I'm very interested in FFIV iOS now. If the framerate is solid it looks like they may have finally figured this stuff out. All I want out of them for the moment is an iPhone 5 update to TWEWY, but considering the art assets that's not an easy one.
Though, I think I should play the PSP IV first. I hears its a little lacking in difficulty, but is closer to the "true" experience. My plan is to play Complete, and then check out the DS/iOS version for an extra challenge/revisit.
Yet another new city, what was wrong with Cocoon 's capital? Or Academia, that was an incredible looking location that they didn't do anything with.
Trailer shows three skillsets called Divinity, Enchanter and Cerberus (a tri-com paradigm in the older games, but the other two don't match up). They're probably customisable, and you can switch between them so it maintains some complexity. No chain gauge doesn't look promising, nor does the slow pace given you just have a single character doing stuff.
DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
Did you guys get an extended trailer or something?
Because as far as the story went they probably said one paragraph in regards to it.
As for the trailer itself. Looks interesting, there was a bit of wonkiness to the framerate in the trailer but I'm guessing that's because its still in development.
Yet another new city, what was wrong with Cocoon 's capital? Or Academia, that was an incredible looking location that they didn't do anything with.
So what you're saying is that you either didn't play, or didn't pay attention at all to the stories in XIII or XIII-2?
Cocoon is gone. Boom. Fell. Destroyed. That was the point of building Bhunivelze; which we didn't get to see inside of or anything before the end of XIII-2. Academia was being evacuated at the end of XIII-2 because when Cocoon fell it was going to wipe it out too. And Cocoon had already been evacuated at the end of XIII because it stopped supporting life after you killed Orphan. Thus it falling down and Fang/Vanille having to turn to crystal to support it.
But that's kind of secondary anyway because everything is gone; Etro's gate was opened, the chaos that Caius wanted to unleash that would destroy all creation, was; and presumably we're left with a world of someones creation afterward but we have no details on if it is somehow related to Hopes Bhunivelze or if it's something else entirely.
So yeah, the reason we don't have Eden or Academia is because both are gone, completely.
Is it just me or does the XIII series have the least memorable cast members? I can barely recall who anyone is and they don't stick with me at all. Regardless of how I felt about past FF's, there are always a few iconic characters in each game.
The closest I can think of is VIII and that still had several characters, especially Laguna.
Is it just me or does the XIII series have the least memorable cast members? I can barely recall who anyone is and they don't stick with me at all. Regardless of how I felt about past FF's, there are always a few iconic characters in each game.
The closest I can think of is VIII and that still had several characters, especially Laguna.
It's not just you.
The characters in FFXIII remind me of a concept in the book Pattern Recognition. It's about this person who has a natural ability to synthesize corporate symbols. She can see a symbol or design and know where it came from, what it's for, etc. But she cannot decode symbols from Japan, as they are too artificial/manufactured. In short, they have no personality.
That's now I feel about the FFXIII characters. Designed by committee, devoid of personality.
So I think FFIV has just become the Final Fantasy that I've purchased the most now that I just picked it up on iOS.
I already own the DS version, but I never use it anymore and I REALLY want to beat this damn game someday. The furthest I ever made it was to the Moon on the SNES version where I gave up for some reason. I got a SNES near the end of it's life so I believe another game interfered, but it was so long ago I can't recall now.
I'm a consumer whore.
0
DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
Yet another new city, what was wrong with Cocoon 's capital? Or Academia, that was an incredible looking location that they didn't do anything with.
So what you're saying is that you either didn't play, or didn't pay attention at all to the stories in XIII or XIII-2?
Cocoon is gone. Boom. Fell. Destroyed. That was the point of building Bhunivelze; which we didn't get to see inside of or anything before the end of XIII-2. Academia was being evacuated at the end of XIII-2 because when Cocoon fell it was going to wipe it out too. And Cocoon had already been evacuated at the end of XIII because it stopped supporting life after you killed Orphan. Thus it falling down and Fang/Vanille having to turn to crystal to support it.
But that's kind of secondary anyway because everything is gone; Etro's gate was opened, the chaos that Caius wanted to unleash that would destroy all creation, was; and presumably we're left with a world of someones creation afterward but we have no details on if it is somehow related to Hopes Bhunivelze or if it's something else entirely.
