Final Fantasy XIII - 4: Flying the Unfriendly Skies, Upgrades and Kiosks

Dear Esteemed Readership,

I am aware that at the time of this writing, you somewhat do not exist. This is okay, I'm taking the approach that if I "build it", you will come, and thus I am addressing you anyway. I plan to update this blog at least once a week, on Mondays. I moved once again recently though, so that threw more than a bit of a monkey wrench into my update schedule. That all aside, let's get this show back on the road!

When last I left you, the l'Cie were planning an attempt to rescue Sazh and Vanille, who were being held captive on the Palamecia. The remaining l'Cie were aboard the Lindblum, and planning an attack to rescue their friends. Continuing a self-referential trend in the series, these two ship's names are taken from cities in earlier games.

The ship Lindblum, controlled by the "Calvary" unit of the army. These are the "good guys", a portion of the army that has turned rebel and seeks to overthrow the Fal'Cie. From The Final Fantasy Wiki.

The city of Lindblum, Final Fantasy 9. This city is headed by Cid, and is also an ally of the main characters. From The Final Fantasy Wiki.

The Palamecia in Final Fantasy 13, the flagship of the Sanctum, the "bad guys". I've read that it is a converted Fal'Cie, and as such, the underside of the ship vaguely resembles a face. I'm curious about this, but haven't been able to find any suitable images to see it. From https://www.pinterest.com/pin/363947213608190362/.

Final Fantasy 2's Palamecia castle, in glorious 8-bit. The castle is high in the mountains, and is only accessible through the demon-infested world of Pandemonium. From The Final Fantasy Wiki.

The Palamecia is large, and offers some decent choices as far as paths. The extra options are appreciated, but the combats can certainly get a bit tedious. Well, hell, we already know the game isn't perfect. Much of the "dungeon" takes place outside the ship, with the characters over open air. This overall looks very cool.

Lightning traverses the underside of the Palamecia.

Last post I talked a little bit about Colonel Jihl Nabaat, the PSICOM officer who studied Dajh, then captured Sazh and Vanille. As Lightning and her crew make it further into the heart of the Palamecia, she begins to panic, humorously going through a series of color-coded alerts. By the end, she can hardly remember what each color means, the system is so complex.

I think Jihl is a missed opportunity, her character is a bit of a mad-scientist, and could have been a neat recurring villain in the game, but instead she is quickly snuffed-out without even a battle. The two other similar villains, Cid Raines and Yaag Rosch, I found much less compelling, yet they make many more appearances throughout the game.

"Step up to Purple Alert." "Sir, are you absolutely sure? It does mean changing the bulb."

While Lightning, Snow, Hope and Fang search for the captives, Sazh and Vanille escape. I honestly can't remember how this happens, but for a time you control Sazh and Vanille until they reunite with the full group.

The engine of the Palamecia reminds me of the core of a certain other flying vessel.

Recently I showed the treasure spheres, which act as the treasure chests of Final Fantasy 13. The replacement for shops and inns is an interface set-up, or a kiosk, or... whatever you want to call it. They are interspersed generously throughout the game. Here the player can save their game, access shops, and upgrade their equipment. The justification for the kiosk shopping as opposed to your typical rpg brick-'n-morter shops is that the society of Cocoon does the majority of its shopping online. Sure this is convenient, but having all the same equipment available at every kiosk, and removing the typical rpg towns from the picture really takes a lot away from the atmosphere of the game.

The instant-access, save-'n-shop kiosk.

The upgrading system is complex, although it probably appears more complex than it is, as it boils down to something simple. You get organic components and mechanical components. First you use bio components to build up a bonus, then you use your mechanical parts to take advantage of them. There are a lot of components! Finding out the differences between these components would take a lot of trial and error work, if there even are that many differences. Overall the upgrade system can be kind of fun, but I think it promises a lot more than it delivers.   

Bart is pretty badass. This is the enemy information screen. The ? marks are automatically filled in as you fight. For example, if your character casts "fire", then the slot for fire will fill in with the result, such as weak, resistant, or immune.

Continuing on with the story, once the party reunites, they make their way to the bridge of the Palamecia to confront the human primarch, Galenth Dysley. In an exciting and unexpected development (no sarcasm intended), it turns out Dysley is actually a Fal'Cie, Barthandalus! Instead of Eden giving him orders, as is assumed by the populace, Dysley actually gives the orders to Eden, he is the true mastermind.

The live combat screen with the party fighting Bart.

The battle with Barthandalus was challenging and exciting... except for one little thing... he's got this move called Destrudo. Without any intervention, it will one hit kill your party leader. If I haven't mentioned it already, if your party leader is defeated, you automatically lose. I guess this was some kind of balancing mechanic, but I hate it, because certain attacks will just come down to the luck of the draw as to whether an ally goes down, or instead... you lose. 

If I recall correctly, ol' Bart man is charging Destrudo in this pic.

So, I tried using the Sentinal role to mitigate the damage from the Destrudo attack, because I was thinking within the mechanics as the game presents them. I died many, many, many times. Finally I got sick of it and looked up tips online. It turns out you have to ATTACK while Bart is charging Destrudo, after you do a certain amount of damage he will be stunned, and the final attack will do less damage. I don't particularly like how this is handled, because again, it's trial and error with a mechanic that I don't find intuitive at all. It wouldn't be so aggravating if it weren't for two things: first, if you use the wrong tactic, it's instant death, and second, that he doesn't start using the attack until probably about 5 minutes into the battle. 5 minutes may not seem like much, but it's an eternity when you are doing the same repetitive battle. So, it's trial and error, and you have to slog through defeating his 4 lesser parts before you get to try again. Lame. Once I knew the trick, it was relatively simple to defeat him, but honestly, I don't think anyone likes this type of gameplay.

