- The first Final Fantasy game on the PS3/360.
- Has a departure of the open world gameplay flavoring a more linear experience focusing on plot.
- Sadly, even with the focus on the plot, the plot is forgettable at points with character narratives that doesn't connect or ends abruptly or starts abruptly.
- The gameplay is fun with the paradigm shift having to switch between builds/classes quickly in order to navigate fights.
- The OST is good and has several tracks that are memorable.

I've been told, numerous times, that 13 is good. I've been told, numerous times, blatant lies. I can overlook the "corridor" complaints, I find them lacking in substance. What I can't overlook are bland environment, boring summons, and characters that feel like wattpad OCs. Fang and Vanille are highlights, but not enough to rehabilitate the utter misery that is 13. I've noticed 13 fans tend to be Kingdom Hearts fans, and I've noticed Kingdom Hearts fans struggle. Not with anything in particular, just that life seems to be hard on them. I'm drawing a line and saying this is all linked.
No I don't care that 13-2 is better. I don't care. Don't ask me to invest 50 hours into something before it gets good. I wouldn't read a bad book for 50 hours.

The combat is good, and I think the music is criminally underrated. A fact that is highlighted from how much of the 13 staff worked on rebirth, and how all those elements sing in rebirth.
13 is a bit of a misery though, and anyone trying to defend it I'm convinced is just huffing nuclear grade copium to make the time investment feel worthy.

Editors note: this is the revised and toned down version of this review. I'm a day 1 hater.

This game may be my ultimate guilty pleasure. It is undoubtedly a mess, but the strong points really hold me and I honestly can't bring myself to dislike this game even though it is a bit of a failure. I think this game is aesthetically fantastic. Everyone always talks about how good the graphics and music are in this game, but it really is true. The battle system is pretty hated, but I honestly enjoy it quite a bit. It is too slow (something the sequel improves on), but I think the Auto-Battle and Paradigm systems themselves are right for this game, and I enjoyed crafting new paradigms to suit the challenge that was put in front of me. The story here is not amazing, but it takes the characters to interesting places, and having the party members so at odds with each other for a large part of the game is an interesting dynamic that makes their uncertain journey hit harder. The characters range from mediocre to good, with Sazh being my favorite. The world-building is great in my opinion, which is honestly a bit of a double-edged sword, considering the ways this game fails. The linearity of the game is not ideal to say the least, but it allows each area to be beautiful. The areas may have my favorite aesthetic of any FF game I've played. The contrast between the unique futuristic urban areas and the immense and unknown wilds are very well-balanced. The hand-holding until halfway through the game is infuriating, and probably its worst aspect. If this game allowed any sort of free movement near the end (i.e. the ability to return to Pulse before the final dungeon), then I think it would fare much better. Despite all the drawbacks, I still enjoy this game a lot. I don't know if I can call it a good game, but every time I boot it up to play it, I personally enjoy it.

Acho uma baita de uma putaria a galera ser contra esse jogo por ser linear, sendo que essa filosofia de design é muito provavelmente, o melhor modo pra se contar uma história fechadinha. Considerando que história é o motivo principal dos Final Fantasies existirem (ao menos pra mim né, um close-second seria a experiência geral de aventura), aceitar o fato de que o jogo é linear me parece no-brainer, sendo que é justamente por isso que o jogo consegue oferecer uma história massa dessas

Quanto ao argumento da história ser confusa, eu concordo. Isso pode ser resolvido lendo (e relendo algumas vezes) o datalog no próprio jogo, mas isso não resolveu tudo, ao menos pra mim, zerei o jogo sem ter um entendimento total da história e do mundo, mas ok

O sistema de itens é cabreiro, eu fazia um audível gemido de DOR toda vez que eu tinha que interagir com ele, por mim nem existia... Diria que ele é meio deslocado aqui devido a natureza linear do jogo

O grind do jogo é sem alma, você gasta bastante tempo em várias lutas muito grandes, papo de 3-5m cada, sem ver de fato habilidades novas ou algo do tipo, você só vê os seus números/atributos subindo, e eras isso... Quanto ao grind, vale o lembrete à quem for jogar: você pode ignorar a maioria dos encontros no jogo, de mob, bicho comum e tal, e você até pode conseguir ir progredindo relativamente bem, mas eventualmente, o jogo VAI cobrar esse desleixo, prepare-se

Pra além desses pontos negativos, é só maravilha, só curtição, ôôôôô jogo bão!

