Wade Manns – The Corsair
Final Fantasy XIII
By Square Enix
Genre: Role-playing
Rating: Teen for mild language, suggestive themes and violence.
Release: Tuesday, March 9, 2010
The epic (and epically long) “Final Fantasy” series now has 13 games under its belt. All of these games feature a band of disparate adventurers banding together to save the world from an unknown threat, which they think is known at first, but turns out to be more than meets the eye. That’s the superficial; the details are different, but that doesn’t make these games any less original or fun.
This installment follows the adventures of a group of citizens of the world known as Cocoon, a perfectly spherical world located near another, much harsher one, known as Pulse. Pulse and Cocoon were both created in antiquity by creatures known as fal’Cie, extremely long-lived beings possessed of unspeakable power; being like gods, they leave the running of the day-to-day affairs of Cocoon to Sanctum, the governmental body that runs Cocoon. Because of their fear and hatred that many of the citizens have of Pulse, as well as those who have come in contact with it, the Sanctum has instituted a program known as the Purge, which ostensibly relocates citizens who have been exposed to elements of Pulse down there.
However, one beautiful night, a lone fal’Cie from Pulse is discovered within the limits of a Cocoon city, and a Purge is ordered of the city and all of its citizens. It becomes evident then that the Purge is not intended to relocate the citizens, but to exterminate them.
The origin of the fear of things from Pulse begins with the power of the Pulse fal’Cie, to turn those who come in contact with it into l’Cie, slaves to its will, compelled to complete a Focus, or a task, or be turned into a mindless being. That is the fate that awaits our heroes: Lightning, a former soldier from Cocoon; Snow, a freedom fighter whose fiancé is also a l’Cie; Sazh, a mysterious hanger-on, whose motives are unknown; Hope, a little boy who bears a grudge against Snow, for apparently not being strong enough to save his mother’s life; and Vanille, an over-energetic young woman who never feels any remorse or despair, but is always bright and cheerful, who attempts to encourage Hope in his quest to confront Snow.
They tangled with a Pulse fal’Cie and have been branded; now they must complete an unknown Focus, while the full force of Cocoon’s military is bearing down on them. Some of our heroes believe it is their job to save Cocoon, being led to believe that by Snow’s fiancé, who was turned into a crystalline being (as do all l’Cie who complete their focus); others, knowing that Pulse fal’Cie are the sworn enemies of Cocoon, believe it is their calling to somehow sabotage and destroy Cocoon.
Yes, the story is complicated and contains much confusing terminology, but thankfully there is a data log within the menu that allows you to review any of this information at any time, as well as to peruse the history of the game and all the character profiles (as well as enemy intel) of those you meet.
Exploration in the game is fairly linear, but is filled with many amazing and interesting sights to keep you busy for a very long time. Combat is quite hectic at times; even though you only control one character directly, up to three may be in a battle at once. Efficiently switching between the various roles of your characters to provide adequate attack power, healing, and defense is vital to your survival, especially among some of the battles with enemies that have massive amounts of health.
This is a “Final Fantasy” game; it’s one of my favorite series ever. This game is a very welcome addition to my library, and I will gladly give it 10 out of 10 stars.