Some Thoughts About Final Fantasy 13-2

After finishing Final Fantasy 13, I moved right along to its sequel, Final Fantasy 13-2. Direct sequels aren't very common in the Final Fantasy series and 13 is of particular note because it has two. Considering the ways in which FF13 deviated from the series' conventions I was excited to see how these direct sequels would learn from and iterate upon its predecessor. Today we're talking about Final Fantasy 13-2, a direct sequel that takes place two years after Final Fantasy 13.

Timeless Beauty (Presentation)

The environments in Final Fantasy 13 could really take your breath away, and 13-2 is no different. As a matter of fact, you visit so many locations at so many points in time that it has greater visual variety. You'll be exploring the usual valleys and fields, but highly technologically advanced locations as well - and just about anything in between. I found myself constantly distracted by the dozens of beautiful views this game has to offer.

A lot of the enemies and music are re-used from Final Fantasy 13. It makes sense, considering it takes place in the same world, but it's still something to consider. We'll get into the gameplay side of this later, but 13-2 has a lot more optional content and a lot more NPCs to talk to for sidequests. Their voice acting is generally fine, but there's a very limited amount of different models with very limited animation. It can be a little bit grating to watch the repetitive mouth flapping of the same face you've seen a few dozen times after watching the truly gorgeous cutscenes reserved for the game's important characters.

13-2's soundtrack can be described as having higher highs and lower lows than its predecessor. Most of the battle themes you'll hear are excellent, combining synth with orchestra to emphasize the game's journey through different time periods.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdframgnBVE

But some tracks have an almost 'grunge metal' feel to them, with screaming vocals that absolutely do not fit the beautiful landscapes and emotional story of a Final Fantasy game. The track that plays when you ride a red Chocobo, 'Crazy Chocobo' is infamous at this point. Listen at your own risk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEUOOgNzOv4

In short, FF13-2 offers more visual variety, especially in environments, but NPC and enemy designs are still regularly re-used and not particularly impressive in the former's case. The soundtrack recycles some tracks from 13, but the original pieces are mostly excellent. A few of the tracks are bad.

Time's Teachings (Gameplay)

Final Fantasy 13-2 is an evolution of Final Fantasy 13 in many ways. In this segment, I'll focus on the ways 13-2 differentiates itself in its exploration and battle system.

The endless complaints about Final Fantasy 13's overly linear nature were clearly heard and applied to 13-2.  While there are still linear segments, the game opens up almost immediately and many of its environments feature branching paths or are completely wide open. Not only that, there are many optional locations and time periods to visit for players who explore thoroughly. As free and open as the exploration is, though, the areas and time periods can feel a little disjointed because you access them from a somewhat disorganized level select screen referred to as the 'Historia Crux.' This is a small price to pay for the sheer amount of freedom and optional content, however.

Some small things were added to the exploration in 13-2 as well. You can now jump at will, and you can find secret treasures hidden in the environment by using your companion Moogle's special detecting ability or by throwing him to treasures out of your reach, an act that he very much doesn't appreciate. Enemy encounters have also been reworked; FF13 did away with random encounters entirely with enemies simply existing in the overworld. 13-2 partially returns to the traditional system, with enemy encounters appearing at random in the overworld, but not necessarily initiating a battle like the JRPGs of old. Once an enemy appears, the player can choose to try to run away, or deal a first strike on the enemy to gain an advantage in battle. This system allows you to grind certain types of enemy more easily, but can be frustrating in cramped areas when faster enemies that can actually chase you down spawn. 

In FF13's linear environments, there weren't many NPCs you could actually interact with. In 13-2, however, there are a boatload of NPCs with sidequests and lore, although most sidequests boil down to finding an item in the area or killing a specific enemy. The best sidequests play with the game's theme of time travel and have you visit an area in multiple different time periods to figure out what to do. The game even has a lot of dialogue options, but we'll discuss those in more detail under the story segment.

One final thing to mention about the exploration is that sometimes, to progress, you need to resolve a 'paradox' by solving a puzzle. These puzzles offer some welcome variation when done on occasion, but can often overstay their welcome by either being simple and repetitive or frustratingly hard. As an example of the former, there are puzzles where you just connect crystals of the same color over and over again. As an example of the latter, there are complex clock puzzles that would take more time to explain than they're really worth, but basically, you move the arms of a clock to numbers which then decide how many steps you can move the arms of the clock again, and using this method, you need to find a way to have the clock stop at every point without ever landing on the same point again. If that sounds confusing, that's because it is.

So, all in all, the exploration has changed a lot. But what about the battles?

