Final Fantasy XIII

We recently added a PS3 to our household and the first game I got was Final Fantasy XIII. Since we’ve had a Nintendo Wii, I’ve been missing out on the big Final Fantasy titles so I was pretty excited to find FF XIII for the low price of $29. I guess it’s been out over a year so it’s considered a PS3 oldie or something. Anyways the game is amazing! Visually, the 1080p graphics are stunning. The artwork is so detailed and the opening cutscene is incredible. I really like the movie-like feeling of the game. I switches from cutscenes to playable portions seamlessly and the story flows quite well. Granted I’ve only completed about 5% of the game, but the momentum and pacing seem perfect.

Like in all FF games, there’s a lot of combat in it and this worried me a little. I didn’t want to get bogged down in really intricate battles, or be turned off by fights that were stop/start turn-based. FFXIII avoids those situations by using an active-battle system, and simple menus. Basically you have a timer bar which dictates how quickly you can perform your attacks, then you have a choice of attacks to use. It’s all just one or two buttons away. The battles keep moving even if you just stand there, so there isn’t much time to dawdle. There are also battle stances called “paradigms” that you can switch to during battles. This helps out a lot because you can go into defensive mode if you need healing, or full offense if you want to deal maximum damage. These paradigm shifts are also easy to execute so you don’t waste time fumbling with the controller.

There’s so much more to the game and it’s been reviewed extensively by all the major game sites, but I have to add that the storyline is really engaging. The characters and voice-acting are excellent and the backstory is interesting. There’s a journal that you can pull up at any time that has the story explained so you don’t miss out on anything.

Right now, this is one of my favorite games and I’m trying not to go through it too quickly. I’d like to enjoy it for as long as possible! On the horizon is FFXIII 2, so hopefully I can finish the first game before the second part comes out.