Shauk

I'm about 20 hours into this game. I think all of the 1st impression reviews are doing the game a disservice by not actually finishing the game before crying about things.

I'll go ahead and write my impressions so far but this is not a final review from me in any way, so it's subject to change.

Combat system for the 1st 8 hours made me want to hit myself in the face with a controller until I passed out.

Seriously every fight is just jamming one button for auto combat at this point. as noted earlier, plays itself.

once all the systems are in play, it can get really hectic and the tide can turn literally in the frame of one nasty attack you weren't ready for.

the new mechanics are "staggering" and "paradigm shift"

staggering is basically the theory that the more you focus fire on a target, the more vulnerable it becomes to your attacks. you start out dealing 100% damage, whack it a few times, you're up to a 103% or something.

now a translation for the old school ff fans.

Commando = Warrior (Str based melee fighter, nothing special by itself until you "stagger" your enemy, then it's whoopass time)

Ravager = Black Mage (offensive magic, lower damage than melee it seems but pushed up the multiplier a lot faster)

Medic = White mage (heal, resurrect, dispel, cleans debuffs)

Synergist = red/white mage buffs (haste, shell, etc..)

Sabotuer = debuffs (deshell, etc)

Sentinel = Knight (counter attack, no offensive moves, can take a beating, provoke)

Think that covers it. Might be forgetting one.

Staggering basically works on a creature by creature basis. Each creature type has it's own threshhold. Say it's threshhold is 130%

you spend a large part of the game duo'ing before you get to the 3 party member system so you'll probably sit there with commando/ravager just pounding at a guy till he's at 130%

some flashy shit happens and all of a sudden he's at 230% basically you're doing double damage while he's sitting there going "ow, my kidneys" and you can ramp it up pretty ridiculously high. I got a boss up to 900%
You have a limited window of time to take advantage of it so if your party is pretty effed up from whatever you're fighting, you might wanna hold off and heal up a bit cuz sometimes they come back from being staggered with a nasty pissed off bowel movement all over your party.

that said, I read 2 or 3 reviews trying to get a general idea of what to expect. Story wise, I was told to expect to feel like the game was dragging on for the 1st 15 hours.

Never really felt like that to me. It felt repetitive at points but that seems par for the course and I actually prefer that to being left there after I beat the game going "well what the FUCK was that part all about?"

That said, while they beat you over the head with some really obvious shit in this game, there ARE a few moments where you're going "what the fuck just happened?"

Not Spoiler: durring a boss which I will not name, some owl flies in to his staff both the bad guy and the owl disappear in a flash of light and, a boss encounter ensues (I'm assuming some sort of magical david motherfucking bowie labyrinth action just happened here, you beat him up, owl then turns in to a fucking space ship, you hop in, hit 88 mph, you fly THROUGH sheilds and THROUGH walls in to some (spoiler) thing and I'm sitting there going...

ok so let me get this straight I just rode in david bowie's ass as a space delorean?

or something like that, I dunno. that's pretty much where I left off.

that said, the fights are challenging later on. You'll go from (literally) 5 second fights at the start of the game to 5 minute fights with some trash, to 13 minute fights with a boss.

How do I know? because this game also grades you after every god damned fight with a 1-5 star rating, which matters why? because it gets converted in to "TP" which is what you use to cast your edolion summons, or libra (handy dandy monster analysis spell of doom) You can stock up to 5 points, summon cost 3, libra cost 1. There are some misc spells you can get that cost TP too but the one I have (quake) sucks my balls, I don't cast it. not when all my other spells are FREE, (yeah no MP in this game, just action ponts)

It's very obvious in the story that everything isn't as it seems, that there will be plot twists, the story is convoluted enough that you wont necessarily guess those twists on your own though. I guess only people capable of licking their own elbows might guess what happens later on in the game. I certainly didn't. I knew SOMETHING was coming, I just didn't really think of THAT particular twist.

Though, the twist (again, only 20 hours in) wasn't like OMGJAWDROPPINGSHITMYSELF amazing but it was interesting enough to keep me playing.

Linear? fuck. yes. While the upside is that I never quite feel lost, they do seem to take advantage of my free time by jamming lots of really fucking difficult encounters in my way sometimes. I can go around them, but me being the guy who likes levels and unlocking abilities and collecting drops, cannot let anything live, death to all! aieee! Yeah, That WAS my perspective until about 15 hours in and I got in to some huge dungeons. At that point I was just like "LET ME THE HELL OUT OF HERE, THIS PLACE IS SHITTY, THE MONSTERS ARE SHITTY, THE DROPS ARE SHITTY, THE MUSIC IN THIS ZONE MIGHT BE SHITTY BUT I CANT TELL, OMG THERE IS A WHOLE ZONE WHICH YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO A STUPID WOOP WOOP WOOP WOOP WOOP RED ALERT SIREN FOR OVER AN HOUR BEFORE MAKING IT TO A BOSS?" yes... in retrospect I should have put on some of my own music and waited for another cutscene before going back to the game sound.

minor nag: options menu doesn't include a way to adjust music/sound/speech volume. I play with subs on but there are a few spots where the voice actors are drowned out by the music or sound effects and I would not have been able to know wtf just got said if not for the subs. So, play with the subs on, you've been warned.

