Final Fantasy 13: Chapter 13: 1.3/13Man, I am lazy. Part I of my Final Fantasy 13 rant was written in February! And now it's the middle of May! Time flies. (
http://www.rpgdl.com/forums/index.php/topic,5556.msg125334.html#msg125334 for a recap.) I had this mostly written awhile back but just needed to finish it. Seeing the reports of Square-Enix's huge loss in 2010 thanks to the disaster that was FF14 (
http://games.slashdot.org/story/11/05/13/0535227/Square-Enix-Facing-Big-Losses-For-2010 ) prompted me to finish this up. Part I covered Chapters 10-12; I'm ranting about Chapter 13 and some general unfinished points the game raised in Part II.
Before I get going, I should first state that on the whole, I enjoyed the game. I liked the battle system, which is a big deal - combat was consistently fast and fun, and they mixed things up nicely. I'm willing to give some credit to *parts* of the plot, the music was great, and the graphics were beautiful. So, good. Hell, I enjoyed Sands of Destruction, a game with ultimately a less deep battle system and far more plot problems (prolly a 6/10), so FF13 at least merits a 7/10.
I'll add that, like some other friends of mine have said, FF13 seems to be hated on for some bad reasons. I'd also say that the game this is most reminiscent of is FFX, despite walking in expecting to find an FF7 remix. Similar to FFX, the character customization is pretty much illusory. You only get party member choice for the last third of the game, and there's not really much exploration or sidequesting, and the game doesn't notably speed up once you know what you're doing (unlike say FF6), so the replay value is pretty much nil here. It's not great for FFX either, but at least I can imagine interesting challenges / handicaps for FFX, plus there's more world to explore and enjoy, rather than just watching plot scenes again. This is something I'd hold against the game far more in my younger years, but considering I've never replayed FF5/9/10/12 either, it's not so bad. So yeah, I don't consider the very linear progression of the game a big deal, or the super-linear dungeons. Your average RPG is super-linear as well, you just get the illusion of options by being able to wander to the wrong spot on the map rather than the town you're supposed to go to, or, if they're feeling really nice, other towns that won't advance the plot until you go to the "correct" town. So yeah, not a big deal.
Also, I don't buy disliking the game because of Snow or Hope, the two characters who seem to draw the most hate. They're fine. Without venturing into spoilers, if the game has a weak spot in the main cast, it is most definitely Fang and Vanille. Vanille is secretly the new main character for the last quarter of the game, or at least should have been, and rather than stepping into the role Celes-style, she just kinda stays the detached observer floating with the plot rather than driving it. This... is a big problem.
Getting into the bad... well. There's really just one bad, and it's a doozy. I play RPGs largely for at least one of good characters (Game Arts games) or a good plot (FFT, FF12), preferably both (FF10, SH2, Suiko3). And man does FF13 drop the ball on plot from Chapter 10 on. Shockingly little happens in Chapters 10-13, yet it still manages to be really stupid. An impressive feat. If they'd taken the most generic route possible, it'd have been better.
Here there be spoilers.
Chapter 12 - the last bits
Okay, Snow's NORA crew shows up. This makes absolutely no sense that they'd be in the right place at the right time in such a fashion - what were they doing on Eden? How did they know where Snow was? but whatever. This is the kind of plot hole I don't care about because they needed to find an excuse to check up on these guys again - narratively they needed to be included somehow. That said, the coolest way they could think of for them to help was to open a gate? You can do better than that.
A whole bunch of soldiers turn to Cieth! So Roche's band was a bunch of Cocoon l'Cie? Given intentionally failing missions, or is this due to Orphan's hypothesized instability? Also not sure I approve of having the transformation be instant. This is horrifying. Make it be like Resident Evil with a full 10 seconds of piteous moaning before switching to BRAINS mode.
Roche is on our side after all! But might fight us anyway! Because! Okay, fine, this actually isn't TOO bad at this point after they've already switched his motivations, but meh. They needed to show what he was up to in Chapter 8-10.
