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Final Fantasy XIII
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2024 long review:
Score justification at the bottom:

I think that it makes all the sense in the world for FF13 to be seen in its two polar opposite reactions. At release, it was largely maligned by fans, and in today's internet, we are seeing a resurgence in its re-evaluation in a more positive manner. This is my attempt to do so through focusing on its most important parts which are the writing, game design, and Aesthetics.

Characters:

I play rpgs and most media primarily for the writing mostly seen with the characters, plot, and themes that entertain and engage me. You can see this reflected in my top games list. Final fantasy 13 does not make the cut but it does offer a strong attempt. When first starting the game, you are viewing in-media res beginning throwing you immediately into a dramatic combat sequence. I do not mind this decision as one can pick up on what is occurring. People have shared criticism that the terminology is a barrier to entry, and this is rather disingenuous as by the end of the prologue you should be able to pick up on it. Though it is fair to say it's not naturally explained. We do not have a slow pacing in ff13 such as FF10 does with Tidus asking about the terminology and setting to explain to the audience and the character himself. Outside of Vanille who's a very poor attempt at this type of character for exposition. The issue of writing though is most prevalent with pacing. The whole narrative is a fast-moving entry with characters that develop almost as fast outside of a few characters. The prologue is where we set up most of the characters and the early chapters see a lot of development for the main character lighting and her foil Snow.

Both come to realizations over their motivation in the plot early on which fails to give them a feeling of pay off. Though the question remains open of if it does work. It mostly does for me; these characters are interesting in how their flaws and strengths are reflected by each other. Their motivation is also shared by a npc called Serah, the sister of Lighting and fiancé of Snow. The two do not get along largely due to Lightings realistic shortcomings with communication and ability to support Serah. I truthfully found these two and the dynamic the most interesting part of the game which makes sense it's a unique circumstance for video games to go into this family focused conflict

In comparison Hope is a very fleshed out character that has his development spaced out over the course of the prologue to chapter 8. He seeks revenge against snow, gets development from lighting, and attempts to do so, while his understanding and personality changes. He's the most naturally written character who due to the rather cliche and melodramatic nature of his story is very hit or miss. All of this can be dismissed by a player due to these two very real and common reactions to his character. Especially since we know his motivation is based on a misunderstanding that a new player knows of from the start.

The others left have their own issues but the most frequently enjoyed by players is Sazh. Sazh is simply a father dealing with his own NPC family member being his son. His arc revolves around understanding the truth of what happened to him and how to go forward. His development is largely relegated to chapter 8 with Vanille. As such he is an enjoyable character with motivation and development that is arguably the most natural in the game. He simply is not just as relevant as the others sadly, but his presence and character are very appreciated. I do not mind that he stops developing or having major scenes after this point of the game as this can be said to have happened to everyone except one. As you may have noticed I brought up a character called Vanille, and this is now me opening a huge can of worms.

Vanille dominates the second half of the game. In fact, her presence with the plot and cast at large frankly makes her one of the most involved and important in the whole game. Her early sections are mostly her lying or having memory loss that I imagine on replay would be enjoyable to catch. (Which one might be able to do early on already). She is someone that at times feels unnaturally crammed into character dynamics such as one late game reveal with a certain NPC and with Sazh's backstory. Vanille though as a character is constantly trying to do the right thing in the circumstances she's placed within while wearing a girlypop facade. Shes the archetype of knowing more than she lets on and this will either annoy or entice you. Furthering a divide to the reaction of this contentious title, guiding your thoughts on her character and game. For me, like with the rest of the cast, I'm more charitable to her and the game.

She was fun to watch as she genuinely does a good job at being funny and has plenty of dramatic scenes that work due to the aforementioned circumstances and writing. Another example of her importance is with Fang. The reason you haven't heard fang in this review yet is because she's best understood as an extension of Vanille. Fang and Vanille are both connected to the late game plot and Fang particularly has an investment in Vanille. Fang's development as you can tell involves Vanille. Now I do enjoy Fang a lot. She is a rather mature character that is self-confident and a net positive to the game, but she is the weak link in terms of prevalence. I assure you that isn't an indictment though as with any form of media it's ok to have likable characters that offer dynamics & moves the plot forward. Sadly, they are both used in the end to resolve the plot in a rather unnatural way but in terms of how they function as two characters they are rather wholesome and inoffensive unless you place far more value on the plot of the game than their dynamic.

