Hello, everyone. I recently acquired the FF13 demo and I thought I'd post my impressions. I've played through the 45-60 minute demo a few times and I've gotten a great hold on the battle system and the game as a whole.
Loved:
The Battles - The new system is fast furious, but still turned based. Strategy is rewarded through the chain system. The chain system is where you consecutively hit an enemy without them hitting you to build up an attack multiplier. If you can get a big chain going, you can attack the enemy's weak point for massive damage. Jokes aside, everything works very well and I think they've done a fantastic job keeping things interesting and very fun to watch. The aerial attacks are also a nice touch and you can coordinate things to make your party members juggle that person in the air. Square has said that you'll have more control over your party in the full version, so I await that change.
To extend on the battles in a different I'd like to mention that attacking and magic isn't done by dice but as an real action. This means that is swing your sword and it actually hits another person that you did not chose beforehand to attack, they still recieve damage. It gives a better sense of the battles being an actual battlefield rather than three people lined up in row taking turns attacking. There was also the large magic attack in which everything near the enemy took damage from it.
The Graphics - These definitely deserve mentioning. They are absolutely beautiful, and by far the best looking RPG I've ever seen. The screens and videos do not do the game justice. I described it to iclim as sex in JRPG form. I'll stand by that.
Why Load? - Despite being an unfinished product, there were no noticable loading times outside of the intial loading. Everything from the battles to the cutscenes are completely seamless and it creates a wonderful atomsphere.
Music - From the little I've heard, I like. Uematsu is only doing the main theme with this one and so they would have to do a whole lot to fill those shoes. While nothing can touch Uematsu, I think Hamazu has done a fantastic job.
Voice acting - Not only is the voice acting superb, but everyone is voice acted. Seriously, every NPC I ran into talked to me. Square said they are adding subs to the final version, but I loved the effort into getting VA for every character.
Lightning Raider - Lightning will use some pretty nifty acrbotics when navigating rubble, etc. Yuna could do the same in X-2 but it was button sensitive. You not long need to press a button to jump, but to just approach the marked area (marked with a glowing circle) and press the left stick forward.
Didn't Like So Much
Sazh - He seems to be a cool character, but he's entirely useless in battle. He didn't do any worthwhile damage. I hope they increase the strength of the side characters in the full game. The side characters being weak was that big of an issue when you played as Snow. (They were actually pretty good!)
Menu? - I suppose it might be available in the full game, but there wasn't any to open a menu to change eqiument, skills, attacks, tactics, etc. There is still a pause button for those for just want a break, but that's something that I think should stay in Final Fantasy.
That's it for now. I may edit a few things in later.
If anyone has any questions, let me know!
