Final Fantasy XIII - Playstation 3

So far I have played Final Fantasy 7, 10 and 12 and have liked all of them. With all of the hype going on around Final Fantasy 13, I decided to give this one a try and here is what I thought. PROS. PARADIGM COMBAT SYSTEM: This game utilizes unique turn based combat system. To me, this combat system was the BEST ASPECT of the game. In Final fantasy games so far (other than 12), you have to do each action such as attack, healing, magic one by one by one. This game gives you option to do that or you can have "auto battle" mode where things are taken care for you. So the enemies you want to deal with "personally" you can combat them yourselves, but then you are not stuck hitting same command again and again for each fight you do in the game. Think of it this way, in other final fantasies, you are acting as individual soldiers while in this game you are mainly acting as commander. So instead of controlling each of the party member's action individually, you can set up a "paradigm" where you can focus more on physical or magical or healing or combination of these actions. At first you will find it a bit puzzling but once you get it, you will most likely love it. STAGGERING ENEMIES: To win a battle, you have to punish an enemy (or enemies) up to the point that they "stagger". At this point, the enemy will take a lot more damage and is less likely to attack. While it is not necessary to stagger an enemy to defeat it, for most game, you will find it difficult to defeat enemies without staggering them. So what is so special about staggering enemies? In order to stagger them in most cases you will have to use variety of paradigms and will have to come up with different strategies. Again, in the beginning you may find this difficult to understand, but once you get it, it gets to be quite fun. VARIETY OF BOSSES AND ENEMIES: Yup, there is great variety of enemies and different bosses in this game (as expected of "final fantasy"). Before you finish the game, you will have defeat quite a few different enemies and bosses and to defeat them you will have to use different strategies. While most enemies you may find it pretty straightforward to beat (especially in the beginning of the game), many later on enemies and bosses will be quite difficult until you figure out the right strategy. But don't worry there are ways to defeat them and you will find these challenges fun rather than frustrating. CRYSTAL LEVELING UP SYSTEM: This game has similar leveling up system as Final Fantasy 10. Defeating each enemies gives you points and then you use these points to level up different characters. The difference is you can level up a character in different direction (i.e. you can make a character better at magic, physical attacks, healing, sabotaging enemies, etc.) Each character will have 3 specialty areas and later on you can develop the character in all 6 different classes. Pretty addicting if you ask me. TONS OF SIDEQUEST BOSSES: So it takes a while to get up to this point, but once the open world portion of the game begins, there are tons of (>60) mini and major bosses to beat in the game. There is this portion called TITAN CHALLENGE (won't spoil much) which is very interesting. Here you will have to defeat a series of enemies in certain way. I liked it. SPECTACULAR SUMMONS: In this game each character gets a cool summon. While you don't have control over when you can obtain it, in order obtain them you have to beat them. LOVED IT. Once you obtain them you get to use their awesome powers and most importantly limit breaks. This has been my favorite part in many of the final fantasy game and just like previous final fantasies, this game has delivered them nicely. BEAUTIFUL AND ELEGANT FANTASY WORLD: The creation of Cocoon and Pulse are just mind blowing. Everything in these worlds is very elegantly designed. If you look carefully designers have truly given attention to details. Loved just loved each and every level. WEIRD BUT UNDERSTANDABLE STORY: Really can't tell you much without spoiling it, but like in many Japanese games, this one also has a very strange, but unique story with a great underlying theme. WEAPON AND ARMAMENT LEVELING UP: I am happy in addition to character they also have weapon leveling up in this game. To level up your weapon though you have to collect and use different items in a unique manner. For example, certain weapons can only be leveled up to level 11; however, if you obtain these unique item you can break that limit and level it up even further turning it into a completely different weapon. If you like this type of stuff the game will keep you occupy for a LONG TIME. CONS LACK OF CONTROL OVER BATTLE TEAM: As described in pros, you have to design specific paradims and you can use them in the battle to your liking. However, these combination are not limitless. In other words, you won't be able to control all three of the party members in the exact manner you want to. For example, with characters A,B, and C, I want both characters A and B to attack the same enemies with physical attacks, I don't have that option. Also if I want to revive character B before healing character C that is also not an option (unless the character I control is the healer). While it seems like a major issue, it really is not. There is not a single enemy you won't be able to beat due to this problem. WHINY CHARACTERS: Ever since Final Fantasy 10, they have been having so many whiny characters in these games. Hate it, just hate it. Good thing is whiny character in this game will only whine for first quarter of the game. Also, what Japanese people and Westerners find "awesome" and "funny" are quite different. Some dialogues that Japanese may find awesome will simply sound lame to us. So that is also a problem in this game. CONCLUSION Contrary to the cons I described, this is a great game. Battle System, leveling up and hunt for different bosses and items will keep you busy and entertained for a long time. With side quests, it has taken me about 84 hours and I am still not quite done. With lowered prices, I would say this is a MUST OWN game.