Hidden things? not really, the minimap pretty much spells out every little nook and cranny you can walk in to. You won't really know whats in there till you visually verify it though. It's fairly obvious when it's just a L shaped offshoot from the main passage that you should go look for a chest.

Which I hereby refer to as "Chesticles" because they look like a floating metal testicle of doom.

Now, On to the ps3/xbox differences.

IF YOU HAVE, a 1080 capable TV, and it is 40+ inches. don't be a buffoon and get the xbox version. I'm a total videoweenie and I can tell the difference between a 720 or 1080 picture on my screen, ESPECIALLY with games. Diagonal lines, it's the difference between looking like an 8 bit staircase and the edge of a deady sword.

If you have a smaller tv, 30 or less, knock yourself out, you're not going to cry about it.

That said. PS3 is a clear winner, uncompressed blu-ray video > 5xx blink blibbity blah. Period. As for online video comparisons, the concept is fine, but it doesn't work for me. 1st you need a similar monitor to that of the TV you'll be playing on, and instead of watching a compressed streaming comparison video, i'd rather download a 500mb-1gb clip running in native res showing me the comparison.
The other thing is it's kind of "not same" watching the difference between 720 vertical lines and 5xx vertical lines when my resolution is set to 1200 vertical lines O.o

These people are professionals, they are telling you the xbox 360 version is inferior from a technical FACTUAL standpoint, unlike some goddamned opinionated fanboy circle jerk websites out there.

plus, 1 disc is better than 3. Less wear and tear, higher resell value.

oh and to the dude going off about how ps3 owners dont buy games.

laughable. 360 games are pirated, ps3 games are not.

I know I sound like a goddamned ps3 fanboy right now but I've stated NOTHING of opinion in the difference, simply technical fact.

so basically 360 = 2/3rds the resolution along with compression artifacts.

Oh and the screen tearing thing? I haven't noticed at all. I know some games did that, but that's just because the people who ported it are lazy fuckheads who don't know how to dev properly for the ps3.

Read: Sega's port of bayonetta, half the FPS of the 360 version. = bullshit = boycotted.


Edit: just googled it, apparently it's limited to people trying to play the game in.... standard definition...
/gag
Sorry, call me an elitist asshole, but if you know anything about what you're spending your money on, you're not going to play your HD capable game system on an HD capable TV in standard def because you're too dumb to buy an HDMI cable, or worse yet, bought an HD capable Game system for your standard def TV. Seems to me if you're that careless about your hardware compatibility/synergy, you've got little room to complain about visual artifacts like screen tearing.

side note: I've owned 2 ps3's, sold the 1st one because I didn't own an HD tv, yet, and felt like I was doing myself an injustice. I WAS. I got the ps3 after I bought the TV and was so, so, so much happier with the value of it.


IN ANY CASE, elitist fuckhead attitude that I possess put aside: it's something they can probably patch. I wouldn't worry about it.


anyways back to the game.

The characters? All the girls are hot, all the guys are androgynous metrosexuals, cept Sahz, token black character, typical JRPG fare.

Vanille a freaking 13 year old cocktease. ok well I don't know her actual game age, she just looks like she's 13, has a tattoo on the side of her ass/upper thigh, and makes fun of Sahz for being tired after they camped saying shit like "can't close your eyes with a cute girl like me around huh?"

Fang's voice actor threw me for a loop, she opened her mouth and BAM, got smacked in the face with accent. It grows on you I guess. Just wasn't what I expected.
Other thing is, THEY NEVER really introduced her. Like even with subs on, she was "mysterious woman" for a whole section of the game, then next time "bam" her name is Fang. I was waiting for her to say "Hey, my name is Fang" But that never really happened.

Lightining = Cloud from FFVII with boobs. well, kinda. ex-soldier, emo, bitchy.

Snow = self proclaimed "hero", no really, he said so, like 27 times since I started the game. He's a hero, he told me so. Yeah I want to punch him in the dick and throw him in front of a train, but he also is the subject of much hate from the emo kids in the game, unfairly really, I was just like "goddamnit, I can't hate him because they hate him, and they, of all people, shouldn't hate him"

Sahz, awesome dude, has a baby chocobo living in his hair. Shoots shit, it's everything barrett from ffvii should have been. Token black dude MINUS the "pity da foo" ebonics.

Hope, Emo Kid, I really have nothing to add to that, they never really add any dimension to him other than he's a grief stricken emo kid, who eventually gets over it, but he's probably the least interesting character to me. Cool ravager class animations though.

A lot of the game revolves around "Serah" but she's not playable. She's kind of the catalyst of the opening to the game and the chain of events that brings the cast together.

Anyways, I don't really know what's going on right now because of my owl/delorean encounter. If any of you are at/get to this point, feel free to explain it to me.