Final Fantasy XIII Pre-Order Bitterness

After putting great thought into this decision, I begrudgingly pre-ordered Final Fantasy XIII for the 360. A $25 Amazon gift card from my favourite cousin and a $10 game credit made it slightly less painful.

I'm tired of Tetsuya Nomura's character designs. I loved them in Final Fantasy X, the first Kingdom Hearts, and the World Ends with You. Though, I can only take so many spiky haired androgynous people wearing 32 belts. I can't stand the blindly devoted fans. It is also irritating to see two different numbers or a subtitle after "Final Fantasy." It will undoubtedly sell whether it is good or bad. This will cause them to make money off these titles, and stay with them, while something new, better, and creative (like The World Ends with You) gets ignored.

My brother has a PS3 he shares with me. He keeps it in the living room so that we may both play it. I have a 360. He is primarily a PC gamer, so I keep this system in my room. I prefer my quiet time playing a game on my 360 then having to worry about others using the communal entertainment system. Though, I do watch Blu-rays and own a few PS3 titles. I had to choose which version I wanted. Well, what I really wanted the PS3 version. I prefer the PS3 controller to the 360 controller. (Also, click here and here to see why.) And three discs and almost 20 GB?! This is going to sound sort of stupid, but I want to play video on my futon in my underwear without anyone bothering me.

I've heard the mixed reviews, and the screen shots don't impress me.

Before Final Fantasy XII was released, EGM published a picture of rainbows and unicorns. The caption was "new artwork from Final Fantasy XII." It turned out to be a joke, but I believed it. It genuinely looked like it was from the game, especially after seeing the character artwork of Vaan. I was incredibly turned off by this. Yet, I found out Squeenix chose Akihiko Yoshida as their character designer and the game took place in Ivalice, the beloved world of Final Fantasy Tactics. In fact, it turned out to be my favourite Final Fantasy (keep in mind, I have only played through three of them). To me, that game was all about the combat, and not much about the story. The story was far from original, but I still managed to become attached to several of the characters. I'm more interested in unique combat systems and enjoyable gameplay. Although I love to get to know characters in game, at this point, I feel like I've seen all the stories in a JRPG.

I doubted XII, but ended up loving it. Maybe my doubt for XIII could end the same way? Also, Jeremy Parish's preview made me feel more secure about what I was buying.

"Because players are presented with multiple different situations on the field, in a lot of senses FFXIII is more like an FPS than an RPG," says director Motomu Toriyama. And it's true: The game consists almost entirely of dungeons, with enemies placed about the field to force players to consider their options as they attempt to advance along the path the game presents them with. Towns and villages are waypoints rather than destinations. And while battles still cut to a separate screen in the traditional RPG style, both the layout of the quest and the way players interact with enemies on the field give FFXIII a hybrid feel, as if Final Fantasy had collided with a modern action game like God of War or Bayonetta.

Nevertheless, I really shouldn't be saying anything until I've played it. :p