History VideoGame / FinalFantasyXIII

* AnachronicOrder[=/=]InMediasRes: The first half of the game (up to Palumpolum, at least) flows this way. Flashbacks to the [[ArcNumber thirteen]] days prior to the Purge help to develop the characters and the plot. The flashbacks themselves are done in AnachronicOrder, and often plot elements set up in one flashback will be paid off in another (like the real story behind Lightning's hunting knife [[InterfaceSpoiler that's in the inventory]]).

* DemotedToExtra / TrailersAlwaysLie: [[spoiler:Jihl Nabaat]] was given a lot of focus in the trailers and amassed a following prior to the game's release. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, she is killed off rather unceremoniously by the BigBad about halfway through the game without making much of an impact.]]

* TheGodsMustBeLazy / HaveYouSeenMyGod: [[spoiler:The Maker leaving Pulse is the ultimate reason for everything that happens in the game.]]

* GratuitousLatin

* HollowWorld / FloatingContinent: Cocoon is this and (according to WordOfGod) is roughly the size of the United States. The fal'Cie Phoenix serves as its sun, and it is essentially floating in the upper Pulsian atmosphere. In addition, the floating city of Eden is located high up in Cocoon's sky, being a floating city in the center of a floating continent.

* PartyInMyPocket[=/=]AllInARow: Both are played with, the party members generally just do their own thing and act like [=NPCs=] while on the field. However, only the active party members are visible in the field, any not participating in battle play the pocket trope straight.

** Some of the names in the Spanish translation are slightly different, like Baldanders instead of Barthandelus (as referenced above), Paals instead of Pulse, and luCie instead of l'Cie. Whether they're truer or not to the original Japanese is arguable.

%%** Fang and Vanille join a long tradition of these.

* ThemeNaming / StellarName: Sazh's weapons are all named after individual stars or star systems, except for his last weapon, although it is named after a celestial event.

* TitleDrop / BilingualBonus: [[spoiler:Barthandelus]], in the pre-FinalBoss cutscene makes mention of a "new crystal legend."

** Hell, [[DifficultySpike just about everything on Pulse is when you first arrive.]]

* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: Several times, in fact.
** BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu: [[spoiler:This is ''exactly'' what Barthandelus and Orphan want to happen -- by killing Orphan, Cocoon will lose power and crash into Gran Pulse, and if the party doesn't want to kill him, they will find other methods and pawns to do the deed. Ultimately, this is precisely what happens in the ending, Orphan is killed and its death causes Cocoon to fall, though the party still saves the day]].

* LoreCodex: The Datalog features thirteen different categories of lore for the player to read, including history, people, and a bestiary.

** Late in the game, you'll come across a choice of two treasure spheres on Cocoon, where picking one will then immediately trigger a small cutscene where an Adamantoise falls through the glass floor both were on (rending the one you didn't pick inaccessible). However, if you managed to defeat the nearby Adamantoise on the map - either legitimately, or via use of Vanille's Death Full-ATB skill - this cutscene won't play and you can access both treasure spheres with no issue.

* LiteralGenie: [[spoiler:The party saves the world on a technicality: Anima, Barthandelus, and Orphan simply tell the l'Cie to "destroy Cocoon." They never made mention of what they should do ''after'' they accomplish this...]]
** DidntThinkThisThrough: [[spoiler:Anima's plot may still be partly uncertain, but Barthandelus and Orphan planned on summoning the Maker with the apocalyptic fall of Cocoon. Ragnarok's suspending Cocoon via a massive crystal pillar could be seen as a hundred middle fingers aimed at the two of them, courtesy of Vanille and Fang.]]

* LoopholeAbuse: During some longer attack animations, especially Full ATB Skills, you can still change Paradigms and thus your party's passive skill adjustments. Doing this allows ATB Skills used in the Ravager role to benefit from the Commando's damage buff bonus by switching once they begin the attack.
** In-universe, it's how [[spoiler:the fal'Cie mass-produce Cie'th. l'Cie turn into Cie'th if they fail to complete their Focus, so guess what happens when you create a l'Cie without a Focus to complete?]].

** Once you know the Death trick, Mission 63 becomes one for both CP ''and'' gil. (Adamantoises give 40000 CP and have a 25% chance of dropping VendorTrash that sells for 150000 gil, and you get a guaranteed Gold Nugget (60000 gil) every time you complete the mission)

* LighterAndSofter: Well, compared to ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2'', ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'', and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyType0''.