So yeah, the reason we don't have Eden or Academia is because both are gone, completely.
You're overthinking it. Its just the usual complaining that comes up anytime something FFXIII related is announced.
So I think FFIV has just become the Final Fantasy that I've purchased the most now that I just picked it up on iOS.
I already own the DS version, but I never use it anymore and I REALLY want to beat this damn game someday. The furthest I ever made it was to the Moon on the SNES version where I gave up for some reason. I got a SNES near the end of it's life so I believe another game interfered, but it was so long ago I can't recall now.
I'm a consumer whore.
I am interested in more opinions, though the idea of paying $16 for an iOS game sounds maddening to me. I'm hoping maybe I can sell my barely-touched DS copy around that price.
Also, it's not all great news. Seems when they said it supports the iPhone 5 display, they meant this:
Yet another new city, what was wrong with Cocoon 's capital? Or Academia, that was an incredible looking location that they didn't do anything with.
So what you're saying is that you either didn't play, or didn't pay attention at all to the stories in XIII or XIII-2?
Cocoon is gone. Boom. Fell. Destroyed. That was the point of building Bhunivelze; which we didn't get to see inside of or anything before the end of XIII-2. Academia was being evacuated at the end of XIII-2 because when Cocoon fell it was going to wipe it out too. And Cocoon had already been evacuated at the end of XIII because it stopped supporting life after you killed Orphan. Thus it falling down and Fang/Vanille having to turn to crystal to support it.
But that's kind of secondary anyway because everything is gone; Etro's gate was opened, the chaos that Caius wanted to unleash that would destroy all creation, was; and presumably we're left with a world of someones creation afterward but we have no details on if it is somehow related to Hopes Bhunivelze or if it's something else entirely.
So yeah, the reason we don't have Eden or Academia is because both are gone, completely.
I know why they aren't there, I simply resent the writing team throwing away established stuff at the end of each of the games.
Something set in the ruins of Cocoon or Academia would be more interesting than City C.
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Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
The thing about Lightning is... she gets a new appearance, personality and role in each game. She's essentially a new character with the same face and name. I liked FFXIII Lightning plenty. Sazh was my favourite early game character, Fang and Vanille the most interesting towards the end, but Lightning was OK, right there in the middle. :P
I dunno, I find the XIII series' characters to be among the more compelling in the franchise. I mean, just look at the points of comparison:
* Anything 6 and earlier falls victim to caricature by necessity (limitations of the medium)
* 9's cast was caricature by intention (excluding Vivi, strangely)
* 7 probably had the most two-dimensional characters in the modern era (Cloud being the most developed of the set)
* 12 was adversely affected by the forced inclusion of Vaan and Penelo, though it did manage some moments in spite of that (usually in the scenes where neither of those two were included)
* 8 was complete nonsense with the worst cast in the franchise
That leaves 10, which probably had the best cast apart from XIII. I found both titles to have relatable characters with real motivations and behavior patterns. They felt the most like actual people.
The older titles (pretty much anything before 10) existed before people really thought that video games could have interesting and believable characters, which is why 7 felt like such an achievement with what little it actually did in that department. Plus, many of us were quite young when those games were played, and simplistic or ridiculous characters are a whole lot easier to swallow when you have youth in the picture. I think if people were able to "un-play" their favorite in the series (IV, VI, VII) now, after having played through X and XIII, I think the judgments of those would be much harsher -- and XIII would look better for the comparison.
Video games are "grown up" now. There's never going to be an RPG that recaptures the experience of when you first enjoyed VI or VII or what have you. Your expectations and experiences are too different. That "newness" of the experience won't be recreated.
And that's okay, because the new stuff is actually good!
The interaction between Vanille and Sazh in XIII was particularly terrific, with the light-hearted camaraderie giving way to a seriously dramatic moment that was more effective and better-written than Aeris's death in FF7 and at least as good as Celes's plunge in FF6. It was a legitimately horrifying scene, something that I don't think has ever been accomplished to that level in an RPG before.
The antagonism between Lightning and Snow was also great. It was a very grounded, believable kind of relationship, well-acted on the part of the English voice actors, and a great little side story to flavor the proceedings.