Trilha sonora magnifica, combate que demora um pouco pra engatar, mas uma vez que a manha™ é adquirida, fica muito divertido, cada encontro é arquitetado a fim de te dar o montante certo de desafio, dá pra fazer combinação infinita com as roles dos personagens, você pode brincar de LEGO e achar a perfeita pra você, ou ficar sempre com a mesma e ficar quebrando a cara... que nem um certo Saru... Saru-alguma-coisa...

A história me tocou bastante. Ser acometido por um destino injusto é com certeza uma das coisas mais cruéis que volte e meia acontece na nossa vida, e o jogo trata bem desse tema. Óbvio, "trata bem" ainda considerando que é "só" um jogo, e não o livro de um filósofo profundo, precisa ser bonitinho, animador pra quem for jogar, agradar aos investidores... mas dentro do possível, faz muito bem. Ora, o jogo ME deu esperanças pra ir contra os meus destinos injustos, então dá pra dizer que funcionou, certo?
Também, foi um dos raros jogos desse tipo em que eu saí gostando de todos membros da party, não igualmente, mas ao menos gostando de todos

É o quinto Final Fantasy que jogo, e cada vez mais, vejo que essa franquia é brutalmente subestimada por nós, jogadores ocidentais. Por mais que a série tenha poucas coisas que a definam (de cabeça, só consigo citar o fato de que todas as entradas tratam de algum mundo fantasioso), parece que a maior constante da franquia é a qualidade geral média que eles sempre alcançam. Muito bom!

I missed out on most of the PS2 generation so this was my first FF since FF9. I know most people dislike this entry but I enjoyed it.

The soundtrack is utterly phenomenal, a work of genius and easily the best FF soundtrack ever in my opinion. What the composer accomplished is unreal, managing to blend a ton of genres together while still keeping a familiar motif.

I totally get the 'linear' criticism of the game, it feels like a tutorial for first 20 hours. The linearity is somehow refreshing though. You'd be naive to think other games aren't on 'rails'. They're just good at hiding it. FFXIII dispenses with the allusion and focuses on story, which to me is what is more important in an RPG. Storytelling and worldbuilding, not statistics and numbers. FFXIII is not a complete failure by all means, I consider it an underrated gem.

Realizing I have a lot of conflicting opinions on this, it's a good game but I was just thinking like. Some parts of this makes me like really mad.

First we have a follow up to FF12 which I played right before this, didn't exactly help as FF12 has REALLY good dungeons, while this game only really has two, three if you're being generous. The dungeons aren't great but not as bad as people make it out to be, really the worst part of this game isn't really the fact the game is linear (this is a good thing, actually!) moreso it gives you a cool ass world and doesn't give you the chance to explore it, basically if you've played FF7R all the cities were basically reduced to those segments where you walk around and hear nearby npc chatter discussing the situation. Cities being gone in favor of a dungeon with constant back to back encounters is my biggest problem with it, I think Cocoon looks cool and the fact you don't really explore it kinda sours me the more I think about this game. FF13 has a really cool premise behind the world that gets wasted depending on how much you know about the absurd amounts of concept art out there (they have 13 designs for DIABLOS and they all look REALLY COOL) of a lot of summons as Fal'cie the gods of the world. That's another thing the terminology is not gonna be kind to anyone with a low tolerance for sci-fi jargon like that, I'm fine with made up words but all of the ones here (L'Cie, Cie'th, Fal'Cie) all really suck and sound bad. I actually had to correct the first mention of Fal'Cie (essentially, mysterious gods who govern the world) with L'Cie (Humans empowered by the Fal'Cie to fulfill a specific purpose) because it sounds the same.
"oh that's part of the charm-" SHUT UP!!!!!