** Between the two final bosses, there's a section of CutScene where the they combine together ([[spoiler: Orphan and Barthandelus... Orphandelus?]]). Supplementary materials explain the latter becomes a "shell" for the former.

* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: At first, the boss of Chapter 5 - the Aster Protoflorian (a giant bug thing) - looks to be completely out-of-place with the site's local fauna, and comes almost literally out-of-nowhere. The site in question was developing biological weapons, but this thing looks mechanical... [[SubvertedTrope however]], looks at the datalog reveal that thing ''is'' a bioweapon, ie a living creature gone through a whole host of enhancements. Apparently looks can be deceiving, though it's entrance is still quite sudden and somewhat out-of-place.

* ImmuneToFate: [[spoiler:White l'Cie brands manifest from extreme displays of free will, and with them, they can take as long as they want to complete their Focus. Fang has hers because she held back from vaporising Cocoon like the Pulse fal'Cie wanted (although wiping a third of the planet off the map satisfied her fulfillment for "destroying" Cocoon). The rest of the party gets theirs from breaking [[spoiler:Orphan's]] illusion and their belief in wanting to save the planet in the face of all else that was occurring at the time.]]

** Did Sazh just [[spoiler:kill himself? Well, the game just told you he just gained his Eidolon summon and an ATB gauge. So, not likely.]]

* KickTheSonOfABitch: Barthandelus takes a long time to lose the goodwill he earns by killing [[spoiler:Jihl Nabaat.]]

* LastRequest: Nora Estheim asks Snow to "Get [[YouKnowtheOne him]] home... please..." She's talking about her son Hope, but Snow doesn't realise this until halfway through the game. When he does realize it, he does everything he can to fulfill her wish.

* AdultFear:
** We explore the emotions of a single father whose only son is taken away from him by TheGovernment, as well as those of a woman who loses her younger sister and of a man who loses his fiancée (same person) to a fate even worse.
** What about Hope's father? His wife and son go away together for a nice little holiday, then suddenly they've been boarded on a train to Pulse (hell on earth [[spoiler:or so the Fal'Cie would have you think]]); the train has crashed, and all escapees are being killed/rounded up for execution. Think about how he must have felt when he found all of this out. Oh - and when you do finally go see him, he has about two minutes to digest the fact that his wife's dead before [[spoiler:the army attacks and his son is forced to flee]].

* PantyShot: If Fang does a jump when the battle ends, if the camera focuses on her victory pose, you can catch a glimpse of her panties. They are black. Also, during the Highwind move, there's a fair chance of it.

** Related, but neither sexual in context, nor fun at all: Undesireable people getting herded at train stations, put on trains to an unspecified far away destination, and told they get their personal stuff back once they get there? Thankfully, Lightning and Snow got the hint.
* DownerBeginning: We begin with [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything a whole city's worth of 'undesireables' being put onto trains by the military and taken to an unspecified location on Pulse (read: Hell)]]. Our protagonist later outright states that it was a mass execution from conception. And it still manages to get much worse before it gets any better.

[[folder: Tropes D-F]]

[[folder: Tropes M-R]]

[[folder: Tropes S-Z]]

** Lightning's real name [[spoiler:being Eclair, which is French for 'lightning'.]] In the Englisg localisation it was changed to [[spoiler:Claire, which is French for 'light'.]] [[{{Woolseyism}} Despite this]], both are referenced very frequently in-game.

** The datalog, which is required reading if you want to have a full understanding of the backstory and terminology. The plot summary in said datalog fully explains the characters' motivations that might be implied or vague in game..

* AntiGrinding: The Crystarium levels are blocked off from you until you finish certain chapters (and beat the game). This was likely done to encourage players to beat bosses and {{King Mook}}s with their brains rather than minmaxing, but most people just end up spending hours spamming Death on Adamantoises to max out their CP totals anyway. It also doesn't stop people grinding anyway, and just saving up CP so that when the next tier unlocks they can make instant good progress with it.
** It also doesn't stop anyone from grinding weapon and equipment upgrades, which can in some cases be more important than a few more Crystarium levels.

* ArcNumber: 13. The story is punctuated by flashbacks of various events taking place over a span of thirteen days before the game begins. The game's plot is divided into thirteen chapters, and there are thirteen Analects found through side missions later on. L'Cie brands have thirteen stages.

