Notice

Alright, two things:

1. I went to continue my BioShock game and to my dismay I found a lack of save games. It seems fate has turned against me and this blog, and I need to restart my game. I was probably 6 hours in maybe? Hard to tell, I get sidetracked easily.
2. I purchased Red Dead Redemption as a reward for receiving my first full pay cheque for my new job.

The result is me abandoning/putting on hold my current BioShock project and picking up with Red Dead.

Yeah, I know. I'm disappointed in myself too. Now, Red Dead Redemption, I can beat this!

Maybe.

BioShock, Diving In--wait, that's a terrible title....

I haven't had the chance to get any further in BioShock recently. I've had a guest in the home and so less time to play games on my own. On the plus side, I've had the opportunity to partake of the joy that is Scott Pilgrim arcade game just released for Xbox. Despite this though, I still would like to take the opportunity to discuss my very first moments of BioShock.

I believe I may be overly fond of this game's opening. Indeed, it may be so good that my previous attempts to play through may have been hindered by my fear that the rest of the game cannot live up to it's first hour. The momentum and vividness of those first moments are cinematic gameplay at its best. Finding yourself twenty five feet below the ocean surface, oriented only by the glow of fire, and surfacing only to find the tail of a plane sinking underwater, and pushing towards what appears to be some mysterious plane destroying lighthouse: spectacular. Then, through sheer lack of options you push forward, and are taken back underwater by some submelevator as the voice of BioShock introduces you to the utopia Rapture was to the farce you will soon find yourself vying for survival in.


Then, as you land, you witness the murder of some random man at the hands of some monster, a monster who soon turns his attention to you, weaponless, in a preserving jar. But luckily some asshole is going to save you. I know enough about this game not to trust this fuckhead but his voice serves as your only comfort in these first moments, saving you from the first splicer and directing you through your first steps in Rapture.

As soon as the game begins begins after this point the lustre is lost a little for me, but it peaks once again in that small room where you are forced to wait for the door to unlock while the silhouettes fill the propaganda film that fills the entire one wall. As they smash and claw their way through that glass screen, I'm always so impressed at how intense this moment is on me. Bravo, Ken Levine, bravo.

Grrrrr.

Playing through this time, though, it was funny to see how dated this game looks nowadays. NOWADAYS!, as if 2007 was a generation ago. But really, as you swoop through the "high" rises of Rapture, the whale moves swims passed and he just looks blocky and simply animated. How things change, even in a few years. I used to marvel at the visuals of this opening moment, but now I'm distracted by how dated they appear.

Despite this, the environments still looks incredible, and those flying turrets are still the bane of my existence. As I said in my initial post, I am playing on "Easy" so sadly some of the suspense is gone, and I feel confident as I stride the halls zappin 'n smackin any splicer silly enough to fuck with a guy with lightning hands.

I did get pissed when I discovered I had to choose between magic powers. I'm assured I get more slots later, but right now, I don't want to choose between force push, fire, and lightning. I like comfort the ability to light a man on fire and then throwing a chair at him provides. Ah well.

When it comes to my weapons, I feel a little underwhelmed. They seem perfectly serviceable but I'm just bored by the stand-by pistol, machine gun, and shotgun. I know this is just the beginning, but I'd really like to feel some sense of freshness when I blast a hookhand's head apart. As it is, I feel I'm just fulfilling a genre obligation when I use these weapons. Also, I run out of ammo so frickin fast it ain't funny. Given, I'm a terrible shot, but I fail to see the point of a pistol when it seems firing it seems the equivalent of putting nine bullets in my hand and just throwing them across the room. I usually hit with one or two shots, but that's of no comfort to the wall I just chewed up.
 

Then, of course, came the big moment: my first battle with a BIG DADDY. Poor guy when don't like the "don't-taze-me-bro" guy. It's "Easy"'s fault I know, but this guy dashed at me once knocking me back across the room, which only gave me ample time to empty another clip of machine gun ammo into him before he could approach again. I guess there aren't much brains in the glowing orb of a head they carry around in the middle of their torsos.

And I didn't kill the little sister. I can barely force myself to play bad in rpgs and that doesn't require me to bust open a toddler in a pink dress. I've heard the ADAM difference from good to bad isn't as large as you'd suspect from the ratio it presents you as your moral/mechanical dilemma in that moment.

That's all I got. I'm not sure why anyone would read this now that I put all this down. Oh well, not going to erase it all now.

New Project: BioShock

Or should I say, BioSchlock!? Am I right? Sigh.

