 "The Best of the Worlds" An honest breakdown by someone who has actually finished the game |
| Review Date: March 13, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Sam W. Schirmer, Collierville, TN USA |
The title may be a little deceptive by making one think that this installment is better than 7 or 10. But what made those games great? Both offered amazing stories with twists and turns that made the player fall in love almost literally with the characters. Final Fantasy 13 has a strong story, not at that level of course, but the player finds themselves caught by the passion these characters have. Story aside, the battle system is without a doubt the best that has ever been introduced by Final Fantasy.
Making its return is the highly popular sphere grid from Final Fantasy 10 where players spend experience points to raise a certain attribute. And also introduced (sort of) is the role system where characters set a series of roles for their players. The difference is that the characters can only use the abilities of a role as long as they are assigned that role. For example the "Ravager" role, in past games the "Black Mage", holds the fire spell, however that spell cannot be used if the character is assigned to the "Medic" (White Mage) role. Later on in the game you gain the ability to change your characters to whatever role you wish.
Several reviews have stated that this game is very linear. That is a flat falsehood. These reviews were written by people who had not even gotten halfway through which is about the point where it opens up in every game. There are also various side quests which borrows from the "hunting marks" portion of Final Fantasy 12.
Visual and audio have never been better. After the first 30 seconds of the game it is clear that these are best graphics that have ever been used in a video game before. The voice acting has come miles from previous games. There is so much more passion in their words making it seem very believable and realistic.
The reason that this role is titled the best of the worlds is because this chapter was created by combining the best of all the games and adding in a little new. For example, the sphere grid from FFX (now called the Crystarium) and the gunblade (Squall's weapon from FFVIII). To say the least this game was well worth the wait and is one of the best Final Fantasy games of all time. |
Not your father's Final Fantasy
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| Review Date: March 12, 2010 |
| Reviewer: B Mills, MA |
-NO SPOILERS-
First things first, before you play this game at all you have to do one thing: go to settings and change the default from "auto-battle" to "abilities". This is really necessary if you want to feel like your playing the game, not that the game is playing you. You still have the ability to choose auto-battle, which can be a decent option if you want to save yourself the annoyance of pushing x needlessly in easier battles, and unfortunately your battle options are limited enough in the beginning, when your learning the battle system, that you will get bad habits and won't enjoy the game later on, because, when do right the battle system is IMMENSELY FUN!
Sometimes auto-battle and picking your actions will result in the same choices, but the key to battles is TIMING, and after some experience you will get a feel for the how quickly the action bar will refill, and once you learn that you can click through the selections of, which action, which target, etc, in a rhythmic pattern to get the exact right timing. The feeling of attacking your enemy exactly when he's about to strike and and interrupting him, or using an area affect RIGHT when the enemy pulls back into the crowd, never fails to satisfy. But if you just click though your options as quickly as possible, you will miss of waste your attacks and take allot more damage. There's allot more going on in these battles then pretty animations (though they are gorgeous)
Now, I am no where near the end of this massive game, but I waited until I was far enough into the game until I had decided weather I was sold on the games unique aspects, or not. As it says in the title of this review this is NOT your fathers (or mother's, lets be fair) final fantasy. There's no towns, though there is shopping, this I didn't think would bother me because the part I always hate about jrpg's is wondering around aimlessly in town x... and the game is linear especially in the beginning. I'll be honest with you, at first this feels, weird, and it certainly took me a while to get comfortable with it. But something happened around hour three for me; I started to get immersed in the story.
They did a great job not giving you any idea what the heck is going on, which for me causes an insatiable desire to play further, and then suddenly you completely engrossed in tis story, you've nailed down the combat and suddenly you no longer even notice how different it is, until you realize, that actually the way in which they allowed the game to unfold was a perfect way to introduce the characters to you. This isn't the main character driven story of games like FF7, and as a result it would be hard to create a player attachment to this motley crew in any other way. I'm not saying that you'll love this though, if you want the main character focuses story and traditional game-play with no exceptions, don't bother. But if your main draw to these games is story, and really feeling like your guiding an epic tale towards its ending while mastering a new and unique battle system (which has always been my thing) then you will like this game.
Great story or not, it can take it a little bit out of your hands with the CG, and I wish i had a little bit more control over EVERY character in my party, so I give it a fun factor of 4, but it must be recognized that visually this game is ridiculous, CG AND in game will blow you away, and the audio is absolutely top notch, one of the best IMO, so I bumped it up to 5... however if you don't have a HD TV or surround sound, this won't have mcuh effect on you will it?
So, great game, not traditional, but I have been much more sold on this new approach then some other's out there, so if you anything like me, I would definitely give it a try or you'll be missing out on a great story (one of the better FF stories IMO, much better than 10) and addictive game.
