Well, it isn't. Just bear with me for a second. Just take a step back and imagine that Final Fantasy XIII isn't titled Final Fantasy. Just imagine that it's titled like, Lightning is a Badass. Now that the game isn't alienating all of your expectations of what a Final Fantasy game should be like, just remember one thing: it's just a game. Seriously, it's just a game. And since all of the Final Fantasy titles are independent of each other (except for the sub-series *plural*) it's not like there's twelve other games of continuity to screw up so why be bitter? Oh don't worry, I'll definitely call these games out on what they need to be called out on but I want to be fair too. People just love to hate on these games and I don't really get it. Don't get me wrong, I think a lot of the mainstream critics totally dropped the ball when reviewing Final Fantasy XIII (IGN gave FFXIII an 8.9/10, Game Informer 9.25/10, Famitsu 39/40). But I do believe there's some good to be found in these games as well.
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| The upcoming Final Fantasy XV was originally supposed to be Final Fantasy Versus XIII but got renamed for whatever reason |
Oh, by the way, if my Latin isn't too rusty, Fabula Nova Crystallis translates to The New Story of the Crystal (or "crystals," the endings are the same). I guess that makes sense considering the underlying themes.
Anyways, enough exposition aside. Let's get on with it!
Final Fantasy XIII
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| Uh oh, in Europe you have to be sixteen to play. |
Anyways, the first way fans will be alienated by this game is with the battle system. A lot of fans pick on this aspect because, unlike the turn-based systems of other games, this game only allows you to control one character the whole battle. I guess they all forgot that Final Fantasy XII also only allowed you to control one character at a time as well. In fact, I think that the battle system in that game is worse than this game. In Final Fantasy XII, I beat whole boss battles without even being in front of my TV. Hell, there were a couple of times when I wasn't even in the same room.
Since the player can only control one character per battle, the battle sequences become pretty mundane pretty quick. What makes it even more mundane is the auto-battle function which basically does all of the thinking for you. Instead of choosing the magic and attacks to chain together yourself, you can opt to have the AI chain attacks together for you automatically. It's usually not the most efficient way to win a battle but it still gets the job done most times and makes the game that much more boring. I tried to avoid using the auto-battle function whenever possible just to make these battle sequences a little more interesting.
I would say that the paradigm system in these games is a big plus for adding a little complexity to overly simple battle sequences. The paradigm system basically allows the player to switch between preset lineups of roles for their characters. For instance, the player might setup the party as two ravagers (spell-casters) and one commando (fighter) to break an enemy's defense and then switch to three commandos to deal massive damage. In tougher battles (I use the term "tougher" loosely) you will probably also want to frequently switch to a paradigm pack that has one, two, or three medics. There are other roles too such as the synergist (buffs party members), the saboteur (debuffs enemies), and the sentinel (acts as a tank and absorbs massive damage protecting other party members). However, you won't find yourself using these roles often as there is often no real reason to. Overall, the paradigm system I think is a cool and innovative idea, but it isn't really used to its fullest extent here.
A big criticism of this game is that the story is pretty convoluted and needlessly complicated. However, if you're playing a Final Fantasy game and expected any different of a story than that, you're playing the wrong game franchise. Just about every Final Fantasy game has unexplained instances, character motivations, and/or lore. In fact, this isn't particularly unusual within the JRPG genre so if this kind of stuff bothers you, you should probably play an American RPG instead. But yes, I do agree that the story in this game is a bit much. I liked the overall story arc but some really silly stuff happens within it and motivations for visiting certain locations seem very ill-explained. It's kind of like, "Alright, let's visit this place now. Why? I don't really know but the script says we go to the sewer level now."
Actually, there's no sewer level in this game which is pretty unusual for any RPG. Hell, half of Fallout 3, is spent going through subway tunnels; which aren't sewers but they basically feel like sewer levels. The levels in Final Fantasy XIII are very unique and interesting locales. Even if we don't know why we are going to these places, at least the places we are going to aren't cliche.
I think the characters in this game are good depending on what you make of them. Either you will like them or you won't. If you don't, oh boy will you hate them. A lot of annoying moments to be had with these characters. The good traits that these characters bring though are enough for me to say that I think I like them. I'm still not really sure. Lightning is one of the most awesome female protagonists in any game but guys like Snow I can't really seem to stand. But, there is a scene when Lightning punches Snow in the face. Good times...good times...
