Final Fantasy XIII Hands On Impressions

The finest non Mona Yamamoto and Sayuri Sugiwara related moment of yesterday's Final Fantasy XIII Premiere Party was the time I spent not playing Final Fantasy XIII.

Wait... let me rephrase that. What I mean to say is that I spent a lot of time in the immediate vicinity of people playing Final Fantasy XIII. I was standing right next to them, discussing the game with them and with the Square Enix reps who were leading the demo sessions. It's just that, due to time constraints, I didn't actually get to put my hands on a controller.

That hands off time was a total blast. Just think how much more fun I'll have when I'm actually pressing buttons!

Prior to the start of the demo time, FFXIII director Motomu Toriyama described the version we'd be playing -- actually the version of the game that will be shown at the Tokyo Game Show in a couple of weeks. (I'm pulling some quotes here from a Famitsu.com recap.) Snow and Lightning's stories form the pillars of FF13, explained Toriyama. The demo, he said, would allow players to sample combat with the two characters, with such bonuses as unlimited use of summon spells Shiva and Odin.

The Shiva and Odin stuff are, of course, new additions, but didn't we already get to play separate Snow and Lightning sequences in the Advent Children demo back in April? Upon starting up the demo, you can see the big difference here. Whereas Lightning and Snow's parts took place one after the other in the Advent Children demo, here they appear to be totally different sequences, set in different areas of the game. You select the part you want to play from the title screen.

I was able to "sample" both parts. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, we had to skip past all the cinematic stuff and get right to the gameplay. But Famitsu.com's impressions included some story details, so I'll be mixing in some of their recap here.

Lightning's part of the demo puts the heroine with the more recently unveiled Hope. Their goal, according to the Famitsu.com report, is to board a train bound for "Eden." The two appear to be sneaking through a harbor area (which IGN's writeup refers to as Palumpolum).

Snow's part is set in a stone ruins area and puts the tough hero with Vanille and Szah. I didn't notice this, but Famitsu says that there are fire-like crystals dotting the area. The Famitsu report also makes note of some sort of tribal-like embroidery on Snow's back, although it's not sure of the meaning of this.

The Advent Children demo drew some criticism for putting players on strictly linear paths, with both Snow and Lightning running across what was basically the same long corridor. The new demo opens things up a bit. While not the open Pulse expanses that were shown in the latest trailer (see below for details), there was some hint at exploration. But things were still, on the whole, tight, so getting into battle was pretty easy.

I didn't get to see too much of the standard combat, as everyone seemed to be summon crazy. The Famitsu.com report notes one major change from the Advent Children demo in this area. In the Advent Children demo, once you'd reached a break state, you were able to select a "launch" command from your move list in order to send your opponent flying into the air and begin chaining together flashier, more powerful attacks. The launch command is now gone. The game automatically determines when to launch the enemy up and when to perform followup attacks.

There are lots of changes to the battle system from the demo build. I'll have to wait for the final version to fully explore, though.

Summon spells appeared to be the main point of the demo. As Toriyama said, the demo had been set up so that players could use the summons as much as they want (of course, you have to build up your TP between calls, but you have Elixir items in your item stock which max your stats out for you). When players reached the bosses of each demo, the Square Enix reps were quick to suggest that we call out either Odin or Shiva, depending on which player you were using. In both cases, once you've called out the summon, you're left with Lighting or Snow on their own alongside the summon, who fights independently.

When in summon mode, you can press the square button to switch into Driving Mode. This begins with a huge, flashy transformation sequence, showing off Square Enix's visual design mastery . Having the Shiva twins merge into a motorcycle should look silly, but it looks great, and I imagine myself enjoying watching it over and over again (I wasn't able to check if you could skip it, although past FF games have let you set a menu to shorten such transformation sequences). Odin's transformation to a horse is also a sight to behold, although there's a bit of awkwardness as following the transformation, the horse appears to gallop on an invisible path as he swoops down towards you from above.

Lightning in Driving Mode.

I'm not sure if I'd read wrong somewhere, but I'd been expecting Driving Mode to give players full control over the vehicle. This isn't the case. From what I could see, you have no movement control over your character. There's a slightly greater action feel, though, as you perform moves using button combination commands, shown in the lower left side of the screen. Each of these has a cost, which depletes from a timer shown in the far lower left of the screen. When you're not pulling off moves, the timer counts down by one every second, and when it hits zero, you go back into standard summon form.

More than any other area of the demo, Driving Mode really highlights the beauty of Final Fantasy XIII. Even outside of the eye catching transformation sequences, the actual Driving Mode attacks make the screen light up with effects.

