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A Look At the Final Fantasy XIII Demo, Early Analysis
A demo for the PS3 version of Final Fantasy XIII was released in Japan this week, and people have had a chance to try it out and report back. In fact, video footage of the demo in its entirety was streamed and then posted on YouTube shortly after finding its way into customers' hands. Eurogamer got a chance to give the demo a test-drive, and they had this to say: "The characters are likeable — Lightning for her mysteriousness, the members of NORA for their banter and camaraderie — the setting is compelling, and the whole thing is as sumptuous visually as you'd expect of a next-generation Square-Enix title. The plot's the only thing that I couldn't get a definite feel for from the demo, beyond the basic set-up of an oppressive regime, a resistance fighting against it and a character with mysterious powers brought to aid them in a twist of fate. But forty minutes with Final Fantasy XIII have left me with nothing but anticipation for what else it has in store."
Camera focuses on "man cleavage"
W T F!
If they want my money, how about making the game fun -- that seems like a good goal. FF4-FF7 were incredibly fun, but they seriously lost their way with later games. FF8 was an exercise in redundancy (draw, draw, draw...). FF10 had a painful level dynamic (having to bring every character into every fight, in order to actually level up your party). FF12 lost me the moment I realized that if I opened the wrong treasure chest at the beginning of the game, I'd be screwed out of something much later in the game.
Focus on pure fun, the way FF5 did (the job system was great); or, tell an amazing story in a fashion that is enjoyable to play, as FF7 did. If they can't fix this horrifically paced, guidebook-requiring style of game that FF has become, I'll spend my money on a different game.
Way back when Square was a much smaller company, they actually were on the verge of folding after a string of mediocre titles. Knowing their next title was basically all or nothing for Square, they created what they thought was their "final" chance at making it. It turned out to be a success, and they stuck with the name.
Even in FF VII you had to bring every char in your party to level them (as in most FF's!). In FF X things just got easier because you could swap then right in the battle instead of only via the overworld menu.
FF12 lost me also. Story wise and character wise.
Even in FF VII you had to bring every char in your party to level them (as in most FF's!)
Not true. In FF7, characters not in your party level up with your party, but are held back. They'll be usually 3 or 4 levels behind the party members. It makes it so that you aren't screwed over if you want to switch party members, but you still have some incentive to pick a party and stick with it.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
I dunno, I found FF8, FFX, FFX-2, and FF12 to be quite fun. For example, drawing spells is annoying in FF8, but it usually stops being something you need to focus on after the early game, and the junction system overall gives you an unparalleled amount of control over your characters. All those games were rather fun to me, even though they had some drawbacks.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
Everybody has their own opinions. I loved 10, for example. It was probably my 3rd favorite FF (after 7 and 6). 9 would be my 4th favorite, probably. Didn't like 8 and 10-2, and couldn't get in to 12.
Non of them are bad games, it just depends what aspects of the game you like.
Or it will finally be the first game to take advantage of the HD-DVD add-on! ;P
-Pope Peter Porker, S.O.W., K.M.K.R., U.G.O.A., F.S.G.S.D.
A Final Fantasy game without a contrived storyline is like a gallbladder without bile.
I have nothing compelling to say
We don't like to talk about that one
Unless we're alone with our action figures
I told you never to call me in here!
Nice bit of cherry picking there. Microsoft will be proud. However to ruin your FUD, I have the bits you decided to leave ON the cherry tree.
Firstly, the Xbox360 only reads DVD4.3 at 12x, I can list all the DVD4.3 titles on one hand. The other 99% of Xbox360 games are on DVD9, which is read at 8x.
Whoopsie...
Secondly, it seems you have either deliberately, or accidently forgotten the CLV/CAV differences. The PS3 can read the entire disk at 72Mbit/sec, however the Xbox only reads a very small percentage at 8x ( 80.4Mbit/sec), then rest is on a downward spiral from there.
In summary, 1% of the Xbox DVD is marginally faster than the PS3 BD drive, the other 99% is increasingly slower..
Go back to your masters at Redmond and tell them you need more FUD training..
You are comparing the PS3 CONSTANT speed, to the MAXIMUM speed of the 360.
The 360 DVD, like most DVD reads tracks on the outer edge of the DVD faster than it reads them on the inside.
BD discs are read at a constant speed, from start to finish.
The 360 *average*, on a full disk, around 64Mbps.
and finally, Xbox uses 12xDVD, not 16 as you used.
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=42157
I actually really liked FF8's story and thought it was fun. The ones since haven't had as much impact, but all solid titles that I have finished (except x-2 which I try not to remember). I am looking forward to the next one apart from the fact it will force be to buy a PS3.
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
That's actually pretty interesting, I didn't know about those differences in the drives at all. So although you're a bit of a cunt, hopefully you'll get modded +5 informative. I had assumed the 12x read rate was for dual layer discs and that BDRs were read with CAV. My bad.
No need to become paranoid-delusional over it though; I just looked it up as you should expect any reasonable person to do and happened to miss a few things. Relax.
By sexual identity issues I think the point is that the game has these characters who are supposed to be male but end up looking like girls.
But that's the point, they actually don't look like girls, like not at all.
As for the girly guys, I think it's really drawing on fashion trends in Japan where young guys do sometimes appear somewhat effeminate.
This is what I think is fascinating: they are not girly guys, like not at all.
Those fashion trends you talk about are for music pop stars most of the time, which are made to appeal to girls. So these characters are actually fashioned to attract girls, meaning to be beautiful. How can this become girly guys for some cultures, or rather for some guys? I wonder.
Given the kinds of activities these characters engage in they really should appear tougher and more masculine.
Actually no, they shouldn't. But most western cultures mostly make use of the strength in the higher part of the body, and thus are only being able to see someone as strong if he develops always the same muscles. These are the easier to master because they are the most obvious moves. eastern cultures usually concentrate on all the other muscles and moves that are rarely used, and don't require you to have huge muscles bulging everywhere. The best way to understand that is through traditional martial arts. Meaning, for judo, not the judo you see at the olympics, but the true traditional one. The one that makes experts that go stronger when they get older (up to 70 years older and older), while westernized ones must give up after reaching 35 (and I'm generous).
When you understand, or rather feel this cultural difference, there is no way slender characters look girly at all.
But I bet only younger gamers find them girly, I'm sure even in the USA, older gamers have no problem with these characters, and don't think of them as girly.
Uhhh. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_(video_game) it's called "Final Fantasy" because it the creator thought Square would go out of business. He thus named it so because he anticipated it being the last fantasy game Square would produce.