* ArtificialStupidity: Your party ''will'' move closer to one another just as an enemy is about to unleash an area-of-effect attack. Your designated Ravager also tends to alternate between physical and magical attacks, which takes about twice as long to execute as as straight-up physical or magical assault, although alternating between them does charge up the chain gauge faster.

* ArtificialBrilliance: On the other hand, the AI will automatically adjust to the needs of the current battle: Synergists will buff you with the right elemental protection to suit an enemy's elemental attacks and also with elemental charges to your attacks to hit the enemy's weaknesses, and they don't waste time using such spells if they wouldn't help. Ravagers will never use something an enemy is strong against or absorbs, and will even follow your lead on whether to use single-target or area of effect attacks; if the enemy's strengths and weaknesses are unknown, they'll experiment with different attacks to formulate a strategy from there, because the game is liable to take note on its own the enemy's elemental properties. Medics will adjust healing based on how bad everyone's hurt/what statuses there are, etc., with first priority thankfully going to the [[WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou party leader]] unless someone else is about to die. The battle system gives you very little direct control, but the party's smart enough to do its part without you needing to micromanage it like in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII''.
** Oh, and Synergists always make casting Haste on everyone, starting with themselves and other Synergists, their first priority.
** This also applies to enemies, too. PSICOM may be a bunch of BadassNormal types with no real supernatural abilities, but they compensate with teamwork. They buff each other, remove ''your'' buffs, debuff ''you'', and focus fire. It's far more notable that they cooperate with each other moreso than other enemies.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Pretty much all of the Tier 3 weapons, due to requiring an extremely rare component that can only be bought for obscene amounts of Gil or won off the Adamantoise-type enemies. Since most Adamantoise varieties are stronger than the final boss, this means the Tier 3's are only really good for killing more turtles and wrapping up the last few marks. In fact, several players have posted videos on [=YouTube=] showing that a sufficiently leveled party with well-developed Tier 2 weapons can get a five-star rating on the final BonusBoss.

* BadassCrew: Obviously. But incredibly evident when the group [[spoiler:assaults Eden]] in Chapter 12.

* BaitAndSwitchBoss: At the end of Chapter 9, [[spoiler:Jihl Nabaat]] steps forward to face the party in battle... only to be unceremoniously [[DroppedABridgeOnHim killed off]] by BigBad [[spoiler:Galenth Dysley/Barthandelus]].

** The last enemy you face during Titan's trials is one of the Undying, which kills the behemoth Titan had intended for you to fight.

* BifurcatedWeapon: Sazh's guns, Fang's spear.

* BilingualBonus: Lightning's real name [[spoiler:being Eclair, which is French for 'lightning'.]] It was later changed to [[spoiler:Claire, which is French for 'light'.]] [[{{Woolseyism}} Despite this]], both are referenced very frequently in-game.

* BizarreAlienBiology: The fal'Cie are sapient crystals surrounded by biomechanical shells that serve as armor and project their appearance. Beyond that their physiology differs greatly; the Cocoon fal'Cie(like Eden and Carbuncle) are distinguished by their smooth, statuesque designs, and Gran Pulse fal'Cie (like Titan and Atmos) are distinguished by their rough mechanical and utilitarian designs.

* BreakMeter: Attacking enemies increases the Stagger gauge and damage multiplier. When it gets high enough, the enemy is Staggered, which makes the gauge rise faster, and allows enemies to be launched for massive damage.

* ButtMonkey: Both Sazh and Hope have shades of this.
* CallAHitPointASmeerp: ExperiencePoints are renamed "Crystal Points" (JP) or "Crystogen Points" (NA), but otherwise function identically to similar systems in ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'' and ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' -- specifically, you trade in EXP for direct rewards.

* ColonyDrop: [[spoiler:The fal'Cie's plan to destroy Cocoon is to have it fall and crash into Pulse. They believe that this mass killing will summon The Maker.]]
** [[spoiler:Ironically, this does happen, but the killing is on the fal'Cie side: the game ends with Cocoon perched atop a crystal structure, at the cost of Fang and Vanille becoming Ragnarok and then turning to crystal.]]

* CosmicPlaything: L'Cie are this to the fal'Cie.

