Review: Final Fantasy XIII (Japanese Import)

This week The Newb Review presents to you, our beloved readers, a rare treat. Special guest writer Elliot Mears gives us the low down on one of the years most eagerly anticipated titles imported directly from Japan. Read on to find out what you can expect when this hot title finally reaches British shores.

Game: Final Fantasy XIII
Format: Playstation 3
Developer: Square Enix PDD1
Publisher: Square Enix

The 13th game in Square-Enix’s long-running franchise arrives amid a heap of fanfare and hype and mixed reviews. So, is it any good? A qualified yes. Final Fantasy XIII is a measured, open and accessible slice of supremely professional JRPG blockbuster storytelling… For the most part. The main problem comes in navigating the faltering first few hours of the game, which are extremely linear and restrictive. This seems to have seen off a substantial number of players who lack the fortitude to struggle through.

The story takes place in a world called Pulse, which is overlooked by a floating crystalline city-state called Cocoon. In this world there exist godlike mechanical beings known as the Fal’Cie, granted magical abilities by crystals. The Fal’Cie mark people for their own mystical purposes with a brand that compells them to complete a mission ordained by the Fal’Cie within a certain time limit. Failure in this task, either through negligence or death results in transformation into a living corpse. Completing the mission offers a reward that isn’t much better: being transformed into a giant crystal.

To add to the trouble, the mission the Fal’Cie have in mind is rarely clearly defined – you just have to, y’know, guess. Understandably, being chosen in this way is not at the top of anyone’s list of “things I want to be when I grow up”. Having been created by a Fal’Cie named Orphan 1,300 years ago as a paradise for humans to shelter in, Cocoon now finds itself governed by a theocratic regime with a morbid terror of the outside world of Pulse, with whom they once fought a victorious holy war. All contact with Pulse has become strictly prohibited and anyone found to have been in contact with it is rounded up by the military police force PSICOM and put on a Purge Train to live in exile.

Against this backdrop the six primary characters find themselves, through various events, marked by the Fal’Cie. Declared enemies of humanity, they grit their teeth, coiffe their fantastic haircuts and prepare to smash the hell out of Cocoon and its bullying, war-mad Sky-Pope.

The transition between cut-scene and gameplay is now all-but seemless.

Superbly crafted, beautiful in visual-design and direction, and (in the Japanese version at least; those of you playing in English have my sympathies) well-acted, FFXIII marks the point where RPG gaming is finally able to craft an all-round experience that matches the majesty of its cutscenes. Overcooked, half-mad nonsense though it may be, it is made with absolute conviction and a winning level of earnest charisma, and even manages to be intermittently quite touching.

Having spent more time than I care to admit watching Japanese TV romance dramas and formulaic cop shows (their remake of Columbo isn’t too bad), this seems to be a precision strike at the mainstream in Square’s home country. Players outside of Japan find themselves in a niche with regard to appreciating this kind of material but make no mistake, this is aimed squarely at the general public and backed up with a variety of tie-ins, including branded coffee that I might buy if I didn’t really fucking hate coffee (it is my kryptonite), and a specially composed power-ballad called Kimi Ga Iru Kara (because you’re here).

I am given to understand that the English version will feature Leona Lewis’s My Hands; once again, I am very sorry. The aforementioned ballad is part of what, overall, is a wonderfully rich and varied soundtrack. Undoubtedly one of the best in gaming so far. On a non-interactive formal level, FFXIII is a romping, glorious triumph, rare and beautiful, like a diamond Sex-Unicorn.

But the cry goes up! “Please, sir, this is not a movie, but rather an interactive telly-game what you play with buttons! What of the playing?” There I am more equivocal. The new Active Time Battle system is generally a pleasure. Taking place in real time, the player controls only one character and dictates the strategy of the others using a system of Roles, which can be saved in various configurations, called Optima, for ease of selection.

The Roles take the form of fairly standard patterns: Attackers deal physical damage, Blasters fire from a distance, Healers do the obvious, Enhancers fortify the party’s attributes, Jammers lower the enemy’s stats, and Defenders soak up damage to protect the rest of the party (these role names are being changed for the English release, but you get the gyst).

Characters queue up their moves to fill a certain number of slots on the time gauge, with more powerful moves using up a greater number of slots. In battle, successive hits landed quickly will fill up the opponent’s Break Meter. Once this is done, all damage inflicted is exponentially multiplied for a limited time. Each enemy also has a number of weaknesses which can be exploited to do extra damage and fill the Break Meter faster.

Role-switching takes place on the fly, allowing you to balance attack and defence according to how well the battle is proceeding.

Meanwhile, character-levelling now takes the form of allotting Command Points to increase the stats and abilities of each character’s various roles in a menu called the Crystarium. This allows you to precisely tailor each character’s strengths and weaknesses as you see fit. Weapons and accessories can also be individually levelled-up in a considerable number of configurations. There is a lot of scope, for those interested in such things, to lose hours on end to this alone.

