Introduction
Well, after four years of waiting, Final Fantasy XIII finally saw the light of day. Yet before it had even reached UK shores, I was absolutely sick to death of it. A never-ending stream of praise is easier to ignore, it seems, than a never-ending stream of complaints, and it dampened my mood somewhat. The English voice-acted trailers didn’t exactly fill me with confidence either, yet I was as excited as the next fan when the day finally came and I got my copy. A little over two weeks later, with a more or less single-minded attention on the game, and here I sit, having finished the story and pondering – just how much of the criticism is actually justified, and how much of it is bitching from adolescent fanboys and “hardcore” “old school” gamers who wanted a clone of a previous FF and elitist games magazines who aren’t happy unless they’re sitting in their sandbox?
Storyline: 7.3/10
Final Fantasy XIII takes place mostly on Cocoon, a planetoid-like continent which floats in the skies of Pulse, isolated from the rather inhospitable world below. It was created by the fal’Cie, god-like entities that have the power to brand humans of their choosing, turning them into l’Cie. These chosen humans are then assigned a “Focus” – a task they must fulfil for the fal’Cie, using the powers bestowed upon them. However, this isn’t exactly good news – l’Cie that complete their Focus turn into crystal and are granted immortality, and those that don’t complete it in time, or fail, transform into Cie’th, a mindless monster that eventually fades away completely. So, needless to say, the fal’Cie are viewed with some measure of respect and fear by humans.
Anyways, that is the somewhat confusing premise, which won’t be revealed to you, or make much sense at all, until much later in the game. Our story begins in minor chaos. Lightning, our go-getter protagonist, is making her way to a fal’Cie from Pulse, with the intention of killing it and saving her unfortunate sister, Serah, who has been turned into a l’Cie. Accompanying her is Sazh Katzroy, who is just trying to stay alive and, of course, staying with someone who is plunging into the heart of enemy territory is the best way to go about such an objective. Everything is in a bit of an uproar due to the Purge, a culling of citizens by PSICOM soldiers to avoid potential disaster with any l’Cie hiding among them. After all, Pulse l’Cie have a tendency to have a Focus something along the lines of “destroy Cocoon” for some reason. In any event, the citizens aren’t totally helpless – they have Snow Villiers, a stereotypical hero-type character out to save everyone with his motley crew, NORA. Snow is also out to save his fiancé in the process. Caught up in the Purge are two more of our protagonists, Hope Estheim, a scared little kid ready to bolt as soon as he finds the right direction, and Oerba Dia Vanille, an inappropriately optimistic young lady.
One thing leads to another, and they all end up in front of the infamous Pulse fal’Cie, Anima...who promptly makes them all l’Cie, whilst turning Serah, Lightning’s sister and Snow’s fiancé, into crystal. Suddenly things are even more confusing, as our heroes find themselves with the whole world against them, an unknown Focus, and an unknown period of time in which to accomplish it.
Initially, the story for this game is extremely confusing – due to the nature of the game, you’re given a great deal to digest in a very small amount of time, and it takes quite a while to sort everything out and make sense of it. Once you do make sense of it, you’ll find that it’s extremely detailed and just as satisfying as any other FF game, however, the lack of any real plot twists and any real conflict makes the story fall a little short of the mark and, at times, become a chore to sit through.
This is due to the lack of a present threat throughout almost the entire game – the characters are always running from place to place, yet much of the time they are running from shadows, as the dreaded PSICOM soldiers and what few antagonists there are catch up with them maybe once a chapter. One could argue that this means they are running away successfully, but...well, it doesn’t make for a very exciting story.
The best aspect of the story is the numerous perspectives from which the game throws you to and from, usually several times a chapter. The party split up a lot of the time, and you’ll frequently be in a completely different area on a completely unrelated matter – one second, you’ll be playing as Lightning and Hope in the middle of a beautiful crystal forest, and the next you’ll be playing as Sazh and Vanille in a junkyard with a jazzy theme that makes you want to plug your ears. These swapping perspectives give the story a much larger feel; it lets you know that there is an entire world out there in which events are happening, and not just an isolated little pocket where all the maniacs and heroes like to congregate to wreak merry hell, as is normally the case with Final Fantasy games and, indeed, RPGs in general. It also helps make the story bearable – this is a very story-driven game, and as such you’re getting cutscenes of varying length practically every twenty minutes for a lot of the game. It walks a very fine line between being engrossing and just getting on your nerves by interrupting your playing – which side it falls upon depends entirely on you.
I’ve mentioned chapters, however this does not divide the story up into noticeable sections – in fact, you will only be aware that you have completed a chapter by the corresponding achievement you’ll get, or when you load up your save file and find the chapter number has changed. There are thirteen chapters in all, of varying length.
Characters: 8.8/10 (individually), 3.5/10 (entire cast)
You’ll notice I’ve split the characters score up into two scores, one for individual characters, and one for the cast as a whole – there is no real way of compromising between these scores and giving it a total score of around 6, because this would not do justice to individuals, and it would give the cast as a whole far too much credit. I’ll justify this unorthodox treatment a little better below.
Individually, the cast of the game are all extremely well designed: each one has a rich, detailed and believable personality, some changing significantly as the game progresses, others remaining almost exactly as they were before the entire ordeal started. This is a cast you can really empathise with. There has been some real effort put into these characters, and whilst they’re not perfect – there is bound to be one or two you’re not going to like, and they clearly follow traditional FF stereotypes (the only difference between Lightning and Cloud, at times, is their gender) they are extremely well developed, due to their being handled separately.
Overall, however, this cast is absolutely awful. The reason: the only characters who receive any kind of development; indeed, the only characters really present, are the main party: Lightning, Snow, Sazh, Vanille, Fang and Hope.
The primary threat to our heroes is one Galenth Dysley, who makes a total of three appearances, each time delivering a watered-down, excessively grandiose and ultimately nonsensical speech before kicking the game’s difficulty into overdrive with an aggravating boss battle. There is also Jihl Nabaat, who must get a grand total of ten minutes screen time, and Yaag Rosch, who gets slightly more. The Cid of this game gets even less, and from what little is discernible from such a minor appearance, he had some real potential. About all that you will remember of these characters are their names.
