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New Final Fantasy XIII Details, Website Launched
Square Enix has launched an official website for Final Fantasy XIII. At the moment, it contains screenshots, game music, and brief character bios written in Japanese. Square also launched a site for Final Fantasy Versus XIII, though it doesn't have any content on it yet. A fan site has translated new details about the game from Weekly Famitsu, including information on the battle system. "Players select the 'Action' (the five buttons near the bottom left of the screen) they would like to use, which is then moved to the Command Stock slots (three slots above the Action buttons) to be executed in turn. Some 'Action' buttons seem to have several layers behind them, which means you'll have more than five actions to choose from. Each of the 'Actions' has a number attached to them; this is the 'Cost' or the number of slots that particular 'Action' will take in the Command Stock. For example, you can have three Fire commands in the list since its 'Cost' is only 1, but you can only use Firaga, which costs 3, if you have three empty slots in the Command Stock."
Wow, those main characters in Final Fantasy just keep getting more and more effeminate. =P
You know, I never really did care all that much for the whole JRPG play style, but, damn I love the artwork they put into those games. It's something I have trouble finding in other genres (though I don't game that much so maybe I'm just not looking in the right spots). Most of the other stuff I see tends to go to either Star Trek Wannabe Universe #45342, Medieval European Haunted Castle Town #342847, or Gritty Contemporary City Streets #342721. It's just nice to look at something that's different every now and then.
Although I'm sure people that play tons of these games would be saying the same about any of the styles I think have been done to death.
Meh. Enough rambling.
One character will be excessively whiny and obnoxious (like Tidus whining about getting sucked into a kickass adventure with people like Auron and Wakka, AND getting a girlfriend out of it; or Vaan going from somewhat bearable to not knowing why he's even there and being an obnoxious brat). This one will possibly be blonde, and most likely be the 'main' character.
One character will be hilarious, like Wakka.
One or more inherently cool guys, who do awesome things in cutscenes.
A slew of women that tend to annoy (Yuna wants to die reallyreally bad, Ashe wants power, Penelo is a sidekick to the sidekick).
Main character should have little to nothing to do with the other people. Either fell outta the sky, or is not a leader/soldier but gets dragged in anyway. I know that earlier Final Fantasy (AKA before 10) games don't follow this, but since they've released a few games following this pattern, I'm thinking that'll be this.
Even so, I'm sure it'll be a cinematic masterpiece. The story is always awesome, and the graphics are always spectacular. The battles are fun, if not repetitive, and the game will probably have a toooon of little goodies to go get.
I'm really looking forward to this game, but I'm not looking forward to buying a Playstation 3 in order to play it. Given their recent history of releasing games only for the Playstation or handhelds, I doubt we'll ever see this come to the PC. I've been a fan of the Final Fantasy series since the beginning. I'm a happy owner of Final Fantasy VII and VIII for the PC and I've played them both several times. I was never interested in getting a Playstation when it came out. After Super Nintendo, I got a computer and never looked back. Final Fantasy IX certainly tempted me into getting the original PS, but I waited. After X and X-2 came out, it was clear the only way I was going to play these games was either by getting a Playstation 2, or waiting for an emulator. As it turns out, I bought a slimline PS2 a few months after they had hit the shelves. Until this day, the Final Fantasy games and Dragon Quest games are still the ONLY games I own for the PS2. I've even played all the Japanese Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games for Famicom and Super Famicom, which could be done on the US consoles with just a cheap adapter :)
am i missing something, here? if it's the "final" fantasy, how come there's eight of them?
It's the less slick one, albeit still slick, with more of that white stuff than ever! Get their album now and listen to their latest hit: "Snow Snow Baby"! Give it up for Vanille Snow!
Use a USB keyboard next time.
Seriously?
Or a WoW server with an enforced age requirement? I stopped playing WoW because of the other players, not because of the game... I wish Blizzard would release a home server already.
Even if they just change the goddamn story from "evil guy (and it's always a guy) from evil entity X wants more power to take over the known world"
The 'guy' in Final Fantasy VIII was a girl from the far flung future who was trying to compress all points in time into a single moment so she could be with her boyfriend.
You might want to, you know, actually play some of these games before you make massive generalizations about them.
It isn't always a guy. Take a look at FF8.
Off topic, but FFXI (the MMORPG) was my Final Fantasy anathema. Square-Enix have a fetish for integrating absurd quantities of numbing repetition in their games. It's one of many reasons why FFXI has only a trickle of new players, and primarily why I no longer play it. All the problems you cited with the series are present in their online version, excluding the point about your character being overpowered at any time; to keep with their forced grouping agenda (pervasive to nearly every worthwhile activity in the game) SE have ensured your character is only slightly above fodder in terms of survival odds when alone in most battle situations.
Everything else you mentioned is present in FFXI in some form or another, the stupid mini "games" especially. I had personally heard that FFXII was actually decent so I had a look online and in store. The similarities between it and FFXI were to me like kryptonite is to Clark Kent. After seeing the screenshots and reading up on the battle system, any desire I had to even sample the game was extinguished. Looks like I'll be avoiding FFXIII and anything else that company releases, indefinitely.
I started playing FF at 6, and played each one through until 10 (and regrettably, 10 two). I also partly played 12.
7 had great gameplay for the time and also a great story with lots of twists.
8's gameplay wasn't as good as 7 for me. The story was a drag until this second disk, when it actually started to get some substance.
9's gameplay I absolutely loved. I loved how you gained abilities from the items by gaining ability points. The story was uninteresting though.
10's gameplay and story were both great. But the story was strictly linear, and it almost felt like you were playing a movie.
10 two was a joke. Enough said about that.
12's story was a drag, the characters were a drag, and it was the first FF game I started and actually quit playing all together. The game played itself on its own. You know there's something wrong with a game when you enter a boss battle and don't have to even touch the controller. The thing that finally made me stop playing was when you figured out that the dark ghost things appearing behind the evil guys were actually gods of some sort who were controlling the destiny of everything. Way to fail, square.
So basically, make a game that is playable, has better gaming mechanics, and has characters and a story that doesn't suck. Usually FF games fail in one of these areas. I'm still praying for you Square!
For me, 12 is like a "good parts" version of 11. Has the things I liked without the other crap and although the main plot line is linear you can go off and do little quests or beat up on Marks for the Hunt game practically whenever you want.
Haha, if XII was the "good parts" of XI then I'm damn glad I never played XI.
I'm guessing you really wouldn't like japanese dating sims.
The FF series was always my favorite as a teenager; I played every version available to me all the way through FF9. As soon as the new wave of consoles started coming out though it got too hard to pick a console to stick with because of game diversity so I lost touch with the series. I love the stories, trite and very typical of your standard Anime, and enjoyed the games tremendously. So I hope they will see the success of the FF MMORPG and make a port of this game for the PC. I don't buy consoles and I certainly won't buy one just for this game, so I'll keep my fingers crossed. (Before anyone comments, yes, I have played both FF7 & FF8 for the PC with mixed experiences. But that was a decade ago, hopefully technology has improved.)