Final Fantasy 13 shifted a lot of the focus in battles from actively choosing options to preparing and switching between 'paradigms,' where you assign each character a role like Commando or Medic. Final Fantasy 13-2 uses the same system but expands upon it in a few ways. For starters, your characters throughout the entire game are Serah and Noel, and you decide which Roles to teach them when as you level them up. This means that you not only need to think about which paradigms to use, you also need to choose between improving your current roles/paradigms or learning new ones. 

It is a little disappointing to only have 2 characters instead of Final Fantasy 13's six, but the other addition to the battle system makes up for it: monster taming. Most monsters you encounter can be tamed and acquired for use in battle. The third party member in any paradigm is a tamed monster of your choice and there are dozens upon dozens of monsters you can tame, level up, combine with each other for powerful passive abilities and even name and equip with cute cosmetics. 

Unlike Noel and Serah, tamed monsters only ever have one Role, but that makes sense considering the sheer amount of tameable monsters you can acquire.

Next to the major additions, there are also minor conveniences. A paradigm shift now happens without a small cutscene demonstrating to which role each character has switched, and if the character the player is controlling gets knocked out, you automatically switch to the other instead of getting an instant game over.

You'll notice that these additions do indeed expand on the system that was present 13, but don't fundamentally change it. I have a lot of respect for the decision to not throw the baby out with the bathwater here. A lot of people complained about the streamlined battle system in 13 because it was different, not because it was actually fundamentally flawed on a game design level. It's very satisfying to plan out some perfect paradigms and then watch your team destroy an enemy with little effort thanks to your thinking ahead, and this game pushes that system even further with added convenience and customization.

I think most of the changes made in 13-2 are for the better, but there are a few bad ideas mixed in. One of those is the quick time events in cutscenes. Usually the finishing blow against a boss is handled by awkwardly performing a series of timed button presses over a cutscene, which feels unnecessary and pretty tedious. It feels completely contradictory to how the battle system works - you've spent all this time planning ahead, setting up your Paradigms and switching between them - now watch an elaborate cutscene where Noel and Serah destroy the boss while you press the buttons it tells you to. Considering this only happens after major boss battles, though, it's not too much of a bother.

All in all, Final Fantasy 13-2 is a shining example of listening to feedback while maintaining your vision. Exploration was massively expanded, with huge open areas and optional content to explore. Random enemy encounters in the overworld generally allow for easier grinding and monster taming, but can be tedious if faster enemies spawn in enclosed areas. The 'paradox' puzzles add nice variety but outstay their welcome if you're trying for full completion.

13-2's battle system is fundamentally like 13's but with more customization. The quality of life improvements and extensive monster taming system make this one of the most fun and addictive JRPGs I've played, though the QTEs tacked at the end of some boss battles can sour the mood a little bit.

Broken Timeline (Story)

As its name implies, Final Fantasy 13-2 is a direct sequel to Final Fantasy 13. As such, there will be Final Fantasy 13 spoilers in this segment.

The Premise

The story of Final Fantasy 13-2 takes place a few years after Final Fantasy 13. It's immediately apparent that something is different from what we remember. Lightning survived the events of FF13, but when the story begins in 13-2, it's believed by everyone that she died in the battle to save Cocoon and disappeared alongside Vanille and Fang. The only person who remembers otherwise is her sister, Serah, who is one of the two main characters in this game. This premise is immediately quite interesting and it's hard not to feel sympathy for Serah. She's spent a few years knowing her sister ought to be alive because she actually remembers it happening, but almost everyone else thinks she's just been in denial all this time, incapable of accepting the simple truth.

She finally sees her memories validated when Lightning, who is now stuck in a place outside time known as Valhalla, sends a person called Noel her way. Noel is the second main character in FF13-2, a hunter from a horrific future where all of humanity has died out and he is the last remaining person. Noel brings Serah a message from Lighting; that the timeline has been messed with, leading to Lightning's disappearance and the existence of this awful future. Noel and Serah set off on a journey through time together to find Lightning and prevent this apocalyptic future from ever taking place. To help, Noel has also brought Mog to help Serah. Mog is a Moogle who can transform into a bowsword and be wielded as a weapon.

After Serah time travels for the first time the story structure goes on a little bit like this: Serah and Noel enter a new area and time period and discover there is a 'paradox' to resolve before they can move on. Paradoxes are things that don't belong in that specific time or location but have ended up there due to the damage the timeline has suffered. They resolve the paradox, open one of the 'time gates' in the area, move on to a new time/location and the cycle repeats. Along the way, they gather clues as to what caused the timeline to change the way it did in hopes of ultimately saving Lightning and the future itself.

