Hey there, thanks for joining me bang in the middle of My Top 50 Final Fantasy Locations list. Today I count from #30 to #21 in my list, yesterday I did #40 to #31 and the day before I did #50 to #41 if you missed them. No more talk let's continue!
Please note: This list will talk about
spoilers. If you have not played the game that each location represents
I'd avoid that entry.
#30: Nautilus Game? Final Fantasy XIII When do you go? Towards the middle of the game Revisitable? No Description: Also called "The City of Dreams", Nautilus is the best place on the world of Cocoon for entertainment; it has an amusement park, nice green walks and most impressively, the Pompa Sancta parade which is a true dramatic 3D battle sequence of the War of Transgression.
So much happens at Nautilus. Two of my favourite FF13 characters, Sazh and Vanille, come here to try and hide from all the chaos surrounding them being branded l'Cie yet some of the most climatic and tense scenes in the entire game happen here. Before all of that, the beautiful Pompa Sancta parade occurs and it's mind blowing how gorgeous it looks, kudos to Square Enix for that. Then, Vanille comes clean about being responsible for Dajh, Sazh's son, being branded l'Cie, just after Dajh turns into crystal right in front of his fathers eyes. It's truly a sad scene, really sad, and the idea that Sazh was going to commit suicide there and then is horrifying as well. All of this, in The City of Dreams. It's an amazing place with a fantastic shift in the story.
#29: Besaid Game? Final Fantasy X When do you go? Very early on Revisitable? Yes Description: An island, the official starting point of the pilgrimage; to bring Yuna to Zanarkand to defeat Sin. Yuna, Kimahri, Wakka and Lulu live on the island, which has a gorgeous beach, a river and a village with a temple.
Ah, Besaid. It's such a beautiful place, so calm, so tranquil. It's probably in my Top 5 places I'd love to live if I lived in a Final Fantasy world. Your true journey starts here, after the Dream Zanarkand sequence, the dangers at Baaj Temple and running into the Al Bhed crew. The pilgrimage starts here, as does meeting most of the characters of the game. It's just such a nice place, and it all really starts here.
#28: Daguerreo Game? Final Fantasy IX When do you go? Completely optional, from half way through the game onwards Revisitable? Yes Description: A very large library of sorts, flooded by the natural location of the waterfalls above it.
Daguerrero, like Shumi Village in FF8 before it, is completely optional but that's not to say no care or thoughts have been put into its location, Daguerrero is just such a cute little place you can't easily dislike it. It's a bizarre concept; a gigantic indoor library... flooded by waterfalls being directly above it. It doesn't make sense? Yet Squresoft make it work so well. You can get some really strong equipment for your characters here, and this is the last time you see Gilgamesh, although you have to work really hard throughout the game for him to reveal his true identity. It's just a lovely little place with nice, comforting music to boot.
#27: Shinra Headquarters Game? Final Fantasy VII When do you go? Quite early on Revisitable? Yes, but only once and it's optional Description: The headquarters of the Shinra company, the tallest location in all of Midgar, high above the plate that separates Midgar into eight sectors. Seventy floors tall, President Shinra's personal office is at the top.
I was debating whether or not to make Midgar one entire entry in this list or separate parts of it and put those parts in my list. I went with the latter. That being said there's only two parts of Midgar that make the list, this one and... you'll find out won't you? Anyway, the attack on Shina Headquarters is still pretty epic, and the layout of the building is pretty cool. I love the dialogue between Cloud, Tifa and Barret if you decide to take the side entrance, it had me in stitches the first time I saw the scene. And of course, Jenova's journey to Northern Crater to reunite with Sephiroth starts here too. When you play this game for the first time, as a very young kid, I remember thinking that this was close to the end of the game, that we were going to destroy Shinra and the credits would roll. In reality of course, this is just the beginning, and the real story truly unfolds here.
#26: Ship Graveyard Game? Final Fantasy V When do you go? Quite early in the game Revisitable? No Description:
A load of ships completely destroyed by large sea attacks, that is full of ghosts and other beasties, hoping to take your party down with them.