Chapter 13
And... what. The Cavalry turned into Cieth? Huh? Were they all l'Cie too? Or turned into l'Cie when they attacked Eden then given hopeless Focuses?
Blatant last dungeon vibes here. But that doesn't make any sense- or rather, it does if we were trying to get the "bad ending." Orphan is where we'd go if we WANTED to turn into Ragnarok and eliminate Cocoon. The actual quest is to save Cocoon, ne? We have no guarantee that Barthandaelus is there, and moreover, no reason to think we can actually really defeat him yet, since he's just cheerfully shrugged off the first two fights as playthings. There are still two hard quests, and both seem to be being ignored - A, stop the civil war and mass panic, and B, get rid of the brands so that we don't turn into Cieth. It sure looks like we're attacking Edenhall / Orphan right now to blow up Cocoon, so I kinda doubt we're really succeeding at A, and the quest to get rid of Pulse brands made the most sense on Pulse, where we could theoretically have researched the issue, or at least talked to a Pulse fal'Cie. Except that quest got ignored. I'm totally fine with this, except that this means that the party is going to turn Cieth after they fail to blow up Cocoon, and I doubt FF13 has the stones to do a Shadow Hearts 2 ending. Alternatively, they explain how their focus was something different after all, but with no Pulse fal'Cie available, I dunno how they're going to sell that. Sigh.
Orphan's Cradle. We're apparently trapped here. I'm glad that the Cavalry "destroying" Orphan was a ruse, although a bizarre one and one that makes Our Heroes look worse for not seeing through it. Was it really necessary to use them anyway? It still doesn't make much sense, since it seems becoming a l'Cie in the first place is fairly rare.
Next up. In general it's not good to think too hard about why monsters are in location X in an RPG, but it's notable here. Doesn't Bart WANT us to get to Orphan and blow it up? Why does Snow have a daft line about "they sure don't want us to get there" or the like? The "reload from save plot dump text scroll" provides an explanation, and one I actually kind of buy, but it's the type of thing I'd really like if they brought up in game! According to it, the goal is to get us to "lose" a battle, then become Ragnarok in fear / desperation / etc. This is a neat evil plan! Reminds me vaguely of Alucard's game overs in Symphony of the Night that suggested that he reverts to normal vampirism. But it's really something that could have used an explanation of since is the first we've heard of such an effect, and the characters never discuss the possibility in-game.
Right, final confrontation time. Difficulty on the final series is actually pretty tough, which I approve of. I do NOT approve of "surprise we took away your ultimate grinding area and any treasures you might have missed by zapping the final dungeon!" Seriously, WTF. I guess it was an excuse to go side-quest in Pulse which I probably never would have bothered with, but the Pulse baddies drop significantly less CP then the re-fightable subbosses which each drop 20,000-30,000 CP a piece in the very last section of the final dungeon. Nice way to give people an easy way to grind if the final boss gives them trouble - if and only if they saved at the second-to-final save point rather than the final savepoint. Bah. Anyway the final did kill me repeatedly until I grinded a bit + got some better equipment. Also Instant Death on a boss in a game where main's death = Game Over is kinda annoying, but I sort of respect wanting to discourage too stally strategies.
Plotwise, fight 1->fight 2 is fine. It retroactively makes Bart's antagonizing the party make sense, although I'm unsure how much credit to give the game designers for this. It was so bizarre for Bart to lecture the party to do his will AND for Bart to attack the party. If Bart IS Orphan in a sense - that Bart must die for Orphan to be born, and then for Orphan to die - then he was just baiting the party the entire time into killing him. That's kinda cool. The party still gets the mark of shame for fighting Battle 2 at all with Orphan, as at this point they truly have walked entirely into Bart's plan, no excuses, this was obvious from the beginning, sigh.
