While I'm missing my computer, I decided to take on the task I set my mind to a couple of years ago, and that was to finish Final Fantasy III. I've had a troubled history with that game, as it started off with a huge interest in the game (and admittedly, it was mainly because of Refia for some reason I have no idea why) and then quickly diminished into a passing thought whenever I was bored. "Should I play Final Fantasy III? Maybe some other time."
Then the worst thing happened to me when my best friend Zoso brought me back to World of Warcraft. While I can say with pride that that game has not consumed my soul and, therefore, I can live my life away from that game, WoW has pretty much diverted my attention from other games. It's even diverted my attention from this blog (what I should be doing is writing posts about my experiences with WoW), but now I'm trying to make amends to that. Since my computer is inaccessible right now, I'm able to check out whatever other game I want. So I decided to finish Final Fantasy III.
I am happy to say that Final Fantasy III is quite a wonderful game even without the grand spectacle that is a Final Fantasy plot. The plot in this game is simple: a group of kids go out to travel the world and destroy darkness. Doesn't get any simpler than that I guess, not without feeling completely bland and boring. I guess you can hold it against me when I say that I refuse to play II or I just because they are "boring," but I don't care. Final Fantasy III is where I draw the line, and I like it that way since I believe Final Fantasy III for the DS is pretty much what FF and FFII were meant to be, before the developers decided that these games needed a story as well.
When I played FFIII, I realized that this game is essentially what Final Fantasy is, in general. Well, I would say that the truest Final Fantasy would be FFXII, but this game works there too. FFXII has it all: the vast and exciting world to see; the fantastical elements whether they be influenced via fairy tale or science fiction; the strong, dynamic, likable, and sometimes badass characters with a compelling arc (Balthier, Fran, Ashe, Basch, Gabranth); the flat, laughable (not in a good way), appealing-to-idiot-teenagers characters who annoy us along the journey (Vaan, Penelo); the usual "rise against an oppressive government" plot done somewhat well, even with some strange plot points that might not make any sense; the grand and wonderfully orchestrated soundtrack; Square-Enix's consumption with making graphics top notch; the list goes on and on. The only thing I could say is missing is the turn-based battle system, but if you're a FF fan who has played FFXII, you'll see how that game works better with the battle system it has. I felt Final Fantasy III had nearly all of those things as well, just in their core, basic form. It is also pretty much the game that first boasted chocobos, airships, Moogles, and several other common Final Fantasy elements all in one game, whereas the earlier two were just starting to get these things fleshed out. The only thing I really bitched about from this game was the MP system, but I don't think anything can be more ridiculous than how magic worked in FFVIII (you don't even need to use magic in that game to begin with). I'm sure many will probably tell me that FFXIII is the worst everything because the magic system removes the challenge and blah blah, but at least it lets you play the game (well, if you can make it past the tutorials).
This leads me pretty much to where I wanted to go with this post. I know this blog has a lot of mixed messages about how I felt about FFXIII, but I want to clear the air with what will probably be my permanent opinion of that game. Blue Highwind recently wrote a review of Final Fantasy XIII, which was pretty scathing. And it is agreeably so; I fully understand now why so many people hate that game. After playing III, VI, VII, half of X, and XII (and VIII is currently being shown to me through Blue and the FFWiki's let's play videos, which I found to be the best way to experience that game), I've got a good idea of the series's ups and downs, along with what has worked and what hasn't.
That being said, Blue made a point that I have retained since I first played this game. Somewhere beneath the linearity, the terrible characters and cutscenes, and the ridiculous story, there is (or in my belief, was) a potentially great game. You get a sense of it when the characters reach Gran Pulse, where even though there are no towns, you can see what FFXIII would've been like if there was an open world experience. There are other things that hint at what could have possibly been a better game, but Gran Pulse is probably the one that really stands out there. I'm not sure how I'd feel about FFXIII if I were to play it again, now that I've played several earlier titles, but I'm sure that this concept of what could have been a better game will be what will allow me to forgive the game for its misguidance. As it stands, even though I am aware that FFXIII is one of the worst games in the series, if not the worst itself, I still like the game. I think what allowed for me to like the game was that I pretty much grew up playing linear action-sequence games, so I thought of this as pretty much any other game I played. I've also only played FFXII before XIII, and even then I couldn't remember FFXII very well. In the end, FFXIII, as strange as it seems, is what bridged me to the series.
I've thought every now and then about what it would've been like if I was on the FFWiki. Just how much hate could I possibly receive for this guilty pleasure? I suppose this is why I write here and not on that website. I'm sure anyone with a conscience would understand where I'm coming from. At least I'm not actually arguing that FFXIII is actually a better Final Fantasy than others.
I'm actually afraid to play that game again, because I believe I will actually completely hate it now that I have played the other games in the series. So even though I'm sure it is terrible and that Lightning isn't really as good of a character as I claimed her to be in earlier posts, I want to be at least left with my memories of enjoying FFXIII when I first played it. At the time, I was getting fed up with console video games no thanks to Call of Duty (which ironically motivated FFXIII anyway) and other stuff, and I still credit FFXIII for finally getting me off of those horrible abominations. I don't want to ruin that, so hate me all you want, FF fans.
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