Yeah, I know Final Fantasy XIII is not an indie game or anything, but hey, we’re making an RPG so it’s on topic in that respect.
I picked up the XBox 360 version of Final Fantasy XIII at midnight last night. It was my first time going to a midnight release and it wasn’t as creepy as I was expecting. Sure, there was one loudmouth in line who just kept going on and on about everything that popped into his head, but for the most part, it was just a few dozen 20-something year old men quietly waiting in the cold to pick up a videogame (a few women and a teenager or two rounded out the crowd). When I picked up my copy of the game, I saw that they had a lot more PS3 copies in stock. I expect the 360 version will end up selling more in the long run to the casual crowd, but I’m not surprised that more of the hardcore enthusiasts are picking up the PS3 version.
I played through the first chapter of the game before deciding that I’d better get some sleep since I had work the next day. Here are my first impressions on Final Fantasy XIII.
The 360 version looks awesome. There have been several reports on how the 360 version of FF13 is inferior to the PS3 version, but honestly, unless you’re really picky or are playing the two versions side by side, I have a hard time imagining anyone noticing.
The music in Final Fantasy XIII so far has been excellent. I can see why so many people have been importing the soundtrack.
The dialogue is still firmly in JRPG mode. It works, but you can tell it’s a translation. Voice acting seems decent.
Combat seems like it’ll be really fun, although it’s still pretty basic. Timing is important despite being a menu-based game – use an area attack at the right moment and you could hit everything whereas 1 sec earlier, the enemies might have been spread too far apart. Even though things are easy and simple so far, the fact that you get graded in each battle and higher grades result in better item drop rates encourages you to play your best at all times.
The maps are very linear so far, but they have still managed to hide some extra treasure chests here and there.
Anyway, Final Fantasy XIII has lived up to my expectation so far. I’m looking forward to playing it some more (when I’m not working on Breath of Death VII)
The trailer for Breath of Death VII: The Beginning is now live! Here’s the link:
Really busy trying to get Breath of Death VII ready, but in the meantime, here are a few quick review.
Shoot 1UP (80 MS) - Fantastic vertical shmup with the gimmick being that you control a squad of ships instead of just one. By the Weapon of Choice developer.
Soulcaster (240 MS) – Like Gauntlet except instead of directly attacking your enemies, you summon a warrior, mage, or archer. Like an Action/RPG crossed with Tower Defense. Well worth the money.
Missing Reel (240 MS) – Pretty but shallow arena shooter. AI allies bugged out the first boss preventing me from being able to finish it. I was sufficiently bored to not want to restart.
Cyborg Mice Arena (240 MS) – Competent but uninspired arena shooter. Lots of upgrades to buy, but there are better arena shooters on the service (like Echoes+) that you could be spending your money on instead.
We just finished picking out all the music we want to use with Breath of Death VII and programming it in to make sure it sounds good in-game. Now, we’re just waiting to hear back from the musicians for permission. I hope everyone agrees to let us use their music – we’ve got an excellent set of songs right now that fit the game very well and I’d hate to have to change any of them out.
With a name like Yet Another Zombie Defense, I was expecting something subversive like I MAED A GAM3 W1TH ZOMB1ES!!!1, but no, you get exactly what the title promises. Yet Another Zombie Defense is yet another zombie defense game.
That doesn’t mean that it’s bad though. You shoot zombies, collect money, and then spend money between rounds to purchases walls, buy weapons and ammo, and buy turrets (which you can then outfit with any of the weapons you’ve purchased). It’s a winning formula and there’s some fun to be had. The graphics are decent, the music is nice, there are leaderboards to compete on, and the whole thing is wonderfully cheap at 80 MS points.
On the other hand, Yet Another Zombie Defense doesn’t excel. The enemies lack variety, the AI is really stupid (even for zombies) and will actually go out of their way to attack walls instead of you, the weapons lack oomph, and there’s no multiplayer. So it’s a decent game, but not a great one. It’s the very definition of its name.
If you want a good, relatively cheap zombie shooter game, I highly recommend Zombie Shooter 2 for the PC – it looks nice, there are a ton of weapons (many of which are awesome), there are some minor RPG elements, and a few different modes to play. Great, mostly mindless fun. Alternatively, Zombie Apocalypse on XBLA is rather entertaining, especially with a couple of friends. Both of these games are only $10 full price and you may be able to find them on sale for less. Yet Another Zombie Defense may be cheaper, but I’d recommend the higher priced alternatives – they’re worth the extra money if shooting zombies is your thing.