Product ReviewsFinal Fantasy XIII (Sony PlayStation 3, 2010)

Compelling graphics with a cinematic introduction.

Game is in good working order and the original instruction manual was in good condition as well. Amazing graphics with an optional tutorial system to go along with the game. Thus far, the game seems very cinematic as you're going through the initial stage of the game. The battle system and leveling system seems to appear different from previous Final Fantasy games. In battle, you can create a chain of commands that you want your character to perform such as attack or use a special skill. As for leveling, all I noticed was that I didn't see any experience points at the end of battles. Still have a lot of game playing but at least I have a lot to look forward to.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: vipgoldq45

Unfortunate addition to such a great franchise

As a long time Final Fantasy fan. I was disappointed in this release for a variety of reasons. First, the game holds your hand with tutorials for at least the first 20 hours of gameplay. The story is very linear and you literally walk in a straight line interrupted by cutscenes and battles where you just hit the X button and they are fought for you. The battle system feels very dumbed down and expands very slowly. I know the game starts to open later on and the paradigm system "can" get interesting later but I have lost my interested in playing any more.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: ctownsellers

great Final Fantasy title, must own for FF/Jrpg fans

Final Fantasy 13 is a great game with huge potential. If you are a fan of previous FF games or a fan of JRPGS then you will buy it and beat it. If you are a western RPG fan read a full review before buying. The only thing holding the game from getting great scores is its linear path and no open towns :(

You get a classic FF story with the best graphics the series has seen. The new battle system is very fast but controllable thanks to the new paradigm system.
I think its my favorite FF battle system to date because you can play general by spamming auto battle and changing the roles, or if your reflexes are a bit faster or you put the game on a bit slower you can micomanage the abilities of your player (but not party members)

The story is engaging in typical FF fashion. The CG looks amazing as always but even the gameplay is just amazing visual work in HD. As a more than casual but less than hardcore FF player, the game gives me complaints because of my preconceived notions of how FF should be, but overall i still love it.

8.5/10
-1 for no open towns and linear path through the first half of the game
-1 because people will complain about the battle system being only
able to control one character at a time. +.5 because i find the new
system very user friendly and fun at the same time. allows you to easily change
tactics mid battle without time consuming micomanagement

*RedialRead full review...

One step forward, one step back

I have mixed opinions about Final Fantasy XIII simply because it is a departure from previous games in the series. Unlike previous FFs, XIII focuses on the battle system and nearly eliminates the freedom of a open-world map. As a friend of mine harshly described it, XIII is the world's most beautiful hallway simulator: each world/chapter consists of traveling from point A to point B, with a mix of battles, cut scenes and NPCs to break the tedium.

The new battle system is a mix between FFXII's and Kingdom Heart's battle systems. The player is only able to control one character that is designated by whichever chapter or scenario the game is in. The Paradigm system, the meat and bones of the game, allows the player to assign roles to each character, ranging from offensive roles (attackers), defensive (curing) and strategic (status ailments). The player is able to switch Paradigm combos on the fly, and most battles require the Paradigm be change in order to adjust to the flow of battle (concentrate on curing when party is weak, offensive when the enemy is weak, etc.)

Similar to FFX and XII, the level up system is determined by points acquired during battle, which can then be used to fill up a giant grid of skills and power-ups. This is the only incentive to fight 1200 wolves, insects and blobs, which the developers lazily use in most levels by only changing their color.

One of the most noticeable battle changes is the Stagger bar, which rewards the player for correct Paradigm use and penalizes them for incorrect use. Successful attacks raise the Stagger bar and allow subsequent attacks to cause more damage. Poorly planned attacks will not raise the bar and drag the battle on. Effectively using Paradigms and raising the Stagger is key to every boss fight.

Straying from FF tradition, I found, was the option to retry battles. No longer will you cry when you lose a battle and realize you forgot to save your file. The retry option allows you to figure out a winning strategy via trial and error, but it takes away from the pressure of defeating bosses and trying to acquire summons. But if you play FXIII like I do, you will love the restart option.