If you've been paying attention you may have noticed that there was no entry so far in the list from Final Fantasy V, a game in the series that while isn't bad by any stretch, isn't really that impressive either. But I absolutely love the Ship Graveyard, and that's why it's so high in my list. I just think that part of the story when Syldra gets sucked into a maelstrom and you barely survive the journey, only to find yourself on a haunted ship full of ghosts and other deadly beings pretty cool. I like the map of the place where you go through the ships full of water, having to hop on nearby stones to get from one ship to another in some parts is great. And of course, at the end, when you finally find land, to have to take on the deadly Siren, who was possessing all the undead all along, was is a good payoff.
Ship Graveyard is the first and only entry from Final Fantasy V in this list.
#25: Zanarkand Game? Final Fantasy X When do you go? Right at the beginning and very close to the end Revisitable? Yes Description: In actuality, there are two Zanarkands, one was a huge city with many buildings, a huge night scene and lots and lots of blitzball and other high technological activities. After being destroyed by Sin, Zanarkand is a huge shell of its former self, crumbling and decaying, and serves as the final point in Yuna's pilgramage. The other Zanarkand, is the huge city explained above, yet it's only a dream, and does not actually exist. Tidus is part of this dream location
While there are two Zanarkands in FF10, let's get something straight, Dream Zanarkand is an incarnation of the real Zanarkand that did exist a thousand years before the game's plot. So for me, I'm treating it as one location. The contrasts between Zanarkand one thousand years ago and the current Zanarkand is astronomical. Zanarkand of old looked like such an awesome place to live, all the glitz and glamour, all the blitzball you could ever want yet the current Zanarkand is just one of the most depressing places in Final Fantasy history. So much death, so much decay, so much rubble it can make you feel really sad going to the current state of Zanarkand. And for people like me, I was always intrigued to know what Zanarkand you would see at the end of the pilgrimage. Of course, it was never in doubt what you would see at the end of the journey, but you did hope of course, that it wouldn't be the case. Zanarkand is one of Final Fantasy's most amazing locations, there's no doubt about that.
#24: Sulyya Springs Game? Final Fantasy XIII When do you go? Quite late in the game Revisitable? Yes Description: A large natural spring that is protected by the fal'Cie Bismarck and is a natural habitat for lots of overgrown frogs. The location is a short bridge between Mah'habara Subterra and Taejin's Tower.
This is one of the areas in the series that's in this list because of its location rather than any plot or story that occurs here. I absolutely love the design of the Sulyya Springs. It's such a gorgeous place and that music is just so beautiful and suits the mood perfectly. It looks so good that you can almost feel the warmth of the water and climate on your face when playing it. Okay maybe not but you get the idea.
#23: Bhujerba Game? Final Fantasy XII When do you go? Quite early on in the game Revisitable? Yes Description: A gorgeous floating city in the sky, the Marquis resides here and tries his best to maintain neutrality in the game's two main nations. It contains its own mine and has a lot of natural greenery, as well as a decent sized city centre.
In terms of the cities of Final Fantasy XII, this is by far the best looking one. Bhujerba is just stunning. The idea of a floating continent, or city, is not a new thing, they've tried a few times to make a floating 'something' in the series. But they really pulled off all the stops with Bhujerba, it's just magnificent to look at. The Lhusu Mines are pretty cool too, but it's just the look of the city, the clouds surrounding the city, the scenery, everything about it, is just mindblowingly cool.
#22: Bran Bal Game? Final Fantasy IX When do you go? Quite late in the game Revisitable? No Description: The only village on the planet of Terra, the planet trying to take over Gaia in FF9. It's Zidane's true origin of birth, as well as Kuja's, and all of the Genomes race.
Bran Bal, or Terra in general (Bran Bal is about 90% of what's left of Terra) is one of the view places that truly gives me goosebumps when I go there. It's a hard concept to do, making another planet other than your own. And while Terra isn't really much of a planet due to its dying state, you still get a good taste of what life was like through Bran Bal. Life was pretty damn crap don't get me wrong, but as a place it looks amazing. So much blue, so much foreign looking plants and odd shaped houses and vessels, it's a true place of beauty in the universe of Final Fantasy IX. I love it.
