Final Fantasy XIII Review

Years in the making, Square-Enix’s first multi-platform attempt to please everybody is finally here.

More than any JRPG (more than any Japanese game at all), there is a tendancy to compare and contrast Final Fantasy against western success stories such as Fallout3 or Mass Effect2. As though Square-Enix’s seminal series has past it’s time and should take a few pointers from it’s non-linear brethren.

There is a smattering of truth in that idea but those familiar enough with JRPGs know that they can be an entirely different beast and don’t necessarily work well within the same framework and (in Final Fantasy’s case) may as well be a totally separate genre.

So to bemoan the controversial “linearity” of Final Fantasy XIII in those terms is a fruitless endeavor. We need to look at other JRPGs, or even other Final Fantasies for some perspective.

Firstly, yes …..it’s linear.

Damn linear.

It’s a virtual conveyor belt of not so random battle encounters peppered with gorgeously over the top cinematics. Which is to say that it’s about as linear as any Final Fantasy to go before it, considering some of those are among the most highly regarded games ever made, it becomes easy to see that linearity is not its real problem.

The problem?

Well, put simply, for the first 20-30 hours of play Final Fantasy XIII feels like the most single-minded game since Pac-man.

There is nothing to do for the first whole 2 days of game time but walk down corridors, and tinker with the severely limited (at first) but admittedly ingenious battle system. Other games in the series filled their worlds with mini-games, conversations with randomers, Inns, shops, races, DIVERSIONS of any kind which, at the end of the day… made the worlds believable.

XIII does not (shopping is now handled at save points), this is both the most gorgeous and most lifeless game you’ll ever play at times. The single mindedness is clearly intent on pushing the tale forward, ironic then that ultimately it’s the story that suffers the most from this choice.

Also ironic, is the fact that when the games unflinching race towards the finish line takes its first breather…is the only area in the game where you are likely to spot a few flat textures here and there and also the most vibrant and interesting place in the adventure. Subtle commentary by the devs? Nah.

When it finally opens up….it’s great, but whether or not that seemingly endless dungeon crawl is worth it in the first place will vary depending on the individual.

COMBAT

If there is one formula that Square never seem to fail to mess with, but somehow always comes out smiling – it’s the battle system formula

As with FFXII, XIII’s battle system has you swapping out direct control to focus on overall strategy. You only directly control one party member at a time, the other party members are controlled by switching “Paradigms” on the fly. “Paradigms” are FFXIIIs job system, with a single paradigm being a combination of three jobs: Warrior, Mage, Healer, Sentinel etc.

The limitation is that you can only take a small handful (A “deck”) of paradigms into battle at a time. This leads to some thoughtful preparation before each battle making all the difference between victory and death, especially in the later stages when the system finally opens up and removes the training wheels. Too bad that the wait for this is so long, as it is easily the best aspect of the gameplay, desperately alternating between a healing and a buffing paradigm as your party teeters near death , then to an all-out attack paradigm as the boss monster leaves a brief window in its assault.

Just expect to spend a good 20 hours of breezing through the combat before they throw anything interesting at you though, and it doesn’t help that you won’t have control over who is in your party until this stage either. But when it gets there….you’ll definitely know it’s happening. The difficulty spike is rather sudden, accompanied by a big plot revelation and your introduction to the main antagonist of the story – all at once. It made me feel like I was really playing one of the great RPGs again. The combat keeps this pace up for the rest of the adventure but the story does not.

Naturally, summoning powerful Eidolons to aid you in battle is another returning FF staple. This time they take the form of transforming semi-robotic vehicles. You may be thinking that sounds familiar, but it’s not really a rip-off. The designs and transformations are so bizarre and the spell effects so over the top that it could only be Final Fantasy. Each summoned creature has a vehicle form and its (usually) humanoid form, even I (a seasoned FF veteran) found this a little too ridiculous to take seriously and look forward to using often. Good thing then, because not only are summons prohibitively expensive to use, they are usually not all that powerful. I found myself only using them when I thought a monster was about to use an attack my party couldn’t withstand, using the summoned creature as a shield rather than as a weapon.

Lightning's pet god Odin transforms into a horse.....yep.

There is a leveling up system here that bares cosmetic similarities to the Sphere-Grid from FFX, but it’s nowhere near that involved. It puts on a smoke and mirrors show of being complex, but really there is no reason not to just get everything on the progression tree of each character’s predetermined starting jobs.

There are some deviations branching off the main path, but you’ll only skip something if its right before a fight and you could learn a new ability or spell instead. You’ll always just go back to it after the battle.

