For Indeed I Promised To Eat All Of His Killing.

[rionaleonhart]

Sorry I've been a bit rubbish at responding to comments recently! It's a combination of having work, which is great but does mean I want to do anything other than stare at a computer in my spare time, and, well...

After all that watching-on-YouTube, I now have an actual copy of Final Fantasy XIII! And I know this is a divisive game and there are a lot of people who really hate it, but I think it has to be one of my favourite Final Fantasy titles.

Yes, the AI is so good that it makes you wonder whether you really need to be at the controller. Yes, it has the air of a game designed by someone who went 'I have an amazing idea for a thirty-hour film!' and then reluctantly added a few gameplay elements upon realising that any film that long would really have to be distributed in videogame form. But I love the characters, and the characters have always been my favourite part of the Final Fantasy series. I'll forgive a lot for a good cast. (See also Final Fantasy VIII; it has gameplay flaws (all the Drawing can become very tedious) and an incomprehensible plot, but its central cast will always ensure it a place in my heart.) And I am actually weirdly fond of the battle system, even though the characters are essentially going WE KNOW WHAT TO DO, YOU JUST SIT BACK AND LET US SORT IT OUT. It's so fast-paced and exciting even if your actual involvement is minimal.

This game also contains a lot of emphasis on the relationships between these characters thrown together by fate and how those relationships develop. I talk a lot about how much I love family relationships in fiction, but I think what more generally appeals to me is non-romantic love, and there are great heaps of it in Final Fantasy XIII. I'm so in favour of that.

I really like that some characters are noticeably chattier than others even outside cutscenes. Lightning tends to speak only when she has information or advice to impart. Sazh, on the other hand, talks all the time. He keeps up a near-constant stream of chatter as you run around. He delivers victory lines more often than not. When Vanille slips into critical health, he asks, 'You holding up, kiddo?'

(Cutest thing ever, incidentally. I want Sazh to call me 'kiddo'.)

Beneath the cut due to length: a poll about favourite characters in the Final Fantasy games! Obviously you can just skip any questions about games you haven't played or don't have favourites in.



[Poll #1764143]



I'm probably going to keep coming back to this poll and switching my XIII answer between Sazh and Snow. I JUST CAN'T DECIDE. (And I'm sorry if I've forgotten anyone!)

Oh, hang on, let's have a shorter poll outside the cut, about videogames in general.


[Poll #1764144]


Unrelatedly: I went to see Catherine Tate and David Tennant as Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing yesterday! It was so much fun. If you get the chance to see it, do!

Comments

[timydamonkey.livejournal.com]

Last one: typically I don't invert the camera. However, whenever I play a game where I press the up button and I suddenly look DOWN, I get so confused and struggle with the controls a LOT. XD I find it difficult to adapt to, though I do deal with it and eventually learn.

[rionaleonhart]

I have the opposite problem; I get really confused when pressing up makes me look up. You'd think it would make sense, but in my mind apparently 'up is up' is a really difficult concept to grasp.

[lotus0kid.livejournal.com]

Consumed with jealousy that you've seen Much Ado with Catherine Tate and David Tennant. All I can do is sit over here, filled with longing, and pray for a swift DVD release. Please oh please oh please oh please...

[rionaleonhart]

Sorry to rub it in, but, yeah, it was pretty great. Never before had I realised just how much I wanted to see Tennant and Tate insulting each other for two hours and then snogging.

[pinkfinity.livejournal.com]

Best. Plot. Summary. Ever!

[thewaterbandit.livejournal.com]

Catherine Tate and David Tennant in Much Ado!!!! ALL THE JEALOUSY.

Inverted cameras really really disorient me when I'm playing, enough to throw me out completely. It's a real problem because we have one friend who, when he comes to play on our xbox, ALWAYS inverts the camera and then doesn't change it back. It's a nightmare.

