So the latest instalment of the Final Fantasy series is upon us, I’m sorry to say I’m not hardcore enough to have completed it yet (it does come on 3 discs!), but thought I’d share my initial impressions:
The game seems to remain fairly true to the previous titles, with lashings of gorgeous visuals, scantily clad female heroins, some extremely bad chat in the script and even the little white hand as the selector in the menus. If you’ve played any of the previous titles you’ll certainly feel right at home, not that it’s a necessity. The beginning of the game is nicely set up for people who are new to the series.
So what’s different? Well I can’t pretend to know as much about the other games as others do but even I noticed two big changes. First off you only control one character in the fights, leaving the others up to the AI. This certainly feels different, and at the beginning at least makes the fighting feel fairly one dimensional (press A, press A, press A…). However as you progress through the game it certainly opens up. I’m told by friends who have already completed the game (nerds!), that it evolves into quite an intricate system, particularly at the end the boss fights are meant to be pretty demanding, requiring quite a bit of skill.
Secondly the game is a lot more structured than the previous titles, something that I imagine fans of the previous games won’t be too happy about. It opens up as you go through, but you’re definitely left under the impression that you’re being led through the game, instead of finding your own way through like in previous games.
Do I like it? Yes and no, like with all FF games there are bits I love and bits that really annoy me. Normally I play FPS or racing games, lot’s of high speed action, this is certainly quite a departure from them. To be honest it’s nice to have a game I can play whilst laying back on the sofa, instead of leaning forwards with my elbows on my knees (I can’t play shooters any other way). This is certainly going to become my ‘had a hard days work – time to relax’ game, something I don’t have to think to hard about whilst I recover on the sofa with a drink.
It does annoy me in places, just silly things, like I feel the pace of the dialogue in cut scenes is mind numbingly slow, plus I find the mentality of some of the overly happy characters makes me want to injure them in some way. Oh yeah, and there’s a black guy with a bird that lives in his afro…. Things like this (in my opinion at least), certainly detract from the game, not enough to make me not want to play it though.
Anyway, I’ll get a full review up here once either me or my girlfriend have completed it (I’ve a funny feeling she’ll be hours ahead of me). Do I suggest you get it? It’s hard to say without completing the game but from what I’ve seen, if you’re a fan of the previous games, or are looking for a nice, relaxing way to pass the time when you don’t fancy gutting zombies, it’s certainly worth a try. It’s worth it just to see the cut scenes alone, some of them are up there with the best animated films. Just remember that it almost doesn’t feel like a game in places, more like a user controlled film.
What are your initial impressions of the game? Or have you already completed it, in a Red Bull induced daze, and what to let me know what you think. Let me know in the comments, just make sure to try and keep it as spoiler free as possible!
Buy it here (UK) — Or here (US)
I’m not quite finished the game, I was 25 hours into the game before i stopped.
And when I say I stopped, I mean it. I gave the game away to a friend because I was fed up.
Right from the off, you are forced to run down tunnels (maybe very open, bridge-like tunnels at times) all game, bar one small, and by small i mean an hour or 4 depending on how many fights you choose to enter, part where you enter a nice large open area… which leads to more tunnels!
Yes the boss fights requires speed, but not any skill. As long as you haven’t set your paradigm to something silly, chances are very high indeed that you will come out on top, as long as you swap them round time to time.
And don’t get me started on the half-assed characters. One might of thought that the little girl might get less annoying near the end. In fact, SHE GETS MORE ANNOYING! Swapping erratically from a New Zealand accent to a strange other one I’m unsure of, not to mention that her lines never really correspond with any of the other characters… she just pisses me off. Not to mention she is the biggest jail bait since… ever really.
My honest opinion is that Square Enix started making a movie, realised that last time they tried to make a movie they failed, and turned it into a game. A game where you walk down tunnels… and mash ‘A’ when fights start.