Crappy weekend

[kane_magus]

Outside of playing FFXIII, my weekend was pretty crappy. Actually, it started on Friday. I missed work because I had... let's just say digestive problems and leave it at that. This lasted into Saturday. Sunday, I was mostly over that, but then around 10:00pm, I started feeling a headache coming on. One of those. Don't know if it's all related, since I didn't eat much of anything on Friday or Saturday, or if it's just an unrelated headache with a lousy sense of timing (not that any time is ever a good time for one). This has so far lasted into today, right now, turning this into an impromptu 4-day weekend, since I didn't get much sleep at all last night. I'd rather be at work. :( I just hope this one breaks early and goes away like the last one did.

And now, despite all that, I'm going to have to go out to the Corner Market in a bit and get something to drink, because all I have available now is tap water. :/

Comments

[stuckinacave.livejournal.com]

How are you enjoying FFXIII?

It's the first FF game I've bought and looked forward to since FFVII.

I of course got it on my Xbox (GASP!) so I know what I'm in for in terms of horrible video compression. But I'm mostly intrigued by the game play. I found it interesting that SE focused the game and personally don't mind the linearity as long as the game play and story are worthwhile.

Anywho, I'll probably move on to FFXIII once I'm done with Brutal Legend.

[kane-magus.livejournal.com]

So far I'm liking it pretty well, more so than I did XII.

In combat, you only ever control one party member (which you eventually have a choice in picking). The others are controlled by the AI, although you get to influence how they act with the Paradigm Shift system. One annoyance, for me, is the whole thing where if the player-controlled character dies, it's automatic Game Over, even if the other two members are still alive. If you've played Persona 3 at all, then the combat is kind of like that, except using Square's Active Time system from previous FF games rather than being fully turn-based.

Another thing that's different from previous games is that there are no towns to speak of. So far, it's basically just been "10 Travel through a battlefield 20 Cutscene 30 Goto 10" all the time. Even in the "towns," which so far have just been town-like battlefields. That's where the linearity comes in. The only remotely town-like area that wasn't a battlefield (at least for a little while) was Nautilus.

All shopping and upgrades and such are done at the save points. That said, I'm up to what I'm guessing is near the end of chapter 10 (of, I'm guessing, 13 total) now, and I have yet to buy any items or do any weapon upgrading at all, and haven't felt a real need to do it either. Although I've seen some haters on forums and such saying that chapter 11 is around the "half-way point" and is where the game "finally opens up and becomes an actual game". Not sure what that means, exactly, though I might have a bit of an idea, but won't say anything here because spoilers.

That may not make it sound all that good, actually, but even so, I think it all comes together and works. The story is good, and I actually care about the characters (unlike XII, which got boring to me after a while with all the political machinations and such, especially since Vaan, the main player controlled character in XII, seemed to just fade into the background about a third of the way through the game).

[stuckinacave.livejournal.com]

What I find amusing is that the things people have been complaining about are what have intrigued me the most (no towns, no shops, linear levels).

I'm of the group that feels FF has been the same game for a substantial amount of time. Stuck in a game design philosophy that began with their first game on the NES and one that hasn't aged well in the current generation of hardware.

Mind you Lost Odyssey was quite good, but then again, it didn't pretend to be something new and innovative and embraced itself in it's simplicity. However, this time around, SE consciously decided to simplify and/or change things and this is what has made me excited to try it out.

I'm always willing to forgive game design for trying something different, like Brutal Legend, which I'm currently playing. There are many aspects in Brutal Legend that could be improved (I'd love a sequel to expand on the idea). But when you're the only comedic, adventure, hack and slash RTS game in town, you do get a little slack for trying something different.

But, if you're just another generic RPG or FPS I'll be all the more critical of what you are doing.

And having just finished ME2, another game which challenged the natural preconceptions of an RPG, I know it can work. Things don't always have to be as they were.

Then again, more often than not, my impression of JRPG fans is that they fear change, even if it results in a stronger narrative.