Some 80 Hours Later...

So recently all my freetime has been spent with Final Fantasy XIII. Finished the game at about 74 hours of gameplay and I've since been gathering the remaining trophies. I still haven't got them all though, I need load of CP (EXP) and Gil (money) to get the last ones.

But, how's it been so far? Fun. The battles are strategic but fluid enough so I didn't get too bored even with grinding. Which is good since battling is pretty much all you can do. The only other 'sidequest' in addition to the 64 optional bosses in the game is digging up treasures with chocobos, which isn't really sidequest except to be lucky enought to dig up the Ribbon to get a trophy. And it isn't the only way to get Ribbon. And the 'treasure finding' is nothing like in FFIX, where is was genuinely fun and challenging (I hated that Ocean treasure...). Well, to put it short, where FFIX was the king of sidequests, FFXIII is not. I'm just one of those people who liked to play cards for hours...

Another thing that's lacking is actual roleplaying. You hae no dialogue options, ever. The characters have preset dialogue and the whole story is as linear as a ruler. But, it's a good story and the characters all have indepth stories and personalities of their own. Even the 'comic relief char' Sazh has moments of his own which make him interesting. Some have complained that Hope is annoying, but he really stirred my motherly instincs and in addition to Vanille is my favourite character.

Well, it is a good game that has amazing scenery (when I first got into Gran Pulse and saw that horizon, I was quite taken) and gorgeous soundtrack (loving going to Oerba, that music is soo nice). It just doesn't feel like a FF game like FFVII or FFIX. I was a bit disappointed with FFXII and this one goes een urther down that road. Luckily the battle system, after you get used to it, is intrigueing enough to keep you playing.