While it is visually stunning, Final Fantasy XIII fails to deliver on all things Final Fantasy
PLOT:
The game immediately throws you into the thick of things, which leaves you initially confused as to what is happening. You start off in a train carting what appear to be prisoners through a massive man-made mega-structure known as Cocoon. Two characters, whose connection we don't understand at this point, overtake the train and, as a result, they get attacked by SANCTUM soldiers, a military organization for Cocoon. After some derailment, these characters set off to take on the SANCTUM and Cocoon government, still for reasons unknown. The story will, in this earliest of stages, switch off between various sets of characters (5 of the 6 main characters, to be exact), showing what role they are playing in this unusual "Purge", as it is called. Some are rebels, some are innocents merely caught up in the chaos. You don't really understand where they all connect, and you don't find out until certain cut-scenes play.
Eventually the plot does open up, and things will slowly fall into place. At first, it's all pretty interesting. You have two characters trying to rescue the same woman from a mysterious God-like entity called a Fal'Cie, one character tagging along for the rescue, and two other characters trying to get even with one of the first characters over misplaced anger. They battle this Fal'Cie, but in the process get labeled as l'Cie (Fal'Cie slaves, in essence). From then on out they must complete their "Focus", a mission they've been tasked with by the Fal'Cie. Should they fail, they become Cie'th, lumbering zombie-like creatures, and should they succeed, they receive everlasting life…in a crystalline form. Throughout the story, their Focus becomes clearer, and they face a difficult moral decision, while grappling with their own personal issues and the mysterious circumstances of their l'Cie-hood.
Sounds like a great tale, but for me, it really wasn't. I probably could have enjoyed the plot more, were it not for two major issues: Endless cut-scenes and pre-game-events cut-scenes. You see, there are these scenes, usually labeled anywhere from Day 1 to Day 13, detailing specific events in the 13 days prior to the events of the game. That right there bothered me. You get small tidbits of information on these characters' backgrounds as you progress, and it all doesn't make much sense until you've seen most of the scenes play out (and many of them will just be plain irrelevant). Because you've been tossed right into the action, you must now progress well into the game before the beginning makes any sense, sort of a warped sense of chronology.
But these cut-scenes are merely a tiny portion of the endless, relentless cut-scenes you must endure. There will be a cut-scene, and it will most likely last 3+ minutes, and if you're lucky, it's the only one you'll watch. More often than not, however, you'll have 2 or maybe even 3 cut-scenes play IN A ROW. So when you've gotten sick of watching the first and use the ever-so-awesome Skip option, you'll find yourself in the midst of yet another long cut-scene, and possibly after that, a third! By Chapter 8 I found myself using the Skip option like it was the only choice I had. Cut-scenes just dragging on were too much for me to stomach, and the plot was too tedious for me to want to watch the incessant droning of the characters. This, by the way, brings me to the second part of my review: characters.
CHARACTERS:
Right off the bat I will say this: there are only 2 characters in this game I truly liked. They were Fang and Vanille. Fang is sort of a female Auron: tough, calm, and smart, she's the ultimate badass. Most people tend to put her in their final party because she's so damn powerful. Vanille is the sweetest, most energetic, and most selfless character of all. While it seems I'm the only person who actually liked her (she can be annoying at times), I think it's because nobody sees her the way I do. She's caring and empathetic; probably the only reason Hope didn't just off himself right away. She's also extremely selfless. Every other character in the game has their own personal agenda, but for Vanille it was all about everyone else. She hid away the terrible secrets she had, took the blame for being the horrible beat Ragnarok instead of Fang, and put the safety and worries of the rest of the group before her own. Without her, the team morale (especially the morale of Sazh and Hope) would have been "Mariana's Trench low", and THAT'S low. Call her annoying 'til you're blue in the face, but the fact remains that she was the best character to have given the circumstances that the characters all faced.
Beyond that, I wasn't too fond of the rest. Lightning, Snow, and Hope I'm on the fence about, while Sazh I just plain didn't like. Lightning was rude, uncaring, and selfish right from the beginning, but after a little while spent traveling with Hope she started to soften up. She still retained her emotionless state, however, but she did so in a less b****y fashion.
Snow started off the opposite of Lightning. Selfless, caring, and kind, he focused on saving as many innocent people as he could while at the same time leading a rebel group called NORA against SANCTUM soldiers. But after the party got a bit more out there on their own, it became apparent that he was really selfish and had a one-track mind. All he cared about, and all he talked about, was his fiancée Serah. I can understand his love of her was immense, but it gets annoying when every cut-scene that focuses on him has him holding up Serah's crystallized tear to some form of light, and blabbering on about how he'll do what Serah had asked of him. I sort of caught on to how he felt and what he planned to do after the first of these cut-scenes. If you can tolerate that, then you'll like him more than me.