So I failed. Um, I'm not going to be completing FFXIII. I could say maybe I might come back to it eventually, but I'd feel amiss without also saying that this would be not-fucking-likely. I do however like the idea of blogging through my experiences as I play a game, and even like the idea of trying to complete games that I'm not necessarily predisposed to, or have failed to do so in the past, because I'm trying to broaden my horizons. Let's say.

I'm not saying that I plan to only blog about my little list of troubled games, but rather it might be the projects I undertake while not playing the new games I'm excited about. Given my bank account and how infrequently games I'm genuinely pumped for are released, I'll have plenty of time to play these other games.

Which brings me to BioShock. Wee.


Background: I'm not a big FPS player (I'm bad at them) so I was never all that interested in BioShock when it was released. But!, everyone raves about it, especially in terms of how the narrative is integrated into the gameplay, so I eventually picked it up a few years ago for a good price. Since then, probably once a year, I've tried to play it. I usually get past the first little bit, right after you see, but not fight, the first BIG DADDY, and the game path branches a little. About at this point I end up not returning to the game for two reasons.

First, the game creeeeps me out. The splicers are pretty scary, but what really freaks me out is the combination of the lack of a radar and the sound. I don't play FPSs often and when I do, I'm used to radars. So, when I'm fighting bad guys, I know, in some sense, where the bad guys are, and more importantly when there are bad guys. But BioShock, justifiably, does not have a radar, so you're constantly unaware of when splicers are about, and worse, where they are specifically when you can hear them. And that sound. Their sound. And their creeping about. Knowing they're there but not able to find them and knowing they're going to get me when I least suspect it. Christ. I'd be terrible at survival horror.

Secondly, I get a little lost. I tend to get anxious when I'm not sure which way is the right way to progress in the game. It's not that I don't like exploring, it's just that I like to know which is the progress direction, and which are the fuck around and collect ammo, upgrades, and such directions, so I can do those first. BioShock sort of lets you know the progress direction, but coupled with my preexisting creep out, and my tendency to die all the freakin time while I fumble around and explore the non-progress areas, I tend to get a little discouraged. When I think about sitting down to play again, I find myself lacking the needed motivation/desire.

But, I think I can beat this one this time. I mean, its not a grind-fest like FFXIII, and this game has a difficulty level, which, I'm not afraid to admit, I put down to "Easy" this time. I think this will help me stay motivated, and help me to not just drift away. As it is, I've already made it past the part at which I've previously failed to progress, and I'm kicking ass. The game is really really easy on easy and so I think I'll be able to move through and experience what everyone says is so good about the game without the constraint of my terrible FPS abilities to exacerbate the issues that normally prevent me from making it further into the game.

Also the blog project should help. It kept me going at FFXIII longer than I certainly would have last time. Which, laughably, wasn't even out of the tutorial. (As a side not, I tend to agree with Yahtzee about tutorial lengths in this instance.)

And yes, easy. I've beaten Ninja Gaiden 1 and 2 on extra hard difficulties so I'm not insecure in myself that I can't play a game on easy.

Man, if I could play as Ryu from Ninja Gaiden those splicers would scare me one bit. Dual katanas are good comfort against any foe. Except for "Master Ninja".

If you hadn't noticed...

Fuck it.

It's been a long time...

... getting from there to here.

It's been a busy last couple of weeks around here, and so I haven't had much time to either blog, or to even play FFXIII for that matter. But!, all my visitors have finally vamoosed and so I can get back to my usual schedule of having to come up with reasons not to play FFXIII.

I've decided to actually come back to it with forgiveness, not hatred, in my heart. I should reserve my bitterness for things that are of real consequence.

See ya soon.

Back in Full Swing

And by full swing I mean obligated reluctance. Essentially, I started up again and remembered exactly why had lost my desire to play. Oh well, go fuck yourself self, play the game you said you'd play.

Hours played: 9:49
Played up to Chapter 5: Operation Nora

Notes on Previous Posts

• I have heard the story about the traded Chrono Trigger many a time. Believe me, he's still bitter about it. He will probably take that resentment with him to his grave. A redhead never forgets.

Peanut Gallery

I guess I should jump in here some time as this is a joint project, though lately my brain has been filled abstract nonsense and other video games rather than Final Fantasy XIII.

So, who am I? I'm Cam's avid, RPG lovin' significant Other! Or person of significance in Cam's life. Note how I don't say "other half"? Yeah, I'm a whole person. A single unit. And this is my opinion.

