MGR – Final Fantasy XIII Part One

As part of the on-going process of me developing a video game review style, my next subject shall be Final Fantasy XIII.

Just a reminder that if you are looking for caustic, sarcastic reviews – you’d be better off checking out 95% of the other game reviews you can find – let me recommend Zero Punctuation. It is my intention to write my reviews the way I would like to find reviews for me to read: thoughtful analysis of the game, with the reviewer proclaiming his personal biases and examples of what he or she likes and dislikes. Not the reviewer trying to be the most cynical and snarky stand-up comedian he or she can be. In fact, odds are if I’m writing a review of a game it means I enjoyed it enough to finish it – I’m reviewing games that I found to be enjoyable. I may or may not, in the future, review games I don’t like – but the odds of me FINISHING a game I don’t enjoy are not very good.

OVERVIEW

Final Fantasy XIII is the latest in the well established game series from Square Enix. As with almost all Final Fantasy games it has little story, world or plot connection to the other games in the series but it does share many themes and iconic features (such as man vs. nature and the ever-present chocobo birds.)

XIII has the distinction of being the first Final Fantasy for the 360, and hence the first Final Fantasy since Tactics Advanced that I’ve played (also played 7 because it was on the PC and 3/6 on the SNES.) This alone (it being not a PS exclusive) caused such a backlash of console-favoritism rage that XIII was probably doomed to some unfair hatred from the get go. Me, it gives it an edge – I get to play it, after all. Plus I’ve said since GTA came to the XBOX that all the PS really had left was Final Fantasy for a huge exclusives series – so it’ll be fun to see if God of War and Uncharted can step in to fill the void and keep the PS3 afloat. Meanwhile Mass Effect, Halo and Gears of War show no signs of jumping ship to other consoles. Just saying.

I have so much to say about this game that I’ve decided to break the review into two parts – cutting off in the middle of the game mechanics section.

MECHANICS

Definitions in relations to video games tend to be a bit fluid – it’s hard to nail down what exactly counts as an RPG and what doesn’t, how much choice and decision making is needed for a story to be considered linear or open-ended, and so on. Sometimes words are misused so much – full motion video, for example – that the historically wrong meaning can become right in the vernacular.

Let me try to nail down “turn-based” as compared to “real-time”, however, as I think this is important. Turn-based, like “linear” (get to that word in a minute) has become something of a slur to hurl at a game to try and get gamers to turn their noses up. It becomes almost apocryphal to even suggest that a game should be turn-based anymore (after all, it’s not like anyone plays chess, Scrabble, or such similar games nowadays.) Putting aside the validity of such a belief, I think if something is given a label it should fit that label.

Many gamers, even some critics, call FF XIII “turn-based.” Heck, they called games like KotOR and Baldur’s Gate 2 “turn-based.” While they have probably different reasons for calling one than the others “turn-based”, all such claims are literally wrong.

The simple fact is this: the combat system in these games determine if it is real-time or turn-based. To be turn-based each participant (player or AI) must have an individual uninterrupted turn and the next participant cannot go (take their turn) until the previous participant’s turn ends. Real-time games have a constantly running clock, and any participant who can act is allowed to act whenever regardless of whether other participants have gone or not.

Looking at strategy games for a brief moment, the difference between turn-based and real-time is pretty clear. For real-time you have clear-cut games like all the ‘crafts from Blizzard (Warcraft, Starcraft) as well as Command & Conquer, Rise of Nations, Age of Empires and so-on (going back to the grand-daddy of real-time strategy games, Dune II.) The real-time has nothing to do with resource gathering and army building (that’s the STRATEGY part, and is involved in turn-based strategy as well) – the real time comes from the fact that while you are gathering, building, and attacking your allies and opponents are doing the same – there’s no “you go, now I go” back and forth at all. Switching to look at turn-based strategy, you get the Silent Storms, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the ever popular Civilization series and more (I like to think back to the days when my friends and I would gather at one of our homes around a C-64 and play games like Scorched Earth or M.U.L.E.) Whether playing solo or with real-live other players, the turn-based strategy allowed you a TURN on which you could take so many actions then end your turn so someone else could take a turn (player or computer) – one person’s turn did not interrupt another person’s turn. Then you have hybrid games like all the Total War series, where there is turn-based strategy on the world map but the battles (unless you leave them to be decided without actively fighting in them) are run in real-time.

Back to FF XIII which, like KotOR and Baldur’s Gate 2, is real-time. The combat system continues and characters take actions without any blocked-off turns. In any of these games if you do not issue commands to your MC you control the combat will continue on without you. That is real-time. Turn-based needs the combat divided up into turns. It’s in the descriptive terms themselves “TURN-based” and “REAL-TIME.” You can choose to make up your own definitions of what makes a game “real-time” or “turn-based” to you – but, as I’ve taken to saying in response, I can call you a “purple Martian” as well as long as I morph the definition of what makes a “purple Martian” to match you – when using words, commonly agreed upon definitions are needed for communications to be successful – if we all define words to mean whatever we want, then communications fail.

FF XIII has a real-time, command-menu driven tactical combat system. You can interrupt your own queued actions, cancel your actions, switch Paradigms during the execution of your actions, and enemies can act (even interrupt) your actions – meaning, in short, that you don’t have a “turn” as a turn-based game would require – you are giving commands and taking actions as fast as you can while your allies and enemies are doing the same.

