I was glad that I started to replay this. I picked up FFXIII back in 2010, when I still haven't built much of a personal perspective on games yet. Now, it feels like a new light has been cast on my experience of it.
XIII was my "formal" introduction to the Final Fantasy series. That is to say, it was the first Final Fantasy game I ever played. Sure, I've heard of the game franchise, watched "The Spirits Within", "Advent Children" and VII's cutscenes before, but the thought of actually playing it never really crossed my mind. Lightning was the main reason I jumped into Final Fantasy - she is such a gorgeous and strong character that I fell in love with her even before I picked the game up.
So imagine my surprise when I heard many complaints about Lightning as a character. In fact, there was quite a palpable sense of...dislike (even hatred) for the XIII series. As a newcomer, I did not really understand it in the first place. But now, I can understand their reasons - even though they didn't make me like the game any less.
But let's forget the negative, and that's pretty easy once the introduction movie starts playing. The beautiful graphics that held me captive the first time still steals my breath away. CGI is really one of Final Fantasy's strong points - that, and music, but let's not get into that right now - and it is one of my decidedly-not-guilty pleasures in gaming. Graphics do not determine my passion for a game; rather, it should be the icing of a delicious cake - not all that necessary, but it completes the experience.
Apart from CGI, the in-game environments are breathtaking as well. Lake Bresha is absolutely gorgeous: the entire lake crystallised in mid-wave. It gave me the urge to reach in and touch the crystal surface myself.
But that brings up one problem. With such lovely environments, the linear maps make it absolutely frustrating for the player who wants to frolic and jump aimlessly around the map. It's like dangling a piece of candy just out of reach of a toddler strapped to a high chair. Without giving us the option to explore, the environments are just glamourous set pieces to be gawked at from a distance. Sure the artists' efforts are appreciated, but there's just an aspect of fun missing from the game.
Now, on to the gameplay. It should be admitted that FFXIII suffers from a very slow introduction due to the method of storytelling chosen. The entire party is split into 3 different groups for the first few hours, and our time is spread across all of them until they finally band together to achieve their common goal. Now, from a storytelling perspective, this is all well and good. It gives us time to learn about the characters, to start sympathising and perhaps care for them.
However, this means we'll have to play through the same map (albeit in different areas) and fight the same, repetitive battles over and over again. In the beginning, before the characters are turned L'Cie and given magic abilities, the battles are essentially just "press A to win". Things become much better after the party acquires magic and their own special roles, so that tactics are more important. I'll have to admit, though, that having to play through different parties with different roles and setups does offer the chance for more exploration and eventually finding a paradigm that I'm comfortable with. In fact, it made me try out the Synergist and Saboteur roles more - something I didn't really use outside of boss fights in my first playthrough.
So that's that. I'll write more after further play. Really enjoying this revisit to FFXIII.
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