Final Fantasy Forum

Want Want Want will probably a first day buy when I get a PS3(in April I hope).

So does anyone know if any of the guys at Giantbomb went to the swanky FFXIII launch party in San Francisco it sounded pretty cool (epseically the 3-D trailer) and according to Tim Schafer they had the 'Best Cupcakes' of GDC. If they did go I hope they took some video of the event
(GDC being started today and the FFXIII launch party was last night)  
 
Also as I said before any woman's voice is improved with an Australian accent. It just sounds like during the ADR the director decided to keep the whole genki girl vibe because everyone loves a stereotypical Japanese school girl. (not really) So I would say that's more the way her character is of being the constantly smiling kawaii girl that all Japanese women 40 and below seem to strive for. (if anime and manga has taught me well that is.)
  
Oh wow this is the first time I've heard FFXIII compared to FFVII and it made me cringe slightly (Inb4 FFVII defense force) seeing as FFVII is the most overated Final Fantasy of all time. Well besides the fact that Lightning is female Cloud. (as Tetsuya Nomura has said he was told to do)
 
Also BTW I hear the first 10 hours or so is a very long tutorial to the battle system. 
 
Inb4 people think I'm being negative seeing as I've been super excited for this game since they showed the Japanese trailer. I even cosplayed as Snow last year at Anime North and the game wasn't even out yet. (which a passerby in the line reminded me) 
 
FFX-2 job system is called the Dress Sphere System and I'm glad they are doing something like that again because I loved how the dress sphere system allowed a really decent amout of customization in how you wanted the characters abilities to evolve.
 
 Fallout 3's camera is better because it's direct one to one control seeing as it's first person. The 3rd person camera in Fallout 3 is utter garbage though same goes for in Elder Scrolls IV and Elder Scrolls III. (all by Bethesda)
 
 From what I hear Hope (who I assume you are comparing Vaan to) is way more angsty and emo than Vaan ever was, I hear he's more of a Shinji kind of character.
 
 Also you forgot to mention Waaka and Zell's bizarre love child who is the Nora dude seen in the Japanese demo. Don't know his name since my PS3 copy of FFXIII is sitting at the top of my backlog for when summer employment comes (it's funny how a 40 hour work week job provides more free time than university >.>)

 
@metalsnakezero:

JRPGs are linear that's just the direction they've taken the genre.*  Condeming a JRPG for being linear is like getting being annoyed that in an FPS you shoot stuff with a gun.
 
 
*You may not realise this but JRPGs long ago broke from being a tradtional RPG [in terms of the original tabletop RPG] if you want something more like that stick to western RPGs, particularly stuff from Bethesda or 1C Company.

Is it sad that I'm more interesting in a Pokemon remake then a new Final Fantasy game?  I heard the game is super liner which could be a good thing or a bad thing.  Hopefully I will pick this game up in the near future.  It's been awhile since I played a console RPG.

@JJOR64: 
  

Any JRPG is super linear it's just the way the genre (Yes JRPGs are a seperate genre/sub-genre from the typical RPG using RPG elements [but who doesn't these days] but with a very fixed and linear story that the player observes more than plays) has evolved. Even Pokemon for example is pretty linear (now you aren't going down a straight line but you are constantly advancing down the routes towards the Elite Four with maybe a little back tracking and a small break off so you can go battle the legendary on the cover and than it's back to the last gym or two so you can get the final HM unlocked that you need to get to the Elite Four.  
 
Sure you can back track to other places to raise your pokemon or catch some new ones but in the end it's a pretty direct path to the Elite Four that the game has you take.

I was thinking about buying it, but since it seems like it doesn't have japanese voices, I wont...

@metalsnakezero: I LIKE cup noodles! And they require very little preparation =P 
 
@Konanda: I've played with the paradigm and abilities system a bit and I am liking it, even if in some ways it's just a prettier, 3D version of FFX's sphere grid, split into job classes.

@gia:

That's what I've heard and I couldn't be happier because the Sphere Grid was an awesome customization system they made for that game and the Dress Spheres where an awesome job system they made for the sequel. 
 
 Edit:
BTW I'm a university student and even I eat better food than cup noodles, but than again I love to cook* and usually groceries aren't really expensive. Especially when buying stuff like PC/no name** brand cereals and other products.
 
*I just wish my mom introduced it to me earlier instead of figuring out how fun it is on my own in second year. It's great and an awesome time to listen to a podcast while standing over a stovetop or doing some reading/portable gaming if something is going in the oven for a while or when slow cooking something. (i.e. like a stew)   It's great to experiment with all kinds of different foods as well since usually I'm only cooking for myself and other than a dislike for pork and beef I'll pretty much enjoy everything in it's own way. 
 
**no name is a brand owned by Loblaw (largest food retailer in Canada) and is seen in all their stores among other brand name stuff and is usually cheaper version of brand name products and for the most part actually tastes better.  
 
