First off, it was nice to finally be able to just pop a disc into my PS3 and have it recognize it and boot up without having to go to my downloaded games or to just start up the "CD Format" blank disc icon of unrecognized games. That in itself was refreshing. The next breath of fresh air was the graphics, which are light years better than FFIX on the PS1. It's kinda weird to be honest. I feel like I've been on a very long journey into video game history, and now I'm finally coming home, finally closing in on my own generation of technology. Very cool feeling.
Adding to this feeling of coming into my own era once more was the title screen of the game which has the www.squaresoft.com link at the top and the PlayOnline logo on the right. The era of the internet coming into bloom.
I mentioned the graphics already, but I'd like to elaborate a little. Since this was the first time the backgrounds were rendered as objects in real time, Square used them. Even in the opening fights, we're constantly moving through the terrain, using it, adapting to it, interacting with it while battling in real time. It's pretty nice. This is also the first time we've been able to swim around in a FF game, and go under water, fight underwater. Combining these elements resulted in a nice boss fight sequence where we swam around some objects, split the group and changed positions to put the boss in between my party members for a pincer attack.
In addition to these little elements, Square really made a strong effort to make fighting and exploring seemless. Gone are the random battle encounters that resulted in the screen freezing then breaking apart or melting or spinning out while the battle scripts loaded up. Now the fights simply blur the normal background slightly and you're in the battle sequence within a second. Also, as usual, one of the things I love most about Square, is their continued dedication to NO LOAD TIMES. Load times have always been a huge damper on any large game, no matter what system, but Square has somehow managed to be smarter and every cut scene is flowed right into and out of normal gameplay. It's a beautiful thing. Not only that but the cut scenes themselves are so fucking gorgeous now, it's getting ridiculous. Just take a look at a few of the images below and compare them even to the images from FFIX.
Other things worth mentioning are some of the battle mechanics. First off, I've not yet seen an ATB, so that's kinda weird. I wonder how haste and slow will work. Also, I see something akin to a limit break but instead of just setting it off, I have to finish a sequence of button commands as they appear on the screen in a little mini game. Kinda cool. Lastly, there is no leveling. Instead you obtain AP points to gain sphere levels which you then use up as you move about the sphere grid and gain new abilities. It's an interesting system, one that I remember liking very much, but it's a little weird having no levels. I guess I'll have to get used to the idea since that is what it seems like FFXIV is going to be like.
Let's move onto the story.
The first opening scene was a little comical for me. Not because the content is funny but because of a realization I finally had. The game starts with a ragtag group of people sitting around a campfire on a beach, all looking very sad. It was pretty much my entire party, a glimpse of the end game perhaps. The main character, Tidus walks up to Yuna and puts a hand on her shoulder, comforting her. She smiles briefly and he walks on. As the camera pans around the fire showing all the characters, I see a woman that looks almost exactly like Edea from FFVIII. Now, if you read and recall my FFVIII posts, I was very confused throughout the entire game because I remembered the character Edea so clearly but NONE of the game story or content what so ever. In fact all I remembered about FFVIII was a brief stint learning the Draw system, hating it, and not playing very far.
Now I know why. I DID NOT play FFVIII more than an hour. My memories of Edea are not of Edea but rather of Lulu, the black mage character I get in FFX, which I played almost to completion. Idiot! No WONDER I was so lost, I was starting to think I had blanked out all my memories of FFVIII. Craziness.
Continuing with the story... Tidus begins to narrate, he's telling us a story. He's going to explain how they got to where they are now. So when the game launches beyond the splash screen for FFX, Tidus, who I obviously called Rhek, keeps on narrating as I play the game. It's new and keeps you interested, and reminds you of what's going on. We begin our flash back.
Rhek lives in a city called Zanarkand, where he's a very famous Blitz Ball player (a kind of underwater soccer inside a huge ball of water). He's the son of another very famous Blitz Ball player named Jecht who went missing ten years ago, but that's all history. The arch nemesis of the game wastes no time in revealing itself. As Rhek is playing in a match, an entity appears from the ocean, collecting water and building into a sphere. A man in a red jacket watches from the top of a building as it forms, almost as if he has been expecting it or even summoned it himself.
The entity lashes out. Spikes of water and tentacles quickly rip through the city, bringing down sky scrapers and other buildings like paper.
After everyone starts to panic, Rhek runs out of the colosseum and is greeted by the man in the red jacket who identifies himself as Rhek's friend Auron. He's been waiting for Rhek. The water entity shoots out little pods all over the city which sprout into monsters. Auron tosses Rhek a sword and they start cutting their way through. Prior to this and while running on the bridge once more, time seems to freeze for a moment while a little boy in a blue hooded robe appears. He simply says, "It begins", then vanishes.
We come to the edge of the bridge and see the monstrosity formed above, Auron names it for the first time for the audience. He calls it Sin.
After a bit more running, fighting, learning the combat system, etc. we come to the end of another bridge as it begins to break apart. Sin looms above the city and begins to consume everything. Rhek falls from the bridge but is caught by Auron. It's almost like Auron was unsure as to whether he should help Rhek or not. But then he talks to himself, "If that is your wish". Then as he holds Rhek above him (not putting him down but rather like a Vader choke hold), he says, "This is it. Your story begins here." And then they both melt and blur into the mouth of the beast.
Rhek wakes up floating in some dream state world. He floats to a boy standing in a street, wonders if he's dead or dreaming, then wakes up again in the flesh. This time he's among some old ruins in the middle of the ocean. He works his way through trying to find fire to warm himself when he's attacked by some monster. A new group of characters bust in, help him out, then knock him out. Thanks.
He wakes up once more aboard a ship at sea and the group of people who call themselves Ah-Bhed are completely incomprehensible to Rhek. Everyone, that is, except a girl named Rikku. She tells Rhek that if he wants to live, he has to work. So he goes with her underwater to collect some treasure. After this mini adventure where the sphere grid is explained, Rhek gets some time to chat with Rikku. He tells her about Zanarkand and his Blitz Ball history and Sin, and she tells him that he must have hit his head or been poisoned by Sin of something because Zanarkand is a city that's been destroyed for over a thousand years...
Poor Rhek.
No comments:
Post a Comment