Reviews

[The Summoner of Leviathan]

I would hardly say FFVI has a class system. Sure, each character has a special ability and you can only equip certain items on certain people. Insofar as that is true, there are classes, however the lines are very blurred with Espers. Traditionally, magic is not open to every class. I'd say FFVI has as much as a class system as FFX: it is only a class system as much as you allow it to be. Sure Rikku is a "thief" class as well as Locke, but hey let's give Locke an Esper and Rikku learn a bit of Lulu's Sphere Grid and now they're mages as well! FFVI class system is more of a pseudo-class system in all honesty.

You can give characters the ability to use magic but it never changes the fact that the characters have innate abilities and qualities that keep them distinctly different from each other permanently so I would say this constitutes as an actual class system. Just because the Mage classes can be blended into every other class doesn't mean its a psuedo system cause if it was, it would be like FFX where all characters can learn everything (except Overdrives and summons) that make each of them unique to each other. You can have everyone master every magic spell but it doesn't change than you may still pick the Figaro brothers cause you love using Bum Rush and Chainsaw.

It still doesn't feel like a class system to me. It is more of traits that reflect each character's personality and background than an actual class system. Then again, my idea of a class system is something more like FFV's or FFT's than anything else.

Relic system? Seriously? It is just the same as equipping accessories in most other RPGs, just this time you get two. Though the Gametrailer video review is the first time I heard about the crafting system for the weapons in FFXIII and from their impression it is underwhelming.

Yeah, except VI was the first to really do it on the scale that it did. Sure some accessories had some innate buffs and debuffs in the past but their were generally only a handful in previous RPGs and VI was the first to use Relics that actually gave your characters abilites. GP Rain, Control, Jump, Dash, W-Magic, Double Handed, Duel Wield, and Barrage... The game literally took the sub-class abilites from V and made them into equipment that gave you the effects. Getting the Gauntlet and Genji Glove to characters like Sabin and Cyan is just as important as teaching Cure and Ultima to your mage like characters. So I would say it did more than just do a few statistical effects for characters I don't think you are giving the system enough credit. They even brought it back to some extent for X-2 of all games and VII's materia system is basically them breaking down the Esper and Relic system downs even further.

I'll give you this since I wasn't looking at it within the context of the series (I also haven't played all of the older instalments). I was comparing it more to other RPGs and FFs that had followed it.

As for linearity, FFVI, along with a few others, are pretty linear until you get an airship or something similar. Basically you have the town NPCs more or less drawing you a map where to go next. Sure, you have that nice big open world map to go to, but for the most part at the beginning of the game all other areas are conveniently blocked off, leaving your next destination very obvious. Not so coincidental and ever so convenient, the only place you can go is the place that all the earlier NPCs were talking about and the next plot point! Not to say they don't open up, they do, but it only occurs later in the game. Sure, it seems open but if you look close enough they are just giving you slack on the leash.

This I can agree with but I actually prefer having the slacked leash over knowing that I have no real control, mostly cause Square was usually kind enough to always throw you a bone every once and awhile and let actually find something special. Using VI as an example, you don't even need to go to South Figaro. Once you walk in, you can simply walk out and proceed to Mt. Kolts but you miss out on meeting Shadow and learning the back-story of Duncan and Vargas, or even the foreshadowing of South Figaro's fall. If you didn't explore the area around South Figaro you would miss seeing Duncan's house and getting foreshadowing of Sabin's arrival. You still have choice despite having few options, whereas the type of game XIII is said to be , your choices are to move forward or stop playing. Whether XIII presents a strong initiative to continue moving forward is something we will have to wait until we play it though.

I didn't know you could do that, but then again I am the type that tries to explore every inch before I move on, despite the fact that sometimes I am like "Next plot point, kthnx". I guess it depends with me, I do not mind it being linear at all, though as long as it pulls me in. Though, I really hate it when it is too open yet no reward for exploring it, especially when there are random battles. Basically, those instances where you are on the world map, you are not too sure where to go and the path is not so obvious that you end up exploring. Then you end up going far away from your goal, only to turn back and to be slowed by countless random battles. That annoys me to no end.

The reviewers complaining about melodrama make me laugh though. It is like they haven't played most JRPGs or watched anime. Sure, they are not all like that but it is common enough that it shouldn't be surprising. To me, it is like complaining about the fact that most RPGs are about saving the world or some re-iteration thereof.

Most I have read said its not so much the melodrama as much as its the fact the cast is very 2-Dimensional and mostly RPG cliches with the exception of Sahz whom I have yet to hear anything negative about.

I haven't heard much about the characters, but more about the over-the-top melodrama. Maybe we should trade sources since we seem to be getting different impressions!

Give me a good battle system and an engaging plot and/or characters and I am pretty much set.

I'm a full package kinda guy, but its just because as I've been getting older, I'm noticing how important the little things are to the whole deal. I still intend to play XIII and I'll pass my final judgment when I see the ending credits.

As I've gotten older, I need more to keep my attention to the game since there are a lot of other things I could be doing or I just get bored of it easily. I've found games that I enjoy their battle system and game mechanics more to be the ones I come back on, especially if I love the characters. Other things have to be good as well, but they are not as important to the experience. I agree that the little things are important to the whole deal, but as long as they are not done poorly (e.g. unlike Xenosaga's music which made the game a bore. WHY DIDN'T THEY USE THE STUFF FROM YUKI KAJIURA?), I won't really notice them as much as the gameplay/battle mechanics or plot.