Okay, so the game has been on store shelves for a couple of years now and there is a good chance you that if you are interested in either game that you would have at least picked this one up for the bargain prices it is available for now.. if you haven’t well… congratulations for looking into the game! Having finished playing through Final Fantasy XIII-2, for which it got a B-Grade, I realized that I had never written a review for this game and thought that as I made several references to it throughout my review and the fact I took the time to replay it recently, that I should do a brief review and comparison of Final Fantasy XIII – the original installment of the Final Fantasy: Fabula Nova Crystallis set of games.
The game was released in March 2010 internationally on each the Playstation 3 and the XBox360 and did have a lot running for it considering the many years of teasing, along with the franchises first ever installment on the XBox360 gaming console. The game was published by Square Enix in Japan, North America and Europe while over here in Australia, Namco Bandai Partners were responsible for distribution. As The Otaku’s Study was obviously much a smaller site back then, an Australian Playstation 3 copy of this game was purchased out of my own pocket and has received two full playthroughs – one in March-April 2010 and another in February 2012. How does the game fare nowadays? Read on to find out!
Cocoon – a utopia in the sky. Its inhabitants believed their world a paradise. Under the Sanctum’s rule, Cocoon had long known peace and prosperity. Mankind was blessed by its protectors, the benevolent fal’Cie and believed that tranquil days would continue forever. Their tranquility was shattered with the discovery of one hostile fal’Cie. The moment that fal’Cie from Pulse – the feared and detested lowerworld awoke from its slumber, peace on Cocoon came to an end. Fal’Cie curse humans, turning them into magic-wielding servants. They become l’Cie – chosen of the fal’cie. Those branded with the mark of a l’cie carry the burden of either fulfilling their Focus or facing a fate harsher than death itself.
A prayer for redemption… A wish to protect the world… A promise to challenge destiny. After thirteen days of fates intertwined, the battle begins.
One of the biggest complaints about Final Fantasy XIII was how linear it was. This was an issue when it came to the gameplay and perhaps the freedom of having subplots initiated by quests, but when you look at the core plot of the game then you are presented with perhaps one of the most ambitious and complex storylines that the series has thrown out. Sure there is a lot of disunity amongst party members, far too many secrets for each of the party members and a few of the same plot devices that are present in almost every game – but they have also spread out a little bit more so it felt less like you were just going from place to place but felt like you had actual purpose to go through the linear corridors, dropped much of the childishness and gave a more modern feel to the story and placed it in a world that (Despite the populace living on a floating planet above a planet), was much like our own.
The story follows six people – five of who meet up with each other during the “purge”, an “exiling” of those who live on Cocoon to the planet below and through numerous means intentional or unintentional, end up witnessing Snow’s girlfriend Serah who is a l’Cie turn into crystal and end up fighting the Pulse fal’Cie itself in rage. They are converted into l’Cie themselves and end up being saved by the crystal lake region below them. From there, they go an attempt to complete their focus before they become monsters, however due to their wavering and very different goals – end up splitting up frequently but at the same time each have a unique storyline that is progressively shared with the viewer – from the more mysterious to the generic backstory…. it is all there and I will admit of varying quality.
The storyline has enough weight to carry it along, the game world is not open but diverse, detailed and provides an ample environment for the main plot to progress. While the main plot does vary in quality at points, I thought it was overall one of the series better plots and carried some of the charm and more mature styling that made Final Fantasy VII a winning series to me. If characters like Hope had a more mature role like he did in Final Fantasy XIII-2, it would have been a lot better to deal with however. BUT while I did enjoy the more mature storyline, the linearity did ruin the prospects of any sub-quests or the likes which for any Final Fantasy game acts like the icing on the cake. They do provide a sort of Open World mode which gives you a bit more freedom to do what you want, however the quests are only moderate in number and come with only simple things such as “Do X” or “Kill Y number of Z”.
Overall however, I enjoyed the plot but while the plot of Final Fantasy XIII-2 did not meet the standards of the main plot, XIII-2 certainly learned about having meaningful sub-quests with plot behind them.
The one biggest stand out for the game is not the storyline but the design. This is perhaps one of the most visually appealing games you would have found on either console in 2010, and quite possibly one of the best looking games now…. and at least on the XBox360 version has the scars of multiple discs to prove it. Everything from the games many cutscenes (Both in-game and pre-rendered) look visually pleasing, the character models are very well detailed and even though it was improved upon release of XIII-2, the battles animations and transitions were of a high standard. While I do prefer the style of RPG battle system that lets you stop and think about your actions (Eg. Final Fantasy games <X), it is hard to deny that there is something awesome about seeing characters constantly moving around the environment and gives it a greater sense of realism to them. The character designs themselves give mixed responses when placed in a more modern world, however are about what you would expect for a Final Fantasy game. Environment designs while being almost as linear as a ruler… do know how to make those corridors look visually pleasing, with a diverse number of different locale designs and evidently a lot of effort being put into detailing them.
