PlayStation News, Articles and Information for the UK and Europe

PLATFORM: PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360

RELEASE DATE: 9th March 2010

RATING: 16+ (PEGI)

DEVELOPER: Square Enix: Product Development Division (PDD) 1

PUBLISHER: Square Enix

It’s been just over three years since the last flagship instalment of Final Fantasy was released in the PAL region, and the wait between XIII’s original release in Japan in December and the release worldwide has been far too long; but we’re finally here, the first High Definition Final Fantasy. Does it live up to expectations and fill the gap that XII left? Or does it fall flat on its face faster than Lightning? (Excuse the pun)

Final Fantasy XIII starts off with a bang, you’re thrown right in with no questions asked, which is quite harsh considering you’re still trying to recover from the sheer awesomeness and graphical masterpiece that is the introduction. You do feel like you’ve started in the middle of the story but many future cutscenes slowly reveal what happened to all of the six characters in the thirteen days before the events of FFXIII.

The story itself gets off to quite a good start (despite the fact that you really are thrown into it with no clue of what a Fal’Cie or L’Cie is) and I found myself surprised at how quickly I became attached to some of the characters, with some quite emotional scenes within the first 2 hours of the game. However, after about 3-4 hours, the pace of the story plummets, and for the next 10 or so hours, you’ll be endlessly thrown back and forth between 2 or 3 parties (like FFVI but more often). Once you’ve worked your way about a third of the way through the game (10-15 hours in), the party is reunited and the story picks up again with some of the best scenes of the game shortly after.

There is one major twist in the game which is slowly revealed to you, and you’ll guess it long before the characters find out, which in a way will keep you playing – I kept thinking: “Ok, this is gonna be the cutscene where he/she tells him/her what’s on his/her mind.” When it finally is revealed, the bombshell is dropped and you see some of the most memorable cutscenes of a Final Fantasy, and like I said, after that the story is great.

The ending though takes the game up another level, the story hits its climax with several more twists thrown in for good measure. The ending itself rounds of the story very well however it does breeze over some of the minor points, leaving you a bit confused as to what’s just happened – I also felt that the dialogue before the last battle was drowned out by the music (good though it may be) so it became hard to hear. Other than that though, a great ending which could lead to a sequel but could also be left alone – and for those Leona Lewis haters, when you’re actually viewing the ending, her song just fits, and sounds great.

One thing that angered me about the game though is how you can’t revisit some of the earlier places in the game, it makes you feel caged in even though you have a lot of freedom once you hit the endgame. It’s hard to describe, but you don’t feel like you’ve covered every inch of the planet(s) like you do in most prior Final Fantasies. The linearity I understand, it’s needed to drive the story – so you can get to know the characters, it’s just that Square-Enix have taken away the veil of illusion which they so cleverly hid in previous games.

In all, though, the story is great and the environments are fantastic, even the culture of the world is well documented in the Datalog (the game’s way of documenting your journeys as well as the enemies you’ve fought), and the linearity isn’t too much of a problem. It’s just there is no back-tracking to the earlier parts of the game (which must have been implemented to reduce disc-swapping… ahem, no names mentioned) which make you feel a little left out.

On to gameplay now, Square Enix decided this time to shake up the battle system by merging that of Final Fantasy XII, and all previous Final Fantasies together. Keeping the real time events and flow of battle that XII had whilst maintaining the whole “select ability, wait, wait, wait, attack” from the earlier games. The thing I like about this system though, is that because the bar is split up, you can issues one command at a time or as many as six, you can keep a constant barrage of attacks by choosing when to strike instead of waiting. Unfortunately though, this system means that controlling more than one character would be near on impossible, hence you only control the party leader – and if he/she dies, it’s game over for all of you. The feature of Auto-Battle when selected generates a full ATB gauge of commands relevant to your situation, including enemy weaknesses, party condition, current health etc. This feature does mean that you’re tapping X most of the time (in the earlier stages of the game) but later on in the game you have to be a lot more selective with your options and Auto Battle isn’t necessarily the way to go.

For the most part, the your AI-controlled team is very effective. They’ll keep your health topped up and maintain status enhancements or cast status ailments on enemies etc. however sometimes they will falter, and you may be in a critical state of health, and they will choose to heal the third member, you then die and it’s game over. This leads to quite a lot of frustration some times but it is quite a rare occurrence and some of you may never even be subjected to it.

So, once you get through the first few chapters, you’ll be granted the ability to use Paradigms. This splits everyone’s abilities into six classes: Commando (Warrior), Ravager (Black Mage), Medic (White Mage), Sentinel (Defender), Saboteur (De-buffer), and Synergist (Buffer). You’ll be able to create up to six paradigms for use in battle, so you could have 2 Commandos and a Ravager, when suddenly, you’re hit by a massive attack; though a quick tap of the L1 button switched you to 2 Medics and a Sentinel, you heal up and so on. This feature starts off pretty useless in the opening stages of the game, but as you progress, you’ll depend more and more on carefully shifting paradgims.

Now obviously, Final Fantasy would be nothing without it’s character development systems. This time around, you’ll be using the Crystarium system (similar to the Sphere Grid of X) basically, you gain points for defeating enemies, you spend those points in Crystarium, every so often you’ll hit a sphere and it’ll upgrade a stat, give you an ability, or expand your character’s ATB/Accessory. Like many things in this game, the system becomes more tactical as you go along, with more areas branching off of the main path later in the game. Each character starts off with three primary classes – their three strongest classes, and as the game wears on, you’ll be given the opportunity to develop them in the remaining three classes (however I would not recommend this as the costs are large and you need to develop party members in their strongest talents).

