Sorry. Back to business. We start with a brief discussion about Final Fantasy XIII, the blockbuster game that came out last week and which I have experienced for about two hours. Experience is certainly the correct word to use. The series distinguished itself from other RPG’s back when cinematic sequences were first introduced in Final Fantasy VII (quite possibly the greatest RPG of all time) for the original Playstation. Twelve years and two system generations later, FFXIII (which I played on the Xbox 360) sets a new standard for the opening cinematic. Lasting about six minutes and featuring a battle sequence that looks like it could come straight out of episodes I-III of Star Wars, the prologue heralds a new era in video game visuals ready to challenge those of any motion picture short of Avatar.
The New York Times agrees:
I’ll just put it this way: I recently invited several friends to compare the visual spectacle of the opening sequence of Final Fantasy XIII with the opening sequence of “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith,” a frantic spaceship battle and chase that has been one of my personal animation benchmarks. Sorry, George Lucas, but it was a unanimous wipeout among my jury. For the moment the only animation that compares with Final Fantasy XIII is in “Avatar.” (And Final Fantasy XIII has better writing and voice acting than that film, though that’s not saying much.)
Hold onto that thought about Avatar for tomorrow, and if you want the whole NY Times review: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/arts/television/15fantasy.html
Now, I’ve only seen about two hours of FFXIII, and my preliminary judgment is that it’s come together pretty damn well. It has wisely returned to a more turn-based approach to fighting (with an emphasis on strategic choices [as in FFVII] rather than controller dexterity), but has found a way to seamlessly integrate battle sequences into your characters’ exploration of the world (which was the goal of FFXII’s battle system that was played out in semi-real time, but that any FF addict will tell you was a travesty to the integrity of the franchise). The leveling system – which, in order to explore, required me to stay up far later than I would have cared to – is similar to that of FFX’s sphere system, where players can choose different paths for characters to go down in order to customize your party to whatever your preferences may be.
So, in essence, the gameplay mixes elements of FFVII and FFX, which were certainly the two best games in the series’ modern era (strictly in terms of gameplay).
And in addition to those gorgeous cinematics, it appears that the story itself has a great deal of depth and originality. Of course, there are certainly some corny lines (New catch phrase: “Moms are tough”), and an African American character named Sazh Katzroy seems to be riding the line between racially problematic and racially troubling.
Overall, it appears that FFXIII will certainly continue the dominance of the franchise and could turn out to be one of the strongest overall games of the entire series. Bottom line is that if you have the system (sadly, I don’t) you should get it.
Now, how does that link in to movies and politics? Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion tomorrow where we will try to mix in discussion of Manifest Destiny, global monomyths, and those little blue people that we’ve become, oh, so fond of.
And in the meantime, see if you can answer the question of why someone I know thought that this person:
Looked like this person:
what!! who thought that??
ReplyDeleteWho thought that? WTF. Talk about two people that couldn't look MORE different and definitely SOUND more different.
ReplyDelete