Form 2->Form 3... now here's where things fly off the rails. In an especially frustrating manner, since FF13 flirts with SEVERAL interesting idea for a satisfying final battle / ending, and then discards them. So, as a reminder, after you win the fight, Orphan emits another burst of energy and knocks you all back. Then starts basically torturing our narrator Vanille and trying to taunt her into becoming Ragnarok. Fang offers to become Ragnarok again to spare Vanille... Which is a MAJOR BETRAYAL of everything the party stood for, including Vanille herself, who has decided that she loves Cocoon and thinks the "war" between Cocoon and Pulse was stupid. The game also implied that Fang had resolved this after collecting Bahamut, although Fang never really said "fine, I'll save Cocoon" herself, so sure.
Now, I'm still sort of okay with this, but it makes me pumped to kill Fang now. Everyone is still knocked back from the earlier blast. Fang starts transforming. At this point, I'd be totally cool with the final boss being Fang-Ragnarok. You must kill her before she can kill Orphan in her rage and doom the world. That would be pretty badass. END ONE POSSIBLE SOLID FINAL BATTLE. Okay, carrying on. After Fang starts doing this, in an instant, the rest of the party becomes Cieth except for Vanille. I'm ALSO fine with this. It means that the Pulse fal'Cie which made Lightning / Sazh / Snow / Hope really WAS trying to save the world and stop the war (FAILED), while the Pulse fal'Cie that empowered Vanille and Fang wanted to break stuff (ABOUT TO SUCCEED). That makes a lot of sense and solves the question of whose focuses were what.
So the Cieth start mindlessly beating down on Fang. Fang begs Vanille to run. Now if they wanted to do the uber-dark ending, I'd be cool with this! Your characters mindlessly save the world as monsters by beating up Fang and making her back down from the transformation as she realized in horror what she's done. Your PCs then wander looking for people to kill, while Vanille alone is left to run back into the world knowing the horrible truth of how the world was "saved." Very Lovecraftian. It'd be a massive kick in the nuts since your party did pull an uncontrollable stupid by coming to Orphan's Cradle in the first place, but this is still a valid place to end. Alternatively, if you want to do Cloud / Sephiroth style badass duels, I always do like the duel among former friends. Vanille alone challenges a hesitant Fang-Ragnarok, say. Fang is confused and much weakened to be fighting Vanille herself which is why Fang-Ragnarok would be beatable at all. END ANOTHER POSSIBLE AWESOME FINAL BATTLE. Still ends with Vanille the sole survivor, which is probably too dark, but it's legit.
So, if you want to do a badass fight but with happy ending potential, kill Fang, save Orphan, figure out something. Get Orphan some psychological counseling or something. Hesitant as I am to recommend this, maybe even go fight the Maker (= God) via some asspull about how this will cure Orphan's madness, if you don't want to fight Fang. But nope. We're going to choose the least appropriate battle 3 of the final sequence possible.
Back to FF13 recap reminder. Vanille is in tears, stands her ground, and then... the rest of the party goes back to normal for some reason. Because they're heroes. This kind of devalues everyone else who became a Cieth, but eh, it's late, this isn't totally unreasonable. There's something pushing them forward, a new focus or something? But what was their old focus? How did they fail it? For that matter, what is their new focus? It's kind of implied that their old focus was to blow up Cocoon after all, but hold that thought, 'cause it's about to be implied false. Also we never ever *talk* with a Pulse fal'Cie in the game so I'm totally in the dark for motives on switching focus.
Our heroes also talk Fang back down. Meh, but okay. It would be a gameplay-related kick in the nuts if you're used to using Fang to have "surprise! Can't use her anymore," I'll grant.
Then...
......then....
..............you kill Orphan anyway in another boss battle for no damn good reason.
what. what. WHAT. Battle 2 wasn't so bad because Orphan attacked YOU, self-defense instinct, the battle stopped without you "killing" Orphan anyway, etc. Battle 3 is explicitly picking a fight with Orphan, with some yammering about him being poison in Cocoon's heart for so long. No, no, no, no, NO NO NO NO NO. Plot FAIL. This was the entire thing we've been trying to AVOID THE ENTIRE GAME. Reality is breaking down outside because of Orphan's flickering influence! How the hell does killing Cocoon save it? Do we have a Plan B? What the HELL? I liked FF13's plot angle of "for once, your quest is to NOT kill something" rather than the usual "kill the Dark Lord, save the world," and we just threw that away without the narrative realizing that we now have fallen heroes.
