Final Fantasy XIII pt.1
Hey everyone,

I hope you enjoy my review and I'm going to be releasing more of on a regular basis.

Final Fantasy XIII is a slightly watered-down version of classic RPG games that I grew up playing. For the first 25-30 hours of the game, you walk down a single area with few options in the way of deciding where you want to turn next. And if you do take a wrong turn, don’t worry the game will have a treasure sphere waiting once you’ve finished off all of the enemies nearby.



It is by no means a bad thing that the game has been simplified. It is to help bring in more of the current generation of gamers, especially the ones who have not played previous installments of the...

Final Fantasy XIII pt.1
Hey everyone,

I hope you enjoy my review and I'm going to be releasing more of on a regular basis.

Final Fantasy XIII is a slightly watered-down version of classic RPG games that I grew up playing. For the first 25-30 hours of the game, you walk down a single area with few options in the way of deciding where you want to turn next. And if you do take a wrong turn, don’t worry the game will have a treasure sphere waiting once you’ve finished off all of the enemies nearby.



It is by no means a bad thing that the game has been simplified. It is to help bring in more of the current generation of gamers, especially the ones who have not played previous installments of the Final Fantasy series. Just because it is the thirteenth game in an ever-growing series does not mean that it is a continuation of the previous game. Each one holds its own story and characters, so you do not need to have played any of the previous twelve to fully understand the story. There are little winks and nods to the previous ones, but these aren’t really crucial to the overall gameplay experience and grasp of the story.



With that little plug out of the way, let’s move on to how the game handles on its own. I have been playing RPG games since before half of the gamers on Xbox Live could even figure out which end of the controller to hold. I have done my fair share of grinding to level up my party so I could move onto the next area, gym, or city/cave, and when I heard that XIII had gotten rid of most of that content, I felt some mixed emotions. While it had been what made the old RPG games stand out, it was also very time-consuming, which has grown to be a problem as I have gotten older and lack the time commitment that I once could be able to put in. Any game that makes it a requirement to stop working on the story for several hours or days (depending on the time it takes to sink into the game) is going to have some problems. Some people will forget the story and even fewer will read the scrolling text recap of the last hour of gameplay that appears as you load from the main menu.



XIII is much more of a linear game, forcing people to walk down narrow hallways, caves, and roads with few alternate areas to explore. While this does take away from the older style, I felt that it strengthened the game overall. The grind option was still there when I would need it but there were fewer areas for me to get lost in and potentially cause the average gamer to stop playing. It also doesn’t force anyone to grind unless they want to. This change in play was a bold yet impressive move taken by Square Enix with their beloved series. Changing the passing and flow of the story helps strengthen the game and removes several obstacles, such as time commitment, to help the current of gameplay and to fall in love with the story and its characters.



The game hits a major wall right as it opens up and returns to the way things used to be in previous chapters, with grinding and a more open world. In doing so, most people will continue to just run straight through until, several areas later, they start to get absolutely destroyed by every single thing that walks. Luckily, I noticed when the difficulty began to increase and realized I was back into a period from older RPG’s when I had to stop and grind for six or so hours before I was strong enough to confidently move forward.



Final Fantasy XIII’s battle system has also been watered down to where you are only controlling the leader of your party. Once you really dive into the battle system and have a full roster of characters to choose from, you can create your own Paradigm system based on the classes each of your three battle ready partners. I must congratulate a game that has each fight constantly change by being either so boring and predictable that I can get up and go do something else around the room while just pressing the A/X button on my controller (depending on which console I’m playing on) or hair-pullingly difficult at other times. Battles I would have otherwise skipped past if I didn’t have to grind for the experience points (or CP as they are called in XIII.) Any game that allows me to do my laundry and clean up the house while using my toe to press the A button is rather nice for my real world productivity however.



The story revolves around six main characters, each with very different personalities. The 60-hour has been broken up into thirteen different chapters. I believe that the first two-thirds of the game’s story are much stronger. It takes you on an emotional roller coaster, grabbing you and pulling you close. The third part doesn’t have a weaker story, but the forced grinding really pulls it back and makes it much less dramatic. 



Final Fantasy is known for having fantastic soundtracks in the past, and this installment does not disappoint. However, it is fairly repetitive, especially in terms of the battle themes. I may even turn it down to listen to something else because it has been played so many times. And yet I still hum and sing the main theme (which is currently flowing through my head, so that in itself is a plus.)