A Respite

So, these last few posts have really been a bit of an autobiographical indulgence in how my sense of the RPG changed as I grew up. This story has basically been a series of meandering anecdotes about Chrono Trigger, where I wrote a great deal about a game that isn't FFXIII.

I threw the "autobiography" tag on because, really, I don't feel like I can talk about video games, especially RPGs, without examining how I come to games as a person. Video games are interactive, and RPGs especially require you as a player to put something of yourself into the game, to a varying degree, obviously. Even critics can't avoid themselves in their writing, and I'm not even trying to do criticism per se. I want to log play experience, to write about what playing FFXIII is like. That's probably pretentious.

Taste is autobiographical, so my sense of game is about me, so how I relate to FFXIII is all about me in the end. I'm not a biography blogger, but when I started this blog, I permitted myself the autobiography tag because I thought it was an important way to describe the experience of the project. Really, I'm not planning to come out with a thesis, I'm just hoping to beat the fucking game.

And that's really the hiccup now isn't it?

My (Last) First Time

If I had any sense of self reflexivity, I'd have known when I first started this autobiographical anecdote that it lacked a climax. While I think this finale disappoints on its own, it also disappoints even more so due to its concluding place in the narrative arc of these episodic blog posts.

Chrono Trigger circles and occasionally intersects with my personal history with video games, and functions as a fixed point to my shifting sense of taste. Indeed, Chrono Trigger has become one of my favourite games, not of its own accord but because it has had a pseudo-continual place in my life, if only as the game that continually confounded me but waited patiently for me to come to a place where I could finally appreciate it.

What Chrono Trigger is, is a fantastic game, that I am remarkably bad at. Even as we resume the story, things don't go as simply as they should.

Everything you Ever Wanted to Know About RPGs but Less

Kotaku has made a "Visual Guide to the Role-Playing Game". It's fairly large so you'll have to head over there to actually read it.

I guess this is supposed to be an RPG for dummies sort of deal. I don't claim to be an expert at all about these RPG things, but everything on here seems like its pretty commonly known. Except maybe the VIP section, which for myself, contains people I don't know but neither do I care two shakes about.

The infographic does have a wonderfully reductive description of the difference between JRPGs and Western RPGs (WRPGs?) that will piss a good bunch of people off I'm sure, whether the statement is accurate or not.

Seems like people dig it, but I'm just not too sure who this is actually for. Maybe bloggers.

My First Time (Part 3)

This title has become a little worn, this being for all intents and purpose the third first time I've posted about, but we are at least approaching the end.

So, to this point I've discussed, first, my purchase of Chrono Trigger and my failure to appreciate the RPG genre, or even understand how to adapt inside its rules, to adopt a strategy to defeat a difficult enemy; and second discussed the unfortunate occasion I sold my somewhat valuable Chrono Trigger cartridge from my childhood. Whatever may be may be, I guess. This post will deal with how I came to want to play Chrono Trigger again, and actually regret selling it for more than just the value of the cartridge.

My First Time (Part 2)

So, as I said in Part 1, I reached a certain point in Chrono Trigger where, as a child, I was too unfamiliar with RPGs (and apparently problem solving) to be able to progress. And as I've done many time since then, I gave up and decided it wasn't my fault at all. "Fucking RPGs. I'm going to go rent Final Fight 3."

Now, I have actually finished Chrono Trigger, but I never finished it on that particular cartridge, because, you see, it was stolen from me by some shyster.

Hmm, is that word racist? I better look that up.

My First Time (Part 1)

A story I've told many times now that I'm older/wiser/more bitter is my history with Chrono Trigger. It was likely the first JRPG I ever played, maybe even the first RPG I ever played, but, like most stories about your first time, it is a bittersweet story of mistakes and cluelessness.

Let us Speak of Narrative

Hours played: 8.15
Played up to Chapter 5: Vanity

Disc two bitches! I've made it far, but can I make it farther! Oh the suspense.

Eek. Something that has been really bugging me about my play through with FFXIII has been how they throw in countless little cinematics while you move through a level. My real problem isn't the cinematics (though I don't really care for them), it's how they're interspersed between these useless moments of game play that are supposed to be tutorial. It's like one type of shit I don't like gets interrupted by another type of shit that I like even less, thus preventing me from getting through that first shit. Wait, why am I even playing this? Oh yeah, because it's supposed to get better. I WILL SEE, hopefully.

