Post by Dachartach on Mar 22, 2010 9:57:47 GMT -5
Should you or shouldn't you? The short answer is, as in many cases, yes. Yes what, you might ask? And you would be right in doing so.
Okay, bad news first:
it is very linear. As in, you spend most of the game, at least up the 20 hour mark or so, walking down hallways. You're given a pointless minimap that has your objective marked, but it's fairly simple- you just keep walking forward, literally. There may be some random items on small side trips, but they're not terribly useful so far, and they don't require you to go much out of your way. Advancement is also just as linear; you get crystogen points to buy active and passive abilities, and you can focus on which role to spend them in, but other than that it's fairly linear here too.
Second, the combat is not so intuitive at first. If you're one of the few people who bought and played The Last Remnant, the system of directing character actions rather than performing them shouldn't be too much of a stretch. Not many people have played that one though, so it may take a bit to pass the learning curve for combat.
And third, the voice acting. Almost all the characters are given decent portrayals. ALMOST. Venille is the exception so far, annoying high-pitched squeals piercing my eardrums constantly, and her Australian accent keeps fading in and out. I never played FF10 or 12, so playing a Square/Enix game and wanting one of the main characters to die horribly in a fire is a new experience for me.
Fourth is that you can't choose your party makeup for a while, which means I'm stuck with Venille when the game says I am.
Ok, on to the good stuff:
The story is awesome, character-driven and powerful. We're thrown into the middle of the story, but we get to learn more about the characters, getting to know them in a sense. Unfortunately, that hasn't helped me tolerate Venille; she's obviously a Japanese cutesy/sexy lolicon character, she even resembles several members of Morning Musume. Sazh I get, despite the mushroom afro with a BIRD NESTING IN IT; he got the thing for his son, that's pretty cool, daddy-o.
It is of course stunningly beautiful, in and outside of cutscenes. The characters are fairly realistic, but not so far as to venture in to the Bukimi no Tani (Uncanny Valley). I recognize many of the actors from recent work in various anime, so they're taking their work seriously, always a good thing.
Iffy things abound; I would really like a final fantasy game set in a more traditional Fantasy style world, rather than all of this psuedo-science fiction mishmash. The aforementioned combat can be tricky to figure out. Each character can eventually learn all roles and powers, so the only reason to change them out is for story reasons.The stars and score rewards after each battle are misleading-they don't really do much of anything, except determine how many tactical or gestalt points you can get.
I haven't finished it yet, and am only about 20 hours in; but the story's momentum has really picked up for me now, and I'm actually enjoying it and looking forward to playing now, before, not so much. Of course, I haven't had a section with Venille for hours now...
Would somebody PLEASE kill him?
Okay, bad news first:
it is very linear. As in, you spend most of the game, at least up the 20 hour mark or so, walking down hallways. You're given a pointless minimap that has your objective marked, but it's fairly simple- you just keep walking forward, literally. There may be some random items on small side trips, but they're not terribly useful so far, and they don't require you to go much out of your way. Advancement is also just as linear; you get crystogen points to buy active and passive abilities, and you can focus on which role to spend them in, but other than that it's fairly linear here too.
Second, the combat is not so intuitive at first. If you're one of the few people who bought and played The Last Remnant, the system of directing character actions rather than performing them shouldn't be too much of a stretch. Not many people have played that one though, so it may take a bit to pass the learning curve for combat.
And third, the voice acting. Almost all the characters are given decent portrayals. ALMOST. Venille is the exception so far, annoying high-pitched squeals piercing my eardrums constantly, and her Australian accent keeps fading in and out. I never played FF10 or 12, so playing a Square/Enix game and wanting one of the main characters to die horribly in a fire is a new experience for me.
Fourth is that you can't choose your party makeup for a while, which means I'm stuck with Venille when the game says I am.
Ok, on to the good stuff:
The story is awesome, character-driven and powerful. We're thrown into the middle of the story, but we get to learn more about the characters, getting to know them in a sense. Unfortunately, that hasn't helped me tolerate Venille; she's obviously a Japanese cutesy/sexy lolicon character, she even resembles several members of Morning Musume. Sazh I get, despite the mushroom afro with a BIRD NESTING IN IT; he got the thing for his son, that's pretty cool, daddy-o.
It is of course stunningly beautiful, in and outside of cutscenes. The characters are fairly realistic, but not so far as to venture in to the Bukimi no Tani (Uncanny Valley). I recognize many of the actors from recent work in various anime, so they're taking their work seriously, always a good thing.
Iffy things abound; I would really like a final fantasy game set in a more traditional Fantasy style world, rather than all of this psuedo-science fiction mishmash. The aforementioned combat can be tricky to figure out. Each character can eventually learn all roles and powers, so the only reason to change them out is for story reasons.The stars and score rewards after each battle are misleading-they don't really do much of anything, except determine how many tactical or gestalt points you can get.
I haven't finished it yet, and am only about 20 hours in; but the story's momentum has really picked up for me now, and I'm actually enjoying it and looking forward to playing now, before, not so much. Of course, I haven't had a section with Venille for hours now...
Would somebody PLEASE kill him?