The RPG That Wasn't

The single most divisive element of Final Fantasy VI -- 1994's much-loved SNES RPG, originally released as Final Fantasy III -- is the way the adventure is cleanly broken into two halves. The first half, set in the game's World of Balance, is a predominantly linear, story-driven affair which sees a large party of characters band together in a bid for world peace. The game's latter portion transpires in the post-apocalyptic World of Ruin, a free-form quest to reform the scattered party and build sufficient strength to take on the maniacal overlord Kefka. The change in quest structure makes for a stark contrast between the game's two worlds, and many players find that the open-ended nature of the World of Ruin undermines the game's pacing and detracts from the intensely focused introductory chapters of the adventure.

Fast-forward more than 15 years to the launch of Final Fantasy XIII, and the bulk of chatter about the game (based on impressions of the import version) center around a similar debate. This time, however, gamers are largely dissatisfied not with the openness of its latter portions but with the stiflingly linear nature of its first chapters. In many ways, this controversy is simply a sign of changing tastes within the gaming public, but it also reflects on just how far FFXIII strays from the classical concept of the RPG.

Click the image above to check out all Final Fantasy XIII screens.

According to producer Yoshinori Kitase, though, that's absolutely what the FFXIII team was aiming for. As far as Kitase is concerned, FFXIII isn't even really a role-playing game. "We didn't really intend to work within with the RPG template," he says. "We wanted to create a new game, even a new genre. The way we look at it, there's isn't a certain format that we have to keep to and build a game around. Rather, it goes the other way around. We create a game and, depending on what works or doesn't work within that game, it ends up reflecting different staple elements."

"Now, the Dragon Quest series has stuck to the classical RPG format, and it's still greatly loved by fans," he notes. "The audience craves more of it! But that's because [Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii] is making a fun game that just happens to fit within that template. As creators, we have to think about how to combine many different elements and concepts into something that gamers will enjoy. After that, others can judge what genre it belongs to. With FFXIII, we've first and foremost pursued a gameplay style in which different situations and dramatic occurrences will be presented to players one after the other."

In other words, FFXIII has taken yet another step closer to becoming the "interactive movie" detractors have waggishly derided the series as being ever since 1997's dazzlingly cinematic Final Fantasy VII -- and the creators are perfectly happy with that step.

"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.

Click the image above to check out all Final Fantasy XIII screens.

It's a radical change in tone and structure for the series; but then, Final Fantasy has always been about change. "The teams behind Final Fantasy have always presented themselves with the challenge of creating something new," say Kitase. It's a tradition that stretches back to the series' earliest days, in fact. Final Fantasy dates from the NES era, when sequels more often than not abandoned the rules and even genres of their predecessors. Final Fantasy II was a massive departure from the original game, but it was less extreme a change than, say, Zelda II, which made the leap from top-down action RPG to side-scrolling platformer. What makes Final Fantasy unique is that where other franchises settled down with their third iterations (the third Zelda, A Link to the Past, was a greatly refined version of the original game's format), Final Fantasy never stopped reinventing itself. Its most recent numbered chapters have included such diverse takes on the RPG as a story-driven adventure, a mission-based side-story, a massively multiplayer game, and a bold attempt to marry western and Japanese RPG design tropes.

"There isn't a particular aspect of Final Fantasy that we've tried to retain throughout the series," muses Kitase. "We're always trying to depart from what we've created in the past. Still, even though FFXIII doesn't quite fit into the RPG genre, our mission from the very beginning was to create the ultimate single-player RPG experience. In that sense, our team's perspective was to think ahead to what RPGs will be like ten years from now, especially with the arrival of high-definition machines. What can we do to make this game stand apart from something like Dragon Quest and other RPGs on handhelds? What can we do that's different and advance the genre as a whole?"

As such, FFXIII seems entirely focused around the advent of high-definition graphics. It's a game about presentation: Its graphics are utterly beautiful, its characters exquisitely animated as they travel through the gorgeous and varied environs of Cocoon and Pulse. The downside is that the game offers few opportunities to peek around corners or explore. Kitase and Toriyama are determined to give gamers a lush, cinematic experience, and to that end they've severely limited player freedom to minimize the possibility that you might encounter a blemish. Still, as Toriyama is quick to point out, the entire game isn't the single line from start to finish that Internet rumor would suggest.

Click the image above to check out all Final Fantasy XIII screens.

"There are definitely fans who want towns in their game, to go shopping, things like that," he admits. "And there were a lot of people who voiced concerns about the linearity of the early parts of the game. But towards the latter half of the game, there's a lot of freedom given to the players."

"The earlier part of the game is designed so that players get accustomed to both the storyline and the battle system," adds Kitase. "We really want fans to get used to the world of Cocoon, get to know the characters, and really understand the fate that they're facing. The battle system is completely new, too, so we wanted to take steps to ensure that the players can really get a handle on it."

