The thirteenth installment of the popular JRPG franchise.

Part of the "ten year project" Fabula nova crystallis, which is latin for "the new tale of the crystal".It consists of the three games
Final Fantasy XIII , Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Final Fantasy Agito XIII which take place in the same universe but are not connected otherwise.

The main game, Final Fantasy XIII, takes place in the world of Cocoon that floats in the atmosphere of the planet Pulse. Cocoon was created by the Fal'Cie, some kind of gods, as a paradise for the humans that lived in the dangerous Pulse 13 centuries ago.
The main characters of this game were chosen to be l'Cie, servants of the fal'Cie, much to their dismay, and now have to complete their Focus, tasks given to them by the fal'Cie. If they can't complete them in time or die, they will become soulless monsters called Cie Corpse. However if they do complete it they become crystals and will be granted eternal life, but to a human it is the same as dying since they won't be able to do anything anymore. Because the government of Cocoon found a fal'Cie of Pulse in an old ruin, they exiled every person in the surrounding city to Pulse.This was called the Purge and here the game begins.

The (playable) main characters are:

Lightning - A young woman who was part of the military but had to leave because her little sister Serah became a Pulse l'Cie and eventually she became one, too. She now fights against the fal'Cie, because she doesn't want to be a tool for them.
Her weapon is a gun that can transform into a sword.
Lightning

Snow Villiers - Serah's fiancé and leader of an resistance group called Nora. Lightning doesn't approve of his relationship with Serah because she thinks he is unreliable and thus doesn't like him. Snow also becomes a l'Cie and wants to save Serah.
His weapon is his coat, which powers his physical attacks.
Snow
Hope Estheim - Hope is a young boy who was part of the Purge and was saved by Nora. Because his mother died while fighting with them, he now hates Snow.
His weapon is a giant boomerang.
Hope

Sazh Katzroy - Sazh is a middle aged dark skinned man with an afro and has a baby chocobo living inside his hair. The chocobo was a gift to his six year old son Dajh. His son however was turned into a l'Cie by a Cocoon fal'Cie before the events of the game and the government now uses Dajh to find people associated with Pulse.
He wields two pistols which he can put together to form a rifle
Sazh

Oerba Dia Vanille - Vanille is a mysterious girl who was also saved from the Purge by Snow. She has a very cheerful personality, but she supposedly has an unknown "dark resolve". Her tribal clothing suggests she comes from Pulse
Her weapon is a rod with several hooks similar to a fishing rod
Vanille

Oerba Yun Fang - Fang has similiar clothing to Vanille and is a l'Cie working with the government of Cocoon. It is assumed that she is also from Pulse and she knows alot more about l'Cie than the rest of the party.
Her weapon is a double headed spear which can be seperated into a three section staff.
Fang


There are also summons in this game and they are called Eidolons this time. The Eidolons are related to the story and can only be summoned by a Crystal that is generated by a mark on the body of a l'Cie. Every Character has an unique Eidolon he or she has to beat before they can use them in battle. This time they have a "Gestalt mode". This means they can turn into another form for their summoners to ride or stand on. For example Lightnings Eidolon is Odin, who can turn into a horse for her to ride.
Here are some pictures of the Eidolons and their owners.

Lightning - Odin
Snow - Shiva
Hope - Alexander
Sazh - Brynhildr
Vanille - Hecatoncheir
Fang - Bahamut

Gameplay:

This time the battle is an active time turn based battle and you can only control one character per battle.
In battle a bar(ATB gauge) will appear an screen and will fill up. Each command costs a section of the ATB gauge. For example normal attacks cost one section of the bar and powerful spells 3 sections. Because every command costs ATB points there are no MP's this time and Health is restored after every battle.
Another bonus is the "Break" bar. If you attack very often without being interrupted you will increase the "Break" percentage and if it is high enough you will "Break" the enemy. This means the Enemy will not attack as long as it is in the Break state and your attacks will do more damage. Most enemies can be hurled in the air by attacks while in the Break state.

