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Final Fantasy XIII is about a group of adventurers who have been unwillingly stuck with a quest to save the world that has been torn in two. Since subtle imagery has never been a strong point of the series, the downtrodden are literally underground, and the protected elite society is above ground, and the powers that be fly around in great airships high above terra firma. The story itself takes a long time to take off, and somehow never reaches epic proportions. It’s hampered by some questionable pacing; the first half of the game being a lengthy tutorial, which takes its time to explore the story and the characters. The game gives complete freedom of party management only when the characters need to do a ridiculous amount of grinding to face the final chapter.
The second half of the game allows more freedom to actually explore the world and get their teeth into role playing. Yet the story progression comes to a complete halt. There’s also a lot of confusing words like l’Cie, fal’Cie, C’ieth, but they are as important to the game as the rest of the story, which is to say not at all. The good part is that there’s a comprehensive data log, which gives all the information about the story, characters, events, and places. The bad part is that in a game that boasts some of the best cinematics, the story can be understood by reading the text. There is a point in the game where the story is literally told in five sentences by your team mate as a side conversation. Not the best example of storytelling.
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The characters are a motley crew and while there are a few whom you would wish to throttle constantly, there’s no one as charismatic as Cloud, Squall or the recent Balthier. It’s a shame since the series is famous for engaging characters. The main protagonist, Lightning, on a quest to save her sister and the world, is blatantly modelled on fan favourite Cloud. Helping her from the beginning is the most likeable of the crew – Sazh. Even the Chocobo chick living in his hair is not as weird as it sounds. Worse is Hope. It seems the writer made use of every teenage cliché to write his dialogue. Then there’s Vanille. She’s supposed to be esoteric, but comes across as a selfish nutcase, who would be more at home in Dead or Alive Paradise. The antagonists fare worse, if that’s possible. They are completely devoid of character and once the cutscenes containing them are over, they are instantly relegated to the darkest corners of your mind. The characters get some generic dialogue which does not help the story, but the voice acting is pretty decent. Even the lip synching with the English dialogue is good.
The game looks fabulous. Square Enix promised us a visual spectacle in the definitive RPG for this generation, and while they fell short of expectations in the second part, they delivered in spades with the first. The game is a visual delight, from the elegant menus, to the gorgeous worlds, to jaw dropping cinematics. There’s little difference in the visual quality between the gameplay and the cutscenes, and the battle transition is smooth. The attention to detail is evident; Lightning’s sword bouncing on her legs, Fang’s pelt flowing on her sari, the light stubble on Snow, Sazh’s afro moving slightly. I have yet to see a game in this console generation which looks so beautiful.
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The mixes of vibrant colours, titanic architecture, and detailed environments make this a wonder to look at. There were times when I would just stop and move the camera around to take in the environment, or gaze in wonder at the enemies. If there’s one reason to play the game, it would be the visuals. Music always plays an important role in Final Fantasy games, and this one is no exception. Masashi Hamauzu uses a mix of styles to set the appropriate mood during the events.
Another reason to play the game is the battle system. Final Fantasy XIII employs Active Time Battle, a turn based battle system, which allocates turns based on how long actions take to perform. It’s a neat little mix of real-time and turn based, which the series has been known for. The new twist this time is the introduction of Paradigms, which are combinations of roles assigned to each character in the party. When a character is assigned a role, he can only carry out the actions learned by the role. For example, a medic can only heal, and a ravager can only do magic damage. There are six roles each character can learn, and for optimum gameplay, it is important that each character masters more than one.
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Battles consist of selecting a judicious set of paradigms at the start of a battle and switching any number of times during the battle to defeat enemies. The party is graded on the performance in battle and earns experience based on a five star rating. There is an auto battle option which selects the best option for the role and the enemy based on how much enemy information has been obtained. While purists may shudder at such a dumbed down mechanism, there is depth to the paradigm system, which makes battles more strategic than tactical.
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As mentioned before, characters can level up in six roles while they earn experience points from battles. Crystarium, the level up system, is a modification of the one seen in Final Fantasy X, and while it can look complex, in reality, it is elegant and easy to navigate and manage. The game also does will to throw enough enemies at you so that grinding is kept to a minimum during the first half. The developers should have continued the same momentum in the second half, which may as well be called “Here be Crystarium Points fodder”. Level advancement is accompanied by a weapons and accessories upgrade system which is not as good as the battle system or crystarium. There is little explanation for the upgrade components and there’s a lot of trial and error involved in figuring out which component should be applied when. While this is not an unknown system, the lack of information is not keeping in line with the helpful nature of the rest of the game.
The exploration itself is very linear, except the aforementioned “Here be Crystarium Points fodder!” level. Previous games in the series, and most JRPGs, are linear. However, there is usually a semblance of non-linearity presented to the player through an open world, side quests, shops and non-playing characters. All that is gone. Shops have been integrated into save points, towns are only present as levels to battle through, and NPCs are minimal. I understand the need to trim down extraneous gameplay elements so the player can focus on the most important aspects i.e. story, battles, and characters. But when two of the three elements are poorly developed, this game boils down to running down a large corridor and slaying enemies interspersed with cutscenes.
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This is not an RPG with adventure elements. It’s a gauntlet with RPG elements. Square Enix made some major changes to make the game more accessible to a generation brought up on 10-hour mindless shooters. But they’ve managed to alienate the fans in the process, and those who are brought up on shooters still won’t play a 60-hour gauntlet. If they had managed to cut down the game by 20 hours or so, it might not have been as boring.
Conclusion
Final Fantasy XIII is an average entry in a widely acclaimed RPG franchise. The drop dead gorgeous visuals and fantastic battle system cannot hide a shallow story and uninteresting characters. If you are a fan of JRPGs, play this game, but don’t start by thinking “I hope it’s better than FF <insert favourite FF number>”. It’s not. Going in with low expectations will give you enjoyment. If you are new to world of JRPGs and want to see what JRPGs are all about, this is a good start. It’s not overly complicated and you won’t be saddled with complex battle systems and character levelling. This can be your stepping stone to some of the best games in the JRPG genre.
(+) One of the best visual spectacles this generation
(+) New twist on ATB system makes battles more strategic
(+) More focus on party management than ability juggling
(+) Elegant level up system
(+) Gameplay pacing is ideal for those new to JRPGs
(-) Shallow story and uninteresting characters
(-) Story pacing is long and drawn out, especially the second half.
(-) Very linear game world coupled and subtraction of non-crucial elements
Title: Final Fantasy XIII
Developer/Publisher: Square-Enix
Genre: Role-playing game
Rating: 16
Platforms: PS3 (Rs 2,499), Xbox 360 (Rs 2,499)
Reviewed on: PS3
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