Final Fantasy: Baited Guilt

March 15th, 2009

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Final Fantasy is cruel punishment delivered cold, in the innocent guise of obligation to bait guilt among Final Fantasy VII players.

For everyone whose played several of the numbered installments, a game like Final Fantasy Origins is an attractive proposition, a tempting entree to persuade you into giving the earlier titles a go. Two Final Fantasy games in the one package, updated graphics, reworked gameplay and some spiffy intro FMVs – it is a fair package, especially considering the relatively cheap price the compilation still fetches.

Origins is designed to make you think this way, as is Dawn of Souls on the GBA and the latest two PSP “remakes”. They are bait for bottom feeder Final Fantasy fans that want to harden up, in the business sense; an easy way to make a few dollars. In the past few years Square-Enix have pulled this trick numerous times on consumers – they’ve turned it into a well oiled machine and am now repeating the procedure for the Dragon Quest series.

As a PAL gamer, this whole phenomena is different again, the first numbered Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest titles to hit our shores were Final Fantasy VII and Dragon Quest VIII respectively. Only in recent times, as you can see. We are perhaps the biggest consumers that Square-Enix are pitching to here.

Whatever your background in this monopoly, the motive is the same; guilt the players who skimmed these titles the first time around or persuade newbies to join the fold. It’s ironic then that the first game, on the first of several later to be released compilations of Final Fantasy plays as sourly as the itents of the publisher. Imagine if all games were like this; straight reflections of their publishing giants. Would be quite telling, wouldn’t it?

If Final Fantasy #1 is the game in question, and Final Fantasy Origins is your method of entry, then I’d recommend you avoid at all costs. The Origins port of Final Fantasy is overtly archaic, maliciously so, and from what I’ve heard, a stark contrast to the walk in the park cinch of the later GameBoy Advance and PSP ports.

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On beginning a new file, the game prompts you to characterize your 4 vanilla avatars with the regular RPG suits: warrior, monk, thief, black and white etc. You also need to select names for these characters too – there are no defaults. The lack of pre-built characters alludes to the blank template story that shortly follows. And that’s pretty much what you have, the actual definition of a cardboard cut out: four light warriors come, retrieve four crystals, lock away bad guy, The End. The story, which is often meant to be the hook in these types of games is all but non-existent. It makes you hanker for motivation. The presentation, while redone to 16bit pizazz, similarly lack soul.

The free choice party selection prys on your savvy enthusiasm for selecting a balanced party. You know that a fruit salad of black mage, white mage, warrior and monk for instance is probably the ideal party set-up. Unfortunately the class balancing is completely out of wack, as it contritely balances itself through unrelated mechanics such as limitations on spell casting and lack of healing items.

Mages are weak, pathetic creatures shackled to a tight magic system where casting magic feels very much privilage. Their defence and regular attacks are weak, if anything at all. Warriors on the other hand can take off hundreds of HP in contrast to the mage’s piddly 1-20. Their defence is the same – these guys rarely take a hit (no seriously, often 1hp) despite unloading massive damage. The downside is that they are limited to simple attacking, but even with that in consideration, these guys are far superior to any other class available. Monks and thieves are both just weaker variations of the warrior type with no real intrinsic talents to speak off.

As you can see by the examples, the class system is ultimately broken, with warriors reigning supreme by a wide margin. In order to balance out the strength of the warriors, all non-mage healing in the game is reliant solely on potions. That is regular potions that cure only about 25hp. They are the only portable healing agents in the game – there are no high potions, phoenix downs, only the straight 25 hp potion – without them you are reliant on Inns and mages. This contrived way of forcing the player to include a white mage in their party falls flat on its face once the vulnerable female (yes, white mages are automatically type casted as female) loses all HP. And this often happens as their weak defences ensures that they die more often than they deserve. They are far too fragile for their own good and yet a necessary obligation for your party. Mages are like the supporting cast to the warriors.

It makes no sense that the only way to revive a fallen ally is through the white/red mage life spell or in towns and inns. Once the white mage in your party is dead, pushing on through the game’s dungeons is all the more risky, but having them in your party yields little use. So they just feel like necessary dead weight.

