[Ginkasa]

Not done with XIII, but I think I'm close. I did not enjoy XIII the first and most recent time I played it back in 2010 (which kicked off the marathon back in the day). Now most of way through it again I still don't think I particularly enjoy it, but maybe I "don't enjoy it" a little less than I did back then.

The weird thing about FFXIII is that it yearns to be an action game and kind of feels like they made an action game, realized that Final Fantasy's are meant to be RPGs, and threw on an RPG skin over the action game. Combat is ostensibly turn based, but it actually flows like an action game. This creates some dynamic battles visually, but comes off really weird from a gameplay perspective. Big example is when your party leader dies it is game over. Anyone else dies they can revived via Phoenix Down or magic like every other game, but if the party leader dies it is done. This makes no sense from a storytelling perspective or an RPG perspective. The party leader can be anybody and is as your work your way through the story. There's no particular narrative reason why when Hope takes over for 5 minutes Lightning can't toss a Phoenix Down at him if he falls like she could when she was party leader two screens back. Gameplay wise, it really only makes sense from an action game perspective. jRPGs we're used to being able to revive anyone who dies (or is "knocked out" or whatever) in battle through magic or items or whatever. In an action game, though, if your main (and generally, only) character dies that is it.

Of course, there is also the oft discussed linearity of the game. Inevitably brought up in those conversations is, of course, that Final Fantasy games in general tend to be actually linear when you break it down. Without going down the rabbit hole of what "linearity" actually means, I think honestly the main issue with FFXIII is pacing more than linearity. It is just battle after battle after battle. There are little to no breaks or variety. And the battles blend together. There are some interesting ideas in the Paradigm system and honestly I've had fun with it. But when you get past 20 hours of doing the same thing over and over and over again it starts to get really stale. Action games can be non-stop action because they also tend to be short. In remembering this is meant to be an RPG, SE designed this game to be at least a couple of dozen hours if not more.

From a storytelling perspective I think I'm more engaged than I was last time. That's really what is keeping me pushing through is the story. I don't love it, but I am interested in experiencing it again with a slightly more positive outlook on it. That said, there are definitely some points in the game where it is narratively dishonest which is very frustrating and also a little sloppy in revealing some details. But, overall, I think I dig the cast more than I did originally and am invested in re-experiencing how it ends (which I'm not sure i particularly remember).

I hope to be done with it this week. I'll jump back into XIV for a bit to go through the (I think) 5.25 content I haven't got to yet in preparation for the delayed 5.3 content. May fiddle about and level my dragoon maybe, dunno. After that XV. I bought the Windows Edition that comes with all the fixins, so I plan to do that and watch the movie and stuff beforehand as well. See if that improves my perception of the story at all.