Then there's Hope. Hope begins as a whiny and extremely spineless little kid. He can't even muster up the courage to confront Snow about the death of his mother (he blames Snow, even though it was an accident), let alone get the courage to defend himself. He needed the help of Vanille, who, more or less, pushed him to follow Snow and confront him. After he splits from the rest of the group and joins Lightning, he starts to man up, and stops his crying and complaining and starts learning to be strong, both mentally and physically. Unfortunately, it's for the wrong reasons (to kill Snow), which is why I was on the fence about him. After the whole ordeal is cleared up, he was suddenly all buddy-buddy with Snow, like the whole first half of the game never really meant anything.
Lastly is Sazh. I didn't care for Sazh, because at no point did his character evolve into anything I liked. Initially he came off as a wise-cracking joke character a la Cait Sith or Quina from previous Final Fantasy titles, the way he acted in a less-than-serious manner and had that pointless, only-funny-to-Japanese chocobo in his hair. GS' review may say that it wasn't made overly apparent, but for the longest time that chocobo is in your face, making a mockery of Sazh's character. After his cheap corniness fades, he becomes this depressed downer. Depression does not a good character make, friends, and he's a prime example of why. Were it not for Vanille (who again saves the day), he most likely would've offed himself as well. The only part about Sazh I liked was that he was a caring father who would do anything to rescue his son, a l'Cie who was taken captive by the Cocoon government.
Now comes the worst part of my character section: NO MAIN VILLAIN. That's right, there is no megalomaniac hell-bent on godhood, world domination, or world destruction. No heinous villain whose actions are the main motivation for the party's continued path. The closest you'll find in this game are Barthandelus, a Fal'Cie who wants the destruction of Cocoon for mysterious reasons, and Cid Raines, a l'Cie soldier who you'll kill off well before the game's end. Barthandelus is closest to a main villain, given he does seem to want God-like powers, but when you only finally come into contact with him well after the midway point of the game, he doesn't seem to be much of a major villain. At least FFXII had Vayne, and FFX had Sin, both of which were there right from the get-go. A late-starting villain is less threatening, and when the party doesn't even pursue him or seem all that interested in him or his actions, he's kind of hard to take seriously.
GAMEPLAY:
The overall gameplay of FFXIII was its saving grace. The Crystarium was my personal joy, in that it was much akin to FFX's Sphere Grid. You could upgrade your characters to fantastic extremes, and enhance their HP, Magic, and Strength to create an unstoppable force worth notice.
Customization in general was what I liked about this title. This includes the Weapon upgrading system. As you defeat enemies, you earn little components, which can be used to upgrade weapons as well as accessories. After so much experience is gained, they level up, and when the item has reached a certain point, it can be upgraded to a new weapon or accessory with the use of specialized metal ores. Each character can upgrade their weapons into fantastic creations, including memorable FF weapons like the Lionheart, Ultima Weapon, and Kain's Lance.
The battle system was pretty impressive, albeit less interesting than previous Final Fantasies. You could really do all battle with the use of Libra and Auto-Battle, and not have to do much thinking beside figuring out which Roles you wanted your characters to take. You could customize your "configurations" to have up to 6 different varieties of Roles, be it the chain-boosting Commando, Ravager, Ravager combo, or the well-spread Commando, Ravager, Medic combo. There are 6 Roles for each character to choose from, leaving a multitude of combinations at your disposal.
The downside to the gameplay was having to endure 10 Chapters of single-path linearity. Literally for the majority of the game (and much of the very end of the game) is spent following a single, winding path to your eventual Chapter conclusion. No exploration, side-questing, or curious wandering, with the exception of one Chapter: Chapter 11. Best Chapter in the game in my opinion, because suddenly the world opened up to a great, vast expanse, complete with side-quests, exploration, and curious wandering. Pulse, the world below Cocoon, is where you'll find yourself. Life abounds here, and the side-quests finally show up after what seemed like an eternal slumber. There are chocobos to be ridden, as well as Cie'th Stone missions to complete. These missions will direct you to a challenge to partake in, where you must find a specific creature or set of creatures that a l'Cie in the past failed to defeat. Defeat them for rewards and access to extra areas and bonuses in the Pulse grasslands. They vary in difficulty, but since they are numbered, it becomes pretty simple to figure out what order to take to avoid suddenly encountering an over-powered foe that you're no match for.
In the end, Final Fantasy XIII truly did disappoint. While I did find much to enjoy, it was far too little and far too late to make up for the grueling, negative aspects that I had to endure for much of the game. Overall, a 6.0/10. To sum it up in a few words: "Mediocre RPG, horrible Final Fantasy".
Thanks for reading :)