Great way to continue the long series of Final Fantasy games!
User Rating: 9 | Final Fantasy XIII PS3
I have been a loyal Squaresoft/Square-enix follower and fan for many years now, and have to admit that I though the Final Fantasy series were going downhill after Final Fantasy X on the Playstation 2, however this game is a great way to continue the epic line of excellent role-playing games that Square-Enix offers. You immersed in a vibrant and beautiful world called Cocoon, whilst engaging the adventures with a cast of highly unique characters. The game is a tad bit more linear than I had expected; the confusing 'puzzle' like phases from FFX are pretty much gone. FFXIII makes up for linear story/game play with a new combat system which is actually very fun to use. Grinding in prior Final Fantasy games usually became a tedious and ridiculously repetitive process that would easily bore gamers into a daze, however with the new 'paradigm shift' system and roles that each character assumes, Square-Enix has found a new, and exhilarating method of combat. It is almost a mixture of Final Fantasy's typical turn-by-turn combat, mixed with real-time sequencing/combating. The character progression is probably the low point in this game due to its extreme linearity. In prior Final Fantasy games progression was almost a choice 100% of the time, however this new 'crystarium' system is literally just a single path that branches nowhere. Other than the progression, which really does not affect the integrity of the game, there is nothing that really makes this a bad game. The cinematics, design, art, and gameplay all seam together so nicely for those gamers looking for an in-depth story through games; especially those into Japanese RPGs. 
