My review is based on playing the Xbox version of the Final Fantasy XIII game. There are so many contradicting reviews about FFXIII, but one thing is certain, the graphics in this game were amazing, and some of the places where you got to travel in were exciting, when I was in Gran Pulse, I felt like I was like in the prehistoric times, it was cool to see all the huge monsters, and Dinosaur-like animals running around.

The characters were interesting, though I got tired of the way they kept switching who you control for the first few hours, they wanted you to get to know all the characters, and sometimes you were stuck playing as a character you might not like. I really like the main character, I’m so glad to see a strong female main character, that is confident and able to kick butt. But at the same time she is compassionate and grows throughout the game.

I wont give away too much of the story away, but the gist of the story is that there is a group of people that have been branded with a mark, it gives them special powers, but they are forced to perform a “focus” some time of job, and if they complete it they turn to crystal, but if they fail they become monsters. Now for the negative, personally, I found the Game play boring, i was 3 hours into the game and I wanted to stop because i was so bored. I mean literally the entire game is mostly running around fighting monsters.

Normally I like fighting and leveling up, but I like the balance of fighting when I want, or doing side quests, or exploring a town/city when i want, in this game all you do is… fight. It didn’t feel like an RPG game. I feel like this FF game lost the sense of adventure and the excitement that the other games have. Speaking of the battling system, during battle you control one character, and should that character die it is game over, you cannot be revived.

This is the main characters from the game, from the left is (Sazh, Snow, Hope, Lightening, Fang, and Vanille.)

The game has “roles” you can assign to each person, and they can only use magic or attacks from that role. Meaning if all three of your characters are commanders, you will have to use a button to switch to another “Paradigm” so they can be a medic. You have to set up a list of the types of paradigm you can switch to during battle. To level up you get CP (crystal point), which you spend on a system that lets you decide which role you want to develop your character as, but you don’t get to decide  which roles your characters will have until later in the game.

I read reviews where people complain that the game is too linear, i don’t think that’s what is wrong, i don’t mind linear games, its just that there is nothing to do in this game besides level up. The story was interesting and it held my attention enough that I could finish the game. But overall, this game was okay, but in my opinion, not the best game out there.

Here is the Game Trailer, so you can see a little more about the game.