Editor's note: William must really be excited. Final Fantasy 13 just came out in Japan, and he's already got a first-hour report for us. Don't worry...it's spoiler-free. But it gives you a good idea of what you can expect from the March 9, 2010 US release. -Shoe
The second biggest game this year in Japan is finally out. Everyone raced home to play Final Fantasy 13, even if they didn't understand Japanese. Note: I do not understand Japanese.
I will, however, attempt to explain what is going on in this game. It begins with a fast-moving CG sequence of some passengers who are not really passengers trying to hijack a train, attempting to escape into the city.
The game has a good amount of humor to keep it from being too melodramatic.
The cutscene is very fast-paced and introduces us to our first two characters: Lightning (the female protagonist seen in past games with weak powers of flight and strong fighting styles) and Sazh (a comical African-American with a Chocobo in his afro).
These two crash the train and escape it, only to face a large machine, which will be your first battle. Now, I only played the 2D SNES Final Fantasy games and Final Fantasy 7 -- that's it. I did not play the later installments because, frankly, I did not care. The battle system in this game has some similarities to ones in past games I've played, yet it feels very different.Â
Our protagonist seems to have a backstory haunting her.
The best way to describe it is a mix of the traditional FF battle system with the feel and visual formation of Chrono Trigger. The characters place themselves automatically along the combat screen; their positions can affect the timing and strategy of your attacks.
When a character attacks, instead of a single figure appearing on your opponent showing how much you've damaged him, a ton of little numbers jump out, depending on your style of attack. To me it was confusing because it wasn't immediately clear how much total damage I did (I am not very good at adding all those numbers together in less than one second).
The graphics in this game are sharp and very impressive.
The battles look fantastic. Visually, everything is incredibly detailed -- the menus show different images depending on which character you are modifying, and even the save states look different depending when you save. They really show off what the PS3 and Blu-ray discs can do for creating 2D imagery.
Our characters run thru a linear path during this part of the story, fighting enemies as they appear. When they get to a certain section, a cutscene appears, giving us a cliffhanger for these two heroes. The game then introduces us to a blonde man who was leading the attack. We eventually meet the other characters as well, including two kids in the middle of the battlefield. They all eventually united.
This game introduces a ton of characters in a very short time -- most of them playable.
The music is also incredible, with every note matching each scene perfectly. Impressive considering this is the first Final Fantasy whose soundtrack Nobuo Uematsu didn't compose -- the man who almost single-handedly orchestrated the entire series.
The beginning of this game contains a lot of cutscenes -- but not as much as The Crystal Bearers, having a smart amount of gameplay separating story points. The story itself did not entertain me or pull me in as much, however, but that's mostly because it has a lot of dialogue, and the characters are not as immediately appealing as the ones in The Crystal Bearers. Hopefully this will change as FF13 progresses. Otherwise, this is definitely a better game overall.
I have little doubt in my mind that this story will be just as deep, complex, and confusing as other games in the series. But this one will definitely look better telling it.
Whether FF13 will be as good as past Final Fantasies depends on how the game gets later into the story. So far, the opening is not as exciting as Final Fantasy 7's, and the cinematics are not as impressionable, either. But the graphics and music definitely represent well.
Would I recommend importing FF13? Not if you don't know Japanese. It's also important to wait for people to start completing it to see if the whole thing is worth it, since I'm only about one hour in so far, and the game promises up to 60 hours of play. I recommend waiting until Square-Enix localizes it in your country to make a decision -- that way we can all be more prepared to see what we are getting.