There is also a crafting system but it is very basic, there a many different items you can use but they all fall into a small handful of types, you’ll end up just throwing everything together and hoping for the best as there is no real guidance as to how to make specific weapons.

I have to admit I needed to consult an online guide to gain any clue of how to fashion the games ultimate weapons….and that was a monotonous task of farming Adamantoises (large turtle-like creatures with huge health and a powerful stomp) for hours and hours at a time to get a rare drop. Not an epic quest to defeat some Ultimate badass monsters like in previous games

Story

The main premise and story of FFXIII is actually quite an interesting one, or at least it gets there.

Without spoiling any details there are two worlds in the game, the primitive and colossal world of Pulse, and the uber-futuristic utopia of Cocoon that hangs above it. The gods that watch over these worlds are giant metal beings called “fal’Cie”. These worlds are considered to be in a state of war with each other. For the citizens of Cocoon to come in contact with a Pulse fal’Cie means banishment to the giant world below.

The tale starts as a train of exiles is being banished for this reason, and the several of the games hero’s are present for varying reasons which become clear as the tale unfolds.

It’s full of Japanese melodrama, stereotypical JRPG characters and questionable dialogue but the actual central plot itself is a very good one, pity that it seems kind of small-time for a large early portion. The usual “The world is at stake!” plot points don’t arrive till quite late, so it’s tough to care about the mission at first.

This time round the voice acting is fantastic, the actors are believable and sincere (even the annoying Vanille) and the characters reveal themselves to be more than stereotypes as things progress.

It’s just a shame that the dialogue is often so terrible, also punctuated by annoying grunts and moans far too often. The party might get up after a battle : Lightening will grunt, followed by a high pitched squeal by Vanille followed by the rest of the party grunting in sequence. It seems as though they had to fill every space with no speaking with someone grunting.

It’s nowhere near as bad as in some other JRPGs but it really is a contrast to the great voice work and convincing facial animations.

This issue along with the dialogue ruined what would have otherwise been some very poignant parts of the tale for me.

Particularly in some of the final moments, parts of the tale that were quite touching objectively were made annoying (for me) by the latest in what has now become a FF tradition:

The obligatory cheesy pop song.

Many people may like that type of music and that’s fine, but for me it represents a worrying lack of understanding between the developer and the people who have been buying these games for decades now. I don’t personally know any other gamer who thinks that the inclusion of this type of stuff in a FF game is a good idea. Ditto for the squeaky voiced schoolgirl archetype. The cringe factor is high here.

Please, cut that shit out.

Presentation

This review relates to the PS3 version, and it comes as no surprise that FFXIII looks fantastic.

The environments may not be incredibly interactive, but man are they well presented. The world of Cocoon in particular has some eye-bleedingly sharp backdrops with and unheard of attention to detail , one late game city really took my breath away with the sheer lavishness of the detail in the environment. It was like the first time I saw full HD in action. It truly is a testament to the developer’s unrivaled ability in this field. The character animations are convincing and well thought out, facial animations in particular.

Strange that the arm-pits of each person are pixelated and the fingers are blocky and very last-gen. Sorry about that, once you see what I’m talking about you won’t be able to unsee it.

I don’t need to go into the pre-rendered FMVs, you’re probably aware that they’re the best in business.

Maybe next time they can just carry over the all the engine work from this game and focus more time on the more wanting aspects.

The sound design is also accomplished, there are some great tracks in there but again I question the decision to add vocals to a couple of the tracks, perhaps that’s just me. The main battle theme is one of the better entries in the series, so that’s definitely a good thing since you’ll be hearing it in your sleep if you play the game for as long as I did. The previously mentioned voice work is great and the battle noises do their job.

Closing Comments

It’s very hard for me to recommend this game to anyone without some serious caveats.

There is a unique and compelling battle system, and so few of these types of games get the HD treatment that it should be mandatory for RPG lovers to play this, but it’s not.

There is a huge, boring, unforgiveable slog of about 20 hours before it gets good and even then there are still the annoyances that come with many JRPGS, there is a lot of play time in the post-game but it’s not exactly varied, essentially a series of monster hunts where the battle system finally gets the attention it deserves.

On the other hand it’s a stunning game, there is great voice work, and a good story. If nothing else this game is unique, there is nothing else quite like it.

Squeenix designed this game with the intention of attracting a new audience, the uninitiated. Ironic then that these are the last group I would ever recommend this game to, I would tell them to play any other FF. Perhaps FFX, a game with some of the same problems as this one, but a game that managed to overcome them all in many great ways.

No, this game I will only recommend to hardcore Final Fantasy fans, the one group likely to feel abandoned by the changes here. There is a great experience to be had, it just may not be worth the cost to your sanity to get there.

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