Looking at the party characters individually, they more than justify an 8.8 score, perhaps even a little higher if you empathise with all of them. However, their development has been at the expense of every other character that makes an appearance in this game, and antagonists make up a crucial part of the cast – they provide the protagonists with a focus for their actions. As it is, their focus is guesswork at best on their part, and they have no real direction, which really detracts from the storyline at times, making it a real chore to sit through. The lack of antagonists in this game, and the carefree treatment of those few who make appearances, make this feel like a very random game at times, and make the cast several lacking. Protagonists alone cannot carry an RPG’s storyline; there is a terrible imbalance in this cast and it really suffers for it at points.
Gameplay: 8.9/10
FFXIII utilises an Active Time Battle system, called “Command Synergy Battle” in the game. The basic idea is the same as it has always been: you’re given a bar for your character, which fills up as time goes by. Once the bar fills, you can attack, in a fancy whirlwind of flips, twists and slashes and/or explosions. However, for this game, your bar is split into sections, allowing you to perform more than one attack at a time. Special moves relating to you class are displayed in a menu, and you can select to use these instead of a standard attack, however, the more powerful the attack, the more of your bar it will take to use it – for example, whilst Fire will only cost one segment to use, Fira will cost two. As you attack, you’ll build up your opponent’s Chain Gauge, a yellow bar beneath their HP which climbs slowly with each hit. Once the gauge fills, the opponent will be Staggered, and take considerably more damage than normal, allowing you to go into an all-out offensive to finish them off. Naturally, more powerful enemies have a higher resistance to attacks, meaning their Chain Gauge will take longer to fill up. The Chain Gauge also decreases over time if you don’t attack, meaning you’ll need to keep up a constant assault to stagger an enemy, which may not always be wise if your health drops to dangerously low levels.
Once battle ends, your performance is assessed and you’re given a rank, between one and five stars, to reflect how well you did. With the exception of Ci’eth stone missions – which I will cover later – the only thing this affects is the kind of item you receive for winning the battle.
Running from battles is not an option; however you can affect the same thing by pressing start and then select, to retry. You will return to where you were before you alerted the monster, giving you another chance to either run in to defeat it, or slip by unnoticed. After each battle, your health is fully restored, which may seem to be excessive; however, given the shortage of potions and phoenix downs, and given the amount of damage you will be giving and receiving, this impacts upon the difficulty of the game only slightly.
Character development is attained through the Crystarium System, which is similar to FFX’s Sphere Grid. After battle, you will earn CP - Crystarium Points – which you can spend at the Crystarium to unlock boosts to attack, magic and health (the only three stats in the game) and unlock abilities for any of the six roles (see below). There are ten stages to the Crystarium – the final stage being unlocked after completion of the game – and you will unlock each of these as you progress through the game. Power-levelling is not an option in this game which, whilst extremely frustrating, adds a certain level of challenge to the game, and places that much more importance on your strategy in battles. Not all characters will be able to learn certain abilities – for example, Vanille is the only character capable of learning Death – and their stats will vary as you progress (Fang has the highest Strength stat, for example) meaning each will be tailored to a certain situation and role.
However, what truly defines the battle system is the Paradigm System. You can use three characters in battle, and to each of these you will assign a combat role, of which there are six: Commando, a physical offensive role; Ravager, a magically offensive role; Sentinel, a defensive role; Synergist, a supportive role which allows you to boost your allies; Saboteur, a supportive role which allows you to debilitate your enemies; and Medic, a supportive role which allows you to heal your allies. Your party formation will form a Paradigm – for example, two Medics and a Sentinel will form the extremely useful Combat Clinic Paradigm – which you can change at any time in combat by pressing R1 and selecting the Paradigm you’d like to change to. This will prompt your party members to switch to the roles assigned in the Paradigm you selected. So, if you are in the Relentless Assault Paradigm, consisting of two Ravagers and a Commando, and suddenly find yourself in dire need of healing, you can switch to Combat Clinic, allowing two Medics to restore your party whilst the Sentinel draws enemy attention. You can the change Paradigms again to go on the offensive, or grant your allies with some protective statuses before you continue.
Of course, not every party member will be effective at a certain role. Try and make Lightning a Sentinel, for example, and the odds are she is going to die very quickly. Similarly, Hope will do very little damage as a Commando when compared to Fang. Each character has a role they excel at, so will you also need to factor this in when choosing your Paradigms and party members.
You can have up to six Paradigms in the menu at a time, and there are infinitely more combinations, meaning you’ll have to plan in advance what Paradigms you’ll need to emerge victorious. A certain element of prediction is also required, as Paradigm shifting is done in-battle, and takes three or so seconds to come into effect if you’re on the ground; this can cost you dearly if you’re in the middle of a battle with a stronger enemy.
Certain roles also have moves that consume TP, which is extremely limited in this game, and takes a long time to recharge. However, some of these moves – summoning, for example – are potentially game-breaking, so it works out rather well, and provides yet another strategic element to the game: whilst you could summon an Eidolon now, you never know what is coming round the corner, or if you’ll be given the opportunity to charge your TP gauge again before it.
You can further prepare yourself for battle by using Shrouds, one-off use items that allow you to bestow buffs on your party members, as well as make yourself invisible, allowing you to slip past the enemy or gain a pre-emptive strike (which kicks an opponent’s Chain Gauge right up to staggering point) if you so choose. These are extremely expensive and rarely given as battle prizes, so you’ll need to plan your usage of them wisely.
All this, coupled with the real-time battles, can make battles quite frantic and fast-paced, as you cancel attacks to kill enemies quicker, switch Paradigms to give characters a much-needed heal or go on the offensive, frantically scroll through your combat menu and string a set of moves together, and so on.
...or it would, were the game not so ridiculously easy.
This is one of Final Fantasy XIII’s biggest issues: the learning curve. It introduces you into the game very gently, and isn’t inclined to put on the pressure as time goes by. However, the difficulty spikes wildly when you encounter certain enemies – whilst this can be avoided, if you know how to pick your fights (it won’t take a genius to realise that you’re not going to stand a chance against an Adamantoise the first time you see one) it can be extremely frustrating with the bosses of the game, particularly when a Doom count is placed on you. Without the ability to power-level, sometimes it comes down entirely to luck whether or not you win or lose, and this is highly aggravating at times, especially considering that if the character you are controlling dies, its game over. Still, for the majority of the game, all you’ll be doing is hammering the X button to initiate auto-battle. The AI in this game is, mercifully, extremely intelligent, using spells that enemies are weak against, using the most powerful healing spells available on those who require it the most, etc.
