I’ve been playing a lot of Final Fantasy XIII this weekend. It’s been a while since I’ve done a play-and-preview game marathon — I guess maybe since the last Final Fantasy launched in Japan? — but it’s not as easy as it used to be. I think my brain is ossifying as I age, or something. I suppose I’m also a little bit fatigued because of the relentless pacing of the game; I like a little freedom to go at my own speed, but so far it’s been seven or eight hours of literally walking down hallways. They’re very beautiful hallways! They sometimes look like mountains or oceans of crystal or futuristic highways! But they’re narrow corridors, and I’m the sort of person who enjoys a casual pace in an open world where I can go about my own business on my own time.
On the plus side, I guess, people who hated Final Fantasy XII are gonna love FFXIII.
Despite my grousing, though, I’m enjoying the game in the aggregate. The structure isn’t my cup of tea, but combat is almost like an interesting puzzle, and danged if the game isn’t just completely gorgeous. Wish I had more reason to linger and enjoy the sights, but every time I do Sazh or Vanille jabber at me to hurry up in their curious foreign tongue. Worst tour guides ever.
Anyway, if you’re interested in reading more, I’ve posted my first impressions, a more in-depth look at the combat system, and a bit on a trivial but not unimportant detail. And if you’re not interested in reading more, well, I guess I’m just your least favorite person in the world today, huh?
Dang, I am saddened to hear that. I just played FFX this spring and immediately described it to a friend of mine as a “long, beautiful hallway”. Maybe I’ll just wait and borrow this one too.
Man, you gotta see the eyes in Shattered Memories before you start singing Square’s praises.
Provided I can get myself detached from Torchlight long enough, I’m planning to get on FF12 before 13 comes out.
So… can we read between the lines and assume that if we actually were pleasantly surprised by 12, and bear nothing but an eternally burning hatred for 10, 13 is going to be a game to skip?
I expect if you hated 10, 13 will at least be a try-before-you-buy deal at best. For me though, while I adored 12, I found that the interesting and fun battle system carried me through 10, and I suspect the same will be true for 13. The battle system sounds pretty much completely awesome, and that plus the usual FF eye-candy will be enough to sell me the game. I’ll just have to get my exploration fix elsewhere. (Here’s hoping for The Last Guardian sometime in 2010, though I’m not holding my breath until I see some more progress.)
Interesting. Something that can possibly give FFX a run for it’s money as ‘Most fun I’ve ever had running through a endless tunnel,’ I would hope.
I’ll be honest, even though I have been a Square fan for a long time, I was pretty cool about FFXIII. Reading these previews has got me interested – I really want to try out that battle system and see what it can do.
Final Fantasy XII was the only video game I’ve played with (fictional) environments I found achingly beautiful. I’m not holding my breath on the new one, but hope does still fester within me.
@Onomarchus: Shadow of the Colossus did nothing for you, huh?