Hope was also a wonderfully complex character. If you felt he was "too whiny," I have to wonder if you've ever had to deal with a kid who lost someone that close to them. He had some great moments with Lightning, learning to take care of himself and continuing his inner battle about Snow. That climax scene was also quite good, IMO. The character was fully-rounded with a complicated fatherly relationship (explored just enough to develop the character, not too much to bog down the flow of the game) and a budding crush on Vanille (which featured impressive subtlety for an RPG).
Fang was under-written, though, and Vanille suffered from the acting on the English side. So there was that.
Also, I guess I never had a problem with "space pope." He reminded me of the religious leader of FFX, only delightfully more direct and involved with proceedings. His manipulation of events and the emotions of the characters made him a solid villain, I thought. Part of this was the excellent world design of the Fal'cie in general. They were a great implementation of a cool idea.
Triptycho: A card-and-dice tabletop indie RPG currently in development and playtesting
So I think FFIV has just become the Final Fantasy that I've purchased the most now that I just picked it up on iOS.
I already own the DS version, but I never use it anymore and I REALLY want to beat this damn game someday. The furthest I ever made it was to the Moon on the SNES version where I gave up for some reason. I got a SNES near the end of it's life so I believe another game interfered, but it was so long ago I can't recall now.
I'm a consumer whore.
I am interested in more opinions, though the idea of paying $16 for an iOS game sounds maddening to me. I'm hoping maybe I can sell my barely-touched DS copy around that price.
Also, it's not all great news. Seems when they said it supports the iPhone 5 display, they meant this:
It's still cheaper than a brand new DS copy. I might be an outlier in this, but I don't judge a games price based upon platform. I judge it on a per game basis. $15.99 is the cheapest price for this version of the game on any platform (unless you're buying used).
The characters you dismiss because of caricatures are still more interesting than anyone in FXIII. But don't get me wrong, XII has some truly awful character moments too.
It's partly because of the limitations of the medium that the earlier games succeed where XIII fails. We are able to read those lines however we want, and subconsciously give the writing the benefit of the doubt. Square did not make the transition to voice acting and HD gracefully, and they still haven't nailed it down.
X got a pass from me because I figured it was their first outing with voice, and it's probably my favorite in the series, but after that they should not have any problems.
The easiest way I can sum up my issues with XIII's cast is that they are all one-note. Each character has one problem, and after that problem is resolved or ignored by the plot, the character does not develop further, and almost always has nothing relevant to say for the rest of the game.
And the Fal'Cie were hilariously stupid. There were Fal'Cie doors. DOORS.
VI is interesting because the characters can be considered classic archetypes with a twist. The redone script emphasized this.
X and XIII characters are bland copies of currently popular manga tropes and honestly reused a lot of material from anime and such created and the same time period.
I dunno, I find the XIII series' characters to be among the more compelling in the franchise. I mean, just look at the points of comparison:
* Anything 6 and earlier falls victim to caricature by necessity (limitations of the medium)
* 9's cast was caricature by intention (excluding Vivi, strangely)
* 7 probably had the most two-dimensional characters in the modern era (Cloud being the most developed of the set)
* 12 was adversely affected by the forced inclusion of Vaan and Penelo, though it did manage some moments in spite of that (usually in the scenes where neither of those two were included)
* 8 was complete nonsense with the worst cast in the franchise
That leaves 10, which probably had the best cast apart from XIII. I found both titles to have relatable characters with real motivations and behavior patterns. They felt the most like actual people.
The older titles (pretty much anything before 10) existed before people really thought that video games could have interesting and believable characters, which is why 7 felt like such an achievement with what little it actually did in that department. Plus, many of us were quite young when those games were played, and simplistic or ridiculous characters are a whole lot easier to swallow when you have youth in the picture. I think if people were able to "un-play" their favorite in the series (IV, VI, VII) now, after having played through X and XIII, I think the judgments of those would be much harsher -- and XIII would look better for the comparison.
Video games are "grown up" now. There's never going to be an RPG that recaptures the experience of when you first enjoyed VI or VII or what have you. Your expectations and experiences are too different. That "newness" of the experience won't be recreated.
