'Final Fantasy XIII' (PS3)

Also available on: 360
Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
Genre: Role-playing game

Square Enix hasn't lost its flair for production. From the regular jaw-dropping vistas down to its glossy cutscenes and stylised menus, the Final Fantasy series continues to be nothing short of a spectacle. However, between its beautifully crafted world and a backpedalling from the expansive and heavily contested Final Fantasy XII, this latest iteration becomes a more linear, focused outing with a number of compromises, but nothing that spoils an otherwise spectacular adventure.

Besides all the bells and whistles, a role playing game will live and die by its battle system. Thankfully Final Fantasy XIII comes with one of the franchise's strongest: it's a real time system under the guise of the Active Time Battle bar, now chopped up into segments that allow for a combination of moves in a single round. However, like XII, you play a single character and direct the remaining party members through class-changing Paradigms. Being able to change formation allows you to keep up with the flow of battle, so if an enemy unleashes a particularly damaging attack, you can use a defensive Paradigm, wait for everyone to get back on their feet, then swap back to dealing damage in a near instant.

While you could obviously change tactics in previous instalments, the array of class combinations paves way for dozens of tactical options, all available within a moment's notice. It's especially ideal for one of the system's key conceits, which is to Stagger the enemy - destroying their defence for a quick kill - through a constant wave of attacks that can lead to end battle bonuses. Between Staggering and dealing with incoming attacks, you haven't got time to micro-manage individual party members or select moves, making the ability to whip out a combo (there's an Auto Battle option to instantly fill the gauge) and change tactic on a dime nothing short of essential.

Despite streamlining the decision process, it still maintains a tactical flavour. Maintaining a chain of attacks is easier said than done, placing a greater emphasis on debuffs and status magic to Stagger foes, and boss battles will stretch your resources and prepared Paradigms to breaking point. During the more difficult encounters you'll need to duck in and manually select certain attacks now and again, but it's a system that lets you concentrate on planning and executing moves rather without juggling menu options every step of the way.

However, such praise can't be extended to the experience system. Reminiscent of FFX's Sphere Grid, characters advance along paths that add new abilities and individual stats. While characters and their individual classes have unique boards, development is a linear affair, offering little choice or opportunity to choose how your character can grow. Furthermore, it's constantly capped, only adding new sections as the story progresses. This tendency to drip feed new abilities by plot events also applies to additional ATB segments and new shop fronts, making you feel constantly restricted throughout all of the game's systems. While this certainly benefits newcomers so they aren't overwhelmed, it hinders the ability to experiment and exploit the riches of the battle system, which was always an enjoyable aspect of the series.

And as early reports suggested, progressing through environments is also a straightforward experience. But it's arguably no more so than your average Final Fantasy game: while all sections essentially have you moving from one point to another, there's enough to keep you occupied and engaged, with branching paths that allow you to avoid and sneak upon enemies for initiative bonuses and hidden item-filled niches at every turn. (Yes, random encounters are no more.) A larger issue is the overall pacing of the adventure: the game has you constantly push through new areas, with no towns or a world map to speak of, and sometimes chapters can be incredibly varied, by either chopping up cutscenes neatly throughout, or having you slog through a dungeon for hours at a time.

Such pacing makes sense for the story, where the principle characters inadvertently become enemies of the state and must flee from a government out to exterminate them. While it has the usual levels of melodrama and juvenile personalities that the genre is renowned for, by and large the cast is a likeable bunch, and watching their interpersonal conflicts unfold is as enjoyable as ever. There's a great deal of intrigue in each character's fate, as well as the true identity of the demi-gods that cursed them, and those high production values serve to make unfolding events far more entertaining. An added surprise is that even within dungeons, characters run ahead and talk among themselves, offering a more natural and ambient narrative on top of the usual array of lavish cutscenes.

The wealth of adjustments also makes it an obvious game to recommend: the frequent tutorials and lax approach to failure - dropping you outside of battle with no punishment - as well as its linearity throughout all its systems makes it feel welcome to anyone. And while it does scale back the freedom and exploration that seasoned players cry out for, an explosion of side-content awaits in the latter stages, before returning to the straight and narrow for the home stretch. Despite its allowances, it still offers an epic, world-spanning adventure, and ultimately, that's what a Final Fantasy game is all about.


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