An evergreen stable of the franchise is Summons, once again available after defeating some tricky enemies known as Eidolons allow you to call forth large, powerful beings to aid in combat. Summons are normally accompanied by beautiful, visceral – and unnecessarily long – scenes depicting these being materialisation, and Final Fantasy XIII is no exception. Unfortunately they seem to be Transformers inspired this time round, and quite frankly a bit lame. I didn’t use summon nearly as often as previous games.

7

Another huge change to the established format is that of levelling. Gone is the traditional experience and levelling system, replaced instead by the Crystarium. After each successful battle you’ll earn Crystarium points, which allow you to travel around the Crystarium unlocking status upgrades, attributes and abilities for each of your characters. It sounds like it offers a new way of levelling up specific attributes, but in truth it’s just as linear as the first half of the game.

Genre fans should note that their rewards for playing through the first 20 hours of trudgery, the second half of the game isn’t nearly as linear, opening up a little, and letting go of your hand. Its in the second half that the game earns its right to be called “Final Fantasy.”

As with modern Final Fantasy games the gameplay takes a backseat to the story and its CGI cutscenes – and neither disappoint. The story – although it starts out slowly and is initially quite confusing – features everything you’d want in the way of entertainment; Drama, revelations, romance, comedy, suspense, and a whole lot more drama. It’s a sophisticated and engaging tale, wrought with real character development that’s enough to drive you to finish the game, despite its faults.

9

The GCI scenes – such an integral part of the Final Fantasy experience – are beautiful – and on par, I’d say, with the Final Fantasy films. Even more impressive – on account of them being rendered in real-time – are the in-between scenes, which look so good they can sometimes be mistaken for pre-rendered CGI.

Final Fantasy XIII is a game filled with hits and misses, and ultimately a disappointment. The ingenious battle system is offset by the game’s lacklustre, linear levels. Its story gets lost in that fact that almost all of the role-playing has been stripped away. For everything the game does right, it does something else, so, so wrong. Don’t be mistaken though, taken on its own merits Final Fantasy XIII is indeed a pretty damned good game, it’s just one that should have been more.

If you’re a multi-console owner wondering which platform to get the game for, it’s quite simple; While the gameplay on both systems look quite comparable (despite the 360’s running at a lower resolution), the difference between the quality the CGI scenes is vast. The PS3 version, thanks to the extra space afforded by Blu-Ray has its CGI presented in glorious 1080p, while the 360 has to make do with heavily compressed sub-HD movies, which suffer from macroblocking artefacts, and may dissuade those with a discerning eye.

For Fans Of: Final Fantasy, picking your nose, boredom, Tactical turn-based combat.

Scoring (not an average)

Gameplay: 6.5

Seeming endless, linear corridors, helped only by the fact that the combat system is the best the series has seen.

Presentation: 9.5

Everything, from character design, art-style and CGI come to life in beautiful HD. One of the best looking games available at the moment.

Sound: 9.0

Voice acting is mostly good, although you may get annoyed with some quasi-Australian accents, one of which is provided by Claudia Black, who PS3 fans might recognise as Chloe Frazer from Uncharted 2. The music is sublime, although there’s too much reliance on refrains from the Leona Lewis provided theme song.

Value: 8.0

You’ll get  between 40 and 100 hours of gameplay, which is more than worth the asking price – even is half of it is terribly linear.


Overall: 7.9

Final Fantasy XIII is a good game – it’s just a pity that it takes up to 30 hours of slog before you get to it. It’s streamlined and more focused, but the fact that it dispenses with so many RPG traditions may end up alienating fans of the series.

[Reviewed on Xbox 360]

Last Updated: March 9, 2010

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Final Fantasy XIII
7.9

34 Comments

  1. ewie

    March 9, 2010 at 12:28

    So how does this compare to Lost Oddesey as you also
    had to slog for hours 15+ before you got to the good side of it ?

    Reply

    • Geoff

      March 9, 2010 at 12:36

      Depends on the player. Lost Odyssey was a VERY traditional JRPG, whereas FFXIII is much, much prettier – but not really /much/ of an RPG.

      For the casual player, they’d probably prefer FF.

      Reply

    • WitWolfyZA

      March 9, 2010 at 15:07

      Well Lost Oddessey still remains the best JRPG this generation

      Reply

      • Geoff

        March 9, 2010 at 15:14

        I dunno. I reckon my favourites this gen might be The World Ends With You and Bowser’s Inside Story.

        Reply

        • WitWolfyZA

          March 10, 2010 at 09:20

          :tongue:

          Reply

  2. eltonriley

    March 9, 2010 at 12:28

    So if you give 9.5/10 to the Xbox version for presentation despite pointing out issues with CGI, how much will you give the PS3 version? 11/10?

