If anyone has kept up with or played the vast Final Fantasy collection of games over the years, then you will know that each one had a unique story filled with goofy, brave characters and usually captivated audiences with that story. Final Fantasy XIII failed to manage to grab my attention as the past titles did. I had a much easier time setting down the controller than with other huge FF's such as FF7 or FF9 or FF12. But, it still manages to capture the heart and is a rewarding experience once you have given it the time. Completely story driven with absolutely NO free world exploration (at first, later in the game you gain a lot more freedom and can choose limited selections of where you wanna go), the cutscenes come and go and seem to be a much more normal occurrence than with any previous FF. The cutscenes are flawless though, and by far the best looking game to date in the series. The voice acting isn't bad surprisingly, and the new Crystarium Battle System is one of my favorite battles systems yet. Easy to work and remember, you have roles that each character can take and gain power and abilities in, you gain points by battling enemies and you then spend how you choose on which role you choose. Simple and easy to understand. And, it brings about a quicker pace that I like, instead of the old slow paced Active Time Battle Systems of old. The story is a actually a good one, although, it feels to me as though a lot of the confusing and twisted turns that the plot takes at times could be left out as It seems to be more of a burden to me. Gorgeous cutscenes once again, awesome battle system and different limited gameplay about sums it up. Don't go into playing this one expecting a massive world to explore as you see fit, while the world is fairly sized, the maps you can navigate are very limited and come late late in the game. I recommend FFXIII to any hardcore FF or RPG gamer but not to one who can't replace some of the older traits of FF games with new ones. Definitely worth a try for any fan of the series. FFXIII is great, on a final note, however it lacks that epic "Final Fantasy" feel to me and I felt at times I was playing a franchise far less noteworthy than FInal Fantasy, but still is a great fun game.