RonTailor

I feel I should preface this by saying: Yes. I did like Final Fantasy XIII. I didn’t think it was the best game ever; it wasn’t my GOTY of 2010, a runner-up or even an honorable mention. But I did enjoy my time with it. I put quite a few extra hours into it, and I thought it was a solid production.

So now here’s a playable demo for Final Fantasy XIII-2. A bit of a surprise from Square Enix announced last week, it does a great job showcasing the new additions and improvements.

The demo starts with a boss fight offering a tutorial for the basic battle system. If you played any degree of XIII, you can skip the instructions as I did. The Paradigm Shift mechanic is unchanged and the battle HUD is near identical apart from some small alterations and additions (like a marker next to the party leader’s name).

After the opening fight, which gets you back in the flow and also introduces QTEs (called “Cinematic Actions” here), you’re taken to a town-like location in an area called Bresha which connects directly to Bresha Ruins, where you’ll be doing your fighting.

You can go around talking to NPCs for context and commentary in a way that feels just like the JRPGs of old and when you do finally move into the ruins you get the option to take a tutorial that explains the game’s new monster capturing system.

From there you’re free to explore a rather large portion of the area with branching pathways and corridors, more NPCs (some with side-quests!) and a shopkeeper who’s location changes relative to yours.

You can run around getting in fights, finding your feel for the battles and seeing which strategies work best. You’ll be happy to find full growth and equipment systems for your characters and monsters.

On the monsters: I can take then or leave them personally. The specifics I’ll leave for you to discover on your own, but I think they seem to be well done and possibly a game within XIII-2’s proper.

I’m ditto for the QTEs. The people who like them will like them; those who don’t won’t.

As much I don’t think it’s crucial, I do want to touch on the graphics. They’re different, to say the least.

The original XIII is still one of the few games that displays natively in 1080p. XIII-2 as well; the models just aren’t as polished/detailed.

The game looks nice; don’t get me wrong, but you can tell it’s not as detailed as XIII. You get used to it fairly quickly, but I can see the visuals grating on the nerves of the obsessive.

I can’t make any input on the plot because the demo presents none of that. They’ve put the gameplay first in this one and the demo sends the message loud and clear.

On a final note, I love the music so far. I was really worried about bringing in other composers to assist Masashi Hamauzu (who I feel did a bang up job with XII’s score), but the new tracks are great thus far.

They feel unique yet they remain in tone. There are even some repeat tracks from XIII! While I thought that would make for a cheap feel, it’s actually more nostalgic than offensive. It’s great music and it’s been a while since I’ve heard it.

I really enjoyed the XIII-2 demo. I played through it twice in the same evening and it’s easy to spend two hours on a single run.

It feels like Square has brought the solid design of the PS2 Final Fantasies into the current generation Snd it feels good. A friend mentioned Star Ocean and while I dislike SO, I can agree the comparison is apt.

I’ve always been confident about XIII-2 and the demo has reinforced that confidence all the more.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 is out for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on Jan. 31 in North America and Feb. 3 in Europe. The demo is available now on both digital marketplaces, in both territories.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about Final Fantasy X HD, lately. And that’s not surprising. It recently had it’s 10th anniversary on Dec. 20, it’s popped back up in the games blogosphere and it’s a re-release of my favorite game of all time.

I can remember first thinking, at some point in 2008, how cool it would be if Square Enix announced a remake of FFX in honor of its 10th anniversary, during 2010. I also considered this to be an example of what I typically deem a “dream scenario”; Situations so awesome, they just can’t be real.

This was a point in time where people for a remake of Final Fantasy VII (as many are now, admittedly) and Square had only just recently put FInal Fantasy XIII back on the community’s radar.

Throughout 2009/10 though, Square put the PS1 trifecta of FFs up on the PSN store and I had a hunch re-releases of the PS2 games would follow. Fast-forward to about a week before TGS ‘11 and I had a random, idle thought, “Hey, maybe Square’ll announce a FFX remake.”

You can imagine my heart skipping about a million beats when the announcement was indeed made (for PS3 and Vita to boot!) and if you follow me on Twitter, you read my reactions live.

Now, you’ll notice the term I’m using to describe the re-release is “remake” and that’s because that’s the direction I’m leaning on this being. I’m sure that opinion is equal parts hope and hunch, but based on rumors, talk that the game is “in early development”, and for the sake of this article, that’s my official stance.

I think there are some key points that will make FFX HD a rousing success, or a mild disappointment.

1. The International Version as a Base

So, what Square used to do when they released games in different territories on six-month intervals (which I expect we’ll see less and less of now that they’ve adopted fairly simultaneous launch schemes) is add bonus content little touches/fixes to them as they were being localized by Square’s North American branch, and then their European branch. Then they’d re-release the EU version of the game in Japan, billed as the “International” version.

