A Look At the Final Fantasy XIII Demo, Early Analysis

A demo for the PS3 version of Final Fantasy XIII was released in Japan this week, and people have had a chance to try it out and report back. In fact, video footage of the demo in its entirety was streamed and then posted on YouTube shortly after finding its way into customers' hands. Eurogamer got a chance to give the demo a test-drive, and they had this to say: "The characters are likeable — Lightning for her mysteriousness, the members of NORA for their banter and camaraderie — the setting is compelling, and the whole thing is as sumptuous visually as you'd expect of a next-generation Square-Enix title. The plot's the only thing that I couldn't get a definite feel for from the demo, beyond the basic set-up of an oppressive regime, a resistance fighting against it and a character with mysterious powers brought to aid them in a twist of fate. But forty minutes with Final Fantasy XIII have left me with nothing but anticipation for what else it has in store."

Re:What part of "final" don't they get?

[Tukz]

Do you even KNOW why it's called "Final" Fantasy?

Even if you think about it, just for a second, the title doesn't even imply it's a final game of any kind. It's a final dream.

Go look it up. There is an explanation why it's called Final Fantasy.

Besides, they have nothing to do with eachother.

Re:What part of "final" don't they get?

[njen]

Way back when Square was a much smaller company, they actually were on the verge of folding after a string of mediocre titles. Knowing their next title was basically all or nothing for Square, they created what they thought was their "final" chance at making it. It turned out to be a success, and they stuck with the name.

Re:Hmm

[Creepy13]

Even in FF VII you had to bring every char in your party to level them (as in most FF's!). In FF X things just got easier because you could swap then right in the battle instead of only via the overworld menu.

FF12 lost me also. Story wise and character wise.

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

Nice bit of cherry picking there. Microsoft will be proud. However to ruin your FUD, I have the bits you decided to leave ON the cherry tree.

Firstly, the Xbox360 only reads DVD4.3 at 12x, I can list all the DVD4.3 titles on one hand. The other 99% of Xbox360 games are on DVD9, which is read at 8x.

Whoopsie...

Secondly, it seems you have either deliberately, or accidently forgotten the CLV/CAV differences. The PS3 can read the entire disk at 72Mbit/sec, however the Xbox only reads a very small percentage at 8x ( 80.4Mbit/sec), then rest is on a downward spiral from there.

In summary, 1% of the Xbox DVD is marginally faster than the PS3 BD drive, the other 99% is increasingly slower..

Go back to your masters at Redmond and tell them you need more FUD training..

Re:I was impressed

[ookaze]

By sexual identity issues I think the point is that the game has these characters who are supposed to be male but end up looking like girls.

But that's the point, they actually don't look like girls, like not at all.

As for the girly guys, I think it's really drawing on fashion trends in Japan where young guys do sometimes appear somewhat effeminate.

This is what I think is fascinating: they are not girly guys, like not at all.
Those fashion trends you talk about are for music pop stars most of the time, which are made to appeal to girls. So these characters are actually fashioned to attract girls, meaning to be beautiful. How can this become girly guys for some cultures, or rather for some guys? I wonder.

Given the kinds of activities these characters engage in they really should appear tougher and more masculine.

Actually no, they shouldn't. But most western cultures mostly make use of the strength in the higher part of the body, and thus are only being able to see someone as strong if he develops always the same muscles. These are the easier to master because they are the most obvious moves. eastern cultures usually concentrate on all the other muscles and moves that are rarely used, and don't require you to have huge muscles bulging everywhere. The best way to understand that is through traditional martial arts. Meaning, for judo, not the judo you see at the olympics, but the true traditional one. The one that makes experts that go stronger when they get older (up to 70 years older and older), while westernized ones must give up after reaching 35 (and I'm generous).
When you understand, or rather feel this cultural difference, there is no way slender characters look girly at all.

But I bet only younger gamers find them girly, I'm sure even in the USA, older gamers have no problem with these characters, and don't think of them as girly.

Pacing the gameplay with the story

[Anonymous Coward]

Through the three Final Fantasy games I've played, IX, X, and XII, there's been a point where steadily the monsters get harder and harder, while my characters lag behind while the story progresses, leading to a moment where I have to go out and grind on the same monsters over and over again to progress. Final Fantasy XII was the worst in the grinding respect. If it were better, you would be able to sufficiently level up on story line missions combined with side quests. Not only that, but in Final Fantasy XII, monsters 30 levels higher than my characters appear randomly, and then when I double back the way I came, a new one spawns and it kills my party, so you can't even grind properly. Grind not only for levels, but for loot for new abilities, it feels like it has all the grind of a MMORPG, but without the pesky human interaction. Then for all your grinding, the storyline amounted to "kingdoms fighting." There was hardly any character interaction in the party outside of duos, like Vaan and Penelo, Asche and Basche, and Fran and Balthier.

Re:What part of "final" don't they get?

[imgod2u]

Uhhh. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_(video_game) [wikipedia.org] it's called "Final Fantasy" because it the creator thought Square would go out of business. He thus named it so because he anticipated it being the last fantasy game Square would produce.