Though I've long accepted that the D&D-inspired sword-and-sorcery Final Fantasy I grew up with is no more, Final Fantasy XIII does look like a Final Fantasy for the PS3/360 generation in the vein of Final Fantasy VIII. In fact, a TGS trailer featured a bespectacled Quistis Trepe-like foe, and the future-styled settings and summon-based battles evoked some of the more memorable aspects of that divisive entry in the series. I was never a fan of Final Fantasy VIII's execution, but I did enjoy its style tremendously. If this turns out to be a more playable version, that's definitely all right with me.
But the big draw this time around isn't the plot, setting, or characters -- we pretty much know what we're getting there. Instead, the big change in Final Fantasy XIII is the ability to turn your summoned creatures -- like series mainstay Shiva, for example -- into rideable vehicles. Sure, you've summoned Shiva approximately 1.8 billion times before in Final Fantasy games, but have you ever ridden on her back while turning baddies into roadkill? While I love the fact that the developers are infusing the classic Final Fantasy battles with a bit of over-the-top impetuousness, I worry that this could lead to overlong Final Fantasy VIII-style battles, where extravagant animations intrude on the proceedings at the expense of actual gameplay.
And while most of FF13 feels like a departure from FF12, the game does take a cue from its predecessor with the option to avoid enemies on the battlefield. Unfortunately, the manual camera control really gets in the way of this mechanic, as I was constantly fighting to get a decent view of my surroundings, and never actually succeeded in avoiding a fight. There's no way to center the camera, either, which seems inexplicable in this day and age. With the game's December Japanese release date just a few months away, this was the one area of the game that still looked like it needed quite a bit of work.
Well, except for the character design, but let's face it -- I'm probably not the target demographic for the game. As for the story, a lot of it's going to come down to how the characters are localized. That said, it doesn't help matters that the blond-haired, beanie-clad Snow has the potential to be the most annoying Final Fantasy protagonist of all time, since I was already tiring of his melodramatic whining based on the TGS demo and trailers.
But you know what? I think the decline in Japanese gaming the past few years is partly due to developers getting away from their roots and trying to please every potential market, at the expense of abandoning what got them there. If Final Fantasy XIII offers me the chance to turn Tonberries into roadkill while delivering some of the classic series trappings, I think I'll be able to put up with the requisite melodrama.
