Final Fantasy XIII

Water....*pant pant*...water, please...help........

That's about how I felt nearing the end of 50 or so hours (hard to tell cause I accidentally left it running sometimes) playing Final Fantasy XIII. And then, an oasis. I did it. I completed the main story. Yet soon afterwords, the open expanse of desert beckoned me back. But for now, I think I'll sit, have a drink, and celebrate my accomplishment.

Final Fantasy XIII puts you in the feet of, well...everyone. For the first time in any Final Fantasy game (that I've played at least), you don't really take the place of any one main character. Each one has their own very detailed story, and you play as each character for sometimes significant portions of time. Lightning may grace the cover, but this isn't her show. XII came close to this by allowing you to change your main character in and out of battle, but didn't nearly have the thought out plots (or gameplay differential) for each character. Yes, I could play as the bunny woman with a bow, but it didn't differ in the slightest from playing the androgynous "main character" with a bow. In XIII, however, who you play as makes all the difference.

As such, here's a quick rundown on who you'll be playing. Lightning is the emotionally reserved battle ready former soldier, Snow is the tough guy who wants to be everyone's hero, Sazh is actually not the token black guy and gets swept up by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Vanille is the peppy little girl with a hidden backstory, Hope starts as the whiny brat but then becomes the most mature one of them all, and Fang is the cocky tough girl who seems to know more about everything happening than she should.

Learning from the license system mistake in XII where every character melded together and essentially were just copies of each other battle-wise, XIII incorporates possibly the only good feature of X-2: changing roles. Each character starts out with 3 battle roles they specialize in. For example, Lightning is a Commando (melee specialist), Ravager (magic/chaining specialist), and Medic (obvious). The other roles mixed into the bunch are Sentinel (damage taker), Synergist (bestows buffs), and Saboteur (status ailments). While eventually every character CAN take on any of the other roles, in a normal playthrough that WILL NOT happen. The design is really quite ingenious, as you are rewarded with better stats by funneling your CP (crystarium points) into the roles you started with, while the unfamiliar roles carry fewer abilities and status boosters yet cost ridiculously more. On top of that each character has different abilities and stats across the same role. For instance, Hope's synergist focuses more on protection from damage while Sazh's synergist focuses more on boosting your party's attacks. As such there is quite a lot of variety in how to approach each battle, and how you play the game.

Now, as with every Final Fantasy, this one comes with a new battle mechanic. First off, XIII rips the best part of XII and gives you fully visible monsters on the field that you can either fight or avoid. No random battles. And if you do get into a rough battle you can't win? No matter. You start every battle with full HP, and if you lose, you just get plopped back to right before you started the battle. Once you get into a fight, everything is focused on shifting paradigms and staggering enemies. Paradigms are essentially up to 6 different sets of roles that you customize for your characters. Want to go on the offensive? Put up two Commandos and a Ravager. Feeling hurt and need to heal? Switch to two Medics and a Sentinel. Battles are fast and furious, and the situation often changes in a hurry. Thankfully all it takes is a quick tap of the L1 button to bring up the list of paradigms you've customized and select the one you need. Sometimes you can even time it right so that by switching into a paradigm your characters start with full ATB gauges. ATB (active time battle) gauges differ slightly from other titles like VII, where the bar would fill up and then your character would do something. In this case, the gauge has portions, and each portion can be filled with something you want your character to do. You start the game with 2, and so can attack twice each turn. Eventually it'll go all the way up to five, and while it takes more time to fill up, you get to do five different things each turn.

This is important, because each monster has a "stagger" meter along with its HP. By chaining attacks together (especially Ravager attacks), a "chain gauge" fills up under the monsters' HP. When it reaches a certain point, the monster becomes staggered and takes massive damage until the stagger gauge is depleted. Depending on the monster it could even change appearance and/or stats. The way you figure out how best to stagger a monster is the skill Libra, which uses Technical Points (TP) that recharge from attacking and from getting a good rating from a battle (on a scale of 0-5 stars, depending mostly on how long it takes you to beat the monsters).

Essentially all of this means that, like my favorite part of Final Fantasy X, strategy is prized over just pressing "attack" over and over. You can take on a big bad monster, figure out how it needs to be fought, probably die, and then go back at him with a better team and paradigm strategy. Now, this doesn't mean you will be prepared to kill every single monster you come across, especially after the 25 hour mark, but for the most part you won't have to worry about going backwards and facing monsters over and over to get experience (aka grinding).

Now wait a second Zach, you're probably saying. What's this you said about a 25 hour mark?

Well, that's where I get to my least favorite part of this game. For the first 25 hours or so, you will be walking in a straight line. A few curves, a couple side tracks to grab a chest, but for the most part you will be walking forward, battling monsters, walking forward more, battling more monsters, walking forward, cutscene, battle, walk, etc. etc. There are no towns. There are no NPCs. You buy stuff and upgrade your weapons and accessories at the save point. Then, you keep walking. While this certainly makes for streamlined gameplay that just keeps you moving through the MASSIVE story, it can't help but feel like one long grind for the awesomeness past 25 hours. Because once you reach that point, you get to a beautiful place called Gran Pulse.

After seeing nothing but the straight line you must follow on the minimap for 25 hours, you finally get to a point where you can't see a wall in your minimap. You are let loose to explore the grand plains where giant monsters roam, and it...feels...AWESOME. There are various quest givers about who tell you to go kill this baddie over in this area, ripping the Mark hunting system from XII.

However, do not be deceived. This amazing wide open area of Gran Pulse? Only wide open in one area. The rest? Back to the straight lines. I was having fun exploring and doing quests, when I decided I better continue on with the story. A couple hours later and I realize I'm about to leave Gran Pulse for the final battle having never been able to go back to the plains area. Thankfully you are given the chance to go back before you make your way to the final boss, but still. I just wanted to continue a little bit and then do some more quests. To not even be given that option shone all the more brightly just how linear this game is.

That being said, when I went back to Gran Pulse to do some more exploration and quests, I began to realize just how much of its own game this area was. The more I delved, the deeper it went. It soon came to me that I wasn't supposed to keep doing quests and killing monsters and exploring before I continued. Because if I did, I would've been there forever. Instead, Gran Pulse is meant much more as something to do once you've completed the main story. You're given easy access from the boss' chamber to Gran Pulse, so you can go finish the other half of the game that's not main story and then come back and kick ass again.

Overall, this game is a learning experience for Square-Enix. They took practically everything great from their last several games and successfully incorporated it all together. Unfortunately they also take out one of the most essential parts of any JRPG, the non-linearity, which makes this game feel repetitive quite often. However, the story is easily the best of any of the Final Fantasys, and that's saying something from me. The battle system is fun, inventive, and never boring. The main quest, while linear, still does a wonderful job of varying the environments and monsters to at least mostly make you forget you've been going in a straight line for 25+ hours. The voice acting is still a little absurd at times, with every single lip movement translating into some sort of grunt like "Huh" "Ha!" "Mmm" etc. but for the first time I didn't find a single one of them annoying. Even Vanille. The graphics are gorgeous, and even with the blatant "PLEASE BUY THIS ONE AMERICA" inclusion of Leona Lewis, the music fits in well (except for some inexplicable smooth jazz elevator music in one area of Gran Pulse).

This game is not for the casual gamer. However, if you're looking for a long and involving RPG that can satisfy both for the short term story or the long term exploration and stat maxing, this is the game for you.

Final Fantasy XIII gets an 8.5/10.