Final Fantasy XIII Review: Final Thoughts

It’s been a good 48 hours since I’ve completed Final Fantasy XIII, so it’s given me some time for it to all sink in and for me to reflect how I really felt about the game.  Truthfully, I’m still not sure.  I tried really hard to love this game – I really, really wanted to.  But I think at the end of the day most of the general criticism of it seen online and by critics worldwide is true.  The game just falls short of anything epic and is a major disappointment for those that have played every iteration of a Final Fantasy title ever produced.

The things that most of the reviews were critical about weren’t even the things that affected my judgment on the game.  What the game really just lacked was memorable characters and a memorable storyline.  I mentioned in a previous post that the whole “us against the world” theme was just bad.  And even at the end of the game you sit there and wonder what really just happened.  I mean the ending really didn’t reflect what the main characters went through the entire game.  For those that watch American Idol, as Simon Cowell always says, it just “lacked that moment”.  There wasn’t anything to make you open your eyes and say, WOW; there were not plot twists or turns that really made an impact.  Everything was very vanilla and I’d even argue that the game’s storyline is really flat throughout.  The first two hours are probably the most exciting, and the last two hours are probably a tidbit less.  The rest of the 40 or so odd hours are pretty unrevealing, semi-dramatic and well, plain.

You play through the game just waiting for that sudden moment that we’ve all come to expect and love in any Final Fantasy game.  I just feel like it never gets there.  When you beat the game, the ending is such a letdown you sit there and really ask yourself “is that it?”  That’s what Square Enix has been working on for almost half a decade?  Yes the game is absolutely gorgeous and probably has the best soundtrack ever, but it’s so full of lettuce and tomatoes you have to wonder where the meat went.

Truth be told, I have still logged a good 10 hours since post game.  The post-game play is pretty enjoyable for those that have grinded through MMOs.  It’s just a ton of missions and I wouldn’t mind working my way to collecting the platinum trophy achievement.  It’s a lot of fighting and a lot of grinding, but the mobs that are available to you are interesting and really difficult.  Sitting there developing a strategy and trying endless possibilities of party group and paradigm combinations makes the post-game entertaining to me.  I can see why the majority wouldn’t think so, but so far it’s been OK for me.  It’s by far the first Final Fantasy game I kept playing after I had beaten it, so I guess that deserves some sort of credit.  But on the flipside of that, I can continue playing it because I don’t seem to be missing anything.  The plot was just that bleak to me.  I can run around Gran Pulse for hours fighting mobs and riding on chocobos and it’s the same enjoyment I got playing through the actual game.

The characters are just a bust to me.  None are forgettable, but none are unforgettable, if that makes any sense.  Unlike most other JRPGs I’ve recently played, I won’t forget any of Final Fantasy XIII’s cast members and their voices but it’s probably out of annoyance than appreciation.  If you were to pay me $1,000.00 to spout out the cast of Lost Odyssey I’d probably fail to do so.  But there’s just no character you want to fall in love with.  It seems like their philosophy of trying to build up each character’s story and how they were brought together for this mission fell apart by spreading itself too thin.  They dabble on each character line, some are confusingly so, but you never end up wanting to cheer them on or go to the next section of the map to see what happens next.  Final Fantasy X had so much mystery and intrigue to it; I had an awfully hard time to put my controller down.  Same goes for VII, VIII and even IX.  Hell, even X-2.  XIII wasn’t difficult to stop playing and take a long break.  You just knew what was going to happen next.
The lack of a strong villain was disappointing too.  They didn’t do a good enough job with the other possibilities and the cameo appearances and quick deaths of each semi-villain were disappointing.  And I’ll reiterate one more time; the crystarium system sucks.  Worst of any Final Fantasy game ever.  Even upgrading weapon’s becomes linear and a huge farming task.

So what are the positives to the game?  At the end of the day, it’s still fun.  It’s the first game in a very long time that I managed to sit down, play through and beat in any sort of reasonable time.  The fighting was fun and in absence of a great story, it kept my interest in seeing what battle would be next and how I would manage to five-star it.  The Paradigm System is above and beyond the most fun I’ve ever had in battles, especially since you get so used to just spamming the OK button over and over in previous games.  The challenge and constant seeing of the Game Over screen made Final Fantasy XIII different in that aspect.  It wasn’t as easy as previous games and knowing that you couldn’t quite power level yourself for farm, the strategy involved in doing it right made it nice.

As I mentioned before, the graphics are of course peerless and the soundtrack is my favorite so far.  But unfortunately that’s about it for me.  Final Fantasy XIII is an interesting combination of a strictly linear JRPG with a substandard storyline and characters.  When the game does switch over to free-roaming Gran Pulse, it’s still somewhat limited due to the fact that you can’t beat half the mobs or missions, even if your peak out.  You need that final level of the crystarium unlocked to really stand a reasonable and non-frustrating chance to win.  So when the game does open it, it’s a false sense of ”fun” so to say; you spend a couple of hours exploring and attempting missions until you finally hit a wall and just want to progress onto the rest of the story.  But Gran Pulse is fun when you return after the game, if it’s your cup of tea.

Overall I have to say I’m disappointed in the game.  It ranks somewhere in the middle of the pile for me out of all Final Fantasies.  I like where the series is heading graphically and even gameplay-wise, but I really wish they’d revisit what made their other titles so strong and lovable.  I would most definitely recommend a play-through by anybody; JRPG fan or not.  It’s worth experiencing, much like the movie Avatar in IMAX 3D.  It’s a testament to the direction that gaming is heading.  And hell, to those that didn’t grow up playing the classic Final Fantasy games this one may be all that much better to you.  Here’s to hoping the next chapter in the Final Fantasy XIII series is a better one.

I’ll be jumping back to Starcraft II when I return from Orlando, Florida.  I’ll post some in-depth stuff on it, by popular demand.