Final Fantasy XIII for Xbox 360 Reviews by Gamers

I guarantee that if this game had any other name besides FF slapped on it, the critics and reviews would tear this game apart. Just because it has FF on it everyone is liberal with 9 and 10 reviews which is baffling since this is one of the worst FF games ever. I bet if you stick the FF name on PONG everyone would give it 10. So if you see a 9 or 10 review ignore it and save your money.

WHAT I LIKED:
The graphics. As with many FF games the graphics are crisp, clean, very detailed, and vibrant. The storyline is great too. You're branded by these entities and have to perform a task called Focus otherwise you turn into a monster or fall into a crystal slumber.

WHAT I DISLIKED:
Almost everything else. This game is horribly linear. There is NO exploration whatsoever you move from point A to B. No mini missions, no side missions, no quests of any kind just the main story quest that's it. No overhead map of the land, no revisiting of prior locations and your party is split in half for 9 chapters. You work with only two at a time. You get only one weapon slot and one accessory slot, another later on but that's it. Abilities aren't universal, you can't heal if you're a soldier and can't fight if you're a medic. You have to constantly switch during battle to use certain abilities. This game is NOTHING like prior FF games. You also hardly ever visit any locations like towns. You briefly go to a park but it's pointless. Shopping is done through kiosks now. The game is terribly stingy with money which you no longer get from enemies. You have to find a chest (rarely) or sell items which you need to upgrade weapons.

THE GOOD
Graphics
Storyline

THE BAD
Bland battle system.
Constant changing character roles.

THE UGLY
Way too linear.
No revisiting locations.
No quests or side missions.
Shopping and upgrades at kiosks.
Does not hold true to the FF name.

Before writing this I must make a basic concession, I was not able to get past more than 10 hours of this game. Because of this, I can not comment on the game as a whole, but will instead comment on my experience with it. This experience can be summed up very simply: never once did I feel like I was truly involved in the game itself, but was instead a passenger being given the "privileged invite" of going along for the ride and spectating Square's story. The story itself seemed weak and unoriginal, for as much of it as I was able to stomach, and the characters were little more than thinly veiled, over-worked, RPG conceits. The battle system never allows for much control, even when it introduces the Paradigm Shift, and I couldn't help but feel I spent close to 10 hours watching deleted clips from ""The Spirits Within" while being invited to participate in a bland twitchy flash game in between. I've been told that in time the game opens up further and allows for the player to become fully immersed, but I see no merits in something that requires 20 hours of mundane commitment to reach such point. The graphics and music were fantastic, and were what kept me going beyond hour 2, but not even they could save this game from its generic and trivial gameplay and story, and eventually I could play it no longer and was forced to send it back to GameFly. I have played every preceding Final Fantasy, with exception to the MMO, and enjoyed 6,7,8 and Tactics the most, in large part because of their emotionally involving and engrossing storylines and complex, intellectual, gameplay and battle systems. FFXIII lacked all of these things, for me.

I'm not gonna lie, the first time i played this game my initial reaction was "this is very pretty, but it lacks everything". But let me tell you, after playing this game my mind seemed to morph into whatever format Square Enix was working on and this has become possibly my favorite game for the Xbox 360.

Graphics: without doubt, amazing. Even the people who hate this game will tell you these graphics are top of the line.

10/10

Music: I was amazed at the wondrous music. It was no strange occurence when i found myself running around in circles before i entered the next zone just so i could continue listening to the music. At one point, i went as far as setting the game down and just listening to the music while i cooked dinner. (That was in some wonderland place with a lot of chocobo's, you're looking for your little frocobo)

9/10

Story: This is where skeptics jump in and begin making their claim, heck, i was one of them. Like the title says, it grows on you. In fact, i seriously considered returning the game up until about 8 hours in. The story began to capture me, and characters the i had previously considered huge tools had already started to grow on me.