Anything except warriors feels like a detriment to the whole party, thanks to the issues with balancing. This class system slows down the ability at which you can progress through the game. It drops the game down to 5km an hour. Once the weaker classes are picked off, your in-game progress suddenly becomes vulnerable, so you’ll retreat back to the nearest town to revive and start over. It’s pointless mileage back and forth, over and over, and extends the play time dramatically. The whole game is like this; one slow plod to the end.

This is made even worse by the fact that can’t save in the dungeons, instead saving is limited to inns or on the world map with given item. By then it’s often too late, and you’ll die before you have a chance to escape, further panning out the experience. Each segment of the game therefore greatly outstays it’s welcome.

On top of all this, equipment is very unevenly distributed. Every town in the game provides new weapons and armor for warriors and (ocassionally) similar classes, yet mages only ever receive two or three equipment upgrades throughout the whole game. No wonder they are so underpowered.

The classes are credence to the battle system, the veins of an RPG and they are broken from the outset. The lack of narrative to persuade you to the game’s conclusion is completely absent. Most NPCs speak pure filler, the rest are there to point you in the direction of the next location, but even these people make no sense. I quickly learnt to befriend a FAQ before the exploration became questionably trite.

That’s the bulk of it. A game built on ultimately broken foundations. It’s a tough slog, and a rough entry into the series. It’s no doubt workable, but only if you’re willing to invest, it’ll be doubly as hard for every less warrior included in your party. Two, I’d say is fairly balanced, teamed with a black and white mage. The context of this game (as the original Final Fantasy) is the guilt trip, the game itself is the punishment and together they combine for a rather gruelling package. Fortunately Final Fantasy II alleviates all of these issue and – at least so far – is 10x the product for it.

NB: This isn’t a brazened attempt at snarking, snark or no snark, this game was difficult to swallow. Also, this is what this “critique” is centered around, understanding how the game is such a grueling slog, sinister like the publisher’s side of the fence.

GTA: Chinatown Wars, Quick Post Script

March 12th, 2009

I recently posted a follow up of my article titled Taking Handheld Gaming Seriously which I originally posted over at Zath, this time I spin the topic around the upcoming Grand Theft Auto installment for the DS. You can find the article over at Zath.co.uk. The following is a bit of a post script to the article, collating my general thoughts on the game.

Just three quick points of reference that I didn’t get to touch upon from the previous article, completely unrelated to the controversy issue.

Firstly, the Chinese theme of this game does interest me and I look forward to exploring its effectiveness within the game. The story of the rich ass, American-born-Chinese gansta does appear to be teamed with the same generics of western folk making Asian orientated movies, but it could be cool. There are Koreans in the game too. Should be interesting how they handle the two ethnicities.

Secondly, how much does this game look like David Jaffe’s Calling All Cars? I reckon it looks surprisingly close. The whole low-res cel shaded DS graphics teamed with the GTA heritage of the 2D top down titles and modern inclusions sound like a fantastically fruitful mix.

Lastly, one of the less explicit points made in my editorial was that activists against violence in video games are actually more important than we realized. They’re some of the only people that accept that video games are an influential medium, and therefore such things as violence should be discussed. Ironically, this is a huge step away from players themselves, many of who adopt the mantra “It’s just a game”. Of course, it goes without saying that you’re probably not one of those people.

Level by Level: Logan’s Shadow Episode #1

March 6th, 2009

“The Underseige of Video Games” – Daniel Johnson

Syphon Filter:Logan’s Shadow is a typical video game sequel, sourcing heavily from the original while tightening the screws of an already solid base. It’s for this reason that there isn’t particularly much that I have to say about this game which you probably don’t already know from my previous articles. Still, I want to talk about it – after all I’m a series fan. Although some of my writings in the past may have lent more closely to reviews than so called critique, I don’t (intentionally) do game reviews here, which is why I want to be a little more progressive and actually review this game in the same way music is reviewed; song by song. In this case, I’ll be discussing Syphon Filter:Logan’s Shadow as a series of interlocking missions, rather than a complete package. Such a style, where the basics come assumed, perhaps might make the review more favourable towards people that are familiar with the original title – or so I hope. Let’s see how it goes.

