[Phoenix Gamma]

Started up Final Fantasy XIII today. I've been real pumped ever since I got to try the demo way back last year.

They did a fantastic job localizing. Lots of subtleties in the dialog, lips have been reanimated, etc. Vanille's voice is really fucking weird, though. I mean, I guess it suits her super bubbly personality, but the choice of accent is beyond me. Everyone else is stellar, though.

Love the cast. I didn't think I'd like Sazh, but he's turning out to be pretty cool. Sometimes he's a little too "smart alec black man", but for the most part, he's alright. Even Lightning shows hints of likableness during the game's flashbacks, prior to when she cranked the emo level up to "Cloud Strife". Snow's the man, though. Total bro, totally pumped to beat the shit out of dudes and protect everyone. I like go-getter heroes. Hope's a fucking loser, though. Seriously.

Combat's pretty rad, but confusing as hell, and once you get used to it, it takes a long time for them to introduce something else. I wish they would highlight targets a little better, since spacing out area attacks is pretty important. No complaints about linearity; every jRPG is linear as fuck, this game just takes out the bullshit wandering.

So yea, really cool, bit of a slow start, but fun once you get used to juggling all the different systems.