I've played every Final Fantasy title from FFVI on, and I have to say, this is probably my favorite title of the series. The graphics, it must be said, are simply amazing. When Square stated they wanted an engine that rivals the visuals of Advent Children, they weren't joking. The first time you unleash Lightning's Army of One ability, your jaw will simply drop, despite the fact that you've probably spent a good 30+ hours being amazed by the graphics already. On the PS3, 1080p is stunning, and the cutscenes are beautiful and plentiful. Prior to this, I thought Mass Effect 2 had set the bar for gaming visuals, but FFXIII makes Mass Effect 2 look obsolete. In terms of combat, I find that XIII really combines the best of FFX-2 and FFXII. FFX-2, despite being much maligned by fans of the series, has the most interesting battle mechanism of all the Active Time Battle-based Final Fantasy titles. FFX-2 and FFXIII battle sequences look very similar. The difference, of course, is that instead of dress spheres that you then have to micromanage, now you have pretty much what amounts to preprogrammed gambits (as in XII). The advantages are obvious. I think XII made buffing and debuffing quite painless by allowing you to set them as gambits, and this is important because in previous titles, honestly, it is a simple pain to buff and debuff during mob battles. You will have to use every one of the six classes effectively, even at the very end of the game. Can you say that about any of the FF titles in the last 15 years (other than IX, of course)? I can't. Usually you spam the best ability for all it's worth. For instance, once Yuna learned Holy and Tidus learned Quick Hit in FFX and your stats get high enough, combat became ridiculously easy. VII is all about the Knights of the Round spamming. Sure, XIII suffers from a bit of that, too. The Death spell is a bit overpowered, and Sazh's Blitz is simply unfair. But even with these, forget to use your Sentinel and Synergists, and you'll be dying more often than you should. Which brings me to my next point. In terms of the frequency of Game Over screens, this is the hardest FF game of the 3D era, there's no question about it. Maybe that's not saying much, but you can get more emotionally (and physically) involved in the combat than ever before. You'll really be working for that Stagger, making split second decisions as to whether to go for that one extra turn of attacks or to heal/buff/debuff, whether to try Thaumatology or Diversity, whether to interrupt the current chain of commands or to wait. All these things matter. In what other FF title does that one split second decision matter this much? As for not controlling the other party members, that's such a minor point in my mind. Other than not using the best attack spells from time to time, it really feels like the AI is well programmed and does not hinder your abilities much. In any case, if you had to control all three characters, this system would just lose its urgency and excitement because you wouldn't be able to make the overall strategical decisions quite as much. Considering how fast and hard some of the enemies hit, having to do everyone's healing while dishing out magic and working on renewing buffs would be really annoying to say the least. I know everyone complains about the game's linearity (it's like X except no backtracking), but this game is really, really well paced, and a lot of that has to do. You can't get overly powerful because there are limits to what you are able to accomplish at any given point. Yes, I know, FFX had Key Spheres, but you could easily find Lvl 3 and 4 Key Spheres if you knew where to get them. Maybe RPG should stress the role playing aspect by letting you explore around before deciding to go ahead with the story. But I don't see anything that's truly realistic about being able to kill the hardest bosses in the story line with zero difficulty either, so I think it's a trade-off. I finished the game at about 55 hours and the final two chapters were the best ending 10 hours of any Final Fantasy game ever. Usually, this is often a very boring portion of the game, and 55 hours is long enough to get leveled beyond decency in most other FF games. Not so in FFXIII. I still dreaded facing certain enemies, and the end boss of Chapter 12, rarely have I celebrated so much at beating a story line boss in FF. I've compared this game a lot to FFX, which was previously my favorite title in the series, but not anymore. I think that it is true that at times, FFXIII does not feel like your average FF game. I mean, the only returning musical theme is the Chocobo theme, there are no towns and inns, and just about everything feels different from before. But once you dig deeper, you see elements of your favorite FF games from the past, only they have been distilled and refined into something that's more approachable. But approachable doesn't mean dumbed down. No, in this case, it means that combat is evolving, staying engaging and diverse until the very end. When you think about it, this is the only title other than FFIX that has achieved this, and FFIX did so with a very rigid character class system. Grinding for two hours won't change much in this game, only give you a bit more wiggle room. I find that to be absolutely brilliant. This review is likely to ramble on and on, but I feel that this game needs to be defended a bit, considering people are quick to dismiss it for what it should be, instead of trying to judge it for what it is and what it is trying to do. I have a feeling that once the dust settles, people will enjoy this game more. I know that my first playthrough of this game was the most fun I've ever had in the first playthrough of a FF game, and ultimately, I think that's what the game should be judged by. I know I've logged more hours into FFVII than any other game, but I didn't have too much fun sometimes in FFVII. This isn't an issue with FFXIII. Play this game with no prejudice or inflated expectations, and you'll see the title for what it is, yet another worthy FF title.