Battle roles and Paradigms:
Every Character can be assigned a role before battle. Each role will have different attributes for example the role "Ravager - RAV (Blaster - BLA in Japanese)" will have higher attack and the "Sentinel - SEN (Defender - DEF)" will have higher defense.
There are six different roles:
Commander - COM (Attacker - ATK)
Ravager - RAV (Blaster - BLA)
Sentinel - SEN (Defender -DEF)
Medic - MED (Healer - HLR)
Synergist - SYN (Enhancer - ENH)
Saboteur - SAB (Jammer - JAM)

The Player can also change the roles of the party while in battle. This is called Paradigm Shift (Optima Change in Japanese).
Each Paradigm has a name, for example the paradigm Smart Bomb will change to roles of the party to RAV/RAV/SAB
The Ravagers will attack the enemy and the Saboteur will weaken the enemy with Spells
Here is a picture:

You can see the characters Lightning and Vanille on Screen and their life bars on the right bottom side. Sazh is in the background. You can also see the ATB gauge in the middle and the sign for paradigm shift above it. Below it are the commands for your character, in this case Lightning. On top right of the picture is the Break bar. It shows the current damage percentage and how much is needed to Break the enemy.

In this game there will be no experience points, but "Crystarium" points. If a battle is won, every character will gain Crystarium points, which will be used to increase stats and learn skills in the Crystarium System. The Crystarium system will work similarly to the Sphere Grid in FF X. This means the Crystarium System is like a tech tree where you can chose specific skills, which will unlock more powerful skills of the same kind. For example if you learn Fire, the spell Fira will be unlocked and so forth. Every role will have different skills and spells.

If you want to watch trailers you can go to http://www.square-enix.co.jp/fabula/ff13/
Simply wait for the site to load and then click on TRAILERS


EDIT: oh right totally forgot about that
This game will come out in Japan on the 17.December 2009
And in NA and EU on the 9. March 2010,
added Crystarium system, Render of Hecatoncheir
______

Done

The day is upon us, on the East Coast of the US the game will be sold in less than 24 hours during Middle-Night Events at places like GameStop.

My roommate has reserved it on the 360, which disappointed me. We have both systems, they are both setup on the same HDTV, so why not get the game for the system is was designed for instead of it's compressed lil' sister.

I saw a preview for this game I want it so so bad... the only problem is, I'm not done with FF12 and I've had that game for almost three years now.... I should just say to hell with the hunts and just finish the final battle of the game, but I just can't make myself do it lol.... Eventually I guess...

Thanks for making a very detailed analysis of the game though!

I haven't really played much of the game myself, but I've watched my brother play. The graphics look quite amazing and the environments are so well designed and very beautiful to look at.

My main gripes are with the character designs of the females. They all look almost exactly the same, and the voice acting for the females especially is a pain to listen to; they lack enthusiasm and they have the typical squeakiness to them.

I'd buy this. It's taken a very different direction from what most people associate with Final Fantasy, and many have been dissapointed by this. I think I'd enjoy it though, despite being very linear first half of the game. The battles are supposedly (according to a good review I just read) very entertaining and dynamic, and fast paced. You need good reflexes and a quick mind just as much as strategical planning.
So, basically, epic story + intense, epic fights are the biggest enjoyments in this game. It lacks towns and a proper world map, and the exploring is pretty much non-existant at first. But I don't think it'll bother me, the awesomeness of everything else is sure to keep me engrossed. Only played FFVII and XII anyway, so not a hardcore FF fan, with the traditions and all that comes with it. Heck, haven't even played that many JRPGs in to begin with.

I do wish the EU version would include Japanese audio though

Was playing a bit of this last night. Not too far it, but then again, I've already played this part of the game as a demo that came with FFVII: ACC.

Visuals are quite nice and music is still awesome, but it's still Final Fantasy so it's all good.

Apologies in advance for the rant and any offense to your sensibilities.

I make a point of not buying Square-Enix games, given their track record in the last ten years. (it hurts that FMA is linked to them in any way)
The hype for this game has been infuriating for the three or four years since that first trailer. Everyone knew nothing about the game, but acted like it was automatically going to be the best game ever, and wouldn't shut up about every little bit of news which was usually just that there was a bit more CG to gawk at.

Despite Nomura's godawful and overused character designs where everyone looks the same as everyone else...The game is obviously very pretty. And I'm sure the battle system gets quite fun.
But I don't want to have to sit through that godawful generic anime story with it's bad voice acting and worse dialogue. The extreme linearity and lack of towns is just ridiculous. Who wants to play an RPG consisting of "go forward, fight things, suffer a crappy cutscene" repeated for however many hours.
The game would be averaging 7/10s if it didn't have Final Fantasy in the title.

