A reinvention of a beloved genre for a new generation.
The story of Final Fantasy XIII follows the struggle of six L'Cie, cursed individuals marked by the world's great force, the Fal'Cie. This curse requires them to carry out a specific Focus, determined by the Fal'Cie. But it also makes Lightning, Hope, Snow, Sazh, Vanille, and Fang enemies of their home, Cocoon, and are causes them to be hunted tirelessly by both private and public armed organizations. While Lightning appears to be the protagonists (after all, her face is on the box) the story is equally about every character. This is a good departure for past games where some of the supporting characters have fallen to the wayside. Each character may appear somewhat average at first, however as the story progresses each character undergoes a cathartic experience (sometimes a few) that adds depth, personality, and sometimes offers a conclusion to each of their individual struggles. While the six work together to avoid capture and protect their homes, they each are driven by a unique trial that they have to over come. Every character's backstory is compelling, particularly Sazh's, and really pulls the overarching story together.
Due to their constant flight away from authority figures of Cocoon, traditional JRPG trappings such as towns and shops as hubs and respites from the action are largely done away with. But you have to ask yourself, how much sense would it make for our heroes to be hanging out while they are on the run from the government? This format makes the first half of the game incredibly linear, with virtually no side quests in that portion. However, even though towns are gone, the game is not any more linear than most JRPGs. What JRPGs have a focus on meaningful exploration? In fact, the abandonment of the traditional town to dungeon structure really does the game a favor. The annoying process of having to talk to everyone in a town to trigger an event and progress the story is gone, to improve the pacing of the story.
Combat also remains largely unchanged from, say, Final Fantasy VIII. As in VIII, rather than having you execute commands in a turn by turn basis, a bar fills up in real time to determine when you are able to attack. The difference in XIII is that you can enter your commands prior to the bar filling, instead of only being able to after, which is a fantastic improvement. XIII also offers a intelligent Auto-Battle option that decides what moves to use based on the weaknesses discovered as you fight an enemy, shifting your focus to the game's Paradigm Shift mechanic.
Character progression is handled through a combination of the job system of the sphere grid, each job having its own particular grid through which you spend "CP" to gain stats and abilities.
The Paradigm Shift changes the "jobs" of all three of your active party members at once, drastically altering the flow of battle. Strict attention must be paid to your active Paradigm at all times. If your life gets low, you need to shift to a healing Paradigm. If you are facing a particularly tough enemy, you need to shift to a Paradigm that incorporates buffs and defense. And once you stagger an enemy (a mechanic returning from Final Fantasy XII) you need to shift to the offensive. While this may not sound incredibly compelling, it is an intensely tactical way to manage the flow of battle, and a lot of fun.
The best things about Final Fantasy XIII, are the little touches. Clear and indisputable improvements over the traditional JRPG framework that defy stereotypical JRPG headaches. The most important of these is a Retry option. Instead of being able to flee from battle, you can simply Retry, putting you at the moment prior to the encounter for additional preparation or trying to avoid the enemy all together. Likewise, the Retry option is available after death, removing the pain of having to slog back to where you were from your most recent save.
Another great improvement is the evenness of the difficulty. Final Fantasy XIII removes almost any need to grind (the huge mass of Chapter 11 and Post-Game side-quests not withstanding…) though deliberate enemy placing and level capping that will have you at the perfect place to go up against every single boss in the game. Instead of using the cop out of level scaling, the developers have found an amazing way to balance difficulty and playability. The game begins quite easy, but the difficulty ramps up towards the end of the game, pushing you to assign the right Paradigms at the right times. And some of the side-quests are downright impossible.
For every advance in narrative, Final Fantasy XIII offers one in gameplay. It's a game that distills the very best of JRPGs, and boils it down to a science. The game may buck the trends of exploration and side-quests in many popular American RPGs such as Oblivion or Mass Effect, however, those types of things have never factored in heavily into JRPGs. While Final Fantasy XIII is a fine tuned game, it is by no means revolutionary, and the contention that it brings anything new to the table is arguable. But that doesn't hold the game back, it in facts works in it's favor, making sure that every single common JRPG headache is done away with. Despite the removal of mechanics, everything that was removed was tiresome in the first place, and it makes for a more complete gaming experience.
Those who didn't or don't enjoy Final Fantasy XIII, you really need to analyze why. Subjectively, if you don't enjoy JRPGs at all, this game certainly won't change your mind. But if you enjoy them, what's not to like? A fantastic story? A fun battle system? Tons of improvements over traditional genre headaches? The story is enthralling, the gameplay is excellent, and the whole of the game is spectacular. Final Fantasy XIII is the definitive JRPG experience of the generation.