Final Fantasy 130

Well, i am roughly 28 hours into this game now and i have mixed feelings about it. The first 25 hours or so felt like i was more of a viewer occasionally interacting with the game than a game player. As has been said many times before FF13 is very linear and it’s not a good thing. You’re being told where to walk and then when you do encounter a battle you basically just keep hitting x till you win. So for hours on end it’s:

Walk in straight line > bash x > watch lovely cut scene > Walk in straight line > bash x > watch lovely cut scene > Walk in straight line > bash x > watch lovely cut scene > Walk in straight line > bash x > watch lovely cut scene > Walk in straight line > bash x > watch lovely cut scene > Walk in straight line > bash x > watch lovely cut scene > ……

You get the picture. After many hours though you can start putting your ‘paradigms’ to good use and finally you start to have to think about how you’re going to win your battle. You can also upgrade your weapons and accessories etc. Then when you battle ‘The Pope’ at the 25 hours(ish) mark it suddenly become really hard to win battles! It didn’t feel like a gradual step up at all.

The cut scenes are glorious though and probably the best FF has ever come up with. I am enjoying it but it’s certainly not my favourite Final Fantasy. I don’t like how claustrophobic it feels and how simplified they have made it. But that said i have finally got to the part where everything opens up so maybe it will feel a bit more like traditional FF games now. We shall see and i’ll update when i’m done!