Just thought I’d give my impressions on FF13 so far after 5 hours of play, the graphics are some of the most impressive of this generation, on the PS3 version at least it’s often hard to tell when the game switches from HD quality cutscene to in-game engine cutscene (I imagine it’s more noticeable on the 360 with the resolution difference and video compression).
The environments are beautiful but extremely linear. So far this isn’t detracting from the experience as it feels much more action-oriented and it keeps the game moving forward.
The story and characters are so far pretty interesting, it’s nice how it seems to give equal time to each of the characters… fave so far Vanille and possibly the baby chick chocobo in Sazh’s hair. The least liked so far is Hope, whiny brat whom I hope grows as the story progresses.
The fal’Cie/l’Cie connection and explanation isn’t done particularly well in-game but the games encyclopedia-lite covers it better. Essentially, the fal’Cie are god-like entities that can “curse” humans into beings called l’Cie, when cursed you are shown a brief interpretive dream giving you a task to complete, known as your “focus”. Complete this focus and you turn to crystal and “live” forever. Fail and you turn into a ghoul.
The relationship between humans, the fal’Cie, the l’Cie and the worlds of Coccoon and Pulse at this stage seems quite complex but I’m sure it’ll start linking together later.
The combat is slowly revealing it’s fullness, 5 hours in and I’ve just obtained my first Eidolon on Snow and Paradigms are being introduced. It’s very fast and furious (and sometimes hard to follow) and definitely more complex than it first appears (which is a good thing). Reminds me a lot of FF8 for some reason… (which is my favourite FF for many reasons).
I’ll keep posting with my thoughts as I hit milestones in the game, as spoiler-free as possible as I progress.
