Final Fantasy XIII's ambitions are hampered by some poor development choices.
Before I get to cynical, let me talk about what I thoroughly enjoyed about Final Fantasy XIII. The scenery and story make this well worth a go around. Final Fantasy in High Definition must be a dream; the CGI cutscenes that the series is renowned for have never looked better. Even the in-game cutscenes are extremely well done. You're whisked away to many different environments all with a futuristic feel. Almost everything is mechanized in Cocoon even an entire forest; however, there are also environments that give a more natural feel to your journey. The color pallet is used in its entirety in this game which is always a good thing when we see many drab settings in modern games.
The story is also extremely well written. Yes, many gamers find a couple of the characters to be annoying, but they all have their own personality and their individuals struggles aside from the group struggle. You will be spending a large majority of the time watching these individuals go through their personal problems as the game is filled to the brim with cutscenes. You will get to know each character very intimately because often times the party will split two going one way and two going another. The party will never be completely unified until late in the game.
I must also praise the battle system. It's very streamline and fast. It's basically an Active Time Battle that was seen in previous installments like Final Fantasy X-2, but on a much faster pace. You have six slots to set up the role "paradigm"your character can play before the battle begins. During the battle you can freely switch between any Paradigm you have set up for your team. You can have a team filled with black mages "Ravengers" or a team consisting of a Ravenger, White Mage "Medic", and Warrior "Comando" or any other variation you can think of. You're only able to control your party leader and if the party leader dies it's instant gameover, so the battles can get pretty hectic switching back and forth between a healer. This chaos makes it extremely fun though. You will be trying to get enough hits on the enemy to stagger them and inflict even more damage on them in their staggered state. Another abnormality with the battle is there is no MP! Yes, you can cast an infinite amount of black/white magic. I have no qualms about this because the game would just be down right impossible if there was MP, yet another oddity is that after every battle your party is healed completely. Once again I'm grateful for this because potions and especially phoenix downs are somewhat hard to come by early on. These additions may make the game sound too easy, but this couldn't be further from the truth.
The level up system, "Crystarium System," is somewhat similar to Final Fantasy X's Spheregrid, but even more linear. You cannot skip an ability you spend your EXP that you earn in battle to go in basically a straight line up a path to each new ability with some abilities being a side branch.
Looking at the leveling system we start to see an overall trend with Final Fantasy XIII that being linearity. You spend the first 24 hours of the game following an arrow to the next cutscene.The only deviance from this path are the countless battles you will be fighting. Not only is it linear, but it also bars progress until the end of the game. The Crystarium System will unlock a little bit more after each chapter; however, if you max out your stats before a chapter is finished then you can not move on in the Crystarium System until it is expanded. There are also a set number of enemies in areas until late in the game, so if you battle everyone that's all the experience you can get.
The next gripe are the battles. Do not get me wrong the combat system is amazing and leads to fast paced battles; however, these battles last too long as many enemies have high HP/high Defense. Also the reward does not out weigh the trouble of the battles. I feel a lot of time that the EXP/Gil/accessory rewarded for battle was underwhelming.
The biggest gripe however, is the Equipment/Upgrade system. It's completely useless until extremely late in the game almost post game. There are only about 7 weapons for each character in the game. Each weapon has levels and after a certain level can be upgraded to a newer form. However, the gil/components required to make the necessary upgrades is ridiculous.
These poor decisions bring a wonderful game down. I've played for about 55 hours now, and I feel that I am able to develop a strong opinion of this game.
Pros:
+Gorgeous
+Battle System
+Story
Cons:
-Linearity
-Weapon/Upgrade System
-Tough Battles/Lack the reward