The Asylum Game: An Open-Ended Adventure
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It's actually pretty creepy, subject Lambi.
And my new one is just fun, I think. Plus, it's one of the best scenes of Scrubs.
And my new one is just fun, I think. Plus, it's one of the best scenes of Scrubs.
Creepy things for creepy people, subject Lambi. ^-^
And yay, someone else likes it!
And yay! ...Although you are catching me up...and I'm catching Vee up...
And yay, someone else likes it!
And yay! ...Although you are catching me up...and I'm catching Vee up...
Yeah, I've been having slow days as well, subject Lambi. But it seems to have picked up lately.
Now excuse me, I have a few things to do. I shall leave you, however...
Enjoy.
Now excuse me, I have a few things to do. I shall leave you, however...
Final Fantasy XIII (FF XIII from here on) is a J-RPG developed and published by Square Enix. It follows a group of people as they try to save their own lives while being chased across the world of Pulse and Cocoon and their subsequent locations.
Now, to begin, we shall start with what makes a FF game a FF game. The story.
The story of FF XIII takes place in the two worlds of Pulse and Cocoon and focuses on the rift between Pulse and Cocoon. Now, bear with me for a while, as the basic story requires a lot of information to understand. 1,300 years before the events of FF XIII, Cocoon was created by the fal?Cie as a paradise for humanity. Humanity on Cocoon soon flourished thanks to the fal?Cie being able to create life and machines to help them along in their daily lives. However, a war between the fal?Cie of Pulse and the fal?Cie of Cocoon, which we are never told the reason for, leads to the citizens of Cocoon fearing Pulse, even though Cocoon won the war, which soon became known as the War of Transgressions and left Cocoon fearful of another invasion from Pulse. In the 1,300 years between that and the games events, having been kept secluded in Cocoon, its residents have become nervous of the true nature of Pulse, leading to The Sanctum, the government and its leader, The Primarch, to issue an edict: Any individuals suspected to be in contact with the world of Pulse or any of its artefacts or items are to be banished from the continent unconditionally and cast into the harsh environment of the planet below.
When a Pulse fal?Cie is located in Bodhum, a small beach town on Cocoon, this leads to the Cocoon citizens screaming that the entire village be banished, as the edict suggests. PSICOM, the military branch of The Sanctum, has no choice to act out the edict and banish the town?s population to the world below, an act that becomes known as The Purge and are lead to The Hanging Gardens, along with the Pulse fal?Cie, Anima, contained within a building known as the Pulse Vestige. This marks the beginning of the game, sets up the introduction to the main characters, and launches into the story where you meet the characters of Lightning, Sazh, Hope, Vanille and Snow who each have their own different reasons as to why they are all heading to the Pulse Vestige. It is here where they all are turned into Pulse l?Cie by the fal?Cie Anima, leading to the events that propel the game and propelling you to your goal, which is finding out what their Focus is and to try and figure out
Pretty face work is pretty.
Now, while many people did not understand the story at the beginning, myself included, you soon learn it through flashbacks to the days before and after the events in Bodhum. While this means you are essentially playing with only a slim idea of what you are supposed to be running from, if you have listened enough in the early stages of the game, you will soon pick up it up and slowly begin to understand it as the plot twists spring up and the game slowly but surely picks up pace as you get going. However, it does take a while to get going and many people don?t have the patience or time to wait 5 to 10 hours for a game to pick up so that rules out those people who like their story to be right there from the get go, something to get their teeth into. However, I felt it was nicely paced and it was good to play a slow burning game that didn?t drown you in information, unless you looked through the datalogs in the party menu. Then it does. A problem for me though is, while you do learn a great deal of the main parties back stories and history through the cut-scenes and narrative in game, you learn very little to the bad guys back stories. And there are quite a few bad guys thrown into the story, mainly to introduce massive plot twists, some to help the story along and some are there to do both and then get disposed of. While needed, the sudden slew of bad guys confuses you, making you wonder who that was and why you should care about them. Add to this no real fleshing out of their back grounds, motives except for the main bad guy and how they fit in to the story and the bad guys seem like they were made with the intent of just being used to link the story together, which is a little disappointing. While not story breaking, it just feels sort of slap dash and left me wondering who that just was trying to murderize my party and why I should care. Now, lets talk about the thing that helps you experience a story. Game-play.
Many people complain about the game-play of FF games of being linear and boring. If you come into this expected a big change in that, you will be sorely disappointed. This game is as linear as a linear person in a town made of linear things on a linear national holiday; lots of running from A to B with little or no exploration until the later stages of the game. But this is not a bad thing for me. It helps you focus more on the story and stops you getting side-tracked from time to time. Where FF XIII really shines though is not in the exploration of its world, which it does give you ample chance later on even if it is only to a giant field and various areas, but the battle system which you will be seeing a lot of as you progress. The battle system has had a few changes made to it, some more important then others. I won?t go into all of them unless you want to read a ten page review but I shall cover the most used ones, the Paradigm Deck, the return of the Active Time Battle system albeit with a few tweaks, the new addition of pre-emptive attacks and the ?Stagger? bar and the levelling up system or ?Crystarium? as it is known in game.
