Final Fantasy XIII by Square-Enix. Enough Said.
Final Fantasy XIII is the story of six people: Lightning Farron who's an Ex-Soldier (SEEM FAMILIAR?), Snow Villiers who's the leader of a Rebel Group known as NORA (SEEM FAMILIAR?), Sazh Katzrohy who's just there to be comedic relief, Oreba de Vanille who's suffering from Amnesia but she doesn't know it, Hope Esthiem whose purpose is to do nothing but whine at Snow for about 10 hours and finally Oreba de Fang, a character who was originally going to be male but they changed her to be female on the grounds that they wanted some sex appeal in the game. Stay Classy, Square-Enix. Anyways, these six characters are lobbed together in a place called "The Hanging Edge" (apart from Fang who comes in later to the plot). For the next twenty or so hours of the game, the characters traverse the world of Cocoon trying to find the reasons of why they were being purged by the Sanctum (Cocoon's government). The plot however, is as boring as the game itself is. It's filled with Final Fantasy clichés and tropes, and it's just really unoriginal. Sure, there's a few standout action scenes and flashbacks, but nothing worth really mentioning. The characters are really uninteresting and annoying, except for Sazh who's funny as hell, but that's it. That's actually how to describe this game's entire plot. It's there, that's it. it's an inconsistent mess filled with bad writing and unexplained fantasy thing that you're just supposed to roll with. I hate this plot and everything about it, except for Sazh.
The gameplay of FFXIII is easily it's weakest aspect, and that's really a shame. First of all, this game is the textbook defenition of the word "linear." For about 20-22 hours of the game, you're being led down what is practically an elongated corridor with a few forks in the road, which are dead ends anyways so you have to go back to the corridor. The only part of the game that is somewhat open-world takes place in Chapter 11. E-FUCKING-LEVEN. THIS IS NOT GOOD JRPG GAME DESIGN PEOPLE. This is NOT how a Final Fantasy game should be like! It's horrendous! Surely, the battle system will redeem the whole linearity of the game, won't it?
One thing I will admit about this game though is just that it is graphically a-m-a-z-i-n-g. Top to bottom, it's absolutely flawless for a console RPG. It's got highly detailed environments, extremely detailed character models and just awe-inspiring, jaw-droppingly beautiful CGI Cutscenes. it is without a doubt, the best looking Final Fantasy game that has been released.
The soundtrack to FF XIII is hit or miss with me. The battle theme, Blinded by Light, is a very good battle theme, but it get's repetitive after a while. Other themes that sick out to me are the beautifully serene title theme, the Sunleth Waterscape and Saber's Edge. Everything else is just kinda meh.
Story: 1
Final Fantasy XIII is the story of six people: Lightning Farron who's an Ex-Soldier (SEEM FAMILIAR?), Snow Villiers who's the leader of a Rebel Group known as NORA (SEEM FAMILIAR?), Sazh Katzrohy who's just there to be comedic relief, Oreba de Vanille who's suffering from Amnesia but she doesn't know it, Hope Esthiem whose purpose is to do nothing but whine at Snow for about 10 hours and finally Oreba de Fang, a character who was originally going to be male but they changed her to be female on the grounds that they wanted some sex appeal in the game. Stay Classy, Square-Enix. Anyways, these six characters are lobbed together in a place called "The Hanging Edge" (apart from Fang who comes in later to the plot). For the next twenty or so hours of the game, the characters traverse the world of Cocoon trying to find the reasons of why they were being purged by the Sanctum (Cocoon's government). The plot however, is as boring as the game itself is. It's filled with Final Fantasy clichés and tropes, and it's just really unoriginal. Sure, there's a few standout action scenes and flashbacks, but nothing worth really mentioning. The characters are really uninteresting and annoying, except for Sazh who's funny as hell, but that's it. That's actually how to describe this game's entire plot. It's there, that's it. it's an inconsistent mess filled with bad writing and unexplained fantasy thing that you're just supposed to roll with. I hate this plot and everything about it, except for Sazh.
Wrrrong!
Final Fantasy has always been known as the series that constantly re-invents itself, and XIII tried it's best to distance itself from previous games - and the player - as much as possible. The new Command Synergy System is based around a paradigm deck system. Kind of like jobs, you can assign each of the six characters a specific role to play in battle and switch them on the fly in battle. However, no matter what you do, you'll always resort to the Auto-Battle option at the top of the battle window. This picks the best options for you in battle and always decides the best route to take. It literally is that dumbed down and stupid and I fucking hate it.
Overall, this was a disappointment from top to bottom. Despite it's pretty visuals, Final Fantasy XIII just fails on pretty much every other aspect. What was once the pinnacle of Japanese RPG's has now been turned into the laughing stock of the sub-genre.
Gameplay: 4
Graphics: 10
Music: 6.5
Personal Enjoyment: 4.5
FINAL SCORE FOR FINAL FANTASY XIII: 5.2/10
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