The whole of the demo appears to have been given a visual boost over the Advent Children build. Everything has a clean, solid look, with smooth framerates and transitions. I was actually underwhelmed by the visuals in the original demo, but in more complete form, FFXIII looks like a standout title visually.

There are few random bits I noticed when playing the game. Most surprising was what appears to be a presentational hint from Namco Bandai's Tales series. As you're running around, little message windows occasionally pop up in the lower left of the screen, with your party members saying stuff to you in fully voiced dialogue. I saw this happen myself as someone played as Snow, with Sazh's face popping up. The Famitsu report says that Hope did the same thing for Lightning (whom he apparently referred to as "Light"). The messages, according to the Famitsu report, include commentary on the current state of things, like "This is tough" when you're surrounded by enemies, and "Provide cover," said by Hope before he runs forward.

I also took note of a special set of curiously named items. Pressing one of the trigger buttons brings up a quick access item menu which lets you select from a few special parameter changing items. These are all named something-something Smoke. Examples include Barrier Smoke and Power Smoke. The Square Enix rep explained that these items are received as rewards by killing off enemies. When used, they alter your status the next time you enter battle. I'm not sure why they're called "smoke," though.

The demo also offered a glimpse at the game's menu system. We didn't get to explore too much here, but the available items seemed to be pretty standard, including options, status, ability, equipment, area map, and item. More than the content, the presentation for the menus was notable. Everything is so graphical, with video-based transitions bringing character profile pics in for close ups as you select to view their status. Attractive, well thought out menus are typical for the FF series, but this looks like a new high bar.

This particular Final Fantasy XIII demo is special, and not just because of its increased quality over the Advent Children demo. During the presentation today, Toriyama said that the demo has features that aren't in the final version of the game. A butterfly-like boss that awaits at the end of Lightning's sequence was added just for the demo. Additionally, Snow's part apparently gives you access to a stronger party than what you'll be able to achieve in the final version.

With all that work going into the demo, perhaps players who can't make it to Tokyo later this month will get a chance to give it a try in download form at some point.

Outside of the demo, Square Enix closed off the event with a sneak peak at the game's Tokyo Game Show trailer. I'm pretty sure I've thought this about every single Final Fantasy XIII trailer, but this one struck me as being the best FFXIII trailer thus far, mixing story and gameplay to provide an intriguing final (?) look at the game.

The focus of the trailer was on Serah, the girl mentioned by Snow at the end of the Advent Children demo. Serah looks like she could be one of the ties between Lightning and Snow, as in addition to being Lightning's younger sister, she and Snow appear to be romantically involved. The opening of the trailer is a lengthy dialogue sequence between Snow and Serah as they glide through what appears to be a festival, make a promise to meet back there in the future, and kiss.

Lightning says something mysterious midway through the trailer implying that she became "Lightning" due to Serah. A Famitsu.com writeup on the trailer has some clarification. Lightning parted with her real name when she and Serah's parents died while the two were in their youth. This was done in order for the young Lightning to assume an adult role. What's the connection with becoming an adult and changing your name? I'm not sure, but during the trailer, Lightning tells Hope "I thought that by throwing away the name that I received from my parents, I wouldn't be a kid."

The trailer provides a whole lot of hints that Serah will go the path of Aerith and other past Final Fantasy heroines. Of course, I doubt Square Enix would give away anything so important, so maybe we're just meant to think that.

There's one more point of note that I took away from the story side of the trailer. It appears that Snow and crew are being persecuted in part because they're l'Cie. Midway through the trailer, we see a shirtless, bandaged Snow pleading with enemy soldiers about how they're all residents of the same Cocoon. Newly introduced Yaag Rosche says that the presence of a l'Cie alone poses a danger to the common citizens. Famitsu.com has a quote: "Would you exchange your life for the lives of thousands of Cocoon citizens?"

Not all the l'Cie are combating the government, though. Towards the end of the trailer, we see Snow in confrontation with a new black-haired female character. Snow is surprised by this lady, saying that she's a l'Cie who sides with the Holy Government.

Outside of the story stuff, the trailer was packed with new gameplay footage. Most notable was our first look at Sazh's Driving Mode. I'm not sure of its original form (it did look somewhat fire-based, so perhaps Ifreet?), but Szah's summon transforms into a slick race car. Once again, what should be a silly transformation is a sight to behold thanks to Square Enix's masterful artwork.

The trailer also offers an intriguing glimpse at the vast open fields of Pulse. You'll be able to run around these areas freely, it seems. I presume Pulse serves as somewhat of a world map. In the trailer, we see the player guiding Hope through Pulse. There are giant dinosaur-like creatures roaming the fields around him. While the framerate here in the trailer build was choppy, the sense of scale is impressive.

It's good that we now have a final release date for when we'll get to experience all of Final Fantasy XIII.