What if Final Fantasy XIII was good? pt. 1

Here's my insight here: thaeonblade.deviantart.com/gal…

But I'll summarize in case you don't want to droll through four pages of objective ranting. Final Fantasy XIII is more of some sort of interactive movie than an actual video game and Square Enix was deceptive in it's presentation! The plot is confusing and restrictive to where it eventually collapses in on itself! The Gameplay is uninvolved, boring, painfully linear even by Final Fantasy standards, and gives the player no reason to be invested in finishing the game! The background story is riddled with handwaves and plotholes that can only be partially understood with researching the codex archive or a wiki page and is also cram-packed with inconsistencies and confusing stuff that doesn't make any sense! Worst of all, it teases you with all of these diverse and beautiful environments all around you, but traps you in an invisible hallway from which there is no escape!

Since it's a base breaker, I'm not surprised that this game has fans. If you like the game, I'm not going to tell you that you suck for liking it. What annoys me are the amounts of fans who will heavily defend every single detail of the game and even go as far as to bash previous games to make this one seem better! It's immature and irritating. 

For instance, I like Final Fantasy XII but didn't like Final Fantasy X. That doesn't mean that I'll rip apart X just to defend XII. Both games have a lot of strong points and good reasons to like and finish the games as well as their share of flaws. But at least they're actually games as compared to XIII. 

Rinoa and the Draw system in VIII were annoying and I'm still utterly confused on why they didn't just use a phoenix down or life spell on Aerith and Zack in VII. But I'm still willing to acknowledge that they have strong points.

Even with XIII, I'm willing to point out when it does something good. It has a very strong cinematic and cool environment; The characters were likable for the most part and even the ones that you didn't like had their good moments; The arcs and development for the main cast was believable and actually emotionally drawing despite the hallway; the graphics were the best to be seen in a Final Fantasy game yet; and the musical score put me in the mood for killing oversized chickens!

Even if you think that the game was good, there's no denying that it could have been way better. With that in mind, I'm going to undergo a simple Socratic Exercise inspired by BelatedMedia's similar video concerning the Star Wars Prequel trilogy.

So suppose that you were an executive producer or a creative consultant or a co-director who was brought into the project midway through XIII's development or in the later stages if you want a challenge. You're presented with all of the material that the team is going to have in the game which includes: setting, story, characters, gameplay and etc. It'll be your job to take whats already been agreed to be in the game and then change a few things here or there to make it better. Kind of like Gary Kurtz did for Lucas in the first Star Wars movie. 

XIII had a lot of good ideas, they were just poorly implemented. We're going to fix that here. So without further delay, let's begin, shall we?

For starters, we're going to push off the train scene to Act I. Why? Because by that time, the action is already happening and the complicated plot threads have begun to spin without giving the players a chance to jump on and fully understand what's going on without a flashback or reading a journal log. It's great that there's a journal with all of this information, but we the player shouldn't have to rely on it in order to understand the plot. The plot should be somewhat simple to follow, even if it has complicated side-stories and stuff.

Take for instance Game of Thrones. When you break it down, there are two main plots: The ongoing conflict between multiple houses and parties to determine who rules the world and The emerging threat of an Ancient Evil that's been largely forgotten. But the complexity comes from the characters who frequent the World of Game of Thrones and even then, the plot gives you enough information to be able to follow these characters through their arcs and struggles.

Back to XIII, for the prologue we're going to start off with Serah coming home and being greeted by Lightning. She's just gotten home for vacation from school and she's very happy to see her older sister. Lightning is of course Lightning and kind of shrugs her off and after dropping Serah off at their house, goes off on patrol because she's a military officer. Meanwhile the player is left with Serah to explore Bodham and reconnect with it's townsfolk some whom she'd known since she was a girl.

Here we have the first major divergence in the entire game. In the original, Lightning was presented as the main character, but her screen time was interrupted with Snow, Hope and Sazh's stories while she was main character in name only. As I said in my review, it's pretty confusing and only got worst in the sequel with Lightning supposedly being the main character when it was actually Serah.

Just pick a main character and stick with them.

