This game is great but requires commitment. You will be repaid in full. Here's hoping the improvements are here to stay.
The Platform: PS3
Campaign Length: ~60-70 hours (~110 hours to 100% completion post-game)
Purchase Price: $43.47
Dollar/Hour ratio: ~$.69-$.40
*Note: Campaign time allows for some side questing. The option to complete side quests is available after completion of the campaign.
About the game:
Final Fantasy XIII is the latest flagship installment in the Final Fantasy series. It is the best selling JRPG franchise (except Pokemon) in the world. Each Final Fantasy introduces fresh mechanics and tweaks the gameplay formulae while delivering a unique presentation. Final Fantasy XIII is no exception and introduces sweeping changes to JRPG tropes while maintaining a distinct 'Final Fantasy' feel.
Story:
The story of Final Fantasy XIII revolves around eight people who are in the wrong place at the wrong time. The setting is Cocoon, a vibrant technological cityscape safe inside a moon sized sphere floating above the lands of Pulse. Pulse is the polar opposite of Cocoon replacing metropolitan wonders for lush vegetation and wild beasts. Pulse and Cocoon are completely isolated from each other and have been taught to fear that which they don't know. Essentially, Cocoon and Pulse are centuries deep in a Cold War standoff just waiting for the inevitable day when the monsters from the 'other' world come to destroy ours. Pulse and Cocoon's livelihoods and security are sustained by fal'Cie, godlike beings.
The fal'Cie have chores to accomplish but can't on their own behalf. They curse, or bless, human citizens with a brand making them a l'Cie. l'Cie are like angels, servants to the fal'Cie that branded them and must complete a specific task called a Focus. If the l'Cie completes the task they're turned into crystal and 'enjoy' eternal life. If they don't they're eventually turned into a Cieth, a monster who knows only regret and sorrow. The l'Cie are also granted enhanced abilities and magic powers to aid them in their Focus.
Serah and Dajh, two citizens of Cocoon, are turned into l'Cie shortly after a Pulse fal'Cie arrives in Cocoon. This causes the Sanctum (rulers of Cocoon on the fal'Cie's behalf, like the Pope and Cardinals) to initialize the Purge to relocate all Pulse tainted citizens to Pulse. This is just a cover for the mass murdering of citizens suspected of contact with Pulse or Pulse entities or l'Cie. Lightning (Serah's sister), Snow (Serah's fiancé) and Sazh (Dajh's father) want revenge on the fal'Cie for cursing their loved ones and the Sanctum for the Purge. They're also fighting to save their own lives from the Purge. Their fighting results in the three, along with fellow would be revolutionaries Hope and Vanille, to be branded l'Cie.
The group now must find a way to save Serah and Dajh from their crystal state. They must determine what their Focus is so they can prevent themselves from becoming Cieth. They want to take down the Sanctum and let the people rule themselves free from veils and oppression. Meanwhile, they're being hunted down by the military and need to keep running while they determine what to do next. Also, they'd like to save the world but it's looking really iffy right now. In short, that's pretty much the setup with the answers and solutions slowly unfurling as the characters spend more time together, learn more about unfamiliar worlds, hone their skills and determine who their true enemies are.
Gameplay:
The typical turn based, stat crunching, level grinding, loot gathering tropes signature to JRPGs, particularly Final Fantasy, bears faint similarities to what has been prepared this time around. The turn based battle system of old is out the window replaced with a heavily modified and streamlined version of Final Fantasy XII's battle system with a modified Dressphere system from Final Fantasy X-2 added. You maintain a three character party but only control the leader. The AI controls your other party members using something of an automated Gambit system. Based on your party's roles (like classes) at any given time, your party's status and the enemy(s)' status your partners will dynamically execute what it believes is the most efficient action. For the most part this works excellently. Typically your leader will be the character you like best or a character to fulfill a specific course of action that can't be achieved by the AI. It's up to you to strategize and determine the best way to victory but the party AI will never stand in your way as long as your strategy is sound.