#21: Bodhum Game? Final Fantasy XIII When do you go? Only through flashbacks, not once do you go to Bodhum in the game Revisitable? No Description: The home of Lightning, Serah and Snow, Bodhum is a stunning seaside town that gives an incredible look of the sunset whilst holdig an annual fireworks display to the residents of Cocoon.
It might be considered odd not only to include Bodhum but to place it so high in my favourite places of Final Fantasy but I just think it looks so damn good. It's like an improved Besaid from Final Fantasy X, and seems like the perfect place to chill and hang out. You do get to control Snow here through a particular flashback and from that alone I love the look of this area. Square-Enix did a great job of making this place look as good as it does and it's a shame you don't get to explore it any more than you do.
Three parts down, two to go. What are my favourite 20 locations of the Final Fantasy series? Come back tomorrow when I reveal the first half of them. Take care and have a good one.
Click here for #20 to #11. Click here for #10 to #1.
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Welcome to Part 2 of 5 of My Top 50 Final Fantasy Locations list. Yesterday I gave you from #50 to #41 so today we'll naturally go from #40 to #31. Let's get straight to it!
Please note: This list will talk about
spoilers. If you have not played the game that each location represents
I'd avoid that entry.
#40: Northern Cave Game? Final Fantasy VII When do you go? Final dungeon Revisitable? No Description: A large cave. Simple. Well not really, there's a lot of history in this cave. Jenova landed here when she arrived on The Planet and for the entirety of Final Fantasy VII this is actually where Sephiroth is; it was Jenova using images of Sephiroth throughout the game. The cave itself isn't anything special until you get to The Planet's Core, where your final battles with Jenova and Sephiroth take place.
The fact that Northern Crater, the final chapter in the amazingness that is the story of Final Fantasy VII lacks so much in grandeur definitely knocks it down to 40th place in my list. Don't get me wrong, because I've played this game so many times I know every nook and cranny of this cave, but you can't help but feel a lack of inspiration for three quarters of the time you spend here. The payoff at the end is amazing of course The Planet's Core truly is a place of gruseome beauty, but Squaresoft didn't really pull all the stops to make you feel like you were going to enter anything other than a bog standard cave for the most part. Which is a shame.
#39: South Figaro Game? Final Fantasy VI When do you go? Very early on, towards the middle of the game and towards the end Revisitable? Yes Description: A regular Final Fantay VI town in some ways, but with lots of events happening here and with it being the first town you can properly visit, it's quite a memorable place.
You go here three times, firstly you go through it early on when you're on your way to the Returners Hideout, then you come here a bit later on and recruit Celes, and then lastly you go through here after Kefka destroys the world and are suspicious of a mane named Gerad, who is a badly disguised Edgar. I just love South Figaro, it's a pleasant FF6 town considering for the most part its under Empire law, and the fact that many cut scenes throughout the game happen here makes it an important place to go.
#38: Rabanastre Game? Final Fantasy XII When do you go? At the beginning, and many times throughout the game Revisitable? Yes Description: A very large city, probably to scale one of the biggest and most busy cities in the history of Final Fantasy.
You probably visit Rabanastre of Final Fantasy XII more than any place in the history of Final Fantasy, if we're not including airships and the like. You go here very often during the entire course of the game, it's arguably your 'home', if there was one. It's where Vaan and Penelo are from, two of the main characters of the game. It's just a very iconic city, everything about it, the size, the story line progression, the music, everything about it you'll not forget easily. Almost to the point where it's annoying actually, but I don't think it goes that far really, otherwise it wouldn't be in this list!
#37: Forgotten Capital Game? Final Fantasy VII When do you go? Nearly half way through the game, and towards the end Revisitable? Yes Description: A small mythical city completely in ruins, once belonging to the Ancients, houses still intact yet desolate.
