Believe it or not, this logo actually makes sense.

Believe it or not, this logo actually makes sense.

Well, it’s taken me the best part of two months, but I finally fancy writing my review for Final Fantasy XIII.  The only reason that it’s taken this long is that I don’t usually like to cast judgement on a game I’m not finished with — but I think that after spending 60 hours with FFXIII I’ve probably learned everything I’m going to need.  And yes, I am still playing it… which makes a welcome change from the last two eight-hour games I got for the same price.

For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past twenty years, FFXIII is the thirteenth instalment in the popular J-RPG franchise from Square-Enix.  As with most J-RPGs, the storyline is pretty cliche; the story sees a seemingly workaday group of people get swept up in an evil plot, granted magical powers and eventually fight to save their planet from destruction.  The details are different, sure, but there’s nothing ground-breaking in story-telling terms.  In fact, I’d probably even go so far as to say that the plot and its characters are not as memorable as those from previous Final Fantasy games.  The lone possible exception to this rule is the game’s protagonist — Lightning — who is pretty striking (if you’ll excuse the pun).

A quick run-down of those things that make FFXIII different, then:

  • Restriction
    One of the best things (in my opinion) about J-RPGs is the freedom; at some point in the game, usually about half way through, you find yourself an airship and gain the ability to revisit all of the towns and locales you’ve passed through before.  This freedom is unfortunately missing from most of FFXIII. Of the game’s six characters, only three of them can take part in battles at any given time.  Of those three, you can only control one — who you are stuck with until the battle is finished.  Each “Chapter” of the game comes with a level cap, presumably to discourage you from grinding, and it’s impossible to max out your characters until you’ve defeated the final boss.  There are no towns or villages to speak of, no real NPC interaction, your hand is held tightly as the game drags you down a set path… I could go on.
  • Battle System
    First FFXII, now FFXIII — it seems that Square-Enix is more than happy to kill the original turn-based battle systems that worked so well in previous games.  That isn’t to say that FFXIII‘s battle system is bad, necessarily, but it does take some time getting used to.  At the beginning of the game, your characters are confined to three “paradigm roles” each, which limits your selection of battle strategies considerably.  Thankfully, this restriction is limited after about 30 hours.  Unfortunately, up until this point, the best tactic seems too often to be: hammer away on the “Auto-Battle” command until whatever you’re fighting falls over.
  • Weapon / Accessories Upgrades
    FFXIII has one of the most in-depth upgrade systems I’ve ever seen.  Almost every item that you find on your travels has an amount of EXP associated with it, which can be used to upgrade accessories     and/or weapons; a ring providing +15% Earth Resistance may, eventually, evolve into a completely different ring providing +40% Earth Resistance, for example.  This system is the only way to gain stronger weapons (including each character’s Ultimate Weapon), so its use is essential.

The tone of this review has been surprisingly negative so far — surprising because I’m still playing the game.  A large chunk of it lacks in freedom, as I’ve said, but everything changes rather suddenly in Chapter 11 (of 13).  You find yourself thrown from the planet where the rest of the storyline took place to a world called Pulse (which serves as FFXIII‘s World Map) and just told to get on with it.  The change was too sudden for me; having been left to my own devices, I promptly got lost and died.  Several times.  But eventually I figured out where I was going, how to work the teleporters and how to accept missions; the difficulty had been ramped up considerably and things were starting to get interesting.

There are 64 optional bounty-hunter style missions to undertake on Pulse, which is the reason I’m still grinding away.  These sorts of missions might not be to everybody’s tastes, but I found them a pleasant distraction.  Attempting them in order seems the most sensible idea, and gives you a handy method of levelling up; in addition to counting towards an achievement/trophy, each mission offers useful rewards and experience that help prepare you for the next.

So, what am I trying to say?  Probably that Final Fantasy XIII disappoints in a few places, but that it’s still brilliant.  The characters may not be that memorable, the dialogue may be filled with nonsense and the game may feel very cramped and restricted for the first 30 hours, but the hours that follow; the exploration of Pulse; the high-definition FMVs; and the musical score easily make up for all of the game’s faults.

It’s made me even hungrier for a high-definition remake of Final Fantasy VII, to boot.  What?  A man can dream…