I mean, uh...OMG THE L'CIE AND THE FAL'CIE AND CHARACTERS WITH NAMES LIKE SNOW AND LIGHTING AND HOPE AND VANILLA who the hell translated this cra-I mean...SO COOL!!!

^I kinda agree with you there, Vagrant. Like I mentioned before, the voice acting it pretty terrible. And as for the hype, I was getting updates constantly from my brother and a friend at college. It was getting way too overwhelming just with those two.xD

And the names are ridiculous. Who in their right mind would call their poor son Snow? xD

Personally, I already knew what was going on with this game - heck I got the Japanese BD version of FFVII: ACC just so that I could play the FFXIII demo. Didn't bother importing the game because I knew that the wait for the NA version wasn't too bad.

That said, it's just a game series that I've always found enjoyable and look forward to playing as each game brings something different to the table. The current battle system in FFXIII is much like the gambit system in FFXII, but I think it's better implemented here. Storyline and character names... *shrugs* it's the simplicity of the story and while the names can be odd at times, they're not exactly a dealbreaker. Also the lack of towns/item shops, I dealt with it in Crisis Core and never really cared.

As far as hype goes, just because other people are hyping it to high heaven and others are lambasting as the devil's spawn in game form, I play games and form my own decisions not to conform to everyone else's opinions.

VA and character designs, yes I know it can be cheesy at times but I can't hate a character just solely on their looks/voice because I'm not that superficial about it.

I don't think the game is bad because of the hype or the look of the characters. The characters can have ridiculous looks/names and sound bad all they want, it won't affect the game play itself; they were just observations on my part. I mean, I never read reviews because I always like to make the decision for myself, be it a game or a TV show etc

I love the Final Fantasy franchise and I really like XIII. It's by no means a bad game, it's great.

My problem with the hype is that I got sick of seeing posts about totally pointless FFXIII related things ("They've announced they're going to announce the date they will show a semi-new trailer!") when I'm after gaming news on Kotaku or whatever.

Relating to the hype - it also annoys me that Square-Enix gets to make such profit just by using the Final Fantasy name, rather than making good games for the once proud franchise.

And Crisis Core is, like, exactly why I hate Square-Enix so much. >_<

I'm planning to buy it 'cause I'm an old fan of the series and well, I've always enjoined SE games even if I'm well aware that they started to lose some points (just when they started the whole FF7 spinoff/prequels/sequels imo).

The only thing that worry me about this new episode, is the lack of towns to explore (I do really enjoy to go through big territories, plazas and so on, like in FFXII) and the strange Esper-machine/motorcycle thing. But I'm judging it just from few pics and some trailers, so I will wait to play it to give a precise opinion of it.

I'm also a bit annoyed by the fact that all the female and young boys characters are so similar to each other. I mean, of the 6 main characters I can actually tell apart only Fang, the afro guy and Snow (that is a Seifer-clone or at least a guy dressed exactly like Seifer in KH2).

About the names...well it's not like the other main characters of the series have normal names: Cloud, Squall, Lulu, Wakka, Tifa aren't really common names P:

I'm not saying we need RPG heroes called Bob Smith and Jane McNormalpersonname. XD
It just seems like they half-arsed the naming and called characters things they immediately heard or saw. There was a weather report on, some ice cream, etc.
I mean, Cloud actually had a 'cloudy' past so it had the mildest bit of meaning. He also didn't didn't have friends called Sky and Moon and Chocolatey.
And actually calling a character Hope? That's like if Squall was just called 'Brooding'.

This site has some great articles on FF and its decline, by the way. Can't wait to see what the writer says about XIII. (don't let the URL fool you, I promise it's not a fetish site)
http://www.socksmakepeoplesexy.net/index.php?a=patff

Well, to be fair, Lightning does have an affinity for thunder magic while Snow uses ice magic. So at least this way I don't have to wonder about what their magic affinity is.

Well maybe there is an actual reason why they named those characters in that way, just like Cloud was named so because he was "cloudy", as you said. We don't know too much about their backgrounds.