El juego me llego en buenas condiciones nada roto, lo más curioso, es que me llego el plástico blanco en vez de rojo, ya saben, cuando un juego es de categoría "Greatest Hits", pero por un rara razón, el manual esta todo en Frances, no tienen una sección en Ingles, y como no se francés, no entiendo nada de lo que dice, es como si me lo han mandado desde Canadá y no en Estados Unidos, tampoco es que vaya a devolver el juego por algo tan tonto, solo son pequeños detalles, si alguien estudia francés, esta es su oportunidad para aprender, quizás valga algo en el coleccionismo, ahora con respecto al juego, lo he estado jugando por el emulador de PS3, RPCS3 (Si, sé que está en PC, pero es un mal port y debe usar mods para corregirlo) la verdad, de momento, lo estoy disfrutando, espero que mis capturas sirvan de algo por si están interesados en comprarlo a día de hoy en 2023.

Thank you very much

Visually stunning game, the story was a bit hard for me to understand at first and the linear gameplay was boring. But that's all at the start. About 70% into the game when the true final fantasy(free roam and grind) experience starts and it's massive!!! Yea, have to be patient till then.

Final Fantasy rarely disappoints, aside from one or two terrible releases overall its great. This game has a most excellent storyline, well developed characters and the music is amazing. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys the FF franchise. This game is also one in which the developers were not afraid to create a strong yet vulnerable female character. 5 stars!

La boite est en anglais, cela dit ça ne m'aurait pas dérangé de jouer le jeu en anglais. Le jeu est adapté à votre console, donc, si la console est programmée "française", le jeu est automatiquement en français. Une histoire vraiment riche en émotions, même si un peu brouillon, malgré les combats assez répétitifs et le gameplay assez linéaire, il est compensé par un incroyable graphisme et des personnages tout aussi attachants les uns que les autres. 5/5 Recommandé.