The Characters

The protagonists of the story are Serah Farron and Noel Kreiss. Serah is a returning character from FF13, where she played a central role in the story as Lightning's sister and Snow's fiancée. A major goal in the story of FF13 was to save Serah from her crystallized state, which makes it interesting that the roles are reversed in this game, with Serah setting out to save her sister Lightning. Noel Kreiss is a new character, a time traveler from a distant future he wants to prevent from ever happening. They're accompanied by Mog, a Moogle sent by Lightning to help Serah. Serah is a very likeable and sympathetic character and we can empathize with her goal of reuniting with her sister. She does have some character flaws, like a dangerous temper, but this unfortunately doesn't come up very much in the story, which may lead some people to feel she's a bit too perfect as a person. Even though the premise of the story very much makes it look like this is all about Serah, I actually felt Noel was the real 'central' character. The journey to reunite with Lightning often feels like it takes a back seat to the journey to save the future he's from, and most character relations and interactions revolve around him. For example, Caius and Yeul (more on them later) have a connection to Noel, and when returning characters like Snow appear, they mostly clash with Noel while Serah stays in the background. To push this point further, the leitmotif that appears in all the battle themes comes from 'The Last Hunter,' which is Noel's theme. I'm conflicted about this because I think it's great they brought a new, well fleshed out character to the table but it's disappointing to see Serah fall into the background again after she spent most of the last game frozen as well. Mog is a cute character, but he's mostly there for comedy and doesn't have much to learn or achieve in the story outside of an optional quest about his home. But the victory animation where Serah hugs him is heart meltingly adorable, so at least there is that.

The antagonist of the story is a mysterious man called Caius Ballad. He fights with Lightning at the very beginning and follows the protagonists through their time travels, fighting them or hindering them at every opportunity, proclaiming that changing the timeline is a 'sin.' He's accompanied by a mysterious girl called Yeul. Caius is easily the most sympathetic and interesting villain from these three games. I can't fully explain why without getting into spoilers, but to give a brief overview: he's been made immortal to serve as Yeul's guardian, but Yeul is not immortal. She, instead, dies and is reborn as a new person time and time again. Witnessing this girl die over and over and over is what drives Caius to do the things he does in the story and paints his otherwise horrible actions in a sympathetic light. Yeul herself doesn't really have the opportunity to become an established character because every time you encounter Caius, he's with a different Yeul from a different timeline. As a result, who I'm calling 'Yeul' is actually a group of several different characters with the same voice and appearance, none of whom get very much time to be developed. It makes for an interesting character concept, though, and some Yeuls get more screentime than others.

The returning characters from FF13 are a mixed bag. Lightning provides a strong opening for the story but then passes the torch on to Noel and mostly stays in the background for the rest of the game. Characters like Fang, Sazh and Vanille barely appear at all. 

That leaves Snow and Hope, and I have a lot to say about both. I'm very disappointed in the way Snow is, or rather, isn't implemented in this story. After Serah confides in him that she remembers Lightning being alive, he proves himself the worthy fiancé by believing her without hesitation and going off to find Lightning, something that makes me like him even more than I already did. But then he just stayed away for 3 years, never coming back to Serah. When you run into him again, he's gained a stupid haircut and a new fal'Cie brand. Even weirder, there's barely any chemistry or interaction between him and Serah at this point. I really don't understand this, but the best I can think of is that the developers wanted to leave room for a Serah and Noel romance instead. Snow mostly just clashes with Noel and disappears from the story after you fight alongside him in one of the time periods, with much of what he did in the past years relegated to the data logs you can read. Most encounters afterwards are optional. Hope, on the other hand, plays a much better role in the story. He's grown up into a renowned scientist who is playing an important role in the recovery of society now that the fal'Cie are no longer functional. He believes Serah and Noel are indeed time travelers and is very eager to help them for the sake of the friends he fought alongside in FF13. He and his attempts to help facilitate a better future play a major part in the story across multiple time periods, and I only wish other characters from the first game had this kind of presence as well.

Thinking back on FF13-2 made me realize that the game's cast of important characters is pretty small. This might be a consequence of people complaining about how convoluted the story got in FF13. The only other significant side character I can think of is Alyssa, Hope's assistent. Because she's with Hope, she gets a lot of screentime, and she's actually an interesting character. The only other newcomer that sticks out to me is Chocolina, an enthusiastic Chocobo girl and trader, but she only really comments on the story rather than being part of it. Her origins aren't even explained in the main story. 

Pacing & Progression

FF13-2's story can often feel like many smaller stories stringed together. The overarching story has a strong presence near the beginning and end, but sometimes feels like it takes a backseat to the immediate threat or conflict in each given time and place. In a few words, the story feels episodic and disjointed. Many threats and enemies occur simply as a result of "meddling with the timeline," and don't really relate to Caius at all. Other conflicts do relate to Caius, but this is only explained if you happen to come across a specific bit of lore or an alternate ending. This problem only gets worse if you take the time to do all the optional content as it becomes available.