FFX went through this process as all mainline FFs have and there’s quite a bit of content included that most NA gamers won’t have touched before. From additional cutscenes to optional, tougher bosses, this version of the game should be a pre-requisite; a no-brainer. That being said, this is the games industry where no-brainers are often held back by variables that those of not on the business end have little to no knowledge of.

2. Re-do The Localization

To start: I LOVE Final Fantasy X’s localization. If you’re expecting a rant about how annoying Tidus’ voice is or how excruciating the laughing scene is, get off the train here. Unlike some corners of the Internet and most negative reviews of Jason Reittman’s “Young Adult”, I acknowledge context and embrace the awkward moments.

FFX’s localization was ahead of it’s time, but also limited by it.

The plot was presented and formatted in a very cinematic way that games still rarely pull off and to this very day it has the most voiced voiced dialogue I’ve ever heard in a JRPG.

Because of time constraint’s, Square’s animators couldn’t re-animate character faces to English dialogue. English voice actors had to record over cutscenes with their lines often being sped up or slowed a bit to match the timing and length of scenes already set by the original Japanese production. The games localization chief Alex O. Smith has spoken about this on multiple occasions over the years since the games release. Simply put, a line in Japanese might be forty seconds, while in English it’s twenty. Smith and his team would often rewrite lines on the spot to fit into a time constraint.

Square has eliminated this issue by conducting localization simultaneously with the Japanese branch’s original production (most recently with Final Fantasy XIII-2).

Again, I love FFFX’s localization as it stands, but cutscenes that are properly animated/paced and a script that’s allowed to breathe will make the games presentation better overall.

Of course, by that same token the dialogue would need to be re-recorded. I think they could manage that. Most of the games cast are pretty big names in the voice acting world.

3. Don’t Change The Battle Mechanics

I like the traditional Active-Time battle system and it’s variants well enough, but I think they can fall flat sometimes in that there’ll be cases where you find yourself sort of racing against time; just trying to hit the enemy before they hit you and putting strategy aside.

In contrast, FFX’s Central-Time battle system was about cold calculation; set-ups and scoring sequential strikes. Which you did by altering the flow of fights (“time”) overall. They removed any sort of emphasis on quick thinking and fully focused on strategy. I still think it’s the purest form of RPG combat attainable and that time limitations and quick thinking are better emphasized/utilized in action games.

I love Saint’s Row: The Third to death. I’ve spent tens of hours playing the game well after the credits rolled. It’s not only my personal game of the year for 2011, but a new addition to my moderate list of all-time favorite games. Were I to review it, I’d give it a 10/10, no question.

But it’s not without it’s flaws.

No, not of the narrative or design-variety, mind you (again: my personal GOTY), it’s just a little buggy. I can’t call one of the assistant characters (“homies” in SR3’s urban lingo), after the game is played for an extended period of time, my mixtape stops working, and sometimes the menus stop working. I just can’t get either to come up (luckily I play with auto-save on).

Now, I want to be clear that these are extremely minor issues that simply re-loading my save cures. I was already aware that Volition (the game’s developer) has been patching these little bugs out of the games PC version. That doesn’t bother me too much because I know how much easier it is to patch a game on PC as opposed to a console where the update had to go through a certification on the console manufacturer’s terms. Tonight however, I was told the Xbox 360 version of the game has been patched, despite the fact the PS3 version has not.

Now I’m a little annoyed.

I don’t know why it keeps happening, but I’m getting really tired of being treated like a second-class citizen because my console of choice is the PS3. I know the architecture is a hassle for developers. I know multiplatform games typically sell better on 360, but honestly? I don’t care. I’m not a developer or publisher (regardless of how often and easily I can sympathize with them), I’m a consumer. Why should I be punished for one of the aforementioned’s failings?

I know this is gonna sound crazy, but (*gasp*), I didn’t buy a PS3 to spite publishers and/or developers. And I’m not even gonna get into why I did. The point is I payed my $60 for SR3, like everyone else. Why is someone playing on PC or 360 any more entitled to an update than me?

And the issue is bigger than this one game. As I mentioned above, it happens all the time. “Watch out for the PS3 version!” Look at Skyrim! Like, what’s that all about?

The most maddening thing is: a good PS3 port is doable. Platinum Games and Valve both stick out in my mind, so it’s not even an “East Vs. West” issue. It’s also worth noting both studios had to take some time to figure out the systems architecture. There’s no shame in that; good for them. Being all like “Well, whatever. It’s just PS3…” is fucked up though, to be blunt.

It’d be really cool if, in this console generations last days, developers started actually giving a shit about the PS3 version of a multiplatform game.

If you’re going to leave us in the dust, why make a version at all?

So, about a week ago Nintendo released a new Legend of Zelda art book which, to the surprise of many, includes a flow chart of the series official time! The chart reveals that there are indeed separate dimensions created post-Ocarina of Time, which I think is fair game on Nintendo’s part, but that’s a topic for another day.