The ATB (Active Time Battle) bars fill up to allow you to execute commands, commands that require a certain amount of bars to use – and this is how the game prevents you from just using your most powerful abilities by rapidly hitting a button without resorting to magic/mana and/or endurance/stamina points. A basic attack takes one bar, while a big area attack takes two or three bars. The effect is really like a constantly replenishing mana or stamina bar. It is an effective system, but it is just the basics of combat.

Each character has abilities they can use, determined by their Paradigms (read: classes), that you can either manually assign during combat OR you can hit the AUTO button to let the computer quickly select appropriate actions for your Paradigm and the situations of combat. The Auto button is most likely what you’ll be hitting most often (with the major exceptions being using Items or Techniques) and for the most part is very good at choosing what you should be doing (picking attacks that hit the known vulnerabilities of enemies, healing your allies properly, etc) and between it and how your (up to) two companions in combat are responding I have to say this is some of the best party AI I’ve personally witnessed. The Auto button is a great time-saver, helps you avoid accidentally selecting the wrong abilities – but it is NOT a magic win button. For one, as battles get more intense and difficult you will find yourself (if you want to win) interrupting the queue to assign new actions (even with a new press of Auto) to deal with changes occurring constantly in combat. For a second Auto does not utilize Items nor Techniques (which includes Summoning your Eidolon.) And for a third Auto doesn’t switch Paradigms for you – and if you want to win, you will be switching Paradigms in combat an awful lot.

You abilities range from dealing physical or magic damage, sometimes of an elemental type (fire, water, etc.), to healing yourself and others, to buffing up your party and to debuffing your enemies. Different enemies will require different approaches – you cannot just try to build up to dealing the most damage possible as fast as you can – enemies with high resistances will wipe the floor with you. You can’t just always buff your party to high-heaven – some enemies rapidly debuff your party. And you cannot rely on just debuffing your enemies as there are opponents who are immune to some or all forms of debuffing. You have to constantly shift your tactics depending on which creatures your face – there is no one “guaranteed to work in all sitautions” strategy like so many other RPGs out there. And this goes beyond simple “paper-rock-scissors” game elements like “fire vs. fire weak enemies.”

One last thing to mention before moving on to Items, Techniques and Paradigms – and that’s Staggering. Attacks and debuffs build up your opponent’s Stagger bar (some attacks (from Ravagers as opposed to Commandos) build it up faster) and once the Stagger bar is full the enemy is Staggered. This is referred to as Chaining. Once Staggered an enemy is more vulnerable to damage, sometimes losing special defenses or abilities it possessed, and opening it up to specialized attacks only usable when the enemy is Staggered. This is where an overall strategy helps you to chose your tactics, as sometimes you want to build that Stagger up quickly, other times it won’t matter, and sometimes you can’t and have to work around not having an enemy be Staggered.

In combat you use Items mostly to affect your party’s status – potions to heal, antidotes to remove poison, phoenix downs to raise your fallen companions, etc. Items are used instantly – they do not use any bars from you ATB, and even if you are Dazed or under other effects that prevent you from using abilities you can always use Items as long as you have them. Same with Techniques – they use no ATB bars and are immune to status effects. Techniques use Technical Points (TP) that you mostly earn from using abilities in combat and winning battles. There are several different kinds of Techniques, from the area Quake attack to Libra that allows you to learn your enemy’s stats to the most interesting – Summoning.

When you Summon you bring forth your party leader’s Eidolon – each of the six party members have their own Eidolon. The Eidolon and your party leader can then, for a brief time, fight your enemies together. You can also enter Gestalt mode – you and your Eidolon combine, usually the Eidolon switching form into some kind of vehicle or ride-able animal that you mount and engage in combat in a slightly different way. You have a list of new attacks in Gestalt mode, each with a point cost and you have a certain amount of points to use before the Gestalt ends. One attack is a big finale that is spectacular to watch and usually inflicts massive damage (ridiculous amounts if your target is Staggered.) Gestalt mode helps keep combat from getting too stale with the constant ability use and paradigm switching – it’s almost like a mini-game inside of combat. One final thing that Summoning does is after your Eidolon leaves your entire party is raised, fully healed and free of status ailments (assuming combat continues after your Eidolon leaves) making the summoning of your Eidolon a tactical choice on several levels.

Before leaving a discussion of combat we need to look at Paradigms. Paradigms are like classes in most other RPGs. There are six Paradigms: Commando, Ravager, Sentinel, Healer, Synergist and Saboteur. Each has a role to play in combat, and technically each character can have all Paradigms if you wish – though the game assigns three to each character, and they are the three that character will be most effective at. Before combat you choose your team that you run around the game map with – three out of your party of six (at least when you are far enough into the game to have all six party members with you) – and you can assign that Battle Group up to six pre-defined Paradigm builds – in other words, a list of up to six sets of assigned Paradigms (like Commando, Ravager, Ravager) that during combat you can switch between.

And if you want to win the tougher battles, you WILL be switching between Paradigms. Sometimes you need to heal, but other times someone stuck in Healer Paradigm is useless dead weight. Sometimes you want to buff up your party or debuff your enemy – but once all the buffing / debuffing is done your better off switching the Synergist or Saboteur to another Paradigm to continue to help in the battle. In some of the tougher fights later in the game I found myself switching Paradigms rapidly, cutting off queued actions or timing the switch to occur immediately after a heal spell went off, and “button-mashing” was basically occurring as I was frantically switching Paradigms and using Items and so on in desperate attempts to beat down some fal’Cie or such.

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Well, check back soon for the second part where I look at non-combat mechanics, the story, other game aspects and give my overall impression.