Well, I’ve finally concluded the main storyline and much CP/Weapon grinding. I enjoyed many aspects of this game. After some thinking, I’ve come to my conclusions of this game.
Story
The story overall was very broad and interesting. However the ending seemed very rushed and unsatisfying. The characters yielded a lot of feel and made you care for their overall outcome and victory. The villains were fierce and almost overpowering. The character acting was that of a typical JRPG (Japanese Role Playing Game), so those not used to the typical JRPG may be put off by some dialogs.
The story covers a world that houses humans and fal’Cei. The humans who live in a utopia called Cocoon where their every need is fed by the beings known as fal’Cei. That is, all but one fal’Cei. Below Cocoon is a planet called the Gran Pulse. A fal’Cei from Pulse comes to the planet of Cocoon and marks humans to be it’s servants. If a person is marked they are given a vision called a ‘focus’ and called a l’Cei. If they don’t fulfill the focus they become a mindless beast called a Ceith. If they fulfill it, they get ‘eternal life’ as a crystal (hmm choices..).
Outside from that is a organization that defends the humans from fal’Cei invasion, called the Sanctum. One part is the standard military and defenders, then the PSICOM who enact special missions. However their belief is that the protection is to kill all who become l’Cei or are in contact with. Enacting “purging” of towns who may have been rumored to having contact with fal’Cei or l’Cei.
At the start you follow Lightning who is a part of Sanctum as she just joined PSICOM and issued an order to kill the Pulse fal’Cei. You later find out she was in fact just infiltrating the fal’Cei to save her sister Sarah who was marked as a l’Cei. She’s joined with Sazh who tags along on her run around to get out of being taken in on a Purging. On the other side of the fence you follow Snow who is a leader of a Rebel group that is stopping Sanctum from shipping out innocent people to purge. While he rallies the people, Hope’s mother joins Snow and ends up killed. Hope ends up following Snow along with Vanille in attempt to get his revenge on Snow.
Characters
The characters overall were very enjoyable. I found myself rooting for their victory and sharing in their hardships.
This character was one of the most dynamic characters but sad to see them not go into more depth of her past. She joined the Sanctum and made the rank of lieutenant. When we joined her in the story, she turned herself into a Purging via the Sanctum, but soon find out it was an attempt for her to find her sister Sarah who was made a l’Cei. I loved how this character started out as a self righteous emotionless soldier to becoming more and more caring and kind. I felt a strong connection with the character all the way until half way through it, where the changes stopped and the character flow with it.
SazhThis character started out really slow. Although his personally shined early and quickly. He became the sort of down-to-earth character. What I mean, is when a group of people would do something like jumping off a cliff, he’d be the one to go “you’re all crazy.” I loved his attitude, humor, and personality. His story, again late, was very heart touching. His son being made l’Cei at a young age, and he felt the blame. Only to find out the people to cause it are close at hand. In the end, this got me a little choked up.
SnowRebel against the Sanctum’s corrupt, hero for the weak, warcry for the helpless, and romantic for a special girl. I loved the bravery and guts Snow had. His spirit showed his determination and made for a strong character. His struggles to gain the approval from a hard headed soldier, to saving his love from an impossible scenario, to shouldering the death of many who aid his rebellion. In a game full of some strong female characters, he was the hope for the men to not look like utter wimps here.
HopeI didn’t enjoy this character at all. He had a very tragic start, but overall ended up being the whiney emo kid of the story. Outside from his Feud with Snow and the passing of his mother, there really wasn’t much there but mood swings. I did however, sort of enjoyed the interaction between him and Lightning mid game. It seemed like a good chisel to the frozen heart.
VanilleA very perky character. I found it odd that they ended up making her with a texan twang, but it turned out to be the only way to make her fit with an english voice. So it turned out decently well. Many people not used to JRPGs will be put off by her over excited self, but those used to it will find her refreshing to the dark moments. She does have her share of whoas though. Hiding a dark past of secrets and destruction. I found her and Fang’s past very interesting and it really brought the rest of the story together.
FangThe selfish character that pops up half way into the game was a sort of off catch. However her placement of the story was crucial. Often found difficult to keep tamed, she is the rebel of the bunch. Often calling for the others to save their own necks. Tempting the others on a regular basis to give up on those that hate them, and live for themselves.