And that's okay, because the new stuff is actually good!
The interaction between Vanille and Sazh in XIII was particularly terrific, with the light-hearted camaraderie giving way to a seriously dramatic moment that was more effective and better-written than Aeris's death in FF7 and at least as good as Celes's plunge in FF6. It was a legitimately horrifying scene, something that I don't think has ever been accomplished to that level in an RPG before.
The antagonism between Lightning and Snow was also great. It was a very grounded, believable kind of relationship, well-acted on the part of the English voice actors, and a great little side story to flavor the proceedings.
Hope was also a wonderfully complex character. If you felt he was "too whiny," I have to wonder if you've ever had to deal with a kid who lost someone that close to them. He had some great moments with Lightning, learning to take care of himself and continuing his inner battle about Snow. That climax scene was also quite good, IMO. The character was fully-rounded with a complicated fatherly relationship (explored just enough to develop the character, not too much to bog down the flow of the game) and a budding crush on Vanille (which featured impressive subtlety for an RPG).
Fang was under-written, though, and Vanille suffered from the acting on the English side. So there was that.
Also, I guess I never had a problem with "space pope." He reminded me of the religious leader of FFX, only delightfully more direct and involved with proceedings. His manipulation of events and the emotions of the characters made him a solid villain, I thought. Part of this was the excellent world design of the Fal'cie in general. They were a great implementation of a cool idea.
I miss the camp and silly moments of FF6-10. 13 and to some extent 13-2 were so dreary the whole time.
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Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
The easiest way I can sum up my issues with XIII's cast is that they are all one-note. Each character has one problem, and after that problem is resolved or ignored by the plot, the character does not develop further, and almost always has nothing relevant to say for the rest of the game.
And the Fal'Cie were hilariously stupid. There were Fal'Cie doors. DOORS.
I liked the XIII cast for the most part, even Snow has his moments, but this right here is accurate. That's why I gotta say I liked Sazh for the early part of the game. Dude was interesting, and that scene with Vanille where he seems to give up? High point of the game for me, cause I cared about the guy. Then after that he just kinda...stops.
I just can't imagine playing a 40 + hour game on my phone.
It's no different than playing a 40+ hour game on "Insert Handheld Here". Unless you're incredibly adverse to touch screens, it's the same thing.
It kind of is, since you're using that device for so many other things besides playing games.
Anyway, how is the voice compression in the iOS version? Do they come out clearer than the DS voices?
I downloaded it last night at 3am... haven't had a chance to play it yet. I have a killer set of headphones at my girlfriend's place. I'll check and report back later this evening.
And yeah, you're right. Texts and incoming calls is annoying as fuck when playing an RPG. I often forget about how annoying it really is because it's not inherently annoying for pick up and play games. I don't often play the longer games except when I'm at the GF's where there is no gaming PC or console.
Mostly I'm just salty that Square keeps making XIII games, and the last thing they released that I thought looked good was Type-0, which is never going to release here.
It reinforces my opinion that at least SOME people at Square know what goes into a decent game, and those people are not allowed to make decisions.
The characters you dismiss because of caricatures are still more interesting than anyone in FXIII. But don't get me wrong, XII has some truly awful character moments too.
It's partly because of the limitations of the medium that the earlier games succeed where XIII fails. We are able to read those lines however we want, and subconsciously give the writing the benefit of the doubt. Square did not make the transition to voice acting and HD gracefully, and they still haven't nailed it down.
X got a pass from me because I figured it was their first outing with voice, and it's probably my favorite in the series, but after that they should not have any problems.
The easiest way I can sum up my issues with XIII's cast is that they are all one-note. Each character has one problem, and after that problem is resolved or ignored by the plot, the character does not develop further, and almost always has nothing relevant to say for the rest of the game.
And the Fal'Cie were hilariously stupid. There were Fal'Cie doors. DOORS.
It's interesting, as I see it exactly the opposite; for me, XIII's characters were the least one-note of the franchise outside of X.
All of the characters were caught in the struggle between personal survival and sacrifice for the greater good, and their personalities informed how they tackled this dilemma throughout the game.
