Empowering the EBA Community with a voice to collaboratively review the industry’s hottest titles, the EpicBattleAxe.com uREVIEW (about) delivers real insight from real gamers about The GOOD, The BAD, and The UGLY pertaining to the biggest games in the world. This is the EpicBattleAxe.com uREVIEW for Final Fantasy XIII. Let’s get started:
FACTS:
Publisher: Square Enix | Developer: Square Enix
Genre(s): Role-Playing Game
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: T (Teen)
Release Date: March 9, 2010
Platforms: PlayStation 3. Xbox 360
Official Website
GAME SUMMARY:
In Final Fantasy XIII, you will embark on a journey through the cityworld of Cocoon and the outerworld of Pulse. Along the way, you will encounter diverse allies who will fight alongside you. Execute powerful attacks with weapons and magic, and summon the enigmatic Eidolons with an evolved Active Time Battle system. Experience seamless transitions between real time gameplay and in-game cinematics. Do you have the courage to face your destiny?
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My review is based upon the first 5 hours (approximate) of FFXIII. These are my initial impressions…
The Good:
- Combat is a blast. The system initially appears simplistic to the point of being dumbed down, but quickly reveals its complexity as the game gives you access to more and more combat mechanics (especially when you get access to the Paradigms).
Battles are fast, frantic, and intense. Not to mention the essentially turnbased actions you input play out on the screen like a fast paced action game. I never thought I’d get an adrenaline rush from a FF battle.
- Excellent orchestral/electronic score. Definitely on par with the series’s pedigree. The battle theme will haunt you in your sleep…
- Voice acting has improved greatly from FFX. Certainly the series’s best.
- The presentation/visuals will constantly have you in awe. A perfect posterchild for HD gaming. The visual quality ranks high with the likes of MGS4 and Uncharted 2.
- The story, so far, has been more intriguing than the stories of its more recent predecessors. The worlds of Coccoon and Pulse are fleshed out in great detail, complete with their own histories and mythos.
- The cast of characters in your party is generally likeable, despite a couple of them having annoying personality traits. They are diverse and all bring something to the table, both combat and storywise.
Most notable is Lightning, FFXIII’s stoic, determined protagonist. Let me put it to you this way: she has more balls than most of the FF series’s male protagonists. Definitely my favorite character since Auron.
The Bad:
- The game’s linearity is oppressive. Dungeons are essentially corridors with occasional branching paths, which often lead to meager treasure. Combat and story are the absolute focus, no pun intended, of FFXIII.
The removal of towns further kills any hope of exploration. There aren’t even any puzzles to change up the pace. This point A to point B affair isn’t game breaking, but it’s unfortunate that FFXIII’s excellent battle system and storyline have to carry so much weight. A third pillar would’ve rounded out the whole.
The Ugly:
- The camera, outside of battle, tends to be overly sensitive. Gently tapping the right stick in a direction often causes the camera to jump in said direction. There is no option to decrease/increase the camera’s sensitivity.
- Some of the dialogue is absolutely cringeworthy (looking at you, Vanille). It’s par for the course when it comes to JRPG localization, but I’d like to see a JRPG defeat that curse, one day.
- If you try really hard, you’ll find an ugly texture or two. Mind you, you really have to try…
Overall:
Thumbs up! Buy it!
Yes, FFXIII’s linearity is a glaring flaw that keeps it from achieving JRPG greatness, but to condemn the game for that transgression is to completely ignore the aspects which rival/exceed the quality of previous FF games.
(4 hours of play)It seems very linear, but it hasnt proven to be much of a problem for me as of yet, the story moves along quite nice.
This game will open alot of doors for gamedevelopers
I’m very optimistic about the next project
I haven’t really enjoyed a FF game since the SNES. I bought 7,8,9,X and X-2… Some were ok some were real bad… None were ZOMG!!! to write home about. This one looks to be going down a path I don’t like… Unless you like really long, cheesy story with bland characters who wear entirely too many belts and jackets then avoid this and buy it used(I never support used games but I feel square doesn’t deserve the money until they make a decent game…)
Can you please define a decent game from you point of view
I’m gonna buy it, but I’ll wait until I can get it used in Japan. They left out the Japanese voice track in the US release, and that’s enough to make me not want to buy it there.
I’m gonna make this short n’ sweet
The Good: Graphics and scenery BY far, at least I think.
The Bad: The story, for me i’m lost in the beginning on trying to read every datalog that comes up and keep retracing how many different terms there are, pulse, purge, fal’cie, il’cie pulse fal’cie.. ??
The Ugly: Vanille or whatever her name is.
I don’t usually play Final Fantasy games, but I picked this one up out of curiosity and it has far exceeded any of my expectations. I would recommend it to any and all RPG fans.
I’m about half way through. I’ll give a more full review when I’m done.
GOOD
- Impossibly good CGI graphics. Regular gameplay graphics are thoroughly impressive also.
- The setting is beautiful.
- Battle System is argueably the best to date. It takes a while to really peak though.
- The soundtrack is flipping beautiful. Despite Nobuo Uematsu’s departure, they just keep on turning out these amazing scores.