The battles are at a much faster pace than any other entry. All of the units on screen act in real time and there's no taking turns. This means all three party members will be attacking at the exact same time. It's fast, frantic and a lot of fun. Don't be fooled by the streamlined presentation the system is as deep, if not deeper, than other entries. The emphasis on strategy rather than power levels is a welcomed change to the series and makes you feel smart and skillful upon five starring tough fights.
The campaign, for the most part, plays almost like a corridor action game retrofitted onto a RPG. You'll spend about 25 hours walking down narrow passages and tight quarters with enemy encounters and cut scenes spaced out throughout. The scenery throughout is gorgeous but without any meaningful exploration it feels more like a tease than a perk. However, the Pulse chapter features plenty of exploration opportunities to keep you entertained. Added onto the Pulse chapter are 64 missions to undertake. You'll find a Cieth stone, it'll tell you where the mark is and you travel there to kill it. You can repeat them ad nauseum and they're all fairly easy to find. The challenges available here can keep you playing for dozens of hours after completing the campaign itself and will require of you full mastery of the battle system.
High notes:
It's all in the little things: The little tweaks and improvements on the series' prior versions aren't worth stressing over but I feel they enrich the experience and make the game truly feel next-gen when compared to older entries. Cut scenes, CGI and pre-rendered, can now be skipped or paused. This was present to an extent in Final Fantasy XII as well but not implemented this well nor on this scale. There's no more random encounters. This was present in Final Fantasy XII too but where the latter plays like a single player MMO where encounters are handled as they occur, the former has hard transitions from world screens to battle screens so each battle is an isolated incident that can't be altered on the fly by passing enemies. It makes the game feel more traditional this way while keeping the advantages of advancements in the design.
No repercussions for death, finally!: In most JRPGs if you died you had to restart at your last save point no matter how many hours and boss fights you had to lose in the process. Not anymore! Each death in Final Fantasy XIII returns you to where you were before the fight began with your inventory intact. This compensates for the fact that you can't run from encounters. It's as simple as pausing the game and hitting retry to return you to where you were. Honestly, how did we ever deal without this one?
Hardcore: Besides the obvious reasons why would they allow you to retry battles without losing anything even if you die? Because they don't think you'll be able to win on your first try. This game is hardcore. Most battles won't be too hard and you'll quickly be able to win. However, there's plenty of enemies where there's very little margin of error room and your strategy must be excellent. The challenge is all part of the fun.
The extremely linear design makes it impossible to get lost. You'll always know exactly where to go by following your map. In addition, everything that occurs, events, character bios, enemy bios, etc. are all documented in detail in your datalog. If you don't understand something, don't remember a character, don't know what's going on you can always open it and read up on the game. It would have been nice if some of this data was better integrated into the story rather than requiring you to read it to get a full understanding. Having the datalog in the game at all is much better than not.
Low notes:
Are we really free?: In the story the characters must question the philosophical question, "are we free?" and "what is freedom?" Like the characters you will be pondering the same questions as you navigate extremely narrow campaign paths with virtually no freedom of exploration until near the campaign's end.
Where is everyone?: There's no towns, no world map and no dungeons to explore (in the traditional sense). These deterrents would allow you to unwind from the fast paced, story driven campaign and take in the world around you with a few deep breaths. They'd also give you a sense of accomplishment and progress. Without these, and with the narrow maps, the game feels like an accelerating roller coaster that never stops. The game leaves you exhausted with no way to release the tension after only a few hours. In a sense Final Fantasy XIII feels more like an action game with RPG mechanics.
No puzzles: In RPGs, dungeon crawling typically accompanies puzzles. Though there's not much of either in a traditional sense it's sort of a non-issue. The magic formula seems to be a balance of action, puzzles, and gameplay. In this entry the puzzles have been completely removed, for better and for worse.
