Since the North American release of Final Fantasy 12 in October 2006, fans of Square Enix‘s golden child series have waited eagerly for the game’s 13th full installment, and it’s first for this generation. Having purchased every Final Fantasy upon it’s release since Final Fantasy VII in 1997, I was highly anticipating XIII more than any other upcoming game since it’s announcement. But does it live up to the hype? Yes and no.

Rating: T for Teen
Players: 1
Genre: JRPG
System: PS3
Publisher: SquareEnix
Release Date: March 9, 2010
Final Fantasy XIII

BUY

While I really enjoyed XIII and found it to be a remarkable game in many aspects, and I still consider it a front runner of quality RPGs this generation, there are still some facets of it that I felt could have been better or more developed than they were. Especially considering the length of time it took to create the game, while I appreciate some innovation I felt it also should have retained at least slightly more of the original formula that made the franchise such a success in the first place.

Final Fantasy XIII opens with our protagonist (and by far one of my favorites in the series to date) Lightning, aboard a Purge train transporting anyone who may be a L’Cie out of the town’s major city, Cocoon to the dangerous wilds of Pulse. I greatly enjoyed the game’s story, but it feels a bit rushed in the beginning as many new concepts and story elements are thrown your way very quickly. Some things are introduced in such quick succession, it becomes hard to keep track of at the very beginning until the story softens it’s pacing a bit. Cocoon is the game’s major modern city, and save haven which floats high in the sky above the less “civilized” world of Pulse. The citizens of Cocoon live in fear of Pulse, and under the possible threat of invasion. Centuries before the game takes place, Cocoon and Pulse were at war with each other, due to the will of god like entities known as Fal’Cie. Fal’Cie mark humans to help them achieve their goals, branding them as L’Cie, and giving them a focus they are forced to fulfill. Failing to fulfill this focus will transform them into a monster–or rather, a Cieth. When Lightning and the others arrive at the Pulse Vestige for various reasons between them like rescuing Serah [Lightning's sister and Snow's fiance], they are branded L’Cie by the Fal’Cie Anima. They are given a brief inkling of the focus they’re expected to fulfill. Their journey begins, and they work together hoping to understand their focus, and to decide for themselves– to follow their own path or to follow the orders of the Fal’Cie.

XIII is simply put, an incredibly rendered game. It displays in full 1080p and easily one of the top games that made me really appreciate my 37″ HD 1080p Vizio TV. The frame rates and textures are consistently amazing, and the FMVs are some of the most beautiful I’ve seen in any game to date. Square Enix definitely wanted to push Blu-Ray to it’s limits, and it really shows. So many of the game’s environments are some of my favorites across any Final Fantasy game ever, including the frozen Lake Bresha, the Sunleth Waterscape, the Village of Oerba, which is covered in crystal dust, the Archlyte Steppe which is the most verdant and lively area in the game, and Suyyla Springs, which is reminiscent of FFVII’s Forgotten City.

The game’s combat system revolves around the new Paradigm system, and Paradigm shifting. During combat, you have a deck of up to six sets of Paradigms, each containing various roles for each of your characters. They also function similarly to how Gambits did in FF12, by dictating how the AI will behave depending on what role a character is in that Paradigm. You can customize your own Paradigms yourself, putting any character to any role, and can shift them at any time during combat when the situation calls for it. Each character starts out with three out of six of the game’s primary roles, and can unlock the others later on. Most battles will flow with the shifting of offensive, defensive and support based Paradigms, or a combination of all, depending on what’s the best approach for the kind enemies you’re fighting. The primary form of “leveling” in FF13 is the Crystarium. It’s extremely similar to FF10′s Sphere Grid, and functions the same way for each character’s growth. After every fight, you earn CP, which can be spent in the Crystarium toward stats or abilities. Each character has their own unique Crystarium for each of their roles.

