There’s just something about this game that always enticed me about Final Fantasy XIII I could never place my finger on. Maybe it was the memories of my dad and I playing it on his PS3 and falling in love with the world, or maybe it was something about how the characters were portrayed. Either way, I know for sure this is what ignited my love for the Final Fantasy series and JRPGs in general.
The Crystarium and Character Progression
Right out of the gate, I really want to talk about this mechanic. For some reason, I really loved the Crystarium system in Final Fantasy XIII. To start off with, the whole mechanic is just pretty to look at. As you level up and obtain more tiers, I kinda feel as if you can see how much a character has grown, even if it is from a more statistical standpoint.
To bounce off of that mechanic a bit, each character only has access to so many Crystariums throughout your playthrough of the game. Each Crystarium constitutes a role for each character, known as a paradigm.These paradigms are Commando, Ravager, Sentinel, Saboteur, Synergist, and Medic. To make it sound less complicated, they’re pretty much the attacker, blaster, defender, jammer, enhancer, and healer classes found in other games.
Combat and Paradigm Switching
Final Fantasy XIII takes the battle system from VII but adds some of its own flare to it to make it better.
The game can do preset auto attacking, which is cool but something that I don’t really care for. The best part of the combat is the paradigm switching, allowing you to switch your characters to preset classes on the fly. To me, I feel like it helped the combat system stay fresh.
Another aspect of combat are Eidolons, which are the summons for this game. I will admit, I thought they were pretty cool. Each character has the ability to summon theirs after they falter from their own personal paths. These Eidolons attack alongside their summoner for a bit, while the rest of the party temporarily sit on the sidelines. When you activate Gestalt mode, the battle becomes more action oriented, which is always a nice change of pace.
Small Gameplay Frustrations
The controls weren’t too bad for this game, at least not bad enough for me to write a whole section on. My main complaint is really just the little blue circles that are littered in specific areas. You know, the ones that signify that you have to jump? Yeah, I hated those. I really didn’t feel like jumping was even needed in this game, and if I want to be a bit nitpicky, it was a bit unrealistic.
A Beautiful World That’s Hard to Explore
The story and world are usually some of my favorite things when it comes to JRPGs; sadly there are some glaring issues that come with Final Fantasy XIII and the worlds of Gran Pulse and Cocoon.
The main complaints I’ve always seen about this game was the linearity, and once I took off my nostalgia glasses, man, did I understand what they were talking about. Most of the main areas that we traverse through are pretty much hallways. I can understand it to a degree, as it forces the player to progress through the natural story, but it unfortunately leaves no room for exploration. The game does end up becoming open world in Chapter 11, which is not really a good thing as the game only goes up to Chapter 13. I felt like the exploration of Gran Pulse was fun while it lasted, but came in way too late into the game.
Despite the lack of explorability during the majority of Final Fantasy XIII, Square Enix did a great job creating a beautiful world to experience. I hate this, though. It provides a lackluster total experience when they give the player this beautiful world that surrounds them, but confines us to a mere hallway.
The Characters That Carry the Story
I would have to say that the main cast of characters are one of the saving graces in this game. Without them, I think Final Fantasy XIII would be pretty bland for a 40-hour playthrough.
Lightning is the main playable character in Final Fantasy XIII. To me, she’s not the worst character I’ve had the honor of playing in a video game, but she certainly isn’t the best either. She starts off as distant and cold towards the start of the game, and begins to grow to become a bit more open later in the game. The best way I could explain her is that Square Enix wanted to capture what made Cloud a cool protagonist in Final Fantasy VII and somehow messed it up when transferring it to Lightning.
Snow is another one of the main characters and is the leader of NORA, which stands for “No Obligations, Rules, or Authority.” He is a very protective character, which can be seen with both his want to help Serah, Lightning’s sister, complete her Focus, as well as literally with his role as a sentinel in battle.
Vanille is a happy-go-lucky character with a pretty dark background, especially for a 19-year-old. She joins the party after a failed Purge, which is to rid Cocoon of impurities. Her interactions with the party are some of my favorite.They start as light-hearted at the start of the game, but progress to become deeper and darker during the course of your adventure.
Sazh is easily my favorite character in Final Fantasy XIII. His entire character and story are heartbreaking, as seen as the story progresses in both Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, both games I’ll talk about in the future. Sazh has a Chocobo chick living in his afro, which I think is cool. He’s lost his wife and his son is encased in crystal, but is trying to do whatever he can to save them.
Hope is who I believe to be the weakest character in the world of Final Fantasy XIII. He does a lot of complaining, while warranted, is annoying. In the first cutscene, his mom dies by the hands of PSICOM and he blames Snow for it. He joins the party, and for a good chunk of the game, focuses on trying to get his revenge.
Fang is best friends with Vanille, and I’d even go as far as saying their partners with how they interact with one another. Don’t take my word for it, I’m just a guy on the internet. Fang is like Lightning in regards to attitude. Honestly, besides that, there was nothing else that really stood out in my playthrough.
Music, Visuals, and Atmosphere That Still Hold Up
The music of Final Fantasy XIII is honestly a mixed bag. On one hand, you have music that sounds whimsical and fits the mood for specific scenes you can find yourself in, and on the other hand, there’s some music that really fits battles and some that don’t.
The entirety of Final Fantasy XIII is a melancholic adventure. One full of loss and sadness, but with undertones of hope. Take a listen to the music from the title screen. Just turning on the game and staring at the game select screen, you are already met with the mood you’ll find yourself encountering throughout this entire playthrough.
This game still looks great to me, even thirteen years later after I first saw it at the age of 9 with my dad. I don’t know if it’s nostalgia blinding me, the graphics card in my PC, or I’m just bad at picking games, but there’s something about this game that I really enjoy when it comes to the world design. Speaking of the world, I enjoyed every second walking through it. It seemed like every sound, every footstep, everything stood out and popped more that I would have thought.
Where Final Fantasy XIII Stands Today
Final Fantasy XIII is my favorite Final Fantasy, and I might even go as far as to say it’s one of my favorite games of all time. This game makes some decent strides in the right direction, but sadly fumbles the ball when it comes to creating a world that is worth exploring to its fullest extent. The characters and the music are good enough to help keep players, or just myself, progressing through the game and reach the end credits.
Play Every Pixel 