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
“Another day, another dollar,” That’s what most working class folks say as they drag themselves out of bed to head to an office where anyone barely knows their name unless they need something. Yup…you guessed — it’s another day at the office. Or the sh*t hole, as most employees commonly refer to it. The office is the one place where you are guaranteed to be underappreciated, overworked, left out, judged, criticized and expected to deal with it – all for the love of a small paycheck and a short lunch break. It’s the American way.
survive. You heard correctly…the game! Most of your of coworkers could care less about you. Sure, you may have that one whom you eat lunch with regularly, but don’t be fooled by the 30 minute company. They’re only hanging with you until quitting time. At the end of the day, they run off into the night to be with someone way more important than you are. Don’t be offended by this. Trust no one and keep a very positive “F*ck You” attitude! 
Let’s take a look at a typical work day, shall we? After you’ve finished reading this article, you will be able to determine if you have the chops to be someone’s personal slave right-hand man in a general office environment. Don’t expect to be prepped for the journey you are about to take. That wouldn’t be realistic in Cubicle Land. Instead, we’re just going to throw you to the wolves and see how you fend for yourself.
Most commonly, the workday opens with you complimenting your supervisor on yet another one of his boring staff lectures. However, because you are so stoned and hung over from the night before, you are too wasted to realize that that lecture was last Thursday. Don’t be alarmed. There are so many of those meetings that begin and end with the same speech your boss delivers like a walking TIVO, they all sound alike. Just continue kissing his ass and hope he doesn’t smell the alcohol that’s oozing out of your pores. Too much talking will raise suspicion as you’d normally try to avoid any conversation with him, in effort not to be given any more work assignments, so know when to the shut up and walk away.
If you’re lucky enough to make it pass your boss unscathed, you’re off to a good start. But you’re not out of the water yet. It won’t be long before that very same boss calls you from your desk, by the wrong name of course, to ask you a ton of questions that you’re expected to the know the answers to, although it will probably be the first time you’ve ever heard anything about the subject in which your boss is referring. Just nod and smile and tell him/her that you’ll get right on it. Once you’ve wiped that discreet worried little smirk off your face, go back to your desk, take a swig of that stale coffee you got from the cafeteria and check your email. Not your work email! That’s too responsible. Check your personal 
email. You’re not a lazy, disgruntled employee until you’ve mastered the art of slacking off. Who knows? Something may be good enough to give you a reason to use sick leave for the rest of the day. If you have a fear that your computer is being monitored, here’s what you do: after you’ve nearly killed yourself to get the answers your superior is looking for, take a baseball bat and use their head as target practice. That way, they’ll understand the headache you got trying to obtain those damn answers. Remember the motto for every office across the nation – “An eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth.” 
I do that that picture is far less than just bad lighting. It’s one f*cked up picture. No, seriously. Oh well, one catastrophe at a time. Accept being the butt of the joke and make a mad dash for the first restroom you see before you stink up the whole place with the bubbles building up inside your tummy. Just don’t forget to leave a memorable message to that very same security guard, telling him exactly what you think of him. This will probably be the hightlight of your day. Don’t worry. It’s almost over. 
By now, the office has completely fallen apart and you are stressed to no end. You’ve received an email from your kid’s babysitter informing you that an emergency has come up and that you need to pick up your offspring. Naturally, your boss isn’t going to approve your leave and there’s no daycare facility at your job. You have no other choice but to bring your 
baby back to work and scotch tape them to the bulletin board. Don’t make it a habit. In your colleagues’ eyes, you have a choice to make: either work or home? But with the money you make, you can probably build yourself a nice cardboard home right next to your office building. How convenient would that be?! …that is if you haven’t completely keeled over from all the stress. In that case, make sure your last will and testament is saved on your computer. Your lunch buddy will want to know if he can get your swivel chair once you’ve kicked the bucket for good. 
Since your id badge didn’t work and the security guard is no doubt looking for your ass for leaving that harsh message on the bathroom floor, you now have to be just as crafty and creative in getting out of the building as you were for surviving your day in general. Well let me give you two choices: Dig a hole and claw your way to freedom or simply burn the whole effin’ building down. Why should you be the only miserable person in the office? Whatever you choose, your decision will take a little effort but it’d be worth it. Having the gall to pull it off is the main issue, though it’s not has hard as it sounds. After all, 90% of any effort is getting started. 