However I agree with you about the Vanilla one. Sounds so "Mary Sueish"...but again maybe it's just a superficial opinion.

Besides, probably I'm wrong, but isn't "Lightning" just a nickname?


Double lol on the Chocolatey one XD

As soon as a renowned franchise breaks its old, stagnated conventions it's "decaying"?

The (J)RPG genre is dying. It's in desperate need of renewal. The tradtions's what's killing it. I'm not saying all the traditions are bad. Of course they're not. FFXIII is EXTREMELY stripped of all the things normally associated with traditional Japanese RPG's, there's no denying that. But does that automatically make it bad? If you experience the game for what it is, and don't get hung up on how it "should" be, maybe you'll find that it's actually a pretty good game. It still might not be your cup of tea, but at least give things an honest chance before dismissing them just for being different from what you're used to. That's my opinion.

I read a good review that didn't praise the game like Famitsu did for example (they gave it 40/40 didn't they?), they acknowledged the flaws that are there, and yes, they stated that the linear set-up makes it feel restricted and that the early gameplay is a lot like "go forward, kill enemies, boss battle, movie sequence, go forward". But they still thought it was a good game, they didn't hate it just because it wasn't what you've come to expect out of Final Fantasy.

legendary game. my brother's playing it right now. preordering is good. i think the new battle system is quite interesting, it's definately better than the old turnbased battle system. chouchou's right it has been very stripped of it's traditional elements. it's still awsome though.

I'm going to give my two cents worth on the game, if it's worth anything

I've only played about 8 hours of the game, so my viewpoint will be very limited since I've not played the game in its entirety (the whole game is 60 hours long apparently, even longer if you do all the side-quests). I'll address each aspect separately, starting with Characters, Gameplay, Exploration, Setting (Presentation), and Voice Acting. So just skip to the points you want to read because this will be very long, haha

1) Characters
If a story doesn't have characters that the player connects with in an (J)RPG, then the game has already failed. I'll address the main cast individually.

LIGHTNING: She is probably my favorite character so far. She is bad a**, cool, calm, and for the most part collected. Yet, even though I'm not very far into the game, the story has revealed there is a reason for her stoic "I don't need anyone" attitude, and it has a lot to do with her own insecurities. She reminds me a lot of Cloud in many ways; lightning comes from clouds after all (haha, bad joke I know). So yes, I won't ruin much more about her for anyone! I would also like to point out that Lightning isn't her real name, I don't know what it is yet, but apparently she changed her name to Lightning when she joined the military or something.

SAZH: There really isn't much to say about him, I like him, but so far he's more of a comic relief character. He's also the oldest party member, I think he's in his late thirties, but I'm not positive. Despite his comic nature, it's been revealed that he has a son, and that's one of the reasons he's been sticking around with the party. I don't know much about him, but he has a chocobo in his hair and that's pretty awesome

SNOW: He also comes from clouds, but doesn't really resemble a cloud at all (I know, I'm hilarious). He's a character that I hate and love. At times he's a beast, and brings some optimism to the group. However, other times he's downright obnoxious and gets on my nerves. He's engaged to Lightning's younger sister Serah, and Lightning doesn't like him for that reason. So both of them fight a lot, and Lightning throws a few punches, haha. I still haven't really figured out how I feel like him yet since he's been captured for 3 hours of my playing time, but I'll see

VANILLE: I really don't like her. One minute she's Miss Happy-go-lucky, then the next she's all dark and mysterious. I'm sure there is something a lot more to this character, but I just can't say much about her yet. She is a really good magic user though

HOPE: Another character I don't like. He's just a p***y. At the moment, his character IS starting to grow on me because he's starting to man up and take action. However, I still don't like him very much. I'm sure he'll grow as a character, as most Final Fantasy characters do, but he has yet to make an impression.

