Lightning Strikes Twice: A Second Chance for FFXIII

I was perhaps a little critical in my review of Final Fantasy the Thirteenth (except for the bit about Lightning's hair- which continues to be unnecessarily wrong).  I have recently been replaying the game, and I wanted to give the thing a fair shake of a review.  So here goes.

Brace yourself.  This is going to be intense.

It's still not very good.


Here's the thing.  FFXIII is good, just not very good.

The story, while much less confusing than my first play-through, is still awfully complicated.  Part of the complex is that the story goes into overdrive with its en media res style, using flashbacks of the characters to put them together.  The other part is the sheer amount of terms that are thrown at the player throughout the narrative.

In short, your ragtag group of adventurers have been branded l'Cie - slaves to the more powerful entities of the world known as fal'Cie.  Slaves to do what?  Well, it's never quite explained, but the characters speculate that it is to destroy the world of Cocoon (sort of an advanced civilization above the lowerworld: Pulse).  They don't want to do this, but not fulfilling their Focus means they will be turned into monsters.

But there's a whole other set of stories between the characters, which is really the more interesting part. It's the relationships that really are standout in this entry, with characters who are embraced in vengeance over a lost love, those who are depressed over mistakes they have made, and the responsibility and burdens they now share as l'Cie.

Eventually your characters defy your fate and save the world.  I'd have added a "Spoilers" alert, but the game has been out over two years and I don't think that "the good guys win" is a spoiler for a Final Fantasy Game.

But a complex story is all kind of par-for-the-course in a Final Fantasy entrant.  So what makes FFXIII unique?

(P.S. there may also be lesbians.  This seems to be kind of debated.)

The battle system certainly qualifies.  You control the party Leader, and you are supported by cohorts controlled by the AI.  The party Leader is Lightning for the first 20 hours or so of the game, and then you are given the opportunity to select any other team member as Leader.  The AI is pretty good at doing the right thing based on your stats and what you know about the enemies you are fighting (e.g. if an enemy is weak against fire, your characters will prioritize fire attacks).

And the Leader primarily works off of the AI as well, since the default option is "Auto-Battle."  However, with the Leader, you can select individual abilities to perform.

Instead of expending MP to use special abilities, each ability costs a certain amount of "time."  A simple attack or Fire spell is only one unit, but a powerful -aga spell will take up three.

Where the battle system shines is the use of Paradigm Shifts to change the classes of your characters on-the-fly as the battle situations changes.  The six roles are Commando (fighter), Ravager (mage), Medic (healer), Synergist (positive status effect buffer), Saboteur (negative status effect debuffer), and Sentinel (defender).

One other component of the battles is a chain gauge, which has a breaking point set for every enemy faced.  After the breaking point is hit, the enemy becomes more susceptible to damage from the party (in fact, the final boss is immune to all attacks until his break point is reached).

I "Hope" this picture helps communicate the Crystarium.

Character customization is also little different in FFXIII than in previous Fantasies.  As your characters vanquish foes, they are able to further develop on the Crystarium, enhancing their function in one of three major roles of each character (and, after a story event, secondary roles).  Crystarium routes are pretty straightforward, with an attribute or ability node sometimes one-off of the main path, making the choices you are able to make in character development pretty controlled.

Characters can equip a weapon and accessories (more accessories are available as you traverse the Crystarium).  Weapons and accessories influence one of three character statistics (Attack, Magic, and HP) and provide added bonuses to elemental resistance, status debuff resistance, attack speed, etc.  All of these items have EXP that can be increased by upgrading them with items earned from battles or found in treasure containers.

Understanding how EXP increases (including bonus multipliers) is really only possible with a guide.  Seriously.  It's a little frustrating.

The game design is gorgeous, with cutscenes about as perfect as a game could get.  But the in-game environments are a pretty significant area of contention.  For the first 20 hours of the game, the robust environments are essentially corridors between Point A and Point B, littered with enemies between.  After hour 20, the game opens pretty dramatically, adding Final Fantasy XII like marks/hunts for players to complete for awards, and providing the wide, open areas on Gran Pulse to explore.

All in all, the game is worth a second (if punctuated by time) playthrough.  If you gave up on FFXIII, I'd say give it another chance (or just play one of the other Fantasies, which is likely more engaging).