For the first ten chapters – about 25 hours if you watch all the cutscenes - of this game, it is also extremely restricting. Routes are often almost straight lines, with very little room for deviation. You run forward, fight enemies, rinse and repeat. In this, the game likens more to a side-scrolling platformer than an RPG. A lot of people have complained about this linearity (quite unjustly, in my opinion) which has been around in games for years; however, Final Fantasy XIII removes all illusions of freedom and pushes you ever onward in the direction of the next story event until the eleventh chapter, at which point those “old school” and “hardcore” gamers crying out for their sandbox finally get it, and then some. The complete lack of RPG staples, like towns and an overworld map, coupled with the lack of sidequests until chapter 11 and this “story-driven” gameplay mechanic will push a lot of people, no matter how open-minded, straight out of their comfort zone, and 20 hours is a lot of time to invest in a game to get the freedom you’ll feel you should have had from the beginning.
As there are no towns, all shopping is done at save points (which, thankfully, aren’t particularly rare, you’re never usually more than thirty minutes away from one at most) and as you progress, you’ll unlock more shops with more items. Gil is acquired through the selling of components that monsters drop – strangely, you don’t get Gil as a reward for winning battles in this game. Said components can also act to upgrade your weapons and accessories; each component holds a certain amount of exp, applying it to the weapon will eventually cause it to level up and, on occasion, evolve into an entirely new weapon.
Summons, of course, make an appearance, in the form of Eidolons. You will have to battle these Eidolons beforehand in a series of somewhat demanding, filling up their Gestalt Gauge through certain actions (for example, the Shiva Sister’s gauge will fill quicker if you block their attacks) before the Doom count they place on you at the start of the battle drops to zero – it’s an interesting diversion from the standard battles you’ll be faced with, at least. Each character has an Eidolon they can call upon in battle – Odin for Lightning, Shiva for Snow, Alexander for Hope, Hecatoncheir for Vanille, Bahamut for Fang and Brynhildr for Sazh – at the cost of 3 TP. Upon summoning, your other two party members disappear and your Eidolon appears on-screen in a fantastic explosion of colour. Your Eidolon will then fight alongside you for a period of time – its HP gauge, which is quite high, will deplete rapidly the longer it is on the field. When it falls to zero, the Eidolon disappears. However, before this happens, you have the opportunity to initiate Gestalt Mode, which will prompt your Eidolon to transform into a mechanical transport of some kind (well, except for Hecatoncheir, which turns into some sort of mutant spider-tank creature, and Bahamut, which of course turns into a dragon) which you will then get the opportunity to control, unleashing a barrage of special attacks on an opponent. After this, the Eidolon is dismissed, and your party members reappear on screen at full health. It’s a useful break if your characters are struggling (or dead) and want a little extra damage.
Chapter eleven, then, is when you finally get some freedom, and the game begins to feel like an FF game of old. Scattered around the landscape are Cie’th stones, all of which failed to fill their Focus of killing a huge, powerful monster. Being the Good Samaritan you are, you can choose to take on these missions for them, resulting in a nice item and a little more CP than average when you’re done. You can take on these missions as many times as you like, and getting a five-star rating in all of them will get you a trophy.
In all, you can expect the main story of Final Fantasy XIII to last you around 40 hours, including time you’ll spend farming CP to boost your stats. Of course, after you finish the game, there is a myriad of things to do – there are a total of 62 mark missions to complete, with a trophy for finishing all of them with a five-star rating. Acquiring all of the trophies in this game is going to take you at least another 40 hours on top of that, as you’ll need to max out the Crystarium for every character, obtain one of every item, defeat some extremely powerful enemies, and navigate your way around an absolutely massive world map. This game has plenty of life in it after the credits roll.
In summary, FFXIII’s approach to gameplay isn’t a BAD thing, as it strips away a lot of traditions which weigh other RPGs down like chains and practically injects the story, one of the most important elements to any RPG, straight into your veins. However the lack of these traditions, as well as the complete lack of difficulty for the majority of the game punctuated by some highly aggravating encounters, will put a lot of people off. Ultimately, whether you enjoy Final Fantasy XIII’s gameplay depends entirely on what you consider essential to an RPG, and how bothered you are by its inclusion.
Controls: 9.8/10
FFXIII’s controls are quite easy to use and are quickly mastered, especially considering you’re introduced to the mechanics of the game gradually. However, as battles don’t let up when choosing your moves, choosing your moves can be potentially hazardous. For this reason, some pre-set battle commands or chains might have been useful, because if you don’t know where the move you want to use is you’re possibly going to get slaughtered. Scrolling through menus is quite clumsy and, on occasion, costly. However, since Auto-battle is enough to get you through the majority of the game, this is really only a problem if you insist on picking your moves yourself, or for later mark missions when you need to use certain abilities that auto-battle won’t use, i.e. Lightning’s Army of One ability.
FFXIII also offers the ability to cancel your attacks via the Circle button, and cut short your ATB gauge by pressing the Triangle button, which is extremely useful for switching targets at a moment’s notice, or finishing off weaker targets that only require one or two attacks quickly, giving the battle system some much needed flexibility. Paradigm Shifting is quick and easy to do, however the transition between Paradigms can cost you precious time and, if you’re switching to heal when your characters are in the red zone, there is the chance that you’ll get knocked out in the middle of the Paradigm Shift animation, which is quite aggravating.
The camera also requires some serious control, because it tends to go wherever it pleases, regardless of what you do to put it back into place. Whilst this isn’t particularly annoying most of the time, there are moments when it becomes difficult to see enemies on-screen, meaning you may accidently run into one, or fail to avoid one.
However, these are all minor concerns which may crop up once every few hours whilst playing this game and, once you adjust to the battle system and become familiar with the menu screens, you’ll be able to avoid most disasters automatically.
