Journal: Assassin’s Creed Revelations & Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions
Since the last post, I’ve beaten Assassin’s Creed Revelations and am currently on my 6th or 7th playthrough of Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions.
First, ACRev.
Let me say that I enjoy the series. I’ve played every major entry, seen the short films and even own the comics.
In ACII, I completed everything, 100%’ing the game. In AC Brootherhood, I nearly did and in ACRev, I had no desire to at all and didn’t experience certain facets of the game. I didn’t want to go collect memory fragments and searching out scrolls/papers/books wasn’t for me. The story is still pretty good with a similar cliffhanger ending that was in Brotherhood but I felt an overall less connection with the characters. Though you hear their voices, and this is partially due to the story, you never exist in “the real world” and spend your whole time in the re-lived world of Desmond’s brain. You meet another assassin and at the end, he perishes yet much like Gears of War, I didn’t feel anything. In AC Brotherhood, I actually felt something when you stabbed Lucy. It wasn’t the death of Aeris/Aerith but it was emotional.
Bombs and bomb-crafting is introduced and they’re a neat feature. There are a variety of bombs and for the completionist, there are a myriad of things to do with them, and everything else but again, the process of learning how to meld, mold, and ultimately create each different type seemed tedious. Later in the game, when money became less of an issue, I would just end up buying them to satisfy my needs for them.
The environment running is similar to previous games, though there are the added mini-game (which you can choose to partake in or not of defending a stronghold). Zip lines are a clever addition but for someone so familiar with the series, it was more of the same.
Ultimately, that was the feeling I had through a vast majority of the game. Like I’ve done this before, to some extent. While there are new battle animations, seemingly it hasn’t changed all that much since ACII. Admittedly, everything looks brilliant, sharp and the new locales are stunning.
The story does hold up well for fans of the universe and saying what I have above, there are missions/tasks that were a change of pace and quite nice. Either certain assassinations, the before mentioned mini-games made me reminiscent of guarding Fort Condor in Final Fantasy 7 and while I haven’t tried the multilayer yet, the overall single player experience is “worth it”.
Did I enjoy the overall experience? Yes. Will I buy the next entry in the series? Yes. Was I frustrated at times and not interested at certain times in the game? Yes.
Ubisoft makes amazing games and it makes me ponder how tough it must be to make the game a good experience for players such as myself, who have at one point in time enveloped themselves within the game’s universe but also making that experience appealing and welcoming to newcomers.
Now, on to Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions.
Let me say that this entry is perhaps one of my favorite games of all time. I’ve played it many times before but wanted to revisit it. I enjoy Ramza’s struggle. The leveling up of “jobs” and “job trees” is not new but works effectively.
With added cutscenes, story elements (including reworked dialogue) and characters, it really is a great experience but there is a “rub” that has always concerned me.
Much like other Final Fantasy games, there is an element of “leveling up” where you go fight random battles in order to make your squad better. When solely based on the PS1 (as was the original) it kind of stunk. I was stuck in front of my TV doing nothing but that. Since it has gone mobile (as it is now on PSP and the iPad) I can take this and level up my squad ‘on the go’, coming back to it when I want, which doesn’t make it feel as bad of an experience. Such as people feel with FPS games, where they can “boot up and relax” (which I do with Gears 3 or WipEout HD/Fury).
Artistically, mechanically, and in every RPG facet that I can think of, the game flourishes. The story is not a hair-brained way out there one. If you choose to embrace the plot-line, it’s one of the better stories in an RPG and very Shakespearean at that.
Currently I’m level 42 with Ramza and have a long way to go but I’ll stick with it before I jump into my next gaming endeavor (Dark Souls or CastlevaniaL Lords of Shadow).
//images from their respective Wikipedia pages
