Project Space

The game that i chose for the fulfillment of project space will be Final Fantasy 13 which falls under the genre of RPG's although the game also exists in the Xbox 360 console, the one i played was the version for PlayStation 3. Among the many reasons i chose to talk about this game is the fact that this game has managed to fascinate me in terms of spectacular visual graphics, amazing and complex story line, long hours of game play, character depth and best of all strategic battle like many other RPG genre's. The Final Fantasy series is well known for having a large dedicated fans around the globe ever since its release, the Japanese game developer Squaresoft has really captured the hearts of many avid RPG fans and many first timers all around the world through this hugely successful sequels with each game having a totally different gameplay, characters and worlds. For those unfamiliar with the RPG genre RPG'S in general uses the third person control as you control the main protagonist of the game in interacting with the world around her so the player feels as though they have a certain degree of freedom in exploring the world within the video game itself.

The story of this game revolves around a floating world suspended in the skies called Cacoon which itself was built by a god like beings called the Fal'cie which provided a safe haven for all its inhabitants from a dangerous and mysterious world bellow called Pulse. Both Cacoon and Pulse itself is managed by their own respective Fal'cies. The people of Cacoon live in constant fear of Pulse and the inhabitants of the world bellow and due to this epidemic paranoia the central government ordered to expel any Cacoon residents out of Cacoon to pulse whenever they ares suspected to have any direct or indirect contact with anything living o an object from pulse this policy is called the Purge. The Falci'e itself from both worlds are in constant  conflict with one another since they cannot interfere in the mortal world directly they brand random people to be their unwilling servants in their war with one another called La'cie these people have a choice of either fulfilling their mission which will turn them into crystal of eternal sleep or loose their mind and become zombie like creatures called Cieth if they were to fail or disobey within the time limit given for specific tasks its an unfair die or die situation. The protagonist of this game is a female soldier/ agent called Lightning and her comrades all citizens of cacoons journey to fulfill the task given to them unwillingly by the Pulse Lac'ie before they turn into Cieth and a battle against the central government of cacoon who wishes to anihalate her and her comrades for being contaminated by a being from Pulse. The story could be summed up as these protagonists struggle for hope against all odds to live. I would describe the story as a mixture of melodramatic story telling with an epic plot some characters have memorable personalities and some could be downright annoying in terms of attitude and the characters voice overs but overall i liked the how the developer develops each character with a distinct and personality within the game and how they all play a role for this story to reach its climax.

Playing RPG's overall would be considered a time consuming experience since you have to spend most of the time in front of the tv set so playing these games will in many cases take a great degree of your time. since RPG's in general focus of the game lies on the story line and overall plot you really need a certain degree of concentration when playing this game so a room where you wont be disturbed is advisable. In regards to consoles you need either a Xbox 360 or a Playstation 3 and a HD television too really appreciate the stunning visual graphics the developer made for this game. The experience itself could be described as visually mesmerizing as you are quickly absorbed to the stunning graphics and a fast paced story. Personally one could spend hours just by playing this game because like most great RPG's the moment you begin playing, you'l find it very hard to stop hence the time consuming issue, youl be anxious to find out how the story will progress and how will it reach its climax. So once again it is recommended to play RPG's if you have a significant amount of free time or risk being to absorbed into the game to worry about anything else.

This particular game uses a lot of space manipulations in terms how the character progressed through their world. Although this game gives the gamer a sense of freedom to explore the world the game can be felt as somewhat linear whereas your suppose to play the game and progress through the world in a certain way in order to beat the game. The world seems so open and plains and cities looks vast and explorable however on the contrary your movement is really limited and you can only interact with the world in a sense if going to and exploring a particular space is needed in order to progress through the story. Another important limitations to the game is also the fact that some places are not accessible although visually there as you made your way through the game for example entering houses when in cities or exploring mountains although its there on the map, i would describe this kind of gaming program as controlled freedom since it looks as though the game developers tends to focus more on the story line and the amazing graphics than the map exploring aspect of the game. Another spatial aspect of this game would be the interaction with people, treasure chests and items within the map where actions can be triggered only if you pressed the x button so basically if there are no action commands although the item is there on the map you cant do nothing to interact with that particular object.

 

Another important aspect to be discussed in terms of space is the enemy encounter or boss battles whereas in battles seem to follow a specific pattern within this game where actions is limited to specific commands and actions that a character can use such as melee attacking, long range magic and summoning creatures to battle with the main protagonist, defensive abilities and character aiding abilities where your suppose to pick as the battles progresses the enemy will still continue to attack even though your initiating your actions so picking the right tactic and battle strategy for each battle is essential for beating the game, this will require gamers to try a combination of tactics which works well for particular enemies so there is a deep strategical battle within this game which gamers are required to master. Enemy battles are done by approaching an  enemy and making contact with it where players will imidiately transferred into a different screen shot reserved exclusively for battles, the battle will take place in that specific map although the area that your'e allowed to travel will be only that particular area or limited amount of space even though visually the characters looks as though their battling freely within the map but apparently that's not the case. This will make many gamers feel that the battle scenes are a bit monotonous and very predictable with no specific degrees of variations either than tactical manipulation compared to other games where one engages the enemy directly.

The obstacles you will face as you progressed through this game is the numerous amounts of enemies that your'e going to encounter as you progressed throughout the game and particular maps. As the story progresses the enemies that your'e likely to encounter gets stronger so it is up to the players to train and level the characters by frequently encountering enemies in order to level up characters allowing them to have new and better skills and better battle statistics. Boss encounters will force you to level up before battling them in order to win since boss battle can last for hours without the right strategy so in order for people to beat the game the obstacle lies in the fact that players must spend hours and hours in particular maps in order to level up and get stronger in order to beat the boss of that particular map in order for the story to progress.  Overall there's no big difference between normal enemy encounters and boss battles where the aspect of space is concerned just the same battle scene with various commands and a claustrophobic sense of battling limited only to a certain space. Another specific feature of this game is that you also need to equip your characters with the right combination of armor and weapons in order to battle efficiently.

Overall playing Final Fantasy 13 has been an amazing experience since i consider myself a fan of the final fantasy series and was dying to get the PlayStation 3 ever since its release and i was left satisfied. Although fans protested in the linearity of the map exploration and storyline compared to the previous Final Fantasy's calling it as only good eye candy i would have to disagree. The developer SquareSoft has proven again and again that it is always original and continuously experiment on new things making all the sequels alive you can always expect something new when playing new final fantasy games as i played some of the previous sequels from ps, ps2 and now ps3. If your'e looking for a stunning RPG experience or like to learn more about this particular genre Final Fantasy for me comes highly recommended. The sheer complexity and details put into this game is like no other western based games i have played before and that itself what makes Japanese RPG's a world wide phenomenon with such a huge fan base. Im also astounded by the orchestral music that the developers put in various battles and map progression its like no other game i had played before! Im not much of a gamer but Final Fantasy always manages to capture my heart im always looking forward what squaresoft has in store next!

Heres the opening trailler for Final Fantasy 13