Final Fantasy XIII is a beautiful underated epic. Yes, it truly is. - by Gab.

[Silva]

I think that Final Fantasy XIII has a wonderful heart as a game, and great graphical design, but is brought down by the weird spikes of difficulty and poor balance in the gameplay.

I think that it's just a case of having a silly, half-and-half approached to turn-based versus real-time battling. I have said since they first tried to implement this several FF games ago: making people scroll through menus frantically during a real time battle is a stupid idea. If the battle system was fully real time, say with attacks assigned to button combinations like in Devil May Cry, I can really see FF13 truly reinvigorating the franchise and taking it in a new more exciting direction as gameplay. It'd be the Resident Evil 4 breakthrough that finally brings things into the 21st Century.

We're agreed on the upgrading system being atrocious. More to the point, even if you fully upgrade a weapon I don't honestly see an improvement in results in battle. There's no sense of empowerment in it at all, beyond the weapon looking somewhat different (which rocks).

I think that the game's difficulty spikes deserve a mention - I do enjoy that I can die in any fight, like in an action game, but I don't find it impressive when I go from bosses I can smash to ones like the Proudclad, that are just cheap and have no real weaknesses and can't be grind in preparation for. If you want me to like a game, don't make me go back and grind for two hours to upgrade gear, return to the boss and get defeated half a second later than before. It's not a measure of skill, it's not an intelligent system, it's just a waste of my time.

I do think that the story could have been better written, but that's from the perspective of someone who reads real literature, not just trashy genre fiction, so that view may be of less importance to most gamers. Basically, starting the story halfway through and then slowly showing information from earlier on is a great technique if you have a reason to use it, such as characters who don't have memories and slowly remember them (an in-universe reason for it) or characters that will be better loved if not seen at the start (an authorial reason to use it, for strength of story).

Lightning would have been just as well-loved if things had started from the chronological start, and the others could have easily been introduced interestingly enough without randomly appearing in the middle of the action. I think that few people of critical knowledge would like this choice of story structure at all; it is frustrating to digest and feels artificial. It's just a "rule of cool" Japanese story technique, stolen from their pop culture, that looks terrible in execution because of how unnecessary it is.

I think that the linearity was only annoying to anyone who's just too Western to see the point. Those who complain about that are just not who the game is aimed at. But at the same time, I do believe that arriving at Pulse earlier would have made more sense as an emotional appeal to the player, even if you get shoved down a few pipes afterwards.

Thanks for the provocative review. I think that it's good to enjoy FF13 for yourself and not let reviews spoil it for you if you've bought it already. It certainly has its heart in the right place (and that is the most important thing to the gamers that I find interesting as people), I just wanted better execution to bring that heart out and make it sing.

 

[Jonesy911]

can gabmed please explain how exactly the gameplay is ''complex'', u press the same button over and over, all u do is find a rhythm between healing and attack, the gameplay blows. They did their absolute best to remove you from the gameplay as much as possible, ffXIII-2 should be a book.

You REALLY think so?

You REALLY think that pressing "auto-battle" will make you win every single battle?

Tell you what, Hixy, try finding an YouTube video, ANY YouTube video, that includes a late-game (Late-game as in Chapter 10 onwards) that is COMPLETELY beaten by using Auto-Battle.

Here's a confession: There are none. Because, later on, Auto-Battle becomes a gamble. What if the AI does something stupid? Are you REALLY sure you want to let the AI battle for you? Well, my friend, then you're taking the fun of the game away from yourself. Kind of like playing with AimBot on PC FPSs.

But all you can do is change the paradigms and they basically run the show, there is no varying strategy enemy to enemy. you just heal, attack and eventually stagger them and smash the crap out of them. Perhaps i didnt get to the good bits later on, by the time i started the third disc i was so mentally drained from the mind numbing boredom of the game i stopped playing. I still have it there though, for a day i feel like punishing myself and subjecting myself to more linear corridors, unlikeable characters and in my opinion confusing plot.

This is the one criticism of the game I find trouble agreeing with. For a very long time the auto-battle option does make the already monotonous battles system feel incredibly unesscessary, that much it true. But by about the 9th or 10th chapter (which is way too fucking long by the way) I found myself quite exhilarated by having to constantly switch my tactics on the fly. That is one of the few things the game did quite well. Another being the levelling system.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

Uhh... If you say so...

I disagree with so much of what you said. Though a lot of it comes down to personal taste (I hated Bioshock 2 as well), I feel that the game has flaws that you are overlooking.