Initially a rather limited and repetitive affair, the ATB system acquires a considerable level of tactical depth once the characters are sufficiently levelled up. Later fights demand a great deal of role switching to best balance attack and defence. This becomes pretty much essential as the game takes a turn for the monstrously difficult, pitting you against cunning evil bastards with HP meters in the tens of millions.

Thankfully the series’s trusty Summon attacks also make a return, all utterly transfixing in their beauty and many of them with a highly peculiar mecha-battle twist. There are some problems that can only be solved by ramming stuff at 700mph on a giant rocket-powered motorcycle made of ladies.

The Summons return with the addition of a new Drive mode, allowing you to mount your supernatural partner and charge around the battle pelting the enemy with special attacks

The game has been designed to be streamlined and user-friendly, cutting out all the extraneous elements (overworld map, NPC conversations, towns, shops, minigames) with the apparent aim of cutting Final Fantasy down to its sleekest, slimmest possible incarnation. Buying and selling items is now taken care of in a menu accessible from one of the copious save points and hit points fully recharge after every battle, removing the need to go out of your way to find some way to heal a terminally-wounded character.

New abilities are doled out slowly and introduced with fully-featured tutorials. Admirable though the development team’s commitment to making the game accessible may be, it does result in a somewhat overlong period of funnelled hand-holding. The first ten hours or so are spent following a succession of narrow paths and engaging in fairly limited repetitive slugging matches with numerous small groups of enemies, interspersed with frequent cut-scenes.

Those inclined to snap judgements may find themselves parting company with the game at some point here. They’d be missing out, however. Given time, the game blossoms into something altogether broader and grander in scale. Witness the huge, beautiful vistas that rank amongst the most staggering visuals in videogames to date. Exploration will usually turn up one of many optional extra missions.

These are the main source of replayability, since some of them will only be completable after acquiring abilities later in the game. The development team have helpfully included the option to go straight to these uncompleted quests once the game has been finished. There are many of us who don’t feel like sinking another 65 hours into the thing.

After the restrictive early hours of the game, it eventually broadens out into much more open environments

In the end, this is a blockbuster which reaches out to new audiences with one hand and then occasionally decides to punch them in the face with the other. It mixes fantastic production values and many small, considered innovations with a number of stubborn unadventurous design features. This is Final Fantasy, as big and bright, heartfelt and earnest and yes, clunky as ever. But it’s now slicker, more beautiful and lavish than before. A graphical showcase. A consumate piece of crowd-pleasing showmanship. That’ll do for me… For now.

Review Round-up

Graphics: 5/5 – Idiosyncratic character designs apart (I quite like them, myself), the game is realised with a textured, shimmering beauty. Artfully composed and occasionally breathtaking. The transition between cutscene and gameplay is now all but invisible. There are a few minor interface issues; the main problem being an over-busy battle display. In the heat of battle it’s sometimes difficult to discern how much damage is being dealt to whom with all the numbers flying around the screen.

Sound: 4/5 – Beautiful, versatile music. The sound effects are all competently put-together, but fairly traditional and unadventurous. I can’t comment on the English voice-acting, beyond observing that, if previous Final Fantasy games are anything to go by, it will no doubt feature a cast of ex-ninja turtles trying bravely to breathe life into the stilted translation. Therefore a provisional 4, but knock one off (so to speak) if you don’t like Leona Lewis or ponderous English dubbing.

Gameplay: 3/5 – Over-cautious in it’s structure for the first eight to ten hours, and with some punishing, soul-destroying difficulty spikes cropping up from time-to-time thereafter. Stripped down to the essentials, it feels sleeker and more dynamic, but also occasionally a little sparse as a result. The camera has a tendency to whip into slightly inconvenient angles during battles, though it is fully controllable (if a little sluggish). The battle system is deep and nuanced once it gets going. Efficient and with some fine ideas, but a little unambitious on the whole. The Gears Of War of JRPGs in many ways.

Longevity: 3/5 Around 60 hours of the main quest, with the potential to potter about a little on the side, though to a lesser extent than in games gone by. There’s some replay value to be had from going back and mopping up uncompleted quests or Achievement/Trophy hunting. About as replayable as these things get, which is not very. Still, don’t hate the wind because it blows, eh?

Overall: 4/5 – The realisation of all the cinematic potential that always lay dormant and stirring at the heart of the older games, this is a technical triumph. Without its nuanced fighting system, however, I would struggle to find anything to especially laud about it. Square’s desire to avoid scaring-off new players has led them to create a game that initially seems to have entered the race wearing only one shoe. Still, given time it largely overcomes early worries through a combination of charisma and a blossoming, expansive game world. A fine foundation for greater things to come, I hope.

[starreview tpl=16]

Tags: Elliot Mears, Fantasy, Import, Japanese, JRPG, Playing, Playstation 3, Role, RPG, Square Enix, XBox 360, XIII

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