Graphics: 9.9/10
Undeniably the most beautiful, breathtaking graphics on the PS3 to date. There are a wide variety of locations, and each one is amazingly detailed, right down to the shimmering crystal fragments or snow in the air. This seems to be the one thing that all of those who have reviewed the game can agree upon: its graphics are absolutely spectacular and are what set it apart. They aren’t wrong. Whilst the locations themselves occasionally feel like they have been recycled from previous Final Fantasy games, the scenery is still incredible, and far surpasses anything else. The characters themselves are also incredibly detailed and well-proportioned; even the NPCs and monsters receive an above-average level of detail. In-game graphics are cutscene graphics are blended together almost seamlessly. A trained, picky eye could spot the occasional polygonal moments in characters in the game, but that is to be expected, and half the time you’ll be too busy gawking at the scenery to notice.
Not only is the scenery incredible, but so is the scale. Looking down chasms will attest to this, as will the size of some of the monsters – with the removal of random battles, monsters are on-screen...at their full size. Seeing an Adamantoise cast a shadow over your characters as it ponders past slowly is quite a sight.
So, why the slight deduction in the score? Ironically, these graphics are TOO advanced; if you’ve got a TV that doesn’t run in high definition, you’re going to suffer with a lack of detail and, worse, screen tearing, particularly in the cutscenes when things start happening all at once. Whilst this isn’t damning, it is a shame, and it is extremely poor design on Square Enix’s part. After all, HDTVs are still very expensive, and not everyone has one. Having a game that only runs properly in High Definition is...well, stupid.
Sound: 5.1/10
Soundtrack is normally one of FF’s strongest points. Unfortunately, this is not so here. The soundtrack for this game was not composed by series regular Nobou Uematsu, but rather by Masashi Hamauzu, who helped compose the score for Final Fantasy X. A lot of the music is repetitive, inappropriately loud or quiet, and a general ear-splitting racket. Rarely does it set the proper mood to complement the situation or scenery, which is a shame. There are a few excellent tracks buried in here, however: boss battle themes are appropriately dramatic and fast-paced, and the few vocal tracks that do appear aren’t absolutely awful. There is a nice variety in here: sweeping orchestral pieces, melancholy jazz, dramatic and aggressive Latin vocals, etc; in this, Final Fantasy XII remains up to standard with previous FF games. The music also has the good grace to, a great deal of the time, be little more than a whisper in the background, although a lot of the time you will want to turn the volume down and put your own music on to compensate; particularly after you’ve heard the highly aggravating battle theme for the umpteenth time.
The voice acting is equally disappointing. Whilst some characters’ voices will undoubtedly grow on you as you listen to them more and more, Square Enix has recruited virtually unknown voice actors with very little talent for displaying more than one emotion for the voices of the cast. As with the soundtrack, there are a few exceptional moments however, given the quantity of voice acting (which is the best thing that can be said about it, and ironically also the worst due to the quality) these moments are few and far between.
Unique/Extra Features: 3.4/10
This might seem a tad harsh, however very little of Final Fantasy XIII’s gameplay elements are actually new or original. Its gameplay is essentially a fusion between Final Fantasy X’s Sphere Grid System and Final Fantasy XII’s Gambit system, with the fact that its combat system is little more than a flashier ATB system “disguised” by your being able to attack more than once when your ATB gauge fills up.
Whilst the Paradigms are the highlight of the gameplay, they are arguably a step backwards from the Gambits featured in Final Fantasy XII, which allowed you to fully customize your characters, instead of just selecting a role for them and leaving them to their own devices. Final Fantasy XIII brings nothing new to the tables; it simply cuts a great deal of excess out and presents you with a fantastic, but not new and original, battle system.
The only thing unique about FFXIII is its presentation, and whilst there are a fair few new areas to explore once the main story is completed, the overall effort is a poor one.
Replay value: 7.5/10
As with many Final Fantasy games, FFXIII has a good amount of replay value; perhaps even more so than normal, due to the story-driven gameplay. You don’t have to grind very much to advance, maps are often almost completely straight lines, and the AI is intelligent enough to carry you through every minor encounter, and even some of the major ones. FFXIII tells an interesting story that you’ll be able to watch again with very little effort at all, and if you’re one of those people who avoids games after you’ve finished them due to the sheer number of hours you’ve put into finishing them the first time around, you’ll definitely play this again when you want an in-depth story to watch with very little work involved. You aren’t required to do anything more than travel the map to the next cutscene, yet if you wish to then you can explore and develop your party. Because of this, it has quite a high replay value.
Overall Rating: 7.0/10
Whether you like it or not, there is no denying that Final Fantasy XIII is a very well-designed game. The systems, whilst recycled from previous Final Fantasy games with very little (if any) enhancement, are still solid, enjoyable and highly addictive. The graphics are absolutely stunning even with a low definition TV and occasional screen-tearing, and there has clearly been some thought put into the cast; whilst some of them you will no doubt find insufferable, they are extremely well developed individuals.
However, the flaws of this game are almost painfully obvious. For a story-driven game, the story itself lacks any real direction or impact due to the lack of a proper antagonist and the stale, emotionless voice acting, which can make it extremely hard to warm-up to the characters, and make the story itself feel like an extremely boring chore to sit through between short bursts of gameplay, which is not a good thing. For a lot of people, this game will only be worthwhile to them to play when they reach chapter eleven and the open world, and I would estimate that, without watching the cutscenes, that is still going to take about 12 hours to reach, and that is a very long time to tediously travel straight-line maps.
The lack of RPG staples is not in itself a flaw, and if you’ve been reading reviews that have criticised it due to these, then really you should ignore them. Final Fantasy XIII has the core elements of an RPG: a well-developed battle system, a captivating (eventually) storyline, and hours and hours of play. It doesn’t have other elements, such as towns or an overworld map, and its approaches to certain ideas (for example, restoring all your HP at the end of each battle, or the game ending when your controlled character dies) are somewhat unorthodox, yet whether these are good or bad things depends solely upon your belief on what constitutes an RPG, and what you think is essential and what isn’t. These are not flaws to condemn the game, they are aspects which will hinder or enhance your enjoyment of the game; they are not things it deserves to be marked down for. After all, there aren’t any absolute requirements for RPGs and, occasionally, Final Fantasy XIII feels more like an action game like Bayonetta with RPG elements.
If you approach this game with an open mind, and without any preconception as to exactly what should be in an RPG, then FFXIII is at least a satisfying experience, perhaps even a great one if you warm up quickly to the characters and find yourself immersed in the storyline. However, it does lack that “epic” feeling that other Final Fantasy games, and open-minded or not, you will find some of its flaws very hard to overlook.
