Final Fantasy XIII Demo Impressions

The cut scenes are absolutely breathtaking, but the in-game visuals aren’t quite as mind-blowing as you might be inclined to expect from the FF series’ first installment on the Playstation 3. I wasn’t floored like I was when I first played FFVII on the original PS or FFX on the PS2...which isn't to say that Final Fantasy XIII isn't one of the best looking games that I've ever seen. I guess that I was just expecting something revolutionary when I should have been content with excellence.



I hated the whole “command stacking” system for the first 5 minutes, then got used to it, then started to love it, then got lukewarm on it again, and now I’m really not so sure what to think. The idea was apparently to create battles reminiscent to the gravity defying exchanges seen in Advent Children, and while the launch command and air combos do somewhat succeed in replicating the aforementioned melees, it’s somewhat difficult to imagine the game’s battles not getting a little repetitive under the system. To be fair, my skepticism is probably directly linked to the fact that I was playing a demo, as there were obviously only so many different combinations of “attack,” “launch,” and “ice” that you could throw at your opponent. As the game goes on and your characters begin to add to their arsenal of commands, I imagine that the stacking system could potentially get really deep. For what it’s worth, the game does feel very fast-paced, and you really don’t feel like your character is simply waiting around for the ATB bar to fill up (even though he/she technically is).



Lightning doesn’t quite come off as a “female version of Cloud,” which was what Nomura was apparently shooting for, but her gritty, bounty hunter-like appearance is sure to be well received by fans. She’s accompanied by a twin pistol-wielding black dude who appeared to have a baby chocobo living in his afro…and I'm not even sure how I should react to that.



Snow, the other playable character in the demo, is big, wears a bandanna, and (barring false reports) apparently rides Shiva around in the form of a motorcycle at some point in the game. That sounds kind of silly, but I’ll hold judgment until I actually see it myself. Considering that a lot of the monsters in the game seem to be machine-based, I wouldn’t be surprised if the summon creatures in this installment are all Transformers-esque shapeshifters.

There are definitely a few weird details here and there, but things look to be shaping up pretty nicely overall. I could do without the heroine's American Gladiators name, but other than that, I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the finished product this winter.