Here, I'm going to have Serah as the main protagonist with Lightning as the Deuteragonist. Serah just has a lot more room for characterization and growth. From what little we can see of her in the original game, she's clearly mature, optimistic and caring as well as emotional. Though it should be noted that she's the younger sister and has just recently become a full adult. Theoretically, she would be inexperienced and naive as far as the way of the world works. This gives greater grounds for her beliefs and viewpoints to be challenged by what happens in the game. She'll be able to grow as both a woman and as a character while still having the same heart that she had at the beginning of the game. Again, I don't hate Lightning as the main character, but the original botched up her presentation and screentime and Serah simply has more potential as a lead character.

Eventually she comes across Snow with whom she's had a long-term and sometimes long distance relationship with. He's going to be largely the same as in the vanilla game except for a few changes. First off, he doesn't start off with that magic techno-jacket that gives him super strength, that will come later and secondly, he's actually received some form of hand-to hand training and is a black belt in "insert martial style here". Another change is that his role in NORA is more heavily emphasized here. In the game, Snow had recently formed it in rebellion against the Sanctum. But why? Were they just the neighborhood watch committee? Here, NORA is actually an underground resistance force dedicated to destroying L'Cie for reasons that I'll explain later and are portrayed negatively as a gang. But Serah knows all of the members in Snow's cell and since Snow hasn't told everything about what the organization does, she just seems them as a group of friends who train and hang out.

Speaking of training. Snow decides that he wants to see if Serah's training has laxed since going to school and Serah's accepts the challenge. Now we're going to have our first real battle in the game albeit as a tutorial. While Snow is a monk, Serah will have her play style from XII-2. It'll be explained that she's been trained in swordsmanship and self-defense by Lightning and had been practicing archery since her parents died. Hence why it will make sense for her to use a sword that can fold out into a bow.

As much as I'd like to personally scrap the entire gameplay paradigm of the game, it will stay. I'll explain every change that I make as I go along, but one key change is that the characters won't be restricted in which roles they can have. They'll start out with one role which will be their best one, but the rest are up to you. You'll even be able to mix and match to combine some roles together. For example: Snow is primarily a Guardian, but can also take ranks in Commando. If you level both up enough, then you'll be able to take abilities and skills that use both at the same time. Therefore, Snow can be a defensive Commando who tanks and absorbs enemy attacks so that he can deal it back in addition to his own power. Also, you'll actually be able to move in the battle arena which actually makes auto-battle useful and makes it so that you don't stupidly stand there while robots shoot giant lasers at your face.

After their spar, the two lovebirds have a friendly banter about the town and how much they missed each other. Eventually, the banter turns darker when Snow mentions that Sanctum has sent L'Cie to purge a city and most of the people were killed including non-rebels. He quickly tries to dismiss it and acts like he's not disturbed or intimidated, but Serah sees through the facade and assures Snow that everything will be okay in the end. Snow is genuinely encouraged and walks Serah back home where Lightning is waiting on the front porch with a loaded gunblade. 

It may seem like I'm making Lightning unfriendly here, but what would you think when you found your little sister walking through the night with the leader of a local gang? I'd probably be waiting for him too.

Snow sneaks in a kiss on Serah and gets the hell out of dodge while Lightning admonishes Serah for being too trusting. Serah doesn't back down from her older sister and the two them go inside to have an amiable, but cold dinner together. Lightning and Serah then have a discussion about NORA and that it's an enemy of the state. Serah isn't taking Lightning's warnings seriously because she's only known NORA connected to Snow and doesn't even know much about their activities. Lightning won't put up with it and reminds Serah that not taking State Warnings seriously is what got their parents killed. Then they get into a heated argument relating to Lightning not putting faith in anyone and how Serah's reliance on others will ensure bad things for her. It escalates until Serah is emotionally overwhelmed and goes to her room. Lightning meanwhile curses herself for being hard on her sister even if it's for her own good.

Here we have a character comparison between our two main leads and how they are both similar and different at the same time. Both are strong-willed in their beliefs, both are smart and strong, and both can be heavily emotional. But while Serah is naive and optimistic due to having mostly positive experiences so far in her life; Lightning is cold and realistic due to her experiences and having to grow up fast in order to look out for Serah. It also creates a dramatic strain between the two characters especially when the plot kicks in.