    Thanks for the review, but I had to ask.

    Reply

    • Geoff

      March 9, 2010 at 12:34

      The score stands – the videos are the same. It’s a beautiful game on either console, it just /looks/ better on the PS3. The presentation – by way of art, character design etc remains the same.

      Reply

  3. Someone

    March 9, 2010 at 12:35

    I so much wanted this game. But after hearing (reading) all the bad rep about it was kinda upsetting.
    I guess I’ll wait a bit more or maybe grab it 2nd hand.

    Maybe there might just be some Version 2 that has extra content (yeah right, but hey).

    Reply

    • Geoff

      March 9, 2010 at 12:38

      It’s still a good game. If you’re looking for a traditional JRPG like VII, or even the recent XII, you’ll likely be disappointed.

      Still I enjoyed it immensely once I came to terms with what was presented.

      Reply

  4. evilredzombie

    March 9, 2010 at 12:53

    again another flawed review….. You guys realy need to set a standerd of when is a 9 and 6 etc applicable……

    Reply

    • Geoff

      March 9, 2010 at 12:59

      Nick and I have slightly different ethos’ when it comes to scores. I believe score of 8 plus are GREAT, and that 5 is mediocre. An awful game would garner a score of 2.

      Final Fantasy XIII is a good game, but it just misses being *Great*

      I don’t subscribe to the all-too-common ideology that review scores start at 7.

      Also, try not to focus on the score. It’s an arbitrary, meaningless number in the end. The review itself is what matters.

      Reply

      • RSA-Ace

        March 9, 2010 at 13:51

        I agree fully with what you said at the end there. I think reviews shouldn’t give you a numerical value. Every reviewer is different and has a different idea what a 7 is and what a 10 is.

        Reviews should leave out the whole ‘scoring’ aspect – I think joystiq don’t give scores but just ‘review’ the game!

        Reply

        • LazySAGamer

          March 9, 2010 at 14:14

          We have had this discussion often and in the end I still tend towards insisting on scores as I feel people still like to see a reviewer final opinion on a game.

          If it’s worked for movies for decades I see no reason why we can’t apply the same logic to games. It’s hard but at the same time reviewers needs to be held accountable for what they write.

          Reply

          • Geoff

            March 9, 2010 at 14:36

            Facist! 😆

    • LazySAGamer

      March 10, 2010 at 11:16

      How did I miss this comment before, anyway I don’t feel the review is flawed and I also feel setting a standard for scoring across all reviewers takes some personality away from each person.

      The review isn’t about the final score it’s about the entire body of writing. If you disagree with the review on any point please feel free to point them out.

      The score is only one small part of a much larger 2 page review

      Reply

      • Flaimbaitboy

        March 10, 2010 at 11:36

        The problem is that only a small fraction of the readers who comment actually READ the whole review.

        Reply

        • LazySAGamer

          March 10, 2010 at 12:04

          Are you insinuating people merely read the headline and score and then comment :blink:

          You may be onto something :tongue:

          Reply

          • Flamebaitboy

            March 10, 2010 at 13:35

            That’s how the internet works…

  5. darthdad

    March 9, 2010 at 13:09

    Thanks for the review Geoff. Looks like a 2nd hand buy for me.

    Reply

  6. Cleric

    March 9, 2010 at 13:19

    Great review. Kinda captures everything that I’ve heard about it already. Strangely, I think that the new linear nature may suit me, as I just don’t have the energy to go searching nook and crannies anymore. And knowing upfront what I’ll be in for will probably enhance my enjoyment of the game.

    Too bad GOW3, Ratchet and Clank, and an as-yet untouched Heavy Rain will keep we away from this one for a long while. Prob pick it up second hand in July, but then again, by that time, Splinter Cell will be rocking my world.

    Ahhh… too many great games to play.

    Reply

  7. Alucard

    March 9, 2010 at 13:53

    I have pay attention to the graphics on the game. Looks very good for a current Gen game. I’m not a fan of graphics but a fan of storyline/gameplay. I pay attention on the graphic detailing and video. It doesn’t seem crappy compared to the Xbox 360 screen shots we’ve seen on one of the articles that stated that Xbox 360 won’t be in HD and with 576i resolution. Ok not Full HD but didn’t they just said on the back cover of the game its HDTV 720p/1080I/1080P?! I mean seriously I have my 360 set to 1080I on my HDTV and the Xbox360 shows HD quality for XIII but ya know not Full HD. Seriously I do not see any difference I believe the graphics on the 360 version is good enough.(I’m not defending the Xbox360 and bashing the PS3 version once again I favour Gameplay over graphics.)So far I give the game 7-8/10. Regardless of not switching characters It has that traditional battle system of 1-10 but upgraded a bit making the characters constantly moving. I perfer that style then XI/XII battle System. The paradigm shift system looks good but I barely got started using it. But so far FFXIII for the Xbox360 does look good to me graphics wise and gameplay. It may not be very good to everyone but in my opinion its very good to me and I enjoy it.