Lightning had inter-party conflict with Snow, played tutor for Hope, and was filled with regret regarding Serah.
Sazh was looking to free (and then help) his son and took on a fatherly toward with Vanille (that temporarily changed to vengeance).
Snow tackled trying to free Serah, overcoming his own inadequacies (which he show-boated to conceal and/or defeat), taking responsibility for Hope, finding conciliation with Lightning, and overall shifting from brash youngster into maturity.
Vanille struggled almost the entire game with a feeling of responsibility for pretty much every bad thing that happened. Maybe "one-note" from a certain angle, but it affected all of her interactions and decisions, and it did so in a multifaceted way (depending on with whom she was interacting).
Fang, though, was one-note. As were the Fal'cie, actually, though that was very hard-coded and intentional, and that fact created drama and an interesting world structure all of its own.
The rest of the Franchise? Terra was all about self-identity, finally acquiring a second note with the children in part 2. Sabin and Edgar were pretty much entirely one-note (and with each other). Locke's only deal was trying to save his girlfriend, and his story vanished once he failed to do this. Cyan's only schtick involved his failure to save his family, also. Celes was kind of all over the place; I don't even know what character she was really supposed to be portraying.
We have Barrett, who was only about saving the world's environment for his daughter; Tifa, who was just a tag-along for Cloud; Yuffie, with literally one scene at all; Red, again with just one scene of any note; even Cloud was just a generic tough-guy whose identity was wrapped in self-lies.
And if the "characters" behind Rydia, Kain, Edge, Rosa, and Cecil were interesting to you, it was entirely your own doing. I love FFIV something fierce, but the only one of those who even had a discernible personality was Kain, and even that was mostly just "I hate myself."
I mean, apart from Wakka, Yuna, and maybe Tidus, who else in the entire series has shown the multi-dimensionality of the FFXIII cast?
Triptycho: A card-and-dice tabletop indie RPG currently in development and playtesting
Your descriptions for the cast of XIII are great. I wish I had played THAT game. But what you're leaving out is the execution. There were a few well-done, convincing moments. Hope and Snow's confrontation on the roof. Sazh's breakdown. But you're ignoring every other part. Snow may struggle with wanting to save Serah or fulfilling his focus, but he does it by saying the same line for 30 straight hours. And what about the supporting villains, the biggest throwaway characters since XII's Judges?
I'll be that guy to say I liked VIII's cast. The story kind of went up it's own ass, and yes, Squall being encapsulated with "..." and ":(" doesn't mean there wasn't a lot of characterization, especially in Laguna's side of the story. I also thought there was a lot of potential for Seifer which they kind of gave up on halfway through, and Zell was pretty interesting. Rinoa and Squall get far more complex if you buy into the fan-theory that Squall's dead from a certain point on, which resulted in her suddenly falling in love with him when the scene before that she couldn't care less and wants Seifer back.
I understand that's basically just us injecting our own interpretations of the characters in there, but I don't think they should be written off entirely.
To comment on the trailer: Maybe we weren't supposed to see that, but yes, it looks hideous. I enjoy XIII's story and really enjoyed the way XIII-2 ended, so I'm not exactly sure how to feel when I see that the third game won't be a direct continuation but an extremely weird and unasked for Lightning adventure. I'll reserve judgement but I have a feeling this game is going to suck. Especially since I'm not entirely sure who they think they're marketing this to.
The characters you dismiss because of caricatures are still more interesting than anyone in FXIII. But don't get me wrong, XII has some truly awful character moments too.
It's partly because of the limitations of the medium that the earlier games succeed where XIII fails. We are able to read those lines however we want, and subconsciously give the writing the benefit of the doubt. Square did not make the transition to voice acting and HD gracefully, and they still haven't nailed it down.
X got a pass from me because I figured it was their first outing with voice, and it's probably my favorite in the series, but after that they should not have any problems.
The easiest way I can sum up my issues with XIII's cast is that they are all one-note. Each character has one problem, and after that problem is resolved or ignored by the plot, the character does not develop further, and almost always has nothing relevant to say for the rest of the game.
And the Fal'Cie were hilariously stupid. There were Fal'Cie doors. DOORS.
It's interesting, as I see it exactly the opposite; for me, XIII's characters were the least one-note of the franchise outside of X.