Before dawn, Lightning wakes up to head for work and finds Serah waiting to say bye. They have an awkward, but sincere reconciliation with Serah admitting that she should listen to Lightning and that she only wants to keep her promise to their parents. Lightning admits that she was hard on Serah since she just got back and wonders if her huge workload has been stressing her out. So the sisters hug, Serah promises to be more careful and Lightning sees about getting some time off so that she can spend it with Serah. Lightning reluctantly gives her blessing for Serah to see Snow, but to be careful for herself.

In higher spirits, Serah heads out to the beach to watch the dawn and then, a Fal'Cie appears to her. Having never seen a Fal'Cie before, Serah asks who the Fal'Cie is and it answers that it's name is ANIMA of the Pulse Fal'Cie.

Spotted another major change? The Fal'Cie can clearly talk. In the Original, it always bothered me on how it's presented that the Fal'Cie cannot talk in english because their thoughts are so above human comprehension. Then later, the party encounters two Fal'Cie who not only can talk, but had orchestrated the entire plot for their own grand suicide. After that revelation, I was asking myself whether the Fal'Cie actually could talk in general and why they didn't just tell the protagonists their focus since it was so important. 

So you know what? Just let them talk and make things simple.

Remember, we're simplifying the plot.

The Fal'Cie brands Serah with a tattoo on her shoulder and commands her to destroy Coccoon. Serah is naturally horrified by the command, but gets overwhelmed by a series of disjointed visions involving a creature called Ragnorok, Eden, a girl with pink hair and Coccoon crashing into Gran Pulse.

When she wakes up, she's clearly terrified by what just happened and that the tattoo is on her shoulder, clearly indicating that what she experienced was real. She sees a lingering image of ANIMA repeating it's command and then it disappears. Enter Snow, who was looking for Serah after she'd missed their date and is shocked to see her crying and the tattoo that's on her shoulder. Cause guess what? Serah is now a L'Cie and one of NORA's primary purposes is to destroy L'Cie.

Now for a major divergence in the background concerning the L'Cie and their focus. In the original, the nature of a L'Cie was pretty much idiotic. The Fal'Cie brand a mortal as a L'Cie and gives them hazy disjointed visions about what their focus is. If they complete the focus then they're crystallized forever, but if they don't then they're turned into zombie monsters known as Cie'th. The problem with this is that even if you accept the idea that only two Fal'Cie can talk, the L'Cie only possesses at most a fifty-fifty shot of doing exactly what the Fal'Cie had intended. It's like a guy broke into your house, gave you a slice of salami and a Twilight book and told you to hurry up or he'd kill you without even telling you what you're supposed to do. Of all of the multiple scenarios that you can think up under pressure, there is at most a fifty percent chance that it's the right one. Even if you do what you're supposed to do with the items, he just shoots you anyway!

Here, since the Fal'Cie can talk, then they can also tell the L'Cie their focus. But the key is that the disjointed visions will be the L'Cie's only clue as to how to complete that focus and if they don't do it in time, they become Cie'th. Furthermore, completing the focus will grant the L'Cie greater power and expanded longevity. This way, a Fal'Cie can encourage loyalty from the L'Cie and can even give them another focus which will further build their power when completed. It's a great system of empowering your slaves of fate, making it appear as though they are nigh unto gods, but at any moment a Fal'Cie can still give a seemingly impossible Focus to a L'Cie either because they are no longer useful or because they're becoming a threat. Also, the L'Cie can't tell anyone but other L'Cie about their focus.

Under this system of fate, several L'Cie have become a little drunk with power after completing a focus and often use their magical powers to dominate muggles. The reason that the Sanctum is so powerful in fact is because they use L'Cie as shock troopers, elite officers and apparently half of the upper ranks are comprised of L'Cie who've been sitting on political, executive and magical power because no else can stop them. Furthermore? Discovered L'Cie are required to either be taken to an anti-magic prison, to register and join the Sanctum, be exiled to Gran Pulse or be killed as an enemy of Cocoon.

