Final fantasy xiii9/5/2023 Even then, however, it takes far too long to gather enough material and most players likely won’t want to bother with it. The only really deep area in which the player has any input is the weapon upgrade system, where raw materials can be used to level up weapons. There are no distractions from the main quest (and boy were distractions needed) until thirty hours into the game, and by that point it’s a case of too little, too late. Most of the time, players can’t even choose their own battle party until the end of the game, and are constantly having to re-organize their Paradigms after the game decided to wipe all the customization from the slate. Player choice is stripped to a bare minimum as well. And the game forces you through six horrendous boss encounters for the privilege of obtaining these worthless wastes of time. Since that’s considerably more important than wasting your time with Odin, there will barely even be any opportunity to summon. Not to mention the fact that summoning costs Tech Points, and Tech Points are also spent on studying enemies to learn their weaknesses. Their only use is as a way to revive and heal the party, but it’s a needlessly lengthy and pointless way to do it. Despite being able to perform a variety of visually stunning attacks, Eidolons do barely any damage to the enemy, and the Stagger meter empties as soon as they disappear, meaning they can come and go without contributing anything to the battle. The only truly interactive and intriguing part of the battle is Eidolon summoning, but wouldn’t you know, they’re all pretty much useless. Some of the later bosses, in fact, can take so long to beat that you’ll be doing the same thing over and over again for upwards of twenty minutes, wondering why the game should even require your presence (the Proudclad boss stands as paramount proof of this). Once you know when and where to switch Paradigms, your fingers start working on autopilot. Mostly though, the battles become tedious as the game sets about playing itself and concentrating more on looking impressive rather than feeling fun to play. This can be a very satisfying system indeed, although it eventually causes even the most random battles to last longer than they should, since staggering an enemy is usually the only way to deal any noteworthy damage to its HP. When the meter is full, the enemy becomes considerably weaker and their attacks can be halted almost entirely. The more players attack an enemy, the more their “Stagger” meter goes up. The game also throws in a “Stagger” system to keep the pressure up. There is some fun to be had in discovering which classes work best against which enemies, and keeping a variety of Paradigms to hand to deal with each threat. You can use Saboteurs to weaken the enemy with surprisingly effective status ailments while drawing enemy fire with a defensive Sentinel. For instance, you can have a melee-focused Commando work with a magic-wielding Ravager, backed up by a healing Medic in order to provide a mixed offense and defense. The Paradigm System allows characters to change classes mid-battle, and each class works with the other one to create a variety of battle strategies. To its credit, the battle system does a few things right. That’s when the game isn’t introducing epic FMV cutscenes that contain no narrative value whatsoever, just because Square Enix’s art department felt like publicly masturbating. Instead, most of the game is given over to having the characters whine about how hopeless their situation is every thirty minutes. However, not enough time is devoted to the exploration of these themes. The central theme of inescapable destiny, interspersed with hints of racial prejudice and propaganda, could have been something excellent. Characters go on huge emotional spiels that mean nothing because the game doesn’t want to waste time making that emotion mean anything, and huge amounts of dramatic FMV are wasted because Square Enix didn’t pace the game properly and build to the game’s many climactic moments properly. Villains and allies are introduced and then forgotten by the in the space of a few minutes. Their hatred of various characters, and their empathy toward others, mean nothing to the player. The characters talk about saving their world as if it’s important, but to the player, Cocoon’s just a series of random locations awkwardly mashed together. Why should the player care about saving Cocoon, when Cocoon isn’t fleshed out in any way? With only the occasional glimpse at Cocoon’s society and culture, we have no motivation for saving it. There’s no depth to anything or anyone, and as a result, the player has no reason to be involved. The worst crime committed by Final Fantasy XIII‘s narrative, however, is the total lack of impetus provided to care.
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