#18 It will be my final fantasy

Full disclosure up front. Having never owned a Sony console before the PS3, I have not played a Final Fantasy title before but with Final Fantasy XIII finally being released after something like 5 years in development, I felt a curiosity, almost a duty, to give the game a go.

Now I was originally going to play it on the Xbox 360, but with a slightly iffy port resulting in badly compressed cut-scenes and drops in resolution and graphical fidelity, as outlined in this in-depth article over at Eurogamer, meant that I would opt to go for the superior PS3 version instead - it's great that I at least have a choice. From what I understand there are no problems with the gameplay in the 360 version, so if that's your only console that by all means, knock yourself out.

I should also note that I have not really played any JRPGs - it's something I would like to try more but some of the quirks of Japanese games I find a little hard to swallow. Final Fantasy XIII is no different in that respect, continuing Japan's seeming obsession with young girls. I couldn't help but feel uneasy watching a 10 minute cut scene where this young girl accepted this man's marriage proposal - it just didn't sit right.

Leaving this baggage at the door and I'm feeling grateful that this is a rental for me. I am a couple of hours into the game and it's all terribly linear. Currently, the game consists of loading a level which amounts to the perfectly straight corridor where I run from one end to the other and fight enemies that are littered on the way. Eventually I hit point where a (sometimes quite long) cut-scene will trigger, and the whole process will repeat again.
One definite plus for the game is that it sure is pur-dy. Character models are well detailed, animations are good and environments are stunning, if somewhat limited in scale. The cut scenes are incredibly detailed and you'll need to get used to them, they are many and often quite long. Watching them reminds me that I really need to go back to Metal Gear Solid 4 and get through it.

Final Fantasy XIII is still trickling out the combat mechanics - I am reaching the point where combat is asking a little more of me than hitting the "X" button ad nauseam until the fight is over. The mechanic works with time slots, each attack takes up a number of slots and these can be queued up and then executed generally when your time gauge is full. Generally there are 2 or more in your party at any one time but you can only control the leader in combat. The other members are AI controlled and generally do their own thing - this works fine but having recently played the magnificent Mass Effect 2 it feels odd to relinquish control.

Another issue I take with the game is the storytelling. I was left scratching my head going "wha?" a lot for the first hour. Explaining the majority of the backstory through walls of text buried deep within menus is not the way to do it - hell, it wouldn't be half as bad if I could have my Mass Effect 2 narrator back. Having read through this text and further expository cut-scenes, the story is starting to make more sense - although the world "cocoon" where these people live on inside of its shell and there being the world of "Pulse" outside of cocoon, which is presumably larger? I'm probably better off not understanding.

In fact Brad Shoemaker summed it up well on the latest Giant Bombcast (an awesome gaming podcast - very funny) and I completely agree with his remarks on how the linear the game is and holding back the more open world part of the game till the end - the game is not doing itself any favours saving the "good" content for the last 10%.

I was initially looking forward to going through the whole 40+ hour adventure, but there is so far nothing to grab me, the characters are mostly annoying with their all their gasps and grunts and I'm finding myself pretty bored mashing the one button to get through combat - time to send back the rental. I think I really have been spoiled by the aforementioned Mass Effect 2 - why am I not writing a review for that?