All of the characters were caught in the struggle between personal survival and sacrifice for the greater good, and their personalities informed how they tackled this dilemma throughout the game.
Lightning had inter-party conflict with Snow, played tutor for Hope, and was filled with regret regarding Serah.
Sazh was looking to free (and then help) his son and took on a fatherly toward with Vanille (that temporarily changed to vengeance).
Snow tackled trying to free Serah, overcoming his own inadequacies (which he show-boated to conceal and/or defeat), taking responsibility for Hope, finding conciliation with Lightning, and overall shifting from brash youngster into maturity.
Vanille struggled almost the entire game with a feeling of responsibility for pretty much every bad thing that happened. Maybe "one-note" from a certain angle, but it affected all of her interactions and decisions, and it did so in a multifaceted way (depending on with whom she was interacting).
Fang, though, was one-note. As were the Fal'cie, actually, though that was very hard-coded and intentional, and that fact created drama and an interesting world structure all of its own.
The rest of the Franchise? Terra was all about self-identity, finally acquiring a second note with the children in part 2. Sabin and Edgar were pretty much entirely one-note (and with each other). Locke's only deal was trying to save his girlfriend, and his story vanished once he failed to do this. Cyan's only schtick involved his failure to save his family, also. Celes was kind of all over the place; I don't even know what character she was really supposed to be portraying.
We have Barrett, who was only about saving the world's environment for his daughter; Tifa, who was just a tag-along for Cloud; Yuffie, with literally one scene at all; Red, again with just one scene of any note; even Cloud was just a generic tough-guy whose identity was wrapped in self-lies.
And if the "characters" behind Rydia, Kain, Edge, Rosa, and Cecil were interesting to you, it was entirely your own doing. I love FFIV something fierce, but the only one of those who even had a discernible personality was Kain, and even that was mostly just "I hate myself."
I mean, apart from Wakka, Yuna, and maybe Tidus, who else in the entire series has shown the multi-dimensionality of the FFXIII cast?
Least one note? C'mon...
EDIT: Image won't share FFS. I'll have to make one later.
Sheesh. I can't believe this is the best image macro I can find. All I wanted was a picture of Snow doing his fist
-> hand thing with a caption "I'm a hero!".
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Square, please, just....fire everyone in charge of your PR. Has there been a single decent trailer not related to FFXIV put out this year?
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Though, I think I should play the PSP IV first. I hears its a little lacking in difficulty, but is closer to the "true" experience. My plan is to play Complete, and then check out the DS/iOS version for an extra challenge/revisit.
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I find it hard to believe that even if the XIII-3 trailer was balls to the walls awesome that people wouldn't bitch anyways.
And that IV trailer looked fine.
Trailer shows three skillsets called Divinity, Enchanter and Cerberus (a tri-com paradigm in the older games, but the other two don't match up). They're probably customisable, and you can switch between them so it maintains some complexity. No chain gauge doesn't look promising, nor does the slow pace given you just have a single character doing stuff.
Story shaping up to be dumb as hell.
So this. I'd like a straight forward story for a change you know.
Because as far as the story went they probably said one paragraph in regards to it.
As for the trailer itself. Looks interesting, there was a bit of wonkiness to the framerate in the trailer but I'm guessing that's because its still in development.
Because that sure looks like Parasite Eve: Sword Edition.
To note, this is not a bad thing to me. At all. Bring on the targeting domes.
Anyway my reaction to that trailer ranged from boredom to actually laughing out loud at their what was probably intended to be gravitas.
So what you're saying is that you either didn't play, or didn't pay attention at all to the stories in XIII or XIII-2?
But that's kind of secondary anyway because everything is gone; Etro's gate was opened, the chaos that Caius wanted to unleash that would destroy all creation, was; and presumably we're left with a world of someones creation afterward but we have no details on if it is somehow related to Hopes Bhunivelze or if it's something else entirely.
So yeah, the reason we don't have Eden or Academia is because both are gone, completely.
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The closest I can think of is VIII and that still had several characters, especially Laguna.
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The same could be said of XIII-2.
It's not just you.