Though I will say "thanks," for this review, because you've inspired me to stop pussy-footing around and finish up my own user review, in which I will give this game the thrashing it deserves.

 

[imPacT31]

Yes the characters are annoying. Lightning is cold and ruthless with an incredibly contrived reason for being so.

She was forced to grow up far too quickly in the wake of her parent's deaths and essentially abandoned any chance of having a happy childhood so that her younger sister wouldn't have to face-up to how bad their situation was. Lightning is "cold and ruthless" partially because of her military attitude but also because she's engineered herself into a situation where she doesn't want to stop and look back over the mess she's left in her wake. Her entire life revolves around maintaining this stoic façade and resolving problems in the most blunt and tactless way possible to avoid developing emotional attachments. She doesn't want to allow herself to regret her decisions.

The whole point behind "Lightning" is to be this ruthlessly efficient figure who is strong enough to do what's asked of them without complain or assistance. As a result, she is emotionally under-developed and more likely to solve problems immediately through violence than by sitting down and talking about her feelings.

 

[Jonesy911]

This is, by far, one of the best games I've played on the PS3. It ain't perfect, and by no means is the best Final Fantasy ever to grace humanity, but it's over-the-top story, simple-yet-complex gameplay and graphics that surpasses anything you have ever seen, this hidden pearl is one of review's biggest mistakes. If you don't feel like buying it because you don't believe me, at least rent it. Please. For the sake of your mind, a good non-anime story will do good for your head.

Hell yeah! ^^ I completely agree. This is a wonderful review - well written, well expressed, and spot on.

The only thing you left out, IMO, is how much the characters develop and change during the course of the story. I have never seen so much development take place between characters in a Final Fantasy game, and that includes FF7.

Sorry, did we play the same game? These characters don't develop. They go on and on about one subject to each other for multiple cut-scenes e.g. Snow: "HURR DURR LET'S BE HEROES AND SAVE MY GIRLFRIEND" and Hope:"WAHH BUT WHAT IF WE GET PEOPLE HURT?". I think you'll find every conversation these two have boil down to those two sentences. These characters are defined by one trait and they stagnate on it.

A good example of a well developed character in an FF game is Cecil from FF4. He starts off a dark knight and is troubled by his immoral orders. After rebelling against a king he considered his father he becomes a paladin (white knight). After this change he begins to notice the world around he becomes generally more accepting of him and it is all a metaphor for how the kind are rewarded with kindness while the wicked are scorned. Not just this but Square cleverly took advantage of the GAME to help show this, not just the cut scenes. When Cecil becomes a white knight his powerful offensive powers are lost but now he is capable of defending and healing others in battle.

While FF4 takes advantage of the fact it is a game FF13 almost feels as if it's trying not to be. Not only does it shovel you through a corridor for 90% percent of the game, it relies entirely on non-interactive media to "develop" its characters.

Plus you cant even go to towns, there is no world map and the classic music is gone. WTF

 

[epikAXE]

I actually love you so much for this =3

 

[sketch_zeppelin]

Heres whats been ticking me off with the last couple of FF games. They're becoming less like games and more like a loooong movie. I had alot of fun with FF 7's materia system because it allowed you to come up with some clever combos. In FF 12 i was taken back by the gambit system. It seemed like they're version of upgrading your character was to slowly take away control from you till you basically handed over the combat completly to the computer.

Now in FF 13 the game just straight up plays its self. All you do is tell the game which auto sequince to run. Its like playing dragons lair. Very Pretty but all your doing is hitting a button from time to time so you can continue the movie. Hit the wrong button and its game over. the only difference is in FF 13 you hit the wrong button more than one time before you die.

I understand they're trying to get away from turn based combat in favor of a more fluid experince but turn based combat works. I'll admit other than FF 7 i've never been a huge fan of the franchise but i do love me some turn based JRPG's like the Persona Games. Now thats a series that keeps doing it right. Sure it doesn't have the graphics of Final Fantasy but i don't care so long as they play well.

 

[gabmed]

I actually love you so much for this =3

If you're talking to me...
*hugsies*
Thanks. =3

 

[epikAXE]

This is, by far, one of the best games I've played on the PS3. It ain't perfect, and by no means is the best Final Fantasy ever to grace humanity, but it's over-the-top story, simple-yet-complex gameplay and graphics that surpasses anything you have ever seen, this hidden pearl is one of review's biggest mistakes. If you don't feel like buying it because you don't believe me, at least rent it. Please. For the sake of your mind, a good non-anime story will do good for your head.