Toriyama continues, "There's a portion of the game where you spend your time in Cocoon, and then there's a part when you're finally let free into the world of Pulse. At this point, we felt like gamers would have the hang of the battle system. So there you're free to swap your party members and adjust your Paradigm settings, really customize it. The world is very open there, so all the skills you've developed by practicing the battle system to that point come into play and you can really go all-out."

Here is the link:

http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3178060

mean i actually cant wait to play this gonna be so cool its stupid how they have to keep defending themselves though from a bunch of people who havnt even played it yet

The game looks....fantastic to be honest, lol, if it's anything like FFVI in structure, then it's full of win.

Reminds me of FFVII, where the first several hours are linear Midgar, then the trek to the Shinra mansion and afterwards, you are given the seaplane.

people will say anything for hits nowadays.

There are two more pages in the preview.

Fighting Fantasy

FFXIII's reductive design philosophy means that the entire package consists almost entirely of two elements: Combat and story.

Like so many other things about the game, the battle system is a new take on RPG combat that nevertheless calls back to previous Final Fantasy titles. As in FFXII, players take direct control of a single character; the other party members operate via artificial intelligence. As in FFX-2, much of the strategy of combat revolves around changing party members' roles in the middle of battle. As in FFX, summoned beasts -- Eidolons -- replace the AI-controlled party members when called, battling alongside the lead character.

Click the image above to check out all Final Fantasy XIII screens.

Yet there's much about FFXIII's combat mechanics that's completely new to the series. There are no magic points, though the spell-charge system of the original Final Fantasy isn't used, either. Instead, all actions -- melee attacks, spells, and special skills alike -- cost a certain amount of each character's Active Time Battle meter, which is divided into segments and recharges rapidly over the course of the fight. Different skills have differing costs, and it's possible to execute an attack before the ATB meter is completely full.

Specialized skills, including summoning Eidolons and high-damage spells like Quake, deduct their cost from a special five-point bar called the Technical Points meter. TP are recharged only after battle, and the amount recuperated after each fight is based on the party's battle rank, which in turn is a function of how efficiently the team performs. Dispatch a group of foes without stopping to heal -- which is less hazardous than in previous Final Fantasy games, as your HP regenerates completely between battles -- and you'll probably rank highly, earning lots of TP. Chip away at a foe without exploiting its weaknesses while turtling up with defensive or healing roles and you'll rank poorly, forcing you to wait longer until your next opportunity to execute TP-based actions.

It's a streamlined battle system to be sure, placing players in more of a tactical role. Speed is the essence of this battle system, from the almost overwhelming rapidity of everyone's overlapping combat actions to the game's emphasis on efficiency-based post-battle rankings.

"The base concept when we first started building the battle system was that it had to be tactical and speedy," says battle director Yuji Abe. "So, we advanced from there, and one of the main challenges the team faced in creating the battle system was the lack of magic point in the battle system. This makes it really easy for healer characters to just cast cure magic on party members and never have to worry about losing. So balancing that to keep it fair and yet challenging was the key to the final form of the battle system as it exists now.

Click the image above to check out all Final Fantasy XIII screens.

"Players should always keep in mind that the Paradigm system is the key to success in FFXIII," he says, referring to the class-change ability that becomes available in the game's third chapter. Paradigms are preset combinations of character classes; each of the three party members can serve in one six different roles (attacker, offensive mage, healer, defender, ally buffer, and enemy debuffer), and it's possible to enter battle with six different class combinations at the ready. Changing your party configuration is as simple as pressing the L1 button and selecting a different Paradigm. In any battle, players are limited to six combinations they've predefined through the main menu, though it's possible to cancel out of a battle at any time to adjust the presets to choices that better suit the current situation.

"Moreso than inputting specific commands and micromanaging on that level, it's important to look at the overall flow of the battle," says Abe. "Look at the enemy, look at their properties, and customize actions based on that. There are parts where the player could easily get stuck against certain enemies, and simply tweaking the Paradigm just a little bit can make the battle a lot easier. It's a simple difference, but studying tactics and enemies is essential.

"There's so much going on, and in a realistic-looking situation, that we had to ask how much micromanagement is really possible on the player's part. After the team played through the game, we felt we were better off having AI take care of actions on the other party members' end, leaving the player to focus just on the actions of the lead character."

Story-Driven

Of course, "realism" is a relative term; one of FFXIII's more notable elements is the rather fantastic nature of summoned creatures. Each character is bonded to a single eidolon, and each eidolon is capable of transforming into a vehicle for its master in a process called Gestalt. "We wanted to emphasize the combination between characters and summons," says Abe. "In contemplating this union, we came up with the ride concept. From that, we came up Gestalt mode -- it began with our wanting Snow to ride a bike, and everything else followed from there."