The battle system in action. And yes, enemies really do get to that size.
To initiate a battle with one of the numerous beasties that populate FF XIII?sworld, you must first either run into them or have them run into you. If you manage to run into them without them noticing you, you will get a pre-emptive strike. Your reward for doing so? A nearly full ?Stagger? bar. Now, this ?Stagger? bar is a handy addition to making fights turn in your favour. Fill the bar up completely through attacking a enemy with magic and psychical attacks and reach their ?Stagger Point?. When they reach that point, you can deal more damage and take the fight sky-wards if you have obtained the ?Launch? ability from the Crystarium. Now, how fast that ?Stagger? bar fills is dependant on what sort of attacks you use. Psychical damage only fills the bar up a tiny bit but keeps the chain alive. If you use magical attacks like FIRE or BLIZZARD[footnote]Note, I thought colours would pep my review up a bit.[/footnote] the bar fills quicker but also depletes quicker. Now, this is where the Paradigm System comes into play.
Now, the Paradigm System is a system in which each member of your party assumes a certain role. These roles are Commando, or warrior; Ravager, or black mage; Healer, or White Mage; Saboteur, which performs magic attacks that weaken enemies; Synergist, which casts magic that strengthens allies; and Sentinel, a role which has increased defence and protective abilities. At the start of the game, only 3 roles are open to each character but later on as you progress, all roles become open to everyone.
Now, to begin, we shall start with what makes a FF game a FF game. The story.
The story of FF XIII takes place in the two worlds of Pulse and Cocoon and focuses on the rift between Pulse and Cocoon. Now, bear with me for a while, as the basic story requires a lot of information to understand. 1,300 years before the events of FF XIII, Cocoon was created by the fal?Cie as a paradise for humanity. Humanity on Cocoon soon flourished thanks to the fal?Cie being able to create life and machines to help them along in their daily lives. However, a war between the fal?Cie of Pulse and the fal?Cie of Cocoon, which we are never told the reason for, leads to the citizens of Cocoon fearing Pulse, even though Cocoon won the war, which soon became known as the War of Transgressions and left Cocoon fearful of another invasion from Pulse. In the 1,300 years between that and the games events, having been kept secluded in Cocoon, its residents have become nervous of the true nature of Pulse, leading to The Sanctum, the government and its leader, The Primarch, to issue an edict: Any individuals suspected to be in contact with the world of Pulse or any of its artefacts or items are to be banished from the continent unconditionally and cast into the harsh environment of the planet below.
When a Pulse fal?Cie is located in Bodhum, a small beach town on Cocoon, this leads to the Cocoon citizens screaming that the entire village be banished, as the edict suggests. PSICOM, the military branch of The Sanctum, has no choice to act out the edict and banish the town?s population to the world below, an act that becomes known as The Purge and are lead to The Hanging Gardens, along with the Pulse fal?Cie, Anima, contained within a building known as the Pulse Vestige. This marks the beginning of the game, sets up the introduction to the main characters, and launches into the story where you meet the characters of Lightning, Sazh, Hope, Vanille and Snow who each have their own different reasons as to why they are all heading to the Pulse Vestige. It is here where they all are turned into Pulse l?Cie by the fal?Cie Anima, leading to the events that propel the game and propelling you to your goal, which is finding out what their Focus is and to try and figure out
?Cocoon?a utopia in the sky.
Its inhabitants believed their world a paradise. Under the Sanctum's rule, Cocoon had long known peace and prosperity.
Mankind was blessed by its protectors, the benevolent fal'Cie, and believed that tranquil days would continue forever.
Their tranquillity was shattered with the discovery of one hostile fal'Cie.
The moment that fal'Cie from Pulse?the feared and detested lowerworld?awoke from its slumber; peace on Cocoon came to an end.
Fal'Cie curse humans, turning them into magic-wielding servants. They become l'Cie?chosen of the fal'Cie.
Those branded with the mark of a l'Cie carry the burden of either fulfilling their Focus or facing a fate harsher than death itself.
A prayer for redemption. A wish to protect the world. A promise to challenge destiny.
After thirteen days of fates intertwined, the battle begins."
Its inhabitants believed their world a paradise. Under the Sanctum's rule, Cocoon had long known peace and prosperity.
Mankind was blessed by its protectors, the benevolent fal'Cie, and believed that tranquil days would continue forever.
Their tranquillity was shattered with the discovery of one hostile fal'Cie.
The moment that fal'Cie from Pulse?the feared and detested lowerworld?awoke from its slumber; peace on Cocoon came to an end.
