Slightly  different topic today, but I am tired of waiting for WordPress to complete version 3.0 so I can separate not tech blog posts onto another page without having multiple installations of WP…

******** quick top level edit… ********

I am sure as I continue on with the game I will post again, so do not consider this to be my definitive end of discussion post on this topic.

******** end edit… ********

so this game has been keeping me busy for a bit, but I have tons of complaints… I think I’ll get them out in the open first…

for starters, I cannot stand the new battle system, no character levels, say what? I understand the concept of class leveling, nothing new there, been around since the 70′s.  My issue is that you have to select the character advancements (ie +HP or +Magic or +STR…) but really get no choice, as you have to go in “order”  there is no customization (a key point that all “role playing games” strive to have for player enjoyment), you just follow the line they have given you.  I know that FF has always changed their battle system for each game version, but I wish they would either do new games that are follow-ups to the old, or spin-offs, or something.  Personal Opinion is that I prefer the FF VII and VIII battle systems to all others in the post-8-bit gaming world (not gonna go there with the pre-FF VII games, not enough data space in all the cloud for that discussion).  I think both need a little tweaking to be perfect (hence the reason I think they should keep the battle system for 2 or 3 games before changing it), but over all they were the most customizable and player variant character generation systems to date.

Let’s move on to summons at this point in the game (just starting chapter 6) I have Shiva and Odin, and have not used Shiva yet.  so I might have a slightly off opinion…  however… Square has continued with the summons entering combat for/with you, and all your party members up and split… I do not yet understand, get the summon battle mode yet, and feel the battles themselves are a bit to hectic and fast paced (ie except for the chapter 5 plant boos at the end where I died 7 times trying to get “lucky”  my longest battle to date has been 2 mins and 37 seconds, I average right around 25-35 seconds per battle, most of which is waiting for the ATB to fill), I do not even have enough time to try out most of the battle commands and abilities, as everything is over in 2-5 rounds, with the occasional battle running 7-10 rounds <—most of which is spent healing…. and even on 1080p with a 40″ tv I still cannot tell what those little icons are supposed to be (the directional ones)  I have no idea why they don’t just put a freaking arrow instead of a black blob telling me which way to push, and besides Odin seems to respond to button presses during gestalt (I sear that word is supposed to have an “h” in it) even if I do not use a direction…  on the chapter 5 plant boss, WITH STAGGER, Odin took about 10%-15% of the bosses health off, pretty wimpy for Odin… but I guess with all those rose petals around maybe he has gotten a little soft? changed his sexual appetite?  who knows…

now for auto-attack – well what can I say? if you don’t use it you will be killed before you can select your moves, if you do use it, you will get less than optimal results… so flip your coin and run with it, or learn to juggle between the two and use repeat often (nice that, worked better in USA FF III though…)

the largest variable part of the game is in weapon  and accessory upgrades, either you got the cash or you got the items to upgrade, or you don’t… there are not enough items to upgrade more than  1 weapon or accessory per character at this point.  I am trying to keep weapon levels equal to or greater than chapter #, but so far not quite there yet (got a couple to level 7, everyone else is at ~4, and 1 item up to level 6.  no more….)  not sure why I would want to switch to a new weapon that starts at level 1 instead of my nice shiny level 6 or 7 weapon? especially when I don’t have enough components to upgrade that new fandangled piece of iron… maybe they will be useful after chapter 11 where I hear items and CP and Gil are flying around like you won the lottery… we shall see… I might not even play it that far…

biggest complaint: LINEAR LINEAR LINEAR!!! Maybe it’s because I’ve played a pretty darn good number of MMO’s, or maybe because I find The Elder Scrolls to be the best RPG’s ever?  But not having the ability to run around the game world is lame lame lame…  ”supposedly” you can at some point, but I have a friend playing who is either in chapter 11 or chapter 12 and he still cannot… out of 13 (?) chapters that is just plain horridribble…

****************2 itty bitty early game spoiler alert*****************

The Characters… first and foremost I have to say (not what you are thinking) that why in the world do we have a brawler punching machines?  I mean I do love the Brawler class/character in every FF they have shown up, but seriously (yes I know this is not a first in the FF series) and to make them the most physically powerful class, against machines!!  and of course we have the classic FF “someone at some point is/was/becomes and enemy before/after being a good guy” plot device, and the “dying love interest” which I firmly believe comes back later on in the game, as too many people were pissed about Tifa…

We also again get stuck with “the stupid girl” that annoys the crap out of us… this time with a horrible austrailian accent that ONLY occurs at the end of the sentence.  As if that was not enough, she flails her hands out to the sides when she runs, like a southern belle…  it gets better too… not to mention she gives off this really weird vibe, I keep thinking she is the new (totally retarded and gay (not the traditional meaning, I am referring to non-normal/not quite right/just plain stupid, as the definition of the word) instead of super duper cool) Sephiroth of the FF series.

On top of that you get the equally retarded Hope character, the snivelling, whiney, annoying kind of character you want to get a good dish of whoop ass… and then he changes because someone told him he was wrong.  seriously? If you thought Steve Jobs killed your mother, would you forgive him because someone told you it was an exploding iPad that did it, and just because he is in charge of the company doesn’t mean he is responsible for anything it did, go kill the the chinese manufacturer instead?   I didn’t think so.

right, so we cannot forget the 1 non-asian, non-caucasian character that is in the game, just like most of the other FF games.  completely stereo typed (I am not an expert on these, but…) as a vietnam vet (IMO), but not a really messed up one.  I also want to know who is responsible for making characters in video games that are standing still… “dance” in place, I don’t stand like that, I bet you don’t stand like that either, in fact except for a couple of Schizophrenia/ADHD/Parasomnia patients or those affected by Parkinson’s Disease, I don’t think too many people know or do rock/dance while standing, and most of the people with the problems I listed only do it while sitting…  right last issue here… um the choco-chick, in the hair? really?

believe it or not, I have no other character complaints!!!

GO CID!!!

Plot, Story, overall characters = not that exciting, no emotional attachment yet, I’m not rooting for them to win, not “dying” to find out what happens next…  Kinda like FF X.

ok, enough of this for now… I’ll revisit later and update with links.