I understand mechanically how this first bit (HAHAHAHA) of the game should work. There are three interwoven elements: tutorial, time to learn, and narrative/back story. I've already talked about how I think the tutorial elements sort of fail, but what's really becoming jarring is the shift between these three elements.

My assumption is that the part of the game I'm in right now, is slowly introducing me to the complexity of the combat system, thus I only have to control two characters. The designers want me to understand how classes compliment/interact between two classes before they'll give me the chance to work with three. I understand this idea, however, because you don't have a full team the fights have to be easier, and so when I enter combat I never really have to do much. I'm button mashing again, auto-chaining and every once and a while paradigm shifting, almost out of an attempt to better understand the system, not because I need to.

So given the ease of progress right now, and the simpleness of combat, all I do is run along the path into enemies, then button mash them to death, and after about four minutes of this I get pulled into a cinematic. And that's what I've been doing for hours now. I walk forward, through battles, and watch cinematics. I don't feel like I'm being offered a great amount of game play, and even this limited game play is constantly interrupted by the cinematics. It's a repetitive cycle that makes this "tutorial" the most trying thing to get through.

The cinematics, hmm. I don't want to be too harsh, but I tend to find the way the characters act, and their dialogue to be either trite, cliched, or melodramatic. Maybe I should just say unsubtle, something that could have been improved with further drafting. Now, this isn't uncommon for video games, so maybe I should shut my mouth. But no, FFXIII isn't a normal video game.

FFXIII purposefully places narrative front and foremost in the game. The story and characters are supposed to be good, supposed to be epic, sweeping and riveting. I mean, people love these games for a reason, and it's not because of the role-playing right? FF is about characters and stories, and so these cinematics need to be held to a higher standard. I'm not attacking the story, because I'm not far enough in to it to talk about it intelligently but I do find the characters (only some) and dialogue to be grating. But the characters will grow, so maybe the cinematics will too.

That's a long argument, so fuck it, quick notes after the jump.

Oops

Hours played: 6.41
Played up to Chapter 4: Eden or Bust

So, remember last time when I thought I'd figured out the combat roles system thinger? Specifically I said something along the lines that Commando stops the stagger bar from decreasing while Ravager is effective at building it up. Now, my false assumption is luckily enough not contained in the way I phrased my understanding, but unluckily enough, I am now going to explain that false assumption.

You see, I was under the impression that Ravagers were good at building the stagger bar. This is correct. I also believed that after staggering an enemy, Commandos were good at stopping that bar from decreasing. This may or not be correct, I'm not sure. But what I damn well know is that Commandos are good at stopping the stagger bar from decreasing BEFORE an enemy is staggered. This I did not know, and so last night I was spamming the ravaging and wondering why the stagger bar drained like water down a drain.

Compounding this problem is the fact that I'm currently in a part of the game that puts me in a position where I don't even have a Commando. This exacerbated the problem. I didn't even have a Commando available to show me why I couldn't stagger enemies. Grr. But whatever, I've caught on now, but I do think the tutorial could have done a much better job explaining this whole thing to me. I dunno, maybe I'm just dense.

I've also learned that a Saboteur's spell (a debuff) will work similarly to stop the stagger bar from depleting almost immediately. Handy, unfortunately, as my Saboteur only has two spells, so she pretty much stands there (or well bobs there) after she has cast each spell on an enemy, meaning that stagger bar quickly begins to evaporate again. Funny stuff FFXIII. Funny stuff. But whatever, that's change soon.

Okay then, my quick notes:

• Snow stayed behind last play because he didn't want to leave crystal Sarah alone or something; he thought he could chip her out before the Fuzz arrived. No such luck. The bad guys show up and are all like it's time to die commie, and he's like it's morphin time. And you know what? I had to play the fight. This isn't fair. He is the guy who made the stupid decision to stay behind, even after I asked him not to, YET I still have to play him when he gets in a bind because of said stupid decision. You're beginning (HA!) to try my patience young man.
  
• K, well I beat those baddies for Snow, but then two motorcycle chicks show up. And by that I don't mean a pair of manish women role up on their hogs, I mean giant, blue, women that are also part motorcycle appear out of the sky. Um, what?
• About those motorcycle women? I know you're telling me its an Ediolon (looked that up), and that I have to prove myself to it, but you have not told me why they are motorcycle women. Or even why I have to prove myself to them to begin with--why do I get the feeling that everyone in this game knows what's going on except for the most important person to the game, ME!
• Also: after you prove yourself to the motorbitches, you have to press a button to win. I'm not sure why you don't just win automatically, I'm left to assume the game designers wanted to punish me for not reading the tutorial carefully enough. Got me guys! Good one. I loved playing that battle twelve times without any clue as to why, despite my prove-yourself-meter being topped up, I still couldn't "win".
• I say "win" because I'm not sure proving myself to a pair of giant blue motorcycle women that like to beat people up is a straight win.