** The first time you control Vanille, angling the camera just so will allow you to view [[spoiler:part of her brand on her thigh]], revealing that she's [[spoiler:already a L'cie before the battle with Anima]].

* DualWielding: Lightning does this during Odin's Gestalt mode. Sazh does this normally, and also hits twice for every attack he makes. Fang gets in on the action with the [[BifurcatedWeapon fifth attack]] in her attack combo.

* FireForgedFriends: At the start, half the playable cast is at each other's throats. Originally Hope [[spoiler:wants to kill Snow because Snow caused his mother's death]], Sazh [[spoiler:almost shoots Vanille (albeit at her request) because she was responsible for Dajh becoming a L'Cie]], and Lightning's antipathy for Snow is obvious from the beginning. By the end, however, all of these things are forgotten as the group unites.

* FreeRotatingCamera

** Between the two final bosses, there's a section of CutScene where the they combine together ([[spoiler: Orphan and Barthandelus... Orphandelus?]]).

* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: Doubles as {{Foreshadowing}} -- everyone begins with two [=ATB=] bars and gets their third when they receive their l'Cie brand. [[spoiler:Except Vanille already has her brand and thus she begins with her third bar already. Angling the camera right during the first time you use Vanille let's you see the corner of said brand on her thigh, long before you have any idea what it is]].

** After [[spoiler: Yaag Rosch's final command/request to the PSICOM/Guardian Corps units to focus on evacuation rather then fighting the l'Cie]], once you enter Orphan's Cradle you'll see some who [[spoiler: haven't been turned to Cieth]] and still want to fight you. Maybe they went mad from the revelation, seeing what happened to everyone else? Or maybe they just didn't receive the order, either because the location's shielded, or interference from the fal'Cie?

* IAmTheNoun: [[spoiler:Barthandelus, upon revealing himself to be the head fal'Cie. "L'Cie? You mean me? Oh child, perish the thought. I am more than that! '''I am fal'Cie!''' My name is Barthandelus! Voice of the Sanctum, and Lord-Sovereign of the Cocoon fal'Cie."]]

* ImmuneToFate: [[spoiler:White l'Cie brands manifest from extreme displays of free will, and with them, they can take as long as they want to complete their Focus. Fang has hers because she held back from vaporising Cocoon like the Pulse fal'Cie wanted (although wiping a third of the planet off the map satisfied her fulfillment for "destroying" Cocoon). The rest of the party gets theirs from breaking Bart's illusion and their belief in wanting to save the planet in the face of all else that was occurring at the time.]]

** A first time player might wonder why cute little Vanille has not just three ATB gauges rather than two, but nearly double the HP, Strength, and Magic stats (the last of which you can't even ''use'' yet) compared to the battle-hardened Lightning and Snow? [[spoiler:She's already a L'Cie; when the others are also branded as such, their stats increase to around the level of her own.]]

* InterplanetaryVoyage: The first time the plot has you doing this in a ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' title since ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'', and the first time you could travel between planets ''at will'' since ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV''.

* ItBeganWithATwistOfFate: Four out of six protagonists are forced on an adventure by pure chance of being in New Bodhum when the Pulse Fal'cie Anima awakened near the city. What followed was a chain reaction of events that either killed or [[BodyToJewel crystallized]] their loved ones, driving the four into an ill-fated attempt to rescue/avenge them.
* JackOfAllStats: Lightning. She is considered the best Ravager, arguably tied as the second best Commando, has access to the Medic role for most of the game, is an adept Synergist (she is only missing Veil, Bar-, and the two -Ra), and can fill the roles of a Sentinel and a Saboteur. She has both the second highest strength stat and second highest magic stat (which she is tied for with Vanille.

* LiteralGenie: [[spoiler:The party saves the world on a technicality: Anima, Bart, and Orphan simply tell the l'Cie to "destroy Cocoon." They never made mention of what they should do ''after'' they accomplish this...]]

** [[spoiler:Pretty much everything the party does for the whole game, up to and including killing the final boss, is exactly what the BigBad (said final boss) wants you to do. [[FromBadToWorse And worse still, the BigBad intentionally set it all up so that's]] ''all'' [[FromBadToWorse you can do - whether it's done by one group of L'Cie or another future group is irrelevant, even if they want it done sooner rather than later]].]]

* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Cie'th. They're zombies who grow crystals (and bigger) and eventually turn into statues, or fall apart.
** [[spoiler:Or live forever fueled by pure spite.]]