Battle logs would be nice: There's a datalog that records all the game info. It'd have been nice for there to be a battle log to record all the numbers that you're presented on the victory screen. Things like: number of battles, number of retries, highest score, average score, etc. Most other games have it, including other Square Enix RPGs. It's not really a fault more of a missing feature.
Verdict:
Is this the best Final Fantasy game? The answer is that there isn't a best Final Fantasy. Each entry is a radical departure from the previous one. Whether it is a completely different style, battle system, character designs, storyline, music, settings, or all of the above, each entry is unique. Each entry is so unique from the others that there isn't even a majority that feels a particular entry is superior to the others. In short, it's impossible for any entry to be superior to another entry because they're each designed to be different and for a different audience. One type of person will love 6 and hate 7. Another will love 7 and hate 8. We all have our preferences but we can't believe that our favorite is superior to our least favorite. Our least favorite wasn't designed to our tastes. That being said I loved this game but it wasn't an instant attraction.
A game like this is so unique, strange and long that it'll require a long term commitment before you can make a fair judgment. Honestly, I played through about thirty hours of the game feeling confused, tired, aggravated and unimpressed. The problem wasn't the game, it was me. I'd discovered along the way that I was judging this game based on what it doesn't do. It doesn't let me explore at my leisure. It doesn't let me go at my own pace. It doesn't let me strategize my characters' development paths right from the get go. These things will frustrate any long term Final Fantasy fans who'd come to expect it. When I realized this and started to appreciate Final Fantasy XIII for what it does rather than what it doesn't it started to fall into place for me. The story started to click and engage me. The side quests and planning kept me up long hours to strategize. I squeezed every ounce of entertainment I could out of this game. How often does a game engage you to even want to do that? If I'd been a developer on this game I'd be proud with how well it works.
On that point, the game may make you reevaluate how deep the older Final Fantasy games were. The linearity of each entry is concealed by a thin veil of open world exploration that didn't allow any real options before the campaign allows you. The towns we loved to explore weren't so vast and interesting in all honesty and you'd rarely spend more than a couple minutes visiting an Inn, talking to an NPC and walking away. The journeys to the towns were more of a limitation and a chore rather than fun deterrent. Remember now? The resentment against Final Fantasy XIII isn't justifiable. This is the game that opens our eyes to see what these games were really about. Once you get over it you'll see just how far we've come in some aspects and how little we've drifted in others.
What makes a Final Fantasy game a true Final Fantasy game, besides the number of course? I feel each entry's presentation genuinely feels dreamy and fantastical, like the namesake, sometimes leaving you bewildered by the story but amazed by the environments and events. This game feels like a Final Fantasy game. It constructs one of the strongest and most memorable casts ever designed. Every Final Fantasy has its advantages and its flaws. If you have the time and patience to overcome the flaws, most of which are front loaded, there's a lot of enjoyment to be found here. For comparison's sake, my favorite all-time RPG is Final Fantasy 6, and the one I've played the longest is Final Fantasy XII at about 150 hours. The former is short by today's standards only taking about 30 hours to complete 100% but I've been compelled to play through it many times. Final Fantasy XII was deep and engrossing but I was never compelled to play the campaign again after the first completion. For me, Final Fantasy XIII is somewhere in between the two. It only took me 115 hours to complete 100% but I was compelled to play through the campaign a second time. If you combine the total time it'll edge out 12 for most played however there's not as much content to digest here than there was in 12 hence the much lower time of completion which is modest, under 100 hours is easily possible. For the amount I played, and my level of anticipation for this long awaited title, I feel it was a justified $40. I'd rarely pay about $30 for a title unless it's highly anticipated or I know the content will justify the amount. If you're a fan of JRPGs and you don't buy many games a year I'd highly recommend this one, it's at the top of its class and you'll easily get a couple weeks of heavy time investment if not several months. Compared to action titles this is an excellent long term bang.