Final Fantasy XIII — Two Years Later, Thoughts And Feelings About My First PS3 Game

For previous reviews of Final Fantasy XIII, click here and here.

Now that the sequel is out, I might as well share my thoughts on the first game.  I mean, better late than never, right?  And without this game, the sequel would never have happened.  I wouldn’t really consider this a review, though.  More like a collection of impressions the game left on me.  But then what is a review, but a collection of impressions a game leaves on you?

I am constantly amazed at the hatred directed towards this game.  I mean, sure, it’s not the absolute best Final Fantasy game, but it improves upon the experience in a few areas.  For instance, it’s finally difficult to defeat enemies, and I don’t mean in the clunky interface kind of way that the first couple games suffered from.  Those who complained about how easy the previous titles in the series were will probably find nothing to complain about this time.

You see, enemy stats are better balanced in relation to the characters than in previous games, and this is especially true for bosses.  You can thank the new stat growth system for that.  The Crystarium is basically a linear Sphere Grid, where characters can gain stats and abilities in certain jobs that are suited to their characters, but they’re only allowed to progress up to a point.  At various points in the story, another level of the Crystarium opens up and allows the characters to become a little stronger.

The impression I got from the Crystarium was that it was too stifling, linear and controlled for my taste.  I know what they were trying to do, but if they wanted everyone to be at a certain level of strength at various parts in the game, they could’ve just increased everyone’s stats automatically after each boss fight and up until the last chapter or so, when each character got access to every job.  The Sphere Grid was far freer than the Crystarium is.  I could boost my characters as little or as much as I wanted.  Enemies dropped spheres like they were candy and you could gain sphere levels without too much trouble.

Not so regarding the Crystarium.  You can earn as much CP as you want, but you don’t have any say about what your characters could learn next.  If the next level does not contain that higher-tier cure spell you want, you have to go without for the chapter.  You at least had the option of grinding for Cura, Curaga, etc. if you felt you needed it in Final Fantasy X.

And yet I liked the challenge that the Crystarium presented me.  Each boss fight was epic and every victory felt like I’d earned it.  Sure, in some cases I would’ve liked to have been able to make my characters a little stronger, but that’s mostly a product of years of Final Fantasy games where if you take your time and explore around to look for treasure, you’ll end up ridiculously overpowered for each boss fight.

Speaking of linear, Final Fantasy XIII is pretty much the quintessential JRPG when it comes to linearity.  But I wouldn’t consider that a bad thing.  Go ahead and name for me five recent JRPGs that were open world epics in the style of the Western RPG.  I’ll be able to name ten linear JRPGs for each open world JRPG you name.  Like it or not, JRPGs are linear by nature because their methods of storytelling are different than those of their Western counterparts.  So many Final Fantasy “fans” said that this game sucked because it was so linear, but if this game sucked, then you might as well say that every Final Fantasy sucked as far back as at least 1994 when Final Fantasy VI was released.  Where’s all the hatred for Final Fantasy X?  It was “on the rails” at least as much as Final Fantasy XIII was.  How about Final Fantasy VII?  If the thirteenth sucked, so did the seventh.  Like it or not, the mountains, caves and other geographical features of Final Fantasy VII all restrict you into walking a relatively straight line from plot point to plot point.  If you try to skip ahead, the game has ways to make you go and see what you’re supposed to see.

Having played a few PS3 games, I can definitely say that Square-Enix knows best how to squeeze every last ounce of processing power from the machine.  Their graphics engines are generally the best in the industry, and it shows.  Final Fantasy XIII looks amazing, and it also sounds amazing.  I may not have liked how Final Fantasy VII looked or sounded, but they’ve come a long way since then.

There was one thing that bothered me about the way the game was marketed.  Instead of writing a brand new song, they licensed an already existing pop song in Europe and North America and a completely different one in Japan.  They made such a big deal over it, even going so far as to have the singer of the English theme song, Leona Lewis, film an ad featuring her playing the game.  The song itself, “My Hands,” was used in much of the media leading up to the game.

But what did they actually do with the song?  They stuck it at the end and had the characters’ dialogue drown out the first portion.  Not exactly the best use of something which they’d acted so proud to have licensed.  That’s like buying a prop from a movie you liked, bragging about it, then tossing it into your closet.

I haven’t even mentioned the story yet, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s one of the better ones that has come out of Square-Enix in recent years.  I love that they were able to incorporate a black character without him being a stereotype.  Mr. T would’ve been rolling in his grave thanks to Final Fantasy VII, if he were dead that is.  And say what you will about there being no towns in the game.  You still found yourself in populated areas more frequently than the haters like to claim.

At this point, there’s probably nothing I can say to convince anyone on the fence to give Final Fantasy XIII a try, especially with its low reputation among so-called “fans” of the series.  I think if anyone is curious, they probably should give it a go, and to h
ell with anyone who says otherwise.

Images found at RPGFan.com