Fal'Cie curse humans, turning them into magic-wielding servants. They become l'Cie?chosen of the fal'Cie.
Those branded with the mark of a l'Cie carry the burden of either fulfilling their Focus or facing a fate harsher than death itself.
A prayer for redemption. A wish to protect the world. A promise to challenge destiny.
After thirteen days of fates intertwined, the battle begins."
Pretty face work is pretty.
Now, while many people did not understand the story at the beginning, myself included, you soon learn it through flashbacks to the days before and after the events in Bodhum. While this means you are essentially playing with only a slim idea of what you are supposed to be running from, if you have listened enough in the early stages of the game, you will soon pick up it up and slowly begin to understand it as the plot twists spring up and the game slowly but surely picks up pace as you get going. However, it does take a while to get going and many people don?t have the patience or time to wait 5 to 10 hours for a game to pick up so that rules out those people who like their story to be right there from the get go, something to get their teeth into. However, I felt it was nicely paced and it was good to play a slow burning game that didn?t drown you in information, unless you looked through the datalogs in the party menu. Then it does. A problem for me though is, while you do learn a great deal of the main parties back stories and history through the cut-scenes and narrative in game, you learn very little to the bad guys back stories. And there are quite a few bad guys thrown into the story, mainly to introduce massive plot twists, some to help the story along and some are there to do both and then get disposed of. While needed, the sudden slew of bad guys confuses you, making you wonder who that was and why you should care about them. Add to this no real fleshing out of their back grounds, motives except for the main bad guy and how they fit in to the story and the bad guys seem like they were made with the intent of just being used to link the story together, which is a little disappointing. While not story breaking, it just feels sort of slap dash and left me wondering who that just was trying to murderize my party and why I should care. Now, lets talk about the thing that helps you experience a story. Game-play.
Many people complain about the game-play of FF games of being linear and boring. If you come into this expected a big change in that, you will be sorely disappointed. This game is as linear as a linear person in a town made of linear things on a linear national holiday; lots of running from A to B with little or no exploration until the later stages of the game. But this is not a bad thing for me. It helps you focus more on the story and stops you getting side-tracked from time to time. Where FF XIII really shines though is not in the exploration of its world, which it does give you ample chance later on even if it is only to a giant field and various areas, but the battle system which you will be seeing a lot of as you progress. The battle system has had a few changes made to it, some more important then others. I won?t go into all of them unless you want to read a ten page review but I shall cover the most used ones, the Paradigm Deck, the return of the Active Time Battle system albeit with a few tweaks, the new addition of pre-emptive attacks and the ?Stagger? bar and the levelling up system or ?Crystarium? as it is known in game.
The battle system in action. And yes, enemies really do get to that size.
To initiate a battle with one of the numerous beasties that populate FF XIII?sworld, you must first either run into them or have them run into you. If you manage to run into them without them noticing you, you will get a pre-emptive strike. Your reward for doing so? A nearly full ?Stagger? bar. Now, this ?Stagger? bar is a handy addition to making fights turn in your favour. Fill the bar up completely through attacking a enemy with magic and psychical attacks and reach their ?Stagger Point?. When they reach that point, you can deal more damage and take the fight sky-wards if you have obtained the ?Launch? ability from the Crystarium. Now, how fast that ?Stagger? bar fills is dependant on what sort of attacks you use. Psychical damage only fills the bar up a tiny bit but keeps the chain alive. If you use magical attacks like FIRE or BLIZZARD[footnote]Note, I thought colours would pep my review up a bit.[/footnote] the bar fills quicker but also depletes quicker. Now, this is where the Paradigm System comes into play.
Now, the Paradigm System is a system in which each member of your party assumes a certain role. These roles are Commando, or warrior; Ravager, or black mage; Healer, or White Mage; Saboteur, which performs magic attacks that weaken enemies; Synergist, which casts magic that strengthens allies; and Sentinel, a role which has increased defence and protective abilities. At the start of the game, only 3 roles are open to each character but later on as you progress, all roles become open to everyone.
Enjoy.
*Falls from sky*
*Lands hard leaving a large crater*
DAMMIT JOHNNY! I SAID 9 NOT FINE!
*Remembers I'm in the Asylum*
Hi Subjects!
*Starts reading Subject Sas' review*
*Lands hard leaving a large crater*
DAMMIT JOHNNY! I SAID 9 NOT FINE!
*Remembers I'm in the Asylum*
Hi Subjects!
*Starts reading Subject Sas' review*
*comes in swinging on a jungle vine still dressed like Tarzan*
Hi subjects!
*pounce-hug licks subject Waffles*
*starts reading subject Sass's review*
I already want to tear you eyes out subject Sass, but still, good review.
Hi subjects!
*pounce-hug licks subject Waffles*
*starts reading subject Sass's review*
I already want to tear you eyes out subject Sass, but still, good review.