RPG Diary

Final Fantasy XIII

I distinctly remember not enjoying Final Fantasy XIII when it was released. Lately, I've seen more positive opinions about the game, and even comparisons to one of my favorite games, Final Fantasy X. Did I have different opinions replaying this game 10 years later?

Title	Final Fantasy XIII
Year	2009 (US 2010 )
System	PS3 360
Developer	Square Enix
Publisher	Square Enix

Final Fantasy XIII is an extremely plot-focused game. As a whole, the party is probably the most developed of the entire series — all of the characters feel relevant and fleshed out. It is well-known as the most "linear" game in the series as there is very little optional content to do outside of advancing the main story. Unfortunately, I thought the main story was not very interesting.

The game starts immediately without backstory or introduction, and the party is essentially on the run for the first half of the game. During this time, there are very few interesting events — there are no towns to explore and there are no NPCs to interact with. The game compensates for this with flashback scenes explaining what led up to the start of the game. However, this makes the gameplay parts feel disconnected from the story parts. This part of the game drags on far too long in my opinion and it really began to feel like filler. Did Sazh and Vanille even have a plan or were they just wandering?

Things don't get much better in the second half either. While there are finally clear goals for the party, there are still barely any NPCs. The boss battle with Cid Raines comes out of nowhere, but this "betrayal" had no impact on me because he was only just introduced in the previous chapter. I also didn't understand the ending. Didn't the party do exactly what the villains wanted by killing Orphan? And why/how did the party transform into Cie'th and back? I get the feeling the game has deep lore, but it did not explain things very well.

Battles are once again fairly different from previous games. I was a bit disappointed that a dedicated battle screen returned after enjoying the seamless battles directly on the map in Final Fantasy XII. I was even more disappointed that only the party leader is directly controllable in battle — the extra party members are controlled by AI. While you can influence the AI's actions by setting the current "paradigm", I was frequently frustrated by the AI preferring different actions than what I wanted to do. Worst of all, the party leader getting KO-ed causes a game over. Thankfully, game overs are almost meaningless (you just respawn before the failed battle).

10 years later, I still do not enjoy this game. The story and the pacing is a mess. The battle system has some action elements that may appeal to others, but I did not care for it. In the end, I had this weird feeling that I might have enjoyed the story more as a movie or show because I liked the characters but hated the actual gameplay.

After completing a game, I add it to my overall enjoyment ranking which orders the games I've completed from those I most enjoyed to those I least enjoyed. It's tough for me to choose between this and Final Fantasy VIII since I had issues with the plot and gameplay in both games. I'll pick XIII over VIII, but it's really a toss-up.