Final Fantasy XIII Review – “A Finale”
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Final Fantasy XIII (13) - Review
We’ve been waiting 4 years for the game, for many 4 years has been an eternity to get another fix of classic Final Fantasy goodness. Have Square Enix once again kicked some developing ass and pulled it out the bag once more? Or is 13 an unlucky number for them? Is this the ‘Final’ Fantasy?
How about we find out then?
Hey, what we staring at?
Story – 7
Firstly, a massive disclaimer. I’ve only ever played Final Fantasy X, which I’ve heard is one of the best Final Fantasies so I’ve only every felt the emotional downtime of Tidus’ FFX sleeping problems. From that one game though, I’m pretty much qualified on how Final Fantasy stories go down.
Square Enix hate you, they want to make you cry (with emotion – had you there didn’t I?). They throw you a bone with a handful of characters. You’ve got your standard ‘big man’ personality under the name of ‘Snow’, your good looking lead female character who isn’t scared to kick ass ‘Lightning’ and then your standard character that you actually wouldn’t mind slamming her head into a doorframe countless times, hello Vanille! The coolest character has to be Sazh, a black guy with a chocobo in his Afro, this man is redefining cool and really does make me want to get some form of bird to live in my hair, maybe an Owl.
I felt out of place with the rest of the characters as well as the ones mentioned above. 2 members of the fighting party are actual kids, making me feel like that the acts of Halo 2 online has made its way into my Final Fantasy adventure! I go about muting their voices by singing Leona Lewis’ most recent album as loud as possible. 9\10 of the actual character I just can’t relate to in any way possible, actually makes me angry.
However the reason why I slow begun baring it all was the moment when the game throws cut-scene after cut-scene at you. It’s like an emotional story overload which slowly begins seeping into the cry baby side of your brain. When you realise that your actually welling up at one point does make you punch yourself straight in the leg and to tell yourself its not real. Yet again, I’ve been pulled into to this emotional rollercoaster ride which has caused me to play the game for another 10 hours straight.
What’s cooler than being cool?
Being emotionally attached to the characters really does help pull you through the game because the story itself is an absolute nightmare to get your head around. fal’Cie, L’Cie, Cocoon, Sanctum, PSICOM, NORA, Pulse – It’s all a bunch of words which will have your head spinning, this game will make you cry with emotional as well as make you cry with anger a confusion. If this game wasn’t for the gripping characters the actual story of the game would fall flat on it’s phoenix feather arse.
In Layman terms, there is a war between 2 world going on (The floating city of Cocoon and the surface of Pulse) You are fighting for Cocoon and have been branded by a group known as the fal’Cie of Pulse, being branded means that you have been cursed are are awaiting your darkest hour. When You are branded you are known as l’Cie and have to carry-out an objective to become a crystal life form (which actually has you die) otherwise you turn into some crazy ass zombie monster.
Now I am aware that I may be incredibly wrong and may even end up getting lynched but in all honestly I actually struggled to understand the actual plot. Maybe this is because the game doesn’t open very well for the story aspect of things. It really is a shame because I really want to know what’s going on and maybe care a little bit more.
Stand back lads, I’ll handle this!
Gameplay – 8
The Final Fantasy formula has really been shaken up for the past 3 instalments. Final Fantasy XIII goes one further and attempts to have the gameplay moving for you, auto-pilot lets say. You can only take the role of what one character is doing during battles. The ‘Auto-battle’ feature will choose the most effective attacks against your opponent, eliminating the chance of you fighting fire with fire. Some adventurous players may feel a little left out by this and feel that they have less control of the battle sequence. The game is definitely more accessible to those who haven’t touched a Final Fantasy before and also want to see all the fighting go a little quicker.
Each character like before will have to learn key skills to dominate the battlefield. The Crystarium is the games new levelling up system. Much like the sphere grid from Final Fantasy X you must gain experience from killing those horrible enemies to travel across the Crystarium board. This isn’t unlocked from the start of the game which makes it rather annoying that your first 3 hours of killing count for nothing. A few other features will slowly be introduced into the game – the initial 20 hours is just like one massive tutorial. Some people may just get a little irate.
FF XIII’s gameplay is at times rather frantic!