Well, after four years of waiting, Final Fantasy XIII finally saw the light of day. Yet before it had even reached UK shores, I was absolutely sick to death of it. A never-ending stream of praise is easier to ignore, it seems, than a never-ending stream of complaints, and it dampened my mood somewhat. The English voice-acted trailers didn’t exactly fill me with confidence either, yet I was as excited as the next fan when the day finally came and I got my copy. A little over two weeks later, with a more or less single-minded attention on the game, and here I sit, having finished the story and pondering – just how much of the criticism is actually justified, and how much of it is bitching from adolescent fanboys and “hardcore” “old school” gamers who wanted a clone of a previous FF and elitist games magazines who aren’t happy unless they’re sitting in their sandbox?
Storyline: 7.3/10
Final Fantasy XIII takes place mostly on Cocoon, a planetoid-like continent which floats in the skies of Pulse, isolated from the rather inhospitable world below. It was created by the fal’Cie, god-like entities that have the power to brand humans of their choosing, turning them into l’Cie. These chosen humans are then assigned a “Focus” – a task they must fulfil for the fal’Cie, using the powers bestowed upon them. However, this isn’t exactly good news – l’Cie that complete their Focus turn into crystal and are granted immortality, and those that don’t complete it in time, or fail, transform into Cie’th, a mindless monster that eventually fades away completely. So, needless to say, the fal’Cie are viewed with some measure of respect and fear by humans.
Anyways, that is the somewhat confusing premise, which won’t be revealed to you, or make much sense at all, until much later in the game. Our story begins in minor chaos. Lightning, our go-getter protagonist, is making her way to a fal’Cie from Pulse, with the intention of killing it and saving her unfortunate sister, Serah, who has been turned into a l’Cie. Accompanying her is Sazh Katzroy, who is just trying to stay alive and, of course, staying with someone who is plunging into the heart of enemy territory is the best way to go about such an objective. Everything is in a bit of an uproar due to the Purge, a culling of citizens by PSICOM soldiers to avoid potential disaster with any l’Cie hiding among them. After all, Pulse l’Cie have a tendency to have a Focus something along the lines of “destroy Cocoon” for some reason. In any event, the citizens aren’t totally helpless – they have Snow Villiers, a stereotypical hero-type character out to save everyone with his motley crew, NORA. Snow is also out to save his fiancé in the process. Caught up in the Purge are two more of our protagonists, Hope Estheim, a scared little kid ready to bolt as soon as he finds the right direction, and Oerba Dia Vanille, an inappropriately optimistic young lady.
One thing leads to another, and they all end up in front of the infamous Pulse fal’Cie, Anima...who promptly makes them all l’Cie, whilst turning Serah, Lightning’s sister and Snow’s fiancé, into crystal. Suddenly things are even more confusing, as our heroes find themselves with the whole world against them, an unknown Focus, and an unknown period of time in which to accomplish it.
Initially, the story for this game is extremely confusing – due to the nature of the game, you’re given a great deal to digest in a very small amount of time, and it takes quite a while to sort everything out and make sense of it. Once you do make sense of it, you’ll find that it’s extremely detailed and just as satisfying as any other FF game, however, the lack of any real plot twists and any real conflict makes the story fall a little short of the mark and, at times, become a chore to sit through.
This is due to the lack of a present threat throughout almost the entire game – the characters are always running from place to place, yet much of the time they are running from shadows, as the dreaded PSICOM soldiers and what few antagonists there are catch up with them maybe once a chapter. One could argue that this means they are running away successfully, but...well, it doesn’t make for a very exciting story.
The best aspect of the story is the numerous perspectives from which the game throws you to and from, usually several times a chapter. The party split up a lot of the time, and you’ll frequently be in a completely different area on a completely unrelated matter – one second, you’ll be playing as Lightning and Hope in the middle of a beautiful crystal forest, and the next you’ll be playing as Sazh and Vanille in a junkyard with a jazzy theme that makes you want to plug your ears. These swapping perspectives give the story a much larger feel; it lets you know that there is an entire world out there in which events are happening, and not just an isolated little pocket where all the maniacs and heroes like to congregate to wreak merry hell, as is normally the case with Final Fantasy games and, indeed, RPGs in general. It also helps make the story bearable – this is a very story-driven game, and as such you’re getting cutscenes of varying length practically every twenty minutes for a lot of the game. It walks a very fine line between being engrossing and just getting on your nerves by interrupting your playing – which side it falls upon depends entirely on you.
I’ve mentioned chapters, however this does not divide the story up into noticeable sections – in fact, you will only be aware that you have completed a chapter by the corresponding achievement you’ll get, or when you load up your save file and find the chapter number has changed. There are thirteen chapters in all, of varying length.
Characters: 8.8/10 (individually), 3.5/10 (entire cast)
You’ll notice I’ve split the characters score up into two scores, one for individual characters, and one for the cast as a whole – there is no real way of compromising between these scores and giving it a total score of around 6, because this would not do justice to individuals, and it would give the cast as a whole far too much credit. I’ll justify this unorthodox treatment a little better below.
Individually, the cast of the game are all extremely well designed: each one has a rich, detailed and believable personality, some changing significantly as the game progresses, others remaining almost exactly as they were before the entire ordeal started. This is a cast you can really empathise with. There has been some real effort put into these characters, and whilst they’re not perfect – there is bound to be one or two you’re not going to like, and they clearly follow traditional FF stereotypes (the only difference between Lightning and Cloud, at times, is their gender) they are extremely well developed, due to their being handled separately.
Overall, however, this cast is absolutely awful. The reason: the only characters who receive any kind of development; indeed, the only characters really present, are the main party: Lightning, Snow, Sazh, Vanille, Fang and Hope.
The primary threat to our heroes is one Galenth Dysley, who makes a total of three appearances, each time delivering a watered-down, excessively grandiose and ultimately nonsensical speech before kicking the game’s difficulty into overdrive with an aggravating boss battle. There is also Jihl Nabaat, who must get a grand total of ten minutes screen time, and Yaag Rosch, who gets slightly more. The Cid of this game gets even less, and from what little is discernible from such a minor appearance, he had some real potential. About all that you will remember of these characters are their names.