Before fighting Barthandalus, he lays out the plot for the l'Cie. This is good stuff, it turns your expectations on their head a bit. There is a decent summary at The Final Fantasy Wiki, so I'm just going to reproduce that here: "The other members of the party stage a rescue mission and reunite with Vanille and Sazh before they confront Galenth Dysley, the Sanctum's Primarch. Dysley reveals himself as the Cocoon fal'Cie ruler Barthandelus. He tells them that their Focus is to transform into the beast Ragnarok and slay the sleeping fal'Cie Orphan, who keeps Cocoon afloat above Pulse. Slaying the fal'Cie Orphan will result in the destruction of Cocoon. The party escapes and learns from Cid that the fal'Cie believe that Cocoon's destruction will summon the Maker, the creator of the worlds. The fal'Cie cannot harm Orphan themselves. Vanille and Fang reveal to the party that they were involved in the War of Transgression centuries prior, and that their Focus then had been the same: to transform into Ragnarok and attempt to destroy Orphan."

Uh-Oh! Many people didn't like FF13's story, or found it confusing. I do find it a bit confusing at times, but overall, I like it, it's intriguing stuff.

In summary, it's good to be back! I'm still working out the pace and format for this blog, at the moment I'm leaning towards shorter and more frequent posts. I'm taking some inspiration from Inconsolable Nung, where I enjoy the short witty posts. You can consume a few if you have the time, or just jump in for a quicky. 

Come back soon for the continuation, here at... This Bard's Tales!       

  

Final Fantasy XIII - 3: Eidolons and Brynhildr

Our "heroes", if they can be called that as supposed enemies of Cocoon, struggle to find a purpose, and their sense of selves, in their new l'Cie bodies. Snow is as confident as ever that their focus is to save Cocoon. Lightning and Hope head for the Sanctum to take down the Fal'Cie Eden. Sazh just seems to want to get away, as does Vanille. Fang is a mysterious newcomer, whose sole motivation seems to be to protect Vanille from becoming a Cieth.

Sometime after about 20 total hours, I began to feel like Final Fantasy 13 started to find its groove, and I've warmed up to it a bit. The dungeons have started to open up, allowing for some meaningful path choices, like whether to skip battles or get treasure spheres, etc. This is a LONG time to feel like the game finds itself, of course. I think its been made clear by reviewers that the game would have been better off if the early dungeons were less linear, and the combat roles and crystarium opened up sooner.

Speaking of treasure spheres... these are FF13's equivalent of treasure chests.

To summarize, from the point the characters are branded up until it starts to open up a bit, the party splits up, and randomly re-finds each other. It's rather annoying, as you set up your equipment and paradigms, only to have your party switch on you and everything re-set. The game's pattern of path, 2-3 combats, then cut-scene has continued, however, as the dungeons become larger, the interruptions become mercifully less frequent. Also, the cut-scenes are more bearable now that I "know" the characters a little bit more. They're still melodramatic, but after the characters have been developed, this is more acceptable as a viewer. In the beginning of the game, I don't think you really care that much, because you don't know the characters or the background. It's possible to actually connect emotionally later on in the game. 

For example, there is a heartfelt moment with Sazh and his son, Dajh. Dajh has been branded as a Cocoon l'Cie, and it is revealed later on that it was his focus to the find the main characters, as he turns to crystal upon reuniting with Sazh. Sazh finds out that, in a way, Vanille is responsible for Dajh becoming a l'Cie. Sazh almost commits suicide, seeing no course of action, however... his Eidolon intervenes. Which brings me to my next point... Eidolons.

Dajh! Noo!

The summoned monsters in this game are called "Eidolons". They combine aspects of many previous games. When first summoned, the creature fights alongside the summoner, much like FF10. Then, the player may enter "Gestalt mode" wherein the Eidolon... umm... becomes a vehicle and the character rides in it to attack. Yes, this is quite ridiculous, as Shiva turns into a motorcycle, Sazh's Eidolon turns into a car transformer style, etc. The good news is it does create an interesting battle dynamic, wherein summoning allows for a three-tier strike: fighting alongside the summoner, Gestalt attacks, and then finally the summon's signature attack (Zantetsuken for Odin, Diamond Dust for Shiva, etc.). The vehicle thing is somewhat explainable as the Eidolons are supposedly related to the Fal'Cie, and they both seem be whole or in part mechanical... whateva'.

Sazh goes all NASCAR on that ass. Gestalt means something along the lines of being a whole of multiple parts... makes sense here. It was called "Driving Mode" in the Japanese version, so yeah, that would have been pretty lame in English speaking countries. As noted on the Final Fantasy Wiki, the above battle isn't actually possible in the game, as Sazh doesn't get his Eidolon until leaving Nautilus, the location depicted above. Must be a pre-release shot?

The Eidolons are great once you get them, the part that sucks is... getting them. The back-story is that they are a gift to l'Cie who find themselves in doubt or emotionally distrought. The thing is they take a "tough love" approach to motivation, as the first thing they do is attempt to beat their l'Cie to a pulp. The Eidolon battles are different than regular ones, wherein by doing certain actions (such as buffing or defending) you cause a gauge to fill. Once the gauge is full, you may win the battle by pressing a button. These battles are TOUGH though! The Eidolons attack so fast it's like you blink and your dead... I'd had very little trouble in battles until I faced Odin, at which point I think I died some five times? I appreciate challenge, but not when it blindsides you. This was an issue with two other bosses as well, both which had attacks that amount to an almost instant death, but I'll get to that later.

