The trailer for Final Fantasy XIII amazed when it was unveiled almost half a decade ago. A long time has passed since the announcement, but now that the game is here, does it live up to the name “Final Fantasy?”
Describing the story of most RPG’s is like trying to explain one season of an anime series. It’s too comprehensive to cover in detail, but the basic premise involves a struggle between citizens of Cocoon, a giant floating shell in the sky, and elements of Pulse, the hell-world below.
You’ll get to play as various characters in different situations, but the most prolific is Lightning. The story starts when trains filled with people are being delivered to their extermination, all in order to protect the fearful citizens of cocoon from the threat of “l’cie.” Fal’cie are giant monsters/deities that take care of humans, and l’cie are people who are controlled by a Fal’cie. The entire dynamic between fal’cie, l‘cie, and crystals is standard convoluted Japanese fare that relies on in-depth knowledge of the universe. The included Datalog, which catalogues and records your adventures and every character you meet, is immensely useful in figuring out exactly what the hell is going on. As great as the Datalog is, it also magnifies the weakness of the storytelling, because what kind of story relies on an accompanying encyclopedia just to understand it?
The story presents the necessary ups and downs of an arduous journey filled with challenges, along with some idealistic preaching with a mix of flashbacks to flesh out the details. The characters change over the course of 13 days, and while the story isn’t spectacular, you may become fond of some of the characters, and that in itself, is no small achievement.
FFXIII may be the most linear RPG you may ever play—but that isn’t a bad thing. Gameplay can be broken down into exploration, combat, and watching cutscenes if you’re feeling pedantic. Exploration has been dumbed down and reduced to the simple act of moving an analog stick around. Finally picking up from Half-Life’s innovation of scripted sequences in real-time, you might find yourself running while ships randomly crash in the background as well as other scenes of destruction unfold to give you a sense of conflict and scale. Exploration is straightforward as all pathways are clearly defined. There aren’t many forks and dead-ends usually hold a treasure chest for those who like to go off the beaten path. This may come as an immense disappointment to folks who relish the old school formula of town>overworld>dungeon rinse and repeat template, but for those of us who don’t care, it’s not that bad.
Combat is easily the best part of the game where suites of abilities are associated with a specific “job.” Battle is mostly automated, which calls for the player to switch job configurations on the fly as part of higher-order strategic posturing. Since you only control one character (AI controls the other two), the battle system makes you more like a “coach.” As awful as it may sound, I found the speed of battle fast and rewarding.
One of the most puzzling parts of the game is the weapon upgrade system, which frankly makes no sense. You’ll gather a bunch of organic and machine parts which arbitrarily contribute points towards your weapon’s “levels.” It’s obscure enough to require excel sheets to figure out.
Some people may find Final Fantasy XIII the worst “Final Fantasy” yet but I quite like it a lot. I always hated forks in the road, and towns were simply an excuse to read poorly translated lines of dialogue anyway. With the best combat system in the series and some great music, Final Fantasy XIII is a fantasy worth entertaining.