8/10

Battle Sequences: Another "at one point iffy". At the beginning, the battles were basically pressing one button and defeating your opponent in literally 10 seconds. But as the game progressed you came unto more paradigms (classes changes not unlike FF X-2) this game became a lot more fun. The screen always captured you because there was never an empty moment and your brain is always on edge whether or not to change paradigms or not. 2 points off for the beginning but 10 for the rest of the game

8/10

Characters: At first i wanted to shoot them all, and for people who've played Lost Odyssey you'll know what i mean when i say they grow on you. Like i said, i called them all tools but after awhile i learned to love them.

9/10

I strongly recommend this game. wish i had more characters to type with.lol

Little less impressive on the 360, PS3 version is recommended.

Games Design: It's rather well done; the highlights are the great atmospheres. They did a fantastic gob on designing the environments, but FF13 does hit some big issues in game design. That being the games linearity, I know.. We heard about this subject to death, but it’s not game breakingly bad either. You do lose a sense of replayability because you are “forced” to go on with the story, while you might have grown up doing some side-exploration like in Final Fantasy 10 (which is my favorite). FF13 is great as what it is, but a little lacking for hardcore fans, but more than fine for the majority (casual gamers).

Voice acting: Good for the most part. Only real complaint about this is that well, you feel like some of the dialog is very corny and seems a tad unrealistic (melodramatic). But that’s to be expected from a JRPG! They do an excellent job at telling you a story.

Location(s): The game takes place on Cocoon, which is threatened by Pulse’ invasion. Pulse is a land over Cocoon, filled with giant monsters. Pulse is also where your exploration will finally happen later on the game, and it’s very large.

Battle(s): The battles are well thought out, and enjoyable. You fight as one person in your party, but you also sub-manage the others in their jobs. Let it be healing or full on attack! Using the summons is awesome, though very little variety. One thing you should know, this game is hard. Some bosses are super tough!

Leveling: There is one huge flaw for big FF fans, who train for hours on end like myself. You will reach a cap, and the game bottlenecks you for a long time. For the majority it's hard to reach these caps. The traditional leveling system is gone, what you have is a spin to FF10’s (sphere grid). You can choose what path you want to take, while not so much in the beginning as it tries to introduce you to the system.

RATING: 9.1 (Story is a little flat; Combat and visuals are amazing)

Im here to say the overall gameplay was awesome, but just for all of you putting the disk in, the beggining is slow and it feels like it drags on FOREVER, but once your done with it, the game starts to pick up and adds new twists and turns at ever corner

Let me preface this first by saying that I'm not a FF loyalist by any means. I enjoyed FF V and VI (aka FF 2 & 3 on SNES), but that was last FF experience I had prior to this.

Now, I will say this - FFXIII was the biggest waste of my time for the following reasons:

1) Unlikeable characters - I did not care for any of them. They were all forgettable, and none of them really had an interesting storyline to follow. Fang was as good as it got, but honestly, for as cool as they tried to portray her, I still didn't care.

2) TERRIBLE gameplay - I don't know how the progression from VI to now was, but I will say that there are so much less options from a game that came out nearly 15 years ago, which is a terrible sign for any franchise. Spells & Callers are totally irrelevant now, since all you have to do is hit the Auto-Battle option, and then MAYBE use a caller if you don't have any potions or phoenix downs. There was nothing particular spectacular about the spell abilities you gain (Libra and Dispelga were the only ones I used throughout the gameplay). Because Light was the main character, as long as my party was lead by her, I would be able to complete 95% of the game w/o much problem. The crystarium classes were cool for a time, but overall, they weren't anything special. The classic RPG exp. points system > this attempt at something new.

3) What was the story again? - I have no idea what I just did after spending 70 hours of playing. Yes, they give you datalogs to read through in case you didn't understand the cut-scenes, but the story is so bad that you won't even understand the datalogs. L'Cie, Fal'Cie, whatever. I didn't care after 10 hours, and I had another 60 hours to go.

Only positives were the graphics. Cut-scenes, though confusing in content, looked great.

I expected a lot of my return to the franchise, and I was greatly disappointed. I'm staying away from this franchise til I hear they got it right.

I have been a huge fan of the series since the SNES days. FF has always been one of those game series that always get my money on release day and gets undivided attention until I have conquered it. These are the basic things that I expect to be top notch in a Final Fantasy game: characters, story, battle system, development system, boss battles, and an adventure across a wonderous world. FF13 got every single one of these things wrong.

