Why I'm Digging Final Fantasy XIII

RyanDJ

July 28, 2010

t seems there's a lot of grief over Final Fantasy 13 and the things they changed from traditional Final Fantasies.

As a dad/husband, I've got to say that my RPG time has greatly diminished. Wouldn't trade the family for the world, but I do miss my RPGs from time-to-time. I've found that handhelds work wonders, as they're usually tailored to have many, many save points so I can get in a second or two of epic old-school gaming. The streamlining, if you will, allows me to play an epic RPG without the huge time constraint.

I remember playing my first RPG, FF7, and not knowing about saving often. I would die and there went an hour or two. On FF13, there's a continue-right-before-you-die feature! And without the random battles, if I'm in a big battle and need to go, I can literally let my character die if I must, and go back through the now non-populated world (with no random battles) to the last save point! Plus, I love--LOVE--the recap that some are complaining about having to read. For me, it refreshes the story if I haven't had a chance to play for a long time.

As for linearity. . .yes, you don't get to explore. But I was getting a bit tired of missing something epic in most games these days because they decided to take a good two-hour chunk of a game and shove it in some optional dungeon I didn't know about. In Final Fantasy 13, it's all here! I know that I experienced most of the story just playing through it casually. Again, in FF7, there were two additional characters that you could add to your party, but if you didn't know the secrets, you wouldn't even know they were there! I actually started FF12 over again because I heard that a side item you got for beating an enemy, which was supposed to be hard (but I was too leveled up to know) is NECESSARY for an ultimate item. . .and I sold it. If it's NECESSARY, don't let me sell it! Makes me think of the people who had the Lunar demo on PS1 and sold the ocarina or whatever you HAD to have to beat the game because of a forgotten code in the demo!

Controlling only one character: I'm really digging paradigms. Having an AI teammate that can heal me while I continue pounding on an enemy is great and allows additional freedom to organize my strategy. I actually feel more involved in managing the characters than if there was a menu for each character. And I like how you can queue up your attacks while the ATB is filling.

Leveling system: having it broken down into general this-will-help-this-role section is great. Then I know if I need better healing if that's what I need to do.

A lot of people want traditional Final Fantasy games. But they've reinvented themselves so many times through the series. . .if it was the same thing as the last one, it wouldn't be a Final Fantasy. I'm coming back to this one time after time and have had 12 since it came out. . .and have never finished it.

Am I alone? All I see are haters of 13 and I'm enjoying it! Yes, the characters are emo and talk funny, but look at all the others. . .