SarahSarah was a selfless character. A true testament to forgiveness and caring to others. I loved her personality and care to others. The tragedies that befell her only strengthened her love for others. The battle to communicate to her sister, the love for Snow, and the fear of fulfilling her focus. In one way or another, Sarah seemed to have touched every character of this story in one way or another. Just wouldn’t have been the same without her.
Villains
The idea of villains wasn’t very involved. Most things you ended up running into had no real build to them. Just “he’s part of this group, and hates you” or “there’s a big monster!!” It left it less involving and sadly plain. This is disappointing but doesn’t really kill the game too much. After becoming l’Cei, everyone hates you, so that’s pretty much the bulk of your adversaries. The only true story built villains were Yaag Rosch and the fal’Cei. While the fal’Cei covered most of the real need for a enemy face.
Gameplay
First off, my rant being the same as many others. The travel from A to B in this game was extremely linear. A good 90% of it was running down a very straight path forward. This killed a lot of the gameplay early on. This however opens up substantially at chapter 11 when you hit Gran Pulse. Lots of side paths, quests, dungeons to explore, and an arena like event. The other aspects of the game drown this, and when you consider the visuals and content, it may have been required to make it all fit. So if you can stand it ’til Chapter 11, you’ll enjoy it a lot.
The battle system was epic. I enjoyed the fast pace, fluent, and visual masterpiece it showcased. It even still kept the command bases live by the paradigms and custom commands. Juggling classes made a challenge for deciding which of the 3 players needed to heal, hold damage, attack, help chains, debuff, buff, ect. The chaining aspect made for interesting way of focusing attacks or strategizing planning. Overall I really do hope they build on this system for future games. I know some hate it cause it loses the feel of early Final Fantasy games, but with the change of games to be more action based, it’s a needed move to make it feel more active than reactive.
There was 3 faults to the battle system however. First was the instant game over when the leader dies. This makes it seem very broken. Second was the lack of being able to change Paradigm layouts mid battle. It didn’t hit often, but with so many interesting ways to lay out a paradigm, why not? I had to some times I had to die/retry just to go out and change them. My third problem I had with this battle system was the positioning. This game seemed to have a large emphasis on where your characters are standing as to who took damage from certain attacks, so why not allow you to move them? I had countless times where a fight was going very easy, then turned ugly and deadly just because a character randomly decided to move next to another character.
I enjoyed the overall uniqueness between each character at the beginning. However the crystariums were very plain to begin. All the way until chapter 11, there really wasn’t a point to Crystariums. I often wondered why it didn’t just auto fill itself. Since I was maxing all 3 out every time it expanded. This got more interested at Chapter 11 when all the trees opened up. While they were being high cost, it made you have to decide what you were diving in. Even then it kept it’s unique feel as some characters had better strength in certain trees than others. So it takes some planning (outside of maxing them all out and not even bothering, which would take a lot of time).
Last bit of customization which was really nice was the weapon and accessories. You can choose from around 5 different stat layout weapons that advance through 3 levels. Upgrading them is a bit time consuming, but interesting none the least. Accessories give attributes that also can be upgrading. I found it required a google search or a guide to know what to do, which is bad. However if you have that, it’s a fun and interesting system.
Graphics
The graphics were amazing. The views were breath taking. The spell effects were beautiful. I couldn’t really find any faults to this game, besides the dusty/foggy effects that happened during missions in Gran Pulse. However, you only see them for a couple minutes throughout your 30+ hours playing this game. The level of detail in this game makes me begging for more. It easily drew away my hatred for the early gameplay linear feel. As everything around me was breathtaking and so open/broad. The monsters and beasts were fierce, the characters detail was great. I just wish more games were like this.
Sound
Not much to say here. As usual, the audio is outstanding. Music that really takes the wind out of you. I can sit and listen to the sound track over and over. The sound effects were crisp and nice. My only beef was some of the sound effects being heavily high pitch and ear piercing, but not a big deal.
Overall
Overall, I enjoyed this game, a lot. I’ve seen a mix of reviews. You have outside RPG people not liking it’s linear feel. You have die hard fans that will love it no matter what. Then you have the plain fans that despise it because it’s changing things. Like I said before, games are becoming more fast pace. So it is only right they pick up the pace as well. Gameplay was a great change. Graphics were epic. Sound was beautiful. The linear pathing was a stumble block, but it offered me hours and hours of fun. All while I’m still working to max my characters.
- Story: 9/10
- Characters: 9/10
- Gameplay: 7/10
- Graphics: 10/10
- Presentation: 8/10
- Sound: 10/10
- Replay: 8/10
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