Up to where I am now, I've recieved four of the six Eidolons. I have Shiva, Odin, Brynhildr, and Bahamut. Sazh's Eidolon Brynhildr is the only one that doesn't make an appearance in numerous games, so let's take a look at her.

Brynhildr is a knight of flame. She can fight in heels, making woman around the world extremely jealous.

According to The Final Fantasy Wiki: Brynhildr is a Shieldmaiden and a Valkyrie in Norse mythology. In the Völsunga saga, she was sent by Odin to decide a fight between two kings, but was punished by the god after helping the one he least-favored. He then banished her to the top of mount Hindarfjall in the Alps. She was forced to sleep within a ring of fire until a man rescued and married her.

Brynhildr Eidolon's finishing attack, Múspell Flame, refers to Múspellsheimr. Múspellsheimr is the realm of fire and home to the Fire Giants in Norse mythology.

Let's get back to some story, shall we? Thankfully the whole revenge story arc, with Hope blaming Snow for his mother's death and planning to kill him, has resolved itself. It was super melodramatic, and it just doesn't seem like anyone would act the way Hope does, really. Snow, Lightning, Hope, and Fang all rendezvous at Hope's house in Palumpolum (A reference to two characters in FF4), Snow saves Hope's life, and now everyone is one big happy Pulse l'Cie family, and Hope is far less annoying.

Here's Mopey Hopey in the umm... I'll fill in the location later... with a behemoth in the background.

Sazh and Vanille make their way to Nautilus, a Fal'Cie built theme park. The Final Fantasy series has a history of having an assortment of mini-games, as was shown in FF10 and 10-2. The Nautilus theme park is reminiscent of the Gold Saucer in FF7, and the game finally gets to show it's stuff with an assortment of fun mini-games. Oh wait... no it doesn't! FF13 does no such thing, fully under-delivering in my opinion. It's a theme park... and you can't go on any rides, do any games, or anything of the sort! Way to go Squenix... supposedly a lot of content was cut from this game... "enough to fill an entire other game." Well, they should have left some of it in! There is one mini-game, which involves chasing Sazh's chocobo chick around, it's vaguely pointless, and completely asinine. Nautilus concludes with Sazh reuniting, momentarily, with his son Dajh, as I described above.

Sazh in front of Nautilus's clock tower.

Colonel Jihl Nabaat apprehends Sazh and Vanille in Nautilus, having used Dajh's l'Cie powers to locate them. They are taken aboard the Sanctum's flagship, and an announcement as such is made, hoping to draw the other Pulse l'Cie in. The play works, as the other four l'Cie mount a rescue attempt.

Jihl is one of the more intriguing villains in the game. It doesn't hurt that she's cute too. It's not just about the boobs... I swear.

That's where I'll stop for now, as I think this post is getting long enough. On a side note, I'm no longer going to keep track of my play times, as I don't think it's worth the extra bookkeeping. It probably won't surprise you that part of me doesn't want to know how much time I actually put in to these games either! =)

Hope, Lightning, Snow, and Fang have all come together onboard the combat vessel known as the Lindblum, a vessel held by the Sanctum's Cavalry, who have turned rebel. However, Sazh and Vanille are now in custody. They prepare to mount a rescue effort, but will such a small group be able to succeed in infiltrating the Sanctum flagship the Palamecia? To find out, come back soon... for This Bard's Tales!

     

Final Fantasy XIII - 2: Game Mechanics

Back on Cocoon, our heroes decided to confront the Pulse Fal'Cie, that creature whose presence was responsible for The Purge. Confronting such a powerful being may not have shown great judgment, however, they defeated the massive being, Anima. In it's death throes, it wrapped them in powerful restraints, then branded them... as l'Cie. Conventional wisdom says they are now enemies of Cocoon, destined to seek its destruction. However, the heroes themselves know not what their task is.

Since I mostly covered the characters in my last post, I'll start by summarizing the plot a bit here. Final Fantasy 13 has a pretty deep history and "mythology" as the developers have called it. The people on Cocoon are overseen by massive, powerful beings called Fal'Cie. Many people talking about the game refer to them as gods, but I don't think that is most appropriate, as altough the Fal'Cie are much more powerful than humans, they do not approach the power of gods. There are thousands, possibly millions of Fal'Cie, some of which have such mundane tasks as being a "bulkhead", up to being the source of Cocoon's light (Phoenix), and creating the human's food (Carbuncle).

A bulkhead Fal'Cie, which serves as a massive... bulkhead.

Besides managing the human's lives, the Fal'Cie have an important power, to turn a human into a l'Cie. L'Cie are branded and given a task called a focus. However, this focus is only vaguely given, through a vision as the l'Cie is branded. L'Cie also gain certain powers, such as access to magic. If a l'Cie does not complete it's focus withing a certain amount of time, they become creatures called Cieth. Cieth are creepy beings that are essentially monsters.

This tormented Cieth is choking itself. Perhaps it's into auto-erotic asphyxiation.

Beneath Cocoon is the planet Pulse, which the people of Cocoon live in dire fear of. Pulse also has Fal'Cie, who are able to create their own l'Cie. This is a large part of the premise of FF13, as early in the game the main characters find a Pulse Fal'Cie. The discovery of this Fal'Cie has caused "The Purge". The characters end up meeting at the Pulse Fal'Cie, Anima. They fight and defeat it, however the Fal'Cie brands all of them as l'Cie.

Battling Anima.

The "vestige" which is the huge structure that contains the Fal'Cie falls into Lake Bresha, and in its death throes it turns the lake to crystal, shown in the last post. Beyond that, the characters than try to figure out how to handle their situation, as as far as they have been taught, as Pulse l'Cie, they are enemies of Cocoon.