    Reply

    • WitWolfyZA

      March 9, 2010 at 15:11

      Well BTGames just SMSed me telling me my Copy is ready… so if you’ll excuse me, im gonna get my game and my limited edition Wallet lol

      Reply

  8. daki-sama

    March 9, 2010 at 16:48

    I’m about 7 hours in myself, I’ll agree on a few points:
    – It’s more obviously linear than previous FF’s, which were almost all just as linear. You may not have been walking a straight path before, but you were funneled from point A to B with the illusion of choice.
    – I miss the time-wasting NPC’s with useful dialogue about the world you’re trying to save. Cocoon is hard to relate to, having not seen it, or even heard much about it.
    – The combat is a comfortable mix of old and new. Previous Final Fantasy’s like X and XII were more experimental with their introduction of game mechanics to the series.
    – The Australian voice acting is just…. a shawker.

    This game reminds me mostly of Final Fantasy X – although with a slower character build-up so far.
    I’m not finding it ‘tedious’ at all. The combat is engaging and it genuinely interests me. Best combat system so far, it really feels like a re-invention of the old formula. Nice surprise to see Square’s tried something new, even if it didn’t work out 100%, they should learn from it and make their next game (Versus please!) less ‘focused.’ The review seemed a bit harsh, if people didn’t keep going on about its linearity, I would have shrugged it off about 2 hours in without consciously thinking on it. There were definitely more steps forward than back. Not my favourite FF so far, but if it gets better than this, I’d rate it above X and maybe IX. Vanille is annoying, Hope needs a nappy, Snow needs his mom to tell him she was exaggerating by telling he was special, and Lightning has PMS. Sazh on the other hand, is a bit of a downer, but funnier than expected :happy:
    I expect that these characters will flesh out in a few hours.

    Reply

  9. Radam

    March 9, 2010 at 19:59

    Clearly a mediocre review from someone who has no idea what a videogame is. Son you must be a kid am i right? you started playing 5 years ago? then don’t go playing at the “reviewer”.

    Reply

    • Geoff

      March 9, 2010 at 20:32

      Hahaha, I played the very first Final Fantasy on the NES. Six (released as 3 in the US) is still my favourite in the series though…But not a single Final Fantasy game tops Chrono Trigger.

      Anyway, this isn’t my least favourite in the series – but it’s really nowhere near as good as XII and VII.

      Reply

      • WitWolfyZA

        March 10, 2010 at 09:23

        Im about 2 and a half hours in, and all i can say is wow. THE CINEMATICS ARE BEAUTIFUL!!!

        My GF tottaly crapped on my for not being so romantic like the blond dude with the fire crackers scene

        Reply

        • Flamebaitboy

          March 10, 2010 at 09:43

          You know there are things called movies you can watch.

          Reply

          • WitWolfyZA

            March 10, 2010 at 10:27

            well if it makes u feel better we watched “True Blood” there after

    • Goose ZA

      March 10, 2010 at 10:19

      Clearly a mediocre comment from someone who has no idea how long the reviewer has been gaming for. Son, you must be an asshole, am I right?

      If you have a comment about the game or review then make it. How it is that you think you know anything about any one of the authors on this site is beyond me.

      Reply

  10. Alucard

    March 11, 2010 at 01:35

    I believe the game being linear has to be a reason. Square-enix maybe wanted to introduce this game to first timers as well. Quite simple for a first timer who wants to try out a good rpg. I believe its very good to introduce this game to newer fans since this game is easier then the other FF games(Not Entirely easy since it can switch from easy to hard and back to easy.) So far this game is indeed good but Final Fantasy VII will remain the best RPG in my heart since VII was the first RPG I played when I first got my PlayStation 11 years ago.

    Reply

  11. Kamasenin

    March 12, 2010 at 18:19

  12. kab123

    March 13, 2010 at 09:07

    What’s the issue with a game being linear? Is it a bad thing? I played Fallout3 with a .38 special on my lap contemplating when would be a good to relief myself of my boredom

    Reply

  13. SgtFiddler

    March 15, 2010 at 20:05

    I’m not sure if the reviewer actually played any of the previous FF titles – none of them are terribly exciting in the first 2 hours.
    I’m about 17 hours into FF13 and, put simply, it rocks. It’s clear that the structure of the game was a conscious design desicion – it makes perfect sense in the context and flow of the game’s structure.

    Reply

  14. mitas

    March 20, 2010 at 10:47

    gana give it a miss , too many other great games out at the moment , GOD 3 comes to mind

    Reply

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