OKAY
- Story has promise, but not enough happens per segment on the game. You can play a whole session sometimes without the story advancing. It’s like trying to read Twilight sometimes, where 100 pages basically turned out to be just a bunch of conversations. The story has certainly picked up though.
- Some of the characters are really hit and miss. Some of them are impossible not to like, whilst others really don’t contribute a great deal or constantly act out of character.
- Voice acting is iffy at times. After the quality of XII’s voice acting, there’s a huge whiplash with this game. Some of the voice acting is perfect, whilst others sound really dramatic at times and don’t sell their lines.
BAD
- Level caps. THe game holds you back from really levelling hard by preventing you from advancing after a certain stage.
- The maps are so linear that it’s embarassing. I have the strategy guide and each map-picture is just a straight line.
- For about 6 hours of the game, the only two items you can buy are “Potion” and “Phoenix Down”. For another 5 hours after that, it’s 3 accessories.
- You don’t confront enemies that cast status inflicting spells until 15 hours into the game.
MISC.
- The game is Final Fantasy only in title. Every tradition and nostalgia from this game has been torn away. I was so shocked to see that the 25 year old Prelude, Final Fantasy theme and Victory Theme had been axed. I can’t see a reason for doing that. Do those songs alienate new fans?
I’ll give a full review later, which isnt just a bunch of bullet points. Im really liking it, but it’s not as good as it could be.
@Earnest:
Great preliminary review.
I must agree the game holds back too much for too long. You have to play for a good 15 hours before you get access to all the toys which make combat so much fun. Such a slow trickle of gameplay mechanics is completely unnecessary.
It sucks that Square Enix took out those nostalgic elements you mentioned (I hope they make a comeback), but it still feels very much like a FF game to me from a thematic and atmospheric perspective.
Let us know what you think when you finish the game.
Hey. Thanks for the interest.
Well as planned, I wrote a full review for this game. IGN seemed the most appropriate location for it.
http://rr.ps3.ign.com/rrview/games/final_fantasy_xiii/826843/120332/
For those who don’t care, then I’ll just tell you that the score is an 8.8/10. It’s not quite as good as previous Final Fantasy games. It has some annoying gameplay mechanics and can be flat in certain areas of the story, but overall its brilliant.
If you’re a fan of the series or JRPG in general, definitey get it. It’s one of the best stories and casts of characters yet.
The game was linear, but I still loved it. GORGEOUS Graphics. Great characters and some of the best music in the series. I Can’t wait for Final Fantasy Versus 13 now
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I’m a little late to the UReview party, but I figured I may as well chime in no matter how late I am. I do have an opinion regardless.
Anyways, let’s get to it!
The Good: The game is what you come to expect from Square in presentation and ambition. It’s a visual beast, has great design overall (characters/summons/monsters/weapons etc.) and has a decently interesting story. Voice acting is also quite good (heck I even like Vanille,) and a good cast overall. The battle system is fast paced and strategic.
The Bad: Although the battle system is good, I have alot of issues with the game (albeit small issues, but they do add up.) I feel that the game is too limiting to even consider an RPG. Sure there’s a progression system, but ultimately it’s all pre-determined. You’re limited to when and where you can go with your character development. I enjoy it more when I can decide where I should go and when I should go there (character growth-wise.) Sure most RPGs are limited, but this one gives no choice what-so-ever.
I also hate that they lost traditions (and seem to be doing so as time goes on,) and I’m not talking about when it comes to gameplay. I’m talking about altering class names, removing something altogether that make Final Fantasy what it is. I don’t mind change (hell, Final Fantasy XII is probably my favorite of the series) yet leaving most of what makes a game what it is is kinda disappointing. Non of this breaks the game though, just small issues for me.
The Ugly: All of that stuff up there is tolerable, but what ultimately saddened me about this game is it’s lack of everything. I don’t want to sound like everyone else, but it’s a hollow game. Nothing changes. For the first 30 hours you do the same thing. Proceed across the map fighting enemies (which, yes is fun,) and then eventually watch a scene and fight a boss. I miss being able to do random things to break the monotony. I miss being able to play cards if I wanted to, or do fun minigames. I miss doing sidequest, I miss what makes RPGs RPGs, choice. Honestly, after 40+ hours and beating the final boss…there wasn’t one memorable moment in the game. It’s hollow, like I said earlier, the game feels like an empty shell. It almost like it has really no substance.
I bought it on day one because I’m a huge Final Fantasy fan, and I would probably do so again. It’s still a good game, it’s biggest problems aren’t even that significant and overall it’s got some great ideas that were implemented well, but what I’m disappointed in is not what content it has, but what content was omitted.
I understand that Square had to first create the engine before development could even begin, and for what time they had and what they had to do, it is a really good game, and I commend them for what they were able to accomplish. However, should it happen for FFXV, then I think I’ll be extremely pissed.
Final fantasy XIII is phenomenal, yes i know ff fans will be disappointed with the linear design of the game but the solid story, characters ( except hope) and excellent battle system make up for it and will make it a satisfying experience for gamers. Plus the visuals kick major ass. Its every RPG gamers “final fantasy”