Final Fantasy XIII - Playstation 3

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars | 1,652 ratings

Price: 19.93

Last update: 06-28-2024


About this item

Live an epic adventure in a dual-world universe featuring one futuristic civilization and another open-expanse world wrought with havoc.
Features the latest in cutting-edge technology
Provides tangible, intuitive controls
Delivers seamless transitions between real-time gameplay and stunning in-game cinematics
Developed by Square Enix

Product information


Top reviews from the United States

Jeffrey Kontak
5.0 out of 5 stars Underrated
Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2011
A bit of background on me: I fell in love with the first Final Fantasy back in 1990 when it was released on the NES. I was 9 years old, and the game simply blew my mind. I've played through it at least 30 times subsequently in its various incarnations, and I've played through FFIV at least 20 times. VI was wonderful, and I consider VII and VIII both excellent but perhaps not quite as refined as the previous entries. IX was thoroughly charming, but didn't exactly push the series forward.

Every Final Fantasy game released in the PS2 era was a relative disappointment. X had cornball characters and some serious storyline issues, not to mention a childishly simple battle system. On the other hand, X-2 boasted greatly improved combat but was brought down by a spastic play structure and motifs that would only appeal to adolescent girls. XII started strong and gave me great hope for a revival of the series, but the story became increasingly hard to follow, especially during periods when cut scenes could be several hours apart. The open ended gameplay of that title was simply not compatible with the linear narrative style that its developers excel at crafting

Enter FFXIII. From the experiences I had with recent titles in the series as well as by the reviews I'd been reading, I was not expecting much. I bought the game out of my sheer loyalty to the early roots of the series.

Throughout the first few hours of my initial playthrough, I did find the linearity troubling. The combat struck me as rather simplistic and the screen seemed a little cluttered. Upon hitting chapter 3 however, those feelings quickly eroded. Here, the game begins presenting you with customization options which allow the battles to become progressively more strategic as time goes on. I quickly found myself adapting to the gameplay style, which has a much faster pace than previous entries in the series. I heartily disagree with any reviewer who claims that there is no complexity to be found in the game's battle system--in fact, I seriously doubt that these people even made it to the 3rd chapter. Another interesting thing to note is that, unlike nearly every other rpg, the farther you progress in FFXIII, the more challenging it becomes, which in my book is a tremendous achievement in this genre. This is partially due to a progressively increasing experience cap, which largely eliminates the benefit of grinding through repetitive battles.

The gameplay here has been streamlined in many ways. The boring and repetitious actions that I have grown accustomed to spending thousands of hours on since the beginning of my rpg days have been largely removed: No more false sense of freedom, which generally does little more than require one to walk back and forth scanning every inch an area; no more ten minutes of backtracking at a fork in the road because you chose the path leading to the next area instead of the treasure chest; no more having to click through 10 screens of sub menus in order to heal after battle; no more having to micromanage the process of exploiting enemy weaknesses and choosing the right buffs and debuffs. Because of the cumbersome and inefficient nature of these tactics, I find it easier in most rpgs to level up a bit and wack everything to death with melee attacks. Here, you play as a general instead of a solider, where the fun lies in pre-battle planning and the issuance of strategic directives throughout each battle. This is a fresh and richly engaging experience for those of us willing to embrace change.

The storyline: I'm hearing a lot of criticism about these characters. What I'd suggest is that those with a problem simply go back to playing American games and stop judging what is completely normal to all forms of Japanese media. These characters, although emotional, are very much human, and the story is actually far better developed and executed than any other Final Fantasy game thus far. Yes, it requires you to make an effort to figure out what is going on in early chapters because of its complex setting and alien terminology--so does almost any cult classic sci fi / fantasy movie (Blade Runner) or book (Dune). For one example of the richness of this story, notice all the subtle nuances of Vanille's reactions to situations in the early chapters. If you are paying attention--and not judging her as a Japanese caricature--you might begin putting together who she is and what her role in the story might be.

Finally, the visuals. People seem to be in agreement that the graphics are good, but it's not just the quality of the graphics engine that makes this game so impressive. It is the incredible attention to detail of every single facet of the game world. This is visual art design at its very best. Serious creative effort was put in to every instance of plant life, creature design, and exotic architecture in this beautifully developed world.

Also be aware that the game is divided into two distinct segments. The first is an interactive story experience, relatively linear in nature yet one of the best of its kind--even rivalling Metal Gear Solid 4's brilliant story. The second segment begins on Gran Pulse where you will be given your much desired freedom and the opportunity to go through a hunt system--far superior to that of FFXII--where your strategic skills will be pushed to their limit. As I spent more than 50 hours going through these missions and mastering their challenges, I never once found myself bored. Even with a fully maxed out party, there are still mighty challenges to be had, requiring you to think your way through every major confrontation. I also adore the fact that the Final Fantasy series has finally figured out how to allow for customizable characters along with each party member having distinctive and unique attributes. Every other game in the series has gone to one extreme or the other.

