Before Final Fantasy XIII was due to be released there were whispers of dissent among dedicated fans of the franchise who were concerned about just how well Final Fantasy XIII would translate onto the PS3, and whether the game producers would pay more attention to the graphics than the actual gameplay itself.
Gameplay
Be warned: Final Fantasy XIII is not a game that is going to suit everyone, especially fans of the previous titles in the series and the reason for this is that Final Fantasy XIII has been significantly scaled down and streamlined. As a result then, many of the different features which arguably made Final Fantasy not only Final Fantasy but ultimately, engrossing, addictive and immersive in the extreme have been brutally culled. Gone are the mini games, ultimate weapons and secret quests.
What is left is an entirely on rails, plot driven RPG gaming experience. To make matters worse, the initial 15-20 hours of gameplay are bound to leave the player confused and somewhat disengaged as the numerous plot twists and bizarre characters introduced during this time will surely cause no shortage of confusion in their minds.
Throw in a very ungainly and unbalanced style of gameplay which seems to consist entirely of wandering around and fighting weak level monsters to level up, only to then be confronted with a too difficult boss that is ridiculously over powered and you have a very frustrated player indeed.
Therein lies another flaw with Final Fantasy XIII. Previously, it was entirely within the realm of possibility for the player to be able to level up their characters to the maximum at any stage of the game so long as they were prepared to spend the required amount of time fighting and gaining experience to do so.
However, many players would sensibly wait until the end before doing so because:
1) They could not be bothered spending near 40 hours of tedious repetition to achieve such an arbitrary and self-defeating objective
2) To do so would significantly unbalance the gameplay for them.
Final Fantasy XIII however, has even removed this feature and so the player will need to get used to the fact that this imposes a very strict cap on the level of progress the characters can achieve at any given time.
One thing that will quickly strike fans of other RPG titles is the woeful lack of any sort of interaction, beyond those that are scripted into the game itself. Specifically, towns and NPC’s, two crucial components and staples found in any RPG have been entirely removed in full from Final Fantasy XIII.
What of the actual combat system itself?
The combat system of Final Fantasy XIII is nearly the same as that of its predecessor, FFXII whereby the player would not endure random encounters but rather, would be able to see their enemies on the map thereby providing them an opportunity to neatly evade them if desired.
Another key feature of the series, MP or Magic Points has also been removed from Final Fantasy XIII, and so the player will instead expend the so called ATB (Active Time Battle) Bar in order to carry out actions during the course of battle.
The characters themselves are a motley bunch of the dour, taciturn protagonists supported by a band of characters that all seem to feature such bizarre quirks or personality traits simply for the sake of making them seem more interesting than they actually are. Sadly, such a cheap trick is not only painfully obvious, but, ultimately, an utterly ineffectual one as well.
In short, it seems that when the producers of Final Fantasy XIII decided to streamline the game, they went just a step too far. The end result? A very disappointing one.