There are numerous flashback scenes in FF13. This one shows the Pulse Vestige in the distance.

There's a lot of detail and character development that happens after that, but that gets you relatively up to date on the story. On to some game mechanics. Combat is mostly automated, which some people appreciate, but I personally find kind of dull. On the surface it can appear very simple since the player doesn't have to make many selections, but underneath this the mechanics of the combat system are actually very complex. I find that this means there isn't as much opportunity for mastery by the player, and thus find it a little less satisfying than most Final Fantasy combat systems.

The characters have "roles" which are similar to classes or jobs from other systems. The characters don't access these roles until they gain their l'Cie powers, and this is when the combat system starts to flesh itself out. The roles are Commando, Ravager, Sentinel, Medic, Synergist, and Saboteur. These roles encompass the abilities of previous games, but simplified down to their core. Commando's attack, doing the most damage. Ravagers cast magic, but their role in this game is building "chain bonuses". Sentinels are defenders, drawing attacks. Medics are "white mages", or healers. Synergists buff your members, Saboteurs de-buff your foes. Together, these groups of roles are called "Paradigms".

Viewing available paradigms.

Shifting paradigms in battle.

The complexity of the system comes into play when you consider that a key to combat is building "chains". This is an expansion on the system from FF10-2. When you strike an enemy it builds their chain gauge, which is displayed in the upper right corner of the screen above. When it's filled the enemy is "staggered", and takes more damage. Staggering enemies is essential to success in the game. I don't know about you, but even describing this seems unnecessarily complicated and somewhat uninteresting, which makes it no surprise that is how I feel about the system while playing! Am I being too harsh? I'm not sure, the combat system seems to have been relatively well received at large, but I find it of average appeal. I should say it's alright during regular, fast combats, but often when you run into harder foes it becomes a trial and error system which is aggravating, I very much dislike "trial and error" gameplay. The Eidolon battles are the worst, but I'll cover that later.

The gameplay images were getting a bit boring, so here is Vanille in front of a tomato bush. You say tomato, I say... tomato.

Strangely, the game incorporates arcade elements with the combats, giving you a summary of the time it took, and even a score. After reading some statements from the director of the game, I understand they were almost trying to create a new genre, an interactive action third person arcade shooter movie or something... so... I guess this score thing makes more sense. On a side note, I think I had a bit of a revalation while playing that maybe this game really isn't an RPG! I plan to apply CRPG addict's definitions of an RPG and see how well the game does, haha. I digress, but I think this helps to explain the games reception, as it departs a little too much from the assumptions of its franchise.

The after combat summary screen. Higher ratings increase your chances of getting better item drops.

Outside of combat, the big time departures from series conventions continue. There are no "towns" per se, there are very few NPCs you can actually speak with, most talking is displayed automatically as you walk by a character. Shopping is handled "online", at kiosks that also allow saving. The shops are kind of neat and have their own personalities, but I miss the towns. Once an item becomes available you can buy it at any kiosk. I've found the new items are generally things that have already appeared in treasure, so there isn't that motivation to grind for a new item in a shop like is generally present in RPGs.

The main screen for one of the online shops, B&W Outfitters. Although looking in the lower right, it was probably originally "V&W" Outfitters, as B and V use the same character in Japanese. Oversight or deliberate move by the translators? You make the call!

I'm not going to lie, I'm getting bored writing this post. Which makes me ask whether it's just boring to write about, or whether this game is actually... f'in boring! I'm curious what readers think. To tie up the mechanics is the character development which is handled by the "crystarium", because in Final Fantasy, and I think Japanese games in general, every new little development needs a creative new name, and if it has an acronym, even better (see ATB, CTB, RTB, ADB and CSB). The crystarium can be thought of as a simpler version of the sphere grid from FF10. The characters have a few choices of paths, but cannot branch into other character's paths like on the sphere grid. Also, the crystarium is limited by where you are in the storyline, so power-leveling is not possible. Overall, it probably won't surprise you I find the crystarium pretty average, as there is no motivation to grind, and I don't think there are meaningful choices to be made in character development, making the game seem even more like a railroad.  

The crystarium.

That sums up the core of the game mechanics. You may remember I decided to play FF13 after FF10 to see if I have gained some new perspective on it, perhaps being able to forgive it for its linearity. However, there is no doubt I dislike this game even more this time around. FF10 did have very linear dungeons. However, the random encounters actually helped that game out, making the areas seem more full, FF13's dungeons end up being massive empty rooms and tubes. FF10 also had towns and the puzzles of the temples to break up gameplay that might have become monotonous. FF13 breaks up combat with one thing and one thing only... cutscenes... over and over again. Cutscenes used to be a reward in Final Fantasy games, coming rarely and at key climaxes. In FF13 they happen so often you wish you could just play the damn game for once! Granted, you can skip cutscenes, but I don't find that to be a good defense for their overabundance, because you won't know what's happening if you do. That's all I've got for this week. FF13 still has some time to redeem itself, but so far it's not doing too hot.

As l'Cie, the heroes have gained great power, but are now fugitives. To find out how they fare as foes against all they have known and held dear, come back soon... for This Bard's Tales!

Play Time to Post: 6h 43m

Total Play Time: 16h 7m

Final Fantasy XIII - 1: Voodoo Magic

Tonight my friends, I take you again to another world. Here, humanity lives inside a manufactured moon of sorts, called Cocoon. Inside Cocoon, beings of great power called Fal'Cie keep the climate controlled, the sun alight, and the food flowing to keep the human population content and docile. However, if Cocoon is a moon, what is it moon to? That would be Pulse... the planet below. Although few have any first hand knowledge of this place, Pulse is regarded on Cocoon as a dangerous place of fire, death, and despair like "Hell on Earth." It is because of this fear that a recent event has been initiated... called "The Purge" innocents who may have been contaminated by contact with Pulse remnants are gathered to be purged to Pulse. However, are they truly to be sent to the planet below, or is simply an execution? Given the legends, is transfer to Pulse an execution in itself?
 
