Thursday, April 8, 2010

FINAL FANTASY XIII


Branded by the gods and exiled from their homes. Can they still save the world?

 

For years, the Final Fantasy series has stood as a seemingly timeless pillar of Japanese role-playing games. With fantastic characters, intricate stories and complex battle systems, Final Fantasy is one of the most recognizable names in the videogame world -- and for good reason. Surprisingly, Final Fantasy XIII abandons a number of well-loved series traditions in favor of a more straight-forward approach. While fans might be concerned by this, the two most important aspects of the series -- the battle system and the narrative -- remain just as strong as they always have.




In Final Fantasy XIII, players take control of six different characters with the sharp-eyed Lightning taking the "lead role." Although the game does tend to stress Lightning as the primary heroine, Final Fantasy XIII is reminiscent of Final Fantasy VI in that you control all the characters at different times and you jump between the groups frequently. This multi-story approach, as well as a clever use of flashbacks, makes Final Fantasy XIII's story quite enjoyable, at least in terms of its structure.
Final Fantasy XIII can tiptoe (or "stumble,"
depending on the scene) into the melodramatic, but fans of the series shouldn't be too surprised. What was more intriguing to me, beyond the standard growth of the characters, was the dynamic established between the two worlds of Final Fantasy XIII -- Cocoon and Pulse -- as well as the relationship between humans and their fal'Cie counterparts. Like various religions of the world, the mythology of Final Fantasy XIII incorporates god-like beings (the fal'Cie) that protect humanity. These themes are extremely important to the plot of Final Fantasy XIII and I very much enjoyed them.


SOURCE: IGN

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