  

So now realizing that the girlfriend that he was going to propose to is now his enemy, Snow is in a tight spot. He loves her, but she's dangerous to everyone around her because of her magical powers, not to mention when the Sanctum find out about her. So to test Serah, he decides to tell her about NORA's purpose and that's to kill L'Cie to keep them from destroying others, sometimes with ambush tactics that involve the usage of anti-magic rounds and equipment or assassination when the L'Cie is not prepared. Still emotionally overwhelmed, Serah asks Snow to kill her to keep her from endangering anyone else.

It turns out that Serah and Lightning's parents were killed by a rogue L'Cie. You see, the L'Cie wanted to kidnap Serah to keep her as his "pet". Lightning tried to stop him, but she was hit with a magical lightning bolt. Mom and dad attempted to fight him off while Claire (Lightning) took Serah and ran away. So the two girls get to safety and watch the L'Cie make short work of their parents before losing interest and leaving.

Serah's optimism is actually a coping mechanism for her that fails in the face of becoming the thing that tore her family apart. So she begs Snow to kill her before she takes away someones parents or becomes a true monster.

Instead he gives her a cooldown hug.

Snow admits that he had never seen a L'Cie up close before and now realizes that L'Cie is not a monster because their made into one, but because they choose to be one. So he promises to help Serah fulfill her focus no matter what it is. Serah tries to object, but Snow (who doesn't know that she's supposed to destroy the world) cuts her off with a kiss and restates that he'd be there for her no matter what. As a sign of this, Snow kneels down and proposes to Serah. She's completely shocked that Snow wants to be with her despite learning that she's a L'Cie, but happiness overwhelms her and gives her hope. So she accepts to the joy of both characters.

I know that I've spent a lot of time in the Prologue to where I'd might as well change this to Act I. First off, this wouldn't seem nearly as long in actual game time I hope and Two, this time is necessary to set up the Setting, the Story and the characters before the plot really kicks off. I liked the characters in the vanilla game, but the plot goes so fast that it doesn't leave any room for players to really connect with the characters and get to know them beyond their role in the plot. Here, we're getting to know these characters before the plot takes over. We see their personalities, relationships, responses to things, their hopes, their sadness and why we should care about them as people.

With this in mind, I've given a lot of screen time to Snow thus far. Some people think he's a hopeless idiot, but I think that's just a failure of presentation on the vanilla game. Here, he's clearly a realistic optimist whose also faced the bad stuff in life. But he also focuses on the positive and tries to ensure that things work out for the best. He was conflicted about Serah as a L'Cie, but upon realizing that she's the same girl that he loves, he decides to stick by her out of that love and makes it as clear as possible to Serah by proposing. When the plot starts, events will unfold that will challenge his dedication and like any good couple, they will clash. That's what lovebirds are supposed to do because their not in a perfect world.

Before they can figure out what to do though, Snow gets a warning from one of his NORA buddies. A Patrol of Sanctum rangers are in the area and they've threatened civilians at a local bar. Snow goes over to see what's going on, followed by Serah who refuses to leave his side. When they get there, they see PSICOM soldiers physically interrogating pedestrians on a recently detected burst of magic in the area. The rangers are led by a big-breasted woman with long black hair in a revealing outfit (It's Final Fantasy, what do you expect?) whose only source of modesty comes from a coat that she keeps wrapped around her hips. While our heroine and hidden NORA agents watch, the officer whom we'll call Not-Tifa for simplicity proceeds to break the barkeep's arm for not cooperating.

Serah can't take it anymore and fires a magical arrow from her blade bow that knocks the officer into the side of the bar. Snow orders NORA to attack and we get our first real battle in the game. Take your pick on who leads, Snow or Serah. That's right, you'll be able to pick your Party Leader at anytime and won't automatically lose if they get KO'd. In addition, each party leader will have their own strategem on how to conduct a battle to make it more diverse and interesting. For example, Snow as the leader will feature the characters being more willing to be close and up-personal with focus diverted to him while Serah takes potshots at enemies. When Serah leads, she'll be more cautious and defensive. The more you level up the characters, the more that you can customize this strategy tango depending on how you level up the characters.

The fight ensues and Serah and Snow manage to pretty much dominate the PSICOM troops through their own instinctive teamwork with Serah managing to get the hang of her magic powers. Soon all of the troops are taken care of except for the Officer who sweeps dust off of her melons and proceeds to grand slam Snow into the street and reveals that she's a L'Cie. The NORA agents piss themselves and only Serah is brave enough to fight her to save Snow. But even Serah is initially intimidated because remember the last L'Cie that she saw murdered her parents and they were accomplished military aces and this woman just stomped Snow into the pavement without even a sweat.