Looking at the party characters individually, they more than justify an 8.8 score, perhaps even a little higher if you empathise with all of them. However, their development has been at the expense of every other character that makes an appearance in this game, and antagonists make up a crucial part of the cast – they provide the protagonists with a focus for their actions. As it is, their focus is guesswork at best on their part, and they have no real direction, which really detracts from the storyline at times, making it a real chore to sit through. The lack of antagonists in this game, and the carefree treatment of those few who make appearances, make this feel like a very random game at times, and make the cast several lacking. Protagonists alone cannot carry an RPG’s storyline; there is a terrible imbalance in this cast and it really suffers for it at points.
Gameplay: 8.9/10
FFXIII utilises an Active Time Battle system, called “Command Synergy Battle” in the game. The basic idea is the same as it has always been: you’re given a bar for your character, which fills up as time goes by. Once the bar fills, you can attack, in a fancy whirlwind of flips, twists and slashes and/or explosions. However, for this game, your bar is split into sections, allowing you to perform more than one attack at a time. Special moves relating to you class are displayed in a menu, and you can select to use these instead of a standard attack, however, the more powerful the attack, the more of your bar it will take to use it – for example, whilst Fire will only cost one segment to use, Fira will cost two. As you attack, you’ll build up your opponent’s Chain Gauge, a yellow bar beneath their HP which climbs slowly with each hit. Once the gauge fills, the opponent will be Staggered, and take considerably more damage than normal, allowing you to go into an all-out offensive to finish them off. Naturally, more powerful enemies have a higher resistance to attacks, meaning their Chain Gauge will take longer to fill up. The Chain Gauge also decreases over time if you don’t attack, meaning you’ll need to keep up a constant assault to stagger an enemy, which may not always be wise if your health drops to dangerously low levels.
Once battle ends, your performance is assessed and you’re given a rank, between one and five stars, to reflect how well you did. With the exception of Ci’eth stone missions – which I will cover later – the only thing this affects is the kind of item you receive for winning the battle.
Running from battles is not an option; however you can affect the same thing by pressing start and then select, to retry. You will return to where you were before you alerted the monster, giving you another chance to either run in to defeat it, or slip by unnoticed. After each battle, your health is fully restored, which may seem to be excessive; however, given the shortage of potions and phoenix downs, and given the amount of damage you will be giving and receiving, this impacts upon the difficulty of the game only slightly.
Character development is attained through the Crystarium System, which is similar to FFX’s Sphere Grid. After battle, you will earn CP - Crystarium Points – which you can spend at the Crystarium to unlock boosts to attack, magic and health (the only three stats in the game) and unlock abilities for any of the six roles (see below). There are ten stages to the Crystarium – the final stage being unlocked after completion of the game – and you will unlock each of these as you progress through the game. Power-levelling is not an option in this game which, whilst extremely frustrating, adds a certain level of challenge to the game, and places that much more importance on your strategy in battles. Not all characters will be able to learn certain abilities – for example, Vanille is the only character capable of learning Death – and their stats will vary as you progress (Fang has the highest Strength stat, for example) meaning each will be tailored to a certain situation and role.
However, what truly defines the battle system is the Paradigm System. You can use three characters in battle, and to each of these you will assign a combat role, of which there are six: Commando, a physical offensive role; Ravager, a magically offensive role; Sentinel, a defensive role; Synergist, a supportive role which allows you to boost your allies; Saboteur, a supportive role which allows you to debilitate your enemies; and Medic, a supportive role which allows you to heal your allies. Your party formation will form a Paradigm – for example, two Medics and a Sentinel will form the extremely useful Combat Clinic Paradigm – which you can change at any time in combat by pressing R1 and selecting the Paradigm you’d like to change to. This will prompt your party members to switch to the roles assigned in the Paradigm you selected. So, if you are in the Relentless Assault Paradigm, consisting of two Ravagers and a Commando, and suddenly find yourself in dire need of healing, you can switch to Combat Clinic, allowing two Medics to restore your party whilst the Sentinel draws enemy attention. You can the change Paradigms again to go on the offensive, or grant your allies with some protective statuses before you continue.
Of course, not every party member will be effective at a certain role. Try and make Lightning a Sentinel, for example, and the odds are she is going to die very quickly. Similarly, Hope will do very little damage as a Commando when compared to Fang. Each character has a role they excel at, so will you also need to factor this in when choosing your Paradigms and party members.
You can have up to six Paradigms in the menu at a time, and there are infinitely more combinations, meaning you’ll have to plan in advance what Paradigms you’ll need to emerge victorious. A certain element of prediction is also required, as Paradigm shifting is done in-battle, and takes three or so seconds to come into effect if you’re on the ground; this can cost you dearly if you’re in the middle of a battle with a stronger enemy.
Certain roles also have moves that consume TP, which is extremely limited in this game, and takes a long time to recharge. However, some of these moves – summoning, for example – are potentially game-breaking, so it works out rather well, and provides yet another strategic element to the game: whilst you could summon an Eidolon now, you never know what is coming round the corner, or if you’ll be given the opportunity to charge your TP gauge again before it.
You can further prepare yourself for battle by using Shrouds, one-off use items that allow you to bestow buffs on your party members, as well as make yourself invisible, allowing you to slip past the enemy or gain a pre-emptive strike (which kicks an opponent’s Chain Gauge right up to staggering point) if you so choose. These are extremely expensive and rarely given as battle prizes, so you’ll need to plan your usage of them wisely.
All this, coupled with the real-time battles, can make battles quite frantic and fast-paced, as you cancel attacks to kill enemies quicker, switch Paradigms to give characters a much-needed heal or go on the offensive, frantically scroll through your combat menu and string a set of moves together, and so on.
...or it would, were the game not so ridiculously easy.
This is one of Final Fantasy XIII’s biggest issues: the learning curve. It introduces you into the game very gently, and isn’t inclined to put on the pressure as time goes by. However, the difficulty spikes wildly when you encounter certain enemies – whilst this can be avoided, if you know how to pick your fights (it won’t take a genius to realise that you’re not going to stand a chance against an Adamantoise the first time you see one) it can be extremely frustrating with the bosses of the game, particularly when a Doom count is placed on you. Without the ability to power-level, sometimes it comes down entirely to luck whether or not you win or lose, and this is highly aggravating at times, especially considering that if the character you are controlling dies, its game over. Still, for the majority of the game, all you’ll be doing is hammering the X button to initiate auto-battle. The AI in this game is, mercifully, extremely intelligent, using spells that enemies are weak against, using the most powerful healing spells available on those who require it the most, etc.
