Final Fantasy XIII: A Look at the Demo

Over at 1up.com you’ll find XIII Things About Final Fantasy XIII, a blog post by Jeremy Parish. I was very impressed with the read.

They got themselves a copy of the new FFXIII demo and really outlined what it’s all about. With 13 seperate posts he has managed to put together an amazing list of FFXIII facts. Here’s the complete list:

I. Meteorology
One of the unusual quirks about the Final Fantasy games created by the Tetsuya Nomura and Yoshinori Kitase power team is that their heroes and heroines are always…
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II. Transitional Evolutions
I’m really, really tired of random encounters in my RPGs — one of my favorite things about Final Fantasy XII was the fact that…
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III. Unconventional, Unimpeachable Tunes
For the longest time, Final Fantasy meant the guarantee of a great Nobuo Uematsu score combining pop symphonies with progressive rock undercurrents. From the very first game on NES…
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IV. A Return to Form
Videogamers — especially fans of RPGs — tend to be pretty anal-retentive types. Just look at the nerd rage that Final Fantasy XII’s Zodiac Spear caused…
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V. The Red-Ringed Albatross
I mentioned this in passing during our Final Fantasy XIII livestream, but it deserves expanding on. I’m worried that the decision to make FFXIII a multi-platform game in the west is going to make…
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VI. A Strong Black Character
Japan has the distinction of being one of the most racially homogenous nations in the world, especially among major industrialized countries. An uncomfortable side effects of this fact is…
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VII. A Touch of Class
The Final Fantasy series has strayed rather far from the role-playing tenets upon which the original game was built. The NES adventure was a straight-up video recreation of…
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VIII. The Chrono Cross Connection
Back when we first launched The Grind, lo those many months ago, my inaugural post compared Final Fantasy XIII’s combat system to that of Chrono Cross…
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IX. It’s Pretty Much Final Fantasy VII-2
You hear hushed music as you look at a vision of what appears to be outer space. Slowly the picture resolves into a futuristic world dominated by technology…
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X. Sword Beats Gun
If you’ve watched much footage of the first half of the Final Fantasy XIII demo, you’ve probably noticed a curious disparity: gun-wielding Sazh does a pitiful fraction of the damage…
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XI. Destined for Greatness (in Combat)
I won’t lie: I really liked Final Fantasy XIII’s combat system… right up until the point where I actually played the demo. And while I realize what’s on display is a work-in-progress…
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XII. Sympathy for the Terrorist
Final Fantasy began as a big ol’ Dungeons & Dragons ripoff, but the team behind its sequel decided to range further afield. Thus, Final Fantasy II was a big ol’ Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind…
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XIII: Still a Work in Progress
It probably goes without saying, but the Final Fantasy XIII demo is very much a work in progress, and is possibly more interesting for what it doesn’t show than what it does. In fact, Square Enix…
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