Review: Final Fantasy 13

• The graphics in this game are beautiful. Even down to the facial hair, everything stands out. Sometimes I even had a hard time depicting what was in-game and what was a full-motion video.
• The battle system can be fast and enjoyable, until they make a bit more complex just for the sake of being different.

• The game is unlike any of the other Final Fantasy games in that it’s VERY linear. Other games in the series promoted some exploration, but XIII doesn’t seem to do that at all.
• In battle, you have control over one character, and that character can’t die, or you lose. Even if other party members are up. They can’t bring you back to life.
• I gave the game roughly 6 to 8 hours and I was bored for the most of it. I hear the game doesn’t get fun until roughly 20 hours in. If that’s true, then SquareEnix has forgotten how to make video games.
• The storyline is confusing and doesn’t explain anything – we’re usually given a synopsis at the beginning of these games. Not with 13 and I’ve heard even after about 15 hours in, the story is STILL confusing.
• The battle system gets too complex and eventually boring. I have to start the game buffing up my characters and debuffing my enemies, then swapping paradigms (or however it’s pronounced) between becoming nothing but healers then fighters. Throw in the stun meters, and all you’re doing is looking at the stats, not the graphics.
• To make matters worse, you do essentially three things in battle, select “Auto-Attack,” so the game decides what’s the best route to take in battle, decide the Paradigms and then you decide who to attack. That’s it. Very little to no work or thought necessary in these battles.
• No familiar music and no real familiar Final Fantasy Terminology. No traditional Final Fantasy Intro video and I’m guessing there’s no Biggs, Wedge or Moogles. There is a Cid, and a tiny Chocobo – but I’m guessing there’s no ride-able ones in the game. As a fan of the former games in the series, I’d like to see some consistency. CastleVania, Lords of Shadow is a good example – they are looking to take the series in a completely different direction, but they’re keeping some elements of the older games to keep it familiar.
• Finally and most importantly, the game just wasn’t fun. I was bored within 30 minutes and it never got fun from that point on. If this game didn’t have a Final Fantasy name slapped onto it, it would have been destroyed in the reviews – plain and simple.

Postive Points: 2 | Negative Points: 7 | Total Score: -5

I’ve loved the Final Fantasy series since I jumped on-board when Final Fantasy 4 came out. Final Fantasy 6 is my favorite in the series, and I’ve found every game since then enjoyable. Yeah, even FF7, which I think got too much credit considering what FF6 was able to do on a storytelling and emotional level using less powerful hardware. I enjoyed FF7, FF8, FF9, FF10, FF11 and I probably would have enjoyed 12 if I ever played it.

I was really hoping 13 would be able to be put on top of my list of FF games that I enjoyed, but not only did it do the opposite, it set in stone that SquareEnix will never be able to make a good Final Fantasy game again if they continue down the route they did with FF13. Even if they go another direction, I’ve given up on any of these new titles stealing the #1 and #2 place that FF6 and FF4 were able to take.

I’ve read around, there’s no middle ground – either reviewers say it’s a great game, or it’s an abomination of the series. Considering this is the first game to get a negative score with my current rating system, and no doubt would have gotten a 1/5 on my old one … you can throw me in the pile of people who say FF13 is an abomination and ruins a once-great franchise.