For the first ten chapters – about 25 hours if you watch all the cutscenes - of this game, it is also extremely restricting. Routes are often almost straight lines, with very little room for deviation. You run forward, fight enemies, rinse and repeat. In this, the game likens more to a side-scrolling platformer than an RPG. A lot of people have complained about this linearity (quite unjustly, in my opinion) which has been around in games for years; however, Final Fantasy XIII removes all illusions of freedom and pushes you ever onward in the direction of the next story event until the eleventh chapter, at which point those “old school” and “hardcore” gamers crying out for their sandbox finally get it, and then some. The complete lack of RPG staples, like towns and an overworld map, coupled with the lack of sidequests until chapter 11 and this “story-driven” gameplay mechanic will push a lot of people, no matter how open-minded, straight out of their comfort zone, and 20 hours is a lot of time to invest in a game to get the freedom you’ll feel you should have had from the beginning.
As there are no towns, all shopping is done at save points (which, thankfully, aren’t particularly rare, you’re never usually more than thirty minutes away from one at most) and as you progress, you’ll unlock more shops with more items. Gil is acquired through the selling of components that monsters drop – strangely, you don’t get Gil as a reward for winning battles in this game. Said components can also act to upgrade your weapons and accessories; each component holds a certain amount of exp, applying it to the weapon will eventually cause it to level up and, on occasion, evolve into an entirely new weapon.
Summons, of course, make an appearance, in the form of Eidolons. You will have to battle these Eidolons beforehand in a series of somewhat demanding, filling up their Gestalt Gauge through certain actions (for example, the Shiva Sister’s gauge will fill quicker if you block their attacks) before the Doom count they place on you at the start of the battle drops to zero – it’s an interesting diversion from the standard battles you’ll be faced with, at least. Each character has an Eidolon they can call upon in battle – Odin for Lightning, Shiva for Snow, Alexander for Hope, Hecatoncheir for Vanille, Bahamut for Fang and Brynhildr for Sazh – at the cost of 3 TP. Upon summoning, your other two party members disappear and your Eidolon appears on-screen in a fantastic explosion of colour. Your Eidolon will then fight alongside you for a period of time – its HP gauge, which is quite high, will deplete rapidly the longer it is on the field. When it falls to zero, the Eidolon disappears. However, before this happens, you have the opportunity to initiate Gestalt Mode, which will prompt your Eidolon to transform into a mechanical transport of some kind (well, except for Hecatoncheir, which turns into some sort of mutant spider-tank creature, and Bahamut, which of course turns into a dragon) which you will then get the opportunity to control, unleashing a barrage of special attacks on an opponent. After this, the Eidolon is dismissed, and your party members reappear on screen at full health. It’s a useful break if your characters are struggling (or dead) and want a little extra damage.
Chapter eleven, then, is when you finally get some freedom, and the game begins to feel like an FF game of old. Scattered around the landscape are Cie’th stones, all of which failed to fill their Focus of killing a huge, powerful monster. Being the Good Samaritan you are, you can choose to take on these missions for them, resulting in a nice item and a little more CP than average when you’re done. You can take on these missions as many times as you like, and getting a five-star rating in all of them will get you a trophy.
In all, you can expect the main story of Final Fantasy XIII to last you around 40 hours, including time you’ll spend farming CP to boost your stats. Of course, after you finish the game, there is a myriad of things to do – there are a total of 62 mark missions to complete, with a trophy for finishing all of them with a five-star rating. Acquiring all of the trophies in this game is going to take you at least another 40 hours on top of that, as you’ll need to max out the Crystarium for every character, obtain one of every item, defeat some extremely powerful enemies, and navigate your way around an absolutely massive world map. This game has plenty of life in it after the credits roll.
In summary, FFXIII’s approach to gameplay isn’t a BAD thing, as it strips away a lot of traditions which weigh other RPGs down like chains and practically injects the story, one of the most important elements to any RPG, straight into your veins. However the lack of these traditions, as well as the complete lack of difficulty for the majority of the game punctuated by some highly aggravating encounters, will put a lot of people off. Ultimately, whether you enjoy Final Fantasy XIII’s gameplay depends entirely on what you consider essential to an RPG, and how bothered you are by its inclusion.
Controls: 9.8/10
FFXIII’s controls are quite easy to use and are quickly mastered, especially considering you’re introduced to the mechanics of the game gradually. However, as battles don’t let up when choosing your moves, choosing your moves can be potentially hazardous. For this reason, some pre-set battle commands or chains might have been useful, because if you don’t know where the move you want to use is you’re possibly going to get slaughtered. Scrolling through menus is quite clumsy and, on occasion, costly. However, since Auto-battle is enough to get you through the majority of the game, this is really only a problem if you insist on picking your moves yourself, or for later mark missions when you need to use certain abilities that auto-battle won’t use, i.e. Lightning’s Army of One ability.
FFXIII also offers the ability to cancel your attacks via the Circle button, and cut short your ATB gauge by pressing the Triangle button, which is extremely useful for switching targets at a moment’s notice, or finishing off weaker targets that only require one or two attacks quickly, giving the battle system some much needed flexibility. Paradigm Shifting is quick and easy to do, however the transition between Paradigms can cost you precious time and, if you’re switching to heal when your characters are in the red zone, there is the chance that you’ll get knocked out in the middle of the Paradigm Shift animation, which is quite aggravating.
The camera also requires some serious control, because it tends to go wherever it pleases, regardless of what you do to put it back into place. Whilst this isn’t particularly annoying most of the time, there are moments when it becomes difficult to see enemies on-screen, meaning you may accidently run into one, or fail to avoid one.
However, these are all minor concerns which may crop up once every few hours whilst playing this game and, once you adjust to the battle system and become familiar with the menu screens, you’ll be able to avoid most disasters automatically.
