanfare, but it's nice listening to. Although it doesn't stand out. and lastly we have the weapon and armour upgrade system. It's pretty much rigged so you have to have a guide to even understand what you should do. Collecting certain items you can upgrade your equipment, but not in collect certain items to create the next type of weapon, no, you use the items to give it experience points so you level up the equipment. If you max out there is always other items to push it beyond. Problem is that I ended with I think my standard weapons, but over level 50. Are they good? I don't know I don't dare start levelling up another weapon since I first don't have enough material to reach the same level and secondly I don't know if it would be good anyway. Should I have waited until later to start levelling up, but then the question arises... would I have defeated the bosses without an overpowered weapon? I actually found a sword called Lionheart which is a throwback to VIII and as the last weapon in the game (as I understand it) should it not be the best weapon? And if it is how should I know? At the moment I start checking out the two sequels and every one says those are much better. And instant thought is, maybe I should play those. Maybe the time they are on sale, but sadly, this feels like the last Final Fantasy game I will play. XV everyone talks about, but since that is a PS4 it will take a long time before I even try it. On the other hand PS4 is also getting Ni No Kuni 2 and that would actually be fun... I hope.