Catching up on Final Fantasy

At some point during the year, when I was tiring of Zelda and looking for something to play, I decided to finally pick up where I left off on Final Fantasy XII and push forward. I had started this game a few years ago, and was enjoying it fairly well. But right when I got my copy of Dragon Quest V, I started focusing all of my efforts on that game, and didn't let up until I had finished Dragon Quest VIII over a year later. Final Fantasy XII fell by the wayside.

At some point I had picked it back up and played for a little bit, then did so again at some point later. I had considered starting over, since after so much time I didn't have as clear a memory of the story at each break point as I would have liked. But I kept slogging on. When I picked it up at the last, I found I was surprisingly close to the end. After playing for a week or so, I found myself climbing a very high tower that felt a lot like a final or just-before-final dungeon, and the story felt like it was building to a climax. Sure enough, at the completion of the tower, I saved my game, and the next area I went to was the showdown with the game's final boss.

The boss took me several tries to beat. Each time I beat the first and second forms without too much trouble, but the third and final form was quite difficult. I felt like I did a little bit better each time as I learned the boss's attack patterns and prepared my party differently. But with the cutscenes preceding the battle and three boss fights (the boss's first two forms and one other fight previous, it takes nearly an hour to even get to the fight from the last save, so it took me probably nearly a week to fight the boss five times. I think it was the fifth try that I finally beat him on. I didn't end up having to level up past what I had when I first got to the save point, but it was a tough fight at that level and I wouldn't guarantee that a sixth try would also beat him.

The ending was very satisfying to me. I really like the characters in this game and their interactions with one another, and I thought that the ending was very fitting for each of them. I have since learned the ending song and decided that I really like it, as well. I ended up watching a long Youtube video afterward that contained all of the game's cutscenes, to tie up the parts of the story that I couldn't remember clearly. I hadn't forgotten as much as I thought, but a few details that I had forgotten really ended up making the ending chapters of the game more satisfying.

I got my hands on a copy of Final Fantasy XIII, and I have begun playing the game through. My brother, Bryan, has made no secret of the fact that he doesn't like this game, and I get the impression that much of the internet doesn't, either. But then again, I've never found that the internet as a whole has the same opinions of things that I do, so I've gone into it with an open mind.

So far, I think I am enjoying it. I actually think it improves on the thing that I disliked most about Final Fantasy XII, which was the combat. The gambit system on Final Fantasy XII was innovative to be sure, but I found it quite ineffective for fighting difficult battles and spent most of my time pausing battles trying to manually override gambits. Unless you spend a lot of time grinding, it is difficult to come up with a series of gambits that will fit all situations, but it is quite tedious to change the gambits for individual situations. I found the system very frustrating overall.

Final Fantasy XIII also uses an automatic system, and removes manual override for your supporting characters. But instead of setting gambits, it has something like a pre-defined gambit system for each character job role that you choose, which appears to be somewhat more sophisticated. Rather than setting gambits, you set "paradigms" to choose from. The paradigm consists of a set of job roles for each character in your party, and you can change them on the fly during battle with a quick button sequence. I have found it so far to be a much easier system to manage than FFXII's.

I'm not too keen on the notion that if your party leader dies, you automatically lose the fight, but at least they offset that by letting you redo the fight if you lose without reverting to your last save.

One complaint my brother expressed that is valid is that the game's exploration is very linear, perhaps more so than any other RPG I've played.There isn't really much actual exploration, as you're essentially confined to a corridor moving forward with very few short side paths, and the occasional fork that branches right back to the main path after a short distance. It helps keep the story to a more regular pace, maybe, but I think I would prefer actual dungeons or wider areas to explore.

But so far I really like the game's story. It starts at the end of a thirteen-day period, right in the middle of the story, as it seems, and gradually reveals the events of the past thirteen days through character flashbacks. I find it a very engaging way to learn about each of the characters and what brought them together. The dynamic works very well, and I am continually looking forward to the next cutscene or story element.

I also like the character development system so far, which seems to combine elements of the sphere grid from Final Fantasy X (one of my favorite systems) with a Final Fantasy Job System element. It also has an element which limits development for certain sections of the game, without limiting the experience points you gain, so that fighting a lot of battles might give you only so much advantage in the short term, but might help you develop quickly when the restrictions are lifted and your grid levels up. I find that interesting, so far.

Patty took an interest in the game's story shortly after I started, so I'm currently playing it only when she is downstairs and not using the TV. (Meanwhile, when that TV is free and she's not downstairs, I'm picking away at Zelda Wind Waker.)