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FFXIII-2's Academia 4xx is one of the coolest 'large cities' in gaming

signal

signal

Member
Oct 28, 2017
40,184
Large futuristic cities anyway. It's not even that explorable but the sense of scale is great. The amount of huge buildings in the distance and the constant flying cars and the relatively high number of NPCs makes it really feel huge IMO. Some FFVIII / FFX Spira aesthetics on the signage as well (whatever that style of FF visuals is called) makes it kind of able to fit into those worlds if they were more 3D. Maybe it's actually Zanarkand
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I remember liking XIII-2 (more than XIII anyway) but this is basically the only part of the game I remember. Thought it was cool then, and still do!! Ironically, Academia 400 AF is probably the worst part of the game. Do not discuess 400 AF.
 
CoinStarDX

CoinStarDX

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
629
They finally made an HD Town!
I think FFXIII-2 is superior to XIII by a wide margin in terms of game and world design. I even thought the story was okay for what it was. Solid game all around really.
 
McScroggz

McScroggz

The Fallen
Jan 11, 2018
5,971
Gonna have to respectfully disagree. The aesthetics are pretty bland mix of the neon lighting and over abundance of buildings that's pretty common in sci-fi. Not only that, the oddly narrow pathways and restrictiveness of it all rubs me the wrong way. Insomnia isn't incredible, but I think it's definitely better than this. And Altissia is genuinely great.
 
Horned Reaper

Horned Reaper

Member
Nov 7, 2017
1,560
I actually prefer cities like these where there's not that much actual traversable area over fully mapped out cities that in reality only have a few dozen citizens living in them.
 
FreeMufasa

FreeMufasa

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
1,375
Gotta get around to finishing it. I remember liking it.

I think I stopped cos the time travelling shit was confusing the hell out of me
 
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signal

signal

Member
Oct 28, 2017
40,184
McScroggz said:
Gonna have to respectfully disagree. The aesthetics are pretty bland mix of the neon lighting and over abundance of buildings that's pretty common in sci-fi. Not only that, the oddly narrow pathways and restrictiveness of it all rubs me the wrong way. Insomnia isn't incredible, but I think it's definitely better than this.
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Reported for disagreement. Is Insomnia from XV? Never played but also never seen how that city looked in game. I remember the concept art being obscenely good but doubt it looks like that lol.

And I guess some of it is kind of tropey, but I still think a true sense of verticality in a city is an extremely rare thing in games. Might be common in scifi and cyberpunk in particular but I can't think of many games that do it well. And if they do, it's maybe overly cyberpunk in a dystopian sense.
 
Oreiller

Oreiller

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,831
It's empty and boring to explore though, unfortunately. It's pretty but I heavily dislike having to go there.
 
McScroggz

McScroggz

The Fallen
Jan 11, 2018
5,971
signal said:
Reported for disagreement. Is Insomnia from XV? Never played but also never seen how that city looked in game. I remember the concept art being obscenely good but doubt it looks like that lol.

And I guess some of it is kind of tropey, but I still think a true sense of verticality in a city is an extremely rare thing in games. Might be common in scifi and cyberpunk in particular but I can't think of many games that do it well. And if they do, it's maybe overly cyberpunk in a dystopian sense.
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Insomnia and Altissia are from XV.

Think about Academia like this: the concept is a sprawling megatropolis that likely kept building up and up because of lack of room to expand outward. That's fine as a concept. But the limitations of development and hardware does not emphasize the sort of overcrowding you would expect. There aren't a bunch of people walking up stairs while people of privilege are able to take the quick and convenient escalators. The neon signs are there, but it doesn't feel super gaudy as if it's a desperate attempt for store owners to bring people into their shop as opposed to the dozens of similar shops. It doesn't even seem that different than some places like in Tokyo. The buildings are all pristine and a white/light grey tone, with no personality. In a city so crowded and with such tight spaces surely it would be difficult to maintain cleanliness. I could go on and on with examples like this.

The point is the city seems very superficial, and that it relies on common tropes to convey the futuristic setting amplifies the artificiality. So to do the countless walkways and escalators. It doesn't feel like a cohesive part of a real city, but rather a basic sci-fi city that Square Enix didn't have the time, resources or desire to make into an actual open world or semi-open space, so they crafted a bunch of corridors and smaller areas almost randomly connected and put a fairly basic backdrop to make it feel bigger and more open than it is.

By the way Altissia is like a pseudoscience, Final Fantasy version of Venice, Italy. It does that tightly constrained city better and which a truly awesome design and aesthetic. So I'm not disparaging Academia just because it has a lot of corridors.
 
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signal

signal

Member
Oct 28, 2017
40,184
McScroggz said:
Insomnia and Altissia are from XV.

Think about Academia like this: the concept is a sprawling megatropolis that likely kept building up and up because of lack of room to expand outward. That's fine as a concept. But the limitations of development and hardware does not emphasize the sort of overcrowding you would expect. There aren't a bunch of people walking up stairs while people of privilege are able to take the quick and convenient escalators. The neon signs are there, but it doesn't feel super gaudy as if it's a desperate attempt for store owners to bring people into their shop as opposed to the dozens of similar shops. It doesn't even seem that different than some places like in Tokyo. The buildings are all pristine and a white/light grey tone, with no personality. In a city so crowded and with such tight spaces surely it would be difficult to maintain cleanliness. I could go on and on with examples like this.