Last Wednesday I was all geared up to start my play-through of Final Fantasy 13, planning to get back into a modern game. I've moved a couple of times since I last played it though, and couldn't say for sure if I had the disc with me. After looking through my things, I was forced to admit it was probably in storage back at my parent's place. After this small disappointment, I decided I would be willing to purchase an additional copy if it was less than say... $20. Unfortunately, unlike it's sequels FF13 is not available online for download on the Playstation network, so I could not satisfy my jones immediately. A quick look online showed FF13 available pre-owned for $9.99 at my local Gamestop. Cool, no problem. While at the ol' brick and mortar store, I also picked up copies of Dark Souls 2 and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, both games I plan to play but as yet did not have a copy of.

Dark Souls 2, mm-mmm, that's good stuff.

So I was all set! It just so happened that I woke up very early and couldn't get back to sleep one night soon after my purchase. I slid in my new disc... only to find it didn't read! What? Thwarted for a second time? To help me work through my pain, I played Dark Souls 2 for a couple hours, which thankfully works, and has so far been as great as its predecessor. Afterwards, I figured I'd pop in FF13 again and see if it might work. It did. Not only did it work... but the same thing has proved consistent. Turn on the PS3, FF13 doesn't read, play Dark Souls 2, then it does. I can only conclude that there is a voodoo spell upon my disc, and Dark Souls is the counter-spell. Or, more likely, the caster of the spell requires that I play a quality game before it will let me step into the more suspect FF13.

There is a high possibility this is the spell caster who enchanted my disc.

Enough shenanigans... on to the... good stuff?

Final Fantasy 13 puts the player pretty much directly into the action, starting with a combination of cinematics and battles. Overall, the first 6 or so hours of the game have seemed like a combination of a game play tutorial and a movie. The cinematic sequences have served to introduce the characters and set the story in motion. A slew of terms are used such as Fal'Cie, l'Cie, PSICOM etc. without much explanation. There is a database, that is automatically filled in as the player progresses, that explains these terms and some background on the world. It's sort of strange that the game lets so much of the dialogue go by without explanation, when it is insistent on hand holding the player through anything related to the battle system.

Snow on the exploration map, with enemies ahead.

I remember liking FF13 the first time I played until I got near the end really, so I'm going try to remain as objective as possible as I play through it. It's easy to be negative about the game, as it definitely gives me a general feeling of smoke and mirrors, and that in the end it won't deliver, as well... since I had this experience already.

Vanille and Hope.

The player is introduced to the combat system early, however, at a very minimal level originally. The game features an "Auto-battle" button, where the AI decides what your character will do. So, conceivably you can play the early battles simply by hitting the X button every 10 seconds or so. The game does make you mix it up a bit by using a potion when your hit points get low. Since the early game, in my opinion, is more about the introduction of the characters and story, I'll save the details of combat until the next post.

The main characters, the playable ones, are:

Lightning: who is the somewhat nominal main character, as the third game in the series is named after her... but not really. She is a hardened soldier. She's a little hard to find believable, because who the f' would leave a child alone in the wilderness? (That child is Hope... wait... maybe that would be understandable)

Lightning, with Sazh talking in the background.

Sazh Katzroy: The most likable and relatable character in my opinion... and honestly the only one I really like. He's an African American (or not... because this isn't America is it?) with a huge 'fro, which is ripe for stereotyping, but I really like how Sazh avoids the possible pitfall here, and is the "average joe" or "straight man" amongst the team. I like him the most, because I think he reacts the most realistically to the events of the storyline.

Sazh in front of a crashed... something or other.

Snow Villiers: Snow is a "hero", you know this, because he and his buds talk about it non-stop for the first hour of the game. He is a super positive dude, somewhat annoyingly so, he's prone to somewhat big swings of emotion. Really... he's just kind of immature, a bit of a "bro" if you will, but at least he means well. He reminds me of this Onion article about Wes Welker.

Vanille: She fits into the high-pitched voice, cheery, stereotype of many japanese female characters. However, she bucks that at points. Though not as good as Sazh, Vanille is surprisingly one of the more sane and likable characters if you can get past the cutesie-ness.

Hope Estheim: Here we go again... another whiz kid. He's different because he is not confident, unlike FF10-2's Shinra and FF5's Kryle. However, he's annoyingly under-confident. Hope? "Hope-less" would be a more fitting name, but perhaps they were going for irony with this one.

There is also "Fang" however, she makes scant appearances in the first 10 hours of the game and is not yet playable, so I'll save her.

Here's some combat for ya.

I'm not going to go into too much detail here about the story, it is definitely interesting, however, so far I've found the dialogue to be atrocious. The characters are overly emotional. To quote one reviewer there is "more cheese than a dairy farm." The reviewer went on to say that it won't be anything Final Fantasy players aren't used to though. I disagree. Granted, we are watching fantasy people go through traumatic situations and it's hard to say how someone might really react... the problem here is the characters are hard to relate to, not particularly likable, and worst of all... don't use much logic. The interactions involve a lot of huffin' and puffin' (the grunts and groans are noticeably annoying in the cut scenes), emotional arguments (sans logic), and lightning punching snow in the face. Case and point, Hope's weeny-whiny self witnesses his mother die after volunteering to help Snow fight. He blames Snow, saying he tricked her (or something like that...) then decides to take revenge by killing him. This sort of fuzzy logic might be a realistic reaction, I don't know, but it happens awkwardly, and quite frankly makes Hope extremely unlikable. I mean, the game makes me play as these assholes!

