[h1] "Maybe we'd fall short. Maybe we'd never even come close. But someone, someday, would know we'd tried." [/h1]
[b] Possible story spoilers so read at your own discretion [/b]
Final Fantasy XIII, often regarded the black sheep of the series, or sometimes "the downfall of Final Fantasy" is a linear narrative game where as you progress, follow the lives of 6 characters in their struggle for survival. The game hosts probably one of the most unique and fun combat systems designed, and yet, possibly the most repetitive system.
You have 6 total roles to assign a character. Commando, which focuses on dealing damage in a very focused manner, Ravager which focuses on magical attacks to increase the stagger gauge multiplier party wide, Sentinel which which focuses on grabbing aggro and tanking hits, as well as providing an overall damage resist to the party, Saboteur which focuses on weakening and debilitating opponents with various debuffs and ailments, Synergist which focuses on provide buffs to individual party members, and finally Medic, which heals party members. You can only have 3 party members active at a time, and each party member can only have one role assigned to them at a time. The primary gameplay loop allows you to set up party's Paradigm Decks before a battle. A paradigm deck is the system that allows you to save a role layout for each of the 3 equipped members, and swap between different roles between battle, so example; I can have Sentinel Synergist Saboteur, to buff, defend and debilitate, then I can swap to Commando Ravager Synergist to provide an offensive to stagger opponents, while also buffing the party at the same time. This makes a lot more sense when you play the game, but essentially the loop is all about prepping a strategy and swapping strategies as you play the game.
The story, is often where alot of folks will turn away from this game due to, admittedly, its confusing narrative. The game as you start off throws alot of unknown terms at you, which are promptly answered either as you progress, or as you look at the in game menu's Data Log, which compiles and stores alot of terms, information, and story for you. Not everything is explained in cutscenes, and have to be read sometimes. A common criticism for this game is that the characters "are boring", and "make no sense," but what is often disregarded is that this is not your traditional Final Fantasy. This is a narrative focused game, focusing its effort on telling a story about all 6 characters you will meet. This is a game about being human, about being real, and the characters in this react to things as a real person would probably do. It is a game of self discovery, a journey of doing better, finding the will to make things right, the ability to overcome grief and pain, and much more, but only if you choose to give it the chance and view it in the proper light.
The game is not perfect, and yet, under the proper lens, I feel as though this game was misunderstood when it first launched many years ago. If you're looking for something akin to the original Final Fantasy 1-10, you are not going to find what you seek with this game, but if you're searching for something new, a different take on what it means be within a Final Fantasy, then I think this game is very much worth trying.
Do note the PC version does have some issues depending on your specs, and considering Square has not updated the port in a very long time, it may be beneficial to do some research within the Steam Community or via Nexus Mods to find patches. From experience, the patches are not super complicated to apply, and they're generally very easy to find.