People can be like an angry mob or like sheep in a flock that all go in the same direction. That is why this game, probably the best in the series, has become so maligned. Japanese story games probably have gone out of style, and fashionability is the only crime that this game commits. If it were released in another time, I'm certain it would have been hailed as a masterpiece. I for one am grateful that this game has contributed to us having a richer variety of gameplay experiences, and I'm perfectly happy with Final Fantasy XIII precisely as it is. Let's hope that XIII-2 doesn't make too many concessions to the critics out there.
D. Blizzard
5.0 out of 5 stars The Next Step in the Evolution of Final Fantasy
Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2010
Final Fantasy XIII (FFXIII) is the long-awaited next chapter in the Final Fantasy franchise. This game took over five years to make and actually started its life on the old PlayStation 2 platform, before going to the PlayStation 3 and then being ported over to the Xbox 360. This game has not only diverged from many Final Fantasy traditions, but created a whole new gaming engine and pushed the limits of what modern consoles can do.

Story: The Final Fantasy franchise is known for stories that draw in the gamer and make them feel empathy or otherwise emotionally invested in an outcome. FFXIII does just that. It is not on the same scale as FFVII with Aeris or FFX with Tidus and Yuna, but there are some moments where you cannot help but feel something for what the characters are going through. Without spoiling too much, the basic story centers around a group of characters, Lightning, Snow, Vanille, Sazh, Fang, and Hope. In their efforts to save people they love, or exact revenge, they are drawn together and are given a mission to carry out. Their fates, from this moment forward, are forever altered and bleak. They either complete their mission and turn to crystal, or they refuse and turn into mindless monsters. FFXIII's story revolves around this and is split into thirteen chapters. Completing every chapter and finishing the game will take about 60 hours. This story is very linear and cannot be altered by the player, you either go forward with the narrative or you stop and not finish the game. This is like many of the previous Final Fantasies only they used various techniques to make the gamer believe they had much more control over the story than they actually did. For instance, in previous Final Fantasies, you had the option to explore the world map. Although you had this freedom, going to any town or village not immediately connected to the main story or side quest was pointless since they were static and rarely changed. You were being gently pushed towards a location on the world map. FFXIII is unabashedly linear. In fact, most of the maps for the game are lines with minor areas open for treasure hunting. There is no world map or towns to explore. The developers have created two main areas of the game, Cocoon (An area you will spend the majority of the game in, story-wise.) and Pulse (A sprawling open-ended area with plenty to see and do where you will spend most of the time hunting in.) These two areas were designed to be polar-opposites of each other, Cocoon has advanced technology and is closed in, Pulse is wilderness and open. The story takes a while to ramp up and become exciting. The initial portions of the game introduce you to the characters by having you view their lives before the group came together. This allows you to better understand what is going on. Once you complete the game, you are encouraged to continue playing as many areas, and enemies, of the game can only be tackled by an advanced party.

Battle System: Before going too much into this, I will explain the level-up mechanic. In FFXIII, you do not obtain levels in the traditional sense. Instead, you earn Crystarium points (CP) to spend in the Crystarium. Tougher enemies yield higher CP. The Crystarium functions very much like the sphere grid from FFX with new areas unlocking after major game events. The Crystarium is split into several levels and they are dotted with skills, techniques, and stat enhancements. CP are used to move between the points with higher-level skills requiring more CP to unlock. Each character has a class, or specialization, that you can level up. For the majority of the game, there are only three primary specializations that you can use and level up. As the game progresses, you will have access to three more secondary specializations, though you shouldn't bother with them until after the end game since the CP to unlock the secondary skills is very high. The classes you play as are: Commando (Physical attacker who can slow the chain gauge), ravager (A magical attacker who can drastically increase the chain gauge), saboteur (Causes status ailments to the enemy and can slow the chain gauge), sentinel (Acts as a beacon to draw enemy attacks and has high physical damage resistance but does not attack directly), synergist (Does not attack but applies status enhancements to the party), and medic (Does not attack either, but focuses on healing.) A character can only perform actions of a given class and cannot use others unless you paradigm shift. During battle, you can switch classes with the paradigm shift. For instance, if you have an enemy with loads of hit points (HP) you can attack with a commando to slow down the chain gauge then shift to a ravager to drive it up quickly. These work like a streamlined version of the gambit system from FFXII and are user defined. When you shift paradigms, you shift them for the entire battle party and you are limited to a set number of paradigms you can create, though, you can shift as many times as you need during a battle and alter them outside of battle at any time. This means you have to plan ahead and choose paradigms that will fit situations you think you may face. You also have tactical points (TP) that regenerate slowly following battle. These TP are used to perform various techniques like summon a creature or performing an emergency revival of characters. The battle system for FFXIII is very different from previous installments, it draws on the ATB (Active Time Battle) system from previous Final Fantasies but it makes several significant alterations. Only one character is under direct user-control and if they are taken out, it is game over. All of the other characters are AI controlled and can easily be revived. The AI is usually good, but there are times where they fumble. For instance, normally your characters will perform actions against an enemy they know will work, such as using fire to attack someone who is vulnerable to it. Unfortunately, the game lacks a move button and the AI has a tendency to keep all characters close together. This can be a problem at later levels where almost all enemies cause area-of-effect damage and everyone gets hit. When you make contact with enemies battle begins. Instead of an ATB that, when filled, allows you to perform a single action, you have a bar that is split into segments. A standard attack will take only one segment whereas a special skill will take more. Segments are added to the bar either from the Crystarium or from major game events. The bar fills at a set rate, unless you have haste or slow cast upon you, and you can either let the bar fill completely and perform all actions queued up at once, or you can interrupt filling the bar and take action based on the number of segments filled, you can also cancel your actions entirely. This allows you to adapt to changing conditions. As the user-controlled character, you can select what you want to do manually, or you let the game choose for you in an auto-battle system. The battles can flow very quickly and it is usually a good idea just to let the game make the decisions. Normally, attacks don't cause too much damage. Your best option is to drive up the chain gauge. As you attack, the gauge goes higher, if you don't attack, it lowers. The whole point of the gauge is drive it up to the point of staggering the enemy. Every enemy has a breaking point where they are staggered. While staggered, your enemy will be vulnerable to certain kinds of damage, may not attack at all, and the damage you cause can be multiplied up to nine-times the amount of damage you would normally inflict. When the enemy is in a staggered state, the chain gauge slowly lowers and then resets. This means you have to cause as much damage as possible during the window in which your opponent is staggered. At the end of battle, you are rated zero to five stars, though, the star system is a little pointless. The battle ranking does not determine how much CP you get but does influence your chances at obtaining spoils and increasing your TP. People who are playing for trophies will want to pay close attention to the rankings they get during hunts. It all works well and reminds me of the battle system from the Grandia series.

