It’s been roughly four years since the latest Final Fantasy was announced at E3 2006 and at long last the game is set for release here in North America. The big question running through the heads of many is “Will it be good?”

Well, I’m here to say that it will… probably.



I say probably because there’s a lot of things in this game that will make some people very happy and others not so much. The core fans might be disappointed with the complete lack of freedom and inability to grind or complete side quests but trust me when I say that there’s plenty here to enjoy. Let’s get into the details, shall we?

The Pros:

- The graphics look fantastic. Final Fantasy XIII is a very pretty looking game. The characters and environments are completely on par with what you’d expect to see in this series and the vibrant colors or bleak underworlds really set the mood.

- The characters are interesting enough. I found the characters in Final Fantasy XII to be about as interesting as a sack of potatoes. It’s personal opinion, I know but I actually found myself interested in the backgrounds and relationships that this game’s characters had with each other… despite how ridiculous some of the voice acting was. Vanille, I’m talking about you.

- The story is pretty well put together and, at it’s core, is classic Final Fantasy.

- The battle system, while very basic at first, becomes pretty complex and engaging. You start out with pretty simple commands in the beginning but after a couple chapters, you realize that there’s tons of different options and tactics available to you during battle including abilities, summons as well as the game’s job-style role and Paradigm systems.

The Cons:

- I have the feeling that the game doesn’t look quite as nice as it could had the Xbox 360 not been a factor in the development.

- Some of the voice acting is somewhat questionable. Characters Vanille and Hope come to mind as two of the worst cases of this but there’s a couple rough spots from all the characters in your party at various points in the game. This is by no means the worst voices in a Final Fantasy game but they can be a little tough to swallow at times.

- As I mentioned earlier, the game is extremely linear and doesn’t allow for much flexibility regarding plot progression, character building (grinding) or doing side quests. While I didn’t necessarily find this to be a bad thing, I can see this bugging some of the more hardcore Final Fantasy fans a little bit.

Overall, this is a great RPG. It’s a little bit less demanding than some of the previous games but there’s a little bit of something here for new fans, old fans and people who may have just skipped out on a couple of the more recent games and are looking to make a comeback. If you own a PS3, are a fan of some of the previous games in the series and are somewhat accepting to a few changes, give Final Fantasy XIII a play through. You won’t be disappointed that you did.

Final Fantasy XIII (PS3) - 4/5