With more than a dozen titles in the series, each “Final Fantasy” installment has high expectations to meet.
With stunning graphics, a strong soundtrack and great voice acting, the latest “Final Fantasy XIII” title appears to be more of a high-budget Hollywood flick than a role-playing game. Fortunately, beneath the shiny surface lies some genuine quality within the gameplay.
Lightning
The heart of any RPG game is its story, and “
Final Fantasy XIII” has an overall decent tale to tell. Basically, the protagonists led by someone codenamed Lightning are branded with a cursed mark, becoming something called a l’Cie. In the story’s world called Cocoon, l’Cie invoke fear in the general public so they are persecuted like criminals. The l’Cie will eventually transform into monsters unless a task called a Focus is completed. Of course, this objective has further complications for Lightning and her party to deal with as the plot unfolds.
It is a solid story for the game, but previous “Final Fantasy” titles have done better. Nevertheless, the obviously high production values do elevate the storyline to another level.
Though graphics and sounds do not necessarily make a game enjoyable by themselves, developer Square Enix certainly spared no expense in the title’s presentation department. “Final Fantasy XIII” is easily one of the best looking games of its generation. Whether one is gazing at breathtaking environments or even at an emblem on a character’s jacket, Square Enix devoted an amazing attention to detail down to the last bar of steel.
The music and sound effects are also magnificently done. Catchy music scores create an engrossing atmosphere as one traverses the detailed landscapes. Sound effects like sword slashes, the clanking of metal and the shattering of ice fit perfectly as well.
As for voice acting, the days where an RPG player needs to scroll through text boxes of dialogue to advance the story are almost a thing of the past, and “Final Fantasy XIII” raises the bar in this respect. Nearly everything in this game is fully voiced. Players do not even need to press a button for most dialogue sequences, and even talking to non-playable characters is automatic.
Thankfully, the game does deliver solid vocal performances across the board with only a few minor gripes. The voice acting for characters like Lightning, Snow and Sazh are especially noteworthy for establishing personality. On the other hand, the voices of characters like Vanile are just annoying, even to the point of being a chore for the ears to endure. Vanile has an Australian-like accent and occasionally “forgets” about it when reciting her lines. It does not help that her voice is the one narrating the story.
Sazh
However, the superb vocal performances do lose some punch from the often-choppy writing. Some conversations in the game come off as awkward and a bit unnatural. The writing particularly gets carried away with the in-game jargon, which leads to many dialogue sequences becoming needlessly confusing to comprehend. The game does remedy some of the exposition woes with detailed information found within the game’s menu option called the Datalog. Besides having notes on the gameplay mechanics, the Datalog contains explanations on all of the game’s terminology.
But aesthetics aside, the battle system within “Final Fantasy XIII” entails fast-paced thinking and a good amount of strategy. The series’ staple, the Active Time Battle system, makes its return with a dynamic overhaul.
Simply put, every participant within a battle has a bar divided into segments that fills up. As this bar is filling up, an action may be “stocked” to be carried out eventually. The more powerful moves require more bar segments to execute. Furthermore, all actions can occur simultaneously, so the sense of a real-time fight is really apparent.
In addition, a significant difference with the “Final Fantasy XIII” battle system is how the player can only control the leader of their party. Allies are computer controlled and behave according to their given role as part of the Paradigm system. There are six different roles, and each have their own characteristics to keep in mind. For instance, the Commando role focuses on fighting enemies, while the Medic role cannot attack but can heal the party.
By setting different Paradigm combinations beforehand, a player can instantly shift the character roles in battle on the fly. This becomes a necessity as many battles require quick thinking rather than brute force to be successful. In fact, it is not uncommon for the player to switch between strategies constantly during battles, especially for the challenging boss encounters. A real plus is how the computer-controlled allies are usually intelligent with their actions.
The game also offers plenty of character customization options such as its leveling system called the Crystarium, but this is nothing that worthwhile for the “Final Fantasy” franchise.
In terms of flaws for the game, nothing particularly significant stands out. A minor issue would be the game’s linearity. The game uses this particular formula quite a bit: move down an often-straightforward path with the occasional detour to collect treasure or fight some battles, see a cutscene and then move on to another simple pathway. Rinse and repeat. There is a portion in the game where things become more open-ended, but the same linear pattern occurs again for the game’s last chapters.
Snow
The game also coddles the player to the point of it being insulting. At the expense of convenience, the sense of challenge is toned down considerably. For instance, players do not need to worry about healing after battles as every encounter begins with a full set of hit points for the party. This eliminates the sense of a gauntlet. In addition, players can also “restart” battles, sending the player to right before a battle took place to prepare and then give the battle another go. And then there is the generous amount of save points, which probably totals more than 100 throughout such a linear game.
Regardless, “Final Fantasy XIII” is a welcomed edition for the famed franchise. The game’s cosmetic touches reflect a milestone for not only the RPG genre, but video games in this generation. Often times, games of this nature usually have more style than substance, but “Final Fantasy XIII” certainly brings its own good flavor to the mix beyond the visuals and sounds.
Is it the best “Final Fantasy title I have played? No, it is not, but the game is definitely worth a look. Just take the time to look past the glossy shell to find the actual RPG goodness.
Nhan-Fiction Score: 4.5/5
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