It should be said that just because parts of the story are disjointed, that doesn't mean each individual part is bad. I'll keep it vague to prevent spoilers, but at one point in the story, you enter a city in the future. This city is in a truly awful state, a miserable place to be for you and all its inhabitants. Due to some actions in the past, you then create an alternate 'good future' version of this city. Entering this 'good future' version was one of my favorite moments in the game because it communicates so clearly that the future can be changed. It's a hopeful thought that plays into the overarching story quite nicely and gives a clear sense of progression that most other areas lack. 

Quests & Optional Content

Due to the disjointed nature of the story we established earlier, it can sometimes be hard to follow. Many things are explained in the data logs, and a lot of lore is hidden within optional areas or quests. Some of the best character moments and interactions, especially between the FF13 original cast, are found in worlds that can be completely skipped over if you simply want to go straight to the end. This could've been a cool extra if the main story wasn't so starved of good interactions between the original FF13 cast to begin with. But with the caveat that some of the optional content probably should've been integrated in the main story, there is a lot of good optional content. Each unique location in the Historia Crux has its own story and its own problem to solve.

The Ending

This segment and article have already run on for much too long, so I can't fully do the discussion about FF13-2's ending justice here. But if you've heard anything about the game, you'll know that the way it ends is controversial and my opinion on it is very mixed as well. If people are interested, I may write an article just about the ending.

In Summary

FF13-2s story starts with a strong premise and characters with understandable and believable motivations, but the overarching story often falls into the background and ends up feeling disjointed in the middle. It may be disappointing to FF13 fans just how meager the presence of the original FF13 cast is and how few their interactions are. There are many highlights, however, like the antagonist Caius and several very compelling optional locations and quests.

After All (Conclusion)

Final Fantasy XIII-2 is, in most ways, a perfect example of how to make a sequel. It takes FF13's attempt at streamlining JRPG combat and makes it more involved, faster, more customizable and all-around more fun. The QTEs are a mistake, but they're rare enough that they don't ruin the experience. It allows for much more open exploration and has many hours of optional content to offer that doesn't just involve talking to a stone that asks you to kill some enemy.  Its presentation expands and experiments, and this is generally a success as well - I come back to its battle themes almost every day when I need something exciting to listen to. 

The only major disappointments the game presents are in its story. While its opening and arguably ending are strong, the main quest often falls into the background of only tangentially related conflicts. The cast from FF13 has a limited presence and many things are not well explained in actual dialogue and scenes, being resigned to data logs instead. That's not to say that the separate fragments of story are not good, but that they sometimes lack a proper connection to each other, and rarely ever connect back to Final Fantasy 13.

All in all, a great sequel - the story just wasn't what I hoped it would be.

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Wow! It's been a few months since I wrote any articles. I've been stuck on this one for a while because I wanted to articulate how good 13-2 is, but also how many frustrations I have with the story. I hope it was a good read and I hope my next article won't take as long. Stayed tuned, and all feedback is appreciated!

The Witcher 3 - The Worst Quest in an Amazing Game

It's hard to believe that the Witcher 3 will be 5 years old this year. When it was released in 2015, this open-world RPG was met with an overwhelmingly positive response. Of particular note was the fact that even seemingly small sidequests would often have interesting twists and choices on offer. I loved almost every second of this game when I played it, but one of the larger sidequests that tied into the main story disappointed me deeply. I want to explain why. Beware, this article assumes you have a basic understanding of the Witcher 3's plot, and there will be some spoilers.

The Underbelly of Novigrad

At one point in the story, Geralt's search for Ciri leads him to Novigrad, a city untouched by the war with Nilfgaard but dealing with its own battles, namely between the local religious cult and various crime syndicates. In his search, Geralt meets the leaders of the Novigrad gangs, one of whom is Sigismund Dijkstra, Redania's former spymaster. He's easily one of my favorite characters in the game. His wit and biting sarcasm make most interactions between him and Geralt a treat, and their begrudging cooperation is a highlight in an already compelling narrative.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiLasX4Q5ww

What's both entertaining and frightening about Dijkstra is that he figures out most of the things Geralt tries to hide from him. He always seems perfectly in control of the situation, and it's completely believable that he managed to thrive even among dangerous criminals. For instance, Dijkstra asks Geralt to investigate who broke into his safe. Geralt already knows it was his friend Dandelion, but keeps this from Dijkstra to prevent complications. However, Dijkstra figures it out soon after and calls Geralt out for omitting this information. I think it's important to establish this because it's part of why I really dislike a later quest.

