Lighting Strikes Twice: Final Fantasy XIII-2

Perhaps the sequel will explain where all these feathers come from.

I have to admit, Final Fantasy XIII didn’t ‘do it for me’. I tried, believe me, I tried. I bought the game, gave it the good ol’ college try, but… well, months since I got my copy, it’s gathering dust on the shelf along with Rise of the Argonauts. I dunno. It certainly is a gorgeous game- easily the most eye-friendly FF yet. Lightning is hot, the cast varied, the story complex… so what didn’t jive?

Well, lots of things. Things from the story being TOO complex with all sorts of arcane jibber-jabber that I just didn’t want to understand- L’Cie? Fal’Cie? I don’t Cie! The characters were varied, yes, and had personality… but for some reason I just didn’t care for any of them. The Dude with the Bird in his Afro- gah. The Whiny Kid with the Chip on His Shoulder? Meh. The Wannabee Hero Guy? Meh. The Gratingly Chipper Cute Chick? MEEEEH. This wasn’t so much an adventuring party as it was a cosplay gang on a leisurely ride in some clinically tidy on-rails tour. And you know that there’s just something wrong with an RPG when you don’t know who you’re fighting and don’t care either.

ANYWAY, suffice to say FFXIII did a lot of things wrong. Well, Square-Enix seems to be wanting to rectify stuff, with a sequel. Only the second sequel ever in the history of Final Fantasy (Charlie’s Angels Dress-up Dilemma FFX-2 was the first), so this is kinda significant. Final Fantasy XIII-2 was just announced at some Square-Enix conference in Japan, and they’re promising it’s gonna be better. At the very least, Lightning is returning and dressed in some rather sexy armor. That’s a good start. But what’s this going to be about? There’s a male opponent being touted alongside our intrepid heroine. Lightning: Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places? No details yet.

I’m still at heart an FF fan, so if XIII-2 intrigues me enough, maybe I’ll check it out. Who knows- maybe it’ll get me to give the first XIII another try. Maybe. Or not. Stranger things have happened. FFXIII-2 is out in Japan sometime in 2011, with an english release afterwards.

Final Fantasy XIII: 10 Things Off the Top of My Head

Finally got to start playing the latest Square-Enix opus, Final Fantasy XIII, this weekend. I’ve been reading and hearing a lot about this latest FF, not all of it good. I didn’t finish the last couple of installments in the series, but I decided to give this one a try. Well, how am I finding it so far?

10. It’s freakin’ GORGEOUS. No ifs and buts about it, the game looks amazing on my 42″ LCD, in full 1080p through HDMI. Well, at least the pre-rendered CG bits do. The real-time segments are still eye-pleasing, though bits like fingers aren’t as impressive as the characters’ faces.

9. The Voice Acting is Pretty Good. I mean, the performances, at least. Some of the dialogue though can get cheezy. “Your Hero is here”?! Yeesh.

8. Combat is interesting. Albeit in the early goings-on it’s your usual slap-matches, kinda like FFXII, but you don’t control or move anyone directly. Once I get in deeper and open more options, it should get a lot better. For now though… repetition is kinda getting to me.

7. Character designs are here and there. Once again, a mish-mash of odd-looking protagonists. Main heroine Lightning looks like a futuristic elf-warrior, while Snow walked out of some Japan pop drama. The oddest are probably Snow’s posse, with a barmaid who walks around with an assault rifle in one hand over her shoulder and a guy who hunches like Blanka from Streetfighter. It’s good that the graphics are so nice, you take these things as a matter of course.

6. What is up with Vanille? I’m sure this perky jailbait who can just traipse into monster-infested grounds or restricted magical army territory and kill things with a weird staff/wand/fishing line has an explanation somewhere, but I’m sure it won’t be enough.

5. I wanna hug Lightning until she pops and showers the room in magical neon sparkly-strings.

4. It’s all very linear, but I don’t mind. Story seems very interesting.

3. Comic-relief companion Sazh Katzroy and his afro-living Chocobo sidekick aren’t as irritating as I thought.

2. When is the hot chick in the blue sari showing up?

1. I really hope this doesn’t take too long to finish. Because I wanna finish it.

So far, so good, I guess. The combat’s getting deeper with Paradigms and tactics as I get deeper. Haven’t met the villains yet, just the flunkies. All in all, it’s a gorgeous adventure with a colorful cast of characters. Yeah, it’s FF, and it’s back.

Famitsu scores Final Fantasy XIII

Kotaku just posted a scan of the latest issue of Famitsu, with the review scores for the upcoming Square-Enix epic, Final Fantasy XIII. The latest FF gets a 39/40, a wonderful score by any measure, though probably score whores may bristle. This still puts FFXIII in the higher echelons of Famitsu-scored FFs. In comparison, FFXIII got the same score as FFX, and score higher than FFVII (38). The highest scored FF is still FFXII at a perfect 40.

What does this mean? Absolutely nothing, dudes. The game will sell through the roof there, as it will outside of Japan. Lightning and company will be playing on PS3’s and Xbox360’s everywhere in the next few months.

Check out the original article here.