Final Fantasy XIII bus tour = Short but sweet

UPDATE: Comparisons of the PS3 vs. Xbox 360 versions: As the two systems were not running completely side by side, it was difficult for me to completely judge the graphics quality. As far as framerate goes, both versions seem to run equally well. For me, however, I believed that the colors were a bit more vibrant on the PS3, and--Yes I'm serious--Lightning's hair was sharper on the PS3 version!!! :D


Here it is! Today I took a trip to SF to play Final Fantasy XIII, the upcoming anticipated video game, in its complete English form. After following the twitter page of the twitter bus tour, I showed up at the perfect time to get my place in line for the demo. As passersby stopped to ask the people in line what we were lining up for, we gamers quickly made sure to file in. We were given black, short tickets marked "ADMIT ONE". After the initial 25 or so tickets were given, nobody else was allowed to line up. I guess they had to catch the bus at its next location (the bus stayed at each location for about 2 hours).

Pics, video, and more details after the jump!



So in groups of 8 people, we all entered the sleek black bus imprinted with Lightning's picture and "FINAL FANTASY XIII", as well as the release date "3.9.2010". Check the pics below. Upon entering, I observed there were four stations of the game set up and running--two on the PS3 and two on the 360. In the middle, there was a big flat screen television playing the latest International Trailer of the game, which was just released this morning. We were split into two groups of four. As the first group played the game (2 on ps3 and 2 on 360), the other watched the trailer (at least, that's what the representatives wanted us to do...:D). Once the trailer played from start to finish, the two groups switched places. It was, overall, a very short experience. At the same time, it was really exciting to get to be there, playing the latest build of Final Fantasy XIII...a build that many of the press have not even played yet. (According to the Square Enix Rep at hand).

Demo:


As for the demo itself, it dropped the player into a level on an airship of a sort. The background was obviously showing other airships flying around in the bright blue sky. The graphics are, as expected, amazing. It looks just as good as all the trailers combined, and some more. When you are the player with the controller in your hands, navigating Lightning around the level as you please, the game felt that much more impressive. The player started off at a save point (which means the full game was most likely at hand, as the Squeenix reps had to "load" all the demos to the same point in the game). Before I was ushered by the rep to enter battle, I managed to enter into the save point and selected the "Upgrade" option. Then appeared my weapons and equipment marked with levels beside their names. It was nice to see that there is a weapon progression system in the game.

Battle:

As I continued into battle, everything moved at a lightning pace (pun intended). The menu options were:
"Auto-battle",
"Abilities",
"Techniques",
and "Items"

Pressing Auto battle will instantly fill up the ATB slots with random attack commands ready for deployment. Depending on the Paradigm shift the player currently has selected, these commands vary accordingly. This is where I began to understand the importance of the Paradigm Shift system (or Optima Change in Japanese). When my Lightning was almost at zero health on the screen, the rep informed me that I needed to switch to a different Paradigm by hitting the LB (Xbox 360 version)to heal. After doing so, my menu options changed. Instead of "auto-battle", I now had "auto-heal" displayed. Upon selecting the command and the target, I was able to heal myself. However, being in this paradigm, I was not able to choose an attack command. If I select "abilities" from my menu, I now have the choices of Heal and Esuna, rather than Fire, Thunder, Water, Etc. What this means is that the player will need to switch the paradigm once more before the options for attacking are displayed in the menu. This is where the mixing of many standard paradigms (I had 6 to switch to and fro in the demo) to create more complex ones will become instrumental to the success of your battles. I imagine the player would be able to mix the attack abilities of say, the "Delta-Attacker" or the "Bully" Paradigms, with the healing or the magic-casting abilities of the other ones. As mentioned by game director Motomu Toriyama, this paradigm shift system is the development team's implementation of the Jobs system traditional to the Final Fantasy series. While it definitely serves its purpose in restricting the abilities of the character to the respective Paradigm/Job, will it be received well with players and fans who still prefers the Jobs system?

Another thing I wanted to touch on was the "Techniques" option in the battle menu. Choosing commands from this option consumes TP, or technique points. Among the several commands available was "Summon". :) You know it! Upon selecting "Summon", Lightning throws up her rose-shaped crystal /gem into the air and jumps after to slash it...and the Eidolon Odin appears! As many of you may have already known from the many previews and videos of the game, the summons in Final Fantasy XIII are controlled by an AI. The summon acts as your party member, replacing the two before. You continue to control the character at hand, Lightning in this case, while the Odin attacks the enemies. The direct control of the Summon comes in when you activate Gestalt Mode. Lightning then mounts Odin as a handful of direct-input commands are made available to the player.

After encountering about 3 groups of enemies, my time to play the game was up and I switched to watching the trailer instead. Of course, I still mostly watched the others playing the game. Overall, it was a duration of about 15 minutes in the actual bus, not counting the time I stood in line waiting to get on. However, being able to play the game hands on two months before the release date and listening to Leona Lewis's "My Hands" on repeat... was extremely intense. It was definitely worth checking out for a gamer or fan of Final Fantasy XIII.

The twitter bus tour goes on until the 16th! Tomorrow, they will be in other areas of San Francisco. On Friday, they will be in East Bay--Emeryville, Oakland, Berkeley. Lastly, they will be in the South Bay--Campbell, Sunnyvale, and San Jose--on Saturday. Be sure to check it out if you are in the area. Definitely something exciting to fill your day as a gamer!


Launch Party ?

Oh, and by the way. The fans in line for the bus were passed around a sign up sheet for a "FFXIII Launch Event" in March when it comes out. Upon further questioning, they had no details yet on when or where, but you betcha I put my name on the list!

The only bad thing....? NO SWAG :(


Pictures and link to video of new gameplay (English Version):   Sorry for the shaky cam!

Outside the bus:


Inside: