Square Enix’s most excellent RPG franchise, released this year (2010) for both X360 and PS3, contains a high level of refinement on the battle system, a very high emphasis on the audio-visual experience on the cuts cenes, a normal/cliche story but which is directed by very well developed characters and has a great technology behind the scenes. Read the entire analysis and get the ins and outs about how these wonderful features make the uniqueness of the Final Fantasy experience!
Battle System
This is the primary focus of the game. The battle flow is very smooth and character movements are well polished. You have an Action Turn-Based mechanics, in which you have a bar with cells (sections of it) that you use to do the attacks/ability usages (each one have a cost of cells and after executing the commands, you need to wait the bar to recharge). You control only the leader of the party, whereas the others do everything automatically.
The paradigm shift (optima change in the japanese version) lets you change the behavior of the characters, so each paradigm suggest a specific strategy: Assault for pure damage, Solidarity for a defensive approach, and so on.
There are roles, that work in the same way as classes: medic emphasizing healing, commando as a soldier, saboteur doing poison, slow, etc. You can configure different roles for your characters in a specific paradigm you are using. Although this sounds very hardcore, that level of customization lets every RPG die-hard fan make their best character builds and plan the best strategies for battles, also because all of this is well balanced to the ultimate level.
In FF13, there is no level: you get only crystal points that you spend in order to up your statuses and get new skills in the skill tree (called Crystarium) of each role of your characters.
All of these options make the RPG gameplay a lot more smooth and comfortable. It is is really the evolution of the genre. No specific jobs, no specific skills, no specific commands, everything is flexible.
The boss battles, on contrary to the most traditional RPGs, does not require grinding (fighting over and over to improve and be able to win boss fights). Training is not obligatory: all you have to do is to use the best combinations and the best timing you can and the fight is yours (this means changing paradigms accordingly to the context of the battle, choosing the right commands and being smart on the usage of items). This of course made the gameplay less tiring to advance and more challenging to beat.
Different from the demo, you can (if being very attentive on timing) avoid fights, since enemies are not random (you see them walking). The problem is that you only start improving your characters after the first boss, so you will find yourself wanting to avoid every single battle until there. But if you have no choice, at least try to touch enemies on their back in order to get a first strike.
In-Between Gameplay
The designers did put so much emphasis on the battle system that the in-between gameplay (things you do while not fighting/watching cinematics) is very poor. The paths are very linear and if you get in a dead-end you rarely find item boxes to compensate the walking. You have nothing to do more than getting items and walking: no fast-simple puzzles, only basic lever triggers and examinating objects (which only gives you more cinematics to watch). All the fun is centered on the battles, so you won’t find the in-between experience so rich. But that is what makes Final Fantasy, right? Yes, no fan claims about that, but for people who are not fans, this has impact on the gameplay experience as a whole.
Cut scenes and Storyline
They are totally well polished and detailed to the ultimate level of refinement. Character expressions are very natural and real, animations and visual effects are outstanding and scenarios are very inspiring and pixel-perfected. Also, the transition between cut scene graphics and in-gameplay graphics is almost unnoticeable in quality terms.
The narrative content, as expected of a Japanese RPG (JRPG), is centered on the thoughts and feelings of the characters instead of telling the core story of the world and its dynamics. By understanding the differences between the characters, their opinions, goals and focus you get to learn what you are after in the game’s progression and the philosophical messages they want to pass to you. Also, the story also focus on what the characters learn about each other: their weaknesses, the cooperation, the trust, and so on.
Lightning is very invidualist and do not want anyone on her way, Snow wants to protect everyone but forget the level of responsability needed to achieve it, Hope does not understand the scenario he is in and question the importance of fighting and saving each other. With time, everyone gets to understand themselves better and find a conclusion that will change their world vision and in turn, transform the player’s vision. That is how JRPG stories are told.
The Technology of Square Enix
Final Fantasy 13 (as well as Versus and FF14) uses Crystal Tools: an in-house game engine that focus on character animations, graphics transition between cut scenes and in-gameplay, Real-time physics calculations and advanced audio processing.
Square’s technical director said that, even though they licensed Unreal Engine for games like The Last Remnant, only Crystal Tools would make the development of a new Final Fantasy title possible, since Crystal Tools is made of all the algorithms and components that the programmers perfected for years in Final Fantasy development, and the features of the engine focus exactly on what FF titles need in order to improve and perform well technologically and aesthetically speaking.
How Japan deals with technology in game development?
Final Fantasy did not use a licensed engine such as Unreal Engine or Crytek Engine as many ocidental studios use to do. In fact, Japan does not use that methodology so well. Capcom developed the MT Framework (Multi-thread and Multi-target), Nintendo has NintendoWare and Square Enix developed Crystal Tools. The thing is: japanese do not make all-in-one solutions to sell for others like in the ocident, they spend time perfecting their own technology in order to make their games and their production processes better, exclusively for the company they are working for . On one hand you get a smooth development process and a high achievement of quality on the games, on the other hand no one helps each other, which is bad for the industry. Recently, many japanese producers desired that a “japanese epic games” existed, to provide excellent tools that can be used by everyone, but this is still just a dream. Japanese is not behind on technology advances, but they still cannot share what they make.
