VGChartz Ranking Game - Final Fantasy XIII - We're back!

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Final Fantasy XIII

Story: 7/10

The story is a bit of a mixed bag. It is not the worst in the series by far but somehow falls far short of what one would expect from the JRPG masters. The Characters have no real motivation for a large part of the game, and seemingly flip a coin when deciding on what their next move will be. It isn't until the half way point where the story gets any kind of momentum. The Story saves some reveals in the final hour but none of them as shocking as they expected them to. It just is completely baffling how a JRPG which took 5 years to make can have a story that felt so rushed. Even more irritating is how the game actually sports a pretty interesting philosophy and mythos yet most gamers would never even know that as majority of it is hidden in the encyclopedia in the menu.

Gameplay: 8/10

Game mechanics also feel a bit confused in actual direction. They sport a much faster paced set-up yet feel more restricted than earlier entries. This is not to say the combat isn't functional and above all else fun. It simply lacks key things that could have made it amazing. The system saves the player time, by automatically choosing the best line of actions for a particular job class. This does work more often than not, yet it relinquishes the player many chances to think for themselves. One could always choose the actions manually but with the hyper fast pace of combat it is probably best to let the game do the work. Most of the player interaction comes in Paradigm shifting. This is how you switch between job classes on the fly in combat. It is a pretty nifty ability but it only adds to the feeling you are just manipulating outcome rather than controlling it.

Graphics: 9/10

This game's beauty is undisputable. It looks amazing for its time, and stands up fine even a few years later.

Sound: 8/10

There are some really good tunes in this game, namely the battle theme. I could listen to that song over and over. Yet some of the more orchastrated themes feel out of place and do not mesh well with the mechanized utopian world they are actually in.

Replay Value: 7/10

The game boasts plenty of gaming hours. Estimated about 50hrs to complete the game. The game does force you to wait till the endgame in order to do a lot of the side missions which comes off really tedious. Not to mention the side missions are pretty weak in execution. Even though all the extra stuff can sqeeze another 100hrs out of this game easily, one might find it hard to do as the battle system is not the greatest and the story leaves much to be desired even after the climax.

Overall: 8/10

The game is not god awful by any definition, it simply lacks a lot of what we have grown to love in FF. There is still some fun to be had with this titles and has some interesting and intense moments.