Final Fantasy XIII

[Wolf Kanno]

I believe the game will sell well cause it has the FF moniker on it and its one of the main series. I believe it will get outstanding reviews cause most FF get really high marks cause they are good. Only the PS2 era FFs ever got mixed reviews and even then I never saw any of them get below an 8 out of 10, or 4 out of 5 stars.

Part of it has to do with brand recognition, part of it does have to do with the fact SE makes good games. The plot has me intrigued (though I was hoping we could tone down summoners being central to the plot) and if the battle system works the way I think it does then the gameplay will be awsome unless they pull a X and nerf the difficulty again (is it so wrong to see the game over screen once in awhile?). I can't comment on music but graphically, though pretty, I feel it looks like a mix of VIII and X with a little of Spirits Within thrown in... just prettier...

I agree with Bahamut 2000X to a point, that until recently, SE has told us nothing of value to want the game outside of graphics and tech talk (Someone needs to tell Nomura and Kitase to STFU about specs and release a smurfing demo if they want to sway people) but the PS2 era FFs all got the same treatment. We didn't get any real info on XII until the demo with DQVIII and when it was finally release in Japan. Just a pretty trailer for four years...

I still feel that the "Transformer" summons is laughable and I doubt I'll ever be able to take them seriously (especially if they go all Voltron on me and merge together to form the "ultimate summon"). I don't have anything against them being machines or digital, but doubling up as vehicles just seems odd and frankly stupid to me... Also, what little of the videos I've seen makes it look like Devil May Cry meets FF. its so over the top with its action that it looks ridiculous and sometimes I feel the whole project should be renamed "Final Fantasy TO THE EXTREME!!! *cue explosions and guitar rift*. I'll admit its not the type of path I want the series to go down.

For the most part I'm skeptical but for now I'm watching and waiting. Despite my feelings, I know it will do well unless it really is awful which seems unlikely to me. Of anything, I can only say that with what little they've shown, they have been unable to win my attention or my excitement for the game. In a way, it reminds me of stuff I've seen before and I get a "been there, done that" feeling from the project. Whether its good will be left up to when I finally play it but that may be awhile cause my lack of excitement for it means it will be many years before I get around to it...