Characters: These guys are so shallow the kiddie pool looks like the deep end. They are as one-dimensional as you can get. There's no back story to any of them, let alone anything likable. I felt no connection at all, even as the story went on. I actually didn't use a character because I did not want to see or listen to him at all.

Story: It could not be more simple. There are no plot twists or turns, no surprises at all. Nothing like the past installments. And the dialogue feels like a teen wrote it. Or George Lucas.

Battle System: They've simplified it so that you only control one person while the AI uses the other two so the real time flow is undisturbed. I'll give them credit for developing a very good AI. The problem is it makes battles either very fast or very long and tedious. I'm not a big fan because I like to micromanage my characters and develop a strategy.

Boss battles: Fustrating. Even some 'regular' battles were ridiculous.

Development system: You know that great feeling you get when all your hard work developing your characters pays off as you decimate enemies? Doesn't exist in FF13. There's also no economy.

Adventure: No adventure. This game is as straight as a freeway. No exploration. Small side path? Chances are there's a treasure. That's it. Yay. And the world looks stellar, but lacks any character. It's just a place.

There is nothing redeeming in this game for me. This is a chore that I have struggled to complete since day one. I hate this game. It just disappoints me. Good thing you got GameFly to rent it.

This game is not Final Fantasy. There is a set track you must follow. There are no side quests and no side paths. The combat system is not good either. You can change what 'path' the heroes follow as you go, but everything is otherwise automated. This game feels like one long movie with a few battles in between clips. The battles aren't really battles either. One press of 'A' automatically performs the 'best' actions. This game requires no thought. It is the worst "Final Fantasy" ever invented.

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE.

Be glad you have not purchased this game. It is not worth purchasing, but a rental is ok.

Very linear. Very dull. It's like a movie that makes you push buttons every once in a while, and a bad movie at that. Horrible story line and character developement, gameplay that is dull and boring and repetitive, if you call that gameplay at all. I can probably give the controller to my 4 month old and tell her what button to press and she could beat the game. Graphics were nice but that's about the only good point to this whole package. Horrible horrible game which is only popular because of the name. Final Fantasy Franchise should be ashamed. ONLY ONLY ONLY play it if you are a die-hard FF fan who NEEDS to play them all. Otherwise, skip this for sure.

I had such high hopes for this game but in the end, literally in the end, this game failed and failed of epic proportions. The first major draw back is that there is NO free roaming world seen in past Final Fantasy games, it felt more like an RPG on a train track, there's no exploration or discovery which you find in all RPG now a days (Mass Effect 2 or Dragon Age). But I saw past this lack of imagination and past the fact that the story seems jumbled together from the start, instead of meeting new characters in the world as you explore, everyone is right there in the middle of a battle and you have to piece things together as you go. Lastly the end boss of the game is just ridiculous, the worst end boss in the history of RPGs. First you have to fight the guy for 15 minutes or so because he has 5 million plus health. But after that you'd think it's over but NO, instead he morphs and now has 7 million health. I got past being angry off until I got him to half health and then he casts doom on you, which you can't cure or remove and there's no way you can take off the other half of health before the timer runs out. I never quit a game, but after sitting there for 3 hours and failing for the 5th or 6th time. I'm done with this piece of junk excuse for a game. I love a challenge but this is just an insult to gamers. "thanks for playing 60 hours, now go screw yourself" is the message I got from this game. Don't waste your time or your money on this piece of you know what.

So what is it about Final Fantasy XIII that should be considered subjectively?

Everything.

The game has every inch of flair and probably some of the best art direction I've come across in current "next-gen" games to date. The game is simply eye-poppingly beautiful. Before any arguments start about how the game looks I simply don't care. 360 or PS3, Square did an excellent job in the graphics department.