Wow. These quick notes are getting, well, long. It's really because I realized I'm dumb and I was making jokes for people that had just seen what I had, or had a really good memory of the part of the game I'd just completed. This is stupid because I imagine some people reading this blog (lie: I imagine no one reading this blog) may not have that sort of memory, or even worse for these quick notes, may not have even played the game. Big drr on my part and sorries.

Positives: Sazh is still pretty cool, I like how he dances in combat. Other than that it was a bit of a slog. I even have more to bitch about but I'll save it for next time. Yay for you.

Reading and Planning

Hours played: 4.21
Played up to Chapter 3: The Only Way is Up

Whoa. So I've been out of town and busy with school so I haven't had the chance to blog about my latest FFXIII play. I actually don't have a lot to say though. I mean, I did a lot of walking around on a frozen crystal lake and then I fought some big thing that died fast enough for me to wonder if I'm super awesome at the game (I'm not). Oh, also there was a bunch of watching these characters flat-out bitching at each other.

Quick notes:

• This is basically what I hear EVERY TIME Snow talks: "Who has two thumbs and is the most annoying character in the game? This guy!"
• There's this bit where Snow tries to chip out his crystalized girlfriend from the crystal ground she connected to. Is his plan carry a human sized crystal figurine around Cocoon-towne? Seriously, what does he plan to do after he succeeds in chipping her out? Does he have a dolly under his toque? Even if he does, or if he can use his power ball of strength to carry her around, don't you think that will be the most conspicuous way to travel possible?

So I think I got a better handle on how the combat system works. Some things Meg told me started to make sense after I read a FFXIIIwiki for a bit. So Ravagers are good at building the stagger bar, and commandos are good at slowing the stagger bar's unstaggering progress. Okay so that's what the fuck that tutorial was talking about.

Reading up on the different classes also gave me a good idea of what sort of game I'm getting into. Normally I'm not a big read-a-wiki-to-learn-how-to-play-a-game-system type guy, but since it seems like the extent of FFXIII game play is building your party and switching paradigms, I wanted to make sure I actually understood what the component parts of this party building system were. I mean, I'm moving through a series of tubes and fighting shit along the way, all I really get to do is choose what role I focus characters on and whom I keep in my party. So I want to know how these parties are made.

I didn't really look up strategies on how to build parties or anything, I'm still going to have to figure out that system on my own, but I understand a little bit about what I'm actually doing in the game now. This is nice.

What I decided, in terms of how I plan to build my party is thus: Fang (Commando, Sentinel), Vanille (Medic, Saboteur, Ravager), and Sazh (Ravager, Synergist). I want to keep Sazh in my party and I used Vanille over Hope because she's less irritating. And Snow can go eat a cock so he's not in the party either, so Fang it is. I'm not under the impression that I'm going to be using only these characters, nor do I think I've got this thing solved before I've even begun, it's just my general starting strategy. We'll see how it pans out. Wheeee!

A Brand New Day

Hours played: 3.02
Played up to Chapter 3: A Vision Shared

I got paradigms bitches! That's right. While I enjoyed hitting auto-battle so the "game" could continue, I'm pretty excited about this whole, playing a combat system thing. Well sort of, if I understood it. But let me get back to that.

First some quick notes:

• Where did Hope get that boomerang? The game made a point of showing us where Vanille got her weird antler fishing pole thing, but then Hope just pulls a fairly sizable boomerang out of his ass. Seriously, I don't know where else it could have come from.
• What's up with Vanille's antler fishing pole thing. I know she's a caster but this thing's weird.
• While on the topic of Vanille, this bitch runs like a damned fool.
• Does Snow have a rock soundtrack? Is this because he is indeed a douche-nozzle?
• Did Lightning hurt that door's feelings? Why does she have to apologize to it?
• When trying to destroy a potentially giant metal machine thing, try C4, NOT A SWORD!