The characters in FFXIII remind me of a concept in the book Pattern Recognition. It's about this person who has a natural ability to synthesize corporate symbols. She can see a symbol or design and know where it came from, what it's for, etc. But she cannot decode symbols from Japan, as they are too artificial/manufactured. In short, they have no personality.
That's now I feel about the FFXIII characters. Designed by committee, devoid of personality.
I already own the DS version, but I never use it anymore and I REALLY want to beat this damn game someday. The furthest I ever made it was to the Moon on the SNES version where I gave up for some reason. I got a SNES near the end of it's life so I believe another game interfered, but it was so long ago I can't recall now.
I'm a consumer whore.
You're overthinking it. Its just the usual complaining that comes up anytime something FFXIII related is announced.
I am interested in more opinions, though the idea of paying $16 for an iOS game sounds maddening to me. I'm hoping maybe I can sell my barely-touched DS copy around that price.
Also, it's not all great news. Seems when they said it supports the iPhone 5 display, they meant this:
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I know why they aren't there, I simply resent the writing team throwing away established stuff at the end of each of the games.
* Anything 6 and earlier falls victim to caricature by necessity (limitations of the medium)
* 9's cast was caricature by intention (excluding Vivi, strangely)
* 7 probably had the most two-dimensional characters in the modern era (Cloud being the most developed of the set)
* 12 was adversely affected by the forced inclusion of Vaan and Penelo, though it did manage some moments in spite of that (usually in the scenes where neither of those two were included)
* 8 was complete nonsense with the worst cast in the franchise
That leaves 10, which probably had the best cast apart from XIII. I found both titles to have relatable characters with real motivations and behavior patterns. They felt the most like actual people.
The older titles (pretty much anything before 10) existed before people really thought that video games could have interesting and believable characters, which is why 7 felt like such an achievement with what little it actually did in that department. Plus, many of us were quite young when those games were played, and simplistic or ridiculous characters are a whole lot easier to swallow when you have youth in the picture. I think if people were able to "un-play" their favorite in the series (IV, VI, VII) now, after having played through X and XIII, I think the judgments of those would be much harsher -- and XIII would look better for the comparison.
Video games are "grown up" now. There's never going to be an RPG that recaptures the experience of when you first enjoyed VI or VII or what have you. Your expectations and experiences are too different. That "newness" of the experience won't be recreated.
And that's okay, because the new stuff is actually good!
The antagonism between Lightning and Snow was also great. It was a very grounded, believable kind of relationship, well-acted on the part of the English voice actors, and a great little side story to flavor the proceedings.
Hope was also a wonderfully complex character. If you felt he was "too whiny," I have to wonder if you've ever had to deal with a kid who lost someone that close to them. He had some great moments with Lightning, learning to take care of himself and continuing his inner battle about Snow. That climax scene was also quite good, IMO. The character was fully-rounded with a complicated fatherly relationship (explored just enough to develop the character, not too much to bog down the flow of the game) and a budding crush on Vanille (which featured impressive subtlety for an RPG).
Fang was under-written, though, and Vanille suffered from the acting on the English side. So there was that.
Also, I guess I never had a problem with "space pope." He reminded me of the religious leader of FFX, only delightfully more direct and involved with proceedings. His manipulation of events and the emotions of the characters made him a solid villain, I thought. Part of this was the excellent world design of the Fal'cie in general. They were a great implementation of a cool idea.
It's no different than playing a 40+ hour game on "Insert Handheld Here". Unless you're incredibly adverse to touch screens, it's the same thing.
It's still cheaper than a brand new DS copy. I might be an outlier in this, but I don't judge a games price based upon platform. I judge it on a per game basis. $15.99 is the cheapest price for this version of the game on any platform (unless you're buying used).
It kind of is, since you're using that device for so many other things besides playing games.
Anyway, how is the voice compression in the iOS version? Do they come out clearer than the DS voices?
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It's partly because of the limitations of the medium that the earlier games succeed where XIII fails. We are able to read those lines however we want, and subconsciously give the writing the benefit of the doubt. Square did not make the transition to voice acting and HD gracefully, and they still haven't nailed it down.
X got a pass from me because I figured it was their first outing with voice, and it's probably my favorite in the series, but after that they should not have any problems.