[rionaleonhart]

I would probably be that obnoxious camera-inverting person. The question is in my mind because I've just started playing Uncharted, and I was struggling a lot with aiming until my brother suggested I check the settings. Lo and behold, up was up by default. Which is wrong.

[aestivalis]

Y-You know, I voted 'UP IS UP', but the more I think about it... I play with 'UP IS DOWN' more often than not. I just... my mind is quietly blown..... THINGS I NEVER THINK ABOUT, AHH...

Picking characters here was painful. VI was particularly difficult. I love Edgar and Sabin, I love their relationship and their parallels and the sacrifices they've made or would be willing to make for one another. I really love those two, and voting for one of them over the other is difficult! I went with Edgar, but I'm squirming with displeasure now and wondering that I shouldn't have cast the vote somewhere else entirely so as not to favour one perfect twin over the other. I really love Setzer, and Cyan, and Gau, and Celes. Gau, goodness, breaks me heart and comes back around to my liking Sabin again. In fact, oh look, Cyan, Gau and Celes all have some notable relationship with Sabin. AHHH choosing for this game is ridiculous, I quit.

My VII opinions have changed so much over the years, but I've found that over time I've really come around to Barret. Barret and Cait Sith are my favourites, and my favourite scene in the game is right toward the end of the second disk, where Cait Sith/Reeve calls Barret out on AVALANCHE's actions at the start of the game. It's always there with me when I play through Midgar - really makes me like both characters more. I do love Barret, though. Just so gruff and rowdy, but he cares so darn much, and I swear he is adorable if you look for it. Grumbling and teasing and ohhh, his sailor suit. Barret you are my favourite :(

Irvine actually makes me a bit uncomfortable but I voted for him anyway. Then again (and without a shred of disrespect!), VIII makes me a bit uncomfortable all over so that is the way it goes. Squall gets a huge honourable mention, especially as I've done such a huge 180 on him over the years.

Steiner is wonderful and needs all the love. But I adore Freya and Amarant and Zidane as well, I really only went with Steiner because I think he has the more cohesive story arc out of these four excluding Zidane, and I've already voted for two womanisers. :|a Love all you guys, sob.

X, goodness, could have voted for Rikku or Auron or Yuna or Tidus, there is a lot to love in this cast. This is one game I just never seem to get tired of, I kind of want to vote for Jecht as well, and Seymour is just a wonderful presence even if I could never quite name him as 'favourite'. (Kuja I love you by the way, if we're going down this road.)

I have not finished XIII yet! I am getting toward the end, I think, and have finally recently picked it back up again. Voting for Sazh was very painful because I really really have a soft spot for Lightning. I just -- don't hate me! -- really have a hard time dealing with Snow, and I think their shared screentime is what tips me toward Sazh in the end. Sazh has all the best relationships, the end :(

So basically this comment is long and ridiculous, I apologise. I think I need to replay all of these games. Right now. I do have VII and VIII readily available at least, hmm. But finish XIII first, darn it. Darn itttt.

[rionaleonhart]

I had trouble choosing for VI as well! I was incredibly torn between Celes and Sabin. In the end, I went for Celes, but I'm not sure it was the right decision. Why do I make polls that will cause me distress?

and I swear he is adorable if you look for it

No disagreement here! Barret definitely has an element of adorability.

Kuja is probably my favourite Final Fantasy villain.

I also have a soft spot for Lightning! But I think Sazh and Snow edge her out. Regarding Snow: HATE YOU FOREVER I can entirely understand that people might have a problem with him! I was really surprised by the way he managed to punch right into my heart, because I wasn't expecting to like him at all. (Sazh's relationships also had a hand in my choosing him over Snow or Lightning; the Sazh-Vanille dynamic is one of my favourites.)

Don't apologise! Long comments about Final Fantasy are always, always welcome.

[vzg.livejournal.com]

All I can say is SEYMOOOUR. OH MY GOD SEYMOUR.