Anyway, we "win", which depowers Cocoon. And causes a mega-disaster or something of Cocoon starting to fall from Pulse's sky (Cocoon looks like a moon from Pulse). How many people are killed by this? Who knows. Then Fang & Vanille together become Ragnarok. The combined Ragnarok then, rather than blowing shit up, basically saves the world in a very nebulous way - creates a giant crystal pillar for Cocoon to rest on as it falls from the sky and freezes it there. The endgame shows ships coming down from a presumably devasated / deserted Cocoon onto Pulse. But there was ABSOLUTELY NO REASON TO THINK THIS COULD BE DONE. This wasn't a "bad guy just blew up the world, we need to improvise right now!" deal. This was "We just blew up the world!" Give me some assurance they knew this wouldn't kill everyone first before we do something like this in a fit of pique. Compare this with, say, Alex & Luna escaping from the Goddess tower after it blows up, because well magic. She is a goddess after all, and it was an unplanned emergency. I understand that narratively you don't want to "spoil" your twist by having the characters discuss on camera the cool plan, followed by the cool plan happening. But if you omit that step, then I want to be able to assume that they were able to CREATE this cool plan in the first place. Considering the clashing emotions and ideas on what to do with Orphan just before, no, this was Fang and Vanille just getting a divine revelation that summoning the ultimate power and becoming Ragnarok might be a good idea or something. Oh, and the other PCs lose their brands, uh, 'cause. Since we don't know anything more about Pulse l'Cie, I can't judge this plot element for plausibility... but again, what was the focus Light / Sazh / Snow / Hope failed? And what was the new one? They comment on how Cocoon looks thoroughly destroyed, but I thought that was the old focus, and... screw this. I like not spelling out foci for me explicitly but when I puzzle through it you have to have at least one answer that makes sense. Multiple answers is fine, 0 answers that make sense are not.
So. Sighhhhhhhhh. We blow up the world 'cause and probably kill a bunch of people off-screen. Go us. Or something. Damnit. I still blame "Vanille" characterwise, because I feel she should have steered Chapter 11 and for that matter Chapter 13 more than she did. She's the one who doesn't have amnesia and knows something about what Pulse was like. She easily could have plot-dumped interesting information, or made a stand somewhere, but just kind of floated along wanting to save Cocoon, but ultimately FAILING. Sigh. Sigh.
--
Some other holistic plot notes:
I liked the worries expressed earlier about how to deal with enemy soldiers, and Sazh wondering if it wouldn't be better just to turn himself in and die. This expands to the populace's fear of Pulse later on... except the characters don't really ask themselves that question. It's solely part of the villain's mwahaha speeches. i.e. "I will drive them into a frenzy of fear where they'll tear each other asunder." I would really like for the PCs to address the issue somewhat, too, and think abuot it! The closest we get is them wondering if they'll have to fight through some more guards in Chap 9, and dismissing it with "Nope, they're fanatics for Primarch Dyseley." How do you fight fear? Oddly enough, Pluse l'Cie killing everyone is not really going to help a point about "Pulse l'Cie aren't evil and nothing to fear!" But maybe there's no choice. Deal with the issue! struggle with it! Even if the ultimate conclusion was "Crap, there's no way, we're just going to make thing worse, but we have to keep fighting," that'd be okay. Shame. Your characters never really try and stop Barthandelus's fear-mongering either - the NASCAR sneak attack being the worst example of this, of course, but even otherwise, they aren't really trying to spread their own propaganda about being no threat.
Barthendelus's motive: Nobody in the game other than Bart ever talks about the Creator other than Bart. The closest is the Pulse archive found in Oerba, which obliquely mentions the Creator stepping in personally to bail the world out of a catastrophe... which raises an interesting question, is Bart intentionally trying to make a catastrophe to get the Creator's interest? "God only shows up in emergencies, so let's make one?" The game never addresses this, or lets your party found out any more details. Sigh. So we have no idea if God is evil, or if God is good and Bart had a Lezard-to-Lenneth style of attracting his attention, or what. This whole plot thread was lame anyway. They should have stuck with simple "immortal's cynicism." "I've been around thousands of years, tasked with helping humanity, and I've come to despise you all and hate my job. End this farce." Keep it simple. I can buy that.
