Whilst playing the “new” RPG from Square Enix, I decided it would be a nice change of pace to actually write something on my blog, for once! So I’m going to be conveying my thoughts about this intriguing game on a daily basis as I make my way through it. Today I’m going to focus on the annoyances that I’ve found to be prominent in the game and why you should nevertheless continue to play the game.
Annoyance #1: Incredibly Overbearing Battle System
For starters, the game begins with a cutscene in which your character blindly thrusts himself into an all-out war in hopes that a girl he just saw could be his long-lost sister, Irina. They didn’t name this main character “Rush” for nothing. A few brief instructions attempt to prepare you for what is about to most likely become the most hectic turn-based battle you’ve ever experienced. Sure, the pop-up messages provide you with a decent overview of the controls you’ll be needing in this onslaught, but that’s just not enough. Sure, games like Final Fantasy II and such have started with a turn-based battle against unsurmountable odds, but nothing like this. Here’s a tip: all the fighting going on in the background is just for show. The only time you’ll lose HP or inflict damage on your opponent is through the highly stylized and intensely fast-paced battle sequences. When a menu’s on-screen, you’re fine to take your own precious time decided whether to attack, use combat arts, use magic, or just sit back and watch other people attack. After the crazy opening battle, you’ll spend about an hour or so of the game walking around battling alongside two of the four generals under the Marquis of Athlum’s command. Eventually you’ll get to set out on your own and recruit your own allies, but it takes a while. The battles start to calm down and make sense after you choose your own pals, but it’s a long haul before then.
Annoyance #2: Dialogue is LAME LAME LAME
Ever played one of those games where there’s a cutscene and a character attempts to use modern language (slang) and completely fails? Yeah, I thought so. Well, this game’s CHOCK-FULL of it! That’s why I, being the genius that I am, changed the spoken dialogue setting to “Japanese”. It grates on your ears a little less when you’re only reading the slang that no one’s ever used in real life, and not listening to it, too. But wait, there’s more! Not only does the game come with an awful vocabulary, it also comes with a delay between characters’ lines that’s just long enough to drive you insane. Don’t you love it when people take fifteen seconds just to say “Oh really?”?
Annoyance #3: Menu’s are Confusing
It seems to me that this game can get pretty deep, so the menus were based around this profound depth that clearly doesn’t come until you’ve got a HUGE party of characters and enough equipment to break an elephant’s back. There are so many aspects of the menu that the game designers forgot to explain, like the Union menu, for instance. You have to figure out on your own that the game developers came up with the worst possible control scheme for allowing you to customize the formation that your different unions of characters use in battle! You do get used to it after a while, but it’s still a lot more confusing than it needs to be, and a lack of mouse support when navigating menus really makes me think that the developers were just trying to port it from XBox 360 to PC just to make a few extra bucks, not to present a PC-gamer with the enriching fantasy RPG he/she was looking for.
Having listed the three major annoyances I’ve found so far in the game, tomorrow I’m going to be talking about the pro’s (it might take me a few days to list them all). Just so you know, despite having a few major flaws, they are all technical, and the game as a whole is still a very enriching experience that makes me keep coming back for more. So, until tomorrow, here’s a screenshot of a fairly intense enemy doing something fairly intense (Click for full resolution… it’s widescreen).