The world feels like it's built on really cool ideas but the more I learn about the development and conceptualization phase the more I feel how empty and undercooked it is. Most of the world is just made out of encounters, you. have to fight EVERYTHING (or at least, most things) in order to keep your party leveled and all the segments where you just hang out in the world are reduced to the occasional objective marker with people hanging out in the side and saying stuff and one segment where you talk to your party before you go on some epic quest, these moments only last like 5 minutes at most, thats really not enough time, the story is written around this and for what it is it works but I really would like to stop fighting for a half hour or so at this point. (I have a similar issue with FF7R where there are points where the game starts throwing encounters at you and it's actually kinda worse there but at least that game gave combat breaks and let you experience the world!) The linearity of the game is actually a good thing! It is designed so that the game is always aware of your level and capabilities, it even gives you the paradigms you need for the first half of the game and gives you leeway to customize them, for the first half the game feels like a puzzle and while it comes at the expense of fun dungeons that in of itself is satisfying. The combat in general is great, the game knows this as there's a ranking system, it's kinda pointless unless you want 100% completion but it also showcases they intended ways for you to beat every encounter in an optimal way for the first half and also select bosses. Leveling is also amazingly done since you basically always have what you need at all times, even when the game opens up you can probably play the entire game with a "Pre-Pulse" setup, I don't suggest it, but the fact you can is still impressive all the same.

This is one of the harder Final Fantasies I've played, once full party access is available the game basically ramps up and gives you a minute to prepare, it even tests your ability with the best boss in the game that really kept me on my toes, I never made progress until I had every character maxed per chapter, probably wasn't a good idea but the idea of this game trusting me enough after keeping up with me for 30 hours was really intimidating, but even without most abilities being unlocked the game still felt challenging. I even got the achievement for beating the final boss within 5 minutes.

Now, to focus on the party and I don't know how to segue into that gracefully, but they're all really good! All of them, especially Hope who I'm sure some people hate because he's a pretty good estimation of how a 14 year old would react when having the worst week of all time. Everybody's arc is in your face, basically if someone is talking with like, some violins in the background that probably means it's their arc unfolding right now, it's very angsty in presentation and dramatic, all these guys had a REALLY bad two weeks, some worse than others. I saw someone talk about the angst being bad in comparison to other FFs but idk I think that kind of cheesiness should be expected in everything. I like how informed these characters are by their motives, Hope is a fucked up kid so he acts out (admittedly giving me secondhand embarrassment sometimes) Sazh is a single father trying to look out for his son, Vanille is half glass full but has some baggage behind her, Snow is really bad at his job (terrorist), Fang only really cares for herself and doesn't have much stake in the game also she's really hot.
I didn't mention Lightning, that's not because Lightning is a bad character, but because despite the fact that she is on the cover of all three games (one of them even being named after her) Lightning really isn't the main character, she's just the first character you play as and she has the token protagonist moments but her arc is not any more important than the other members of the party, she feels more akin to Vaan than Cloud or Squall (Someone who doesn't really have any agency on the situation but was swept up in it and goes through a much quieter arc as the story develops) If Lightning was not the only character seen on the cover I would never have guessed she was the main character, the story splits regularly to other perspectives and gives their arcs the exact same significance, you can even swap the character you play as in the overworld, there doesn't really feel like there IS a main character. Lightning is a good character, she's reacting to everything around her the same way someone in her early 20s who spent their life essentially raising their sibling would, she has the same human elements everyone else does but her placement as the main character feels a bit forced? Without any info, if I played this without her being the first character you meet and she wasn't the cover girl and I was asked "who's the main character?" I would probably take a bit to answer "Vanille?" and STILL be very unsure about it. I bring this up because I feel like there's not as much praise for the game for jumping playable characters and giving everyone equal importance. I actually like there's no one who's more important than the other, it would've been a very good selling point for me, I think the emphasis placed on Lightning in the trilogy did ultimately cause them to fumble her (another story) and I think that could've been sidestepped here.

I do like that this game is very party focused, with me really buying into how everyone acts like a unit. They felt like a family by the end... it would sure suck if a sequel ripped that apart in a very passive manner. Another thing it lacks is an antagonist which they all would've benefited from, 13-2 has a great villain but he's in a significantly worse game so we'll leave him alone for now. The character focus is pretty well done but the actual plot, the story, falls apart after its promising setup. Fal'Cie's are basically the antagonistic force all throughout the game but they don't really interact w the party aside from a few. Again I don't like talking about concepts that were scrapped but there was a lot of concepts with the summons filling in for the Fal'Cie some of them receiving multiple designs, I would've really been into this and doubly so if they actually said words in a human form or something. I think the story would've been a lot less confusing towards the end if there was a more tangible villain threat, but what was given was ultimately serviceable.

