Square Enix the creator of some of the most well known and arguably best RPGs of the next gen consoles. I say arguably because there is many fans of their series who love their work and other fans who absolutely hate what they have done to the series they control. Let us dive into what I view as the absolute WORST game in the Square Enix library of games.
Final Fantasy XIII
Spanning a total of three games. Final Fantasy XIII takes place in a dual world. Gran Pulse and Cacoon, for the most part of the story you find yourself on Gran Pulse and the world you see around you is on a graphical level..... BEAUTIFUL. The world looks well articulated, well designed leaving you in a sense of wonder of what will come once you explore it....... That is where the game quickly falls apart. Your limits of exploration is what is down the hallway. I am not even kidding, you are forced to take your character down a ridiculously long hallway looking around like there is hope of exploration. This perpetual hallwayism as I call it, stems from XIII's predecessor Final Fantasy X another beautiful setting which forces you to follow a strict path pushing ever forward. When you give your players this beautiful backdrop do you expect them to just go. "OH WOW.... hey next point in the trip... oh there's stuff in the background. Nope not caring." You do such a huge disservice to your fans when you put so much time into the world only to make just look at it.
Allow me to give you a good example of a BEAUTIFUL game that doesn't force it's players to a strict path. Skyrim, with it's rich and beautiful world. Fully articulated and programed to a point where the players can become immersed and forget life for awhile. Do not get me wrong Skyrim isn't perfect but for what it is, it blows Final Fantasy XIII out of the water.
The story of Final Fantasy XIII starts off with such promise. It builds up this grand over arcing theme only to become what Final Fantasy X was. A story driven by some mythical creature that feeds off of the people and forces them to do their bidding else something bad will happen..... And it is so vague as to what it is you have to do. Even the characters are like "Uhhhh what the F$*%& are we suppose to do?" As the player I am sitting their going "Yeah.... What The $*%& is going on....". The story progression doesn't give you any clue as to what is suppose to be going on. Other than some deity thing just gave me and my friends super powers.... BUT WE MUST PERFORM SOME TASK IN WHICH I WILL ONLY SHOW YOU A GLIMPSE OF...... Come on the story can only go so far on this premise and it insults your creators intelligence and creativity when they had stories of much grander scales told on far less superior graphics with text blocks explaining what was going on.
It is my fear that with the innovation of graphics the story is being protrayed in cut scenes rather than in the fashion of a story that is being told as you progress. If you are going to blow your money load on graphics why not just nix the game play and switch to CGI movies? Final Fantasy since X has proven that they are no slouches when it comes to graphical cut scenes in games. But saddly more money is made when you mass produce it and put game play into it.
Surely Hiei even with the story so bad and the hallway being just two things of bad points in this review there must be something good. A bad story can be forgiven if the game play is good.....RIGHT?...WELL RIGHT?
In most cases yes you would be right. But this is not one of those cases. Final Fantasy XIII is the first game in the entirety of the franchise to force the player to control just one character. This limits your options as you are forced to relay on the AI to control your teammates and HOPE they can be tactical. While AI learns and regurgitates working patterns. It lacks what a human mind can process, such as tweaking a plan on the fly and being able to direct your actions to save the team from doom and get back into a rythem to beat your foe. You have the option to switch things up with paradigm shifts but again you are still controling just one person and not being able to control the actions of your teammates.
Another aspect of XIII is the Star Rating. One being bad, five being you are super amazingly awesome. The stars are what fills up your character's summon meter..... WHY FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WHY? WHY DID YOU OVER COMPLICATE A SYSTEM LIKE SUMMONING. It turns battles into button mashing cause the only way to get a five star rating in battle is through speed. You made this system so underwhelming it is terrible.
The battles are pointless and needlessly challenging. You have bosses that will just aggravate the ever loving crap out of you cause they regenerate health. Even low level enemies do this at times. I am at a lose for any semblance of coherent thought that went into this process. Another thing you get from battles (besides the urge to rage quit) is crystium points. Yes folks final fantasy XIII has pulled another note from Final Fantasy X. The Crystium System or as I like to call it Sphere Grid 1.5. Take away sphere levels and replace it with Crystium points and make it so you can pick and chose what you get. Oh and make it so if you don't have enough CP you can't fully progress to the next part of the job. You have Sphere Grid 1.5. It is an exact replica of The Sphere Grid from X minus one continuous path and needing the right amount of points to level up.
The one thing I will give Final Fantasy XIII. The music. The soundtrack for XIII is stunningly beautiful to listen too with some very catchy beats on certain levels of the games. But music is not enough to save this collapsed hallway of a game. Final Fantasy has fallen victim to trying to innovate way way to much. It has lost it's path since the jump to the better graphics. Stories feel rush and vague. Battle Systems goes to the crapper really quickly. Sneak mechanics in a final fantasy game. Just don't work. There was no need for two sequels to this series. Final Fantasy XIII took everything wrong with X and made it 1000 times worse.
I recommend playing older Final Fantasy Games over XIII the game just has too much wrong with it. XIII-2 was too little too late in terms of game play. And XIII-3 Lightnings Return is a straight up rip off of X-2 with changing clothes to change jobs on the fly and with only 1 person to control. Square Enix has plagiarized themselves with this game.
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