A completely new addition to combat in FF13 is the Stagger Meter. The battles revolve entirely around the ATB gauge, with MP management and turn based elements of combat being done away with entirely. Every enemy has a Stagger Meter, and you build it up by chaining abilities in quick succession on enemies. When the Stagger Meter fills up entirely, and the threshold is broken, the enemy is staggered, revealing new weakness’ and will be far more easy to defeat. Combat is very fast paced, and shifting to the correct Paradigms at crucial battle phases are the key to victory in this game. Like in FF12, random encounters are gone too, and it’s also very important to try to sneak up on enemies for a Preemptive Strike to defeat them quickly whenever possible. Battle animations are beautiful in this game, with combat being satisfying not only to view but to partake in. Any combination of commands via the ATB will flow together very fluidly. The spell animations are also highly detailed, and casting a water spell will leave a watery residue along the floor even after the spell is finished. Lightning’s special, “Army of One” is also one of my favorite RPG attacks from any Final Fantasy to date, and describing it here wouldn’t properly do it justice.

The atmosphere the game immerses you in is truly ethereal and on par with any other Final Fantasy title in the series, if not better. The music also supports this really well, and FFXIII’s sound track has quickly become one of my favorite’s in the series as well. The cast really grows on you, and while it seems like a lot of people were raising complaints about the majority of them, I found by the end of the game they were all developed decently well, and their individual stories really draw you in. I can’t really find any reasons to consider Hope, Snow or Vanille annoying when I enjoyed them all far more than various other characters in the series, like Wakka from FF10, Gau from FF6, or any newly introduced characters in X-2. Many people raised complaints about the linearity of the story and the flow of the game in general as well, and although I always love it when any game gives me a very open ended sense of freedom, I still enjoyed the parts of XIII before players can travel around the world freely.

My major issues with the game are mainly that they could have done so much more with it. They could have added more side quests and optional content. They could have embellished the areas you explore and fleshed out the characters a bit better. While many fans of the series are tired of cuts scenes and flashbacks ad nauseum, I personally enjoy them, and it makes me feel like the developer’s actually care about the characters and worlds they’re immersing you in. I would have like to have known more about Lightning’s past, and what REALLY drove her to change her name, as well as more about what life was like in Oerba centuries ago when Vanille and Fang lived there. While there are some flash backs that show specific instances of what was going on in the days leading up to your group being branded as L’Cie,I would have enjoyed more personalized ones, also. In FFVI, were shown a touching scene in Lock’s past with the woman he loved, Rachel; I would have appreciated a scene like this for Sazh and his deceased wife, or perhaps a younger Lightning and Serah growing up together. I would have enjoyed Snow and Team NORA more as well, if we had seen a bit more of their history together as orphans, perhaps similar to the cut scenes presented to us in FFVIII. These are things I sorely missed personally, and would have rounded out the characters more nicely for me.

After falling through the Pulse Vestige and into Lake Bresha, where your party first discovers that they’ve become L’Cie, they quickly come under attack by the Sanctum [Cocoon's Holy Government] who will relentlessly pursue them for the remainder of the game. As your group tries to evade the Sanctum, tension builds between them as they waiver in their ideals and try to decipher what their focus is, while considering whether they should even fulfill it. When part of your group finds their way to Nautilus, I couldn’t help but be a bit disappointed by the lack of mini games. (Something FF12 also suffered from.) Nautilus seemed like the perfect spot to introduce something like FFVII’s Gold Saucer, a fan favorite. The beginning of the game is stream lined as your party is on the run, but the further you progress into the game, the more it begins to feel like a traditional Final Fantasy title, including meeting the game’s Cid, and eventually being able to move freely and go Chocobo digging. (I would have also appreciated some Moogles, Square.)

With all this in mind though, I still really adore the game. I don’t mind some deviation from the traditional JRPG standard, and while I found myself praising a lot of newer elements of the game, I also missed some of the older more traditional ones the game is lacking, as well. Like the Summons for example, while I enjoy the transforming Eidolons, traditional summons would have still been enjoyable as well. Final Fantasy really earns it’s “BUY” from me by the end of the game, where you have access to over 64 different side missions, primarily when your party arrives on Gran Pulse and will help L’Cie who failed to fulfill their focus during their life time complete them. Overall, Final Fantasy 13 is a wonderful game despite a few flaws, in addition to the series and on it’s own as well. Contrary wise to what others feel, I feel this game does more than hold it’s own against other titles in the series, especially with it’s awesome protagonist (the female protagonist we’ve all wanted and hoped for, for a VERY long time.) Yet for all the time it took to develop this game, it still has some room for improvement. I would definitely recommend it for veterans of the series like myself, along with newer gamers, and I promise that if you can get past some rushed story elements in the beginning of the game, you’ll find the experience very rewarding the further you progress.