Hell yeah! ^^ I completely agree. This is a wonderful review - well written, well expressed, and spot on.

The only thing you left out, IMO, is how much the characters develop and change during the course of the story. I have never seen so much development take place between characters in a Final Fantasy game, and that includes FF7.

Sorry, did we play the same game? These characters don't develop. They go on and on about one subject to each other for multiple cut-scenes e.g. Snow: "HURR DURR LET'S BE HEROES AND SAVE MY GIRLFRIEND" and Hope:"WAHH BUT WHAT IF WE GET PEOPLE HURT?". I think you'll find every conversation these two have boil down to those two sentences. These characters are defined by one trait and they stagnate on it.

A good example of a well developed character in an FF game is Cecil from FF4. He starts off a dark knight and is troubled by his immoral orders. After rebelling against a king he considered his father he becomes a paladin (white knight). After this change he begins to notice the world around he becomes generally more accepting of him and it is all a metaphor for how the kind are rewarded with kindness while the wicked are scorned. Not just this but Square cleverly took advantage of the GAME to help show this, not just the cut scenes. When Cecil becomes a white knight his powerful offensive powers are lost but now he is capable of defending and healing others in battle.

While FF4 takes advantage of the fact it is a game FF13 almost feels as if it's trying not to be. Not only does it shovel you through a corridor for 90% percent of the game, it relies entirely on non-interactive media to "develop" its characters.

Plus you cant even go to towns, there is no world map and the classic music is gone. WTF

This guy is totally right. There isnt much development in the characters personalitys. The development come from thier feelings towards eachother and how the infastrucure of thier friendship is tried and tested (see the scene with Sazh and Vanille in Nautilus) This makes for and interesting narrative because when Hope finally gets over the fact that Snow killed his mom or Sazh forgives Vanille for rendering him incapable for speaking to his son or whatever, you feel a sense of closure and genuine emotion.


On the other hand Snow is constantly banging on about being the hero, and Lightning is going on and on about how she failed her sister Ect.

I liked the gameplay, lots of people didn't so fair enough, but i like FFXIII

( this is also a problem i found with Squall in FF VIII. Even when Rinoa was coming on to him so hard it hurt, he was just all *brood* FOR 30 HOURS! )

 

[icame]

I can understand what you're saying but I completely disagree. I could literally go on for hours about the numerous things I feel were done wrong in that game,I can only give it credit for being a stunning looking game and for not having an "mp bar".
It was incredibly linear and had virtually nothing on offer in terms of side-quests,it also had the excellent idea of controlling only a single character who's death would constitute a 'game over' (I mean why even have phoenix down and revive let alone a party if they can't be used properly)
There was also the single worst case of voice acting I have ever heard it,I have never hated a 'good' character as much as Vanille..

Pretty much this. I consider FF13 to be the worst major release in gaming history. If you like it, fine, glad you can enjoy it, but by most people's standards the game is a far cry from an epic. Everything about it is bad, except the graphics. The visual design is bland, but the actual polygon count etc is good.

 

[GaryH]

If a game has poor gameplay, it's a bad game.

FFXIII is stunningly beautiful and has a reasonable story. I enjoyed it a lot and absolutely do not regret the purchase, but it's still a bad game. I would have had the same experience had I just watched the cutscenes and important boss fights.

It's so difficult to disagree with someone who has Fluttershy as a their avatar...

 

[Ickorus]

I haven't read the first post since I just got back from a two hour car journey and am tired as hell but i'll agree with the title to an extent, it has a good story and is absolutely beautiful but it's major stumbling point is it's too damned linear.

 

[Mana Fiend]

I'm glad to see I'm not the only person who enjoys this game (though I'm definitely in the minority). The characterisation made sense to me, and the worldwas great. I honestly don't get how people can't follow what's going on: it's all pretty obvious, provided you don't mind learning as you do. That's what seemed to be the problem with many critics - a lack of patience and willingness to learn about the world as you went.

Also, the lack of towns was perfectly reasonable. These people were on the run, they CAN'T go sleep in the local inn.

 

[Jonesy911]

Yes the characters are annoying. Lightning is cold and ruthless with an incredibly contrived reason for being so.