It goes without saying that this place serves witness to one of the most iconic moments in video gaming, the death of Aerith. As a place it's not really that amazing in my eyes, as beautiful as it is, but the scene that will be mentioned over and over again as one of video games most horrific moments; when Sephiroth drives his long and slender sword through the back of Aerith, mercilessly, that happened here, it has to mentioned amongst my Top 50. It's a very short area yet some of the landmarks are just unforgettable, particularly the lake and of course, the Cetra castle and altar in which the above happens.
#36: Magitek Research Facility Game? Final Fantasy VI When do you go? Nearly half way through the game Revisitable? No Description:
A rusty, gritty, filthy research lab, where The Empire conduct life-threatening experiments on the Espers.
The Magitek Research Facility has one of the best in-game songs of Final Fantasy VI, and yes, that does form a big part of why I put it in this list. But it's also a big part of the first half of Final Fantasy VI, the infiltration of the research facility and going to Vector in general, marks the first time you're really taking it to The Empire. What you find happening here however was not what was bargained for; seeing six Espers being completely drained of life in test tubes is a pretty damn horrible scene, and not done justice in a Super Nintendo game (which makes me point to my article on Why I Want a Final Fantasy VI Remake). The Magitek Research Facility is definitely one of the more intriguing places in Final Fantasy VI.
#35: Moonflow Game? Final Fantasy X When do you go? Approaching half way through the game Revisitable? Yes Description:
A large river that separates Spira into two halves; you cross the river to get to the Northern parts of Spira. A huge surge of pyreflies make the river glow at night, creating a beautiful scene that many of the people of Spira hold in high regard.
The Moonflow is another one of those places in Final Fantasy that are just so damn beautiful. Squaresoft/Square Enix truly know how to pull of imaginary places and make you wish so bad that they were real. You don't spend that long here in Final Fantasy X, but a few things happen, you recruit Rikku permanently (one of my favourite female characters), you see Shoopufs and Hypellos for the first time, (and I loves the Hypello yesh yesh) and Auron tells you of an awesome story about when Jecht came here for the first time. It's just a good little place storyline wise, and scenery wise, it's damn gorgeous.
#34: Lake Bresha Game? Final Fantasy XIII When do you go? Very early in the game Revisitable? No Description: Once a lake, when the party land on Lake Bresha it is completely crystallised due to the fal'Cie Anima, landing here, defeated by you previously.
You have to walk on this crystallised lake to reach the Vile Peaks, but more importantly than that is the storyline that occurs here. It's here that your party realises they're branded l'Cie and will turn into monsters or crystal. They all bicker and fight, taking out their frustrations on each other before taking it out on the PSICOM soliders who are trying to capture them. Snow stays put, having found his girlfriend, Serah, turned to crystal. All of this happens on Lake Bresha, which in its crystallised state, is a damn beautiful sight.
#33: Iifa Tree Game? Final Fantasy IX When do you go? Towards the middle of the game, and after the final battle Revisitable? Yes Description: On appearance it's a large tree but in actuality it's the source of all the Mist in Final Fantasy IX, and is the filter of the souls of Gaia.
The Iifa Tree is such an important part of Final Fantasy IX. So many things happen on the Iifa Tree, in the Iifa Tree or because of the Iifa Tree. It's an ugly thing yet there's that certain weird beauty about it, it's fundamental in FF9. So important in fact that you find yourself back here when you deal with the final bad guys. It's just one of the true landmarks of FF9 and its look stands out so much.
#42: Shumi Village Game? Final Fantasy VIII When do you go? Completely optional, from half way through the game onwards Revisitable? Yes Description:
A village built 323 meters underground that is host to the species of Shumi and Moombas.
I love the Shumi Village. It's so quirky and random that you can't help but like it. Most of the stuff that happens here is pointless, bar some small hints that Laguna once visited here, but the Shumi Tribe are lovely people and of course, Moombas are the cutest Final Fantasy creature never to appear in a second major FF title (bar its cameo as one of Lulu's dolls in FF10). You just can't help yourself, admit it, the Shumi Village kicks ass.
#31: Gold Saucer Game? Final Fantasy VII When do you go? Twice, towards the middle of the game Revisitable? Yes Description: An enormous amusement park and a huge tourist attraction, it's built directly over Old Corel, where Barret and a few other characters where born.