Pirates of Somalia

Logan’s Shadow surprisingly begins with a fixed positioned, gun turret scene preluding Gabe’s helicopter descent on board the U.S.S. Mt. St. Helens. As the title suggests, the navy ship has been over run by Somalian pirates after the mysterious contents in hold 5. The introduction movie is sure to set the scene for another typically uninteresting action movie script, this time the emphasis is on the history and partnership of Lian Xing as well as a “pencil neck” politician Cordell – he must have no first name. The narrative ensues in cliched fashion, there’s a few kickers but even for fans like me it isn’t much, that’s all I’ll say about the narrative for now.

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Quick time events are subtly introduced as a first for the series. They operate when prompted to open tight doors and other such tasks that can’t be done with the standard skill set, as such the context you’re given for using them justifies their inclusion, rather than seeming like a faddish addition sporadically sprung on you at the worst of times.

Otherwise, the ship is a typical climb-to-the-top mission. The barrels in the game also seem to have been blessed with the gift of euphoria physics.

Going Under

You start off in the ship’s hull (some nice colours and lighting inside) and then move outside to the central part of the ship to catch a crane ride across to the other side. The music really starts to kick in once the fire fight gets under way, similar to the other titles, it’s very appropriate espionage music with beautiful undertones and exciting high points.

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Teresa messaged me a second time to alert me of what I was suppose to be doing after spending too long surveying the environment. Seems like a nice way to keep players on the right track. There was a cart pushing sequence mid-way during the mission which didn’t make a lot of sense considering Gabe could easily climb over the trolley.

Unsurprisingly the female chopper pilot introduced in the first mission dies. More reason for Logan to get angry at his enemies I suppose.

Ocean’s Five

You’re in the water this time by the side of the ship, ready to test out Logan’s Shadow‘s new swimming and diving mechanics. Wisely, this mission relies only on your treading water for the most part with one exception there is no need to dive underwater at all.

Being surrounded by water, the game begins to show off some of the new effects. The water for one looks fantastically liquidy and only continues to impress you move back inside the now damaged ship, pushing bloom, filters and a culmination of other effects in your face. Looking out from underneath the water the game binds blurred visuals with filtered sound and spread of bullets darting the water to create a convincing water environment. The water itself almost looks like full motion video, rendered in game.

Bullets stir up the water surface, terrorists can actually move into the water, swim towards you and shoot from underneath the surface. Their diversity is balanced nicely with your own electrical darts pulsate outwards when activated in water, covering significant surface area. The medium of water has extended the darts prior use, it’s a logical and clever way to add on layers to pre-existing mechanics by tying it together with the natural environment.

Besides that, this mission is fairly short. You just need to blow up a few small boats anchored around the navy ship and then make your way back inside the hull.

Sea of Darkness

This level is one of the significantly larger stages in Logan’s Shadow – includes a boss battle at the end too. You begin in the cargo holds, this time Gabe can jump into a button mashing sequence to open cargo doors, the level design of the first floor lacks direction, it fails to lead you in the right direction making it easy to get lost. Furthermore the cargo holds are tangled with trolleys and doors which can be lifted and pushed. Plenty of hidden evidence tuck away in the rummage though.

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The environments have a great blend of vibrant yellows and greens, giving the whole first area a very atmospheric sort of feel This is rammed up when you transit into the lower claustrophobic corridors where water is flooding in as high as your knees, steam pipes exploding and gun shots everywhere. Again, it’s a snow dome of visual effects, that in turn the environment into a hazardous playground.

By now it’s kicked in how the use of water has diversified the gameplay from the Dark Mirror formula. There’s also a greater inclusion of environmental variables, gas tanks which send fire raging before they explode, even the subtle environmental kills like banging someone’s head against a crate. So far it looks like there is a good deal of variation to distinguish Logan’s Shadow from its former.

Conclusion

Wow, still have five more episodes to go. I never intended to drone on so much about these two games. Oh well, there’s hardly enough video games coverage that looks at a single game for more than an article or two, so I guess my super analysis is quite distinguished then, is it not? I like writing like this anyways, allows me to get into all the undisscussed nooks and crannies.

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Tags: Syphon Filter: logan's shadow

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