Though XIII differs in its battle system and linearity, one thing hasn't changed: story telling. The beautiful cut-scenes are so painstakingly rendered and perfected that Pixar would be jealous. I found the story to be a bit convoluted, as Square attempts again to create alien languages/races that suffer disasters that represent our inevitable apocalypse. There are the usual FF cliches: a moody main character, a ditzy girl that eventually holds a greater importance in the universe, a gruff, take no prisoners pugilist that happens to be very sensitive and emotional... all of them join up to save the world from a evil corporation/government. But the story is much more personal and interesting compared to XII, the oddball of the series, but cannot match X's story.

Overall, it's good to see FF constantly improve its battle system, but unfortunately its at the expense of taking some of the control away from the player. The lack of an open, explorable world takes a huge hit from the series and almost makes the game feel incomplete (as if the developers were content with just the battle system.) With FFXIV already confirmed as a MMORPG, we may not see a next-gen, open-world FF for quite some time. In the mean time, FFXIII is a worthy time-killer.

PS3 vs. 360: PS3 uses one disc, 360 uses 3. Nuff' saidRead full review...

Old school player adjusting to the new battle system

I haven't played Final Fantasy since it was on the SNES. Of course, this game far exceeds that system's capabilities, but I am in an adjustment period right now. I'm sure some of the stuff I will mention has been around for a long time, so be nice. :)

The way battle is done has changed: it is now active-time based, so there is no turn-based play any more; battle happens whenever it happens. ALSO, you only really control the main character. The other characters are assigned "paradigms" that decide how they will behave in battle. For instance, if I want a brute force attack, I can make everyone a ravager and there will be a relentless assault on the enemy, but no healing or support roles. I'm not sure if I like this--I really enjoyed controlling every character myself.

I've only gotten so far yet. I lost interest for a while, but I'm sure it will come back soon. :) Seems like a good game though.Read full review...

Great game

I have been a fan of the FF series for a long time, and I wanted to see how they continued with the hi-def abilities of the PS3. Now, the gameplay is a little different from previous games, but it does not disappoint. To start, don't expect to be wandering around an open world looking to find the next mission or battle, because the entire game is a set path that guides you on your way. Although this was a little bit of a bummer, they made up for this with extremely vibrant backgrounds and details of the worlds you travel through. There was never once a point at which I thought, "wow this is getting really boring." The battles are pretty much the same, you select your attacks and targets, switch what kind of attack style your team will perform with, etc. What I really like is how they almost did away with a level system, but continually added more features for fighting through the first half of the game, so you got to build on your original abilities and add more skills as your opponents get stronger and more difficult. Somewhat like the level system, but more equalized. Another part I enjoyed was playing as several characters, as the story line switches off between the different character's motives and goals. I would say one of the major downsides to this game, however, is the fact that nearly a third of the time spend on the game is watching cut scenes or 2-5 min videos. They look beautiful and entertain for a while, but if I wanted to watch an anime movie, I would have bought one in stead of this game. So if you get bored easily watching cut scenes, this game might not be for you. If you can live with it, or just don't care about the story and skip the vids, then you should be fine. That's about all there is to the game, great story that's different from other FF games, but still as crazy and action packed as it has ever been. One final note that I couldn't help but adding in, if you listen carefully during cut scenes, it almost sounds like the characters are having sex. They make random gasps and moans while looking around. If I weren't looking at the screen and didn't know any better, I'd say I was listening to a hentai porno hahaha I mean it's not distracting or anything, I'd be in awe at some of the places they visit in the story, too, but come on, the Square Enix crew could have chosen better voices and expressions to fit the scenarios.... Well, that's all for now. Great game overall I'd say if you can get it for under 20~25 bucksRead full review...

