I haven’t been updating my blog for a while, nothing game related at least. That’s because I have been spending most of my play time on Final Fantasy 13. One of the most anticipated games of 2010 and for many years. So far I have invested more than 50 hours of my life to this game. Then after reading comments from other gamers about how Square Enix got rid of towns and no more experience points to gain screwed the whole series up. Are the changes really that bad?
To be honest, it took some time to get used to, specially the new battle system. Though its still time-based, you can only control one character now and if that character dies its game over. What’s new is something called Paradigm Shift which allows you to setup the role for each of the 3 team members. Some gamers mentioned this system introduced a lot more button mashing than before. I actually disagree, I think its actually less button mashing since you can’t even control the other two characters.
I thought getting rid of the towns was a bad idea too, you don’t have a spot to purchase your equipments and items anymore. In FF13 you will be doing your shopping through the save point as well as upgrading/dismantling your weapons. I found this new feature works quite well and I don’t really miss the fact that towns are gone, well mostly. What you call towns are now nothing but part of the linear path you have to go through. Dialogue pops up when you walk near NPCs, be it in text and just audio without popup subtitles.
I also disagree with the fact that the abscence of experience points eliminated level grinding. We have the CP points, similar to those from Final Fantasy 12. You can still grind or harvest more CP points and max out all your characters roles. Just a different name but the grinding is definitely still there. Though what I don’t like about Final Fantasy 13 is the fact that you really can’t grind much until late in the game, I’ve started my real griding in the second last chapters. There was no point getting your characters to the top because the first half of the game was relatively easy.
Another thing I missed is traveling by air, there are so many airships shown during the cut scenes and full CG scenes but we never get to fly one like we used to.
Anyway, overall I think this game is still well worth the full price. Just because a few of the classic features are gone doesn’t mean it will be a bad game. Though its not perfect, Final Fantasy 13 is still an AAA game in my book.
ps I love Fang. Not only is she the strongest of all, physically, she also looks good. She’s like a combination of Asian, European and American. Yea basically all races combined. Yes, she is hot. There I said it!