Ah, the Gold Saucer. So much happens here and it's so flashy and awesome that you just can't ignore it. Some people love it some people hate it. I lean more towards the former, I love playing a lot of the mini games here and the storyline progression here is pretty good, not to mention the awesome combination of dates possible with Cloud on the Gondola! It's just a great part of the game, the two times you come here, at least I think so.
And... that's enough for today. Part 3 of
my Top 50 Final Fantasy Locations listing will be posted tomorrow. Until then have a good night.
Click here for #30 to #21. Click here for #20 to #11. Click here for #10 to #1.
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Overall,
Final Fantasy 13 is a great game with a complex yet rewarding storyline and an awesome battle system.
Final Fantasy XIII was released nearly two years ago here in
the UK, in March 2010, and was released on both the Xbox 360 and the
Playstation 3. It is naturally, the thirteenth major chapter in the critically
and commercially successful Final Fantasy series. The game’s official sequel,
Final Fantasy XIII-2, is to be released next month.
Just in case you’re not too familiar with the series, Final
Fantasy games have been released since 1987, twenty five years ago, and are a
set of RPG games that have for long periods of time become the most influential
and widely celebrated role playing games of all time. Many recurring themes in
the series are the using of magic and summoning monsters, the use of airships,
travelling across a world, characters dealing with love or loss, characters
defying the powers of fate, religion or apocalyptic circumstances and the
inclusion of chocobos and moogles, two creatures the game series has made
popular. The highest point in the series was arguably the release of Final
Fantasy VII in 1997, which was released on the Playstation, which was met to
universal acclaim and has sold more than any other game in the series, at over 10
million copies and is only second to Gran Turismo on the console. Since then
the sales and reception of the Final Fantasy series has changed; some games
sold more than others and some games were better received. Final Fantasy XI
marks the first online RPG in the series, and was followed up by last year’s
release of Final Fantasy XIV.
Final Fantasy XIII follows Final Fantasy XII (that being
said, none of the major games are connected officially and are set in their own
styles and game universes), which was met with a decent response, with the main
criticism coming from the fact that the world was expanded across an immense
terrain with in some cases very little linear direction and large amounts of
battles followed by short spurts of storyline progression. What did Square-Enix
do with Final Fantasy XIII in response to these criticisms?
"He's behind you!" Ah... I love pantomimes.
FF13 (I’ll now abbreviate to numerals) in comparison to FF12
does exactly the opposite in terms of the world terrain and linearity. The game
is linear, to the point that you cannot travel back to previous areas at all,
nor is there varied places to explore in each area. The game, it feels, almost
holds your hand throughout your journey, which is completely different to FF12,
a world where you can go to so many areas so early in the game, even if the
storylines don’t require you to go there. FF12 and FF13 are complete opposites
in terms of how the rails of the story go; FF13 glues your hands to the rail
where as FF12 shatters the rail completely.
Moving onto the story, before I explain what the plot is,
I’d like to just say that the storyline is very confusing and hard to follow
first time round. It doesn’t help when you’ve entered a game in a fantasy world
that uses three different terms in fal’Cie, l’Cie and Cie’th all the time and
you barely have time to digest the terms and learn their meanings. It confuses
the plot from the off and it makes the story hard to follow at times, unless
you click straight away, something I personally didn’t do on my first run. The
second run through the game was a lot easier mind, and the story on this run
was much better to follow.
The story follows the theme of fate, and how these six
playable characters are chosen as servants of the fal’Cie, the game’s
equivalent of gods, to complete a task (called a ‘focus’) to destroy the world,
and how if they fail in their task, they’ll turn into grotesque monsters
(‘called Cie’th’). If they succeed and complete their ‘focus’ their fate is
potentially just as bad, as they will be granted crystal stasis, for as long as
eternity. The name given to these servants is the ‘l’Cie’, and they are capable
of using magic, and therefore the general citizens of the land of Cocoon are
afraid of them. It’s a harsh fate that is given to these six individuals, and
it takes them all on an emotional journey of deciding to give up on their task,
to embrace their task, to run away from it and try to shake it off, or try
even, defying it. It’s a great storyline once you understand it, one of the
best storylines in recent Final Fantasy titles in my opinion, and one I’ve
enjoyed more than any storyline since FF9.