If you follow Triss' questline to its conclusion, Dijkstra will help you save the mages by shipping them out of Novigrad before the cult of the Eternal Fire can get them. This opens up a questline where Dijkstra reveals his true plans - he wants to assassinate Radovid, the king of Redania. Radovid is burning everyone and everything with even the vaguest relation to magic or alchemy, and Dijkstra wants to get rid of him to restore Redania to its former glory as a fair and just country. If you refuse to get involved, it ends there, but if you help Dijkstra and his co-conspirators with a small favor, a new line of quests opens in the endgame.

The War with Nilfgaard

In the final hours of the game, you return to Novigrad to prepare for the final battle. One of the main quests has you meeting Dijkstra once again, though not on the friendliest terms - he's holding someone captive that you need on your side for the finale. If you resolve the situation by breaking his leg, the questline is also lost, but if you persuade him by sharing critical information, he puts his plan to assassinate Radovid into action. This final quest in a long chain of quests is called Reason of State.

Dijkstra works together with Roche, a friend from the Witcher 2 and Thaler, a friend from The Witcher 1. Couple that with the fact that the Witcher 2 revolved around the shifting power in the Northern Realms after another king was assassinated, and it lends a sense of high stakes to this final step in a long journey of choices that could've locked you out of attempting this if you made any mistakes. If you choose to get involved, Geralt needs to personally lure Radovid from the safety of his ship so the assassination can play out, and it's appropriately exciting and climactic.

The assassination goes as planned, more or less, but then the aftermath plays out. The conspirators reveal that they have a deal with Nilfgaard; if they were to successfully assassinate Radovid, Temeria could remain its own state with its own laws and leadership, albeit as a vassal state of Nilfgaard. This is an interesting turn of events, and the game allows you to share your thoughts on whether this is a good idea, but then the quest takes a drastic turn.

Dijkstra reveals that he no longer wants to stand by the deal with Nilfgaard. Now that Radovid has been eliminated, he intends to unite the Northern Realms himself and repel Nilfgaard completely. He then proceeds to do the stupidest, most out-of-character thing in the game and bluntly claims that his co-conspirators have to die for his plan to work. He bluntly tells Geralt to just go away while he does this, and you are left with the choice of either letting him kill characters you've known for two or three games or fighting back, in which case he is unceremoniously killed in the following battle.

I don't necessarily dislike the idea of the conspirators disagreeing on the exact terms of how the Northern Realms will be ruled, but Dijkstra coming out swinging and deciding to kill his co-conspirators while assuming Geralt won't do anything about it is just stupid, especially because Roche and Thaler are his friends. He invokes the supposed Witcher neutrality regarding political affairs, but conveniently forgets that Geralt literally involved himself in their political assassination, making the expectation of neutrality completely ridiculous at that point. Earlier he even told Geralt that Witcher neutrality is just an excuse Witchers hide behind when he tries to get him involved in the assassination, so why does he suddenly think it's going to matter when he's about to backstab some people Geralt knows? And perhaps this temporary lapse in judgment could be forgiven, but if he had any of the brains that he clearly had when he was first introduced, he would immediately back down if Geralt showed resistance. After all, he should know full well that he and his two random bodyguards can't win against Geralt and several armed combatants. But he doesn't, and if you choose to defend Roche and Thaler, a short battle ensues where you easily kill Dijkstra and his men. A thoroughly anticlimactic end for what was one of the greatest characters in the game. If you allow Dijkstra to do what he wants, he successfully kills Thaler and Roche and proceeds to successfully defend Temeria from Nilfgaard. This outcome is decent enough, but it comes at such a high price in terms of character deaths and your own morality, that almost no one will consider it preferable.

In Summary

I hope I was able to articulate why this particular questline disappointed me so much. To go over it one more time:

Dijksta, a highly intelligent and scheming character, involves Geralt and his friends in a political assassination plot. At the end of the questline, he decides to betray his co-conspirators and murder them, expecting Geralt to stay out of it and let him murder some old friends because of "Witcher neutrality" - even though Geralt sacrificed his neutrality to become part of the plot in the first place. When Geralt resists, he attempts to kill Geralt too, even though he should know he can't win the fight, having seen Geralt's combat skills. In a few minutes, a complex and brilliant character is turned into a mustache twirling moron to manufacture a "choice."

Even so...