So it's Serah vs Not-Tifa in her first true fight. Not-Tifa is a martial fighting who enhances her fists and kicks with mana and can even block Serah's gunblade barehanded. Despite being new to her magical abilities, she's still able to use her training from her sister and the academy to hold her own and even robbed the officer of her modesty jacket and turn the tide of the battle in her favor. Said modesty Jacket is actually a military-issue power amplifier that grants it's wearer increased lifting strength and striking power. Snow takes the jacket, figures out what it is and puts it on while Serah and Not-Tifa are going at it in a lethal catfight. Finally Serah manages to win, but stops short of killing Not-Tifa who takes advantage of Serah's hesitation to fire a Firaga straight into her chest. While Serah goes flying, Snow gets pissed and gets even with the exhausted Not-Tifa and throws her so hard that she smashes in a heavy truck when she impacts.

The above scene is important because we get our first glimpse at our main bad guy. A foreshadowing into just how truly cruel they really are and exactly why NORA and the general populace is scared of L'Cie. In keeping with the vanilla, this is a world dominated by science and technology. So when you have this ubber badass who can snap his fingers and use his witchcraft to set a building on fire or stop bullets in midair with his mind or summon demons from hell that wield swords forged in the fires of their own power...you'll be terrified, they'd seem nigh unto gods to you wouldn't they? Sure, muggles have invented anti-magical equipment and science equipment to counter these magical pwnlords, but the pwnlords can access this equipment too as demonstrated by Not-Tifa using the magic strength-enhancing coat to amplify her abilities on top of her powers of arcane magic from being a L'Cie and completing several Focuses.

The officer's clearly dead of course, but Snow could care less about that or that he's taken her omni-fit power jacket as his own trophy. His fiancee's badly hurt and needs medical attention. Luckily, the fight got the attention of the local Guardian Corps security force who arrive just as the NORA agents have disappeared into their secret network. Snow turns himself in for questioning while Serah gets medical treatment. They're reunited and brought before Captain Amodar, Lightning's superior and a level-headed veteran of a past war. Amodar reveals that he knows about Snow's involvement in NORA, but decides to let him go since he was acting in response to PSICOM brutality and due to a lack of concrete evidence that NORA was even involved at all. Turns out that he personally doesn't like PSICOM and is happy that NORA intervened before any civilians were killed. Though he assures the two that no charges will be pressed, he's not sure about what will happen when the Sanctum finds out that one of their most prestigious officers was killed.

Now hit with the reality of possible consequences, Serah chooses to reveal everything to Lightning despite Snow's understandable fear of Serah's older sister. This is a personal peeve, but in the vanilla game, Lightning somehow refuses to believe Serah about being a L'Cie despite the glowing tattoo....I don't know but that always seemed stupid to me. Here, Lightning believes Serah's story and had received a message from Amodar. Lightning tells Serah that she needs to register with the Sanctum before they take her by force, but since this means becoming a soldier Serah objects. Serah has seen what PSICOM really is and how they use their L'Cie and doesn't want to become like them. Lightning tries to assure her that not all L'Cie are used as soldiers and that this is the only way to save herself. Serah continues to object and Lightning gets pissed, despite Snow's attempts to bring peace, the sisters get into another fight which culminates in Serah screaming that she doesn't want to be a monster like the one that killed their parents. Lightning smacks Serah and shouts back that if she doesn't think beyond herself then she will. Serah loses it and hits Lightning with a mana-enhanced punch that wrecks the house.

Since Lightning's a badass with an Anti-Gravity coat (We'll get into that later), she shrugs it off and goes on this tirade about what happens to rogue L'Cie and how they're weaker than trained ones. Serah won't back down and says that she'll find a way to fix this even without her help because she has Snow and they're getting married. Now Lightning loses all patience and says something along these lines.

"I try to keep a promise, but no! My sister wants to be a rogue L'Cie and run away with the local bad boy until she turns into a Cie'th. Yeah...worst birthday ever."