The easiest way I can sum up my issues with XIII's cast is that they are all one-note. Each character has one problem, and after that problem is resolved or ignored by the plot, the character does not develop further, and almost always has nothing relevant to say for the rest of the game.
And the Fal'Cie were hilariously stupid. There were Fal'Cie doors. DOORS.
X and XIII characters are bland copies of currently popular manga tropes and honestly reused a lot of material from anime and such created and the same time period.
I liked the XIII cast for the most part, even Snow has his moments, but this right here is accurate. That's why I gotta say I liked Sazh for the early part of the game. Dude was interesting, and that scene with Vanille where he seems to give up? High point of the game for me, cause I cared about the guy. Then after that he just kinda...stops.
I downloaded it last night at 3am... haven't had a chance to play it yet. I have a killer set of headphones at my girlfriend's place. I'll check and report back later this evening.
And yeah, you're right. Texts and incoming calls is annoying as fuck when playing an RPG. I often forget about how annoying it really is because it's not inherently annoying for pick up and play games. I don't often play the longer games except when I'm at the GF's where there is no gaming PC or console.
Oh well, that's what airplane mode is for :P
Pretty much this, and yeah the whole touch screen controls.
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It reinforces my opinion that at least SOME people at Square know what goes into a decent game, and those people are not allowed to make decisions.
Lightning had inter-party conflict with Snow, played tutor for Hope, and was filled with regret regarding Serah.
Sazh was looking to free (and then help) his son and took on a fatherly toward with Vanille (that temporarily changed to vengeance).
Snow tackled trying to free Serah, overcoming his own inadequacies (which he show-boated to conceal and/or defeat), taking responsibility for Hope, finding conciliation with Lightning, and overall shifting from brash youngster into maturity.
Vanille struggled almost the entire game with a feeling of responsibility for pretty much every bad thing that happened. Maybe "one-note" from a certain angle, but it affected all of her interactions and decisions, and it did so in a multifaceted way (depending on with whom she was interacting).
Fang, though, was one-note. As were the Fal'cie, actually, though that was very hard-coded and intentional, and that fact created drama and an interesting world structure all of its own.
The rest of the Franchise? Terra was all about self-identity, finally acquiring a second note with the children in part 2. Sabin and Edgar were pretty much entirely one-note (and with each other). Locke's only deal was trying to save his girlfriend, and his story vanished once he failed to do this. Cyan's only schtick involved his failure to save his family, also. Celes was kind of all over the place; I don't even know what character she was really supposed to be portraying.
We have Barrett, who was only about saving the world's environment for his daughter; Tifa, who was just a tag-along for Cloud; Yuffie, with literally one scene at all; Red, again with just one scene of any note; even Cloud was just a generic tough-guy whose identity was wrapped in self-lies.
And if the "characters" behind Rydia, Kain, Edge, Rosa, and Cecil were interesting to you, it was entirely your own doing. I love FFIV something fierce, but the only one of those who even had a discernible personality was Kain, and even that was mostly just "I hate myself."
I mean, apart from Wakka, Yuna, and maybe Tidus, who else in the entire series has shown the multi-dimensionality of the FFXIII cast?
I understand that's basically just us injecting our own interpretations of the characters in there, but I don't think they should be written off entirely.
To comment on the trailer: Maybe we weren't supposed to see that, but yes, it looks hideous. I enjoy XIII's story and really enjoyed the way XIII-2 ended, so I'm not exactly sure how to feel when I see that the third game won't be a direct continuation but an extremely weird and unasked for Lightning adventure. I'll reserve judgement but I have a feeling this game is going to suck. Especially since I'm not entirely sure who they think they're marketing this to.
And the fact that the "Rinoa is Ultimecia, Squall is Greiver" fan theory was squashed by Square makes me sad. It makes the story so much more tragic.
There is a chance they will misinterpret this as Star Wars I-III instead of IV-VI.
It could still turn out better than the recent games.
Least one note? C'mon...
EDIT: Image won't share FFS. I'll have to make one later.
Sheesh. I can't believe this is the best image macro I can find. All I wanted was a picture of Snow doing his fist
-> hand thing with a caption "I'm a hero!".