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| I think I may have stood up and cheered at my TV |
The worst part about this game, which everyone can basically agree, is that this game is incredibly linear. I don't know what they were thinking but the majority of this game has no exploration, no decision making, no searching for stuff. Everything is down a single path. You just keep walking down the same path, enemies get in your way, you keep going. Towards the end there's only one area where you can explore. And there's actually side quests, something that this game basically doesn't have. It's like the open world, side questing experience was an after thought, an instance where the developers said "Oh fuck, we don't have anything an RPG is supposed to. No matter, just put a little bit of that stuff at the end. It should be good enough." It's like the game developers forgot to insert the open world sequences in-between the dungeons. It's really just terribly done, no matter how you look at it.
Overall, like I said, not the worst game but this game isn't really that good either. They definitely tried some new, innovative, ideas in a genre that has become rather cliche in the past five to ten years and I laud that. However, in most instances it didn't really work and it feels more like an interactive story than an actual JRPG. I think for some, such as myself, the story is enough to carry the game as I did find it interesting (which is something I can't say about Final Fantasy XII). I think if you find this game at your local game store for $10 or less and you like Final Fantasy, it's worth giving a try despite what your fanboy or hater friends might say about it.
Final Fantasy XIII-2
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| Why is Lightning on the cover if she's never in this thing? |
First off, this game only has two playable characters (unlike six in the first game). However, your third battle member is a monster or robot of your choosing. It adds an interesting element to pre-battle setup but nothing too different from the previous game. The battle system is exactly the same as the first game so, mostly mundane and boring here as well. However, you will find in this game that there are harder and more diverse enemies to fight and you will want to use all six roles somewhat frequently. So, in that way, the battling in this game is definitely improved.
The plot and overall premise of this game however makes the previous game look simple. Boy is this game's plot more complicated than it needs to be. It picks up right where the last game ended (which was a complete fairy tale ending with all loose ends tied). So, this game starts off really confusing to anyone who played the previous game. All of a sudden, our main protagonist is Lightning's little sister Serah, who spent the entirety of the last game being completely helpless. Now, all of a sudden, she can actually do stuff. Why? Well, because she has this moogle that can transform into various weapons and stuff for unexplained reasons. Seriously, since when could moogles do that?
Anyways, my biggest beef with the plot of this game is that Lightning is hardly in it. Seriously, you take one of the most badass protagonists of all time and not only put her on the bench but you basically cut her from the team? Lightning is in this game for a grand total of like twenty minutes and now she's like a Goddess' knight or some shit. So she's off doing her own thing the whole game which you never really find out what she had been doing the whole time until the end.
Despite the last game being linear, this game doesn't have open exploration either. Basically, you end up time traveling to different places at different times doing stuff. But, to make it more confusing, you can travel to parallel universes as well and do stuff. It's confusing and hard to follow but at least you get a series of choices regarding where you want to go. Because of this though, there's a lot of backtracking and repetitive location visits. For instance, there's one single location you can visit in four different continuums (Continuui? Hell if I know the plural) depending on what year and which parallel universe you are in. The locations mostly look the same with slight changes depending on stuff that happens which keeps it mildly interesting but, for the most part, it's just repetitive.
Unlike Final Fantasy XIII this game does have chocobo racing and casino portions of the game. It's interesting for awhile but, in retrospect, the items you get for doing chocobo racing aren't too great compared to the time you will spend farming materials to level up your combative chocobo. So, I wouldn't do it if I were you. The casino only offers slot machines unless if you buy DLC. ...fuck...that...
The leveling system is almost exactly the same as the previous game but presented in an aesthetically different way. Basically experience points can be spent on learning new moves in one of the six paradigm roles. Beyond that you get no choices which is certainly a drawback for both games.
One thing I loved doing in this game is throwing the moogle for far away items. PETA probably wouldn't like it but it was a funny thing in a cute way and an odd satisfaction overcame me every time "KUPO! KUPO!" was fading away in the distance...
I'm not messed up, I swear.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 makes improvements to the simplistic Final Fantasy XIII but overall left me mostly unengaged and uninterested in a lack-luster storyline.
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII
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| Why did I leave in the first place? |
The game stars Lightning (thank goodness) as the main protagonist who is now working under orders from a new god who is anticipating the end of the world for some reason I forgot and needs as many souls on the new world he's building as possible before the end of the world comes. So, somehow, Lightning has now become a prophet or a demi-god or something that can literally save people's souls. Seriously, her title is "The Savior." So how does she save people's souls? By completing side quests of course!
And that's all this game is, lots and lots of side quests. There are a few more major side quests where you help save the souls of some of the main characters (like Snow or Sazh) but it's mainly just saving the souls of random people who seem to have pretty petty problems considering that the end of the world is only like seven days away (can be up to thirteen depending on how many souls you save in the first seven days). With the clock ticking away to apocalypse, helping some inept sheep farmer get his sheep back in a pen (multiple times) seems like an incredible waste of time; or help some guy improve the popularity of his financially failing restaurant which shouldn't matter because the world is going to end anyways.