The plot:

Is also another well talked about part of ff13. It's a lighting fast story that only spares time for flashbacks needed to explain plot points or the bare minimum needed to flesh out the cast. This does mean anyone who is not a playable character is sidelined, underutilized, left largely unknown, and the main antagonist, while met multiple times throughout the game, is too busy explaining the plot and lore to leave an impression. Outside of his gameplay presence of being a challenging boss each time you fight him. Yes, the plot is directly spelled out for you. This goes along with a feeling of exhaustion too due to how long and how much information is given to you. Other times you'll feel that character and plot scenes move bizarrely too fast where there is hardly anything to hold on to or enjoy. I finished this game about 13 days ago and I can hardly name 2 out of 4 named antagonists. Will all this being said ff13 does do enough for the plot of fate and freedom to be taken seriously to a point. The game does enough to understand the stakes and the characters having moving moments, but the pacing removes the impact and potential of it. As it stands ff13 I feel is weak in this regard.

The Pacing:

deserves its own section in this review genuinely. It's not just an issue with the writing because the actual experience of playing the game is largely hindered by its pacing. The talk of its world design is also infamous for being all hallways. This is important to bring up as the game, being all combat encounters in limited environments without respite with towns or the like, creates an exhausting gameplay loop. Sometimes the game will be walking down a line in a pretty environment, fight enemy encounters, watch a cut scene, rinse repeat for the first half of the game. It negatively impacted my understanding of the story as it felt as though the scenes watched especially early on weren't grounded in a natural way. I am not alone in this experience either considering how many players throughout the years expressed a lack of understanding of the story. The pacing being so extremely jarring causes a disconnect from not having the time to be accustomed to the characters & the plot. As the game goes on this stop and go design decreases thankfully, but the first half of the game is where the character arcs are placed. So, the negative impact is felt from the characters to eventually surprisingly the gameplay. Doing long stretches of only enemy encounters was absolutely draining. Due to the overall challenge of them & the repetitiveness once the thrill of new encounters wares of you find yourself just wanting the boss encounter to start so you can move on already. Wanting a section to end with an hour left to get through is simply frustrating and a time sink.

Battle system:

The ATB combat has reached a new peak with ff13. Anyone who says otherwise is a bit delusional with the beautiful implementation of its role system that is paradigms. You are tasked with building a party of 3 that utilize paradigms that can be understood as roles, classes, or jobs in other rpg systems. Commando is a physical attacker, revenger is a black mage, white mage is a medic, etc. etc.

This is the context needed to understand that your objective in most combat experiences is to stagger enemies to deal maximum damage, stun lock enemies, juggle them, & quickly apply any and all status aliments you can think of. You do this by maxing enemy stagger gauges to stagger them and this is where the gameplay really shows its strength. As many enemies and bosses alike force you to play around how their individual gauges work. If an enemy deals massive damage you'll want a tank role selected, a role for debuffs, and attacking. If an enemy comes with a lot of adds you'll probably want a commando or revenger to deal aoe damage. Different gauges have resistance rates to reach which diversifies the gameplay experience. This system opens up about halfway into the game where you're able to give any character any role. In my experience, I enjoyed this freedom and seeing how different the party building was done to use characters I personally wanted to use. It's interesting to see the developers actually put some effort into part of the gameplay such as how Snow a tank focused character has one of the fastest casting speeds but one of the lowest magic stats. This might sound awful but due to the stagger system it's perfectly viable to use him as such.

The negative though is the equipment system that doesn't adequately give you the information needed to make the most out of it. Such as upgrading your weapons or armor. You might try to do so early but due to balancing of the game you are genuinely better off saving that till the halfway point. (This issue of lacking natural information is sadly a thing even if minor in both cases of writing and gameplay) You'll want to look up a guide that explains added effects when certain equipment is used at the same time. Though this is rather minor as you can absolutely playthrough the title without peering this deep into the systems. Once you have the information you will be able to make the most out of it as well. Again, this is just another example of a flaw that can impact others while being fun to others. Regardless I feel it is important to mention in any review of a game the gameplay.

