Hopefully the Final Fantasy

Sorry about the lack of posts out of me, been busy with trying to trudge myself through the abomination that is Final Fantasy XIII. For a game that tries to do everything in Square-Enix's power to make it action-packed, it fails horribly. Perhaps this is due to the fact that Squenix's idea to make a game action-packed is to pack it with cinemas. I'll admit that I'm not too far into the game due to the limited time available to me, but being as familiar with a Squenix game as I am, the game will remain consistent throughout. Even combat feels bland and stale.

For your main character, the times when you don't have to spam a potion over and over (which takes crucial seconds that could have been avoided if it were mapped to some type of hotkey) can be spent by selecting auto-attack. I agree that it is nice with the battle system the way it is, but I would rather select single attacks as I have the rest of the Final Fantasy games. It ultimately ends up losing some of its action due to the automation of inputting multiple attacks and then waiting for your character to carry them out.

The game is also extremely linear. Not that this is a major complaint on my part, as I play an RPG for a linear experience. If I wanted something that was 100% open world, I'd just start playing WoW again. Sadly though, some areas of exploration are missed, such as some of the neat little secrets that have always been worked into previous Final Fantasy game.

In addition to the linear nature of the game, I find the story-thus-far to be quite lacking. It may pan out over the course of the rest of the game, but can I stand to wait another 15 hours (as I hear it takes) to supposedly pick up? The purpose of a game is much like any other type of media: create a hook that entices the player to play and motivate them to complete the game. This game does neither. I shouldn't need to get 25 hours into the game to reach that point. On top of that point, the characters are unimaginably bland so far. I have been unable to identify with any of them, and I wish the main character would go the way of Aeris.

The one shining spot of this game is, of course, the gorgeous visuals, though even those manage to disappoint at times. The frame rate does not always stay at a solid 30 fps, nor do the graphics always manage to stay "pretty" and "sharp." With God of War III coming up, boasting some of the best visuals on the PS3, and Mass Effect 2 with its gorgeous visuals as well, a game that is mainly cinematic in nature has no excuse to stutter in the frame rate, even during one scene, when I counted numerous times in only the first few hours of the game.

Regardless, this game is at least worth renting, but I would not recommend buying it. God of War III is coming out this week, and just from the gameplay footage I've seen, I will not be disappointed.