Gaming Bros

Final Fantasy XIII is the latest installment in the long standing traditional-Japanese RPG series of Final Fantasy. The game is a PS3 exclusive in Japan and available on both the PS3 and Xbox 360 elsewhere. Like all other main entries in the FF series, FFXIII is set in a brand new universe and has a storyline and a set of characters unconnected with any of its previous games.

FFXIII is set on Cocoon, a world living in constant threat of the underworld Pulse. Both worlds are run by God-like creatures called fal’Cie who have the ability to enslave humans into becoming cursed l’Cie. The story revolves around the interactions between the two worlds of Cocoon and Pulse, and fal’Cie, l’Cie, and humans.

Unlike previous Final Fantasy games, the player in FFXIII has only control over one character only even during battles. The player has control over who he chooses to be the leader to be control of. The other two characters in the battle are controlled by the game AI and will act depending on the job/role assigned to them. The job system (called “Roles” here)  of older Final Fantasy system is a fundamental aspect of XIII. Depending on the role each character takes, the character will have a set of specialised skills. FFXIII also introduces a new game concept called Paradigms, which allows you to set up six pre-configured role combinations for your characters which you can then switch between during the battle. So for instance you can have a paradigm for having one Commando and two Ravagers, and another paradigm for having on Commando, a Medic, and a Synergist. Now during the battle you can switch between your multiple paradigms instantly and have your characters perform a different task depending on the current situation in the battle. There are also no MPs in FFXIII, all attacks in the game require using up a number of time slots, these time slots charge up as the character waits in the battle, as these time slots fill up, the character has the option of firing multiple attacks instantly, or casting a single more powerful attack that consumers multiple time slots. The result of all these new additions is that the battle system is extremely fast, you are required to switch between paradigm throughout the battle to balance between offense, defence, and support. The game also provides you with an “Auto Attack” for your party leader making the player concentrate more on the strategy of which paradigm to use at what instance of the battle instead of worrying about inputting the right command for the only character you have. I thought that this new battle system is very challenging and fun to use, especially the extreme speed of it!

One really nice aspect of the game is how the story is told through multiple characters and does not have Lightening as the strict focus of the game, you get to play with a couple of characters for the first two hours, and then switch to another two characters for the next two hours, and then another two characters later. The fact that the game does not use EXPs any more and instead using a new Crystogen Point system that is awarded to EVERYONE in the party whether or not you played with them makes it easy to switch your characters at anytime as you will not have any overpowered character.

The main draw back of FFXIII is the absolute linearity of it, the game barely allows for any exploration except for one stage about half in the game in which you can take missions to find specific bosses and beat them to get special upgrade items. Otherwise the game is literally a navigation from point A to B in every single stage. The game also doesn’t have any secret spells, secret summons, or secret characters. I do not think that the game has much replay value as there isn’t really much that you can miss from the first round in the game – other than that open stage with missions which can always go back to if you want to, even right at the end of the game.

I still wasn’t turned off by the linearity of the game because I found the battle system fun and I enjoyed the storyline, the characters, the artwork, and the music. As somebody who does not want to spend hundreds of hours playing a single game, I am glad that I managed to see almost everything the game has to offer in go and then easily move on with my life to do something else!

I do not think that FFXIII is the best game in the series, but it is an excellent Japanese RPG with fun fast and challenging gameplay and an epic cinematic experience to go along with it.

4 out of 5

Square-Enix surprised everyone yesterday when it announced AND released its first game on the iPod. The game titled ‘Song Summoner: The Unsung Hereos‘ is a strategy RPG that looks and plays very similar to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and can be fully played using the iPod’s scrollwheel. The thing that makes this game unique is that the player creates his party members from his own songs, where each song can be transformed into a ‘tune trooper’ to be used in battle. The player will be able to power up his tune troopers in-game and outside the game by playing the songs of his troopers.

Gamers had never seriously considered the iPod or the iPhone as a real gaming platform because no proper gamers were made for it from traditional game developers, but on the other hand, Square-Enix and many other Japanese developers have taken mobile gaming more seriously and had released innovative and exclusive games for the mobile platform that were only available in Japan, such games include Before Crisis: Final Fantasy 7 (a game that makes use of mobile phone cameras to take photographs of colourful objects to create materia gems), Parasite Eve: The 3rd Birthday, and some Front Mission, Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest remakes.

Song Summoner is available on the iTunes music store – this is the Apple online store for purchasing the music, videos, and applications for the iPod and the iPhone. The iPod does not allow installation of application through any other means. The game was instantly released for Japan, the US and European iTunes music stores for the low price of $4.99, £3.99, or €4.99 depending on where you are living.

The strange thing about this is Square released it for the 5th Generation iPod and the iPod nano with video, but not for the iPhone or the iPod Touch. The build of these two models obviously differs from the scrollwheel iPods, but it is strange that Square-Enix is targeting an older version of the iPod instead of going for the most powerful one. Is Square-Enix just testing the waters before properly investing in this platform? Should Sony and Nintendo start to worry now?

However, it is such a shame that we will not be able to play this game anytime in Oman because we do not have an iTunes Store. The iPod can only install new games and application through the online store and you will need an address/credit card issued from a country that has an iTunes Store to be able to use one. The UAE very recently gove its iTunes Store, I doubt that this means that WE will be getting one anytime soon.

You can check out the video of the game and learn more about it by visiting its official website.

Yep, even though the PSP has other great games, the real and only reason to get one is for Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core. The game is the best you can get on a PSP and alone is worth the purchase of the handheld. When you look at the graphics, you just can’t stop thinking that this is all from a handheld. I mean I played many PSP games with nice graphics but Crisis Core does it way way better. It really adds to the wow factor. Add to that the fact that it is one of the best rpgs released on any platform.

The game is a prequel to Final Fantasy VII in which you control Cloud’s friend named Zack. The story shows how things lead to the first Final Fantasy VII and how Zack is related to it. All I can say that this is the best thing that has the FF7 name after the original.

If you want more details about the game, read up Gamespot’s review here.