Battle System (contd)
Another issue is that the game has some crazy difficulty spikes where there are battles with literally only one way to beat them. You have to precisely time Paradigm shifts in a perfect rhythm with what the enemy is doing or else the battle is impossible. Or, if not entirely impossible, doing it the “wrong” way might take 30-60 minutes to beat a boss while doing it the “right” way takes 5 minutes or less. This lack of freedom to innovate and fight the way you want is just plain disappointing. It makes the game very much trial-and-error (or at least, trial-and-look-at-a-strategy-guide). The difficulty also spikes dramatically in the last half of the game where normal field monsters have millions of HP and kick your butt with ease. At that point, though, the character ability development really picks up speed to help you keep pace.
Character Advancement
Square-Enix
And finally, is the weapon and accessory system. Your weapons and accessories actually can level up, but you have to find or buy components to do it with. Natural components give the weapon an XP multiplier, and technological components grant XP, so the idea is to boost the multiplier before you start adding XP. By leveling up items, you can turn them into completely new items or make your weapons uber-powerful. It all sounds interesting, but like everything else in the game, it doesn’t really matter until the last half. You can beat the first 10 chapters without upgrading weapons at all, in fact. You don’t really even earn decent money to buy components until the last half of the game. Honestly, I just said “screw it” and leveled up my main character’s stuff and ignored the others for most of the game.
Graphics
Final Fantasy games are arguably as desirable and fun to play more because of their gorgeous graphics and pretty cutscenes than the core gameplay and pretty visuals can (and do) make up for problems elsewhere. Final Fantasy XIII is completely amazing looking and offers some of the most jaw dropping vistas you’ll find on the Xbox 360. Some of the creature designs and the overall scale of the world (Chapter 11 says hello) is also really impressive. The PS3 version looks undeniably better, but the 360 version is still great looking.
Square-Enix
Like the graphics, the sound plays a big part of Final Fantasy’s overall appeal, and FFXIII definitely does the series justice. The voice acting is well done all around and scenes that need to carry real emotional weight (a few specific ones come to mind) are incredibly well acted. The music is also a real standout and the soundtrack is perfectly suited to everything you are doing and sounds great overall.
Bottom Line
Overall, Final Fantasy XIII is a tough game to really put your finger on whether it is actually good or not. There isn’t anything game breakingly bad that would give anyone reason not to play it, but there also isn’t really anything so spectacular beyond the amazing presentation that makes it a “must play” either. It is fun, and it is enjoyable, and I would say I liked it overall; it just isn’t special the way we have come to expect Final Fantasy games to be. The Xbox 360 isn’t exactly an RPG powerhouse, though, so despite the issues I do have with it I’d still put Final Fantasy XIII in my top 3 RPGs on the system. I do think some tweaks would have made a better game, but I definitely do still recommend gamers give it a try. Due to its sheer length I’d say you’d probably be happier with a purchase instead of a rental, but maybe give it a rental to see if the first 10 hours or so gels with you before buying it to play through the rest.
It should be noted that I would review and score the PS3 version the same way. While the PS3 version is better looking, the differences aren't enough to justify a lower score for the 360.
