Bumpity bumpity bump!
My (not so) regular triumphant return to GT is here!
I've been in the FF mood recently.
I never did finish my playthrough of FF2, but I still have the save. It's for the PSP remake version so it's technically easier, but I don't think I can fault myself too much. My characters can only take so many beatings to the head to get their HP up. Last I checked I was outside of Mysidia and I have both of the masks. Where the story progresses to afterwards is beyond me.
I had been reading a great Final Fantasy retrospective article from
socksmakepeoplesexy.net and it went over all (or most I should say) of the FF games all the way up to XIII. It also included the (meh) Mystic Quest for SNES and the fantastic Final Fantasy Tactics for the Playstation (not the War of the Lions remake, he's got an issue with the retranslation, and I can't say I blame him, they went kinda exaggerated with some of the new dialogue, although it is easier to understand this time around). He had huge issues with the series starting from VIII and it's a slow fall down, and then it's a quick thud for him once X-2 shows it's face.
My mood for FF was rekindled when I remembered that I purchased Final Fantasy XIII, played it for about an hour and put it back to play something else and never looked back. So I decided I was gonna go balls in and play it for hours and hours at a time. I have the time over the summer because I'm not working in the evenings and I knew that in the hour that I played I was getting nothing of what the battle system was truly like, or the character advancement either, which for me didn't start happening until around the two and a half hour mark or so.
I think considering that XIII's director was very highly involved in X-2, XIII doesn't leave as bad of a taste in my mouth. I mean, the story could have had some pretty interesting potential if Gran Pulse were more involved (or at least appear to be more involved; I'm only 15 hours in so I haven't been there yet) since there's an interesting conflict between Cocoon and Pulse. I have a hard time liking any of the characters that aren't Sazh. I really do. Well, maybe Fang. I saw way too many resemblances to the beginning of Final Fantasy VII in the beginning of the game. Lightning isn't very likable because she's got the Squall attitude towards everyone and it all seems unfounded, the situation with Serah not withstanding. Hope is a whiner, Vanille is on the outskirts of lolitown with a stupid accent, and Snow is way too involved in a romance plot that I don't really enjoy watching when the flashbacks come around, or when he goes on and on about Serah.
I do find the battle system to be entertaining, even if it's more automated and a little detached compared to the other previous games. What I dislike is the game completely gets rid of resource management with the healing of all your characters after each battle, and the fact that the enemies don't drop gil, and sometimes drop components. The weapon customization is weak, and I'm hard pressed to waste time upgrading weapons or accessories and spending gil on accessories or components as well.
Any gripes aside, I still find myself firing the game up to see what happens next in the extremely linear game. That's how it feels to me. It's almost even more restrictive than X, and X you could even backtrack. Maybe I haven't spent enough time, but I'm past the 15 hour mark, so I would think that takes too long.
My FF mood has also been kicked in thanks to FFIV, but I'll get into that in my next post. This has been a wall of text brought to you by magus113.