Sidequests and Witcher contracts in the Witcher 3 are famous for being well written and often having a few surprises and interesting player choices up their sleeves. In general, Witcher 3 stands tall as one of my favorite open-world games with some of the best writing and characters we've seen in the game industry as a whole. That's the reason why a small blemish like I described in this article sticks out so much. But this quest was the one and only time that I was disappointed like that, and the rest of the game deserves all the praise it gets. I look forward to seeing what they made of Cyberpunk 2077, which releases next month!

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It's been years since I played Witcher 3, but I just really wanted to get my thoughts out about this one. Thanks for reading, and please feel free to share your feedback.

Resident Evil: Code Veronica - The Horror of Losing Access to Resources

I've been making steady progress in my Resident Evil marathon and recently finished a lesser known installment in the RE series, Resident Evil: Code Veronica.  This classic-style survival horror adventure combines the static camera angles with some camera movement and focuses on Claire Redfield's journey to find her brother Chris. I've dedicated a few articles about interesting and frustrating parts of the Resident Evil series and I'd like to highlight an especially odd design choice in this one.

Up to Code

Code Veronica plays much the same as other Resident Evil games of its time, requiring you to navigate various locations with tank controls and managing your resources while dealing with the undead and solving puzzles. The moment-to-moment gameplay is identical to other RE games in that regard, but there are a few differences in the presentation and structure.

Like I mentioned in the intro, Code Veronica mostly uses static camera angles, but sometimes the camera moves with the character. On a few occasion, it's used effectively to build tension in a hallway where the camera slowly moves further away from you, or zooms in on a point of interest, but it usually feels unnecessary and unnatural. It doesn't add or detract much when it really comes down to it. The presentation itself is passable. It's clear what everything is supposed to be, but the colors are generally muddy and muted, with a fog hanging over almost everything. It's saved from being poor by some great music, character designs and a handful of interesting areas - the Private Residence comes to mind.

In terms of structure, there are larger separate areas like in Resident Evil 3 or 0, but the game makes you backtrack through earlier areas a lot like in Resident Evil 1. This is not too big of a problem if you know what you're doing, but increases the frustration tenfold if you're not sure where to go or what to do because the solution could be anywhere you've been up to this point.

With the exception of a very shoe-horned in Albert Wesker, the story is quite interesting. In her search for her brother, Claire Redfield is captured and brought to mysterious island that she has to escape from. The antagonist is an interesting and somewhat tragic character and the twists and turns along the path of this game's narrative might surprise you.

All in all, RE: Code Veronica is similar to other Resident Evil games, with some odd design choices in its structure and visuals.

From Claire to Chris

Some time after the midway point, the perspective switches and you take control of Chris, Claire's brother. He starts with his own resources, but I immediately noticed that he could access the items I put into the item box as Claire. This is a departure from the character switch in Resident Evil 3 where Carlos has his own item box and cannot access Jill's items. This gave me a headstart as Chris, but at the same time, I felt a little worried about carrying Claire's items around as Chris. If this character switch segment worked like any of the Resident Evil games so far, we would finish Chris' segment and switch back over to Claire for the finale.

To prevent a situation where Claire wouldn't have the necessary resources, I went out of my way to put all of Chris' items into the item box when the switch was about to happen - and I felt pretty smart about it when we did indeed switch back to Claire and she was fully equipped with enough firepower to knock down three final bosses and then some. So you can imagine my surprise when, after a brief segment as Claire, the game switched right back to Chris - instantly putting me in a boss fight with zero resources. To prevent an unwinnable situation like in Resident Evil 0, I had put myself in an unwinnable situation.

It required me to redo a segment, but I decided it was fair enough - this situation occurred because I overprepared for something that ultimately didn't happen. I let Chris keep most of his resources, went through Claire's segment again and defeated the boss when we switched to Chris. I was satisfied that I had given Chris enough to make it through the boss, while still leaving Claire with the most firepower. So imagine my surprise, again, when we never switched back to Claire and all her weapons were permanently out of my reach. For some reason, the entire finale is played as Chris, even though the game started out as a story about Claire. Story-wise, I thought it was a bit disappointing that Chris robbed the finale instead of letting Claire do it. Design-wise, it's just deeply flawed. To get the most out of all your resources, you need to put them in the box before switching characters, but doing that can get you locked into an unwinnable boss battle (both Claire and Chris have to fight a powerful boss in their segments). It's also just natural to assume that you'll finish the game with the character you started as, but that doesn't happen either - so if you gave up Chris' resources for Claire, too bad! You'll have to do the final boss with your knife and some scraps.

This problem was so easy to prevent, too. They could've just given you a prompt that you would not be playing as Claire again, or they could've automatically put everything in her pockets in the item box. Yes, it would reveal ahead of time that you're going to end the game as Chris, so I understand why you wouldn't want to do it for narrative reasons, but this is a situation where good game design should be valued over keeping secrets. A good compromise might be to put all of Claire's items in the item box if you die to the final boss a few times - at that point, there's nothing left to hide.