Looks Amazing, New Take on the FF Series

Great continuation in the series of FF, not too crazy about the battle system; its more standard than FF XII but you can only select actions for one character while the other 2 act on their own. It has an element of X-2 (but dont be scared off) in that you can select battle "roles" for you characters. Haven't gotten very far but so far the story is good and I like all the characters besides the whiny one. The cinematic's make up for most of its small flaws. Just do yourself a favor and get it for PS3...not 360 less vivid, contrast and color depth!Read full review...

Great RPG for those who love story and characters! Give it a chance

Great RPG with minimal flaws. Final fantasy hasn't been the same over the years but I wouldn't call this particular ff series bad. The combat system is great, yet can get annoying at times if you do not level up properly. It's not as great as previous final fantasy's but I would not call this RPG terrible. The characters, story and cinematic's are absolutely breath taking so definitely give this one a go!Read full review...

Final Fantasy XIII 13 Review for Playstation 3 (PS3)

I have played every Final Fantasy game that has been released in the United States and I have to say that I was kind of disappointed in the latest release. If you are a Final Fantasy follower I can tell you that FF13 reminds me a lot of FF8. While FF8 was good, the overall product was somewhat of a let down.
Average or mediocre is about all I can say about this game. If you have read things about this game then you know it is linear as heck and IT IS! You get to wander around much later in the game but it still almost feels like you're following one path. Even when you finally get to wander around there really isn't much to do other than find and kill enemies...No towns to explore, no people to do quests for, only enemies to hunt down and kill.
Another gripe I have is the story itself. The story itself isn't bad, it's just that the first time you go through the story its kind of confusing and hard to follow. Once you beat the game you should probably replay it again just so you know what's going on...that is if you can stomach another linear play-through.
Combat is ok but it's definitely not the greatest thing ever. Combat graphics are action packed and look good though. I have to say that this version of Final Fantasy is definitely more difficult than its predecessors. If you don't switch to a job at the right time you're dead. You'll die a lot if you're not quick. One thing about dying though is that if you die, you can retry (no rhyme intended). You don't simply have to reload, you restart right before you encounter the enemy that killed you and have a do-over. This is nice because you don't lose any experience points or have to do anything over again.
The graphics are top notch as they usually are with most Final Fantasy games. There is little noticeable difference when going through an animated cutscene and actual gameplay. Other than characters and voice acting which are great, this is honestly the only aspect of the game that I felt like FF13 did an A+ job and not just a mediocre job. The music is also top notch except for the fact that at some points I felt like I should be in a jazz bar or lounge and not going through a hostile environment. When you go through a wrecked area and danger is around, the music makes it sound like a joyous romp through woods. This doesn't happen all the time but sometimes it made me laugh. Good music, bad timing.
One last thing I have a complaint about is the camera angle. It always seems like it's off center which it's supposed to be, but sometimes it's hard to get the dang camera to move where you want it. You can mess with the settings but it still feels funny. This is something minor that shouldn't hamper gameplay but it's just one more little thing that adds up to make FF13 disappointing.

I would definitely only recommend this to Final Fantasy fans and not to everyone. If you have a chance to buy or rent, I say rent it for a few days and beat the game just to see what it's about. Don't buy it and get stuck with a game that you don't want to play through again after you beat it once.Read full review...

wonderful but not as good as FFXII

FF XII creators changed many things in FF xii but it is still a good game nontheless, would not recomend paying 60$ for a new copy.The change is welcome to some degree but i wish they made it more like FF XII. Some of the negative changes include marks which arent availblae until many hours into the game, A game over screen when the party leader dies, and weapon upgrades which have way too many varities/complicated, especially for those who do not have the guide and/or do not care too much,. However Some of the positives are a retry option when u die. I would recommend this game for fans of the series however if u are just looking for a fun time your money could be better spent elsewhere.I would also like to mention the dialouge/cutscenes. They are very cheesy, and if youre sensitives to cheesiness you can still skip the cutscenes and still get info on whats going on by checking the menu screen.Read full review...