[diplo]

Is anyone going to try this out? I might, when I get a new PS3 for DS2.

I've read a couple of reviews that describe the game as achieving an imbalanced balance of oddness that would never fly nowadays in a spotlit S-E title, and I'm curious what the reasons for this are, aside from silly costumes in the midst of a dead-serious story. If that's all -- well.

The way battles work sounds interesting, though. How much of that is a consequence of the mechanics, and how much is just "Oh, huh, it's closer to an action game" is hard to tell from words alone. If it's enough to sustain a JRPG where you're only ever using one person to fight, and where the story is almost certainly not worth trying to understand, that's a bit commendable. Right? Maybe?

[Felix]

To be honest I'm baffled that people seem enthusiastic about this and the last couple times I was persuaded to try some mostly-bad-yet-wanting-redemption-quasi-jrpg I was mostly nonplussed.

[diplo]

Outright enthusiasm seems weird to me too, 'specially considering the two games that precede this. I'm still into the mixture of expansive landscapes + dynamic(er) fights + monster hunts + time limit + Hamauzu/Suzuki/Mizuta soundtrack, just in terms of potential. I guess, personally, it'll come down to how explorable the world and how ignorable the story are.

[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

Remote said he was getting this, let's see what he thinks.

Slightly off-topic but: for the record, I spent like 5 hours playing FF XIII the other night, having gotten to the part (30 hours in) where the tutorial ends and it becomes an actual video game. I'm not going to say it's good, but I've definitely been able to get some enjoyment out of it; everyone knows it looks and sounds great, but the battle system is also pretty damn fun. It's just too bad about literally everything else.
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Just another savage day on Planet Earth.

[Glam Grimfire]

There's been some talk that the FFXIII engine isn't up to par with rendering expansive areas, and that as a result, Lightning Returns locations and exploration suffer.
I don't think this could be further from the truth - what the games engine Isn't good at handling is the kind of massive, open areas that are expected of traditional sandbox RPG's.
I'm only one area into the game so far (The city of Luxor) and Luxor is one of the neatest looking cities I've explored this console generation. It's a muddy, decrepit city bordering on outright Gothic in architecture that is equal parts slum and Victorian-era fanaticism.
It uses the traditional 'next gen' darker palette coloration to great effect and is actually a pretty believable fantasy/sci-fi city.
NPC's might occasionally stumble around, or break into a run to nowhere, but it's hardly noticeable and has kind of an odd, endearing charm.
The way they made Lightning more mobile especially fits the first area, because Luxor is a pretty dynamic, multi tiered location that brings to mind the kind of maze-like charm that Midgar had in FFVII. I like it, basically!
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##SKELETON PARTY (new article as of 04/26/14)Grim

[Broco]

[Brooks]

That track so FF it ate Amano's paintbox

It's probably time this series just blasted off into a total and seamless audiovisual Finnegan's Wake

[DJ]

[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

I wish.
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Just another savage day on Planet Earth.

[Levi]

[Ronnoc]

[Toptube]

I bought FFXIII used at Gamestop a few days ago. I plan to slog through it. If I don't hate it, I will move on to FFXIII-2 and then Lightning Returns. So in a couple of months, I might have something to say here....


*I also pre-emptively bought XIII-2 on PSN, because it was on sale for PS+ subscribers, for $9.

[idle]

I've probably said as much before, but I actually really like the original FFXIII. If you're willing to play along with the new battle system instead of just using auto-battle every time you get into combat it can be a lot of fun. Yeah, the story and characters are garbage, but that's like 90% of JRPGs anyway.

I rented LR and played a couple hours into it last night; the combat is still fun and interesting and the writing is still terrible. So yeah, still a FFXIII game. The first town (!) the game drops you into is intimidatingly huge though, which isn't very much like a FFXIII game.

The best part of this game so far is the way Lightning fulfills her role as "the Savior": she goes off and does the standard silly fetch quests for various NPCs, and when she comes back to report success they're so happy their souls come flying out of their bodies right then and there and zoom into Light. It's hilarious.

