Thread: Final Fantasy XIII - Review

Ok guys, i've been saying this is coming for a fair while now but just haven't been able to finish it, its been edited so many bloody times and is now about half as long as it was at one point! This is the first time i've ever written anything like this so please be gentle! I'm no where near as good as our warrier! Hope you guys enjoy!





Being a fairly big final fantasy fan I figured FFXIII would be a pretty good game to write my first review on, well after about 30 hours of gameplay it appears I was wrong, I still haven’t made my mind up on whether I like this game or not.

FFXIII follows the same basic structure as all FF games, you’re part of a rebel group who have taken it upon them selves to fight the evil corporation/wizard/deity who is either ruling the world or trying to take over it. Specifically this time around you play as a group of unlucky people who get chosen by a rival god(like) creature to wage war on their home world of cocoon , cue a whole bunch of crazy cut scenes, predictable plot twists and characters that if you have played a FF game before (or any jrpg for that matter) you have already met.
The game is visually stunning, quite possibly the prettiest game I’ve ever seen, there were times when I swear I forgot I was playing a game and thought I was watching a high budget CG movie, almost AVATAR level stuff. FF have always had a reputation for being beautiful games and I get the impression that Square Enix really wanted to prove the point that FF games are often copied but never duplicated. As with all the other FF games each location not only looks stunning but is unique and seems to have their own personality, cocoon and gran pulse almost feel like characters themselves. Now although each location looks amazing the progression from one location to another is incredibly linear. You will literally be going from point A to point B in almost a straight line just to progress the story. And when I mean in a straight line I really mean it, FFXIII is the rpg equivalent of a corridor shooter and although square have craft a beautiful environment and every location looks unique, progression still feels painfully slow and boring.
Random battles are gone, replaced with a system similar to FFXII where you’ll see an enemy on the screen and if you want to fight it you can run up to it or if you don’t fancy a battle you can avoid it. If your feeling particularly sneaky you can attack an enemy from behind giving you an advantage when the fighting actually starts, that’s where the similarity to the previous FF game seems to stop. Where as in 12 you fought your battles in real time on location, 13 cuts away to a battle screen similarly to the old FF games but this time round rather then controlling a squad of 3 or 4 you only have control over the party leader, the other characters will control themselves using different spells and abilities depending on what paradigm (class) you have set them. Handily you can perform a paradigm shift whenever you want allowing you to change tactics. This is probably the biggest change the FF series has had to its battle system in a very long time and I have to say its very welcome, battles are usually fast, furious and very exciting. Unfortunately as fun as the battles, are there are a lot of them so they do get repetitive. Your feel like your running for a few meters fighting, running for a few more meters and fighting a bit more. After awhile your be glad that it’s up to you whether you fight or not and you may find yourself just running straight past the enemy. The problem of course with skipping out on the battles is that you won’t be able level up and get stronger, so what do you do? Fight more and be bored but strong or skip the fights and progress quicker but be weaker. Ultimately it’s down to you.
I think by this point maybe your starting to see my dilemma, for every good thing FFXIII does it also does something wrong. The game just seems a little unbalanced. The game locations look fantastic but are boring, the battles are fun but repetitive. Then there are the characters, they look amazing but are pretty much the same group of characters as in any other FF game. There’s the strong silent leader, the comedy sidekick and of course the plucky annoying kid.
And that is FFXIII’s biggest problem. It is very similar to pretty much all the FF games that have come before it, ok its by far the prettiest FF game so far but its playing on current gen systems so it should be and yes they have streamlined the battle system to make it quicker and far more exciting but its still the basic FF battle system, Fire beats water, thundaga is better then thundera etc. Final Fantasy XIII doesn’t tread any new ground and as such your feel like you have played the game before and that is a big problem, not just for the FF series but the JRPG genre in general. While western RPG’s have gotten a lot better, breaking ground in several areas, most notably in allowing the player to make choices and mould the game experience into their own JRPG’s are pretty much the same as they have ever been all be it prettier. Square seems to be under the impression that the key to an amazing game is the graphics and while some people may agree with them, the serious gamer knows that it isn’t graphics that make a good game, its game play. If Square had spent less time making FFXIII pretty and more time coming up with some new game mechicanics or perhaps if they released this game a couple of years earlier, before western RPG’s got so damn good, then maybe I’d score this game higher but unfortunately they haven’t don’t any of those things.
What the JRPG genre needs is a complete overhaul, starting from the bottom up. New unique story lines, decent well rounded characters and the opportunity to let the player decide how the game will progress. Until these basic things happen, which we have had in the west for years now, I don’t think I’ll be touching another JRPG.

I’m giving this game a 7.5/10
Its good but I’ve played it before. Meh.

Having played this one for about 12 hours I agree with your review, spot on!

Although very attractive the linear game play kinda spoils it for me, perhaps it will open up later?

After chapter 9 or 10 it turns into an open world game.

Great review mate

I totally agree, i love the FF games and have to say 12 is the one i enjoyed the most simply due to the battle system. Dont get me wrong though, i like FF13 but i got bored with it rather quick, it may be because i havent really got into the story but it just didnt do it for me.
Maybe i'll give it another shot, this time i'll keep an open mind and try not compare it to the other great FF games.

Great review by the way

I agree that the biggest problem is that it had to follow FFXII. While the graphics were superior, that was its only advantage. I wish there was more character interactions, and more non linear. My question is would the game have better reviews if it was not the game that had to follow FFXII? If there were lower expectations, would this game have met them, or did it meet a similar fate to X-2?

As for me, I am on missions in gran pulse. And I am most looking forward to FF vs. 13 and KH 3.

Meh, I loved X-2. Lots of Ladies

you would.

I am not dissing on the game, I was just using the analogy that the game was a let down to its predecessor.

There are many games with girls and that doesn't make them good.

X-2 was a pile of shit, X and VII are still the ultimate FF experiences in my opinion.

your not wrong ford. I've just gone right off FF games. and when it opens up on gran pulse there still isnt a lot to do just a bunch of hunting missions. I just feel like FF games could be great again if they borrowed some stuff from the western RPG's. meh, it just made me want to play dragon age again lol.