Difficulty:

Easy

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Disappointing"

Maybe it is because I haven't had more than 12 hours of total playtime of FFXIII that I give this such a mediocre score. Perhaps it is because I am a fan of the RPG of yesteryear when it took patience and thought behind your characters progression, when you had to explore and discover where that awsome weapon was or when it tooks hours of grinding to level your party to be able to face the next great challenge. It seems that many games (as well as other pieces of entertaining media) these days forsake the suspense and building of a climax that made the classic RPGs so memorable.

First off the combat is extremely fast paced. When I personally think RPG combat I think of thought-out strategies and hard hitting maneuvers that pay off big, not a rapid race against the clock (in this case the stagger bar and rating system) to finish your foes in the fastest ways possible. Not saying that it was difficult in any way to auto-battle through most encounters or even switch up various moves depending on the situation, but in FXIIII it all seemed so clinical and generic due to the blatant focus on combat and the complete linear progression both skill exploration wise. It felt like a lockstep procedure. Libra to discover weaknesses, play your opponents weaknesses through (many times numerous) paradigm shifts and rush to stagger them. One must be ready to use the menu system blindingly fast and one mistake, such as switching to a paradigm you didn't intend or picking the wrong item to use, can sometimes spell failure due to the urgent nature of some fights.

The story isn't so bad and is your typical Final Fantasy tale. The plot doesn't build very fast due to the way cut scenes are thrown in between the gauntlets of monsters. That is exactly what it is, a gauntlet, so when you get to a cut scene, don't expect too many revelations, but instead updates on how your characters "feel" about each other or their situation. In fact I couldn't help but think of how whiny all them were. Lightning is an uptight, cold-hearted woman with a superiority complex; Sazh is a know-it-all kind of guy who thinks he can school the kids; Hope is a wuss who can't stop whining...all of them hating on Snow who I find to be the most tolerable. Why? Well at least Snow tries to inspire his companions and is courageous, which are admirable qualities instead of all the negativity surrounding everyone else. Vanille is the exception of course, because she is so optimistic and aloof that whatever she says doesn't really matter anyway, but in the entire scheme of things, who really cares about the constant bombardment of feelings? It all reminds me of a bad soap opera set in a strange world, with it forcing you to digest l'Ce, Fal'Ce and how everyone feels about it when in end, it doesn't leave the player much room to care.

The Eidolon summons, for the most part are cool and I liked their implementation, however they, like many designs in this game, just reflect a style of art that in my humble opinion has turned Final Fantasy into a cheap emotional light show since Final Fantasy X. Where is the blood and guts exploration that we expect in RPGs, found in such games like FF7, FF8 and FF Tactics? Sure these games were turn based, but if your truly a long time RPG fan, many of the classic games you've enjoyed were turn based. I could name so many from Chrono-Trigger to Pokemon, from Xenogears to Breath of Fire. No, turn based combat has gone the way of the dinosaur just as true survival horror game pacing, because the newer generation of gamers have no patience and must rush to the finish instead of cultivating an experience.