Paradigm Shift

Here's a little double-feature follow-up to the post I made just earlier today about the new Medal of Honor.  It seems that some people (Cody) threw a shit-fit and game me an earful about how influential the MoH series has been.  I agree with you, Cody, I just think that this game was a hackneyed mess only elevated by a par-for-the-course mutliplayer.  And no, the fact that the multiplayer is decent does not excuse the fact that the single-player (or at least my experience with it) was broken beyond belief.

Now, let's lighten up.  Now that I've given both of my readers an earful about a game that I didn't expect to hate, I'll dish out seconds about a game that I didn't expect to like.  I'm astonished, actually!  This game has all the elements that should throw me off and send me away, but I was drawn to it and enjoyed it despite.

The game is Final Fantasy XIII, and to those people who are calling my sexual orientation into question for liking a wussy little JRPG over a big, tough manly military shooter, well then that is FABULOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUS!!!!!!!!!!!

Final Fantasy XIII is generally regarded as one of the worst in the series (not including the recent Final Fantasy XIV Online).  People seem to take issue to the confusing story, the repetitive gameplay, and the domination of the cast by emo kids with strange hair colors.  Wait, am I talking about this game or the whole series (ba dum tish).  I can say now that I'm not one of those people.  I've so far been able to follow the story, get engaged in the gameplay, and actually connect with the characters.

To explain the backstory of this game would be like trying to explain quantum physics, and it would be pointless because I hardly know any of the backstory.  There's this place called Cocoon, and this thing called the fal'Cie that everyone's trying to get to, and all of the main characters get these tattoos which mean that they are these things called l'Cie and they need to fulfill their Focus or they get turned into these other things and ... AAAURGH, my brain hurts.

Besides that, the story is actually fairly genuine and well-put-together.  One of the l'Cie is named Sara, and her fiancee Snow and her sister Lightning both try to rescue her from the fal'Cie.  Lightning is dragging around this black guy called Sammy Sosa or something who has a chocobo chick tucked away in his afro (don't ask), and Snow is dragging around two kids: Hope, the embodiment of "pussy," and Vanille, the embodiment of "totally freaking bananas."  They fail, Sara turns into an ice sculpture, they all wander around on a truly-amazing-looking solidified sea, and that's as far as I've gotten so far because, being Final Fantasy, its long-long-long-long-long-long-long-long-long-long-long-long-long.

The point where I knew I was getting into the story was the requisite Final Fantasy love-story flashback featuring Snow and Sara, and I was actually kind of touched by it, even though I had been sitting around for like fifteen minutes since the last battle and was like "okay, that's nice, can I play the damn game now."

The combat system is simple while still achieving a sense of depth and involvement.  You spend most of the time pushing the Auto-Battle button (if you're me), and setting up chains of spells and attacks for a little custom ass-kicking.  Being a turn-based game, there's a certain amount of time you have to wait before making a move, but this is slightly countered by the presence of multiple layers, allowing you to make multiple moves in one turn, or make individual ones in almost-real-time.  There's also a Paradigm system that allows you to alter the behavior of your party members in combat, the requisite RPG skill assignment system to upgrade character stats and unlock new moves, and a thousand more things I haven't learned about because they likely haven't been introduced yet.  This sounds like a lot of thinks to keep track of, but it's well-handled enough in the game to not be a bother.

So far, I'm liking Final Fantasy XIII.  I'm almost loving it, in fact.  Don't expect me to be attending conventions in Cloud Strife cosplay any time soon, but do expect me to pay a little more attention and have a little more respect for a genre that I've mostly ignored over the years.