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[pathogen]

What would a new Sony console be without a new release from their epic cash cow that is Final Fantasy?  Apparently, on top of the huge # of fans in the US, you can sell pretty much anything in Japan as long as it has "Final Fantasy" written somewhere on it.  Final Fantasy Anal Suppositories?  Check.  Final Fantasy Turbo Tax 2006?  Sold out.  To be fair, as much as I don’t care for windows-driven, turn-based combat, the trailers and screens for Final Fantasy XIII look top notch.  If the action is as solid and smooth (and in real time) as it appears in the trailers, FF XIII will be a big departure from the previous iterations in this sacred franchise of Japanese RPG’s.  

Square Enix Debuts Final Fantasy XIII

E3 2K6 Trailer

[Dan]

Interesting trailer.  Why does it look like a cartoon?  So the main character is now a 19 year old female?  Hmmm...I think I'm going to have trouble relating to that.  

Such was my issue with FFIX - I couldn't relate to the story line of a 12 year old wizard, and I quickly lost interest.  I haven't played a FF game since then, other than to go back to FFVII.  

sigh.

[lutz]

Has anyone tried the FFXIII-2 demo yet? The characters and dialogue are still lame, and the fights don't feel quite as visceral as in the original, but they've added some interesting features to the battle mechanisms. Fights are now random, but you have a short time limit within which to run away or strike the enemy for a pre-emptive attack. The party consists of two characters and a monster; new monsters are acquired by fighting them and obtaining their crystal. Monsters have their own crystariums, which I imagine could become difficult to manage when you've got a hundred monsters. Oh, and you now receive gil after battles, which anyone who tried to platinum FFXIII should be relieved to hear...

[Dan]

Holy crap nice bump. To answer your question: no, I haven't tried that demo - didn't even know they were making a part 2. You're right - gil would be nice.

What do you mean: "anyone who tried to platinum FFXIII" - I don't understand that.

SO! Now...I'd like to announce that I am completely addicted to this game at the moment. It had been on my shelf for a year waiting to be played and shortly after Christmas I decided to finally pop it into the PS3. I love it. Completely. Unashamedly. Yes, the main character is a 21 year old female, but I can just pretend she's 25 and then pretend I might get to date her, so that works nicely. I also quite like Fang, which was a  bonus. The rest of the characters are 'meh' but that doesn't subtract from my enjoyment of the game. It's really quite incredible. I am impressed with the number of simple FFVII parallels, while also advancing the story to a much more complex place. They are telling a rather large story that I don't hate (a nice plus!) and am still intrigued with. I am probably 30 or 35 hours into it at this writing and have just landed on Pulse.

While we're here, to update from my previous post - FFXII was a great game, too.

[lutz]

Platinum trophy. I did it, and it was a bitch.

[Dan]

Holy camoleysholeyzoly. You actually did that? I saw that and was like "eh, not for me."

Congratulations - you have my utmost respect.

[lutz]

So I finally got FFXIII-2, played it, finished it. All I have to say is: WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK, SQUENIX?!

SPOILER (sort of):

It seems there will be a FFXIII-3, or (more likely) DLC stuff. Bleurgh.

[Dan]

Sh!t. I have it but haven't played it yet. And I'm not clicking on your spoiler alert. Does it suck? If you finished it I guess not.

[lutz]

It doesn't suck, but I preferred XIII. Noel's a pretty decent character and goes on a reasonable progression throughout the game. Serah's a bit flat and doesn't really change at all. Mog the moogle is irritating. And you are pretty much stuck with just those three throughout the entire game, with the previous cast making cameo appearances. The plot, being all about time-travel, can also get rather convoluted.

The game is almost completely non-linear, which was nice, if a bit bewildering at first. As long as you have enough keys (or "artifacts") you can go wherever you want in the order you choose. Of course, the monsters in some lands/times will be harder to try to deter you, but if you're foolhardy enough you can go where you will.

I won't say any more until you've had a chance to play it.

[Dan]

There are things I love about the Final Fantasy series - saving the world, the characters, the magic, the stories (usually), Cid, the casinos/gaming areas, etc., but there are a lot of elements about the series that I have always hated. Moogles are one of them (chocobos are another), so I'm sad to hear that I have to use a freaking moogle for a whole game.

Oh well. Thanks for the heads up. I'm currently trying to defeat all of the 64 Cieth Stone Missions on 5 stars (only about 10 or so left...probably less).