Final Fantasy XIII Demo is Enormous

[DRADIS C0ntact]

Disc changes restrict the game design since you have to partition the game so the player never walks back and forth across a disc border but I don't think a jRPG has any problem with railroading the player like that.

That is not true at all. I've played FF7 and FF8 multiple times, FF7 having three discs I think, FF8 having four. The disc changes do not restrict where the player can move. Even on the last disc, you can go back to most of the same areas and towns that you visited in the first disc.

 

[MystikMtnManaT]

oh sweet sappy molasses... I might have to clear some room on my game shelf for this one.

 

[Nightfalke]

AM I the only one who is gonna point out that those cut scenes take up more data than a FUCKING STANDARD DEFINITION MOVIE! I mean honestly, the amount of data in the actual gameplay is akin to a 20 minute demo off of PSN or XBL. So... if we just go by how the data is looking, it seems like its gonna be 20 minutes of gameplay, and 40 minutes of cutscene. Hardly a fair demo of the game.

Actually...knowing JRPGs these days, having a demo that is 66% cutscene DOES seem like a fair demo of the game.

 

[KDR_11k]

Wow... you can almost see Square-Enix throwing everything they have into this game. I have a feeling this game will be a lot more important to them than a lot of people realise. If the long production time means anything, in conjunction with the massive amount of data they seem to be throwing around, we could be in for something very good indeed.

Thats the hope anyway.

They already said it's important, it has to sell 10x as much as other games. I could see this becoming their second Spirits Within.

Actually...knowing JRPGs these days, having a demo that is 66% cutscene DOES seem like a fair demo of the game.

Eh, it's not hard to increase the gameplay time between cutscenes in a JRPG, just increase the encounter rate.

 

[GloatingSwine]

Disc changes restrict the game design since you have to partition the game so the player never walks back and forth across a disc border but I don't think a jRPG has any problem with railroading the player like that.

Actually, the structure of this demo rather demonstrates why that isn't a problem. The only thing that really needs discs to itself is the noninteractive video.

If the full game has the same ratio of cutscene to content and fills a blu-ray disc, you could fit the actual game content on two DVDs with room to spare.

 

[GloatingSwine]

That is not true at all. I've played FF7 and FF8 multiple times, FF7 having three discs I think, FF8 having four. The disc changes do not restrict where the player can move. Even on the last disc, you can go back to most of the same areas and towns that you visited in the first disc.

FF8 you can't go to most places on the last disc, because the disc is almost completely consumed by the gigantic ending movie.

 

[Fruitloops89]

Well seeing as the PS3 players will have the finished product delayed due to microsoft PAYING for a simulatnious release.


to the millions (And billions) of Final Fantasy fans who want to enjoy FFXIII, their parents, their children, great uncle billy bob, crazy cat lady down the street, you better make sure it was god damn worth it for them to release it on the 360, or i'mma gonna buy up stock, shine that shit up real good, turn it sideways and shove it straight up each and every 360 owners candy asses.

If you can SMEEEEEEELLLLLL what Onmi... is cooking...

Best The Rock impersination I have heard/read in a while, good man.

 

[D_987]

I hate disk changes

Good for you. You must also hate pressing the ON button, or turning on a controller...if you haven't got the patience to change a disk every 10 hours of gameplay, why bother playing a JRPG?

 

[ChrisUS]

The good and bad of disc changing...

The Good:
Lost Odyssey - They put enough data on every disc so that even if you changed areas, you didn't have to return to a previous disk.

The Bad:
Star Ocean: The Last Hope - ugh.. if you wanted to return to a previous area, they gave you a portal... unfortunatley if it wasn't one of the final two areas, you had to swap discs. And Microsoft's copy to harddrive doesn't fix poor design choices by the developer.

Of all the past JRPGs I've played that were multiple discs, I never felt that any of them were much of a pain switching disks. I think it was like someone already stated, it gives you the feeling of accomplishment (if only a single disc it's not easy to judge where you are in the game).

 

[D_987]

If the Xbox gets a crappier version, HAVE A FARKIN CRY. It's just the start of it, being that the PS3 is a superior machine and Blu-ray is a superior medium. You're gonna see more of this to come so get used to it.

Final Fantasy has a huge amount of cut-scenes, locations etc... from what you've just read you can tell this will be one of the biggest games ever released in terms of sheers amount of data, so to honestly claim "you're gonna see more of this" is idiotic, how many more multi - platform games do you think will have this sheer amount of content this gen...?

 

[John Funk]

I will donate to a fund if The Escapist will force Yahtzee to play this game

He might be based in Australia, but we're in the US, and the Constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.

Cmon he even boxed himself into it! he goes on and on about final fantasy but hasn't done a single game, make him back his claims up.

That's because no FF games have come out since he started doing ZP. Besides, if you don't like a genre, you don't like a genre. Do I accept that there might be good sports/racing games? Sure. Will I ever play them? Nope.

 

[Lord Kofun]

Lost Odyssey was on 4 discs, and it was spectacular. Why would I care about FFXIII having six discs? So I have to change discs once every ten hours. Darn?

 

[D_987]

*snip*

Once every 10 hours...you must be one lazy ba...

 

[Zenode]

I remember the days of the PS1 when Final Fantasy 8 had 4 discs and i didnt mind....each disc (if it DOES come with multiple discs) have an individual story/theme to them

but i cant wait for the install time......

 

[Lord Kofun]

See thats 16 steps! OR, I could just play the whole game through... like I have since the PS2 era... yeah.

Joke or not, I know there are about 500 people who would agree with that. Depressing..

 

[D_987]

Lost Odyssey was on 4 discs, and it was spectacular. Why would I care about FFXIII having six discs? So I have to change discs once every ten hours. Darn?

Exactly (both on the disk situation and Lost Odyssey) - people are just moaning because they are either:

- PS3 fanboys who use this an an oppotunity to insult the 360.
- Lazy people, who seriously think changing a disk every 10 hours is a serious issue.
- Sheep - you know, the people who claim its a bad idea because said groups make up the majority.

 

[yeah_so_no]

I actually got the demo today and was playing it (just got a PS3 today, actually). I only played for about an hour or so, then my pizza came so I quit, and while there was a long intro at the beginning, most of the time I was actually playing.

The battle system is kinda...yeah. I am not liking it. I'm sure I'll get used to it, but it's counterintuitive in a lot of ways. I see what they were shooting for, trying to make turn-based combat look like realtime, but uh, yeah. Not so hot. That said, the graphics are frickin' amazing; there was almost no difference between the cutscene and movie graphics and the game play.