* ThePurge: After discovering a Fal'Cie from Pulse in some ruins, the Sanctum government decides to send everyone that was "near" that Fal'Cie to Pulse because of the irrational fear of everything coming from that planet. Several facilities were constructed for the purged population to live happily there, and a military division known as PSICOM took over and oversaw the removal of the population. However, it quickly becomes apparent that the Sanctum government neither expected nor intended for any of the Purged population to survive - when the population being shipped out began to violently resist, PSICOM used that as an excuse to simply massacre everyone. Lightning's remark implies that this was the plan all along.

* {{Railroading}}: A good majority of the game is spent on a single path, with only small detour paths that don't stray very far. [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration This is because the I'Cie are fugitives, fleeing/hiding from authorities + military in general, and must keep moving even before a direction is picked; they can't afford to stop or explore for too long.]] Whether this reason is good enough to warrant the trope is up to the player.

* TakenForGranite: L'Cie who fulfill their focus skip the zombie part and go straight to being a paperweight.

* TerminallyDependentSociety: Cocoon is dependent on the Fal'Cie for just about everything. [[spoiler: In fact, [[InvokedTrope this was part of the fal'Cie's centuries-long plan]], so later when [[ColonyDrop conflict]] arose, the resulting bloodshed/panic would be an even greater contrast. All to rouse the Maker.]]

* TokenNonhuman: Averted for the first time since ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII''. Or subverted if you look at it in another way: the game could be the first in the series to have no human playable characters, as everyone in the party becomes a [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman L'Cie]]. Which means in the first two chapters of the game [[spoiler:Vanille is the TokenNonHuman in the group]].

* TouchedByVorlons: L'Cie are created when humans come into contact with a fal'Cie. The l'Cie then gain abilities that transcend that of normal humans, such as the use of "natural" magic instead of "artificial" magic produced by a Manadrive and the ability to summon Eidolons. Basically, they become [[PlayerCharacter Player Characters]], or in the case of [[spoiler:Cid]], [[ThatOneBoss Bosses]].

* FingerlessGloves: Lightning and Sazh.

* ThePurge: After discovering a Fal'Cie from Pulse in some ruins, the Sanctum government decides to send everyone that was "near" that Fal'Cie to Pulse because of the irrational fear of everything coming from that planet. Several facilities were constructed for the purged population to live happily there, and a military division known as PSICOM took over and oversaw the removal of the population. However, it quickly becomes apparent that the Sanctum government neither expected nor intended for any of the Purged population to survive - when the population being shipped out began to violently resist, PSICOM used that as an excuse to simply massacre everyone. Lightning's remark imply that this was the plan all along.

* TokenYuriGirls: Fang and Vanille.

* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: Fang outright states numerous times that she'd [[RageAgainstTheHeavens tear down the sky]] if that's what it took to keep Vanille safe. Same for Snow, but in more of a self-sacrificial way; sis sole [[IncrediblyLamePun focus]] throughout the early game is getting Serah back and marrying her, even if it means abandoning the group, ''after he said they should stick together''. It doesn't go away, but he does get better about how he goes about it/other things.

* IdleAnimation: Lightning and Fang put their hands on their hips. Hope sways back and forth a little, and sometimes taps his fingers together nervously. Snow pounds one fist into his palm, Sazh scratches his head, and Vanille crouches down to rest.

''Final Fantasy XIII'' is the first part of the "ten-year project" known as ''Franchise/FabulaNovaCrystallisFinalFantasy'', which was envisioned as a series of ''Final Fantasy'' games all sharing a common mythology. Unfortunately, development was filled with problems, the two biggest being an excessive amount of time spent developing the game engine, and a general lack of a cohesive vision amongst the development team. As a result, feedback for the game has been more than a little bit mixed. While it received relatively warm initial reviews (currently holding 83 on Metacritic), [[BrokenBase fan reaction has been broken]], with some praising the [[CharacterDevelopment character Development]] and battle system with some others criticizing its linearity and convoluted storytelling.

* UselessItem: The debuff protection accessories the game throws at you are mostly useless; there are only a few fights where it's worth spending a valuable accessory slot to prevent a status ailment instead of simply curing it after it connects. [[spoiler: One of these fights happens to be the final boss, who is one of the few enemies in the game that can cast Death.]]