[strangefrontier.livejournal.com]

Charlie Brooker recently had a dicussion about camera inversion on twitter. I agree with him: up is down and down is up. It's like the camera control stick is your neck, you tilt it forwards to look down, and back to look up.

[rionaleonhart]

That's an explanation that actually makes sense! I've never understood why an inverted camera felt more natural to me, but that may well be it.

[galaxysong9.livejournal.com]

That's always been my argument as well, it feels like the control stick is your head + neck. I prefer that, but I generally don't care enough to switch.

I do wish that there had been some kind of summit at the invention of video games where everyone decided to do it the same way, though. Either way is fine by me, but going from an inverted game to a non-inverted is horrible.

[dots.livejournal.com]

Oops! I voted on an RP journal. deathdancing is me. I always invert the camera, though I don't really think of it as inverting it. It seems natural! Up is down, down is up, because you are pushing the camera up if you want to ... er, you know, the neck analogy is better.

Oh, goodie, an FF favorite character poll! My favorite thing. I'm going to go fill that out now. (On the right journal.)

[rionaleonhart]

I think the camera analogy actually makes more sense to me, because I don't play many first-person games. In any case, yes, that is the correct answer!

[yumiboo.livejournal.com]

I couldn't answer three of the questions (first, second and last because I haven't played them yet. However, Chris does. And he's moved to London for work stuff for a year which means that, unless I move, I can't play them until i get my own PS3 and a copy of those games), and also, I actually found this hard because, in my favourite games of the series (9 and 12 - what, there were pirate ships and pretty looking towns and Viera and Vivi and Eiko and sdfghjk,l (yes, this is a cohesive and understandable argument for it)), I generally like most, if not all, of the cast.

I have no idea what invert is but I like up being up and down being down. It feels less like Alice in Wonderland that way.

Also, stop making me want to buy things please, I have no money :

[draegonhawke.livejournal.com]

JOYSTICKS (AND BY EXTENSION THE PS2/PS3 ANALOG STICKS) DEAL WITH ROTATIONAL MOTION, SPECIFICALLY PITCH. PRESSING FORWARD ON A JOYSTICK OR ANALOG STICK, BECAUSE THE STICK IS ORIENTED VERTICALLY AND THE MOVEMENT TAKES PLACE FROM THE TOP OF THE CIRCLE DESCRIBED, DESCRIBES A DOWNWARD ROTATION.

...I have a lot of arguments about this with my housemates, actually. <_<

[twilit-wanderer.livejournal.com]

I get so frustrated when the camera is not inverted! My brother likes to laugh at me for it (though he also prefers an inverted camera).


... seriously, though, I have no idea how to answer the Final Fantasy characters poll. I could spew my brain-thoughts, instead, but that would require a lot of typing, and it is insufferably hot right now. (And also it would probably not be very interesting.)

[bubbles-san.livejournal.com]

I voted up is up, but I can't remember if that's how I have my XBox settings set now. I'd have to drag it out and check and I don't really feel like it. But it makes the most sense to me so I'm pretty sure that's how it's set.

[sashwizzled.livejournal.com]

I'm actually absurdly pleased at how popular Sazh is in this poll! He's absolutely my favourite FFXIII character by a long way. I went for Auron in FFX in the end because even though I have other characters I really like, Auron is the only one who never managed to annoy me.

Also, with regards to the camera, I tend to stick with whatever the default happens to be for that particular game - I adapt to it pretty quickly (although the next game I play that is the opposite will have about five minutes of ridiculous flailing as I sent the camera in the wrong direction and cannot understand why).

[theoret.livejournal.com]

I probably should have put that I do not have a strong opinion, because I don't play video games often and when I do, I mostly play ones where you can just let the computer handle the camera stuff, but when I do find myself using a 'up is down and down is up' camera I am hugely confused, and will generally switch the settings to 'up is up and down is down'. SO I VOTED FOR THAT.

