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Sunday 13 January, 2008
[Part 2 of 2.]
It’s amazing how quickly you can get drawn into a game, so much so that seeing one of your characters get hit makes you reflexively cringe. On another note, I think a chocobo’s greatest weapon isn’t his beak, but the woeful doe-eyes he makes when you raise your hand for the killing stroke. I felt so terrible, but then he Cured both himself and another monster and that effectively slaughtered any mercy I had for him.
The characters themselves haven’t gotten much more interesting. But having to consider where to attack from, deciding whether to heal yourself or slice an enemy with the one turn, which enemies you need to eliminate as quickly as possible (like those black mages), etc — you actually have to pay attention and plan ahead (and thanks to MarsDragon for the hint.) Being able to move around the battlefield rather than being stuck in place, as well as the wide variances within a single landscape, makes it more challenging but also more engaging. I admit I swore aloud a few times. However, at times I feel it’s too difficult, placing you against enemies too far above your own units’ levels; thus leading to lots of GAME OVER screens and frustrated tantrums. Whether this is a fault of the game or just me is debatable.
(I was rather fascinated to find that when I paid for mercenary allies, I was much less likely to use Items on them in battle than on my original units. I’m not sure if this is a result of subtler game design or simply me playing favorites.)
Haven’t yet gotten far enough to comment much on the storytelling or plot advancement itself. Overall, I’m loving the actual strategy necessary for battles, but not so thrilled about the odds I’m being tossed against without the gradual gain of EXP.
I need to hug a chocobo, gosh darn it. (Although Cloud would do, in a pinch.)
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