|
Saturday 26 January, 2008
GAMEPLAY
I’m having mixed feelings on these new ‘target lines’—long arches of colored light connecting you with another target that, depending on the color, indicate an enemy or friend. It’s great because it gives you fair warning of an attacker, or tells you when you’ve broken cover and been spotted, but in a melee-style conflict all those lines can be damn confusing. (You can select to turn them off, however.)
I thought that relatively strong female characters in this series had died with Aeris. (Why are video games lacking so sorely in this area?) Thank god for Ashe, who has confidence, realism, and a much less annoying personality on her side.
DESIGN
The new battle design is tripping me out. It’s still turn-based, of course, and in real-time, but you can actively move around, which makes me nervous. I feel like I should be doing more than just running around and waiting for my turn—like, oh, killing. Nor does the screen change to a separate battleground, as in just about every other FF title; you can see the enemy coming (eliminating the randomness), and you fight right there in the ‘normal’ world. I’m not sure if I like this better or not.
What I don’t like about the battle system is the automated thing they have going. Select [Attack], pick an enemy, and all you have to do from then on is keep an eye on your HP and use a potion if it gets too low. It feels like cheating in a not-satisfying way, and without much thought needed.
There’s a ‘License Board’ that’s reminiscent of the Sphere system thing in FFX. I’ve heard some people complain about it, but I prefer having room for choice in how the character develops. I really liked the Sphere thing, and there’s even more freedom here.
The environments are, in my humble opinion, AWESOME. They’re finely detailed, and the sheer height of the buildings gives a real sense of being in a heavily populated city. If the movie “The Fifth Element” could meet Star Wars, you’d get the city of Rabanastre, complete with non-human species and mercenary-like personalities. In FF7, you had the Germanic influence in Nibelheim, the Western style in Midgar, and the East Asian-like Wutai—here you have a desert, almost Arabic feel, and it’s definitely an interesting change. You can see a Greco-Roman influence in names like ‘Archadia’ and in the armor styles. (I’m sorry, but to me, this cultural thing is fascinating.) The use of rich color gives it the kind of brightly-lit, almost dreamlike atmosphere you’d expect in a fantasy world.
|