The point is the city seems very superficial, and that it relies on common tropes to convey the futuristic setting amplifies the artificiality. So to do the countless walkways and escalators. It doesn't feel like a cohesive part of a real city, but rather a basic sci-fi city that Square Enix didn't have the time, resources or desire to make into an actual open world or semi-open space, so they crafted a bunch of corridors and smaller areas almost randomly connected and put a fairly basic backdrop to make it feel bigger and more open than it is.

By the way Altissia is like a pseudoscience, Final Fantasy version of Venice, Italy. It does that tightly constrained city better and which a truly awesome design and aesthetic. So I'm not disparaging Academia just because it has a lot of corridors.
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Well even if superficial, I think it manages to pull off visuals that few others do. It is a bit corridor-y outside the grand avenue and entrance but I think the scale is good at times. And the superficial aspects you mentioned seem to be present in many game cities no matter the size.

It's definitely nothing like Tokyo though!!
 
pleaseinsertdisctwo

pleaseinsertdisctwo

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
14,991
100% agree. The 400af version was even more phenomenal.

Too bad the console version of the game ran like ass and Academia was a slideshow
 
Nooblet

Nooblet

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,624
I loved it, it's still my fabourite JRPG town. Plus the music is great. I just wish there was a bit more to do there. Atleast it has a lot of story sequences.

Railgun said:
It really was awesome, loved it at night and in the rain. Looks great at 4K on Xbox One X

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It'd have been nice if this was freeroam area like the previous one but going through it was such a slog due to the enemy spawn rate.
 
Foot

Foot

Member
Mar 10, 2019
10,841
I want the XIII trilogy on the Switch. 2 didn't run properly on my PC, and I have no other way to play them!
 
Keym

Keym

The Fallen
Oct 26, 2017
9,191
Eh it looked fine, but it was still a bunch of interconnected hallways with nothing in them.
 
HiroTSK5

HiroTSK5

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 4, 2017
572
signal said:
Wiped the night version from my memory due to trauma but this does look nice.
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Probably where I spent the most time, the Cie'th give great experience at pretty much all points in the story and probably my favorite track in that game plays in the background both in and out of battles:

 
Illusion

Illusion

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
8,407
It was definitely my favorite level in the game, especially it's dark world counterpart in another timeline. I grinded there simply for the aesthetics.
 
Claude Augario

Claude Augario

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,990
I actually just platinum'd XIII-2 this week. 400 AF looks even better but fuck all those spawning cie'th. I probably killed the entire population just getting from one end of the city to the other.

Academia 500 AF isn't as fun to look at/explore but it did give us this track:



But you know what? Fuck the Proto-Behemoth too. Academia seems to be a breeding ground for asshole encounters.
 
Dice

Dice

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,225
Canada
I love it, I always get lost in the level of detail of the place... loved the music too, perfect fit

 
Anas

Anas

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
914
I'd like to thank SE for giving us 13-2
such an underrated game
Serah and Mog are more likeable than the whole XIII's crew
 

Deleted member 49535

User requested account closure
Banned
Nov 10, 2018
2,825
The fact that you can only enter a single building and there's almost nothing to do there, no people to talk to, no nothing, makes it feel small and empty for me.
 
Cascadero

Cascadero

Member
Nov 8, 2017
1,526
As much as I liked this game, Academia to me mostly felt like an empty city with loads of walkways. Enjoyed the music though.
 
SlickVic

SlickVic

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,949
USA
That looks pretty cool. I'm a bit of a sucker for 'futuristic cities' and setting in games, so I think I'd enjoy exploring that. Reminds me that I never got around to playing XIII-2, despite liking XIII more than most. Think I kept waiting for the PC version to drop to $5 and just lost track of it.
 

Tarantism

Member
Nov 8, 2017
361
Lightning Returns deserves praise for its towns and villages over 13-2 in my opinion.

The fact that Lightning Returns main story revolves around helping nps out gives a good framework to throw in charming vignettes and little bits of characterisation.

If you're talking purely aesthetics then yeah, there were some obvious compromises on that front compared to the first two games. But overall the world felt a lot more lively.
 
Bulebule

Bulebule

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,803
I was impressed by it at first, but then there's nothing much to do and outside of aesthetics there aren't many activities. The time where you are fighting enemies is nice but the encounter rate is too high (although fights are not hard).
 
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signal

signal

Member
Oct 28, 2017
40,184
SlickVic said:
That looks pretty cool. I'm a bit of a sucker for 'futuristic cities' and setting in games, so I think I'd enjoy exploring that. Reminds me that I never got around to playing XIII-2, despite liking XIII more than most. Think I kept waiting for the PC version to drop to $5 and just lost track of it.
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Honestly not that much to explore. A video does it justice mostly lol.
 
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