Reviews// Final Fantasy XIII

I wanted to begin this review with the definition of the word ’epic’ but that gambit has already been used in the recent God of War III review. Instead, it is worth pointing out what an amazing past couple of months we have had for ‘epic’ games. The aforementioned God of War III and Heavy Rain have appeared with less than a month between them and now we have Final Fantasy XIII.

If it wasn’t for the fact that the Japanese behemoth is now available on the Xbox 360 one could claim 2010 the year of the PS3. But it is and it is the Xbox version that I’ve been tasked with reviewing. Why? Well, mainly because I'm reasonably new to the series, which in turn is totally new to the platform.

With Final Fantasy being a series that so often divides opinion I thought I should declare my allegiances from the start. I am not a Final Fantasy fanboy. The Final Fantasy title I played the most was Final Fantasy VII and most others I’ve admired from afar. While it could be insinuated that my lack of experience with Final Fantasy makes me far from qualified to comment on possibly the most anticipated instalment, I would argue that FFXIII is geared more toward me than any of the previous episodes. Regardless of title it is a game and should be judged on its individual merits and not those of its predecessors.

Let me get the first reason off my chest as to why I believe FFXIII is geared towards the layman: the battle system. It’s hectic, so hectic that at times I found myself mashing the A button despite it having no control of the on-screen action. Employing the Active Time Battle (ATB)system, your character has a timeline which builds up during the course of battle allowing you to chain together a series of attacks, once those attacks are over it goes back down to zero. The gauge fills up with pace and you rarely find yourself twiddling your thumbs.

The ATB is combined with a stagger system with each enemy having a combo-gauge that fills up the more often they get hit. If the gauge maxes out and the enemy is staggered, subsequent attacks are more devastating. Stop attacking the enemy to recharge your HP, and their stagger gauge will drop back down to zero so you have to start again. Staggering results in battles being manic and often tense affairs as you keep trying to push the bar further. In boss battles this is pretty much a necessity. Purists have turned their noses up at this but I loved how it paced the battles.

Pace is the big issue with FFXIII. It’s so gradual it almost represents a flat line with sudden peaks of boss fights. The first 20 hours or so take you through every intricacy of the game, using the ‘learn, repeat, repeat and repeat once again’ method of teaching. Does it need to take 20 hours? No way. It isn't that difficult, and I'm sure hardened fans will find it downright patronising.

The tutorials can be skipped but that isn't the problem. The issue is with the constant repetition before you move on to the next lesson. On the upside I did find myself becoming a master of the many systems with switching paradigms and casting Eidolons feeling as natural as executing a dragon punch.

Paradigm switching is the tool FFXIII uses to give you control over your party in battle. Each paradigm has a set role for each character (medic and commando for example) and switching to another paradigm switches that character's roles. As you only get to control the actions of one party member this is vital to make sure the remaining characters are pulling their weight. Fortunately, the AI is spot on and your teammates play their roles as you would hope.

Calling a Final Fantasy game beautiful could be seen as a case of game reviewing redundancy, but sod it, FFXIII is beautiful. The cutscenes are stunning. Even in game the graphics look comparable to their cutscene counterparts. The sound is equally beautiful, with a trademark sweeping Final Fantasy score helping to bring emotion and drama to every scene. I didn’t even mind Leona Lewis showing up. Hell, even the menu system is sexy.