These six characters naturally all have different
personalities and views on their situation. The main protagonist is Lightning,
who’s sister Serah became a ‘l’Cie’ before the game begins, and at the start of
the game turns into crystal stasis, having completing a focus that is unknown
in task. Lightning, an ex-soldier, is seen as a very harsh character whose upbringing makes her take a bold and frank approach to these dire circumstances and often has
the party she accompanies upset. Serah’s boyfriend, Snow, also is a main
character, and only met Lightning days before the game starts and had a frosty
reception from the ex-soldier, which leads to Snow often, get the brunt of Lightning’s
frustrations. Snow himself, sees himself as a hero of Cocoon and uses his large
stature and loud voice to carry him through his troubles of losing his
girlfriend to crystal stasis and his refusal to accept his focus of destroying his home land. In an attack at the beginning of the game, Snow attempts to save a load
of prisoned victims and the death of one particular person
has significance to the plot. That is because it’s the mother of Hope that
dies, who’s another main character. Hope has had a normal life on Cocoon and
lives a life where Cocoon’s political pressures brainwash most of the citizens,
especially when it comes to ‘l’Cie’ being hostile and basically, evil, so the
despair that Hope goes through not only to accidentally become what he was
thought to as evil, but to have to live with knowing who was arguably
responsible for his mother’s death in Snow, leads to an interesting extension
of the story.
The other three characters also have great story arcs; Sazh
is a father whose son had also become a ‘l’Cie’ prior to the game’s beginning
and has other issues too, but deals with them with a heavy heart but a happy
smile. Sazh is an excellent character, definitely my favourite, and is probably
the funniest character in the game. Fang is as forceful as Lightning is, yet
shows a softer side to her much more often than the main protagonist does. She
will do anything and everything she can to protect Vanille, who come from the
same location in game and have a history together. Vanille is the hit-or-miss character of
the game; she’s cute and bubbly and has all the traits of similar characters in
Rikku of FF10 and Selphie of FF8, so you’ll probably either love her or she’ll
probably either annoy you immensely. Vanille also operates as narrator of the
game, and her significance to the plot is discrete but ultimately vital when
the puzzle pieces all align. Without mentioning the main villain by name, the
main antagonist in FF13 is absolutely fantastic, a much better villain than
Vayne from FF12, and my favourite Final Fantasy villain since Kuja from FF9.
"RUN VANILLE! They're going to asplode!"
The game play has also dramatically changed this time round
in comparison to FF12. We once again return to the ATB (Active Time battle)
system used in most of the FF titles to date, but it’s a much-changed variation
of it. The best way to describe this system is that it’s like the one used in
FF10-2 but with much more action involved. So much action in fact, that you
only control what is called a ‘party leader’, meaning this is the first Final
Fantasy title where you can only control one character in battle, rather than
the entire party. A usually very competent AI controls the party in support.
Basically you can either use the battle system manually, where you can choose
your actions, or you can use the very useful “Autobattle” command, which
selects an option to you based on your enemy and any potential weaknesses, or
in turn, any healing you may require if you are of the party support systems.
But unlike a lot of the old traditional Final Fantasy titles, you have combos.
You choose your commands either manually or automatically, and you can build
your combo up to do multiple attacks in one go, in turn leading to a more
smooth and sophisticated system which also looks good to watch and play. Your
combos increase as the game goes on from two to six.
There’s more to add to this battle system. There’s something
called a “Paradigm” system, where you can chop and change battle formations
with different job titles. There are six different job titles, Commando, which
uses mainly physical attacks; Ravager, which uses damage dealing magic, a
Medic, which primarily uses healing magic, a Saboteur which weakens and debuffs
enemies, a Synergist that buffs allies and the Sentinel who absorbs damage and
protects allies. Towards the beginning of the game the characters start to
acquire access from one to three of these titles and towards the end the
characters can gain access to all six, although the three titles they acquire
later can only be strengthened minimally. When the game is complete, you have
full access to all six titles and can be strengthened fully. So the “Paradigm”
system means you can mix these job titles to work in your favour, for instance
if you have three characters you can have a Commando, a Medic and a Synergist;
one character physically attacking, one character healing and one character
strengthening the party. You can then change to a completely different system
with the “Paradigm” system, to a defensive one, for instance having two Medics
and a Sentinel gives you a lot of healing power and some defensive cover too.
