Recs.
Updated
Final Fantasy XIII is a hybrid action and turn-based role-playing game. You play as Lightning Farron, a disciplined and determined soldier whose life changes when she and her comrades become l'Cie -- unwilling servants of the gods who are viewed as criminals by society.
SpecsUpdate
Pros
Pro Fast-paced combat that mixes action with turn-based systems
Final Fantasy XIII has a cool battle system that combines action with traditional turn-based combat. You have a party of three members, and you select attacks, spells, and items from a menu as usual, but it's much more fast-paced than you might expect. Attack animations and mid-battle job changes play out in flashy, cinematic sequences that give you a real sense that your hits and spells do some serious damage. Ordering your party members to take actions in fights feels snappy and responsive as well, with your characters zipping around in the battle area as they rush in to use their weapons. All in all, this is a perfect hybrid of action and turn-based combat that looks and feels great.
Pro Beautiful graphics that hold up well over time
This is a gorgeous game that pushed the limit of the consoles the game first released on in Japan in 2009. Even years later, Final Fantasy XIII is quite pretty by today's standards, with glossy character models, detailed environments, and high-quality visual effects during cutscenes and battles. The pristine look and style will probably stand the test of time for many more years.
Pro Memorable soundtrack
The music really is something special. It goes out of its way to tell the story better than the characters or the actual narrative ever could, just in how evocative many of the tracks are. For example, "Fabula Nova Crystallis" is excellent as the game's theme song, revolving around the sorrow that the main protagonists deal with in being labeled as criminals after becoming l'Cie -- unwilling servants of the gods with enhanced magical powers. They are viewed as terrorists by society because of their power, and yet the characters keep trudging on to fight against their fate, mirrored by how the violins and piano in this song continue and keep looping right when you think the song might end.
"Blinded by Light" is the song that plays during normal battles, fusing a classical sound with more modern rock instruments in a way that gets you pumped up for every fight. It also shares a leitmotif with "Lightning's Theme" for the main protagonist, showing a softer and more thoughtful side to Lightning's usual confidence and indifference. And "Dust to Dust" is such a soothing song with echoing wind instruments and heavenly female vocals that plays in a key location later on in the story, giving the team a much-needed respite from their long journey. This soundtrack is in a league of its own, carrying the story, themes, and characters throughout the whole game.
Pro No random battle encounters out on the field
If you hate random encounters in RPGs, you don't have to worry about them in Final Fantasy XIII. As you explore each zone, the enemies are all visible out on the field. You can go up and attack them to fight battles at your own pace, or go around them if you'd rather not deal with fighting for a while. This helps the game from feeling like a chore or a grind as far as battles go.
Cons
Con It has no soul
Final Fantasy XIII is the epitome of style over substance. It's a flashy game that's pretty to look at, with only a few other redeeming qualities. Sadly, this is the game that exposed Square-Enix's questionable handling of the Final Fantasy franchise, where their teams could only produce a hollow imitation of what they thought a Final Fantasy game should be. They prioritized graphical fidelity over the memorable stories and characters that the series is known for. While this technically is a good game, it takes itself too seriously in trying to be so perfect, coming off as stiff and stilted. It lacks the heart, charm, and personality that made so many players fall in love with the series in the first place.
Con The story is way too melodramatic
The narrative has a cool premise in how your party members are fugitive l'Cie on the run from the government, but the way it shows and tells this story is pretty grating. The game begins in medias res to try to be exciting, showing the characters reacting to events in insanely dramatic ways that you may find difficult to believe or sympathize with so early on.
This makes it hard to care about the characters at all for the rest of the game, especially as the story becomes even more dramatic to try and get you to feel something. But really, the story tries way too hard, with the drama coming off as ridiculous and over-the-top a lot of the time.
Con The game doesn't really open up until 20 hours in
Final Fantasy XIII is severely on-rails until the later parts of the story. Because of the plot's narrow pacing, in the way you constantly have only access to maybe two party members at a time, the game tends to feel restrictive. Also, many of the levels are way too linear, feeling a lot like Square's last turn-based games on the PlayStation 2 instead of a true HD game for the generation after that.
This changes drastically once you reach a certain open area, though you won't get there until about 20 hours into the game. You probably won't enjoy having to trudge through corridors while listening to the main character's clanking footsteps through various metal corridors for hours on-end before this.
Con Character progression is boring and unimaginative
As you level up, you unlock new skills, spells, and more for everyone's individual jobs through the Crystarium system: a watered-down, linear grid that requires no thought whatsoever to progress through. There's only one way up through the grid, with your character learning a strict set of skills that you can't customize in any way. The most annoying part about the Crystarium is that, at many points in the first half of the game, your progress gets gated off for arbitrary reasons, keeping you from continuing to level your jobs until the next story sequence. It's such a lazy system that could have been a lot more engaging with more ways to choose how to tailor your characters' abilities.
Con The auto-battle option makes most fights too easy
In trying to make the battle system as accessible as possible, the devs included an option that lets battles progress automatically, trivializing most fights in the game. Selecting the auto option right at the top of the menu queues up all of the best skills for your character to use at any given time, taking away the strategy of knowing when to buff your party members and debuff your foes, as well as knowing how to target enemy vulnerabilities. The system just does it for you, making battles pretty mindless if all you do is select the auto option.
Aside from the toughest boss battles, you can get away with doing this without engaging with the battle system all that much. It's your choice not to, but this was still a weird option to include.