So, before I talk about finally getting my first little taste of game system, I'd like to talk about how much I hated the part of the game where all the characters come together in the Pulse Vestiage (yes I had to look that up). This had to be the most annoying part of a game I've played recently (possibly an untrue statement, see resource mining in Mass Effect 2). I mean I love the full five minutes I spent with each group as I guide them through an obligatory level containing only boring enemies and filler narrative. That hour of my life felt like humouring FFXIII. Game, you could have just showed a cutscene of everyone running into each other and saved me a lot of useless busywork. And don't tell me you had to teach me pre-emptive strikes and shrouds, because we could have done that in the previous section while I was walking endless miles of sky highway.

What's even more annoying is that there's no experience yet. Actually, Meg told me as I began to grind in a certain level that their was indeed no XP to be gained at the moment. So, I asked her, you're telling me I've been fighting all this time in the game for nothing? I could have just ran by everyone up until this point (aside from the baddies guarding chests) and lost nothing? Guh. So the next section flew by, as I likewise, flew by every enemy possible. No XP, no fighty.

And after some showy plot stuff, (those zombie things are actually pretty unsettling), I fought the robot lobster and fell down to Hoth. And SHABAM! now I get to play a game. Sweet. I've been waiting for this. Oh this is going to be soooo much fun.

Then I begin fighting the fights and I get a nagging feeling that I'm not really sure about what I'm doing. Yes, I understand paradigms and how some are more defensive and others more offensive, but I'm not really clear on this whole chaining thing. The game seems to indicate to me that certain moves/abilities in certain orders are better at building the stagger bar than others, but I don't think it really laid out the particular reasons why. So, you're going to hold my hand, but when it comes to the most IMPORTANT PART of the combat system, you're just going to reference that it exists? Jeezus. I'm pretty confused. Luckily Meg can explain (and has) and I can hit up a wiki, but I'm pretty irked that FFXIII just forgot to tell me how to properly chain things. Bah.

Anyways, hopefully once I can get a handle on this chaining thing, then I'll feel more comfortable in battles, and in, you know, the game.

Oh, and that robolobster is the first time I died. It wasn't too hard of a battle, I just fucked up and got nuked before I could take a potion. I wasn't paying enough attention and boom. It was nice of the game though to offer to play the entire cinematic buildup to the fight for me again. So thrilled to check that out a second time.

BioWare Bitch Slaps FFXIII

Wow.

Well, before I address the main point I just want to take a slightly more controversial route: You can put a 'J' in front of it, but it's not an RPG. You don't make any choices, you don't create a character, you don't live your character... I don't know what those are - adventure games maybe? But they're not RPG's.

That's Daniel Erickson, Writing Director for BioWare, in an interview with Strategy Informer. Now, normally I wouldn't take much note of such a comment. Indeed if I had seen some dude on a forum say this, I'd chuckle and the pithiness and think this dude wants to start a flame war. I even mostly agree, if you don't get to play a character, a game isn't really an RPG in my definition. BUT, I don't know, as a BioWare representitive if it was the most tactful thing to say about FXIII on record.

BioWare is a big company and has become fairly important to the game industry aside from its importance to the RPG world. And so, directly attacking a major competitor like that--a major competitor that's been doing this game design thing back when BioWare was brewing potions in its diapers--seems a little douchey. Say it behind closed doors, in conversation, but for the love of god don't let this type of sentiment go to print. Just for decorum's sake.

At least when Squeenix calls BioWare's games ugly, they pretend like they're talking about someone else. Throwing darts at a picture of your enemy is vastly different than throwing darts at his face. And Erikson went straigt for the balls.

via Kotaku.

The Journey Begins

Hours Played: 1:07
Chapter 1: Fates Intertwined

Well the easy part is over, I've started FFXIII. As the FF start screen did its typical sweeping thing I wondered: do all FF start screens start out in the clouds? I'm not an expert or anything, I just know XII's opening, and it sure starts out in the clouds. I'm not bashing either game just because they have a similar first twelve seconds of the start screen cinematic, I just thought it was funny. I tried to find previous star screen cinematics on YouTube but I couldn't necessarily discern whether they were indeed what I was looking for or if it was an opening cinematic. Oh well. Clouds are pretty.

Some quick notes:

• I think it's actually funny that Lightning declares that a tutorial is about to begin. "Watch and learn." Made me laugh
• The game tells you that "enemies stalk the roads that you travel." From what I gather, I'm going to be traveling a lot of roads...
• I hate this camera. Instead of swinging freely, it seems to swing with weight. It moves slowly at first but then seems to retain momentum after I've spun it for a second or so, making it more difficult to stop. I remember XII's camera being more of the free style. I'll have to boot it up to see.

