Well, at least it functionsWell, here's a game that has received a lot of hatred in the Final Fantasy fan base: Final Fantasy XIII. People generally either hate it, or think that it is okay. It does have some good things in it (like music, graphics, and some aspects of gameplay), but falls completely flat in other areas.
Gameplay/ Addictiveness: As far as gameplay goes, this game is a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, I found the combat system to be rather enjoyable. It kept me on my toes as I was changing between jobs mid battle to match what position I was in at the moment, whether offensive or defensive. However, one thing that I found odd with the battle system was that rather than choosing the commands yourself, there is an option to have the game pick the commands. That, along with the fact that there was only one character controlled at a time and that the whole game is just a single pathway, sort of made it feel like Square Enix was making this more of a movie than an experience for a gamer to have, as the game is essentially playing itself.
The game really is just one long pathway, too. I mean, many games in reality are just progressed through in pathways, but often times in those games there is a level of exploration. In other games, if you look around you can find secret locations holding special items or other things, making it really fun to get into the world and see all there is. In this game all you see is all there is. The player just moves in one direction for what seems like forever. At first I was hoping that it would be like the first five hours of Final Fantasy VII (which still had more exploration than this game), where you were walking around Midgar on a path that was pretty much given to you. But after playing it for around ten hours, I realized that the whole game is really just like this. This is really bad game design. There are no choices at all for the player, and you just do as the game wishes. After watching Spoony's review of this game, I realized that I was getting pretty much the same experience watching someone play and talk about the game as I was playing it; this is just a movie with characters that have trouble moving around on their own. Because of that, this is the first game that I have ever considered giving back. What's funny though, is that often times when I play a game from a long running series, I often marvel at how far a series has come since the original, and never before has this been more true with this game. In the original Final Fantasy, you have to find out where to go on your own, but here it literally throws the path right in your face. It is a fully functional game, which is why I didn't give it an extremely low grade, but the linearity is unbearable. There are no side quests or towns to explore, nor any NPCs to talk to; just walking down the line until a cutscene or a battle happens.
Graphics: The visuals in this game are actually really nice. The character models are expressive and colorful, making them pleasant to look at. The character design is actually rather good in this game, with most of them looking rather interesting. The monsters, too, look pretty awesome. Many of them really do seem big and menacing, making them actually seem intimidating (although many of them are not that big of a problem). The battles themselves look good, too. Like many RPGs these days, the characters actually run around the battlefield as they perform their attacks and other moves, rather than standing still. This presentation makes the battles feel more dynamic and enjoyable to watch, despite no giant changes being made to the ATB system. The environments themselves are rather pleasant to look at. There are some rather interesting looking locations, like a lake made of crystal and a forest made of crystal... yeah, there's a lot of crystal in this game. The lighting in this game really makes these places shine, though (especially in the crystalline areas).
Music/ Sound: The soundtrack is also pretty good, with music matching the mood well and sounding pleasant. With the battle music, you really feel some of the urgency and the need to stay on your toes is amplified. While you're just running down the hall of the game, the music matches the mood of what is happening there. If something exciting is happening, then the music is exciting. If the characters aren't really in a rush and are just sort of walking around, the music is calm. Some of the tunes are quite catchy as well. Some of them, like The Sunleth Waterscape, get caught in my head occasionally. The sound effects are pretty good, too. I mean, the sound of footsteps (which is what you will hear the most in this game) is quite convincing. The sound effects in battle are satisfying, helping to make the battles more enjoyable. However, while graphics and sound are very important to a game's enjoyment, if the game itself is not fun then that kind of makes it null and void.
Story: The story of this game is sort of interesting, actually, albeit a little generic. It's about a group of people who live on Cocoon, a place where the humans live above the planet Pulse, who become L'Cie, which means they are servants of God-like entities known as Fal'Cie (yes, the made up words are especially ridiculous in this game). They have a special "Focus" to achieve, and the Fal'Cie do not tell them what it is. Everyone is afraid of the L'Cie and so they are hunted down by the army to send them to the hostile planet below. They have to find out what their focus is and do it, which will either save or destroy Cocoon. The characters are mostly interesting and sometimes you actually do feel sympathy for their struggles. If this story sounds interesting to you, though, I would just suggest watching a let's play or something like that.
Conclusion: This game is essentially a glorified movie. There are no choices for the player and, while the graphics are nice and the sounds are good, the gameplay is overwhelmingly boring. even if you are a super hardcore fan of Final Fantasy who finds it necessary to own every game in the series, I would suggest giving this game a miss and watching a let's play of the game. Not only are let's plays free to watch, but there is always a level of enjoyment of watching other people play bad games.
Graphics
9 Sound
9 Addictive
2 Depth
1 Story
8 Difficulty
3
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