One of the greatest Final Fantasy game to ever bear the name. Despite its flaws, gameplay and story wise.
Now moving on to the gamelay. Now the gameplay itself is quite fast paced and a great breath of fresh air to the series. But here's the thing..as I have read many comments throughout the net, wether it be Youtube..IGN...Gamespot etc...Fans claim this battle system to quote "Ruin" the series. Now this series is over 20 years long..the sad but true fact is..there just simply needs to be change. Yes I loved the past FF games..its sad to see things change but in reality, if it doesnt the future games will be very boring..and predictable. Heck people even DragonQuest had a change in gameplay and we all know how tradtional the series is!! So..I enjoyed the new battle system. Also the paradigm shifts really do bring out a challenge as ithe gaem forces you to adapt to every battle right on the draw. The leveling u is similar to FFX (FFX!!!! :D) but a more update version of it. So yes the leveling is quite fun as well. The job roles make a return..yet again really good. But here is the major flaw in this game..and oh boy do we all know it. How linear it is...To be honest to me it isn't such of a big deal. Many people over exagratte on its linearity. Now lets divide this problem up. One we have the straight path thing. Now this is very simlilar to FFX. The exlcusion of the world map forces you to practically go on a straight path with turns here and there all the time. I did this in FFX and I did this in FF13. No towns...or shops...Yes this is a major problem. I missed going to towns and all that good stuff and it was the only time where I truly felt there was a flaw in this game. Buying everything from a save point is very flawed.. Sidequest..Yes there is plenty of them...64 to be exact..The game clocks at around 40 hours, but with all the trophy hunting and sidequest I found myself clocking at around 87!! So that sums up the issue with sidequest. So all in all Gamplay 9/10.
Story. There is no surprises here so I will keep it to a minimum. Now the sorty includes teens and all their melo dramatic situations and whatnot. Wrong!! Quit hating haters!! LOL. It is brillaint and superb. You'll once again fall in love with the world, the characters, everthing. With a blend of politics and a bit of love. BUT, it felt a bit too rushed towards the final 8 hours or so. Yes 8!! LOL> But it's that bad. This isn't the best story though, and it misses evil antogonists. It needs someone such as good old Sehie or a Kefka..but sadly noo. End boss disapoints alot! And once again I found myself nto wanting to end a journey with another Final Fantasy. 9.5/10.
So all in all. Not that bad. It is nt what we expected.. It isnt sadly another Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy 6, 7, X. (Pick one lol.) And it isnt as horrible as many people on the net claim it to be. Its a great, beautiful experience. It is Final Fantasy material. Great story, music, etc...Can't wait for Versus 13. ^^