(Chapters 11 & 12 threads) Yep, Still Linear. I swear

[Flying Arrow]

Just finished chapter 11 - probably the only legitimately decent portion of the game so far. Some thoughts:

- I agree with the above two posters in that Taejin's Tower is flat-out pointless. What gets me really hard about this game is how certain elements clearly don't jive with others. Like, why can't Lightning jump over the bonfire blocking the objective when you're jumping all over the place anyway and doing flips? And why does activating the statues put out the fire? What? And what's with the statues cutting off Dahaka's tail? Is that their purpose? How come the mark hunts given by the statues require no effort whatsoever, with some spawning directly next to the statue itself? Did SE even try with this? It's so obviously slapped together that I think less of myself for being compelled to play through it. I've traded Star Ocean games back to stores for less than this. Star Ocean.

- The scene during the cavern interlude really got me. Team arrives out at a beautiful vista at about noon. Sazh suggests they just sleep here. Unnecessary FMV starts, showing Lightning and Snow at sunset and they talk about we already know. Gameplay resumes - it's noon again. Did the team stay over night or what? Four years in development. What the smurf, SE. What the smurf.

- Oerba might be my favourite locale in the game so far. Really nice, although I totally assumed, like everyone here, that Vanille and Fang were real earthy types from a primitive culture. Still, really nice areas with great music and a great view. This is clearly supposed to be the Zanarkand arrival of XIII, but unfortunately unlike X, this game doesn't really earn the moment (X itself didn't earn very much, but the Zanarkand aspect of the story I always thought was very well done at least). Still a great area though.

- The story has lost me at this point. The datalog idea really hasn't panned out, and sometimes it seems as if the datalog is telling a different story than the cutscenes. The cutscenes make you think one thing, but the datalog suggests something else. The Ragnarok reveal that Wolf mentioned is the doozy, and the Eidolon battle with Fang just confuses the 'twist' more. Unforgivable. (I'm glad someone else has mentioned this, by the way, because for a while I was under the impression that I'd just zoned out and missed an important revelation)

- Barthandelus is the dullest villain ever. Is Cid's resurrection supposed to be shocking to the player? Why do I care about Cid? He had like three lines. He wins this spot in the plot by default because there are almost literally no other characters in this story. The 'twist' would have had the same impact had Hope's dad become president. Completely pointless and contrived.

-Mark hunts are fun. I loved them in XII too. Just a big fan repetition and busywork, I guess. Before moving on to ch. 12, I've completed 53% of the marks.

- Chapter 12's intro is the stupidest thing I've ever seen. I've never experienced a game with such an imbalance between style and substance as this one.

Anyway. Hope I get to return to Pulse before the end of the game because Cocoon smurfing sucks. Can't wait to finish the thing entirely, actually. It should be illegal for SE to place a number after the words Final Fantasy.