[Levi]

cop killing confirmed you can kill the police like regular monsters if you hit them enough

[remote]

yeah, i bought this, but since i've been pretty busy and/or hanging out with my gf and/or playing bravely default instead, i haven't spent much time with this yet. i think the schemata and battle system are a lot of fun, the music sounds great, and i even like the look of the game a lot — especially the ark, where you meet hope — until you leave the ark and go do fetch quests talking to weird/goofy npcs that don't really look like they belong in this game. pretty anticlimactic after the game has barely provided an introduction to the apocalyptic plot.

the main reason i was drawn to this is that, basically, i played the demo and found myself excited for what could be a weird and yet very cool square rpg in the vein of things like ff12, chrono cross, the saga series, etc. i expect it to make very little sense in terms of actual storytelling, but with tri-ace behind development i can't help but feel like this is some bizarre valkyrie profile + majora's mask laid out in fragments of cool and strange in a way that is equally experimental and inept — not exactly finnegans wake, but still wild and fun in that particular square way. lightning herself is some kind of emotionless "savior" in this one, and as a newcomer to this series featuring such a bland character it kind of makes too much sense and endears me to the game as a whole. maybe it'll turn out to be one of those games like ff12, as i mentioned, where some of us play it and go, "i really love this, but explaining exactly why is a bit of a challenge..."

that's what i hope for, anyway, but i realize it seems like an odd thing to be excited about for some.
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[Levi]

Lightning reminds me a lot of Squall -- someone reading hero dialogue in a Daria voice. Her boredom and contempt boils right off the screen.

I don't play a lot of games made by people I don't know ; is it normal for triple-A games to feature King's Field textures on doors with octogon knobs

[Levi]

castlevania64 doors

[remote]

see? how are those things the least bit unappealing 8)
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[Levi]

I mean in the literal "this castle door is locked at" Castlevania64 sense (check out in the desert ruins)

busker playing acoustic guitar cover of Final Fantasy III's overword theme

desert Goblot's look just like the Psygnosis logo

character I care most about is probably Chocolina

[BenoitRen]

The game's concept of having limited time in an open world sounded interesting to me. However, if all there is to do is uninspired fetch quests for NPCs you don't care about, I'll pass.
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Get Xenoblade Chronicles!

[Dark Age Iron Savior]

But I do care about them!

[Mikey]

Yeah I was intrigued by comparisons to Majora's Mask I'd heard, I'd love to know how they hold up.

[BotageL]

This game is really bizarre. Combat is still kind of confusing and arbitrary -- some enemies clearly have a "puzzle" solution to damage to them, like the big armored shell monsters, but with my available skill/equipment sets, it's extremely difficult to actually trigger said solutions. And because Lightning is unable to run in combat except when moving in to do a melee attack, like an even more sluggish version of Semi-Auto Tales circa Phantasia, dealing with multiple foes at once is basically a nightmare. And the plot feels like an excuse more than anything. Lightning's moping about how since she became a literal tool of the gods, she can't feel anything anymore, even though her apparently no-longer-emotionally-charged desires drive her actions, strikes me as an admission that they've completely, utterly failed to give Lightning a personality in prior installments. And for all the talk about how the citizens of the world have lived for 500 years in a world with no birth, no aging, and exclusively violent and/or illness-related deaths, there's very little attempt to actually demonstrate that in the way characters behave, especially children. And I need to stop started every other sentence in this paragraph with "and."

Somehow, it's... kinda compelling, anyway? Probably because it's a complete mess? Does that make any sense?
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http://www.mdgeist.com/

[Levi]

two separate missions revolve around answering a mysteriously ringing payphone

game is reminding me fiercely that Kazushige Nojima was the guy who wrote those Tantei Jiguji Saburo games (hella detective feeling stuff in some of these quests)

(I don't think he even wrote this one huh huh)

[Vikram Ray]

wanting this more and more. two interesting Square JRPGs coming out within a couple weeks of each other? I guess the 90s revival really is happening

[parker]

[Brooks]

Well I'm definitely getting the soundtrack

For not the first time, I wonder what would happen if Squeeno became a pure asset farm for other studios

[Toptube]

I'm actually pretty on board with where Square is taking things lately. They seem to be getting back to their late 90's mentality where they use diverse teams/visions for games. The house of Final Fantasy still seems to have organization issues. But to be fair, these are some of the largest games out there, with a lot of desires to live up to.

I also think having to completely rebuild FF14 set them back a bit from the momentum they were originally planning (see: 13 was supposed to be 6 games. But VS-XIII is now just FFXV). However, I think some of their publishing ventures may have helped the company as a whole, feel a bit safer.

