Final Fantasy XIII (PS3)

The thirteenth installment of the evergreen gaming behemoth Final Fantasy arrives on the expected wave of anticipation and hype, and in this case it is entirely justified in championing a thrilling next step in the series' rich history.

Under the watchful eyes of previous producers Yoshinori Kitase and Motomu Toriyama and character designer Tetsuya Nomura, the world of XIII is as rich as any other of the mind-bogglingly complex and labyrinthine plots that have gone before, but similarly the slate is effectively wiped clean as each strand develops its own unique take on cyber-punk galaxies where hi-tech combines with practical, organic landscapes.

The world of Pulse is our location this time out as the Fal'Cie (robotic mechanoids with spiritual overtones and machinations) rule the roost and preside over L'Cie (those marked by their divine leaders as worthy of higher things, akin to the Tripod rulers from the books by John Christopher). Yet being a L'Cie is not all that it is cracked up to be: succeed in following the quest pre-destined for you and you become a crystal, fail and be transformed into a Cie'th (a grisly monster damned for eternity). Rebelling against this status quo is the (expected) motley band of warriors that the player controls: Snow is the leader of the resistance. The foxy Lightning is on a mission to save her L'Cie slapped sister Serah (a ridiculously sexually overt child-like character who also happens to be Snow's fiancée) and the more mysteriously motivated Sazh, Fang, and Vanille see out the main cast.

Gameplay-wise things will be familiar to any previous Final Fantasy player with the turn system ruling the roost in terms of combat. However, once the enemy is engaged, the camera moves almost immediately to reveal the battle menu and thus transitions mid-game are relatively seamless. Yet the player is only able to control one resistance fighter at a time, thus frustrating waiting occurs, especially for the more mortally wounded of your team who need healing. That said, the sheer rush of the battle enables a balance to be struck between elegance and action.

The running time of the epic is mooted to be 60 hours and, though the replay value (akin to many FF adventures before) seems to be limited and the playing area linear, the landscape is so rich and varied and the interaction of the characters diverse that this is a minor issue. Similarly a more robust villain wouldn’t have gone amiss, but throw in a Leona Lewis warble for closers and you have the closest thing to the console game that Avatar so desperately wanted to be.



Released on 9th March 2010 by Square Enix for PS3 and XBox 360.

Written by Simon Cole.