Final Fantasy XIII is a game I picked up basically expecting to dissect it to try and understand what went wrong and how it could be so bad. In the end.... I kind of enjoyed it?
The game was part of an ambitious subseries project for the Final Fantasy series called Fabula Nova Crystallis that was meant to contain various games with different stories and world, but connected through their lore -- the origins of the world at the hands of Bhunivelze and his creations -- and their themes -- the conflicts between humans and gods as the latter group intervenes in the former. Something of a Final Fantasy multiverse, I guess.
The idea did come through, but due to XIII not being that well received, it happened in a much more muted form than originally planned. Those who were around to see it announced might remember there were originally three XIII games: this one, Versus XIII and Agito XIII. Versus and Agito went on to become XV and Type-0, and aside from some terminology being reused between games, you have to really dig into those two to find the connections of their worlds to XIII's. FNC's lore is pretty deep -- to not say convoluted.
Which is, in fact, one of the first problems people complain about in XIII: the game opens by throwing confusing terms such as "Cocoon Fal'Cie", "Focus", "Bodhum Vestige" and "Pulse L'Cie" without much regard for whether the player knows what's going on or not. Well, more or less. I suffered from this issue for a grand total of five minutes, then I opened the datalog like the game told me to and lo and behold, a few blurbs of text later I was up to speed with the setting.
Now, I don't think codices are an elegant method of storytelling, but they're one this particular genre, with its intricate worlds, leans a bunch on, so it's a bit confusing to see some claim that having to read in an RPG is an absurd idea. Yes, show-don't-tell would have been nice, but considering how slow the start of the game is known to be, doing something like starting the game at Bodhum, before the events of the opening, and dropping exposition bombshell after bombshell would have slowed it down even further.
Also, just like in many other entries to this franchise, there's a tendency of conflating "I don't like this character" with "this is a bad character" when it comes to the game's main cast. The writing for a lot of XIII leans on the main party members being in conflict with one another, as well as some of them going through some rough spots, such as the loss of someone close. Sometimes they act in a cocky, whiny, depressed, or irrational way, and that is normal -- it's reflective of a person in that situation. Here's a video essay that talks about this better than I could. Yes, I too derive extreme satisfaction from seeing Snow punched across the face, but that does not make him poorly written. In fact, the character writing in this game is some of the best in the series.
That said, those two criticisms out of the way, there are a lot of very valid complaints that can be leveled at the game's main plot. For instance, a certain recurring antagonist feels unthreatening after repeat fights. In addition, some plot threads could have timed their reveals better (e.g. Hope's mom's final words) to be more effective, and less scenes could feature the words "Pulse l'Cie, enemies of Cocoon". Incidentally, despite all that talk about its enemies, you never grow attached to any particular place in Cocoon because, as pretty as the sights are, you're never given time to get to know those locations. Cocoon ends up feeling less of a living world than Gran Pulse, which is saying a lot when you consider the history behind those two locations.
Which leads us to the elephant in the room, which is the linearity. To play devil's advocate for a bit, it too serves a purpose in the game: it creates a sense of urgency that reflects, one, the characters being fugitives hunted by the military; two, the six of them having a ticking time bomb attached to them in the form of the Focus. There's a desire from the game's direction to keep the momentum of the plot going, and in this, the game is successful: you're constantly switching teams and areas, as characters get split up and meet again in a sequence of twists and turns.
But then again, urgency, being hunted down and the like have never stopped any game in the series (except FFX) from offering at least some degree of side stories and activities, and it's also not possible to do without severely handicapping the gameplay. Sidequests and the like are where the player is allowed to branch out, experiment with the gameplay systems, try out different equipment and fight some tougher mobs. When you take all that away, even if only until a certain point in the game... many say this game takes twenty hours to get good, and it's a fair assessment. The game holds its cards too close to its chest for most of the game, restricting the kits of party members and preventing players from experiencing what it has to offer.
It's a shame, because the game's battle system is actually pretty solid. Like FFXII, FFXIII gets called out a lot for mostly playing itself, this time due to the Paradigm system and the Libra spell dictating your party members' behavior, however, also like FFXII, there's a surprising amount of depth in that automation and in the player input given during battles. It's also really fast-paced and relentless: the game allows you to retry any battle instantly, and that feature is there because it will murder you without mercy, forcing you to learn many of its battles and adjust your paradigms to proceed.
In that, I found a lot of joy in FFXIII. Together with its intricate world and characters, beautiful visuals and amazing soundtrack, the game left me wanting more. Which, eventually, Square delivered on: FFXIII-2 is a thing, and it tackles a lot of the issues in XIII, such as the linearity, not being able to switch party leaders, and so on, and I like that game even more. I'll get to it eventually.
For now, though: Final Fantasy XIII is a fun entry to the series. It's definitely not my favorite, and it has profound issues: if you couldn't put up with its long introductory session, couldn't wait for hours until the game got good, that's valid, and I respect that. But those who stay for the journey will find a better game than what its reputation makes it sound like.