The “Paradigm” system really does battle tactics in a Final Fantasy game in a
way that’s never been done before and I think it’s fantastic.
While you have these six job titles, naturally you have to
strengthen them and strengthen your characters. This game doesn’t use the
traditional levelling up system like most Final Fantasy games do, and instead
lets you increase your character’s stats on something called the “Crystarium”.
After battles characters earn Crystarium Points, or CP, and you use CP in the
Crystarium to activate nodes that give you character abilities or stat
enhancements, not too dissimilar to FF10. After certain segments throughout the
game, you gain access to another level of the Crystarium, further advancing
your characters abilities and stats. So you have the six job titles, if they’re
unlocked at that point in the game, that you can increase your characters stats
and abilities through, and in turn they make your characters stronger.
Final Fantasy XIII’s graphics are absolutely gorgeous. The
motion videos are as great looking as any game on the new generation consoles
and the landscapes of Gran Pulse, the other location other than Cocoon, in
FF13, are utterly stunning. The characters look good, the enemies look even
better and some of the bosses in this game, particularly the ones very
significant to the plot later on, look tremendous, particularly the designs
main antagonist. The sound in FF13 is as good as the series has always been and
while the quality of the soundtracks of recent Final Fantasy games don’t match
the amazing tracks of FF7 and FF9 in particular, FF13 does a decent job of
getting the mood set for each location and event that occurs. I once again,
prefer the soundtrack of FF13 than that of FF12, to compare.
FF13 on the whole is absolutely stunning, particularly Gran Pulse later on.
Now I’m sure you’ve noticed but I’ve compared FF12 and FF13
a lot in this review. There’s a simple reason why – they’re polar opposites of
each other. Final Fantasy 12 concentrates a lot on the exploration of the world
map, and lots and lots of battles. The story lacks in FF12 and its basic
premises is stretched across the incredibly large open maps and battles. FF13
does the opposite. The game is so linear, and the cut scenes and story is to
the brim in terms of depth and development. Once you get over the confusion of
the storyline you’ll find a great tale to be told here, and while the ending is
not as good as other titles in the series, you still get the satisfaction
expected from completing a Final Fantasy game. But the linearity of FF13 is a
problem. There are a lot of places in FF13 that you go to only once, and never
to return. In fact, the game is split into thirteen chapters and you can only
revisit the places in chapters 11 to 13. 3 out of 13 chapters are capable of
revisiting. That’s pretty poor. And like FF12, there’s very few mini games, if
any, in FF13 although there are one or two decent side quests. The game does
open up replayability by giving you full access to each character’s Crystarium at
the end of the game, for you to continue to develop your characters and take on
the biggest and baddest battles in these side quests. And I said, you’ll
probably enjoy playing this game a second or third time just because the
chances are you’ll appreciate the great story more.
It is for these reasons why overall, FF13 for me is a great
improvement on FF12, and my enjoyment of it is probably on par with FF10,
although for different reasons. What keeps FF13 together is it’s great
storyline and decent set of characters, combined with an ultimately unique
battle system. Sure the game is really linear but in the end, you can get over
that, especially as the areas that are revisitable are probably the most
strikingly good-looking places in the game. Another flaw would be that I don’t
like the fact that you only control one character in battle, I like taking a
party of characters into a battle and using all of them to beat my enemies. But
overall Final Fantasy 13 is a great game, with a complex yet rewarding storyline
and a great battle system. If you want my recommendation whether or not to buy
or rent it, well, look at the general consensus of what I and most other people
have said, and make your decision from there. If you can get over the game’s
flaws, you’ll find a brilliant game in FF13, its’ one of the best RPGs in
recent years.
Rating: ****1/2 stars
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