Lightning looks towards the "Pulse vestige" where they just defeated a powerful foe.

You might be saying at this point "Hey Bard, but isn't there anything good about this game?" Well, It's best feature is easy to call... the game is freakin' beautiful! Even having come out some 4 years ago or so, I'm not sure anything quite as pretty has come out since. However, this obviously came at a cost, as the characters are heavily railroaded through the game's paths. In the end, there is tons upon tons of eye candy, but you can barely interact with any of it.

Here are waves which have been turned to crystal by the death of the Fal'Cie.

Lake Bresha, which is depicted in the nearby screenshots is a lake which has been turned into massive crystal waves... it's quite impressive.

I captured this rare moment wherein a branching path was available, leading to treasure!

To summarize, as I finish this post I'm a little over 10 hours into the game, and it overall feels like a gameplay tutorial intermixed with a movie, that may or may not be related. The combat is entertaining sometimes, but so far... FF13 would have been better off a movie. Oh yeah, although the soundtrack got mixed reviews, I'm a fan of it. So far we have brilliant visuals, a solid soundtrack, and a decent story. Hmm... this is a game, right?

The Purge was indeed a cover for execution... the Sanctum, rulers of Cocoon, decided it was better to make those people disappear than to leave them to the vagaries of a future on Pulse, where they still might cause trouble. What does this mean for Cocoon, and our heroes? To find out, come back soon... for This Bard's Tales!

Play Time to Post: 10h 50m             

Forgotten World - 6: Fighting Under the Influence

August was tucked behind a large ceder tree in the groves of Bastille. He was surrounded by the high-pitched yipping sounds of a swarm of kobolds. Feeling strangely over confident, he decided he needed a drink, reaching down to the flask of Bastille's famous ale at his belt. He wet his lips with the brew, then decided to go bottoms up, downing it all. "Ohsshat... that hitz me a lot faster... den I expacted," he slurred, stumbling out from his hiding place, to see an army of 100 kobolds! Unbeknownst to him at the time, only about 8 of them were real...

Now that I'm playing a single class ranger, I'm almost embarrassed how much easier the game is with a better class choice. It's by no means easy, but as far as I can remember my new character is handling things a lot better than my original one did.  I'm feeling the lack of instant stun spells like sleep and stinking cloud, but this is mitigated by my much improved melee abilities and greater hit points.

Last post I mentioned that I had encountered another player in the game and chatted with them for the first time. In a fortuitous happening, I played again the next night... and once again encountered another player! What are the chances?

Encountering another player on the 3D navigation map.

With my new character, I'm essentially looking for good places to "grind" to get back to the point where I can explore the areas I was in with my previous character. I've found the giant spiders to be one of the best opponents, as they are relatively easy (if they have poison in this game, it is very weak), and yield about 400xp. However, grinding can be a bit difficult because I'm not sure I have a hang on how the encounters re-spawn. I'm fairly sure the encounters are divided by day and night, just like they are in FRUA: Neverwinter Nights. Here's what I think happens in Forgotten World: You reset encounters by stepping on their square in the opposite part of the day. So, if you step on a night encounter square during the day, you will be able to fight that encounter again when night comes back around. I'm not 100% sure about this though, I haven't fully tested this theory.

Spider, he is our hero.

To follow up on my last post, remember I had equipped an ale? I was quite curious if I could use the ale for something. I quickly found I couldn't throw it, so I decided to "use" it, which alerted me I had drank one. Something quite peculiar happened then... the screen didn't refresh itself, and suddenly myself and my enemies where wandering around my inventory screen. This is most likely a bug, of course, but it was an inadvertently appropriate result for chugging ale!

August tips back one too many cold ones...

To summarize something else I've been holding onto, I think it's a nice touch how the game's skyline has a transitional period during sunrise and sunset instead of suddenly switching from day to night. Here are some screenshots to demonstrate.

A sunny day over the groves.

 

The last vestiges of sunlight over the groves.

The twinkling firmament over the groves.

I've laid down a lot of text in the last few days, so I'm going to call this post good here. Looking at my notes, I have just reached level 5, and hope I can now take down the minotaur in Southshire to get his magical battle axe. After I have a magical weapon, I'll move on to new areas.

Confident in his latest training, and having learned a valuable lesson about consuming alchohol during combat, August hoisted his long sword and shield, preparing to face the infamous minotaur of Southshire. To find out how he fares, come back again soon... to This Bard's Tales!

Play Time to Post: 7h 20m

Total Play Time: 34h 25m

Community Building and Gil

Trickster over at The Adventure Gamer has a neat system to reward those who frequent his site with Companion Assist Points or "CAPs". I've been contemplating doing something similar myself to encourage participation here at This Bard's Tales.

(Updated 12/3/2015)

Here we'll be using "Gil", the ubiquitous currency of the Final Fantasy games. To start out, a community member (this is anyone who wants to participate... you don't need to be a registered member) may spend 50Gil to add any game to my playlist. A member may also spend 200Gil to move any game on my playlist up the list so that I will play it next (This is, of course, contingent on me being to able to procure a playable copy). So, for a total of 250Gil a member may both add a game and make me play it next all in one fell swoop.

Apparently you can actually see Gil coins in Final Fantasy 10, although I have little idea where. (Update: It's probably during "Gil Toss", didn't think about that)

So how do I earn Gil you say? Good question. Here's where we will start:

Any member will receive 5Gil for their first comment.

Any member will receive 1Gil for each comment they, thoughtfully, post. (In other words, legit comments will earn Gil, no shameful Gil grabs by just posting nonsense.)