"It's a one-on-one character/summon relationship because we really wanted to emphasize the unity between them, especially because they transform in Gestalt mode. We really wanted the characters and these summons to fit together. We chose the pairings through simple inspiration. For instance, Snow and Lightning have names with specific properties. Snow was a natural match with the Shiva sisters because of their association with ice, and Lightning made a natural match for Odin. For characters like Sahz, who have new summons, that was simply inspired by the fact that we wanted Sahz to ride a red car!"

Click the image above to check out all Final Fantasy XIII screens.

"The art team was actually very adamant about making this realistic and to make it really work," Toriyama says of the Gestalts, which actually function mechanically; Square Enix will be selling a pricey toy of Snow's Eidolon, Shiva, which can transform from a pair of biomechanical goddesses into a working motorcycle. "Once it was decided that the summons would transform, we knew we have to take it to the next step. If there was going to be summons merchandise later on, we really have to make it work."

Characters are the heart of any story, and the story arcs for each of FFXIII's cast members will ultimately determine the true impact of the game. A compelling tale can justify a strictly story-driven game; at the same time, though, a dud of a story can undermine even the most inventive play mechanics.

FFXIII's plot revolves around a planet divided into two worlds: The insular Cocoon, and the forbidden underworld of Pulse. The former society has grown more closed over the centuries, with tales of Pulse's horrors fueling a fear within its citizens of venturing beyond Cocoon's safe environs. Cocoon's leaders particularly fear contamination of its people by powerful Pulse-borne beings called Fal'Cie, which can enslave and corrupt humans and turn them into L'Cie, agents of unrest against the ruling order of Cocoon. The merest hint of a Fal'Cie presence will prompt Cocoon's military to exile any potentially infected citizens -- potential L'Cie -- to the wilderness of Pulse.

The story of FFXIII begins in the midst of one of these purges, and its main cast consists of a party of people drawn from all walks of life who find themselves drawn together when they stumble across a Pulse Fal'Cie. "We wanted to create a wide range of characters," says Toriyama, "both in personality and in age, so that many different people could relate to the characters. With Sahz, he's not a hero -- there's no big save-the-world sort of motivation. Instead, his son has been turned into a L'Cie, so it's his determination to save him and love for his family that drives him. On the other end of the scale is Hope; where Sahz is the oldest character in FFXIII, Hope is the youngest. He doesn't start as a hero, either, and he doesn't have any courage. He's the most shaken up to have become a L'Cie, and he begins the game in a sort of depressed state after losing his mother early on. Just moving forward is his motivation."

Click the image above to check out all Final Fantasy XIII screens.

Much of FFXIII's plot plays out similar to the TV series Lost, with a heavy emphasis on character-specific flashbacks (some playable, some not). These flashbacks flesh out the events of the 13 days leading up to the purge and offer glimpses of the characters' lives before the calamitous events that bound them together. And, of course, there's the duality of Cocoon and Pulse, which is highly reminiscent of Final Fantasy's VII's divided city of Midgar. It's one of many seeming FFVII references in FFXIII -- though Kitase denies a deliberate connection.

"This duality isn't really a running theme," he demurs. "It wasn't our intention to create a connection [between the games], but I can definitely see the similarities. In both FFVII and FFXIII you start off in a sort of restricted world and are eventually thrown into an open world with a lot of freedom. The difference would be that in FFXIII there's a lot of monsters roaming in that world, flying in the sky, and so on. But the duality is the sort of thing that simply develops from the work of the game's scenario writer." He pauses before admitting, "I do personally like the theme, though."

It will be interesting to see if American gamers will be more accepting of FFXIII's highly reductive approach to RPG design; it was received with sharp criticism in Japan. Despite the game's flamboyant Tetsuya Nomura character designs, one gets the impression in talking to its developers that FFXIII was designed with western audiences in mind. Its structure was largely inspired by popular Western hits like Modern Warfare, Half-Life 2, and other highly focused, story-driven, cinematic game experiences. But will that make a difference, or will the series' longstanding role as the poster child of the fading Japanese RPG genre inspire gamers to pass it by... even though its creators don't consider it an RPG?

I blame DVD limitations....

Final Fantasy not an RPG? Since when?

Cid is a fine looking man in this game. fiiinnneee...

At anyrate, it seems to be less of an' RPG and more of an adventure game with movie and slight rpg elements, atleast thats what i understand from import reviews thus far.

if the biggest JRPG of the gen (so far) is not JRPG, then JRPG's are screwed this gen

Why couldn't they just make what people want and make it THE JRPG and leave the new ideas for a different game?