Review: Final Fantasy XIII

Xbox 360 (tested), PS3

By James Heffield / Tuesday, June 01 2010

Playing any Final Fantasy game is a bit like going into a lolly shop as a kid. It’s exciting, full of weird and wonderful flavours and as soon as you leave you can’t wait to return. But just like the lollies in the shop, most of the battles and experiences in Final Fantasy boil down to a few common ingredients. As you play more those experiences become familiar and the game gets a little repetitive.

Those that have played previous iterations of the RPG franchise will find Final Fantasy XIII offers up little new. It’s graphically beautiful, even on a par with the movie Avatar at times (without the 3D), but the developers have made it more linear than ever. Instead of having an open world with side quests you are faced with terrain that forces you down a single path, preventing you from deviating from your goal at all. You don’t even have a jump button – the character you are controlling will jump at pre-designated spots whenever you pass over them.

On the plus side, the game remains highly addictive. The variation in enemies, whether they be giant lizards or robots toting guns larger than their frames, keeps you playing and eager to check out what’s around the next corner. The combat system mixes real-time with turn-based action, allowing you to choose what moves or abilities to use and who to strike during every combat round. That system has been a major drawcard for many Final Fantasy fans because it adds strategy to battles instead of the traditional hack and slash button-bashing action seen in many similar games.

The addictive nature of the franchise is important because you could spend a full working week playing Final Fantasy XIII and still have a long way to go to finish it. Playing as a variety of characters with a band of unusual friends, the game starts by placing you at the centre of a struggle to prevent a community of humans from being exterminated by a powerful enemy. You and your friends are on a moon called Chronos, which is being purged by a corrupted group of aliens, called the fal’Cie, who come from the “lower world” of Pulse.

As you battle your way through the storyline, which inevitably focuses on killing imaginative and wacky creatures on your way to the next boss character, you will pick up unusual weapons, items and armour that you can use to deck out members of your group.

In Final Fantasy XIII you don’t play as one character; you hop around to control many of the game’s key characters at different pre-designated points, progressing the storyline from their points of view. I found that a little frustrating as it prevented me from gaining any particular affinity with any one of them. The constant cut-scenes look stunning but they can break up the flow of the game and many are unnecessary. While the sound is generally of a very high quality, the voice acting is lacking. Much of what members of your group say sounds cliché, overly scripted and rambling. For example, the regular cooing, giggling and “ohhs” and “ahhs” of the teenage girl character Vanille, dressed in a bra and miniskirt, is so overboard that you have to question exactly what final fantasy was on the mind of the game’s developers.

Having said all that, it’s a thoroughly playable and fun game. Fans of Japanese manga and anime will enjoy it, as will those who have never tried a Final Fantasy game before. Unfortunately, for those who have played a fair few Final Fantasy games in the past, the XIII iteration may not live up to your justifiably high expectations.