In posts I occasionally put in cultural references and homages, if you're the first to notice any particular one, you get 5Gil!

As a note to myself, I'm awarding myself Gil at the rate of 2 Gil per post, and 5 Gil per rankings post. I haven't posted my play order yet, but I will sometime. I already plan to use my first 200 on Planescape: Torment!

There will be a leader board ranked by total Gil earned that will show also remaining Gil to spent seperately, muchs Trickster has with the CAPs.

So that's where we'll start, and I hope this jump starts the "community" a bit from This Bard's Tales.

Thank you, your humble entertainer,

~~This Bard

Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2: Summary and Rankings

Since it would be somewhat foolish to rank Final Fantasy X against itself, I have decided to do my first rankings post as a combination of both games. First though, the summaries.

An ad for the HD remaster limited edition. I think I got this... but the packaging was white instead of black, it doesn't look quite as cool.

Final Fantasy X/ HD Remaster
2001/ 2014

Developer and Publisher: Squaresoft/ Square Enix 
Exec. Producer: Hironobu Sakaguchi (The creator of the Final Fantasy series)
Director: Yoshinori Kitase

I honestly don't want to list all of the staff involved... it's on wikipedia. However, I do plan to reference names in future games that relate to old games. I believe most of the staff was the same for Final Fantasy X and X-2, which makes sense, doesn't it?

The biggest shake-up staff-wise is that this is the first main series Final Fantasy game where the music was not entirely composed by Nobuo Uematsu. I'm quite curious how much music was written by him for the game. My gut tells me not much, as it lacks his style to my ear.

X is the first Final Fantasy game for the PS2, and as was the case with the first PS game, some major changes were made. In the case of FF7 for the PS, it was moving from 2D sprites to 3D polygons. In the case of FF10, it was the addition of voice acting and the loss of the traditional "overland map" of the previous games. Despite some apprehension by fans over the addition of voice acting, the game was well received.

BAM! Summary... I may add more to this later, I don't know.

Hey look! Here is the cover I have.

Final Fantasy X-2/ HD Remaster

2003/ 2014

Developer: Square

Publisher: Square Enix (I believe the original game was released after Square merged with its rival Enix, the publishers of the Dragon Quest [Dragon Warrior in the US] games.)

Exec. Producer: Hironobu Sakaguch
Director: Motomu Toriyama
Producer: Yoshinori Kitase

As I probably mentioned earlier, making this game was a massive departure for the series, as until this point Final Fantasy had had no direct sequels using the same characters and world as a previous installment. It turned out to be a shrewd move though, I assume as a way to counteract the rising costs and lengthening development times as games became more complex. Basically, by re-using the world, characters, and art, this game could be completed much faster than a full new installment in the series. I'm sure fans were skeptical as this turned the previous design philosophy on its head, but once again, even despite a huge change in tone for the series, the game was generally well received.

The biggest staff shake-up is again in the music department. This time series vet Nobuo Uematsu is entirely absent,  "replaced by Noriko Matsueda and Takahito Eguchi of The Bouncer fame" (From Wikipedia). The Bouncer being another Square title for the PS2.

I read somewhere that one of the design goals of 10-2 was to have enough content that it could be the last game you'd ever need to buy. Which is funny, because that doesn't seem good for business, but it is an admirable goal, none-the-less. However, as you might expect, jamming so much content (including tons of mini-games) into a title means the quality of these little features ranges from great to down right awful. In the end, I think they would have been better off leaving the worst stuff out, as the core of the game is good.

Okay, on to the good stuff! The rankings...

Mechanics - Honestly, both games are solid here, but I prefer turn-based combat so much more that 10 easily has the edge.

1. Final Fantasy 10

2. Final Fantasy 10-2

Storyline - 10-2's story of Shuyin and the tragedy of his love is decent, but can't hold a candle to 10's with its epic tale of a religion gone horribly wrong over 1,000 years.

1. Final Fantasy 10

2. Final Fantasy 10-2

Atmosphere - Let's see, both game's take place in a world with a rich and mysterious history, but 10 reveals it, while 10-2 turns it into a Charlie's Angels, J-pop, magical girl power fest. I think you can see where this is going.

1. Final Fantasy 10

2. Final Fantasy 10-2

End Game - I mentioned in my posts that both times I've played through 10 it let me down at the final boss, and the whole auto-life thing in the battle with Yu Yevon is just a fiasco in my opinion. 10-2 Has some nice battles with Vegnagun leading up to a refreshing battle with a sword-wielding Shuyin.

1. Final Fantasy 10-2

2. Final Fantasy 10

This dude means business!

Difficulty - More options means more complexity, which can lead to higher difficulty. Mix in some non-linearity and you've got 10-2. I appreciated the "job" system for sure, but the openendedness did lead to some frustrations as I encountered foes that whooped my ass without notice, or mercy.

1. Final Fantasy 10-2

2. Final Fantasy 10

Balance - Not surprisingly since I gave 10-2 the nod for being more difficult, 10 is on top here. I found the game to be quite pleasant in it's level of difficulty. It was just challenging enough to be rewarding, the way I like it.

1. Final Fantasy 10

2. Final Fantasy 10-2

Music - I listened to both soundtracks while writing and preparing these last two posts. 10's is a good, fitting mix, however, 10-2 has a lot of groove, style, and is more cohesive, and that puts it on top.

1. Final Fantasy 10-2

2. Final Fantasy 10

Art - Both games unsurprisingly have a similar look, as they were developed close to eachother at the same company. However, due to 10-2's whimsical visuals and ubiquitous fashion faux-pas exposed underwear, I have to give the nod to 10.