Alright, so the big thing I noticed last night was some serious hand holding. Now, I'm not a big hand holder, ask Meg, but at least with her, she's a pretty lady. XIII wants to hold my hand like a mommy. I kicked that addiction at least a good fortnight ago and frankly I'm insulted. It's like I'm playing a fucking Wii game. Okay, let's not get angry, they're trying to woo a new market with this game, they need to explain some RPG things. Be more forgiving, me.

You know, at first I thought I could actually handle the tutorials: during the first battle, a tutorial taught me how to use the system, and once I was left to my own I did some fighting and things were going pretty good but I eventually hit a point where I was probably going to die, so, like a sane person, I used a potion from the items command. I healed and killed the bat-snake-bird-robot-plane thing. Oh good, I thought, so they teach me the basics but leave me to figure out the fairly obvious concept of using a potion on my own. And this happens in the first battle, so we have a good blend of tutorial and self teaching. I was shocked and impressed, as I had heard that the game treats you like a moron.

Of course thirty minutes later a tutorial pops up to teach me how to use a potion. Wait--what? How was I supposed to beat the first guy if I didn't use a potion? I was using autobattle the whole time and I would have died if I hadn't "figured out on my own" how to use a potion. How was that fight supposed to play out. Also, now I'm afraid I'm going to get a tutorial hours later on everything I've figure out on my own.

Like equipping items. Figured that one out on my own without a tutorial. How is this moron FXIII takes it player for (let's call him Chaz) supposed to know how to equip items? Will he get to an equipping tutorial hours later and discover that he's been carrying a bunch of useful weapons around but hasn't been using them because no one told him how to equip them? Or maybe FFXIII will never teach Chaz how to equip things and he'll go the whole game with shite weapons and equipment. If I was Chaz, I'd be piiiissed.

Then again, since I'm a huge moron, I might not understand that I've just been fucked over and instead slap my knees with joy because I can now use a more advanced powerball on Snow, my favourite and most identifiable character.

Seriously, Snow and all his revolutionary buddies are retarded. What's the plan? Run in guns blazing? Cool! NO, not cool. You are revolutionaries, haven't you ever heard of guerilla tactics? Nope? You're just a bunch of tossers? Never mind then, go get yourself and every one else killed in whatever brilliant plan you jokers have cooked up. I sure hope this day is everything you dreamed it would be when you were jacking off to it on your toilet as a preteen. Oh Snow! you're a reaaaal hero! Fuck off.

Seriously, at one point I stopped to take a note and Snow stood there pounding his fist. I cannot describe to you how mad that made me. If this character persists at this one note bore-fest then a) he'll never be in my party now matter how hard he can punch (read: punch, instead of use a gun like every other sane revolutionary...sigh) and b) I'll think much less of the FFXIII writers.

I never thought Snow would be more annoying than the kids but who knew, surprises abound in FFXIII. But maybe I just haven't had enough time with Hope. I assume I learn soon enough who's the biggest twat in Cocoon.

On the positive!, Sazh is pretty funny, as is his little chocobo. I will make every effort to include him in my party. Though from what I here, this may not be easy.

The Project

Well, I've decided to do this. And it may be the most foolish thing I've ever tried to do, but I, CPW, will beat Final Fantasy XIII.

How did I get here? Christ knows really, but I think it has something to do with the sheer gravitas of FFXIII. Final Fantasy games were once the biggest of deals in the RPG video game world. And, really, I've never played a single one, despite being a big RPG fan. Perhaps I should explain.

First, I didn't really enjoy RPGs when I was younger. I wasn't very good at them because they required more than just button mashing. I would eventually hit the point in the game when the battle system mattered and since I simply continued to spam "attack", the game quickly became impossible. So, I didn't really get into RPG's until I got older. I think my first RPG was Knights of the Old Republic, you know, because it was a Star Wars game. Now, I'm not too proud that it took lightsabers to get me into RPGs, but I do think there was still something going on in that game that made me like it, something that is crucial to the second reason I've never played a single FF game: I don't really like JRPGs.

This isn't like a steadfast hatred that causes me to rage against the Japanese machine, I just get bored when I play them. Typically. I mean, I don't think that, as a genre, it is impossible for me to enjoy a JRPG, I just don't think they pander to my particular brand of RPG-like. I've played every BioWare game released since KOTOR, and generally, have enjoyed them a great deal, and Fallout 3 is likely the game I'd name as my favourite game ever if there was a gun were to my head on a desert island. I enjoy North American RPGs. And that sort of makes me a late comer to the genre, because, as you likely know, Final Fantasy and Japanese RPGs, are a pretty big deal.