And thats exactly where the praise stops. Imagine for a minute that this game were stripped of all that gorgeous imagery and replaced with the classic 2d sprite model that many of us grew up playing on. You would have played all of 2 hours of this game, picked up the game cartridge and returned it to the store you bought it from.
Lets start with the easy one, Story:

The story is about some angry ex-soldier who happens to be paired up with a charming black character (Wonder where we've seen this before). The game starts off showing your player character pretty much dominate everyone in plain sight, then after about 15 minutes of exposition, puts you in the drivers seat. And away you go, in the only possible direction; Yeah, that's right, you're on a narrow series of catwalks and the only choice is forward, backward, or throw the game out the window. But it doesn't stop there. No, still on disc 2 and the only option I've had so far is forward backward and maybe the side if I want to open a chest over there. So they railroad you into playing things out exactly as they set it up right? Oh but theres more!

Combat is like kicking yourself in the balls. You have only 1 character to control directly and the auto fight option is pretty much the best choice of attacking orders you're going to get. So you pretty much mash A or X or whatever until the fights done. You have a paradigm system but lets get real this is as simple as it gets folks. This game is not really a game but a interactive movie.

I'm out of characters so I'll just sum it up here : Bad game. Bad Bad Game.

I'll say what me and my peers have been saying since the announcement of this game;

"It looks pretty, but it is going to suck sooo bad."

What do you know...? Lo and behold.

Everything is so linear. It's like you're working to see the end of the game the entire time, too.

If you want to purchase this game, I will tell you EXACTLY what you are purchasing, ignore the reviews that you have read that say:

"its a horrible game, but that's OK the graphics are really good"

What you have purchased/are looking at purchasing is one really sorry excuse of a mothership title release in comparison to the way all of our most popular Final Fantasy flagship titles of the past have been done.

Long battles do not equal immersive gameplay that is genuinely 40 hours long on an average Square Enix scale. Long battles are the singlemost largest flaw in the entire game.

After reaching about disc 3 or so, this becomes quite apparent. The beginning of the game is not so bad, but it ALL goes downhill from there. You will fight, and you WILL fight, and you will fight some more, and even more than that until you reach a cutscene.

After which, you will be rewarded with a boss that can't fight it's way out of a wet paper bag without casting doom on your lead character (which results in Game Over after the counter hits 0).

After that? you just repeat the process again.

For the amount of fighting it takes to progress through the game, there is not nearly enough game content to keep players immersed in the game.

After a while it becomes quite apparent that the battle system is very boring, making working towards the end of the game quite a tedious chore.

im sorry but it really is i miss the old turn based final fantasy im sorry but i really enjoyed playing final fantasy the way it was meant to be ever since square enix started to make FF it has just gone down hill ten was the last best one
my problem with this final fantasy is theres absolutely no side missions to speak of and all you do the entire game is literally move foward THATS IT you cant even go to towns in this one its so horrible it just makes me angry to play it
anyone who thinks this is a good input to one the of the greatest video gaming franchises of all time needs to be smacked.
TWO BIG THUMBS WAY WAY DOWN

Aside from the fact that it takes a good 8-10 hours of game play before you actually get to start "leveling" your characters it is as the title says an "interesting" game. Not enough real freedom as in the other Final Fantasy games. Most of what you do is preset (no airship to go where you want). Only extra content besides the main story line would be the side missions once you get to Gran Pulse (Chapter 11 0f 13). There are only 60+ missions, most of which are almost impossible to do until end game. If you enjoyed the other 12 Final Fantasy games I would get this game just because it is Final Fantasy.

This game is not designed for those looking for a quick thrill or action-packed hack n' slash-type stuff. The game develops slowly, more so than many previous FF titles.

It's not for about two hours into the gameplay that players are introduced to the nuances of the Paradigm system. That's when combat starts to get interesting. Customization does not first come through characters, but rather, through combat. You can design your own paradigms and fight to fit your style, which I like.

Each battle is rated, so it's also like you're performing. The faster and smoother your performance, the better the spoils of war. I'll admit, at first, the combat seemed overly simple, controlling one of several characters and not needing to use much other than the auto-battle system, but things soon speed up.

Also, you do not play as one character all the time. You switch around to develop separate but related elements of the story.

The game starts out linear; if you're looking for an open-world experience right off the bat you'll have to wait until later in the game.

The graphics are gorgeous if you have HD. If not, I'm deeply sorry. The music is good and befitting a FF title. The storyline is alright, but definitely not the highlight of the game.