The official chronology’s release and the discussion surrounding it this week reminds how much stock the fans and Nintendo themselves put into Zelda’s plot. The game’s have always demonstrated mechanical depth and excellence (the gamer’s game, if you will), but they’re also very much character-based/driven stories. So, why can’t Link speak?

The easy answer -Nintendo’s answer- is that he represents you. That’s all fine and well; he needs to be mute to do that? I’m not mute or anything even relatively close, so why is that an appropriate trait for a character who represents me to carry?

I think the fear is that by giving Link a voice, by giving him something that has to be specific, you break his connection to the player. There aren’t already plenty of other things doing that? Link is typically a teenager, always white (or some fictional equivillance) blonde with blue eyes and an elf; If Nintendo is worried about breaking the illusion, they can rest easy; they did that in the 1980’s at the characters birth.

Now, I’ve had people argue that Mario has a voice that’s overused and Metroid: Orher M had voice acting that was terrible. Well, Mario doesn’t have any actual lines of dialogue or a fiercely debated canon and Metroid (to be blunt) is a hodge-podge of Space Opera cliches that hovers somewhere around Alien.

Zelda has a script and a full cast of characters and their good! I played through Wind Waker and I’ve seen the compliment payed to Skyward Sword. Let these characters speak.

I love my characters in Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Skyrim, Saint’s Row et al. Half those characters have voices, half don’t. For a character like the protagonist in Dragon Age: Origins, you’re defining almost everything about them down to their origin story. In contrast Link is a set character. A lot of what defines him is up to Nintendo and not changing. I think he may as well speak.

Some games even go the extra mile to find that middle ground. Saint’s Row: The Third has one the best character creators I’ve played with and six voices to choose from for the protagonist.

Six unique voices.

In a 35 hour game.

With no shortage of dialogue/cutscenes/character interaction.

And the dialogue is uniquely tuned to each voice. It’s ultimately up to Nintendo. Personally, I think they won’t do it because they’re stubbornly old-fashioned and I might even agree its not completely necessary, but why wait until it is? Why let the series stagnate? (Which it kind of already is.) I think for at least one game, it would be a cool experiment and I bet it would have mostly positive results.

(So, a while back I went one of my spammy, multi-tweet tangents about… Something. It doesn’t really matter the subject was. I know it can be a little bothersome to a few people though. Justin Massongil, who’s a friend of mine and editor on Nukezilla, tweeted at me that night, “Christ, get a blog!”. While I’m certain now as I was then that he was (mostly) joking, I got to thinking; when I do get on board a certain train of thought, it might be better in pretty much every way to just post up those thoughts as a paragraph or two, rather than clog up your twitter feed with 20 tweets on a subject you might have little interest in, that really weren’t all that comfortable for me to tweet in rapid succession anyway. So that’s what “Just Thinking” is. Also, I’m posting all this one the Tumblr iOS app as I don’t currently have my PC, so be generous in regards to grammar typos. And if you’re reading at all, thanks as always! ^_^)

So, the trailer for Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel, Prometheus made it online today. I actually saw a leaked version posted on Vimeo a few days ago (Sidenote: Why does NO ONE think of that?) and thought it looked great even then. I’m not a terribly huge Alien fan, but I really like what I’m seeing and heading. I’m a big fan of Scott (he directed American Gangster, which is a personal favorite) and the cast he’s assembled for this film (Charlize Theron, Micheal Fassbender, Idris Elba, etc).

This evening I asked my mother what she thought of Alien upon seeing it all those years ago and she said she thought it was great and could stand to watch it again, so I plan to do that. That got me thinking though.

Universal Pictures might want Gearbox and Sega to get Aliens: Colonial Marines out to retail in time for Prometheus. I’m just guessing here though. They don’t share a brand title, but of Universal decides to make the “Alien” name a key presence in Prometheus marketing down the road, it could be a good cross-promotion opportunity. And I think it’s a fair request on Universals part, since the game’s been in the works for ages. It was announced in 06, named in 08 and it’s been shown behind closed doors at a few conventions the last few years.

There was an interview with Randy Pitchford on VG247 around the time Gearbox announced they were finishing Duke Nukem Forever and hot bought the IP and their reporter asked about Colonial Marines, of course. Pitchford basically said it was just a matter of taking your time to do it right because as a four-way collaboration between Gearbox, Sega, Universal and 20th Century FOX, there’s a sizable amount riding on this game being successful.

Gearbox has released Borderlands, four expansions for it, announced the sequel, and finished and released DNF. Now, while I understand the concept of “same studio, but different game = different team” and all of the above, at some point you’re actively making the game or you aren’t. I mean, where is it? I’ve only heard good impressions from its limited showings, so I hope it pops up soon.