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
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