Review: Final Fantasy XIII

So the first game I've completed in this project may end up being the longest one. Good thing I got it out of the way up front. Overall, I enjoyed Final Fantasy XIII. The story didn't really shine as much as it could have, there were periods of extreme monotony and boredom, and the game felt a bit rushed, but damn it all if this game doesn't have the most exhilarating battle system ever in an RPG. 

The Story
The overarching concept of the main (and really, only) plot line is an interesting and unique one. You have two worlds: Cocoon and Pulse. Cocoon is where our heroes call home and is set up in a typical dystopian, tightly controlled society. Pulse is "the world below". The citizens of Cocoon have been convinced by their government that anything and everything from Pulse is pure evil.

Now there are these god-like machines that make decisions for both Pulse and Cocoon. These things are called fal'Cie. One day a Pulse fal'Cie invades Cocoon and our heroes come into contact with it. And when one comes into contact with a fal'Cie, they are given a "Focus" - basically they are slaves to the fal'Cie and have a very specific task to carry out. If they fail, they are turned into monsters and eventually die. So there is a lot of mystery in the early hours of the game as to what the characters focus actually is. Is it to destroy Cocoon? Is it to destroy Pulse? Is it to be a puppet of the fal'Cie? All are possibilities.

This is what hooked me early on in the game. It's a storyline that is wholly unique to the medium, and one that really hits all the right notes when it comes to story concept. Ultimately, the story doesn't deliver the way you probably want it to with gaping plot holes and unsatisfying conclusions. The biggest payoff is finding out what the little logo on the box art behind FINAL FANTASY XIII means. The way I described it to a friend was this: I felt like I wasn't smart enough to follow the plot of FF12, I felt like I was too smart for the plot of FF13. Really it just feels like they ran out of time to fully develop the story, because they obviously spent a TON of time perfecting the battle system - because it kicks all the ass in the world.

Ugh. Shut up.

The Gameplay
Let me warn you. If you loved the mini games from FF 7 or the card trading from 8 and 9 or Blitzball from 10 - don't expect anything like that in 13. The whole game consists of: cutscene, run straight, battle enemies, run straight, battle boss, cutscene. Rinse. Repeat. So since the story is a bit of a letdown, the battle system really has to carry the game because that is literally all you're doing. And carry the game it does.

So think of it like this. There are six possible roles or jobs that your characters can use. After a few hours, each character will have access to three of the six. The roles are made up like this

Commando (physical attacker)
Ravager (magic attacker)
Sentinel (defender)
Synergist (support magic)
Saboteur (slow, lower enemy defense type spells)
and Medic (healer)

Now, with three people in your party at a time, you have the option to set up six different "paradigms". A paradigm is set of three of these roles. For example, Commando, Ravager, Ravager is your all out offense paradigm. Medic, Medic, Sentinel is a defense and recover paradigm and so on. You can swap your paradigms as often as you want within a battle without penalty. For the first few hours, you can get by just switching between offense and healing paradigms, but later you must get much more strategic about which paradigms you use. Some battles that seem impossible can be easily beaten with pattern recognition and proper paradigm choices. So those are your paradigms.

Strategery.

When you actually start attacking, the default selection is "Auto Battle". You have an Active Time Battle gauge that has to fill up before you attack. This gauge is segmented into different pieces which you can increase the number of as you level up. So let's say you have four segements in your bar and you are set as a Commando. If you select "Auto Battle" you might see your ATB gauge fill up with "Attack" "Attack" "Attack" "Attack". Meaning you will attack four times. You can manually select your actions, and your tendency will be to do that at first, but you'll quickly learn to use the auto battle option. The battles occur so quickly that you will not have time to sit and think about which action to take. Fortunately, the AI that selects your actions is fairly intelligent. There are times - especially when you are a medic - that you are like "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING?!" but for the most part it's pretty good. So your main strategy comes from building the proper paradigms and then knowing when to swap to which one. So you become more of a strategist than a micromanager.

Segmented ATB Gauge.

The final, brilliant layer of the battle system is the Stagger system. Most enemies hit points will not deplete very much when you first start attacking, if at all. What is affected is the "stagger bar". This is a bar that gradually increases as you attack, but depletes while you aren't attacking. Once it fills up, your enemies are EXTREMELY vulnerable, but the stagger bar also begins depleting rapidly once it's full. This serves as a "countdown". During this 30-45 seconds you have to unload everything you have to try to take as much HP from your enemy as possible. So the first goal of every battle is to stagger your enemy. This can get difficult when your enemy doles out devastating attacks that require constant healing. But it's this back and forth madness that really makes the battle system exciting.

Stagger bar in the top right, health bar above the flying dragon thingy.

Overall, the best thing about the battle system is that you actually feel like you get better at it over time. It is a skill that takes practice and is extremely rewarding when you're firing on all cylinders. It's almost like when you finally get going in Guitar Hero and your fingers seem to be moving on their own. You will end up really impressing yourself. 

Additional Things I Enjoyed

• Save points are frequent - like every five minutes. This is a godsend for busy people who only have a 20 or 30 minutes to play at a time. Ahem. Lost Odyssey.
• Even with this save point miracle, you aren't pushed back to a save point after losing a battle. You are given the option to retry the battle right where you started. This seems like there's no penalty for losing, but there is still a lot of frustration when you die in battle. Some enemies can take up to 15 minutes to beat - so if you die right before you send him into stagger mode at 14 minutes in - it can devastate you. 
• All cutscenes are skippable. Even the first time you view them. I watched all of them, and can confidently tell you not to feel bad about skipping any of them - you're not missing much. 
• When you load a save file you are given a summary of the most recent events in the story while the game loads. This is great if you are someone who takes long breaks from a game and forgets what was happening in the story. This little feature also reveals additional details about the story that aren't explained very well in cutscenes. 
• The graphics are freaking gorgeous.

Additional Things I Hated

•  Voice acting/direction. The voice actors are OK by video game standards, but too often they fall into stereotypical niches and respond in unrealistic ways. Lightning (the girl on the cover) and Sazh (the black dude) are the best and most believable characters. Vanille however, may be the worst acted character ever in a video game. Her reaction in every situation is completely disconnected from reality. She's sickeningly positive. Like, after watching the slaughter of dozens of people she just gleefully says "It will be alright." She will make you want to chew shards of glass to relieve yourself from her stupid outlook on life. 
• Lack of RPG standard fare. No towns. No mini games. No exploration. Walk fight repeat. It gets old. 
• Weapon upgrade system. It's really the only distraction from fighting, and it's never explained how to take advantage of it. I ended up just pouring my resources into upgrading my final party's weapons not knowing if what I was doing was good or not.
• It takes about 20 hours to "get going". Many reviewers have complained about this, and I am no different. The first 1/3 of the game is EXTREMELY slow, usually only allowing you two characters at a time. Fortunately this is when the story is most interesting. After 20 hours you are finally given the ability to choose your party, and after 30 you can actually grind if you want. Imagine that.  
• It's linear. Another common complaint amongst reviewers. There are beautiful settings and places designed by the artists at Square Enix, and you are restricted to walk through them in a singular narrow corridor. One of my favorite things to do in RPGs is just walk around and see what the artists created. There is no opportunity to do this in FF13. And it's a shame.
• Vanille again. I hate her so much. 

THIS is Vanille. 

So that's it. I don't want to give it a score. I liked it. I would ultimately recommend it to a friend, based solely on the fact of having them experience the battle system. But will it hold up as a classic to be remembered years later? Probably not. 

10 Words or Less Summary
Battle system is great. Everything else isn't.

One game down. Eighty-six to go...