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A New Game
I got my birthday money, and bought myself four new tops. Then my family's card came in the mail, and I got another $50. So I wandered down to the local branch of my favourite video game shop, and discovered they had FF13 priced a good $20 lower than most of the other gaming shops ($100 rather than $120). So guess what I snapped up.
I'm now up to disk 2 (which surprised me, since usually in multi-disc games disc 2 isn't reachable until I've played for weeks) and heading into one of the big bastard boss fights. Which I've already been killed by about three times *sigh*. I'm loving the story, particularly the re-use of various tropes and notions from other FF games, as well as a very clear homage or two to Star Wars in there (what else can you call finding a weapon called a "Lifesaber" when you're raiding the flying fortress of the evil overlord?). I get the sense that there's a lot of love and enjoyment went into the creation of the game, which is always a good thing as far as I'm concerned (things people love tend to have a bit more fun in them, by way of in-jokes and similar).
I'm particularly loving the characters. There's Lightning, who's Cloud Strife crossed with Squall Leonhart, then shoved into a female body and presumably just about due for her period as well (that girl is cranky). There's Hope, who is positively the most misnamed character in the whole of the FF canon, as well as being mini-Cloud (so in the bits where you have Lightning and Hope escaping together, I wound up amazed they managed to get any dialogue out of the characters at all). Snow is a hero in the mold of Vaan, Tidus and Rush from TLR (self-confident, positive, and not good on the thinking-things-through side of the equation). Sazh is the older male character who is too old for this crap (Cid Highwind via Danny Glover's character in the "Lethal Weapon" series). My original description of Vanille was Aerith playing Yuffie, but now I think it's Aerith playing Selphie - either way, she's almost too genki for her own good. Yun Fang is the older female warrior, taken from the same bunch as Fran, Paine, and Lulu. She's also awesome, and the European version has her being voiced by someone with an Australian accent (no, really - it sounds off when she's being deliberate and enunciating things, and some of the vowels have drifted to the UK and/or the US, but when she relaxes, it's Strine alright), which I think is gorgeous (and another example of someone having fun with this - after all, given the origin of the character, why not get a voice actor from Down Under!).
Serah I haven't seen much of. What I've seen strikes me as a combination of Aerith, Yuna and Rinoa, but without their instincts for self-preservation.
So, in between assignments and lectures and things, I'm going to be chasing about trying to beat this boss, and see where the game takes me. I might also be heading back to my favourite video game shop, and picking up a copy of the game guide for FF13, since I have a strong suspicion I must have missed at least one or two points where I could wander off in disc 1. So, something for the next run through.
I'm now up to disk 2 (which surprised me, since usually in multi-disc games disc 2 isn't reachable until I've played for weeks) and heading into one of the big bastard boss fights. Which I've already been killed by about three times *sigh*. I'm loving the story, particularly the re-use of various tropes and notions from other FF games, as well as a very clear homage or two to Star Wars in there (what else can you call finding a weapon called a "Lifesaber" when you're raiding the flying fortress of the evil overlord?). I get the sense that there's a lot of love and enjoyment went into the creation of the game, which is always a good thing as far as I'm concerned (things people love tend to have a bit more fun in them, by way of in-jokes and similar).
I'm particularly loving the characters. There's Lightning, who's Cloud Strife crossed with Squall Leonhart, then shoved into a female body and presumably just about due for her period as well (that girl is cranky). There's Hope, who is positively the most misnamed character in the whole of the FF canon, as well as being mini-Cloud (so in the bits where you have Lightning and Hope escaping together, I wound up amazed they managed to get any dialogue out of the characters at all). Snow is a hero in the mold of Vaan, Tidus and Rush from TLR (self-confident, positive, and not good on the thinking-things-through side of the equation). Sazh is the older male character who is too old for this crap (Cid Highwind via Danny Glover's character in the "Lethal Weapon" series). My original description of Vanille was Aerith playing Yuffie, but now I think it's Aerith playing Selphie - either way, she's almost too genki for her own good. Yun Fang is the older female warrior, taken from the same bunch as Fran, Paine, and Lulu. She's also awesome, and the European version has her being voiced by someone with an Australian accent (no, really - it sounds off when she's being deliberate and enunciating things, and some of the vowels have drifted to the UK and/or the US, but when she relaxes, it's Strine alright), which I think is gorgeous (and another example of someone having fun with this - after all, given the origin of the character, why not get a voice actor from Down Under!).
Serah I haven't seen much of. What I've seen strikes me as a combination of Aerith, Yuna and Rinoa, but without their instincts for self-preservation.
So, in between assignments and lectures and things, I'm going to be chasing about trying to beat this boss, and see where the game takes me. I might also be heading back to my favourite video game shop, and picking up a copy of the game guide for FF13, since I have a strong suspicion I must have missed at least one or two points where I could wander off in disc 1. So, something for the next run through.