[Gironika]

[CONSUME_PRODUCTS]

a bit tempted now, this sounds like a fascinating mess

still feel seriously rubed re: playing the first one, mind

[bort]

the way most roleplaying games let the player interact with items, equipment, weapons and such things, or anchor them to play and character progression, lies somewhere along this axis:


[acquiring, changing, or establishing] character identity or status to enable new context/perspectives for use of material goods <--------------------------------------------------> [acquiring, changing, or modifying] material goods to establish or alter a character's identity or status

the left is an older (i think) paradigm that you see in most anything involving a class or job (whether they can be changed and reassigned (see fft) or are static beginning-of-the-game distinctions (see d&d))
the right is either exceedingly dry (my fighters are pikemen when i give them a pike) or involve the absurdities you see here, or in ffx-2 (NEVER PLAYED IT), or in most of the SaGa series

they're both kind of loathsome perspectives on "character growth" and game-success, depending on how you read them. everyone loves to make their little people stronger in games. i really do. but really, increasing just levels/numbers/stats is very boring to me and i'm sure to all of you as well. what is truly "rewarding" (ugh) is having extreme control over a character's identity. that it enables them to slaughter things more effectively (in a team, even!) is just gravy. i name my final fantasy tactics members after my family and i have them do cool things. my sister is a monk and my other sister is a calculator and my brother is a mediator. they got that way because they were in the job class menu and had already expressed aptitude and acquired experience in whatever was required of them. and then they self-define. upon doing so look who can suddenly hold books? and rods? and who is forbidden from using weapons at all?

alternately i start deprived in dark souls and can switch from dingy robe to havel's set mid-combat if i'd really like, and beat the game on level 7. while this is commonly looked at as OH IS IT LEVEL DEPENDENT OR LOOT DEPENDENT that's not really what i am trying to get at while i type this. viewing dark souls again as what success is "dependent on" it's clearly equipment, more so than buying power (which could be levels too but see: pyromancy and blacksmith materials being a constantly effective use of said buying power). but more importantly, probably for you all, is that it is the exact mode of character development, definition, and distinction outside of the covenants and actual "fighting style" and gestures used and stuff like that. the gear i obtain is actually a reflection of things i have done, characters i've met or killed (4 their loot) and side-quests i have completed.

in saga games you literally can transform your robot into a different type of robot by equipping 7 Cure Potions to their body. a monster eats meat and transforms into a different monster.
in lighting returns while you play as a distinct character your "job" or whatever it's called is determined by your clothes. your battle commands are used by equipping skills (the game literally calls them "items" in the menu). these things all impart passive abilities too so that while the actual name of the job comes from the main article of clothing you equip, the overall play-style of the job is derived from the whole list of equipment and skills equipped in aggregate. it is maybe the furthest we have come in this style to date.

oh i guess there's scribblenauts or something.

these two methods are present in like every game (one or the other or they are both intertwined) even beyond role playing games. and you can see real live humans doing the same things if you look around. self-definition through acquirement and adornment of goods (see: nice cars and watches, being a goth or any obvious style) vs. self-definition from someplace immaterial with the ultimate goal of presenting their acquired goods in a different light or to different effect (see: "am i the kind of guy that can pull this off?" while admiring leather jacket, mohawk in mirror after shower, high heeled shoes, tattoos (only when i lose this gut!)). i'm not sure which is more materialistic and which is more narcissistic or if they are both tied. i wonder if it's why children can spend so much time playing rpgs (i sure did). these past couple sentences are a load of crap but i did consider them.

this is something i thought about... but clearly i didn't think about it a lot! apologies to all, i didn't know where else to put it and if it isn't applicable to this game it isn't applicable to anything. thanks.

about the game: maybe i will play more than the demo one day. really interesting stuff here.

[Levi]

[remote]

perfect
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[ChairTax]

Yeah, I really feel like I need to pick this up, in combination with what everyone else has already touched on

[ionustron]

I watched a bit of this played and it just cemented a feeling of lifelessness for currant generation system design and visual. There's many dashes of Tri-Ace bleeding all over the combat and there's some nice mood music and everything just mushes together stopped by the most naggy of reminder popup windows and I just can't bring myself to be excited for any of it.

Just reminded of Crimson Echos. I didn't even play that but it's prolly about as thoughtful.

Really cool songs.

[CONSUME_PRODUCTS]

the first few hours of this reminded me, vaguely, of minstrel song: the only way to meaningfully upgrade your character is to engage with the world and do quests, the time limit initially gave me the same 'on edge' feeling as when i read about the 'event rank' system in that game

it didn't last

[OffalAl]

looking forward to picking this up in 3 years / less than $15 to mess around with, thanks millie :)
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[108]

[shnozlak]

I hear this game has a tutorial to explain using a potion.
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Mixtapes galore ~ VG MUSIC
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