Suskie's Final Fantasy XIII review

Slight typo here:

. . .and Lighting (ugh) is the sort of stoic and valiant protagonist. . .

Also, if this doesn't win ROTW for frocobo, then I'll have lost all hope in humanity.

Thanks for the catch. Frocobo4ever.

I didn't have time to fully engage myself in the review, due to what we call a "salty" schedule in the film world, but this paragraph caught my eye because it's awesome:

"Most of the cast is disappointingly one-note as well, and you could probably surmise much about each of them based on their appearances and physical mannerisms alone: Vanille is a perky, overly effeminate pile of squeals, Snow has a popped collar, Hope (or Destiny or Inspiration or whatever his name is) singularly defines “angsty” in a genre where that word crops up too frequently already, and Lightning (ugh) is the sort of stoic and valiant protagonist – with caged emotions! – that doesn’t work nearly as well now that Lost Odyssey has so brilliantly deconstructed that archetype. Only Szszzhzh resonates as someone genuinely relatable, which is odd, considering he’s a black guy with a chocobo living in his fro (a frocobo if you will). With the game having a safe 40 hours for character development, I was hoping the cast would surprise me and rise above their generic outward appearances, but that didn’t happen. Oh, what’s that, Lightning? You call yourself that because you don’t want people to know your real name? Piss off."

Lightning totally needs to piss off.

I liked Lightning.

I was really intrigued by the line about Lost Odyssey deconstructing that character archetype. I haven't played it, can you elaborate a bit on that?

Sure. The main character of Lost Odyssey is immortal and has lived for around a thousand years. He inhabits the typical role of the quiet, stoic, non-talkative protagonist, which initially turned me off, but as you play, various vital memories are triggered in his mind. They don't relate to the central story, and they're presented as text on a painted background, with no visuals, no voice acting, and only the slightest hint of a score. I really can't do justice to how beautifully these scenes are executed or how well they're written, but they're touching, surprising and often devastating. It's the calming, almost sobering plainness of their presentation that makes them work so well.

Kaim (as he's called) isn't really bitter, angsty or antisocial; he's just a man who's lived a thousand years and has endured far too much for anything to greatly affect or move him anymore, which isn't to say he's an emotionless brick, but that he's already carrying quite a lot of weight. I've seen plenty of JRPGs use this archetype, but few, if any, that really explore that mindset. It usually seems like a lazy shortcut, i.e. using a stock character and then throwing in some contrived explanation for it late in the game. Kaim, on the other hand, is perfectly characterized. I sympathized with him more than I have for 99% of the RPG characters I've seen.

I'll have to pick that one up some time - and a 360 to go with it.

I, too, was sad to miss that one.