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After FFXII was finished, Kitase gave control of the next game to Toriyama and his FFX team. After 4 years of hype FFXIII was released to very mixed reactions. This game is without a doubt the less FFish game of the series. I would like to note that the version I'm reviewing is the PS3 version, since this is the one the developers wanted people to play. After all the game was developed as a PS3 exclusive for most of the development cycle. Let's get this over with:
The Story:
This game uses the "Rebels vs. Empire" story formula, but it tweaks it a bit. It tells the story of six people who are cursed by these godlike entities called Fal'Cie (This game's empire) to a fate worst than death: Either do the task the Fal'Cie gave them (and turn into crystal afterwards) or turn into mindless monsters. They start a journey to try to find a way to save themselves and eventually take out these evil entities.
The story, while not flat out terrible, has two major problems that ruin it for me: Unclear plot points and flat character development. A lot of times in the story, I found myself confused by what happened in the cutscenes because they don't explain things in enough detail. Even Square must have realized this, since this game has a datalog. Every plot point, character and location has a wall of text explaining stuff. At the beginning, it helped with the confusion, but as the game goes on, the entries become more redundant. I just don't understand why this story is so poorly told. FFVII had a complex plot, but didn't need a datalog. The characters aren't much better either, mostly because they feel either like rehashes of characters from previous games or potentially good characters that lack full backstories and proper develpment. And then there's Vanille... This character set the feminist movement back 50 years. She's incredibly dumb, has an annoying voice and screams like one of those female characters that are terrified of mice from 1950s comedies. I hate this character.
Overall it's a bad story with lackluster characters.
3.5/10
The Gameplay:
This game takes the linear style from FFX that Toryiama is known for. This time, however, the linearity reaches crazy levels. Seriously, if you thought FFX was linear think again. At least that game had side quests with variety. In this game, the only thing you can do besides walk through hallways and fight monsters is take missions that consist of...fighting more monsters. How am I supposed to be invested in saving a world that feels so dull and empty?
The turn based combat received a major overhaul. Basically, we still have the ATB gauge, but this time we have an auto-battle option that decides your commands for you. True, you can just not use it, but since battles last so long, you start to rely on this option since it works fine. My biggest problem with combat in this game is the Stagger gauge, which in my opinion is the stupidest idea ever put in a JRPG. See, your attacks normally don't really deal much damage, but they fill the enemy's stagger gauge. Eventually, your attacks will fill it and the enemy will enter stagger mode, at which point your attacks actually do a good amount of damage to its life bar. I just cannot for the life of me understand this mechanic. This doesn't add any strategy to combat, all it does is make battles twice as long. Since you will be in combat 80% of the time, it creates a very drawn out and boring gameplay experience. It should also be noted that this game brings back job...err I mean role switching. In fact, most of what you'll be doing in combat is switching roles according to your situation. Among them are Fighter - I mean Commando, Black Mage - I mean Ravager and White Mage - I mean Medic.....Toriyama, are you out to alienate older fans or something? What's with these unecessary changes? Well, every character can fully develop as various roles which brings me to the development system.
This time around we have the Crystarium. Everytime you finish a battle, you get CP, which you can then use to move from node to node in this poor man's version of the Sphere Grid. Seriously, why make us have to move from node to node if it's incredibly linear and doesn't really give us choices? You literally just pick the role you want to develop and just hold the button and you'll move through the grid, getting bonuses till you run out of CP. If there's no choice, why even make us do this? Why not just have traditional exp development for each role? It would make everything go on quicker and nothing would be lost.
Overall the gameplay is horrible. Painfully linear, boringly drawn out, and again filled with baffling design choices.
2/10
The Audio:
Since this is a Motomu Toriyama game, it was to be expected of him to use his favorite composer, Masashi Hamauzu. I am not a fan of him. His style has always sounded pretty bland to me. The fact that he refuses to use the three iconic tunes of the series doesn't help. The new victory fanfare is particularly terrible. It's so uncatchy and doesn't even sound like a victory fanfare at all. Apart from four tracks, there's not a single one I remember liking. The terrible vocal song is sung by the astonishingly bland voice of Leona Lewis. Really Square? You didn't think the OST was bland enough already? The voice acting is also pretty dull. The actors don't do a very good job of giving life to the characters. But then again these are some of the best actors in the industry like Troy Baker and Laura Bailley, so I think it's safe to assume it's the fault of the poor script and the sloppy direction.
3/10
The Graphics:
If there's one thing that I can definitely say lived up to the expectations, it was the visual presentation. The graphics in this game take full advantage of the PS3's capabilities to create a gorgeous looking game. Everything in this game is incredibly detailed and feels natural. Tetsuya Nomura also returned to the character design position. After refining his skills with the games he directed/produced, he was able to come back to give us very well designed characters. Monster design in this game is also the best since FFVI. Most monsters look really cool and are very creative.
10/10
Overall, Final Fantasy XIII is a disappointing game. It looks pretty, but pretty graphics can't disguise the rusty storytelling, bland music and boring gameplay underneath.
Final Grade: 4.5/10
Thanks for joining me on this journey through one of gaming's biggest franchises. See you next review ;)