Other than the plot of the game being completely stupid (like, one of the dumbest plots I've ever seen) the game is actually pretty interesting. First of all, the battle system has been completely changed and is actually pretty interesting and unique. Instead of party battling, Lightning fights solo by changing her roles via clothing changes. If that sounds really silly, it's because it is. However, if you can manage to get over that, there is a lot of fun to be had with the new system. Pre-battle, you setup three different outfits to change between which all have different abilities and perks (all of them are completely customizable). On top of that, the abilities that are attached to the outfits are upgradeable/customizable as well. It's similar to the materia system in Final Fantasy VII in that way. What is frustrating is that there are no cure spells in the game so the only ways to gain health back in the game are by using potions or the medi-guard skill. The thing is, you're incredibly limited by how many items you can carry (less than ten at a time) so potions aren't a very viable option most of the time. So, you will find yourself using the medi-guard ability a lot!
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| Hasta La Vista, Snow. |
One of the most interesting elements of the game is the end of the world clock. When the game tells you there's a limited amount of time until the end of the world, it means it. Every day starts at 6am and ticks away at about a minute every ten to twenty seconds of real time (not really sure). You have to use your time wisely because when 6am of the next day rolls around, you'll be sent back to a place that doesn't serve as much other than a plot device (which is annoying). So, when you're completing these side quests, you don't want to dawdle. However, you'll come to realize that it isn't so hard to save time as the Chronostasis ability (which literally stops time) will save you lots and lots of time and that you should use all of your ability points only on that one ability over and over. I saved so much time that I still had like 4 days left and I had saved all of the main characters and only had side quests left that I didn't feel like actually doing (one of them being kill every monster in the world, yeah, fuck that).
It's also important to keep track of what time of day it is because certain quests can only be completed at certain times of day. Some locations in town will also be open at certain times of day. Some of the goals are also more lenient by being limited to whether the goal can be completed during the night or during the day. Some monsters can only be fought during certain times of day so you'll want to visit different locations at differing times of day to see what all is available at that particular location.
One drawback of this game is that, even though it's open world, it doesn't really add all that much. Why? Well, there's only four areas you can visit in the whole game! Yeah, pretty small free roam kind of game. I mean sure, the areas are large areas with plenty to explore but there just isn't that much variety here. There's two cities, an open plain, and a desert level. That's it. I wish they would have had a few more expansive levels to explore.
Some of the costume choices for Lightning did bother me as they were completely out of character for her to wear. What do I mean by this? Well, Lightning isn't the kind of woman to wear skimpy outfits (which there are plenty of in this game) What's even worse is that when you win a battle while wearing the skimpy outfit, she does a somewhat seductive pose. This is just wrong. Her character wouldn't do this! It's part of the reason why she was so badass in the first place. She never had to use her looks or charm to get what she wants. She uses brute force and her independent attitude! It's like the writers forgot what her character was supposed to be like. There's even a Final Fantasy XIV inspired outfit where she has a tail and cat ears. C'MON! REALLY!?!?
I would go as far as to say that I enjoyed this game. However, beyond that, there's too many little annoyances going on here to say that this is more than an average game. The big thing that's stopping this from being a good game is the lack of story; something that we've never seen in a Final Fantasy game before and hope that we never see it again. Because of this, this game just really lacks direction and although I liked a lot of the mechanics in this game, by the end the novelty of the good battle system had worn off and there was no substance left due to the lack of story line. At the end, I was literally wishing that the game would just be over already because this game deserves such a better story than this.
I would probably recommend buying this game used if you like RPGs but I wouldn't recommend putting in the time to finish it unless if you're a big fan of the trilogy and need to know how it ends. Basically, it's fun for a while but without a solid main story, it wears out its welcome very very fast.
Fabula Nova Crystallis image: http://s264.photobucket.com/user/lightningagito156/media/Fabula%20Nova%20Crystallis/Final_Fantasy_XIII_wallpaper_by_Fea.jpg.html
FFXIII cover: http://www.ps3attitude.com/wp-content/gallery/final-fantasy-xiii-cover-art/final-fantasy-xiii-cover-art-eu.jpg
Lightning Punches Snow image: https://33.media.tumblr.com/53d0de2d5e58a366a63730750696397f/tumblr_n2hesk2peF1tv7ai8o1_500.gif
FFXIII-2 cover: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/90/Final_Fantasy_XIII-2_Game_Cover.jpg
Lightning Returns: FFXIII cover: http://www.otakustudy.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/d878daa2e02afba2a457a39dd2ddd751.jpg
Lightning Glasses image: http://images.gamersyde.com/image_lightning_returns_final_fantasy_xiii-22213-2588_0002.jpg
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