Music is…. a mixed bag from me. I appreciate the effort they put into the lyrical music tracks that are included in the game and they built upon this range more in XIII-2, but the major issue I had with this game was the main battle theme which is of course one of the songs you hear most frequently in the game. The best means of explaining my annoyance is by providing you with a link to the games 2006 original announcement trailer at the E3 Expo. Now passing over the nostalgia of what this game could have been (ie. Very Very Awesome!), the musical track in this trailer is the battle theme – a good track but later on in the game when you can deal with enemies much more quickly, you get left with the dull introduction instead of automatically jumping into the action inspiring part of the track. Other tracks were of a decent to great quality. Voice acting quality was also of a good standard and matched their character roles well. Kudos to Rachel Robinson who voiced Fang and Troy Baker for Snow.
When I first played the game all the way back in 2010, perhaps the most unlikable element to the game was its core gameplay. While they built upon the Command Synergy Battle in the sequel, you could more or less go through the entire game without having to worry about doing anything other than mashing the Auto-battle button and occasionally performing a Paradigm Shift which allows your party members to switch between one of six classes – Commando (Attacker), Ranger (Black Magic), Medic (White Magic), Sentinel (Defender), Synergist (Buffer) and Saboteur (De-buffer). This system allowed the individual characters to not be restricted to one class type but instead can be multi-skilled and have their classes switched at any time. The thing that stops you from using the same characters all the way through the game is the Crystarium System.
This system allows you to build up your characters in the different classes through using Crystogen Points unlocked in battle, but until near the end of the game, each party member is locked into three classes – requiring some thought to be put into party members to suit your needs. Personally…. my Lightning, Vanille and Sazh combination got me through most of the game with no problems. Unfortunately while this system does allow more open character role, it is a step backwards from the Licensing System of the previous installment in the franchise (FF:XII) as it offered no diversification and in the end you could be left with six characters with almost exactly the same skills by the end of the game even if they offer some difference during the main plot.
An XIII exclusive feature is the ability to summon their own unique Eidolon based from primarily the sizable cast of previous summons in the series. The gameplay mechanics for these are the same, but provide some diversification to the battle and as each have their own unique properties, can be used to change the tide of battle in either a big way or a minor way depending on the foes elemental resistances.
Moving away from the battle system, the two even more problematic issues I had with the gameplay were the hand-holding tutorial and the Open World element to the game. Final Fantasy games have generally had only basic tutorials and chosen to spread them out as they are needed. XIII was a little different and this is one thing I was glad they removed from XIII-2. For the first three or four hours of the game…. you have absolutely zero control over what party members you use and are provided with very little opportunity to use the Crystarium System or do much in the way of fully customisable Paradigm’s (They give Sazh only one of his three available classes at the start of the game). I remember back in 2010 it being a huge sigh of relief once I was able to change party leaders and doing it all a second time around having finished the game once and having finished the sequel once really did feel tedious. The second element which I suppose posed less of an issue was the Open World component. Don’t get me wrong it was a nice thing to have, but the world itself was one of the more unimaginative parts of the game and one I didn’t feel obliged to do much in before running to the next part of the games main plot. There was no real point in doing any of the quests for anything other than collecting EXP or trophies as the missions themselves were very bland and uninteresting.
When it came down to it… XIII and XIII-2 each succeeded in two different areas: While XIII-2 only improved on the gameplay systems, I felt the improvements made for a much more enjoyable and interactive gameplay experience along with having a wider variety of musical tracks and ones more fitting for the locale or part of the games systems you were using. On the other side of the spectrum, the design was slightly more refined and well detailed in XIII and the storyline felt like a proper Final Fantasy plot over XIII-2’s time travelling plot that in some ways felt like they replaced X-2’s airships with time gates.
For both games I wish they would offer me more incentive to go through the menus and plan out my strategies along with putting a bit more risk and challenge amongst the bosses (Fun Fact: Sam spent 1 whole year in FF:X trying to beat Seymour Guardo on Mt. Gagazet… he can still recite the entire five minute cinematic that preluded the battle). I was able to appreciate the system more a second time around and found it much more pleasurable to use… but at the same time I feel if they are going to continue to use the system in the almost inevitable XIII-3… they will need to refine it even further to make it anywhere close to perfect.
Final Score
Storyline/Character Development: B+
Design: A
Music/Voice Acting: B
Gameplay: C
Replayability: D
Personal Opinion: B
Overall Score: C+
This is in comparison to my review of Final Fantasy XIII-2 which received a score of B.
Concluding Note
So maybe this whole Reverse Review plan didn’t work out the way I had hoped and with the exception of a few references, didn’t come out the way I had hoped…. so not sure if I will be following up with this. BUT with XIII-2’s release on both PS3 and XBox360, you might want to familiarize yourself with this game to get the full understanding of the plot if you are not one to read recap summaries included with the sequel.