With all that said, the final boss was still manageable. It took me a few attempts, but it wasn't a brick wall like Resident Evil 0 - and if my resources had really proven completely inadequate to complete the final boss, I would've had to redo a far smaller segment than Resident Evil 0 made me redo.


Closing Thoughts

I enjoyed Resident Evil: Code Veronica. It's a lot longer than other Resident Evil games, to the point that its original release required two disks, and tries a few new things to varying degrees of success. Aside from the fatal design flaw I discussed in this article, I'd say it's a challenging but fine installment in the Resident Evil series. I'll remember the challenging bosses, story and music for a long time to come, but I've already forgotten the visuals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxq5ymqPAsQ

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It feels nice to be getting my thoughts out about some of the classics I've experienced lately. Thank you for reading! I hope you'll join me for whatever's next, and of course, your suggestions and feedback are always welcome.

Some Thoughts About Final Fantasy 13

Final Fantasy 13 is a fairly controversial installment in the beloved Final Fantasy series of RPGs, with critics disliking its battle system and highly linear level design. Now that the conversation around the game has mostly died down, I'd like to share a few thoughts of my own. As this game has been thoroughly discussed in the past, I'd mainly like to focus on how my opinions differ from the general consensus, and how they do not.

Living, Breathing Worlds (Presentation)

Square-Enix may make its mistakes, but they always seem to get the presentation just right. Final Fantasy XIII truly was a visual marvel for its time with dozens of complex, beautifully designed characters, landscapes and enemies. It looks more impressive than many recent games do. And in typical Final Fantasy fashion, it has the soundtrack to match.

The only minor problem I had with the presentation was that some enemy designs and animations are re-used quite a bit. While the re-used designs usually get updated and look more unique than mere recolors, it's still pretty noticeable.

The voice acting is also solid and does a good job of representing the characters.

Hallways and Automatic Battles (Gameplay)

I mentioned this briefly in the first few lines of this article, but people have some fundamental problems with the way this game is structured as well as its battle system.

Let's start by discussing the way the game's environments or levels are structured. It gained the nickname 'Final Hallway XIII' in certain circles because its levels are very linear and rarely necessary to visit again after you simply go from A to B. You simply walk through lengthy corridors and fight monsters, with the occasional tiny side path hiding a treasure. The game opens up eventually, but it happens so late into the game and so much is optional that it'll only make a difference if you really care to explore every corner of the world.

Enemies can be encountered in the overworld - that is, there are no random encounters in the traditional sense. Once you run into an enemy in the overworld, that's when you enter the battle system.

Final Fantasy 13 is a turn-based RPG, but you can't rest on your laurels. It uses a so-called active time battle system. Both your and your enemies' turns load in real time, and your enemy will continue to attack even if you don't. But you won't have to fiddle with menus too much, because of the game's second controversial feature - auto battling. Select the button, and the character you're controlling will just fill their turn with logical actions based on the situation. The real strategy in FFXIII isn't in choosing individual moves, but in controlling your party's Paradigm. To put it simply, each character can fulfill a few Roles, and each of those has its own specialty. Commandos maximize damage, Medics heal their teammates, Sentinels attract enemies and take damage for the team, Synergists buff teammates and so on. You don't select the roles individually either, however. Outside of battle, you'll prepare a set Paradigms - that is, different ways of dividing the roles among the characters - and during battles, you can switch between them at will. It's a surprisingly involved system, but to simplify it, you could have prepared a paradigm to attack enemies, a paradigm to protect against powerful attacks and a paradigm to heal up. In the battle itself, all you do is respond to the situation by shifting paradigms and occasionally use an item or summon when necessary.

In this regard, FFXIII is a very streamlined game. Exploration is simplified in such a way that there's little more than going from A to B, and battles are simplified in such a way that when you've prepared your paradigms, much of the battle resolves itself. I honestly don't think there's anything inherently wrong with linear environments or auto battles, but perhaps the combination of the two made people feel like every part of the game is stuck to the rails? I personally didn't mind this very much at all, as I've always preferred games that have clear destinations over games that make you wander around - and while the battle system took some getting used to, I thoroughly enjoyed exploring just how many possible Paradigms there are. I particularly like the Paradigm 'Bully,' where you have a Commando to damage the enemy, a Synergist to buff your team and a Saboteur to debuff the enemy.

To summarize, Final Fantasy XIII's environments and battles both move on set tracks, though the environments more than the battles. Exploration doesn't really come into play until much later in the game, while you'll be experimenting with the unique Paradigms soon after you start. The ways this game simplifies the formula of turn-based RPGs, and perhaps Final Fantasy games in particular, was not appreciated by some fans, but I personally thought it was a refreshing take on the formula.

