So... I've always been somewhat curious about Final Fantasy 13. I'd heard bits and pieces about it, even seen a couple of clips. I knew it was fairly divisive and generally poorly received as a Final Fantasy game, but it did have a very sci-fi looking setting that intruiged me from what little I knew. I'd always been tempted to try it out but never quite got the motivation to try.
However, a friend who was playing through several of the FF games hadn't played it either, and had just gotten a copy, so they decided to play through it and stream it for me. So today we were diving into that... and it's certainly left me with some thoughts and feelings, although we're only partway through the game so far.
I'll readily admit -- it'll be a bit awkward to talk about things without spoiling elements of the plot as far as I've seen, so I'll just leave a big old "SPOILER WARNING" here, in case anyone doesn't want spoilers for a 15 year old game.
Anyways... thus far, I can definitely see why it has some flaws. It definitely feels different from most other Final Fantasy games, and I can see why it's generally said to be an okay game on its own, just a poor Final Fantasy game. It certainly feels like it's missing a lot of the elements that are normal for FF games.
I don't really mind the linearity of the game thus far -- it generally flows with the narrative. I suppose it makes it feel less like an exploration game (as most RPGs are) and more of an interactive story/movie, where you're just following along with the plot and doing battles along the way. It's not that much of a deal-breaker for me, particularly since I'm basically just watching along as it is. The fact that the hallways are basically just filled with monsters for you to fight through, and those battles have a tendency to drag on, over and over, is growing a bit tiresome. We've reached the prison ship, so it's probably around the point Act 2 is starting, and this is where it's started to feel noticably tedious. But it is worth noting that it didn't feel nearly so bad up to this point, so it remains to be seen how the pacing of the rest of the game goes.
That all aside... the setting is so far scoring points with me. I definitely have a weakness for shiny sci fi, and this game is probably the most sci fi FF game so far. Other games have had their shiny sci-fi bits -- Esthar in FF8 being particularly notable -- but so far, it's just been the sci fi dystopia and little else. It's definitely been refreshing and intruiging in its own way, and I'm still curious to see how the story will pan out.
The characters have also been... interesting, in their own way. I'll readily admit, off of the start I found most of them rather annoying. Hope was pretty whiny, Lightning really aloof and sullen, Snow too much of a fake bravado sort of "hero" that gets people killed... But as the game progressed a bit, and a few more pieces got revealed, it started to make more sense? Hope is a traumatized kid, who definitely isn't going to process grief well. Lightning I still don't know that much about, while at least we start to get to see how Snow does have his heart in the right place, while being a bit too dumb to figure out good answers.
But when Hope finally gets to confront Snow about the death of his mother, after so many halting and sullen failures? That ultimately hit really hard. The way "lack of communication" gets used as a tool for easy drama has always grated on me, to the point that the fact that Elrond and Durin openly discussed their problems in "Rings of Power" actually felt refreshing to me. X3 We were wondering how long the tension was going to get dragged out, but it did finally reach a boiling point -- and boy did it boil over. Because when Snow finally breaks down and admits that, yes, his bravado is all just a facade, that he's screwing up, getting people killed, and doesn't know how to deal or cope with it, it all feels incredibly raw. And then Hope, still being a traumatized kid struggling to deal with grief, just lashes out in response... well, it feels incredibly authentic.
The two finally do get a chance to finish things up later... and while it doesn't feel as raw as his confession, Snow admitting his decision to "just keep moving forwards" without apologizing was also a way he was just running away from things, trying to find a solution before he had to deal with his feelings of guilt, was also authentic in its own way. And then Hope finally gets to process his own grief, realizing that, yes, none of this will actually solve things. His mother still won't come back, even if Snow takes the blame and suffers from his guilt.
It all just felt... surprisingly emotionally intense. I've been enjoying playing Final Fantasy 14 and having some rather hard hitting moments there, but I do feel that... these scenes felt really well done, to me? Admittedly, I am a big softy that'll get moved by anything, but it still felt refreshingly raw for characters to admit that they are lost and confused in a world where everything seems to be suffering, and they have no clue what to actually do to make things right. How do you deal with it all?
Admittedly, the scope of the story seems to be moving onwards now, as most of the original cast have dealt with their initial issues... so it may be unlikely that we'll see as much soul-searching and raw emotion. But I did find it interesting that it managed to hit so hard, and for that reason probably will always stick in my mind.
That, and the fact that you get to fight a Havoc Skytank! How many FF games have skytanks??
