how ironic is it that a game about challenging an unjust fate is also one of the most unfairly maligned games i've ever played? final fantasy xiii is not a perfect game, as i'll get into later, but playing it with an open mind and divorced from the zeitgeist of it's release makes it very clear just how hard this game got screwed by circumstances surrounding it. FF13 isn't exactly a bold step away from franchise tradition; playing it you can see echoes of game design lessons from FF10, or story decisions from FF8. what is new here, though, is the game's willingness to allow it's narrative to take control of all aspects of the experience. to me, JRPGs often feel like a genre dependent on abstraction, games that need you to recognize their gaminess and accept that the "game part" isn't supposed to do the same things as the "story part". i don't think this is a bad thing, my favorite franchise of all time is dragon quest, which lives and breathes abstraction, but when playing FF13 i really respected how much they try to avoid this feeling. entering combat is near-immediate and despite the combat being turn-based, it feels incredibly fluid and not contrived at all. exploration is even better at weaving in story. frequently FF13 communicates things going on around the player, rather than simply because of them, which makes the journey you're on feel far more real. characters chatter about, story events go off in the background, monsters fight each other. in interviews, the development team for 13 stated that this was influenced by western shooter games, such as call of duty and halo, which actually really does show. this type of storytelling does call for a more controlled environment for the player to progress through, but 13 doesn't really struggle with this either. criticism of this game often revolves around complaints about it being a "hallway simulator" or "taking 30 hours to get good", but i feel it's important to recognize why these decisions were made. it's not that the team thought players were too stupid to explore, or didn't have time to make bigger environments, it's to further the sense of connection with the story. in FF13, for almost the entire game, you're on the run. cocoon is a world that is actively hostile to your existence, which is unfortunate, because it's also the world you have to save. characters exposit about how open genocide of potentially tainted people has a 90% approval rating among the populace. logically there is absolutely nowhere for you to go but forward; towns would be more dangerous than the wilderness in cocoon. it's no wonder that you're "running down hallways", because a major point the game is trying to make in regards to cocoon is that it's sealed off, shut in, overpopulated, and sheltered from reality. the party is not in this journey by choice, but because their choice has been robbed from them at this point in the game. then there's gran pulse, which is sprawling, empty, and retaken by the wilderness. i think it's no coincidence that not only does the game open up at this point, but the story starts emphasizing the cast's ability to choose a better fate and find hope in themselves. yes, there's no npcs, but the ci'eth stones paint a solid picture of how desolate and barren this world has become. oerba does the same, showing signs of where life once was but isn't anymore. FF13 wants the player to understand the contrast between these two worlds, it wants the player to realize that they solve each other's issues. what better way to communicate these things than through experience? it sounds silly, but i teared up a bit reading all of the flavor text in oerba, and i just don't think those feelings would have been as real if FF13 took a more traditional approach to how it handles it's gameplay. it's not a model for jrpg exploration that i would want in every game, but it's well-justified here.
FF13 also really excels when it comes to combat. i mentioned earlier that combat is fast-paced, but honestly, that's underselling it. FF13 is really the first time ATB felt like it was truly designed around. everything here is dependent on time, to the point that this game has legitimate animation cancels and ATB bar refunds if you get your timing right. it's super fun, especially since you get graded on how quickly you finish combat ala panzer dragoon saga. the larger emphasis on timing and playing fast means that a lot of the attrition-based design elements typical of JRPGs have been done away with. you get healed after every encounter and mana doesn't exist. you might think this makes FF13 an easy game, but you'd be very wrong. instead, this choice invited the development staff to go quite a great deal heavier on the balance compared to previous games, with a much wider variety of valid tactics depending on the enemy. in this game, i feel like i have to really figure out each and every enemy formation, going all-out in every battle. boss fights are noticeably more difficult, of course, but even most bosses are susceptible to status effects and oddball strategies, which is very unusual for final fantasy. it's really impressive to me how much they want you to figure out these little puzzle encounters, and the more controlled progression compliments this aspect of the combat well. paradigms are a pretty cool concept, basically being switchable flexible job classes, but they're nothing too new for the franchise, so i won't get too deep into them. i appreciated the way they're handled in the crystarium, where even once your progression opens up and anyone can do anything, the differences in each character's trees gave reason to focus on one character for a specific role over another. the crystarium also being added to in spurts throughout the game helps the puzzle encounters as well, as the player can't overlevel to get past obstacles, they have to actually learn what they're doing. overall, 13 has my favorite combat in the entire series. it's really excellently designed, and makes me excited to see how it could get iterated upon in the other games.
13 isn't without it's pitfalls, though, as i alluded to at the beginning of the review. pacing is not this game's strong suit, with many plotpoints after chapter 9 (around the halfway point) feeling rushed and a bit haphazardly implemented. barthandelus in particular feels somewhat like a rough draft for a villain, with much of his dialogue and moment-to-moment decisionmaking feeling indecipherable at times. fal'cie are intended to be above human comprehension and extremely manipulative, but it feels as though the game wants to write excuses to make everything he does planned, rather than setting those plans up properly. occasionally it feels as though events are skipped or characters aren't properly explained, as well; many of the secondary characters are lacking in screentime and could have used better introduction to the plot. 13 does a great job of slowburning it's character moments throughout the first half, but with the greater emphasis on player freedom comes a lot of missable cutscenes on pulse, which made me miss the cast. i felt the found family storyline here with the party was very engaging and sweet, but i do understand why many people would be put off by how divided the party is for much of the game. the payoff is very good, and i cared a lot for all of these guys by the end, but i get why the cast is so often a point of criticism.
overall, i think FF13 is really one of the better installments in the franchise. i don't feel that the narrative quite reaches the highs of 8 or 6, and this game certainly will never appeal to everyone, but i found it really engaging all throughout. it's such a beautifully realized and original game, in a way that only final fantasy can really do. hopefully the sequels keep it up!