Yo! Guess who's been playing FF13? Could it be... KIRI!? Well, duh, who else!

My birthday isn't until the 15th, but I got my present early (since my birthday's on a school day this year, gross...) which was a 32" TV! Thanks, Dad! I was supposed to get a new rolly-chair too, but shit happens, but hell, who's complaining? No, I didn't get FF13 for my birthday - I got it for Christmas, actually, but I heard that the graphics in this game were beast, so I decided to wait until my birthday to play it. I've been meaning to talk about the video games I've been playing for a while now, but I just never got around to it... BUT, I finally finished Disc 1 of FF13 (which didn't take too long, actually... but I heard the other discs are way longer, which is a relief) so I figured, what better time to talk about my first impressions of the game?

First of all: THE GRAPHICS. This game is super pretty - it was probably the best game I could've played to test out my new TV. Everything is bright and vibrantly detailed, and the world - it feels real, like this place really exists somewhere. The cutscenes play out like a movie, everything is just frickin' awesome as hell and in your face - from the world detail to the awesome flips Lightning does when owning all the monsters on the field, everything just looks stunning as all hell.

The BATTLE SYSTEM is decent - compared to the shitstorm that was FF12, FF13 is loads better. Granted, FF13 doesn't fool me - this is essentially a turn-based battle system disguised with ATB gauges to give it the flow of an action-packed battle... and it works! I look forward to battling enemies because I love how it flows - and taking out bosses make me feel like a pro with this system. Granted, so far, it's not very challenging. So far, I don't see any reason not to spam Auto-chain unless I'm trying to stagger some annoying enemy (Like those fucken Pulse worker soldiers... yeah, I'm lookin' at you!) but other than that, everything's real easy. I don't remember being asked to set a difficulty setting, so I guess it's just the game? Then again, I'm only on Disc 1 (moving onto Disc 2 today) so I can't really say much. I hope it does get more challenging as it goes on... And I hope I'm not going to regret asking for some more challenge, haha.

The CHARACTERS so far, are well-crafted. I love the cast so far because I'm really into the idea of a group of strangers banding together to try and save the world, even if they're not particularly fond of each other.

LIGHTNING is an asshat to everyone in Disc 1, jesus christ. If she has some kind of reason for being an asshat, it would be understandable - well, I guess her reason is that her sister is a frickin' CRYSTAL and she has no reason to really be nice to anyone... She's cool, but I can't really relate to her, or even guess what's going on in her head. Vanille said that she was trying to "reach out" to everyone when she ditched them all (with Hope tagging along) near the end of Disc 1, but I didn't see that - I just saw her being a arse, to EVERYONE. LITERALLY:

Snow - Didn't he get like, two roundhouse kicks to the face? Well, I can understand that - from her point of view, he had this unwarranted optimism that was more annoying than helpful at the time.

Sazh - She tries to ditch him twice... and actually does ditch him, thanks a lot! I feel bad for Sazh because he's really the "ordinary guy" who got thrown into this situation without really asking for it. It was either tag along with the suspicious chick or get purged.

Hope - At first it looks like she can deal with him tagging along and then, right before the Eidolon battle she wants to ditch him? Dude, he's a little kid, you were really gonna leave him there? I don't care how annoying a kid could potentially be - you said you were gonna let him tag along and then decided, 'kay, maybe I should ditch him... What?! I know she had a change of heart after the Eidolon battle, but... gah!

SNOW is a bro. I love the whole NORA group, actually, especially that guy with the blue hair (Yuj) that doesn't really do anything, but I love him because have you see his hair?! Okay, but Snow - he has the potential to be annoying, but I forget about that whenever they have Serah/Snow flashbacks, because, d'aawww, so cute! At first, I thought this couple would be creepy because Serah looks like she's sixteen and Snow is this hulking mass of a man, but who cares - he's so dedicated it's crazy! You're an I'cie? You dunno your Focus? You're a danger to us all? He doesn't care! He doesn't know how he'll fix it but he'll fix it, goddamnit! He's that hero who has no plan - he just charges in and kind of hopes everything works out... but that's why I love him! Fuck Edward Cullen, Snow is the ultimate boyfriend.

