Review: Final Fantasy XIII

System: PS3, Xbox 360
MSRP: $59.99
Release Date: March 9th, 2010

The fantasy that never ends… Does Final Fantasy XIII reinvent the RPG genre, or does it take two steps back? Let's find out.

Graphics

The very first thing you will notice in Final Fantasy XIII, is the gorgeous graphics. Move over Uncharted 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4, Final Fantasy XIII now holds the title of "Best Graphics to Date." On the PS3 version, there are zero graphical issues. The character animations are fluid, the lip-sync is perfect, and the environments pulsate with life. Even the Crystarium menu (where you increase stats and learn abilities) is pretty.

- 20/20

Sound

The voice actors are superb and the musical scores are phenomenal. The voiceovers are very believable and each character truly has his/her unique vocal characteristics.

The man, who composed the amazing soundtracks for Final Fantasy X and Dirge of Cerberus, Masashi Hamauzu, has also composed the music for this game, which is why the music is so great.

- 20/20

Story

"Cocoon, a human paradise, floats above the world of Pulse. When and ancient entity of Pulse origin awakens on the outskirts of a Cocoon city, paradise is threatened from within (and the government takes extreme measures to ensure the safety of the people). Chosen by destiny (or so it would seem), six must choose between saving mankind, and saving themselves."

The story takes some time to get used to, as you are instantly thrust into the middle of chaos. The game has various notes and intel that you can read from your menu screen in case you don't fully know what is going on. After an hour or two, you finally start to realize what is happening in the world of Cocoon, and the outerworld of Pulse.

The story is similar to other RPGs, in the sense, you have a diverse group of heroes that have banded together to save their world. However, there are some very interesting-underlying points made throughout the game such as fate and free will.

- 17/20

Gameplay

Yes, the game is fairly linear. After about 30 or so hours, however, it does open up more for those who love to grind. The maps are straight forward with few branching paths, too. Basically, you go straight, fight, go straight some more, fight some more, watch a cut scene, and repeat.

With that said, however, the pacing of the game is perfect and the way everything is made, there really is no other reason for the game to become grind-heavy. You don't level up, instead you earn Crystarium Points that you can spend in the Craystarium menu to increase your HP, MP, strength, magic, and learn abilities (there are no other stats). As you progress throughout the game, the Crystarium will evolve and you can learn more abilities and increase your stats more.

Yes, I know, there are no towns in this game either. I honestly didn't care about visiting towns, as I wanted to see what was going to happen next in the game. You can upgrade the weapons you find through the save menu with items you find. You can purchase weapons and other items through the save menu, too.

After each battle, your character's health and magic points go back to their full value. Normal fights can be very tough if you don't strategize. In battle, you control only the character you have set as the "Leader" and the AI controls the others. Each character will use their most effective attacks, too. The Paradigm system assigns specific roles to the characters which you can change instantly during the battle. You could have a Medic to heal people, a Ravager to cast magic spells, and a Commando to physically attack the enemies. In a matter of seconds you could switch all three to entirely different roles (the max number of roles available are 6, though). And yes, summons are in. Each character can summon one specific Eidolon to fight during the battle. The attacks you can pull off with the Eidolons are very unique and awesome, too.

- 16/20

Replayability

Most people should be able to complete Final Fantasy XIII in less than 50 hours. There are some areas that you can grind in and do side quests near the latter part of the game. Some games are hard to complete, because they start to get stale or the story wonder off, but if you play even 1 hour of Final Fantasy XIII, you're going to want to see the ending.

- 17/20

Conclusion

Overall, most hardcore fans will probably either love or hate Final Fantasy XIII. If you play it with an open mind, however, I can guarantee you will enjoy the crap out of it! The story is excellent and very engaging, the music and voiceovers are excellent, and, although the battle system is a little weird and autopilot-like, it is a breath of minty fresh air in the RPG genre.

- 90/100

Justin Hubbell
March 18th, 2010