I have to say I was excited when I heard that there was actually going to be a 13 installment in the "Final Fantasy" series. It wasn't even two days after its release when I eagerly grabbed my keys, took my beat up car, and hauled butt as fast as I could over to the closest "gamestop" just to buy the thing . I came back home with a grin of pure satisfaction. I popped disk one into my 360, then watched the long scene. About twenty hours into the game I was bored to tears. I felt as though I was cheated out of my money; I'll get to all that later though. As of now Lets start with the positives. ----Aspects of the game that I liked--- 1.The Game itself Utilizes a new battle system called the paradigm system. There are combinations to each Paradigm, each involving 3 roles to complete a paradigm. For example: commando+commando+commando= Cerebus. You can have a limited amount of reserved paradigms to switch during battle, to give you the upper hand. 2.The Substitution for jobs are the "roles". Each Role has its own forte, for example: a "medic" uses curative magic, a "ravager" is best at boosting the chain gauge with its offensive magic, a "saboteur" is great at sabotaging your enemies stats while at the same time doing some magic damage, a "commando" keeps the chain gauge from depleting quickly with its physical attacks, a "synergist" does his/her job best by boosting the parties offensive/defensive attributes, and last but not least the "sentinel" is amazing with luring enemies to attack him/her while boosting his/her own defense; giving the rest of the party enough leisure to focus on attacking. Roles also have bonus effects, eg:having a commando in your party during battle boosts your parties physical attacks and so on. Each time each character's role levels up, the bonus is boosted. 3. The game has amazing graphics. 4. You can level up your weapons, and transform them into better weapons. 5. You no longer earn experience points after battle to gain levels. You instead earn crystarium points that are used to distribute a fixed amount across the crystarium map to gain permanent stat enhancements, new abilities, and role levels. 6. There is a interesting plot. ---Aspects of the Game that I disliked--- 1. You can't control more than one character in battle. The least they could have done was add a feature allowing you to utilize the left and right trigger buttons to switch which character you control, and which two characters the computer controls. 2. You can't explore the map. No airship to freely explore continents. Just walking in a straight line, pressing the "A" button to examine something on occasion. They could have made the game more interactive. 3. Can't earn gil after battles. You have to rely on chance to earn an item that you hope you won't need later and sell it. I think they could have just left the traditional way of earning gil be. 4. The crystarium only extends after you beat certain bosses in the game, Leaving you a limit on how much you can boost your stats. I think they could have instead made the crystarium expand after a certain amount of regular battles, while at the same time extending the stage cap to 40 instead of a measly 10. I think the game had some neat aspects. I just think that the construction of gameplay was as poorly planned as this blog I'm writing.