Final Fantasy XIII

FF13 is a new favorite for fan everywhere

Synopsis:

    FF13 starts you off in Cocoon, a utopian city where citizens who have been exposed to beings known as l'Cie are being "purged" and sent away. You begin with the main protagonist, a woman by the name of Lightning, attempting to stowaway on a train carrying citizens to be purged. After some intervening by the second character, a bandana wearing, fist fighting man named Snow, Lightning finds herself begrudgingly making her way on foot with a very unlikely companion. Its hard to really continue from there without spoiling anything. Needless to say, the game holds up to the habit of its predecessors by throwing you into the action right away. After about 5 hours of playing you begin to understand what's happening.

     Like all Final Fantasy games, players of FF13 will find themselves compelled to continue the story and develop the characters. New to this installment however, is the introduction of the Crystarium leveling system, a role-based mostly-linear process of obtaining new attributes and abilities through the use of CP obtained after defeating foes. Another neat feature is the ability to level up and eventually upgrade your equipment by using components obtained via battles or through exploring the map.

Appearance:

     Square Enix has always had a flair for employing the best graphics available and this time they continue that trend. With a game like FF13 being more video than gameplay, good graphics are a must. At times it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to tell what is a cut scene and what is a full blown CGI cinematic. While the game still holds the traditional Final Fantasy look, its obvious they revamped it for the better consoles. 

Game Play:

     Its hard to criticize Final Fantasy gameplay because everyone knows what they're getting themselves into. Its a turn-based role playing game, only this time its been tweaked.  Merging the battle ideas from Final Fantasy 12 and the earlier incarnations all opponents are visible on the world map while walking around, only this time its apparent when a battle has begun. Much like FF12, the battle no longer halts and opponents swagger back and forth while waiting for the player to make a move. If you set down the controller and go to the bathroom without actually hitting pause, chances are you will die.

     Also different than most FF's is that the player only has control of one character in battle. Eventually the player will play through all characters multiple times, but who that character may be is dependant upon the story. Players will have the ability to assign different roles to the non-playable party members, but as far as telling your healer to heal you, it can't be done. This never became a bother while playing, however. Its simple to switch characters from one role to the next with a couple quick button presses. The new Paradigm System, as its called, requires players to be a little more attentive to what's going on in battle and actually makes it more fun and less monotonous than previous Final Fantasy's. 

     True to any RPG, players looking to go into the final boss battle with guns blazing and max stats will have to do a significant amount of grinding.

Don't Change a Thing:

     This is the first FF game to feature a female lead character, and one who kicks some serious booty. The character development is amazing, and by the end will have most players on the verge of tears. The voice acting is diverse, timely, and at times pretty funny. Overall there's much more good to this game than bad. 

Should have Spent More Time on:

     Despite the ability to equip different weapons or upgrade existing weapons into entirely new models, all of the characters in the cut-scenes are seen with their original gear. This isn't too much of a drawback but can be kind of lame when you just upgraded their weapon to the next model and want to see how it looks outside of battle. This could have been overcome with a more detailed equipment menu that could have allowed item viewing. Really though, this is the only grievance with the game. Turn-based games might not be every one's thing, but we always seem to make room in our hearts for Final Fantasy.

Just how homo:

     For those who find anime hot, this game might be the ultimate turn on for you. While Final Fantasy has long been a  muse for erotic art on hentai sites, overall the game has no generally appealing characters who would work their way into our fan-boy fantasies.

Own it or Rent it:

     Rent it. The replay value of any Final Fantasy game is minuscule and while the game will take hours to beat, its nothing that can't be mastered in a couple weeks with a Gamefly membership.