If you don't like other JRPGs, don't pick this one up. I'm still trying to figure out why other reviewers complain about the Japanese influence when they knew that influence was present before they tried the game.

If you have enjoyed past FFs, grab this one. If you're expecting something different out of Square Enix, move on down the line.

I Didn't intend on renting this as my first game when coming back to GameFly but when I popped the game in and started it up the graphics where amazing, I was stunned even though the 360 doesn't fully match the Ps3 graphic capability's, shortly after I started it up the storyline cough my eye I was in a nostalgic state of mine the more I played the more It became fun, the down side to this is I felt the game play for every monster was sorta lame as they don't allow you to be your favorite player mine being FF10 Rikku's counter part in XIII Vanille, I'm a little shamed how the Combat system was done, but after playing for 10 hours it didn't bug me I was still in to the story line, I'd honestly say for any die hard FF fan like me if you truly play for the experience of the story with a side love for the exploring the combat and all the other tiny details of leveling up, then you will have fun I do want to remind all FF players and fans that FF is a grind game and if you say the battles feel like a job that's because that what makes this game so great the grind to level become strong and pound them in to the dirt as you get engulfed by the storyline,

Final Fantasy games as a general rule offer several things that define and redefine their genre: an engrossing, painstakingly detailed world, intricate characters and complicated relationships, and a powerfully moving story that drives them. Square-Enix have made a bold move in removing experience points, magic points and character levels, but the risk has paid off. By turning the pace of the game away from gaining the necessary levels to defeat a certain foe, the story is in the spotlight. The gameplay is restrictively linear for almost the first half of the game, however, and this may turn some people off.

While the storyline and cutscenes take up roughly 60% of the game, battle takes up another 30% easily. During the first few hours of the game, the training wheels are still on. This lets you get a feel for the pace of battle without fear of being overwhelmed, and sets the learning curve to a gradual slope. As the story develops, however, battle becomes more engrossing with spells and abilities to manage, summons to acquire and weapons to upgrade.

Battle preparation is a must, and takes a little time to get the hang of properly. A character earns abilities in the Crystarium (think Sphere Grid squared) from points you earn by finishing battles. Your heroes can be Ravagers who attack with spells and build chain bonuses quickly, Commandos who maintain the chain bonus and make it possible to stagger foes, or Medics to keep your team alive, for example. Six possible roles allow you to adapt to any combat situation.

While I don't totally agree with completely rewriting the formula of traditional RPG, Square-Enix definitely deserve points for taking the risk. The visuals of XIII are absolutely stunning (have HDMI ready or you're missing out) the voice acting is spot on, and the story is amazing. This is truly three discs of awesome.

That is the best way I can sum up this up. I personally started my FF journey back in '97 with FFVII and have played every single game since then with the exception of the MMO, not my thing.

Anyway, beautiful graphics, nice change in combat although I do prefer the more traditional sense. Story is..um.. interesting. The most unfortunate aspect is that it takes so long to get going. I do appreciate that the game gradually introduces you to the new game play elements like combat and exploration, but it takes a good few hours to really get going and from there another chunk of hours for the story to open up and really capture you. Of course this will depend on your previous experience with FF games and your expectations so this is a personal issue.

I'm disappointed in the fact that for more streamlined action and game play that mini-games, explorable towns and equipment options were cut back greatly or removed all together. Yes you can still find and buy some items like weapons and accessories, but shopping is all done via the game's generous amount of save points and so there are no towns to explore and shop. Armor and weapon customization is all but non-exsistent. Potions heal the entire party and you are healed after battle, no need for inns or tents.

Again as a veteran player this is all very off putting and for me took alot of the fun out of the game for me. Not to say it isnt enjoyable, it is, but not the Final Fantasy I remember and am used to.

My final advice would be to RENT this game. New player, Old Player, whatever. This FF is very different for those before it and it may not be for everyone. If you manage to be able to spend the time learning the new system and allowing the game to open up you will be pleased I think, but for me this was a 50 plus hour investment, some people may not want to see it that far.