[pinkfinity.livejournal.com]

Wasn't Much Ado completely perfect?!? I saw it 2 weeks ago and the adorableness and brilliance completely blew me away and now, I can't stop listening to their Sigh No More (Nonny!).

[sai_salamander]

Wait, I think I... DID I CHOOSE THE WRONG OPTION?! I ALWAYS INVERT. I AGREE WITH BROOKER, NON-INVERTING IS FOR MONSTERS.

[amy-wolf.livejournal.com]

I haven't played enough video games to entirely understand what you're talking about. Does everything look upside-down when you invert the camera? Because I fully support the "Everything in the world is now upside-down!" setting.

[dev-chieftain.livejournal.com]

HEY
I CAN'T VOTE FOR LAGUNA! WHAT THE HECK! ;_________;

And EDEA ;_;

[luna-manar.livejournal.com]

I don't have a strong opinion about the second one, but personally I cannot even play first person games that don't fly like a jetfighter. Down is up and up is down for me. I just haven't been able to unwire myself.

[vzg.livejournal.com]

I probably should have voted for no strong opinion, as actually my biggest opinion in that is that I MUST NEVER ALTER THE CONTROLS. IT IS UNNATURAL. If it was programmed that way THAT IS HOW I MUST DO IT GRRR. That and I've been confused by both.

I voted "UP IS UP AND DOWN IS DOWN because that is probably the one I am less confused by. I can't usually think of it as the "in the neck" thing, but rather a camera I am giving directions to, one that either the character is holding or is behind the character. But at the same time I rarely bother to use any kind of character-perspective camera controls at all, unless I need to for some element of gameplay. So I guess I am mostly the cloud guy from SuperMario 64, which was probably the only game I ever really bothered to just look around in for no purposeful reason. Also I thought the ability to see the "cameraman" in mirrors was awesome.

[rionaleonhart]

I particularly owe an apology to you, because you've left me the most incredible comments on Homestuck and Harry Potter and I haven't yet replied! I'm sorry. I really enjoy hearing all your thoughts.

I think I usually think of it as a camera as well, but with the opposite result; when you want to look up with a camera, you swing the back of the camera down.

the ability to see the "cameraman" in mirrors

Wait, what? That is so cool!

[vzg.livejournal.com]

It's okay! When writing a lot of those comments I thought, "Damn it, she's never even going to see this."

But I wrote them anyway, because that is me.

I... I must admit, I suck at cameras. And actually most film things. It was pretty much impossible for me to not have one major stupid error in my films at school, like leaving a shot where I accidentally left my light meter directly in front of the camera in the final edit. :P But I think of it as telling the cameraman to "shoot up" or something, I guess? Or using a handheld camera/steadycam.

Yes, it was cool! I actually don't remember a lot of that game, but I do remember purposefully walking past mirrors just to see the cameraman behind me. You can see a (really blurry) version of it here: http://www.mobygames.com/game/n64/super-mario-64/screenshots/gameShotId,14997/

[vzg.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, not "shoot up." That... that's just awful.

I don't even know how to say that differently at the moment. I should probably just sleep now.

[ladyofshallnot.livejournal.com]

All I know that is whatever camera setting I prefer, the lady prefers the opposite. Confusion abounds!

I actually really enjoy the battle system in FFXIII, because during boss battles (and some of the ramped up random enemy encounters), I will inevitably screw up and die. It encourages tweaking things until you get it right, and I never feel like I've lost everything.

[timydamonkey.livejournal.com]

I decided to look up your last FF10 character poll, and it's not -quite- as one sided this time

Last time (http://rionaleonhart.livejournal.com/188276.html)!

(I still love that you added a "not including Auron" question :P)

[squeemu.livejournal.com]

HOW COULD YOU MAKE ME CHOOSE BETWEEN FRAN AND BALTHIER

[rionaleonhart]

I AM A HORRIBLE PERSON AND I LAUGH AT YOUR CONFLICT. If you choose one you're implicitly choosing the other, anyway; you can't completely separate them.