FFXIII's fast-paced battle system is just what the series needed.
First revealed at E3 2006, Square Enix's newest incarnation in its revered franchise aims to return to its roots. After the backlash toward Final Fantasy XII, Square knew it needed to return to form, and return to form it did. However, the formula also received some radical changes.
Twelve was criticized because the battle system was cumbersome, the world was vast and empty, and the story comprised a shallow Star Wars rewrite. These aspects are what Square focused on when developing Thirteen. How does it compare? "Streamlined" sums it up pretty well. Final Fantasy XIII takes a more traditional approach to the series, yet makes some much needed changes in order to update the franchise for our fast-paced, twenty-first century world. Battles are more fluid, traversing the world is easier, and the pacing of the story is quicker.
Thirteen introduces the Paradigm Shift system, which allows classic Final Fantasy jobs to be changed on the fly during battle. Every battle requires a degree of planning revolving around switching to different Paradigm sets at a moment's notice. The battles are tough, and so a retry system has been implemented which resets game overs to right before the previous battle. This makes developing tactics for each battle convenient and exciting.
The next two aspects of the game, the world and story, go hand in hand. The game progresses in a heavily linear fashion, with much of the game's map relegated to perfectly straight lines. This and the excision of traditional towns, removes a large chunk of the exploration factor expected from a JRPG. However, because the progression of the game is more fluid, there is more focus on the story. Beautiful, fully animated cutscenes and exchanges of dialog lay at the end of almost every stretch of land.
Heavy emphasis is put on the back story and current goings-on of the gigantic world these characters live in. Flashback scenes detailing how these characters' fates intertwine flesh out the plot. The amount of information being flung at the player can be overwhelming sometimes, though. The characters represent typical Japanese archetypes, but most people will still find themselves rooting for the good guys.
Final Fantasy XIII represents a huge risk for Square Enix. How were they supposed to completely overhaul their trusted formula again, while still being more traditional than their last game? Well, this is how, and they've done a great job. On paper, Final Fantasy XIII fixes every problem that the gaming community had with Twelve: the battle system, the world, the story, everything. For some people Thirteen isn't good enough. It's good enough for me.