She was forced to grow up far too quickly in the wake of her parent's deaths and essentially abandoned any chance of having a happy childhood so that her younger sister wouldn't have to face-up to how bad their situation was. Lightning is "cold and ruthless" partially because of her military attitude but also because she's engineered herself into a situation where she doesn't want to stop and look back over the mess she's left in her wake. Her entire life revolves around maintaining this stoic façade and resolving problems in the most blunt and tactless way possible to avoid developing emotional attachments. She doesn't want to allow herself to regret her decisions.

The whole point behind "Lightning" is to be this ruthlessly efficient figure who is strong enough to do what's asked of them without complain or assistance. As a result, she is emotionally under-developed and more likely to solve problems immediately through violence than by sitting down and talking about her feelings.

I said the reason was contrived not non-existent. Lightning's back story is very formulaic and I've seen it done better in hundreds of books, films and other games.

An easy comparison to Lightning is Solid Snake from the MGS Series. They're both soldiers, both cold and distant, ready to fight out of any situation, both killers. But only one of them has a good reason to be.

Snake started off as a fresh faced young soldier, eventually ruined by the horrors of war. He relapses into a cold emotionless state and lives a solitary life. When pulled back into action he tries his hardest not to become emotionally attached to his allies and regrets it when he inevitably does, eventually he learns to become human again as he mentors other people through what he has already experienced (Meryl, Otacon, Raiden etc.)

The point is Snake was a cold and ruthless character but we were still shown his human side through his actions and words and as we progressed through the series we saw his compassion seep out more and more, he was clearly a well thought out character whose back story shaped him and not vice versa, which is what seems to be the case for Lightning.

Lightning comes across a character who the designers manufactured a back story around in order to fit the character they wanted, hence the contrived feeling. It only seems this way because Lightning is never willing to discuss anything with anyone. She only ever opens up to one characters during the first 11 chapters of the game. She vomits out her entire back story in one or two cut-scenes and then it's back to her being the good old hard-ass we know and "love".

In short, it seems her back story was though of after the character had already been created (which is a big no no in character creation). Sure she has A reason for being the way she is, but it isn't exactly deep or meaningful and as a result neither is she.

 

[Inkidu]

This is, by far, one of the best games I've played on the PS3. It ain't perfect, and by no means is the best Final Fantasy ever to grace humanity, but it's over-the-top story, simple-yet-complex gameplay and graphics that surpasses anything you have ever seen, this hidden pearl is one of review's biggest mistakes. If you don't feel like buying it because you don't believe me, at least rent it. Please. For the sake of your mind, a good non-anime story will do good for your head.

Hell yeah! ^^ I completely agree. This is a wonderful review - well written, well expressed, and spot on.

The only thing you left out, IMO, is how much the characters develop and change during the course of the story. I have never seen so much development take place between characters in a Final Fantasy game, and that includes FF7.

Sorry, did we play the same game? These characters don't develop. They go on and on about one subject to each other for multiple cut-scenes e.g. Snow: "HURR DURR LET'S BE HEROES AND SAVE MY GIRLFRIEND" and Hope:"WAHH BUT WHAT IF WE GET PEOPLE HURT?". I think you'll find every conversation these two have boil down to those two sentences. These characters are defined by one trait and they stagnate on it.

A good example of a well developed character in an FF game is Cecil from FF4. He starts off a dark knight and is troubled by his immoral orders. After rebelling against a king he considered his father he becomes a paladin (white knight). After this change he begins to notice the world around he becomes generally more accepting of him and it is all a metaphor for how the kind are rewarded with kindness while the wicked are scorned. Not just this but Square cleverly took advantage of the GAME to help show this, not just the cut scenes. When Cecil becomes a white knight his powerful offensive powers are lost but now he is capable of defending and healing others in battle.

While FF4 takes advantage of the fact it is a game FF13 almost feels as if it's trying not to be. Not only does it shovel you through a corridor for 90% percent of the game, it relies entirely on non-interactive media to "develop" its characters.

Plus you cant even go to towns, there is no world map and the classic music is gone. WTF

This guy is totally right. There isnt much development in the characters personalitys. The development come from thier feelings towards eachother and how the infastrucure of thier friendship is tried and tested (see the scene with Sazh and Vanille in Nautilus) This makes for and interesting narrative because when Hope finally gets over the fact that Snow killed his mom or Sazh forgives Vanille for rendering him incapable for speaking to his son or whatever, you feel a sense of closure and genuine emotion.


On the other hand Snow is constantly banging on about being the hero, and Lightning is going on and on about how she failed her sister Ect.

