Final Fantasy 13

This review are just my initial impressions of a game in which I have eagerly awaited years for. The game was release on the 9th March and seeing as though I have a 9-5 job, I have only played a couple of hours into the game and cannot give a comprehensive review of the story.

First off the graphics are amazing, the visuals are bright and intense with little difference between game play and cut scenes. After watching numerous trailers with Japanese voices, I thought the English translate would not match up but I was wrong, so far every character seems to have just the right voice cast. Although one of the character's voice Vanille seems a bit too posh for my liking.

Now straight to the combat, just like in FF12 enemies appear on the map and are in sight when moving through the levels. Approaching them head on will obviously lead to a fight but if you managed to sneak up on them while their back is turned, you gain a pre-emptive attack (very useful). FF13 combat is different in that you no magic bar, all your moves use up the ATB gauge. You start off with 2 bars and this fills up as you decide what to do, some moves need more bars than others, so for instance Attack command needs only one bar so after the ATB gauge is full, you will attack twice (as you have 2 bars). Other moves can use 2 bars altogether, you can interrupt the ATB gauge and just use which ever command is ready without waiting for the whole ATB gauge to fill before you unleash your combo. So by pressing triangle after 1 bar has filled will cause you to attack once or perform which ever move is ready, so you can quickly finish off enemy who are nearly dead and only need 1 attack. You can also cancel your move altogether in case you need to quickly heal. You will quickly learn about paradigms (maybe misspelt), you can shift you combat style combination during fights to best suit your situation which each character changing there style, so for example the Relentless Assault paradigm mean your party will attack who ever your attacking, but other combination can result in one member being a medic to heal you when you take so much damage whilst the other being a sentinel and drawing attacks. You can customise these paradigms for your own combination, but there are also pre sets which pretty much cover the lot.

Don't worry as all combat techniques are demonstrated through the tutorials during the first fights of the game and is definitely worth while to follow without the need to skip. You get scored on your battles out of 5 stars which is new addition, but it seems to judge you on speed of the battle in these early stages.

The levels themselves are very linear, just walk from point A to point B and fights during your journey, I assume there will be some places you can roam about (like calm lands in FF10) later in the game.

So far I have not been disappointed with the game with the changes making the game feel different from previous titles in respect to combat but still FF at its core. The main character is likeable with the rest of the group feeling similar to previous games. Small fights are quick, and boss fights do require some kind of tactic instead of just mashing attack. However I do miss roaming about big cities and plains but this means the story has flowed well.

For me, this was defiantly worth the wait and I look forward to wasting another 40 hours of my life!