Audio: The music in FFXIII reminds me of a mix between FFX and FFXII and is very well done. Uematsu is not involved with the soundtrack to this game. His involvement has been waning over the years with FFIX being the last he was fully involved in, with FFX he only did half the songs, and with FFXII he did a single piece. Because of this, many staples of the Final Fantasy franchise are gone, such as the battle music, victory fanfare, the Final Fantasy theme, and the harps that usually play at the beginning of most Final Fantasy games. You can still hear vestiges of those themes, but for the most part, they are gone though the game still retains the leitmotif music the series is known for. It won't take the gamer long to realize what the theme of the game is. There are a number of standout tracks that are some of the best in the franchise, such as "Ragnarok", "Determination", "Born Anew", "Fabula Nova Crystalis", and "Miracles." Like many fans of the franchise, I was a little confused at the choice of using Leona Lewis' "My Hands," but after finishing the game and seeing when the song played, it made sense in context. As for the voiceovers, most are well done, with Lightning and Fang being personal favorites, though Vanille's voice can be grating at times. I do wish anime and video game makers would hire children to perform voices for children in the game instead of having high-pitched adults perform those characters. This is just a personal preference.

Graphics: This is the first Final Fantasy to be released on a high definition console, and it arrived with a bang. FFXIII is absolutely stunning to look at in either 720p or 1080p. There are many moments where content rendered in-game on-the-fly looks as good as pre-rendered CGI. The developers knew how to use the system and work within its limitations. For example, close-ups of characters cause the frame rate to drop, I assume this is for texture rendering and lighting, as such, those scenes are slow paced and you cannot tell that there is a drop. Square Enix have used every last gigabyte they have on the Blu-Ray disc. With all that space, they have crammed as much graphical information as they possibly can to make it look amazing. Anyone with a high definition screen, large or small, should play it on that to get the full experience.

Misc.: I was conflicted about Final Fantasy XIII, I loved FFVII and FFX so I wasn't entirely sure if I would like it. Since Final Fantasy X is my personal favorite in the franchise, this game ranks third in my list just between Final Fantasy VII and VIII. It is not as tactical as FFX nor does it draw me in as much as that title, but the battle system is much more enjoyable than that in VII and ranks as my favorite in the entire franchise. The story is compelling, though a tad melodramatic, but it doesn't have the luster of FFX or VII. Frankly, as the game drew on, I had only a vague idea of the overall story and it took me hours just to figure out who, exactly the fal'Cie are and what a l'Cie actually is. I had my "This is Final Fantasy" moment in the last cinematic. It was there that everything clicked into place and I understood just what the characters were doing and their motivations, I even, finally, understood what the game's logo was supposed to be since it is obvious at the end. Fans of the franchise may not like this incarnation very much, as it is, in many ways, vastly different than previous installments. Players who lack patience may become bored very quickly as the story is doled out in bite-sized pieces and the battle system takes well into the middle of the game to fully unlock. In fact, the first eight chapters are, very much, tutorials with the eleventh chapter opening up game immensely. The beginning portions of the game are quite easy, but in the last few chapters, the point where the training wheels come off, the difficulty ramps up. Instead of a difficulty curve, FFXIII has a difficulty wall where every battle, unless you know exactly what you're doing and how to win, could be a grueling fight. Overall, I enjoyed FFXIII and recommend it to anyone looking for something a little different in the RPG genre. For the PlayStation 3, this is my second favorite game just behind Assassin's Creed 2 and ahead of inFamous.

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