As the title implies, I bought this game the very first day it came out.
I normally wouldn't purchase a game before renting, but I thought for Final Fantasy there was no way I was going to be disappointed. (I am a very big fan of the franchise) Well I got home, popped it into my 360, and after a short bit of time I had that "What the heck?" moment where you realize you hate the game you're playing.

The best way to describe Final Fantasy XIII is the gamefly commercial in which many people pop a horrible game into their system, then go ballistic. Banging their heads on the wall, throwing the TV out their window. I was tempted to do the same.

I'm not saying the game will be horrible for absolutely everyone who plays it, I'm just basing it on my perspective. If you disagree, that's up to you. The reason I disliked it so strongly was the INCREDIBLY LINEAR gameplay.

If you are seeking to conquer Final Fantasy XIII's immense story, here's what you will experience.

Walk - Fight - Walk - Fight - Long cutscene - Fight - Walk - Another cutscene - And on and on.

The game feels more like a movie, with a bit of boring gameplay smashed into it. Unfortuanettely though, I buy video games to play them, not to sit in my chair and enjoy the story.

In the long-run. This game may be alright for someone who likes linear gameplay, but if you are looking for free-roam gamplay (Like I was) then turn your head to other great titles, and just forget about Final Fantasy XIII

Take away a large world that you can explore, take away actual tactical turn base battles, add beautiful CGI, controls that are made to be simple, and you pretty much have a game that plays itself. The only reward in this game is actually trying to pass each chapter to see a beautiful cut scene that slightly makes up for the agony you had to go through to get to it. And by agony, I mean, the boring game play that you repeat every single time. The only thing that changes in the scenery, is how the tunnel looks. Sometimes it's a cave or a subway and even a canyon. Sadly, the beautiful cut scenes were not enough to get me to finish this game. I returned it after one month of trying to force myself to play it and convince myself that it's a good FF game. In short, if you like FF games, like FF VII, then DON'T play this. You'll hate it.

Its looks like rather then make a large complex game with TONS of side stuff not in the story line like they normally do. They made it linear and easy, to appeal to more "casual" gamers I suppose. God I was so dissapointed. After FF12, which was AMAZING, I was hoping for a well polished version similar to FF12. I for one loved the fact you could actually SEE the enemies, and interact with them real time. Made the games pace so much better, and for the real hardcore gamers, they had the final two optional bosses, which took alot of time and skill to beat. Lets hope they listen to the fans and revert back to the complex version of FF.

Same thing over and over press the A button to battle. You could switch the attack mode somewhat and use some items you collected to heal but verrrry boring.
The path you took was pre determined pretty much. I got to the first big boss and died a few times and there was no way to stop the cut scene from playing. Play for a minute die watch cut scene for two minutes and repeat.
Visuals were good but how can this save a poor game. If the game has no game play value does it really matter what the story line is. I guess if your a fan of the series all you need is a story line and good visuals and your good to go. I want good game play that I wish I was playing when I wasn't. This game Is I wish I wasn't playing when I was. Totally backwards.

I have played several Final Fantasy games and I know for a fact that they are supposed to be RPG not action games. This game is far from being a real Final Fantasy game for several reasons. First, there really are no RPG elements to it except the Crystarium that allows you to get new abilities and stuff. Second, it is not a sandbox game in any sense. Third, even after playing for several hours there were still no towns or anything except for in the flashbacks. I could not even get through the first of three discs and the only thing that kept me playing for as long as I did was the amazingly good graphics (just like most final fantasy games) and the hope that it would get better. If they make another Final Fantasy, I truly hope they do not make another piece of trash like this.

The game looked great the whole way even on 360. And the battle system was much easier to manage than the tactics system in 12. And if you're looking for a non-linear RPG, WHY ARE YOU PLAYING FINAL FANTASY? Yeah, the world takes longer to open up than usual, but it does and it's expansive and offers a lot beyond the storyline. Deal with the linear story, it could be worse, like Xenosaga.

I would have given the soundtrack a higher rating but the main theme that occurs repeatedly is taken right out of FFIV's Theme of Love. It bugged me the entire game.

Gameplay: 8

Graphics: 9

Sound: 7