The gameplay has been critiqued for not allowing full control of the characters and I feel this misunderstands the title in its design. Turn based games I feel can be split into 2 categories reactionary and contemplative-based designs. SMT, notable for its challenge, is best enjoyed via creating strategies and builds that are contemplatively created to overcome its challenges. It's much alike to a puzzle that requires thought to succeed in. Like the previous entry in Final Fantasy with 12 its gambit system is most enjoyable in this context with its harder boss encounters. In comparison persona 3-5 and ff13 are reactionary games that tests the players understanding of its systems on the fly. You have limited control of the build of your party members in the aforementioned titles, but the fun is found in utilizing the characters strengths and abilities against the challenges you encounter. While you absolutely can put focus into their builds and set up, you are more often than not putting more time into actively engaging in combat and realizing strategies or methods in the flow of battle. You can use auto battle where actions are quickly supplied to the controlled player but doing so is never as effective or fun as inputting more efficient and impactful options. As a whole the gameplay is the strongest part of Final Fantasy 13 by far. And forcing the player to input commands for every character would ruin the system as it stands or would require a complete overhaul of its system.

Normal encounters are something I do want to touch on as they are a rarity in RPGs due to offering some challenge. The game also handles this challenge due to having no limitation of magic via mp or spell use and having your party wide HP refilled every time you exit the gameplay. This allows one to explore different strategies, understand new abilities and skills, party composition, and in general you are actively being engaged by its challenge throughout the game. It prepares you for the harder challenges and this can only be a net positive to me unless burnt out by the length of the gameplay sequences. Which again is a factor outside of the battle system.

Aesthetically:

Final Fantasy 13 continues and pushes squares bourgeois desire to create the most graphically beautiful and impressive game ever with the series. Final fantasy over 13 years later holds up to the test of time. The environments as mentioned are beautiful, the AMV cut scenes look as fresh as ever, the in-game animations and models hold up so well. It reminds me that even though we are 2 new console generations ahead in the future graphically the industry isn't far removed from this. Outside of graphics the music is of course stellar, though a bit repetitive by the end. Of course, this isn't a major issue you are listening to blinded by light or Saber edge which genuinely can stay on repeat for hours with their composition and production without being overplayed. As a whole, much like every other FF entry, it stands the test of time here.

Score justification:

1 full point for its gameplay

1 full point for its use of aesthetics

0.5 for good characters that are mishandled



It's ultimately a game I enjoy. Sadly, it's flawed enough to where I can understand why people don't enjoy it, but its strengths shine through to where I can easily agree with its fans loving it. I did enjoy it a lot more than this score might make it seem like. It's a complicated title with takes ranging from scoring highs to spiteful 0s. FF13 does just enough to be good and not enough to be great. For each reason to love it one can have a reason to hate it. This is where I'm settling after trying to meet it where it's at.

The first thought in my mind is that I love how beautiful the environments are but the tedium of the game really drags down the experience that it could've offered. Along with very limited enemy types & a partner system that makes the game design feel more limiting than interesting. Having to switch between characters is a cool concept with unique abilities but in RE0 its the most basic the idea can get. Big strong guy can take more hits and can push heavy things while the female character has less hp and can fuse items. The fusing items being restricted to one character is more of an issue then interesting ability. As both characters have limited item space it makes one open up the menu 247 to swap items between the two that you find in the game. This is another issue I find as well. With how limited some important items are from healing to ammo you don't want to leave items in a room full of enemies that are damage sponges. This results in you just dropping useful items in a safe area to avoid the hassle. It doesn't feel challenging to litter items on the floor either. I suspect it's supposed to cause tension but all I feel is annoyance from a very limited item space. It's a game where the flaws are way more noticeable then it's strength essentially. The two characters are cute and cool thankfully, but no one should play this for that reason here. As the gameplay completely dominates the experience for better and worse. I only can say I wish I enjoyed it more.