The game was part of an ambitious subseries project for the Final Fantasy series called Fabula Nova Crystallis that was meant to contain various games with different stories and world, but connected through their lore -- the origins of the world at the hands of Bhunivelze and his creations -- and their themes -- the conflicts between humans and gods as the latter group intervenes in the former. Something of a Final Fantasy multiverse, I guess.
The idea did come through, but due to XIII not being that well received, it happened in a much more muted form than originally planned. Those who were around to see it announced might remember there were originally three XIII games: this one, Versus XIII and Agito XIII. Versus and Agito went on to become XV and Type-0, and aside from some terminology being reused between games, you have to really dig into those two to find the connections of their worlds to XIII's. FNC's lore is pretty deep -- to not say convoluted.
Which is, in fact, one of the first problems people complain about in XIII: the game opens by throwing confusing terms such as "Cocoon Fal'Cie", "Focus", "Bodhum Vestige" and "Pulse L'Cie" without much regard for whether the player knows what's going on or not. Well, more or less. I suffered from this issue for a grand total of five minutes, then I opened the datalog like the game told me to and lo and behold, a few blurbs of text later I was up to speed with the setting.
Now, I don't think codices are an elegant method of storytelling, but they're one this particular genre, with its intricate worlds, leans a bunch on, so it's a bit confusing to see some claim that having to read in an RPG is an absurd idea. Yes, show-don't-tell would have been nice, but considering how slow the start of the game is known to be, doing something like starting the game at Bodhum, before the events of the opening, and dropping exposition bombshell after bombshell would have slowed it down even further.
Also, just like in many other entries to this franchise, there's a tendency of conflating "I don't like this character" with "this is a bad character" when it comes to the game's main cast. The writing for a lot of XIII leans on the main party members being in conflict with one another, as well as some of them going through some rough spots, such as the loss of someone close. Sometimes they act in a cocky, whiny, depressed, or irrational way, and that is normal -- it's reflective of a person in that situation. Here's a video essay that talks about this better than I could. Yes, I too derive extreme satisfaction from seeing Snow punched across the face, but that does not make him poorly written. In fact, the character writing in this game is some of the best in the series.
That said, those two criticisms out of the way, there are a lot of very valid complaints that can be leveled at the game's main plot. For instance, a certain recurring antagonist feels unthreatening after repeat fights. In addition, some plot threads could have timed their reveals better (e.g. Hope's mom's final words) to be more effective, and less scenes could feature the words "Pulse l'Cie, enemies of Cocoon". Incidentally, despite all that talk about its enemies, you never grow attached to any particular place in Cocoon because, as pretty as the sights are, you're never given time to get to know those locations. Cocoon ends up feeling less of a living world than Gran Pulse, which is saying a lot when you consider the history behind those two locations.
Which leads us to the elephant in the room, which is the linearity. To play devil's advocate for a bit, it too serves a purpose in the game: it creates a sense of urgency that reflects, one, the characters being fugitives hunted by the military; two, the six of them having a ticking time bomb attached to them in the form of the Focus. There's a desire from the game's direction to keep the momentum of the plot going, and in this, the game is successful: you're constantly switching teams and areas, as characters get split up and meet again in a sequence of twists and turns.
But then again, urgency, being hunted down and the like have never stopped any game in the series (except FFX) from offering at least some degree of side stories and activities, and it's also not possible to do without severely handicapping the gameplay. Sidequests and the like are where the player is allowed to branch out, experiment with the gameplay systems, try out different equipment and fight some tougher mobs. When you take all that away, even if only until a certain point in the game... many say this game takes twenty hours to get good, and it's a fair assessment. The game holds its cards too close to its chest for most of the game, restricting the kits of party members and preventing players from experiencing what it has to offer.
It's a shame, because the game's battle system is actually pretty solid. Like FFXII, FFXIII gets called out a lot for mostly playing itself, this time due to the Paradigm system and the Libra spell dictating your party members' behavior, however, also like FFXII, there's a surprising amount of depth in that automation and in the player input given during battles. It's also really fast-paced and relentless: the game allows you to retry any battle instantly, and that feature is there because it will murder you without mercy, forcing you to learn many of its battles and adjust your paradigms to proceed.
In that, I found a lot of joy in FFXIII. Together with its intricate world and characters, beautiful visuals and amazing soundtrack, the game left me wanting more. Which, eventually, Square delivered on: FFXIII-2 is a thing, and it tackles a lot of the issues in XIII, such as the linearity, not being able to switch party leaders, and so on, and I like that game even more. I'll get to it eventually.
For now, though: Final Fantasy XIII is a fun entry to the series. It's definitely not my favorite, and it has profound issues: if you couldn't put up with its long introductory session, couldn't wait for hours until the game got good, that's valid, and I respect that. But those who stay for the journey will find a better game than what its reputation makes it sound like.