I’ve always had a strange relationship with the Final Fantasy series.  If you ask me, the series peaked around Final Fantasy 6 (or as it was known in America, Final Fantasy 3) and slowly began going downhill.  Final Fantasy 7 was all right, though I believe it was overrated.  I detest Final Fantasy 8, and while Final Fantasy 9 was better, I lost most of my faith in the series.  I only played bits and pieces of Final Fantasy X and X-2.

So when I finally had the chance to play Final Fantasy 12, I was amazed.  It really felt as though the series had advanced to a new level and was re-defining itself.  The combat was improved and the overall tone of the story seemed more mature.  While there were still the typical androgynous characters, they seemed to have more depth than in previous titles in the series.

It was with this that I came into the Final Fantasy 13 demo, available on the Japanese Blu-Ray release of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete.  Would this demo impress me as much as Final Fantasy 12 did?  Would this game look and play nearly as well as the trailers made it seem?

The answers after the jump.

When I first began the demo, I immediately noticed the graphics.  To say that this game is beautiful is an understatement.  In full HD glory, it looks exquisite.  Each character animates excellently and, while the cut scenes are not using the in-game engine, it’s hard to tell.  Whenever you see a trailer for this game, you are seeing exactly what the game looks like.  If last year’s Metal Gear Solid 4 set the bar for graphics, then Final Fantasy 13 raises it.  The games soundtrack is, as always with Final Fantasy games, magnificent.

In addition, there is clearly a darker tone to the atmosphere in this Final Fantasy game, as opposed to previous titles.  The demo has you playing as two characters, Lightning and Snow.  Lightning is the female from the original trailer and uses magic in the form of, what else, lightning.  She also carries around a sword that is reminiscent of many other Final Fantasy characters.  Snow is a snowboarder wannabe, with the magical power of ice.   The demo starts with Lightning escaping from a train and finding herself in the middle of a warzone.  Lightning and her companion Sazh proceed through this battle, fighting typical foot soldiers along the way. The portion where you play as Lightning is about half of the demo, giving you plenty of time to understand the combat system.

The demo then switches to Snow and his companions, Gadot, who looks like Wakka from Final Fantasy 10, and Lebreau, the typical anime girl who seems to exist for the sole purpose of looking good.  They are rallying prisoners together to fight in the battle.  It is here where the story becomes somewhat darker than in the first half of the demo, as you will actually see the effect of this war many characters.  It’s difficult to take this seriously, however, as many of the characters share the same androgynous features of characters from previous games.

Square-Enix still sticks to similar conventions of character rolls.  Lightning is the typical magic wielder, and the Snow is, primarily, a martial artist…in the middle of a war zone where the enemies are shooting with guns.  Perhaps Square-Enix didn’t get the memo, but if you run at someone with a gun and try to punch them, things will not end well for you.  Also, they wear things that just don’t make any sense in reality.  They are in the middle of a warzone, being fired upon, and they decide to expose as much skin as humanly possible.

However, this is an RPG and, outside of cut scenes, you will be spending most of your time in battle.  Let me say that if you were expecting the Final Fantasy 12 combat system, then you will be sadly disappointed.  Rather than taking a step forward in the combat controls, or even sticking with the system created in FF12, the game takes a giant step back and goes to a more traditional system.

Rather than keeping battles in the world, you will have to go to a separate screen to be in battle.  While it doesn’t take as long to go into this screen as it did in previous titles, it still feels wrong.  Combat is semi-real time, but you still need to fill a gauge to be able to attack.  There is some variation, however, in that you can fill multiple bars, allowing you to queue up multiple attacks or unleash a more devastating attack that allows for splash damage.

Combat is simple enough.  Even with the Japanese text, you can still find your attacks and healing items quick.  The system, however, is not without flaws.  I often times would queue up attacks, only to have them not work because I didn’t press a button at the right time.  In addition, the most annoying issue with the combat is how your attacks work.  In most other RPG’s, if you queue up multiple attacks and your enemies die in the middle your attacks, you will attack the next available enemy.  However, if you kill an enemy in this state, then you will attack the area that your enemy is standing in, after they are dead.  You're wasting time and energy on an enemy that's already dead, slowing down the overall flow of combat and becoming a big nuisance as time goes on.

You will only control Snow and Lightning; however, you will have a party to help.  They will attack the enemies and provide healing, and in this aspect their AI is fairly intuitive.  If you are dying, they will heal you and you can keep fighting.  It does feel strange, however, that you have so little control over them.  Even in games like Persona, you still have some level of control over your team.

I could let this issue slide, if it was not for one thing: this demo can be played almost completely from beginning to end with your eyes closed.  That is not an overstatement.  The landscape is a straight path and the enemies you encounter never really vary enough in order for you to need to change your tactics.  The demo, while lasting at least 45 minutes, was the same thing from beginning to end.

Finally, it needs to be noted that the demo is included in the A.C.C. Japanese Blu-ray.  If you have any interest in the demo, you need to understand that the Blu-ray of the film is completely in Japanese.  There are no English subtitles or voice-overs for the film.  If you want to play the demo and you don’t understand Japanese, you will be paying $80 for a demo.  If you’re a big enough Final Fantasy fan, this may be worth it, but to most people, it will be wasted money.

I wouldn’t say that the time I spent with this demo was wasted.  However, I can say that I was left unimpressed with what I saw from Final Fantasy 13.  It feels like the series took many steps forward with Final Fantasy 12, but it feels like they are taking a giant step back with this game.  There is little variety in the demo and if the demo is any indication of what the full game will be like, then I can say that I will not be picking this game up.