Another welcomed addition has to be the Paradigm system. This gives the other players in combat (which you no longer have controller over) a role in the battle sequence. Ability Characteristics are split up into these 6 roles: Commando, Ravager, Sentinel, Synergist, Saboteur and Medic. Each role when put together create furious combo’s which are titled by a Paradigm. These will have you switching in and out of Paradigms during the heart of combat to gain the upper-hand on your enemy. When your taking a bit too much damage you switch to a defensive healing role to recover and then switch back for a more aggressive stance. It works really well and is one of the games great assets.
Summons return known as Eidolons (same name as Final Fantasy IX) and must be obtained by defeating them using different tactics. Some will yield to you if your one to heal your wounded team mates others prefer it if you attempt to beat them to death with heavy combos. Annoyingly these fight sequences appear out of nowhere and are rock sold at times. We’ve found that at times it can completely throw your game off course and you’ll end up pulling your hair out, which later has you removing your disc from your console. The moments at the start of the game are so linear that you can’t stray off course to go and do some creature farming. This is the sort of rock solid gameplay that happens early on which can easily ruin the initial flow of the game.
To make battles run a little smoother and so that you can create some big hit attacks Final Fantasy XIII introduces the new ‘Stagger’ combat. In the top right hand corner for each enemy there is what’s known as a Stagger bar. filling this bar up will allow you to multiply your hit bonus on the enemy. Once ‘staggered’ you have a set time limit to unleash brutality to your enemy. It’s actually a brilliant new part to the battle system, slightly strategic planning will help you master the best ways of wiping out the battlefield faster. Perfect for getting new players into the game.
Looks nice too!
Graphics – 8
Final Fantasy is known for being a Sony Playstation franchise, well obviously not this time round! For the first time ever FF has made it onto the Xbox360 console. The 360 has 3 discs to pleasure you with while the PS3 sticks with just 1 Blu-ray. Due to the compression there are a rather few hiccups on the Xbox360 version.
The cutscene masterpieces return, CG always makes people happy. However sadly if your a bit of a pixel junkie then the Xbox360 version won’t be for you! The cutscenes only make their way into a 576i format which is an interlaced (dirty – scan lines) signal. For the full mind blowing colours and resolution then you’ve got to pickup the Playstation 3 version. Although that’s not to say that the 360 version doesn’t look great, It’s totally playable and there is nothing wrong with it but it’s your decision.
Sadly the graphics don’t strike us as anything special. It being the first Final Fantasy on the current systems we would of expected a lot more. They haven’t attempted to push any hardware to the limit, they’ve just thought of creating a standard graphical look for the game.
Get the Violins out!
Audio – 9
Once more we review a game with an amazing Soundtrack! This is starting to annoy us now. Heavy Rain performed only weeks before the release of this game and to have another emotional soundtrack come our way has turned the office into an emotional flood! (No idea where Fishwick is, I think he may of actually drowned, poor fish).
Final Fantasy has always delivered with some heart warming melodies and some over the top Japanese guitar riffs. Every single track of this 3 disc soundtrack is a musical gem. Even the battle music which in other games slowly begins to annoy you after hearing it for 60seconds has made it’s way into our heart. Whoever is churning out these amazing tracks each and every time needs an award the size of Sin (oh the in joke there for Final Fantasy fans! My wit is so strong).
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Details
Category: Role Playing Games
Age: 12 Years and above
Publisher: Square Enix
(Lightning) Shock and Awe
- Fast, agile and fun new Combat elements.
- Amazing Music direction once more!
- Story is driven by a handful of amazingly scripted characters, except for you Vanille, hope you get shunted.
13 being Unlucky for some
- Linear first 15 hours
- Most confusing story ever, still no idea why I’m getting so emotional
- Xbox360 lacks the graphical cutscenes as well as just having 1 disc.
Overal then
Final Fantasy XIII seems to of hit the ‘Unlucky for some button’. As a game it really would struggle in the current game release climate but thanks to the Final Fantasy seal of approval in manages to only just slip in. The game has an amazing set of characters to tell you one of the industries most confusing stories which somehow, even though you don’t understand what’s going on, pulls you through the game to play for those 300hours.
Written and Reviewed by Sam Clay
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