Graphics: 9.9/10
Undeniably the most beautiful, breathtaking graphics on the PS3 to date. There are a wide variety of locations, and each one is amazingly detailed, right down to the shimmering crystal fragments or snow in the air. This seems to be the one thing that all of those who have reviewed the game can agree upon: its graphics are absolutely spectacular and are what set it apart. They aren’t wrong. Whilst the locations themselves occasionally feel like they have been recycled from previous Final Fantasy games, the scenery is still incredible, and far surpasses anything else. The characters themselves are also incredibly detailed and well-proportioned; even the NPCs and monsters receive an above-average level of detail. In-game graphics are cutscene graphics are blended together almost seamlessly. A trained, picky eye could spot the occasional polygonal moments in characters in the game, but that is to be expected, and half the time you’ll be too busy gawking at the scenery to notice.
Not only is the scenery incredible, but so is the scale. Looking down chasms will attest to this, as will the size of some of the monsters – with the removal of random battles, monsters are on-screen...at their full size. Seeing an Adamantoise cast a shadow over your characters as it ponders past slowly is quite a sight.
So, why the slight deduction in the score? Ironically, these graphics are TOO advanced; if you’ve got a TV that doesn’t run in high definition, you’re going to suffer with a lack of detail and, worse, screen tearing, particularly in the cutscenes when things start happening all at once. Whilst this isn’t damning, it is a shame, and it is extremely poor design on Square Enix’s part. After all, HDTVs are still very expensive, and not everyone has one. Having a game that only runs properly in High Definition is...well, stupid.
Sound: 5.1/10
Soundtrack is normally one of FF’s strongest points. Unfortunately, this is not so here. The soundtrack for this game was not composed by series regular Nobou Uematsu, but rather by Masashi Hamauzu, who helped compose the score for Final Fantasy X. A lot of the music is repetitive, inappropriately loud or quiet, and a general ear-splitting racket. Rarely does it set the proper mood to complement the situation or scenery, which is a shame. There are a few excellent tracks buried in here, however: boss battle themes are appropriately dramatic and fast-paced, and the few vocal tracks that do appear aren’t absolutely awful. There is a nice variety in here: sweeping orchestral pieces, melancholy jazz, dramatic and aggressive Latin vocals, etc; in this, Final Fantasy XII remains up to standard with previous FF games. The music also has the good grace to, a great deal of the time, be little more than a whisper in the background, although a lot of the time you will want to turn the volume down and put your own music on to compensate; particularly after you’ve heard the highly aggravating battle theme for the umpteenth time.
The voice acting is equally disappointing. Whilst some characters’ voices will undoubtedly grow on you as you listen to them more and more, Square Enix has recruited virtually unknown voice actors with very little talent for displaying more than one emotion for the voices of the cast. As with the soundtrack, there are a few exceptional moments however, given the quantity of voice acting (which is the best thing that can be said about it, and ironically also the worst due to the quality) these moments are few and far between.
Unique/Extra Features: 3.4/10
This might seem a tad harsh, however very little of Final Fantasy XIII’s gameplay elements are actually new or original. Its gameplay is essentially a fusion between Final Fantasy X’s Sphere Grid System and Final Fantasy XII’s Gambit system, with the fact that its combat system is little more than a flashier ATB system “disguised” by your being able to attack more than once when your ATB gauge fills up.
Whilst the Paradigms are the highlight of the gameplay, they are arguably a step backwards from the Gambits featured in Final Fantasy XII, which allowed you to fully customize your characters, instead of just selecting a role for them and leaving them to their own devices. Final Fantasy XIII brings nothing new to the tables; it simply cuts a great deal of excess out and presents you with a fantastic, but not new and original, battle system.
The only thing unique about FFXIII is its presentation, and whilst there are a fair few new areas to explore once the main story is completed, the overall effort is a poor one.
Replay value: 7.5/10
As with many Final Fantasy games, FFXIII has a good amount of replay value; perhaps even more so than normal, due to the story-driven gameplay. You don’t have to grind very much to advance, maps are often almost completely straight lines, and the AI is intelligent enough to carry you through every minor encounter, and even some of the major ones. FFXIII tells an interesting story that you’ll be able to watch again with very little effort at all, and if you’re one of those people who avoids games after you’ve finished them due to the sheer number of hours you’ve put into finishing them the first time around, you’ll definitely play this again when you want an in-depth story to watch with very little work involved. You aren’t required to do anything more than travel the map to the next cutscene, yet if you wish to then you can explore and develop your party. Because of this, it has quite a high replay value.
Overall Rating: 7.0/10
Whether you like it or not, there is no denying that Final Fantasy XIII is a very well-designed game. The systems, whilst recycled from previous Final Fantasy games with very little (if any) enhancement, are still solid, enjoyable and highly addictive. The graphics are absolutely stunning even with a low definition TV and occasional screen-tearing, and there has clearly been some thought put into the cast; whilst some of them you will no doubt find insufferable, they are extremely well developed individuals.
However, the flaws of this game are almost painfully obvious. For a story-driven game, the story itself lacks any real direction or impact due to the lack of a proper antagonist and the stale, emotionless voice acting, which can make it extremely hard to warm-up to the characters, and make the story itself feel like an extremely boring chore to sit through between short bursts of gameplay, which is not a good thing. For a lot of people, this game will only be worthwhile to them to play when they reach chapter eleven and the open world, and I would estimate that, without watching the cutscenes, that is still going to take about 12 hours to reach, and that is a very long time to tediously travel straight-line maps.
The lack of RPG staples is not in itself a flaw, and if you’ve been reading reviews that have criticised it due to these, then really you should ignore them. Final Fantasy XIII has the core elements of an RPG: a well-developed battle system, a captivating (eventually) storyline, and hours and hours of play. It doesn’t have other elements, such as towns or an overworld map, and its approaches to certain ideas (for example, restoring all your HP at the end of each battle, or the game ending when your controlled character dies) are somewhat unorthodox, yet whether these are good or bad things depends solely upon your belief on what constitutes an RPG, and what you think is essential and what isn’t. These are not flaws to condemn the game, they are aspects which will hinder or enhance your enjoyment of the game; they are not things it deserves to be marked down for. After all, there aren’t any absolute requirements for RPGs and, occasionally, Final Fantasy XIII feels more like an action game like Bayonetta with RPG elements.
If you approach this game with an open mind, and without any preconception as to exactly what should be in an RPG, then FFXIII is at least a satisfying experience, perhaps even a great one if you warm up quickly to the characters and find yourself immersed in the storyline. However, it does lack that “epic” feeling that other Final Fantasy games, and open-minded or not, you will find some of its flaws very hard to overlook.