Thoughts on Final Fantasy 13 Demo

I'm really lazy and already wrote this on my 1up blog, but I'm gonna go ahead and post it here.

Yesterday I gave myself the priveledge of watching the 1up crew play the Japanese Final Fantasy XIII, and I have to say that it looks great so far. I do agree with the comments of the staff that the game play in the demo is pretty damn linear, but like they also said, most demos are used just to show off graphics and give you a little taste, and from what I say, this taste was good.

The battle system seems to be very similar to that of Chrono Trigger, which is to say that your attacks are turned based, but the enemies are attacking all the time. Also, another new thing about the FFXIII battle system is that you can only control one character, but will it only be limited to one during the whole battle like the 1up crew said? I think not! If you watch the video and look in the corner with all the health bars, you can see a flag next to the character that you are controlling. This may mean that you can switch between characters during battle, or maybe outside of battle,

The after battle screen is totally new. As far as I know, this is the first FF game with a ranking system, besides some of the Tactics series. Based on the speed of the battle and how you take out your enemies, you receive one to five stars. The 1up crew said that so far no type of EXP has been announced, but if you look under the stars you can see a line that says BONUS TP EARNED. Although the demo gives you 0 no matter how well you do, this may be the EXP you use to level your characters. My guess is that TP stands for Talent Points. Maybe another licence board-esque development thing?

Finally, the graphics are just top notch. This has to be one the greatest looking games I've seen on PS3. Unfortunately, this may cause problems for the port and delay the US release even more, like the newest RPG blog says. Just think, Square has repeated that the game utilizes all of the PS3 multiple times, and because the hardware is most likely different from the 360, this may cause huge technical problems.

Aside from the impending further delay of the game, I'm still very excited. I'm very glad that they went back to good ol' turn based battles, and the fact that they made it like Chrono Trigger is a very cool idea. Luckily I'm patient, and I shall wait for this game as long as it takes.

Street Fighter 4: Great, But Not Perfect

Hey readers (2 of em, hahaha, tell your friends damnit!) I'm back after quite a long hiatus of writing (I'm sorry I just didnt feel like it, but now i do!). This time around, as you read in the title, I'll review Street Fighter 5 made by Capcom. Capcom has made all the Street Fighters as well as Megaman, Resident Evil, and many more memorable titles. The same grading scale and categories apply to this game as it did in Gears, but since there really isn't much of a story, that category will not be included. Alright, onto the review!

So, as the title subtly hints, this is a fighting game. Like all fighting games, there are a myriad of characters to choose from. You start out with 16, but you can unlock more by completing the game with certain characters and by meeting certain criteria. All the fighters have unique moves, for the most part that is. Characters such as Ken, Ryu, Akuma, and Gouken all have similar move sets, but their power, health, and specials differ as well as their combos. Despite this, all fighters are fun to play as and the trial modes help you learn their moves, but unfortunately, this is where I run into to one of my problems with the game.

The trial mode is used to teach you how to pull off combos, special moves, and other related things by telling you what buttons to press and all that. However, certain characters moves require a charge and the game gives you no timer at all so you really just have to guess when to release. Luckily, in this installment it appears that you can't over charge, only under charge. The same problem goes for melee combos. I've found myself having to just try and try again until I miraciously nail a combo and it moves onto the next. Even with these flaws, the trials are still a great way to get you familiar with basic moves, which are enough to handle some of the easier difficulties. Speaking of difficulties, god damn is this game hard.

Ok, for pros it might be cake, but for a person like me who has only played Street Fighter for a small amount of time, I have to say this game is difficult beyond belief. The difficulty does not result from opponents massive AI, but actually the lack of it, and in the later modes, the abuse of it. In the easiest mode, which is what I used to unlock the first couple of characters, enemies such as Abel and Zangief seem to only have one move, run up, knock you down, and grab you, and then do it again until your dead. In medium, which is what I currently play on, they do the exact same thing, just faster. Problems also go on with characters like C. Viper and Rufus, both of 'em just spam fire kicks and earthquakes (C. Viper) and Messiah Kicks (Rufus). It's extremely annoying, and like all last bosses in fighting games, Seth (yes the last boss is named Seth) he shares all these annoyances. On easy, he ain't so bad, but oh my god, medium is a pain in the ass. All he does is spam his teleport and then shoryuken your ass with a 5 hit combo. To sum the difficulty up, it is only hard because all the computer does is abuse their moves and act like cheap-o's. Alright, sorry about that, moving on to the other aspects of the game.

The graphics in Street Fighter 4 are amazing. The little brush strokes of ink you get with a full charged force attack, and the animations of the ultra combos are top notch. Also, the characters show off some seriously funny expressions with knock out punches and just regular hits as well. It's safe to say that this is definitely one of the best looking fighting games around, so be glab Capcom made the switch from 2d sprites to full 3d figures. Ok, back to the gameplay aspects of versus modes and the like.

So, the fighting mechanics are great in Street Fighter, but the online mode, eh, not so much. You have the ability to set preferences such as find opponents with the same skill level as you. This is what I always try to search under (keyword being try) but it never works. I have 0, count em, 0 battle points, and when I search for a match, I get paired with somebody who has 500, or one time even 900. It's safe to assume that I got my ass handed to me, which I did. So yeah, the matchmaking is flawed to say the least, but luckily, when you have a friend next to you, versus is loads of fun. Alright, lets do the summarizing of the whole review in the categories. Ok? Ok.

Gameplay: A great example of what a fighting game should be, but I could really, really, REALLY do without the cheap AI. 8.5

Graphics: Excellent hand drawn, 3d figures along with great little details make this one of the most beautiful fighting games to look at while you're kicking ass or getting your ass kicked. 10

Concept: Fighters from around the world enter a competition to be the best. Hey, it's a fighting game, do you expect a professional writer? No, you don't. Luckily, it works. 10

Execution: Take a prestigious fighting game, and rework it. It worked, despite flaws in the CPU opponents and matchmaking. 8.5

Final Word: Street Fighter 4, for having revived the series after 10 years, did an amazing job. Although the game can be extremely frustrating, you'll always want to keep on playing. Street Fighter 4 gets a 9 out of 10.

(The review may be a bit incoherent, but what ever, I'm out of the swing of things, so deal with it :P)