SAZH is my favorite character, hands down. Damnity, I wish my dad had a chocobo in his 'fro (or had an afro in the first place) and carries around twin pistols. I love that FF finally has a black character that I can relate to - whoever does his voice is a frickin' pro at what they do, I might add - and hell, I agree with Sazh most of the time. He's a realist but not a pessimist, just trying to figure out a way out of this mess.

VANILLE is love, especially her voice (took me a while to figure out her accent is Australian). I don't really have much to say about her though - although I really love the dynamic she plays with Hope, how she's kind of protective of him and always tries to push him to do his best. She's always trying to get him to talk about how he feels towards Snow, and I love her for that - she plays the big sister role, almost, but I don't think he cares about her like she does for him. Not shipping them or anything! I just think she makes a nice 'big sister' type. There's a lot more to her, I bet, that I don't know, but I can't wait to find out more.

HOPE Why does everyone hate him? I get Hope, I get where he's coming from. He was a normal kid, just minding his own business, when he's pulled into this Purge business and now, suddenly, has no home, except for a father who doesn't give a rat's ass about him. People compare him to Tidus, but I loved Tidus (i do! I really love Tidus' character! I don't get why people hate him either - but that's a rant for later) so I don't really see how that's a bad thing.

Yeah, he's whiny, but he's what, fifteen? I remember being fifteen - thinking that I knew everything about the world, being totally naive about everything, thinking the world revolved around me. Hope just wants to go home - he wants someone to take the blame for what happened to him, because it can't have been his fault. That's normal for a kid his age, and I don't mind him for it. Call me immature, but I'd be trying to find a scapegoat for my mom/dad dying too, if I was his age. I get his grudge on Snow - from where he was standing, it looked like he just let him mom die. I wouldn't have any love for Snow after seeing that either. In fact, I can relate more to HOPE than to LIGHTNING so again, so far I really don't see why he's so hated, but I'm only on Disc 1.

FANG - I'm not supposed to know her name, and she's only been in like two cutscenes, but jesus christ, Fang is smexy - why so smexy?! She is easily the smexiest character in this goddamn game - whyyy?! Let the fangirling commence...

Okay, I'm almost done, but I just wanted to talk about the story, gameplay, etc.. At first, I thought maybe I had put in the wrong disc, since I was just thrown into this story with absolutely no explanation, it felt like I had skipped a couple of chapters on a DVD and just started watching. Granted, after you get your sea legs, the characters do explain some stuff (and they're smooth explanations, they don't seem out of place) and you kind of get a better feel for this world.

I went into this with almost no prior knowledge of the game (Fang's name doesn't count - I read it in the manual, so there) so I'm pretty much going in this blind. Fal'cie and l'cie and all that other stuff - it took a while for me to get, but I got it. I wasn't sure if I was diggin' the jump-right-in method (since I tell stories from the very beginning, as far back as you can go, so it was a jolt for me) but yeah, you do get used to it. What I wasn't diggin, however, was how you schizophrenically change party members every hour or so - why can't you people stay in one group? I also hated the fact that I've been playing for eight hours or so now and I haven't run into any towns - but then again, this isn't your normal RPG. They're fugitives, so if they run into a town, yeah, they probably won't be welcomed... But one thing I love about RPGs is being able to stroll into town, chat it up with an NPC villager, go restock your items, take on some quests... Hopefully they'll have more exploration in the later discs.

I'm also not diggin' the weapon upgrade system - I don't really get it, but upgrading weapons is always a pain for me (except in Tales of Vesperia, where it was easy and manageable) so I'll just... look that up later and hope I'm not gonna have to need to do that soon.

All in all, it's a beautiful, interesting game with tons of great characters like smexy Fang, who needs more screentime, plox, great music, and a pretty sweet battle system. All we need to do is give Fang some more screentime and get to Hope's hometown soon, and I'll be set! Maybe I'll do another huge post when I get another seven or eight hours in the game, just to track how I feel about the game so far. I've heard really bad things about XIII, and I still don't understand why - but then again, I'm only one disc in. It's a long way from here, folks!

(Hopefully this game isn't longer than Tales of Vesperia - I still haven't beaten that goddamn game....)