FANG: I know nothing about her since I've not had a chance to have her in my party. She has an accent and has captured Snow, that's all I know, haha. I do have a feeling I'm going to like her though

2) Gameplay
This is probably a VERY important part of the game, probably second to the characters and story since this is what you spend a majority of the game doing. I have to say, that this is probably the best Final Fantasy ATB mechanic I've ever played! It's fast paced, strategic and fun! I have to point out that the first hour of the game, your abilities, techniques, etc. are VERY limited. Your character's don't grow that much in the few hours because you're constantly changing back and forth between characters (Lightning/Sazh pair, Hope/Vanille pair, and Snow by himself). However, as the game progresses, you get to learn more about the battle system, and it is truly one of the best! The way you progress your characters is a mix of the License Point system from FFXII and the Sphere Grid system from X. You gain CP (basically license points) after every battle, and you in turn use those license points to progress your characters growth. Depending on what kind of class you would like to develop your character in, you select the class, and level up on a "sphere grid" for that specific class. For example, if you wanted to make Lightning an offensive unit, you would select "Commando" in the Crysalarium (that's what the "sphere grid" system is called) menu and select that class. If this all sounds very confusing, the game does an excellent job explaining everything to you, so if you have any questions, just ask

3)Exploration
This is probably the most criticized part of FFXIII. From what I have played so far, I will confirm that the game is linear indeed, but a lot of the progressing reminds me A LOT of FFX. Just like in FFX, there are separate branches on your map you can branch off to, but they more than likely will only result in treasure, not a different way of progression. The linearity allows the story to progress at a rapid rate, but it alas gets rid of mini games and shopping in towns. As for the NO TOWNS aspect, there are indeed towns you get to visit. But you can't actually buy stuff in any shops, or go into houses and talk to random people (you can only talk to people you pass on your way to the next destination). I for one was never really into talking to everyone in towns just to figure out what to do next like in the traditional FFs, so i didn't mind this change. However, I do wish you were aloud more freedom to just walk around an enjoy the cities you visit. However, about 20 hours into the game, it is CONFIRMED that the world of FFXIII opens up and you get to explore the vast land of Pulse and perform side quests. However, this might be too little too late for a lot of people.

4)Setting (including presentation)
The setting in FFXIII is breathtaking! The amount of detail put into all the placed I've visited on Cocoon is amazing! Everything looks gorgeous, and the graphics are beautiful! Definitely the best looking FF to date! Yet as stated above, the short coming linearity takes away from the greatness of the worlds to an extent, but not entirely. The game still looks great and I'm loving every second of the places I've been to. As for the presentation aspect, the fact that Square took the time to go back and re-sync the mouth movement to the ENGLISH voice actors presentation of everything is something that must be applauded. Even the pre-rendered cut scenes were re-synced. That is something that Square has never bothered to do for a western release, and it helps greatly with the believability of the characters.

5) Voice Acting
I would like to say that FFXIIIs English voice acting as a whole is not bad. It is actually quite good, especially comparing it to FFXs voice acting (you REALLY had to grow accustomed to Tidus and Yuna's VA, they just had very irritating voices). I would say that Lightning, Hope, Sazh, and Snow's VAs are probably doing the best so far from what I've seen. And I would like to point out that Snow's VA is Troy Baker, who did FMA anime 1's Frank Archer in the English dub (you can't really look at Snow the same way after that, haha). So yeah, for some, I do agree it is a shame that there is not a duel audio option. But compared to just about every Japanese game released in the West, the voice acting is very good! Don't let the ONLY English audio turn you away from the game.

All in all, good game so far! It hasn't hooked me at the very beginning like some other Final Fantasy titles, but I'm enjoying. I can't say how I ultimately feel since I haven't beaten the game yet, but I'll post my final verdict once I beat the game! If you have any questions, I'm willing to tell anyone if they're on the fence about purchasing the game!

P.S. I skipped the story part of FFXIII because the story is quite complex, and in most honesty, I don't know much about it yet. However, at the pace that this story is moving forward, I can tell that there will be lots of twists and turns to come!

Jus' sayin'.

Haha, nice! I think Nomura even mentioned that he designed Lightning as a female Cloud. Guess he's running out of ideas

So like a huge foolish hypocrite, I ended up renting this game last week. I had a moment of weakness.
Unsurprisingly, I ended up hating it, but what did surprise me was how similar it is to Final Fantasy XII. It's weird because so many fans hated that one.

If you'll pardon my shameless self-promotion, I did a blog about the similarities here.
(includes purty pictures and one minor spoiler - makes more sense if you've beaten both games anyway)

i have a question....ive never played any jrpg....can i go for this 1....cause i wanna get into the genre now......