Final Fantasy XIII

The first few hours...

Stormtroopers 2.0

My biggest problem with the game was the first few hours, which pretty much involve running down linear corridors and pressing X. It’s very very easy to get tired of running down straight metal grey matrix-style corridors and pressing x. I felt it was bad design to have such a long game that doesn’t grab you and pull you in right from the start.

In the beginning there is a distinct lack of challenge to the battle system; the enemies are weak and you hardly have any need to paradigm shift. The Paradigm Shift system lets you assign class roles to each character, putting them in offensive, defensive and healing roles with names like Peacemaker, Medic, Sentinel, and Commando.

You can combine Paradigm Shift with command queuing, letting you own most enemies. Once you get past the initial stages of the game, this system becomes much more exciting and fluid. You start really having to plan your paradigms carefully, which is where you finally get a challenge. As a learning curve this increase in difficulty does make sense, but it makes the beginning of the game slightly tedious.

Usually I love the turn-based system; unfortunately I hated the system in Final Fantasy XII as it was too much like a real time RPG. Final Fantasy XIII creates a happy medium between turn-based and real time, I like the fact that you can see your enemies on the field; pre-emptive strike becomes a really useful tool later in the game.

X marks the shot