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Magical Experience! Some people are just nitpicking!
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| Review Date: March 13, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Enlightened, Atlanta Georgia |
I'm the type of person that does read the reviews of a game before it comes out (who doesn't??). In general I know the reviewers of the big websites have to nitpick. It's their job. I also know that they have been playing the game for quite a while whether its early demos etc. By the time they review the game they aren't really interested or engaged like a normal gamer. However, when I purchase a game I don't have any background with it. It's all new to me. So how do I feel about it?
I've read the reviews on here and some people have major issues with the game. None of them related to how fun the game is though.
The first major problem that people state about this game is the linearity and the absence of towns. Whoopty freakin doo there's no random towns where you talk to random people and have random conversations about random relics that have nothing to do with the story. Also the nature of what the characters are doing as well as the plot doesn't allow for "exploration". First they are trying to find somebody and then they are on the run. They are enemies of the state. Is it really logical that they could just shoot the breeze in a town and chill at the inn??? Plus if they go to a town that area will probably be purged...it's best to stay out of sight. And really....what is the point of a town????!?!? Does it make the game not fun??
In Final Fantasy 7 I don't recall being able to explore until the end or middle of Disc 2 when Cid fixed the airplane thing so is linearity that big of a deal? Also in that game there was a point right before the finale where you could go level up your characters to your heart's desire and find all the materia you wanted before finishing off Sephiroth.
Uncharted 2 is linear, Dead Space, Metal Gear Solid 4, God Of War, Call of Duty, Heavy Rain....all linear games whoopty doo.
Another complaint about the game is that you only control the leader of the group. That may be a problem for those micromanagers (who likes to micromanage anyway?? I have to tell you to fight this large thing that's about to kill us??? Be serious) but not for me. However you do control what role everyone plays in battle and can customize armor and abilities to your heart's content.
Speaking of battle, the paradigm switch is one of the best battle systems ever. You must also be adept at switching as well and know what you're doing and who is doing what. This is essential because each battle is graded...if you're slow and indecisive during battle the enemy will start to pummel you and after the battle the amount of stars and points you receive will decline. The focus is on speed and effectiveness. It's hard to explain and hard to learn but once you get the hang of it, it will be second nature.
Also some people state they just hit auto battle and win without trying but that is untrue because autobattle doesn't work all the time. Sometimes you need to cast some spells, protect yourself, sync up hits with party members to increase chains and get the enemies to critical status, etc. Maybe at the beginning of the game you can do that but where I'm at now (15 to 16 hours) doing that will get me killed. Also when autobattle works it doesn't cast the ideal combination..it casts a combination that works but if you choose the actions yourself you will fare better.
There are summons in the game but I haven't really gotten the hang of it yet (because you don't have to use them a majority of the time yet).
The game's difficulty is right where it needs to be. For a good portion of the game you only have two characters in the party (it goes to 5 for a brief second and then they all branch off). You are going along destroying everything in your path until you get to a boss that will completely overwhelm you or a large horde of enemies that by themselves don't pose much of a threat but together provides a problem that you don't want or need. There's also times when you should avoid an enemy because they are too powerful, you're too weak and you don't have enough people to compete. There's also no fleeing a battle so if you get into some stuff you can't handle then you will just have to accept your fate.
Auto-heal after battles is a love hate kinda thing. You don't have to spend money on potions or anecdotes. Personally that's one aspect of the battle system that I didn't like. You should not magically heal after every fight. I think they dropped the ball on that.
Technical:
Graphics, story, animation, characters and voice acting are all pretty good. The cutscenes are simply gorgeous...easily the best looking game I've seen on the PS3 thus far. I see no slowdown, clipping, or screen tearing. Movements are fluid, responses are fluid.
That's pretty much all I have to add to everyone else's wonderful reviews. This is a 5 star game, it's fun, has a great story and the best graphics to date. Lose yourself in this world.
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Simply beautiful
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| Review Date: March 12, 2010 |
| Reviewer: A. Valverde, San Jose, San Jose Costa Rica |
The colors, the art, the story, and the way fights blend makes me love this game. I got it as a gift, and it's one of the best I had received.
F.F. requires from you to adapt the way you think. If you prefer first person "point and shoot" games, this will probably wont help you with that, but if you like third person action, this is the one.
Really well done by square-enix. |
A WORK OF ART
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| Review Date: March 13, 2010 |
| Reviewer: James L. Gambrell, Morris, MN USA |
| The most beautiful game ever made. Honestly, nothing more needs be said. Don't focus on the negatives. Don't judge it by past Final Fantasy standards. FFXIII is its own game, and has more than enough going for it to merit 5 stars and a place on ANY true gamer's shelf. |
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