I have a lot of conflicting feelings on Final Fantasy 13, but I do like the game still. I don't like the dungeons, the combat is great, but I need more breaks from it specifically in segments that last more than 3 minutes, and it would've been nice to chill in a city with people in it every now and then. The world has a really cool setup and the cast dealt with it in a very compelling way, but the story itself kind of forgot itself in the last hour beforehand. Also it has yuri in it so yeah I like it.

I think a lot of critique (and some praise) aimed at this game has two extremes that I disagree with. The primary theme of the story of averting fate has been addressed in other Final Fantasies in plain better ways (with better dungeons!), but that doesn't take away what the game manages to do despite all the confusing and bad stuff in it (I didn't mention the shops or how weapons are handled, they were a pretty good indicator of how I was gonna feel early on) Final Fantasy 13 is definitely nowhere near close to my favorite Final Fantasy but it is one of the Final Fantasies I have the most to say about. Also the sequels are bad.

Sort of interesting with how the combat gradually opens up to more experimentation, but this game's downright baffling story and annoying party members (I'm talking about you, Hope and Vanille) deflate things somewhat. I also wish that there was some sort of interactive element in the setting (towns or shops or something similar); otherwise, the world just feels too empty. Anyways, so far for Final Fantasies 12 and 13, I do find them somewhat entertaining if also somewhat tiring. Hopefully, this trend does not continue in my marathon

Honestly, I didn't expect to enjoy this game as much as I did.
Final Fantasy XIII is often regarded as one of the weakest games in the Final Fantasy franchise, and I understand why, this game suffers from many problems, with the biggest problem being the main story, the writing is bad, the pacing is very monotonous, and the linear corridor levels can be boring, but everything else about it managed to surprise me.

The visuals are amazing, and easily the best part of the game, I love the art-style, the graphics, the details and the cutscenes, this whole game feels like a playable movie.
The soundtrack is great too just as I expected.

As for the gameplay, at first, it was kind of repetitive but it got better as I progressed, and even though there aren't any deep RPG mechanics, it's servicable and fun.
I really like the Paradigm Shift system, swapping through different roles and creating your own combinations is very satisfying, and I enjoyed upgrading my characters in the Crystarium. Also, I loved using the Eidolons, they all have their own movesets and unique attacks, and they look cool.

Another thing I like is how the game can be difficult at times and requires strategy to beat it, the boss fights are challenging, and you have to be prepared every time you face a formidable foe.

Where the game fails specifically, is the way it tells its story.
The story starts and the player has no idea what's happening, the characters talk about random things, and mention names that you don't know yet, and the game doesn't help you understand. This forces you to use the in-game datalog and read in order to understand some things, which is a ridiculous way to tell a story in my opinion.

Also, I have mixed feelings about the characters, while some of them are likeable and interesting, most of them are forgettable or straight up infuriating. I really appreciate how the game tries to make the player either relate or understand the characters by giving them backstories, and reasons to do what they do, and some times it works, but overall it just feels a bit forced.

Having said all that, I still like this game. It's a mess and I totally understand why it gets some hate, but even with all its flaws, it's a decent game at its core, and I had a lot of fun playing it.

Final Rating: "Almost Good" ~ 6.5/10.

I enjoyed this game when it first came out and 14 years later I still think this is an incredibly underrated entry in the Final Fantasy saga.

I don't disagree with a lot of the criticism, it's certainly incredibly linear and it handholds the player for way too long before opening up but at the same time it excels in area's where other Final Fantasy games don't.

For starters (and the thing I enjoyed most about the game) the story, the characters and the world. This felt like the first Final Fantasy game to make every single character feel important, and maintain their importance to the very end of the game.
In previous games, there were always characters that felt less important to the plot the further in you get. Sometimes it was because they were optional (see 1/3 of the FFVI cast), others it was just because they just weren't important to the overarching plot (see basically everyone except Zidane in FFIX). This isn't inherently a bad thing but for the first time in the series, 13 shines the spotlight on every single character and develops the relationships between them more so than any previous entry. There's even a point where 4 of the 6 characters intentionally decide to go opposite directions, with different objectives in mind.

Another area this game excels is in the difficulty curve. I feel like most Final Fantasy games reach a point of basically becoming stomping grounds for your characters, with the last bosses feeling like pushovers to your 9999+ damage wrecking crews.
Final Fantasy 13 manages to stay challenging through to the very end. It does so by very much constraining the upper limit of growth your characters can reach. It's an interesting solution to the balancing issue these games have always faced and it left me engaging with the combat for far longer than I would have otherwise.
This is a double edged sword though, because by removing the ability to out level the enemies, you're removing a core part of the franchise' identity and a lot of people weren't into that. I get it, but in my eyes it lead to a much more satisfying difficulty curve that kept the gameplay engaging.

