Week 6 Blog

While this first picture shows a very texturized and flashy look at what this game (Final Fantasy XIII) might play like in battle when it is bought by many FF series fans, the design of the interface doesn't help a gamer understand how to make it all happen. Much of the stress in the interface causes the gamer to look at the corners of the screen which appears as something that looks like a map and another circular gauge meter type thing on the top left and right of the screen shot. A map you may be able to understand intuitively but, traditionally in this game genre (RPG), maps are not the most necessary thing when it comes to a fight/battle. It may even sound ridiculous to one who has not the least bit of interest in this type of game to hear about reading a map in battle. Secondly, the gauge or meter isn't even labeled as complex as it looks. Looking near the bottom of the picture, more of the interface is displayed. A list of actions are scrolled on the bottom left diagonally in what order, I'm unsure of. It is missing a hierarchy, being group together in a seemingly random order. In the middle of the bottom interface, there seems to be the possibility of chaining actions, it must correspond to the color of the action selected in the random list of abilities. The last two of the chain action interface is empty but how is one to know whether or not they can enter another two abilities or not? Lastly, the amount of health the player has is shown as just a number, not a fraction to show how much in total, next to another number labeled ATB then there is a green bar on top of these numbers. Maybe the bar corresponds to health or ATB but its a little hard to tell.

There is a waste of stress toward the two items on the top, and no order to the bottom where one is supposed to choose actions to function. On top of that, important information about the character is cluttered to the bottom right.


In this second image, displayed is a newer concept of the battle system interface. The map is gone, and the gauge that was on the top right has been simplified. Along with the simplification is some added meaning with the numbers and words "Bonus" and "chain." Perfect to fix what was wrong with the old interface. The functional interface on the bottom has changed as well. The clutter of information has been split in to the left and right helping balance out the overload of information in one enclosed space. The action interface has a certain order and the ATB number seems to have been replaced with a much more simple design of whole single digit numbers as opposed to the hundreds and tens used in the old interface. There is even some depth to show difference of grouping that there are abilities to choose from outside the bracket of abilities indicated with a hand.

images from: http://xbox360.qj.net/Comparing-the-old-and-new-Final-Fantasy-XIII-battle-interface/pg/49/aid/127767
http://static.gamesradar.com/images/mb//GamesRadar/us/Games/F/Final%20Fantasy%20XIII/Bulk%20Viewers/PS3/FFXIII_battle1--screenshot_large.jpg