One more quick thing to mention: Eidolons. Throughout the game you’ll have to fight several Eidolons. Each character has their own and whilst battling against a time limit you’ll have to ‘satisfy’ the condition that the Eidolon requires (hammering down HP will not be enough) – this will usually relate to the character’s strongest class. Once you have beaten them, they become your servant and you can summon them – at a cost of Tactical Points (which increase as you fight monsters). Once the Eidolon is summoned you have the option to change into Gestalt mode which gives you complete control over the Eidolon – however there is a Summon gauge which increases as the aforementioned conditions are fulfilled (different for each Eidolon), the higher it is when you transform, the more time you can spend transformed.

Well that just about covers gameplay, let’s take a look at graphics. As many of you will have guessed, the graphics are absolutely outstanding, Square Enix have continued to push both consoles to the limit. Although you’ll find more, let’s say, realistic graphics in Uncharted 2, Final Fantasy takes the cake in many places with absolutely jaw dropping graphics. They really do come into their own about half way in with truly beautiful landscapes as well as stunning cityscapes – not to mention the final dungeon, which just looks godly.

One major thing that Final Fantasy XIII adds to the graphics table though, is the hair. All characters in the story have hair which moves around and isn’t static like in other games. At some points it can look a little bit rubbish but for the most part it really adds a sense of realism to the characters.

But the thing that impresses me most of all is the pre-rendered footage (aka FMVs), you will see some unforgettable sights with these and what I love in this iteration of Final Fantasy is that the graphics are so good, it’s hard to tell whether you’re watching an FMV or just an in-game cutscene.

The voice acting overall is pretty good, the lip-syncing isn’t brilliant but most of the time it suffices. The actors have obviously gotten really into their roles and play their parts admirably, even though they can get a tad annoying at times. One thing you’ll forgive me for mentioning though, is how most cutscenes involve errm… noises which could make people in other rooms think something dodgy is going – when that is certainly not the case. Other than that though, the actors perform best in those critical moments of story telling – which is how it should be.

The music of the game though is shear brilliance, Hamauzu definitely fills his predecessor’s (Uematsu) boots with a great soundtrack bursting to the brim with variety. Somehow he manages to induce a techno-type song in the music when you’re running about or doing something with a lot of action’ and when that’s all over he brings in the sultry sound of the orchestra which all players of final fantasy know and love. What I’m trying to say is, the music just clicks with the game so perfectly – with a great upbeat track for when you need it, with a sad slow ballad in the more touching scenes of the game (for which, I might add, there are a few). Sadly though, you won’t find the original ‘Prelude’ that we all know and love, nor will you find the great ‘Final Fantasy’ theme, but there’s obviously still room for chocobos in Hamauzu’s heart as the Chocobo theme does feature in this instalment. In case any of you need persuading how brilliant and diverse the game is, here are but a few of over eighty tracks in the game, do take a look at them:

• Prelude
• Eidolons
• Sustained by Hate

Overall the game will take you about 40-60 hours to complete, all depending on whether you stop to farm ‘CP’ to level up your characters and (of course) how many side quests you undertake before you finish the main story line. After defeating the final boss you are able to continue the game and finish all the side quests as well as fully develop your characters. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to visit any of the places from early on in the game, though you will be able to visit everywhere you’ve been in the second half of the game. After completing all of the side quests, your game time should read around a good 80 hours if not more. Once you’ve done everything there is to do though, there’s no ‘New Game +’ feature to keep you coming back (but don’t look at that as to bad a point – there are plenty of things to do before you finish everything).

The trophies to this game do look a little scarce at first, I mean come on, 20 or so secret trophies?!? But do believe me when I say that in order to fulfill the (Secret) Platinum’s requirements, you will have to pretty much suck the game dry – ie. complete it fully with fully developed characters, holding every weapon etc. – which is in no way a bad thing because the game keeps you entertained for every second you play. It’s also nice to see Square-Enix rewarding their players with themes of the characters for all of the gold and platinum trophies.

In summary, the game starts off with a bang, and whilst losing its way in the middle, it does fight back and produce the most stunning world you’ve ever set foot upon. Sure the story is a bit cheesy sometimes, but every game has its ups and downs, and you always naturally hold on to the best bits, whether they be amazing, emotional or just downright funny (Sazh I’m looking at you). Although there is a major lack of side quests at the beginning of the game, stick with it and after about 20 hours you’ll regret ever doubting the game in the first place…

A truly fantastic game with a heartfelt story and stunning graphics, and one of the best endings of the series. One thing to keep in mind though – the more you play this game, the more it rewards you.  Action packed battles combined with great exploration (once you get there) and some great side quests make for some of the best 80 hours I’ve played on the PS3 yet. There’ll be no back-tracking here, but with Gran Pulse at your feet, it’s not too much of an issue later on in the game. Some fans may not like it, but true fans know that if there’s one thing Final Fantasy is all about, it’s change.

What did you think of Final Fantasy XIII? Was Leona Lewis as dreadful as you thought? Are you a long time fan or newcomer to the series? Tell us your thoughts below…