Final Fantasy XIII is a pretty divisive game in the series. While it's gathered a fanbase for its ambitious story, pretty graphics and stylish combat, it has been derided by others for areas that feel more like corridors than actual locations, an overly messy attempt to tell an epic story and a stiff combat system that defaults your cursor to an Auto-Battle option.
So, how did I feel about Final Fantasy XIII?
The graphics are incredible, even today. The game is very pretty. Everything is intially smooth and almost flawlessly detailed, but by the end of the game you end up seeing some jagged edges on character models and stuff. And even then, the graphics are damn fine.
Everyone's story arcs are pretty compelling, and eachcharacter brings something new to the table. The characters themselves are pretty good, even the controversial Lightning who's criticized for her violent and rash behavior early in the story. Spoiler: she gets over it.
The music, while a bit washed-out and mediocre in places, frames everything nicely. The area themes are appropriate and nice to listen to, and even My Hands by Leona Lewis does a good job of bringing the story to an end. The music was really good.
What didn't I like?
A majority of the game really is a bunch of straight paths with occasional hidden chests to find. It's forty hours into the game that you get to an open area, and that gets stale due to the samey "go here, kill this" sidequests.
The story, while pretty good character-wise, was a huge mess in regards to the plot. The villain was one-dimensional and consistently bland, the story itself is very weak - the basic summary is everyone banding together and saying "we will overcome destiny!" - and while most of the plot is told in cutscenes, you need to pick through the datalog to get the full picture. And there is a LOT of datalog info.
The battle system feels very bland and mechanical, and I didn't have fun with it. I personally didn't like the Paradigm system, it felt like they took a basic job system, whittled the options down to 6 and made you switch them around constantly because "strategy". It gets old.
The game itself took over 60 hours, at least 15 of which I honestly regret having wasted.
FFXIII isn't a bad game - a lot of effort went into making it, and it shows. But I wouldn't recommend buying it for anything over $10.
Likeable, but pretty tedious
Final Fantasy XIII is a pretty divisive game in the series. While it's gathered a fanbase for its ambitious story, pretty graphics and stylish combat, it has been derided by others for areas that feel more like corridors than actual locations, an overly messy attempt to tell an epic story and a stiff combat system that defaults your cursor to an Auto-Battle option.
So, how did I feel about Final Fantasy XIII?
What didn't I like?
FFXIII isn't a bad game - a lot of effort went into making it, and it shows. But I wouldn't recommend buying it for anything over $10.