I rarely see praise for Final Fantasy XIII. I was recently teaching a class. During introductions I rattled off something about working my way through the Final Fantasy series. One of my people identified themselves by immediately launching into songs of love for their favorite Final Fantasy game which, naturally was Final Fantasy X. When asked what game I was on I answered," XIII," and was met with pity for me and hatred for the game. His exact quote was," Wow, the worst one they ever made."
I don't know if I can agree. I am the guy who struggles to enjoy FFX though I wouldn't call it the worst game in the series either. Maybe if I translated his communication to what I feel that he means which would be," Wow, it is the Final Fantasy game I enjoyed least," then I wouldn't feel a need to disagree. Which is what all rankings of the game fail to take into account. One person's least favorite entry into the series will be another person's absolute favorite.
I have several friends who were introduced to Final Fantasy with X. It was the first one released after they started playing video games or perhaps the first one that they were age appropriately to have it catch their interest. Because X set the tone for them of what a Final Fantasy game should be past games seemed boring or too simple for their taste.
Meanwhile, my love for Mario, Link, and Final Fantasy started in the 8 Bit generation of the Nintendo Entertainment System. I have strong feelings for those first couple of generations because along with the quality of the games comes tons of opinion swaying nostalgia. I have been trying to make less and less comparisons to past entries as I enjoy the more modern entries of of the 35 year old franchise.
As an interesting side note here is a link to the Wikipedia entry for list of longest running video game franchises. I would not have predicted Oregon Trail as the oldest video game franchise. These are the squirrel trail thoughts I get into while writing a blog post. I thought it might be fun to share this sickness with you readers.
Back to Final Fantasy XIII. I want to share my specific thoughts on the game as to why I think that it stands out as a sore spot in the series.
On the Rails to an Open World
One of the most interesting parts of all of the Final Fantasy games has been exploration and discovery. This started with the very first game and has been a tradition. Typically the player is introduced to or creates a set of characters who are then thrown into a storyline. After a few minutes or less of tutorial based battles the player is forced to find where things are located while getting deeper into the mechanics of the game.
If you play the original entry of Final Fantasy and do not have the accompanying game book there is exactly zero tutorial. This was common for games of that time. The first Legend of Zelda game did not give any in game instruction at all. Fast forward a few years to Final Fantasy III (FFVI) on the SNES and the first arc of story is 100% on the rails. You learn about Magitek Armor, Magic, Combat, Encounter types (Pincer, Preemptive Strike, etc.), but that part of the game doesn't feel like an introduction. It is done with a little narrative trickery and a lack of access to the world map.
Final Fantasy XIII doesn't truly become an open world for several hours of game play. Until you reach Gran Pulse for the first time grinding is very limited. Exploration is only found in ferreting out secret areas for treasure orbs or bumping into an unexpected boss fight which you will likely lose.
For me this style of play was just a break from the franchise norm. Is it bad to do something different? I am not 100% sold one way or the other. An open world makes the level grinding of the past games enjoyable. I can strengthen my team while looking for secrets and treasure. Until Gran Pulse I don't feel like grinding is very natural in XIII. That leads to some frustrating encounters when the difficulty or boss fights get harder.
Know the Formula or Die!
I don't mind recurring big bads. Kefka harrasses the group in a few places in Final Fantasy VI and they are all quite enjoyable. It makes killing him at the end game a real feeling of accomplishment. Kefka has nothing on Barthandelus other than more personality.
Fighting incarnations of the same Fal'cie overlord is not in itself trite. It had been some years since I revisited Final Fantasy XIII and I immediately remembered the frustration with Barthandelus' first battle. The problem with these fights is that no matter how leveled up you are if you do not follow the correct pattern of paradigm use then you cannot complete the fight. This remains true all the way to the end of the game.
Character Flaws
Lightning is angry, cold, and still pretty awesome. When she slugs Snow across the jaw for the first time I was happy. Though her approval of the big doofus evolves over the course of the story, few of the characters have any real evolution with Hope being a bit of an exception. Lightning is still an overbearing bitch at the end of the story though she is more sold on Snow as a match for her sister.
Snow starts the game as a false optimist with tons of bravado that he is incapable of backing up. Seventy hours of story later the change in his character is that he has one moment of doubt and eventually saves his fiancée.
Hope is angry at Snow for the death of his Mom. The arc of his growth comes in realizing that she died because of her own choices. He gains confidence in himself and grows close to both Lightning and Snow. At the end of the game he is back to feeling alone and needing comfort from Lightning which feels regressive. I would like to have seen him be the one to comfort her.
Sazh should be my very favorite character. He feels like a failed father because his son turned into a L'Cie and later into a crystal. He spends the game as a bumbling bit of comic relief with heavy handed suicidal ideation. He gets through the adventure with a sort of sighing resignation while playing supportive of Vanille.
Vanille is frightened of herself, her surroundings, and basically everything except Fang for the entirety of the game. She is the sad narrator throughout the game only moving to hopeful acceptance of her fate in the final scenes. She covers all this with forced smiles and optimism. Also the noises she makes from getting hit are oddly sexual sounding at least to me.
Fang is awesome. She also has zero growth throughout the entire game. She clearly loves Vanille and is a bad ass used to taking things on herself. She still does this all the way to the end game. She almost has to be in the main fighting group from the moment she comes available along with Hope and Lightning. It is a bit frustrating that she is a bit two dimensional albeit pleasant to look at.
I am not going even bother to get into supporting characters. I don't imagine anyone cares about Cid Raines or any of the other side character except perhaps Serah who is the focus of the game. I may not enjoy X but I do give it credit for having more memorable and relatable characters. Maybe the cast of XIII grows in the sequels.
Action RPG
Square Enix moved away from turn based combat with Final Fantasy XIII. All but the Leader of the party is automated in their actions throughout the game. For me, manually controlling the tank or healer is decidedly dull. For that reason I spent most of one hundred hours clicking the A button on my controller repeatedly for Lightning to flip around the screen.
I do not hate the departure from the traditions of turn based game play. I think to keep up in the modern gaming environment turn based is not easily accomplished without feeling slow. I can see where the controls from XIII inspired the slightly more robust action system of XV.
I did find myself spamming A throughout the game even when it wasn't needed. I auto battled which requires two presses per selection until the very last fight. I must admit if I revisit XIII in the future I may try to run my Leader a bit less automatically. Granted the unique abilities are not unlocked until milestones are reached in the game so this is of little use.
Replay Value
I have avoided returning to XIII for many years because of some of these factors. The world is interesting though I don't feel that I really even came to understand it throughout the course of the game. This is a complaint I also have in X which I find super confusing. I could pretty easily run a D&D campaign using Skyrim as a setting. The same is true of the worlds of Final Fantasy from the original all the way to XII. I am not sure that I fully understand Pulse and Cocoon. That may just be me.
The enemies are mostly pretty interesting. I enjoy seeing Behemoths evolve from one entry of the franchise to the next. XIII brings them out early and often. Goblins leave a bit to be desired, but they are more than made up for in automatons.
The graphics of the game hold up over time. It was a beautiful game when it released and still is today. Now that I have invested more time into XIII I am not sure I will want to return to it for some time. My debate at the moment is do I forge ahead to XV which I know I love or back up and finish X. As of this writing (21 December) I have X installed again. I am thinking of a pallet cleanser game and then back to work on Final Fantasy X. If I can knock it then I should be able to start 2023 on XV which is one of my favorites before circling back to sequel games before remakes and spin offs.
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