After a disappointing decade for the franchise, Final Fantasy XIII breathes new life into the series.
Final Fantasy XIII casts you into the roll of Lightning a 21 year old soldier who is strongly reminiscent of a certain spiky haired blond. With Sazh, Snow, Hope, Vanille, and (eventually) Fang by her side, Lightning and crew is thrown into a fate that she couldn't even begin to imagine. With the fate of being branded as a "l'Cie" (the most hated beings in Cocoon), Lightning and the others must fight for a world that ultimately hates them.
Story 5/5: Probably the most solid story in a Final Fantasy game since Final Fantasy VI. What starts out as hard to understand, soon turns into a second language. I have not mentioned much of anything simply because you have to see it to believe it. However, the story doesn't get extremely good until around the 25 hour mark.
Graphics: 5/5: Let's face it, this is probably the best looking game of the market. The level of detail Square Enix has put into Final Fantasy XIII is absolutely mind blowing. The fact that the creators took the time to recreate the entire game to match the English translation is reason alone to give this the highest score possible.
Music: 4/5: Not much to complain about other than it's missing nearly every theme that has stuck with the series up to this point. The chocobo theme remains and that's it for the classic themes. No opening fanfare, no arpeggio, and no victory theme. Other than that, the music is very pretty and very memorable.
Play Control: 5/5: Spot on. Everything works like it should, both in battle and out of. The battles are fast paced and never get old. The battle system is where the game shines and is one of the best (and addictive) concepts I have ever seen. I really don't see how Square Enix will ever top this.
Difficulty: 3/5: Pretty typical of the rest of the series. Final Fantasy XIII's difficulty is based on which party you decide to use through-out the game. Each party member has one certain ability that they excel at, with two other abilities added in.
Overall: 10/10: Why a 10? Well, simply put, this is the best Final Fantasy released since Final Fantasy VI. The story is solid, the characters are likable, the play control is addicting, the music is well composed an emotional. The only thing I can see people complaining about is the game is very linear. It's constantly Point A to Point B, but the game does open up near the end. I love this game and it's a definite Final Fantasy classic.