1. Final Fantasy 10

2. Final Fantasy 10-2

Let me see that tho-o-ong! Actually... I'd really rather not.

Best Villain - Final Fantasy 10's representive to me is definitely Yunalesca, it blew my mind a bit having the ultimate icon of good and righteousness end up being an adversary and being killed by the party! 10-2 has much less in the way of exciting villains, so Shuyin gets the nod somewhat by default. (Leblanc anyone? I don't think so...) Yunalesca is a much more interesting foe.

1. Yunalesca (FF10)

2. Shuyin (FF10-2)

Part of the fight with Yunalesca.

Worst Villain - Yu Yevon will work for 10. He has a very interesting back story and is the source of Sin, but turning out to be a tiny floating bug thing was pretty anti-climactic. Leblanc fits for 10-2. I don't think her over-the-top character is out of place for the tone of the game, but she's just... a little much. I'm putting Yu Yevon on top because I can't overstate how disappointed I was with that battle!

1. Yu Yevon (FF10)

2. Leblanc (FF10-2)

The in game Yu Yevon only looks marginally more fearsome than this.

Best Ally - 10: Auron, he's a super-badass, but not afraid to be vulnerable at times. : ) 10-2: This is tougher... Gippal is kinda cool, but even though she probably annoyed some people, I found Rikku pretty entertaining, and her voice acting was done quite well.

1. Auron (FF10)

2. Rikku (FF10-2)

Worst Ally - 10-2 is Shinra, he's kind of funny occasionally, but I think I have a thing against know-it-all arrogant kids... no, wait... on second thought it's Beclam, he's just such an asshole. 10 is harder... I can't think of a "Beclam" off the top of my head. Nevermind, I've got it, Dona... why didn't I think of that earlier? I think Dona's bitchiness outperforms Beclam's assholeness, so Dona get's the nod.
1. Dona (FF10)
2. Beclam (FF10-2)

Best Enemy - I'm going to go with Yojimbo for 10. Granted he has the advantage of also being designed as an Aeon, but his intro and attacks are just too cool. For 10-2 I was going to go with jumbo cactuar, but he lost out due to not having the awesome mustache I identify with big cactuars (ala FF8). So, I give it to Angra Mainyu for being an interesting boss that can be fought at different times in the game, with varying abilities and a hp total that is affected by multiple battles. Mostly it's just for looking cool though, really. Yojimbo wins.
1. Yojimbo (FF10)
2. Angra Mainyu (FF10-2)

Yojimbo... not to be confused with Usagi or Kurosawa.

 
Worst Enemy - Thankfully neither of these games had an enemy that I dreaded fighting every time it popped on the screen. In earlier play throughs of 10 I remember finding certain enemies, like the mimics, very annoying because they had armor and so many hit points. This time around I had Auron's Masamune before fighting them, which has piercing and break damage limit, so I didn't find them to be nearly as annoying. Therefore, I'm going with the guado, who in the middle of the game have that annoying auto-potion ability, and cause an inordinate amount of trouble in the storyline! 

10-2 had some somewhat obnoxious foes, but generally speaking I came up with reasonable strategies after a couple of battles. I'm going with the claret dragon for having the gall to show up and absorb all elements when I had two characters with the tetra-elemental ability! Meaning I couldn't attack without healing it, for the most part. Besides this absorption, its no pushover either.

The claret dragon is much tougher, but the guado are much more annoying, which is the important part of this category!
1. Guado (FF10)
2. Claret Dragon (FF10-2) 

The dragon has to be named after Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett. Am I right or am I right?

Before I rank mini-games and side quests, a quick note. I thought it might not be fair to rate these categories until I had completed a game 100%, but I've come up with a compromise. I'll simply come back and edit the ranking if I discover something that warrants a change in the future, otherwise I'm ranking the game on what I've experienced so far.

Best Mini-Game - Blitzball is a no-brainer for 10, the mini-game isn't quite deep enough to stand on it's own, but to be honest, it's close. I've happily sunk 10s of hours in on blitzball alone. 10-2 has a glut of mini-games and side quests. I think my favorite is a rather simple one though, leading the people out of the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth, and having to figure out how to manage their "eccentricities." Blitzball, with its breadth and depth, takes this category.
1. Blitzball (FF10)
2. Cavern of the Stolen Fayth (FF10-2)

Worst Mini-Game - These categories are unfortunately easier to pick than one would hope. 10 is a close race between the sanity destroying chocobo trainer and the lightning dodging. Seriously, f' these "mini-games", the're more like exercises in masochism. Lightning dodging takes the cake because while it's probably equally frustrating, it takes longer and is more tedious.
FF10-2 has plenty of crappy mini-games, but I have to give the nod to Spherebreak because it seems like it's supposed to be the next big thing, like Blitzball, but it plays like mediocre educational software.
Lightning dodging wins because... well hell, I wouldn't be surprised if it stays on top forever.
1. Lightning Dodging (FF10)
2. Spherebreak (FF10-2)

Side Quests - Both of these games have good extra content. I'll give 10-2 the nod because it has SOOO much going on. You could play this game a long time and still find new stuff, if you so desired.
1. FF10-2
2. FF10

Overall - And here it is, the grand-daddy of all categories. As I've said, both of these games are great, but it probably won't surprise anyone that FF10 is on top. The mechanics, story, and atmosphere are all vastly superior in FF10, making it the clear winner here.
1. FF10
2. FF10-2

Congratulations, Final Fantasy X... a winner is you!

First ranking done! Phew, that was a lot more work than I anticipated actually, but granted I was coming up with rankings for two games at once, so not a problem. Hopefully, you, dear reader, find it as interesting and entertaining to read as it was to write! Stay tuned for more... here at This Bard's Tales.