Ultimately, I'm able to overlook the game's numerous shortcomings in favour of appreciating the things it gets right. In hindsight, a lot of the linearity seems to be the result of Square Enix struggling to adapt to the demands of developing HD games. This project was announced as a trilogy, clearly a means to recoup the increased development costs and given how much longer it would take for 15 and 16 to come out, it's clear they struggled with this issue for a very long time.

At the end of the day, Final Fantasy at it's core is about a good story and a rich, layered world and 13 delivers that in spades. Definitely a top 5 game in the franchise for me.

Oh, and there's a baby chocobo that lives in a dudes afro, so like, best game ever.

Auto-battle
Auto-battle
Paradigm Shift
Auto-battle
Auto-battle
Auto-battle
Paradigm Shift
Auto-Battle

You do this for about 50 hours

A história é realmente muito boa, gráficos incríveis até os dias de hoje, mas o que me incomodou por um bom tempo foi definitivamente a gameplay que soa como um passo pra trás em relação ao anterior, apesar de voltar a um sistema semelhante aos combates de turno mas com um dinamismo notável, o sistemas de paradigmas é bem interessante que com o tempo me fez esquecer o quão chato o combate soava no inicio.

Os personagens são muito bem construídos e únicos, com exeção a Lightning, que se limita em ser uma pessoa extremamente introvertida e chata. Ponto negativo que também gostaria de adicionar é o sistema de Crystarium que não é intuitivo e que sofre entregando uma péssima experiência de uso, pelo menos pra mim.

Apesar dos pontos negativos que ja citei e a linearidade, no geral o jogo funciona bem, a medida que você progride o combate melhora, a história se desenrola muito bem e uma das coisas que tenho que destacar, assim como todo Final Fantasy, esse daqui definitivamente não fica pra trás, a trilha sonora de FFXIII é ESPETACULAR, beira a perfeição do inicio ao fim.

Dito isso, é um jogo ruim, não, mas algumas decisões de game design me decepcionaram um pouco, é uma boa porta de entrada pra série, também não acredito que seja, a fábula de nova crysalis é confusa e aqui não tem uma apresentação tão atraente, te força a ler inúmeros datalogs pra se manter por dentro, caso contrário, boa sorte, ainda sim, para os mais hardcores, eu recomendo jogar mas sem esperar uma experiência marcante, não marcante positivamente, pelo menos, porém me soou satisfatório.

I'll admit I was a pretty big defender of FF XIII back in the day. I loved that the party is forced into such a hopeless situation, that they fight over what to do about it and split up, and watch as their actions cause political turmoil throughout their society. Honestly, it was "once the game opens up and gets good" that I started to like the game less, as the story came to an absolute grinding halt.

Coming back to XIII over a decade later, I do see a lot of what I still loved about it, but frustrations with how obtusely the story is doled out, and the repetition of endless, meaningless battles through overly simplistic levels dragged my enjoyment down by the hour. The RPG elements of this game don't make sense until 20 hours in, when you can actually make decisions about battles you engage in and how to develop your characters. Before then, nearly every battle is mandatory, character progression is on rails, and your party is fully healed between fights, removing all consequence or interest aside from mid battle decision making. Which in and of itself wears thin after fighting the exact same enemy mobs dozens of times over.

As for the plot, even after multiple playthroughs, I don't feel as though I have grasp of this game's setting and society. Yes, I do understand the endless number of proper nouns the game throws at you, and I have read through the datalogs, but it all stills feels extremely disconnected. Like I don't totally understand how this world functions, the roles these people play in it, or how they developed their worldviews (they were seemingly cynical bout their government even before the purge, why?). I also admittedly, don't find the cast particularly likable or relatable (cept maybe Vanille), and that does hurt my enjoyment, even if I do actually think the arcs they go through are the highlight of the game's writing. Despite that, any goodwill I have toward the narrative is killed by the ending, which wraps up the core conflict in the most easy and painless way possible, undermining what I even liked about it in the first place.

I understand why people like XIII, and really want to like it too, but it feels too deeply compromised. Hopefully the sequels fare better.