Now, I lied a little when I said that I have not played any FF game. I have played a little of one of the earlier ones, you know the one where you start off with the mechs and you're invincible. But I played that game because I could play with Meg. We didn't ever really keep playing it past our first night, but I'm not too sure as to why. It could be because of the limited multiplayer depth or because of her god-like dominance of every element of the game ("turn left here"). Together, we've also played through a good portion of Eternal Sonata. That game's multiplayer system is a bit deeper, and it appealed to the action gamer inside of me. The game has its flaws, but I could see myself actually playing through it all on my own. So that's something.

And, most confession, I've played some FFXII. And not an insignificant amount. I haven't almost beat it or anything, but I've certainly played it long enough to get a grasp of what the game is like. For your reference (if it matters), I've played a bit past the part where you go to talk to the tribe people with the funny faces. I can't remember what they're called, but they were a story mission. I've played past this point but I cannot remember any real important details. There was fighting a big wall, blowing up a big ship, and a lot of people talking about a lot of the same thing. Power, some weird maguffin thing, war, uprising, dishonour, masturbation, magic, booby-rabbit... It gets fuzzy near the end. Anyways.

I didn't even mind FFXII too much. For instance, I liked how you could program, in detail, your party's behaviour, the running around and fighting things without switching to some new screen, there were some cool weapon types and techniques characters could use, and Balthazar... or Balthier... the pirate guy, he was pretty cool. And I really dug the idea of a narrative where your character is more of a secondary role. Indeed, in North American RPGs, your character is always the most fucking important person in the universe--I liked how Vaan wasn't really all that important (or at least wasn't to where I'd played), just along for the ride. I eventually gave up on the game though, not out of frustration, but out of boredom.

As my characters began to progress in levels it began to appear as if every character I had would eventually be good at everything. Everyone would really be able to get every License and so everyone would be the same. If some characters were better at one thing over the other, I couldn't tell. Nothing in-game told me so, and so I didn't see the point of not equipping everyone with the best lance or sword at the time and just beating those monsters down with melee. I know that there were some strategies for having some more magic characters and more melee characters, but would that still be there when everyone was all licenced up? And what's the point of the guns? They seem to be nothing compared to a sword or lance. So I was a little disappointed with the battle system since it seemed like everyone would be the same by the end, classes seemed irrelevant.

But my real problem was the narrative. I understand many people will disagree with me on this, that many many people love the sweeping and epic stories in the FF franchise, and I can obviously only speak from my experience with XII's, but no matter the quality of the story, I ultimately feel estranged from it because I (as a player) don't matter. In FFXII, and it seems to be a trend in most JRPGs, my involvement in the story is basically whether the story moves forward or not. If I die, I start from my last save point. If I make a decision in-game, it was the only decision for me to make. In FFXII, it felt like I was playing a narrative, instead of playing a role.

Strangely this doesn't bug me if I play a non-RPG game, like Batman Arkham Asylum or Prince of Persia, but in the RPG genre I feel a little left out. And, you know what, even the choice in many of the RPGs I like are often superficial, and this pisses me off, but at least there is an illusion that I matter. I'll likely speak more about my frustrations with Mass Effect 2 in later posts.

But I've rambled on enough as it is, so I should explain what this blog is about. I've decided to play through FFXIII, all the way, 'till the end (I'm not sure about 100% completion, we'll see), and blog about my trials. Why? Well, despite my apprehension, FXIII actually fascinates me. It's been in the making for what five years? And how many people have worked on it? How much did it cost? Will some one else stake the same amount of (comparative) resources on a game again? The advances in game systems makes creating a game this epic and gorgeous so expensive that they may not necessarily be profitable. Essentially, this game seems important in terms of the FF franchise, in terms of both JRPGs and RPGs, and for all video games, so despite my reservations, I really should play it.

So that's the project, I'm going to play FFXIII, and I'm going to write about it. I've never written much game criticism so this will be an experiment for me, and I don't even know what the blog is going to be like. As I figure out how to play (and hopefully enjoy) FFXIII, hopefully I'll figure out how to write about it critically and/or personally. Maybe.

One final note: there will also be another person blogging with me about the FFXIII experience. Meg knows her FF shit, and has already (almost) beaten the game. She'll bring an contextual understanding of FFXIII that should serve as an important counter-perspective to my blathering, also competent spelling and grammar.

That's it. I hope you enjoy, and I hope I can beat this I actually see this through.