Final Fantasy XIII

—Review Score: 9/10—

Final Fantasy XIII is a long awaited continuation of the most popular Japanese RPG franchise outside Japan. And dare I say this is nothing like any Final Fantasy you’ve played before. FF XIII breaks away from the mold of Final Fantasy is, with lots of omission of the usual elements. But somehow Square Enix manage to keep the basic elements compelling with both superb gameplay (especially the battle system) and enjoyable story, Final Fantasy XIII is worthy the name of Final Fantasy.

On to the difference of this iteration to the series. Gone are Final Fantasy Theme and Prelude which always prevalent in the series. There are also no proper cities where you can talk to and gather information from the NPCs. As for replenishing supplies normally done via store in the cities, well it’s online shopping altogether in FF XIII, through save points! In other word, FF XIII lose the feeling of traditional J-RPG and replace it with more action-oriented series of events and battles. This might turn off some players since the sense of linearity and on-rail progress is more imminent in this kind of narration. However, this also leads to a more focused storytelling and more action-packed sequence altogether.

Story-wise, FF XIII goes back to the theme of grandiose save-the-world cliché. The protagonists are bound together by an event that leads to the destruction of the world, and they are actually the one to destroy it. But being the protagonists and all, they choose to save the world instead and that’s exactly what the story is about, defying fate. The story is great with lots likable cast and strong character development portion. If there is anything lacking, it’s the lack of true antagonist. Just like FF XII, the antagonists in FF XIII are all have their own reason and belief. It’s just because their wills clashed with the protagonists’ that the story narrates them as the antagonists.

FF XIII features a strong-willed female lead protagonist, Lightning. It’s been a while since Final Fantasy game features a lead female (Final Fantasy VI, if I’m not mistaken is the only other game in the series), and more so that Lightning is a strong-willed and not your usual Japanese female character stereotype. Other characters are also great; there are hero-syndromic Snow, down-to-earth Sazh, despaired Hope, happy-go-lucky Vanille, and hard-headed Fang. All of them have their own story to tell, and all of them underwent a development throughout the game. This the thing that I enjoy most of the game, good story complemented with great character development.

As I said earlier, gameplay in this iteration is great. You’ve got the Paradigm system, where you create a set of roles (behaving like jobs in previous Final Fantasies) for battle. The roles are: Commando, main attacker of the party; Ravager, support attacker, useful to drive the chain gauge (more on this later); Sentinel, defender role to absorb damage; Saboteur, placing various debuffs on the enemies; Synergist, placing various buffs on the party; and finally Medic, your staple healer. You can create up to 6 Paradigm decks (a combination of role for each character) at any given time, and you need to use the Paradigm Shift to change role mid-battle, which is pretty much mandatory on most battles. The battle in FF XIII is complex yet fun, for starters the enemies are considerably have tons of hit points and normal attacks only chip a fraction of it. The key is chain gauge on each enemy, the higher the percentage number is means all the attack will be multiplied by that percentage (it can goes up to 999.9% at which point each attack will do 10X damage). Basically each and every battle is revolving around increasing the chain gauge and deal higher damage as soon as possible. I won’t delve deeper to the battle system in this review though, because it can go into another in-depth analysis. But it’s suffice to say that the battle can be unforgiving if you’re not planning your way through it. There’s no random encounter, instead FF XIII uses a Chrono Trigger system, you touch an enemy on the field map and then it turns into a battle screen. The leveling system is more like FF X with it’s sphere grid (it’s called Crystarium in here, though), but with different grid for each character. In a sense, there’s no normal concept of level as in other J-RPGs.

Now for the graphics quality, being a Final Fantasy game this is one thing all fans should expect (since FF VII anyway). And I’m glad to report that the graphics are gorgeous. From the colourful and modern Cocoon to the lush green and naturey (borrowing Vanille’s Australian accent) Pulse, FF XIII is like nothing you’ve ever seen before. Every cutscene is highly detailed, up to the lips movement of each character following the actual line. They even change the lips movement for the full CG (computer generated) scenes to match the English dialogue. Now that’s what I called an attention to detail. Background music is mostly great, but Final Fantasy fans might not happy with the omission of the Victory Fanfare, Prelude, and Final Fantasy theme. I personally love the battle music, because it’s uplifting yet so unconventional at the same time, and also partially because I heard it so many time during the battle.

All things considered, Final Fantasy XIII might looks unappealing to the fans of the series because of the omission it has. But this also means that FF XIII tried to turn a new leaf on the series. Final Fantasy series have been thought as a J-RPG for the non-Japanese, and this game shows that Square Enix is serious on that by incorporating new elements that might appeal non-Japanese gamers more. In that point of view, I dare say that this is a success. I enjoyed the difference, the way they put all the core story in a cohesive narrative and leave all the side-tracking at the player’s convenience. I enjoyed the punishing and strategic battle system instead of multiple simple battles only to increase your level. And most importantly, I enjoyed the whole game experience. This is truly a Final Fantasy.

(Picture Credit: Final Fantasy XIII Official Site)