Eidolons: I can't take credit for this as an original thought (Tonfa pointed this out), but some of these scenes felt misplaced. Lightning's was unarguably the best one, and a great scene regardless - Lightning chewing out Hope as slowing her down and being useless while struggling along, watching a giant magic rune appear, and having the proper "this cannot be happening" deadpan response. Makes sense in-game, too, this is the Eidolon saying "it's not safe to travel alone, idiot." Snow & Fang's were fine. Sazh... okay, it appears at a major plot point for Sazh, but it's clashing to have "woo hoo, fire motorcycles!" directly into "suicide attempt." They should have killed the usual "yay I won!" drive-around there. Hope and Vanille's were plain misplaced. They both occur for no damn good reason during angst-sessions on Pulse. Hope needed to have his be in Palumpolom - there was even a giant fleet of ships to unleash an Eidolon on to help make that escape a bit more plausible. Vanille... well, I've already complained about how they handled Oerba, but Vanille needed to get hers in Oerba along with more interesting plot revelations than what actually happened in Oerba.
Pulse: I already ranted on this in part I, but I'm going to bring it up again. What did they want to do with Pulse?! I still don't know. I can only assume this was intentionally withheld for sequel-fu, but they don't even give us good vague hints at what went wrong here and why everyone is dead. Or if everyone is dead. Wandering around Pulse again while leveling up for the final, I found a random Hope / Vanille scene which was kind of interesting in that Vanille once more praises the value of lying... oh, Vanille. You could have been Citan. Instead you were more like the NPC who knows the cause of the world's suffering but sat in his hut waiting for the heroes to arrive to tell them about it, but never do anything about it in shame.
vs. other Final Fantasies: FF13 is so weird. I think both it and FF12 are 7/10 games, but for radically different reasons. FF12's villains actually made sense, for one. FF12 felt like it made a living and breathing world as well, while FF13 kind of skipped out on this (even if for semi-understandable reasons). At least I got to know FF12's world better, at least. FF13 is at least probably better than FF5 - they both have solid gameplay, but FF5 has an actively crappy plot, although at least a semi-consistent crappy plot. FF5 has more "blah" characterless characters too, while at least the full FF13 cast has some solid potential.
Off the cuff ranking: FF6=FF10->FF7->FF8=FF4->FF12->FF13->FF9=FF5->FF3(DS)->FF1?
Since I've finished FF13, I've also finished Final Fantasy 12: Revenant Wings, Alpha Protocol, and Radiant Historia. Should probably review them as well some time. The super-fast turbo version:
FF12RW: 7/10? But a high 7. It's fun! And Vaan and Penelo have *character*, and lines, and are authentically the stars of the story! Weird! In fact the whole cast is fun and has character, and the game has a fairly solid adventurey plot too. It's just a little weird that the gameplay is VaanCraft the RTS. And that literally every tune in the game is taken from FF12.
Alpha Protocol: 7/10. Also fun. Is Deus Ex with modern technology. The plot... is fun enough, but really doesn't work if you look at it closely enough, but this tends to be true of most spy fiction. Also, I can't imagine not playing the game stealthily. It becomes a bad Halo knockoff if you charge in guns blazing, but sneaking around and CQCing people out Solid Snake style never gets old.
Radiant Historia: 9/10. Some minor niggles here and there but great battle engine, great plot idea, pretty good characters. Pretty much agree with Random Consonant's plot dump of thoughts on the characters - wish they'd done Viola or Dias / Selvan a little better, and the Big Villain has one rather notable hole in their plan - but whatevers. Damn fun.
Playing Secret of Monkey Island special edition on PC, Valkyria Chronicles "I'll finish it this time" edition on PS3, and Metroid Prime on Nintendo DS at the moment. Oh and more StarCraft II, of course.
