So, I got FF XIII right after Christmas.
Imported it new for just 70€. About as much as you have to pay for a new game here anyway.
Have beaten it since. Took me about 55 hours with only doing 18% of the missions.
Now I'm at 90 hours post game and trying to do all the missions (81% cleared so far) and on my quest for total completion. Yeah, you can save the game after beating it and do all the side quests and you also get an upgrade of the Crystarium system.
So, as far as play time is concerned it is about 50 hours for the story and 60-70 hours for all the missions you can do. You can also search for treasure with Chocy-Chocobo, but that's just a small diversion.
Gamplay focuses totally on battles, which are fast paced and intriguing, and leveling up your characters. You can set the ATB bar to slow if it's just too hectic for you at first which is a plus. New features get added to the battle system as you progress through the story. For you to employ and experience everything it has to offer it is recommended to play the optional missions (post game for the difficult ones). There aren't many diversions here, but as the battle system is the main gameplay aspect it should be said there is a lot of meat there.
The game areas are pretty straight-forward, but they are still pretty big and take some time to get through. It suits the high pacing of the story, imo.
And boy do they all look beautiful.
There is one big open area later in the game that connects to some other optional areas.
Graphics are one of the strongest points of the game. It just looks mesmerizing.
In that regard the game really blew me away. It's a real beauty from the various areas, character models (especilally the face and hair) and the battle effects.
The game also excels in the music department. Especially the battle music is among the best of any FF. What can I say, it's just so epic. As usual with Hamauzu there are some themes that get re-used with different arrangement, but he did it really well here by doing variations of these themes, using many different instruments and even vocals for a lot of the tracks.
There isn't really a main theme here, but I'd say the title theme ("The Oath") is very important in the context of the whole soundtrack (as it's also the theme with the most variations).
I'm not a big fan of the insert and theme song by Sayuri Sugawara, but Eternal Love felt okay in the game and it's not like it makes the experience any worse. The OST will release in 10 days in Japan and I'm going to purchase it. It's really worth it.
There is considerate interaction between the 6 main characters but not so much with other NPCs, but that is mainly because of the story. Same could be said about the world. There aren't that many CG sequences (compared to other 3d FFs) and they aren't very long either. In game sequences are more frequent, but rather short than long. So, it's in no way a disturbance.
So, this really is a pretty fast paced game, especially compared to older FFs or other RPGs.
And it's different. That much should be expected from a new FF. Some single points have been pointed out and been criticized, but seeing the whole picture a lot makes sense as to why the game is like it is.
I really enjoyed my time and am still hooked. I couldn't lay down my pad even once.
So, excuse me. I need to get back to it.
Some rough scoring breakdown:
Graphics: 95%
Music : 95%
Battle System: 90%
Interaction: 75%
Story: 80%
Difficulty: medium
play time: 50-120 hours
-> 90%