Serah feels terrible not only because her sister is seemingly turning against her, but because she'd forgotten about Claire's birthday. She runs out of the house, Snow follows and leaves Lightning to quietly weep in place about the mess that everything is in. Serah goes with Snow to the NORA hideout where the members accept Serah because they knew her from childhood, but still keep an eye on her L'Cie powers. She confides in Snow that maybe she's being selfish after and maybe the best thing to do is to turn herself in. Snow doesn't want her to give up hope of course and then asks her if she has any clue about her Focus.

Snow is asking because he wants to help Serah, but his question just reminded the poor girl of her focus in the first place. Again, she can't reveal it, but she mutters is a vision about Eden and a bumbling girl with pink hair, but doesn't mention anything about Ragnorok or Cocoon. Still, she takes comfort from Snow's assurance of his promise and they decide to head to Eden the next day before sleeping together (Not sexually, this is a T-rated game after all).

The next morning, shit hits the fan.

PSICOM has launched a full-on surprise attack personally led by their Commander Jihl Nabaat and NORA ends up on the losing side of this battle. PSICOM is deploying tanks, mecha, jet-soldiers, heavily armed soldiers, and L'Cie Shock Commandos. Overkill much? As Jihl herself explains, that officer that Snow and Serah killed had been sent there in search of a source of detected magic...something that only happens when a L'Cie is branded. Since the officer's dead, it can only mean that the L'Cie killed her and the town is hiding the L'Cie if they haven't reported anything.

The NORA branch in Bodhum tries to fight back, but they're no match for the massive and swift assault that's unfolding and most of them get slaughtered. Think of it as similar to that scene in a New Hope when the Rebels first fight the Empire and the Rebels get massacred. Now we see the true and un-hidden power of our antagonists and the lengths that they will go for their goals.

Another major change here is that Jihl Nabaat is introduced much earlier in the story and will have more of a lasting impact on said story. In the Vanilla game, she doesn't do anything until midway through and then she's insultingly tossed aside for the reveal of the "true" villain. So much wasted potential...why was she even in this game if that was how you would treat her?

Another series of fights ensues with Serah so desperate that doesn't realize that she's actually killing troops until she stabs her sword through the chest of a teenage L'Cie who was actually helping a comrade. The L'Cie begs for her life before dying and her troops attack Serah. Serah gets a second beserker wind and burns the troops alive. Looking at the blood on her blade and her hands, she realizes that everything that has happened was her fault. Against Snow's objections, Serah runs out to the PSICOM troops and reveals herself as the L'Cie.

Serah apologizes to everyone, but then Lightning comes forward and reveals herself as the L'Cie in an attempt to take the fall for Serah. Jihl knows that Serah's the real L'Cie because an inside agent had already revealed it to her, but goes along with Lightning's fib anyway as an added bonus of humiliating the Guardian Corps. Jihl promises that Serah won't be harmed if she surrenders and Lightning agrees. Serah is put into cuffs and taken into "protective custody" just to be safe and once both sisters are in custody and accounted for, Jihl orders the purge to continue. The sisters break out of their restraints and try to stop her, but Jihl easily and quickly dispatches both sisters with her rapier. Lightning is taken to solitary confinement to await court martial for false testimony and being an accomplice to a rogue Fal'Cie while Serah's held in place and forced to watch as her home town is destroyed.

Now you see why Jihl's around? She's the Dragon of our Antagonists, the face and figurehead of everything that the main characters oppose. You know what else? Our main heroines have a personal reason to want to stop this bitch, she destroyed their home and killed hundreds of people, some of whom were the only remaining ties to family. Lightning tried to take her sister's place and got called on her bluff while Serah owned up to save her home, but PSICOM is destroying it anyway.

As the Prologue ends, Serah's taken into a train with Jihl to be interrogated about her Focus; Snow is MIA at the moment; and Lightning is placed into solitary confinement on another train guarded by friendly mercenary with a baby chocobo in his afro. He slips her a key and mutters something about scratching each other's backs to which Lightning smirks and the trains start on their paths....

This going to be longer than I thought, but I hope that this seems even slightly more interesting than the vanilla game. But join me in Part 2 and we'll see just how far the butterfly effect can go.