Grade: B+
Graphically stunning, extremely entertaining and strangely feminine are all words to describe Final Fantasy XIII.
The Final Fantasy franchise has seen more consoles than nearly any other series, and with its latest iteration, developer Square Enix has truly brought their product into the next generation.
Every aspect of this game, from its complex cast of characters to its fantastic re-use of a staple of the Final Fantasy series the ATB battle system, the game plays like a Square Enix game should.
Final Fantasy XIII's story follows a group of l'Cie (servants to an overlord called a fal'Cie) and their struggle to complete the Focus, a task, forced upon them by the fal'Cie. Failure to complete one's Focus will turn them into mindless mutations of human beings that are not given free will, called Cie'th.
The Focus that Lightning (one of the game's protagonists) and her group are given the task to bring down the hive-city of Cocoon by summoning the eidolon, a magical being known as Ragnarok.
As the game progresses, the fal'Cie's true agenda becomes more apparent as the main characters will be unexpectedly aided by other l'Cie fulfilling their own Focus, and turning into crystal as foretold in by the prophesies.
While the plot line is complex, the battle system is not, providing the player with the brilliant auto-attack command, choosing the most appropriate skills for the situation. Health recovery is also quick after each battle, making it easy to transition from one fight to the next.
This, however, is the game's major flaw. Many times the player is just thrown from boss fight to boss fight with one or two cut sequences in between. Instead of focusing on the open world exploration, the pervious installments are well known for, the game favors a much more linear approach. As a result, the game loses much of the depth and scope that series has been known.
Since combat is a major factor, it is great that Square has added some unique touches. The idea behind most battles is to knock the opponent into the ‘Break State' where they are easily hurt and do not do as much damage to the player's party.
Although the player only directly controls the party leader by inputting commands or choosing the auto-attack, players can indirectly control the flow of battle by using Paradigms.
A Paradigm in the context of this game merely means a role for the AI to use. Some of the roles include Commando, Medic, and Ravager focusing on physical attacks, healing spells and magic attacks respectively. Paradigms adds a nice touch to fighting and give the player much more creative freedom.
Summoning is back in this game in the form of Eidolons (opposed to Aeons in Final Fantasy X). Instead of limiting the player to having one Summoner in the party, every member of the group is given one Eidolon.
To obtain an Eidolon, the player must impress it by meeting battle requirements, ranging from doing massive amounts of damage to performing long combos or blocking a required amount of incoming attacks. Completing these goals bind the eidolon to the character.
Gameplay is a blast, and the ability to customize characters through the Crystarium - an interface similar to Final Fantasy X's Sphere Grid- makes Final Fantasy XIII a major success.
Sadly, famed musical composer Nobuo Uematsu did not compose the game's main theme. However, composer Masashi Hamauzu does a beautiful job following Uematsu's trend.
With this Final Fantasy becoming a huge successl, one can only wonder how Square Enix's plan for the next massively multiplayer online role-playing game will pan out.
For the time being Final Fantasy XIII can consume at least another 40+ hours of time while the gaming community anxiously waits on Square Enix's next big release. Without doubt, this game was intended to please nearly all fans of the RPG genre.