I liked the gameplay, lots of people didn't so fair enough, but i like FFXIII

( this is also a problem i found with Squall in FF VIII. Even when Rinoa was coming on to him so hard it hurt, he was just all *brood* FOR 30 HOURS! )

I'll be the first to admit that Squall's denial is kind of overplayed, but he did something for the series. He broke the flipping mold. He's allowed to be overplayed. No more "Hur-dur" hero time.

You know as a teenager I could really identify with Squall, and no it's not the emo... hell he's anit-emo when it comes down to it. Emotions are a foreign entity to him. Squall wants a simple life, he's trained to be a SeeD all his life and all wants to do is go on missions and get paid. He has a clear view of the world and people in it, and he doesn't care for the latter.

Then he's suddenly thrust into the role of actual responsibility, personal responsibility. He can't write it off as a job, people expect him to go and do. He doesn't want that, it shatters his world view, it makes him vulnerable, and that's when the actual development begins. When he has to start relying on people because his new forced world view has been changed. It's kind of a metaphor for growing up.

Now Cloud, Cloud is the emo one.

 

[RadicalDreamer90]

Before I start I'd like to point out I never quite understood the hate for Vanille. She's wacky and her voice is a bit different, but I like different. It's better then hearing a grown man grunt into the microphone for 10 hours of game play, or a silent protagonist with no soul.

FF13's aesthetics were indeed great. The Crystal Tools worked wonders for cutscene to battle transitions, so I've got no complaints there. I don't consider your points against sound as valid since they were oddly nit picky, and didn't really influence the game much. This surely wasn't the strongest soundtrack for a final fantasy game, but it did what it was suppose to even if I didn't enjoy the theme all that much.

Gameplay like Final Fantasy 12, I praise for it's variety. I can honestly say that of the hundreds of games people play, they got to final fantasy 13 and had to learn a thing or two. Gameplay was well paced and worked. For those of you calling it slow, you can change the games speed in the options at any point in the game, and when it's at its fastest the turns flow right into each other. The crystarium was nice, but borrowed alot from the sphere grid and was considerably more linear. The crystarium only gave the illusion of choice and customization, but your forced down each path so that was alot of wasted effort. The sphere grid however was only linear at the beginning of the game, and opened up for full maneuverability towards the middle.

As far as story, I may not have liked the characters, I may know for a fact alot of elements of the plot were badly paced and needed to either be cut or elaborated, but among all of those flaws, I still give Final Fantasy 13 a 8.5/10 for it. It's not because I have an affinity to the game, it's just the fact that many games never touch on mature themes. God of war boasts breasts and gore, but will never come close to maturity Square Enix set out to convey. Tackling parenthood and its tribulations in a game is difficult. Parenting in an action game or movie always takes back seat to the thrill and excitement or hinders it completely, so it's an arduous process to incorporate that, and I feel FF13 made a valiant attempt. Handling death, handling responsibility and coming of age among overwhelming prejudice is also difficult while keeping the story fast paced and interesting. It may seem like FF13 had simple flaws, but the idea in and of itself was complex and required a degree of tact to conquer, and though Squenix didn't clear the hurdle, at least they finished the race.

Final Fantasy 13 tackled adult themes that most games stay away from. Games like god of war, and alot of games in general are juvenile and don't allow their stories and games to tackle real personal issues, and though I didn't like FF13 as much as I'd have liked, I enjoyed seeing those themes. I enjoyed watching Sazh struggle being a father and Vanille come to terms with her crimes against him, AND as annoying as Hope was, I still liked the idea of him coming to terms with death at an early age as his tribulation.

Overall I give FF13 a 8.5 for crisp presentation and taking a chance. The paradigm system is very automated, and though it speeds up battles, it leaves little for the player to contribute. The story tackled harsher themes, but was badly paced, and desperately needed exploration. Final Fantasy games have always had exploration and side quests so that the player can willingly find out more about the world they're interacting with, and that's absent from this game entirely. With all of that said, I don't look forward to the sequel in any shape form or fashion.

 

[Weaver]

If it's the "most beautiful and engaging story I have ever seen", I suggest you experience more stories.

I know I'm being kind of a dick, but we have amazing works of thought provoking art like "The Stranger" by Albert Camus, we have 1984, a brave new world, lord of the rings, pride and prejudice... and Final Fantasy XIII stands up to those? It's story was a haphazard mess, overwrought and entirely convoluted with itself. Even if the plot was interesting, there is no way I'll ever agree it was told well.

 

[commodore96]

My Review:
This game felt like I was sticking my head in a beautiful linear meat grinder