PC is President's Choice, which is a seperate brand owned by Loblaws that was started by the president of Loblaw Companies Limited as what he's personally picked out kind of thing and eventually transitioned into basically being the brand name quality food line that was still cheaper than other brand names but more expensive than no name. Personally I find PC stuff to be quite a bit better than other brand name products. For instance behind me as I sit here at my desk infront of my laptop is a 460 gram box of PC Honey Nut Oat Os (I'm dead serious that is the name) and last week before it ran out I had a 460 gram box of PC Raisin Bran. 
 
They also have some PC brand spin offs like Blue Menu, (their health food menu although I would be cautious of any Blue Menu labeled juice since they use sucralose to sweeten it.) Green (mainly a line of less ecological damaging household supplies) Organics (obvious this is obvious) and Mini Chefs. (food aimed at children from 5 to 10) Oh and they spun off a financial division in association with CIBC (one of the Big Five banks as they are known in Canada) and selling Bell prepaid cell phone cards with their brand on it instead.

@Liminality said:

" I was thinking about buying it, but since it seems like it doesn't have japanese voices, I wont... "

That's a bummer.   :(       They probably decided to stick with English only so people well actually listen to all the VO they did for the game.

I don't get people who critique the game for being linear, that has ALWAYS been the case for JRPGs.  People don't critique Uncharted 2 for being linear because it's a quality of the genre.  Well, not all RPGs are WRPGs, there are JRPGs out there too and they are linear, and always have been.  
 
If you get more than about oh...2 hours into it, it actually does open up a bit, in terms of some side exploration with chests and the like.

@ThePsychoGamer:

Saves them the cost of dubbing it since only hardcore Japanophiles will buy it. the last one sold a measly 10 thousand copies. There also has been some fan rage because they took out the host club minigames [and some Japanese trivia stuff] even though they were in Yakuza 2. (it was also Japanese VO only) 
 
I have no idea why Sega is releasing it so close to FFXIII though since even though they are different games they are similar and well FFXIII looks to be shaping up to be huge. (It's a main series Final Fantasy so you already know it's going to some some really good sales numbers anyway) That and they've put next to no ad budget in to the release.
 
Neat anectdote when I went to pick up my  preorder at the EB that's a 5 minute bus ride from campus 3 other guys where behind me to pick up their preorder as well and the guy before me also picked up his preorder.

@Konanda:  @DeviousRobert:
You know, I wanted to say something about the linear/non-linear/JRPG/western RPG thing earlier, but couldn't find good words to phrase it-- I'm going to try again. 
 
Basically, my complaint about the whole debate is thus: it's not like there aren't different degrees of linear-ness even in JRPGs. FFVII is obviously WAY WAY WAY more linear than Fallout 3, but on the other hand, FFX is more linear than FFVII. So, while I enjoyed FFX, I think it's perfectly reasonable for me to say that I prefer something slightly more open, on the level of VII-- or at least, I don't think it's as ridiculous as complaining about an FPS that uses guns! ;)
  
So, while it might be silly to expect FFXIII to be as open as Fallout 3, I don't think it's unfair to complain that it's even more linear than other games made within the same franchise.

@JJOR64 said:

" @Liminality said:

" I was thinking about buying it, but since it seems like it doesn't have japanese voices, I wont... "

That's a bummer.   :(       They probably decided to stick with English only so people well actually listen to all the VO they did for the game. "

I think many people would listen to the english voices even if there was the option for japanese voices.
 
I like everything with it's original voice and specially with japanese products, and since this game doesn't seem to be as good as it should (even if it is still good) there are many other games I want to buy first. It's a bummer because I've been a long time wanting to play a game with this kind of story.

@Liminality said:

" I was thinking about buying it, but since it seems like it doesn't have japanese voices, I wont... "

No Final Fantasy game released to English speaking countries has Japanese voices in it. Why would this game be any different?

@Void_Wizard: Someone asked me if I was going to listen to it in Japanese or in English. I don't know where that rumor started, but it was someone who's usually pretty in the know, so I was kind of confused! But no, while you can turn on English subtitling, there's clearly no Japanese language version. Pity. I like most of the voices, but Vanille is grating. I don't think Hope's voice is bad but the things he says are really emo so I'd be happy to ignore them =P

@Void_Wizard said:

" @Liminality said:

" I was thinking about buying it, but since it seems like it doesn't have japanese voices, I wont... "

No Final Fantasy game released to English speaking countries has Japanese voices in it. Why would this game be any different? "

I haven't really played any Final Fantasy game because they had something I didn't like, and I'm not sure what it is. But I like the style and like I said, I've been wanting to play a story like this one. I didn't know that other FF games had no japanese voices, but never really thought about it, it's just a nice option to have that should be there.