Final Fantasy XIII’s reputation has flipped since 2009

Final Fantasy XIII asks a lot before it gives anything back. Square Enix’s thirteenth mainline entry, released in Japan in December 2009 and internationally in March 2010, spends its opening hours teaching a battle system that only makes sense once it stops holding your hand. Push through, and the payoff is one of the most striking role-playing games of its generation.

Trailer, via supersaiyan47.

Lightning, Cocoon, and the Sanctum

The setup is a theocratic nightmare. Cocoon is a massive artificial sphere floating above Gran Pulse, the feared world below. The Sanctum rules it, and when citizens are found to have come into contact with Pulse, it orders them purged. Lightning, a former soldier, fights the government to save her sister, who has been branded an unwilling servant of a godlike being from Pulse and made an enemy of Cocoon.

She is joined by strangers marked by the same power and given a shared, unclear task: interpret what is being asked, resist the Sanctum, and avoid being turned into monsters or crystals when it ends. That cast carries the game. Snow Villiers, Serah’s fiancé, leads the paramilitary group NORA. Sazh Katzroy is a civilian pilot and a father. Hope Estheim is a boy struggling with his parents. Oerba Dia Vanille narrates, and Oerba Yun Fang works with the Sanctum’s Cavalry. The English voices are Ali Hillis, Troy Baker, Georgia van Cuylenburg, Reno Wilson, Vincent Martella and Rachel Robinson.

Paradigm Shifts and the Crystarium

Combat is the argument for the whole thing. The Active Time Battle system runs in real time, and you direct one lead character while the Paradigm system lets the party switch roles mid-fight — attacker, healer, support. It is fast, and it is not passive. Character growth runs through the Crystarium, a grid that unlocks abilities and stat bonuses.

The world holds up. Areas are rendered to scale rather than as miniature terrain, and you can turn the camera a full 360 degrees. You travel on foot or by chocobo, save at stations that also sell items and upgrade weapons, and read a datalog bestiary. Summoned monsters, chocobos and airships return from earlier entries.

What the Pacing Costs

The first stretch is the problem. The Paradigm system is genuinely good, but the game withholds it so long that early fights feel like tutorials you cannot skip. The Crystarium is a clean idea, and it is also a corridor for hours. The datalog does real work filling in the world, which is a polite way of saying the story does not always explain itself on screen.

The fiction is dense in a way that rewards attention. Fal’Cie are mechanical beings with godlike power; they mark humans as l’Cie, brand them, and hand them a Focus they are never told plainly. Complete it and you become crystal. Fail and you become a mindless monster called a Cie’th. The Sanctum’s grip rests on fear of another invasion, dating back to the War of Transgression, when Pulse l’Cie tore a hole in Cocoon. That is a lot of machinery, and the game earns most of it.

An 8.1, and Worth the Wait

Final Fantasy XIII is a game that punishes impatience and then repays it. The Paradigm system is the best thing here — a real-time twist on a turn-based tradition that finally asks the player to think in roles instead of menus. The Crystarium is less interesting, a long track wearing a grid’s clothes. The cast is uneven, but Lightning and Sazh give the story a spine the Sanctum politics cannot.

Two sequels followed, Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, which tells you Square Enix knew the world was worth more than one pass. The original stands on its own anyway. It is beautiful, it is slow, and it is smarter than its reputation.

Final Fantasy XIII · game review · JRPG · Paradigm System · PS3 · Square Enix