A World that Hates You (Narrative)

The story of Final Fantasy 13 is, in true Square-Enix fashion, pretty complicated. You may regularly need to consult the in-game datalog to get a handle on exactly what's going on. I'll try to give you a quick summary, but I may make a few mistakes:

In the world of Final Fantasy 13, most humans live in a closed community called Cocoon. Cocoon is like a small planet floating above the world below, protected and provided for by powerful machines known as fal'Cie. The people of Cocoon are particularly afraid of anything to do with the world below - called Gran Pulse - because they were at war with it once. The problems start when a fal'Cie on the side of Gran Pulse appears in Cocoon. Its very presence starts a mass panic because fal'Cie can mark humans as their servants - such a human is called a l'Cie - so even if the fal'Cie is defeated, one or more people could have been marked as the fal'Cie's servant and become a danger to Cocoon. This kickstarts an event called the 'Purge,' where the Cocoon leadership tries to forcibly ship off everyone that could've possibly come into contact with the Pulse fal'Cie. The events of the game start during this Purge, with each of the characters having their own role to play. The backstory of the game, which is revealed gradually, is all about the days leading up to the Purge and what all the characters were doing at that time.

In the opening events of the game, the Purge is happening and each of the characters is involved in it in some way. I won't go into too many of the details, but the inciting event that leads into the rest of the journey is important to mention: The characters run into the Pulse fal'Cie and try to destroy it, but instead, it marks them as its "servants", l'Cie. Now they're considered the "enemy" of Cocoon and are given a vague goal by the fal'Cie which they have to complete or else they'll turn into mindless monsters known as Cie'th. This starts a journey of trying to navigate a world that hates them to figure out how they can escape their fate, and if they even should.

I think the story holds up overall, but definitely prepare yourself for the usual Square-Enix shenanigans - they'll use a lot of new terms (ie fal'Cie, l'Cie, Cie'th) and talk about a lot of places and people to establish their fully realized world and it can get overwhelming. The game has a datalog to mitigate this a little bit, but you'll still have to pay pretty close attention. You may find yourself asking 'What just happened?' a few times. The only thing I'd genuinely call a plothole occurs very late in the game, so I won't spoil it, but it feels like the characters' goal completely flips around at one point.

Speaking of the characters, there are 6 playable characters in total - Lightning, Snow, Sazh, Hope, Vanille and Fang. Which ones you like is going to come down to personal preference, but the most universally liked character seems to be Sazh and the most universally disliked character seems to be Hope. I can identify with the appreciation for Sazh. Very different from the brooding characters we often see in JRPGs, he's a very expressive person and his goals are easy to empathize with - he just wants to reunite with his son. I understand the dislike for Hope as well - he's the youngest character in the cast and mostly driven by misplaced anger. It makes sense in the context of the story, of course, but I can understand that not everyone had the patience to want to deal with an angry child. The rest of the cast is pretty strong and I particularly like Vanille - a cheerful girl with a hidden guilty conscience - and Snow, a natural born leader with endless optimism and courage.

All in all, FF13's high stakes story holds up, but there are an overwhelming amount of names and things to remember - makes sure you pay attention and occasionally consult the datalog, or you may get lost. Which characters you do or don't like is going to come down to personal preference. Save for one or two strange plotholes, it's a great journey.

Final Words (Conclusion)

Final Fantasy 13 represented a shift in the series that a lot of fans didn't appreciate, but looking at it for what it is, I found a lot to love about it. The strategy isn't gone from the battles because you can auto battle, it has simply moved to preparing and shifting between paradigms - and the linearity was never really a problem for me to begin with. With that said, I can understand that streamlining both the exploration and the combat made some people like the game is a lot less involved than other JRPGs. Even so - with incredible music and visuals, a mostly strong cast and very thoroughly realized world, Square-Enix took me on an unforgettable ride with this game. Just don't do what I did and take long breaks between sessions, or the already complex story will really make your head spin.

Final Fantasy 13 is an interesting case in that it has two direct sequels, Final Fantasy 13-2 and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13. I've already finished the former and am now playing the latter, so you can expect me to share some thoughts about those games as well. Because Final Fantasy 13 is so radically different from its predecessors, it's especially interesting to discuss how the developers iterated (and didn't iterate) upon what it established.

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Thank you for reading and I apologize for the long hiatus. The first few months of 2020 weren't very productive in terms of article writing, but I'll slowly build it up again over the next few months. Please bear with me and please let me know if you have any feedback or suggestions. Have a good one!