Picked this up a week or two after release, but only finally had some time to play in the past two weeks. I probably don't have anything new to add, but I just wanted to write down my thoughts somewhere.
Just reached chapter 11 and did the first five missions. Outside of the battlesystem, I'm not actually sure how good this section intrinsically is, but it feels like such a release after trudging through 25-30 hours of claustrophobic gameplay.
Mind you, I don't really mind linear gameplay. But I think the game is just a bit too in your face about the lack of sidepaths and choices you have in the first 10 chapters. Seeing the long corridors on the map drives home the lack of exploration too much. The crystarium is pretty much completely linear during this period, making character customization devoid of choice. And most of the battles outside of bossbattles don't require that much thought in this section.
I do like that when you're in a battle pretty much your only concern is killing the current enemies. I remember having these elaborate sets of moves in FFX when I was grinding before doing the final boss because I wanted every member to get at least one turn to get xp from each battle for everyone. Instead everyone gets cp in XIII regardless if they're part of a battle or if they're living at the end of it. You don't have any HP and MP concerns in between battles. It allows them to focus all of their complexity and challenge in the battle self, with the lack of death penalty making that whole experience completely streamlined.
But it feels like for the first 10 chapters it is mostly the story and characters that are supposed to provide the motivation to keep playing while you're being slowly taught the system. The storytelling is very character focused, which is a good thing. Except that the entire cast is pretty uncompelling. Sazh is ok and the only character whose dialogue sounds relatively natural. Snow and Lightning both never stray very far from their archetypes. Lighning is a stoic warrior... but she has a caring side... but she is still a stoic warrior. Snow is the blustering hero... but with a brief moment of doubt... but he is still the blustering hero. Hope's arc and acting actually feels believable, but the script opts to stretch his arc without giving much beyond several moments of him not having the courage to
until he does. Fang I haven't seen that much. Vanille is Jar Jar Binks for pedos.
That said, conforming to an archetype doesn't have to be a bad thing, if it is done well. It only becomes cliche if you can't sell it. And good lord does the dialogue grate. And everything is delivered with the same level of painful earnestness making the emotional flow of cutscenes into a complete monotone. It's the vuvuzela way of writing dialogue.
It's kind of sad since the world is kind of interesting, and is realized with a lot of obvious skill and artistry. But the thing that's supposed to make you actually care about it just falls flat. It's a bit of George Lucas syndrome, where the world building is interesting and the character arcs, while archetypical, could be interesting. But the actual meat and potatoes of a script, the dialogue and character interactions, just feel really awkward and unnatural.
PS; just for the record, my username does not have anything to do with the character of this game. My usual username (my real life first name) was taken when I registered on GAF, and I happened to be reading a A Song of Ice and Fire at the time.
