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)