FINAL FANTASY® XIII Reviews

If Final Fantasy 13 has a million fans, then I am one of them. If Final Fantasy 13 has ten fans, then I am one of them. If Final Fantasy 13 has only one fan then that is me. If Final Fantasy 13 has no fans, then that means I am no longer on earth. If the world is against Final Fantasy 13, then I am against the world.

This game is cinematically beautiful, everything about it is a work of art. the characters are insanely well written and the story line is bomb. id recommend this game to anyone However, there are three things i wished i knew prior to buying this game 1. this is a TURN BASED GAME. for some reason, i didnt research anything about it before buying it so me learning its a turn based game threw me for a loop. i hate turn based games but this game somehow made it non-repitive and fun as hell 2. to avoid awkward dialouge, the creators put most of the "terms" used in the story in the datalog. Now, you can read it all or you can infer as you go. if youre not willing to think about a story and want it all spelt out for you, this aint the game for you. 3. the port doesnt suck, but it does rubber band slightly pretty often. Im not sure if theres a mod to fix this or not and it really didnt bother me to the point i wanted to stop playing, but it was jus a small issue besides that, buy it. it changed my outlook on life i swear on my mama

Great visual even all these years later, combat is weird but still kinda fun and interesting. I hate a lot of the characters and their personalities though.

It has an engaging story and is visually beautiful. The combat system isn't my favorite in a Final Fantasy game but it's not terrible. The leveling up system is easy to use. It's overall an enjoyable game.

The game itself is alright, it's not for everyone. Others complain that auto-battle takes the fun out of battles, it does. Manually inputting your attacks and using the little optimisations during combat is where the fun is. However, I can't run the game. I have no idea what is going on as I have uninstalled and reinstalled the game about 8 times now. I have tried the community mods, and I suspect that I am missing some depreciated dependency software (Microsoft did some updating apparently). My hours show that the game was working 2 years ago, but not anymore. I now have unplayable software and the good people at Steam don't think that it is a sufficient reason to get a refund. Playstation 3 games are famously difficult to port due to the PS3 Architecture being otherworldly but it is a shame that they didn't port a working game. note if anyone has an idea on how to fix please comment I would love to play this game.

While I have my Issues with the linear story telling and the missing side quests, I still love this game and it definitely has the best story of all the FF13 Games.

I played FF13 long ago when it first came out on PS3. I couldn't beat it back then, so I wanted to finish my childhood game this time. Back then, I was bewitched by Lightning's beauty and never really paid attention to details. But as I play this game again in the 2020s, I am starting to see many flaws I didn't recognize back then. This game has many annoying aspects that JRPGs had back then. You cannot save whenever you want, and the linear storyline can be very exhausting. The ATB system was interesting, but I eventually grew tired after hours of repeated battles. Also, fuck all those Cie'th Stone Missions. PC optimization is one of the worst in the series. However, Square Enix was never known for smooth PC optimization, so I wasn't surprised. Even with all that, I still clicked thumbs up because I appreciate how pretty Lightning was in this game.

It's been a while since the game launched, if you wanna play this then you know exactly what you're getting into. Bought it on sale and I live playing it. Getting the hang of the combat. I see why people complain about the linearity of the game and yes it is all true but if you accept that and want to experience a final fantasy very unique then go for it.

~ DIFFICULTY ~ 🔲 An old person could play it 🔲 Easy 🔲 Normal ✅ Hard 🔲 Hardcore ~ GRAPHICS ~ 🔲 MS Paint 🔲 Bad 🔲 Meh 🔲 Graphics don't matter in this game ✅ Good 🔲 Beautiful 🔲 Masterpiece ~ MUSIC ~ 🔲 Bad 🔲 Not special 🔲 Good ✅ Beautiful ~ VOICE ACTING ~ 🔲 No voice acting 🔲 Oblivionly bad 🔲 Acceptable 🔲 Good ✅ Pure talent ~ STORY ~ 🔲 This game has no story 🔲 Like playing Temple Runners for the story 🔲 It's there for the people who want it ✅ Well written 🔲 Epic story ~ PRICE ~ 🔲 Free 🔲 Underpriced ✅ Perfect Price 🔲 Could be cheaper 🔲 Overpriced 🔲 Complete waste of money ~ REQUIREMENTS ~ 🔲 You can probably run it on a calculator 🔲 Average ✅ High end 🔲 NASA computer ~ LENGTH ~ 🔲 (0 - 2 hours) Very Short 🔲 (2 - 15 hours) Short 🔲 (15-50 hours) Average ✅ (50-90 hours) Long 🔲 (90-110 hours) Extremely long 🔲 No ending ~ FUN ~ 🔲 For the Achievements 🔲 I'd rather watch paint dry 🔲 Hard to enjoy 🔲 Repetitive 🔲 Actually pretty amusing ✅ The kind of fun you'll remember 🔲 Ride of your life ~ WORTH BUYING ~ 🔲 No ✅ Wait for sale 🔲 Yes

So this is one of the so-called “black sheep” of the Final Fantasy series—well, at least that’s what FF fans want you to believe. I don’t really have a horse in this race since this is only my third (or fourth, if you count FFVII and FFVII Remake as separate games) FF game I’ve played. But after deeply enjoying FFXVI and seeing its controversial reputation in the community, it’s interesting to see people try to define what a "true Final Fantasy” game is, because I feel like it's a franchise that has reinvented itself on multiple occasions. There are some common threads, of course, but the gameplay, plot style, and overall approach always seem to morph. I've seen people criticize the game's linearity, but honestly, I was completely fine with it. Linearity doesn’t equal bad, just like nonlinearity doesn’t automatically mean good. I also really liked that the game focused more on the characters—on their relationships, their struggles, the way they were shaped by the world closing in around them. And that party dynamic? I loved it! A group of people thrown together by circumstance, slowly learning about each other and softening in unexpected ways. Lightning, especially—watching her shift from isolation to connection and slowly revealing layers of vulnerability along the way—was one of the most rewarding aspects of the game. And speaking of Lightning, I could gush about her for hours. When the game was released, I remember how many girls instantly adored her. The cosplays, the admiration—she was the moment. A female lead in a JRPG—an adult woman, no less. Stoic, composed, strong, captivating, effortlessly cool, and neither oversexualized nor reduced to cheap waifu bait. That kind of female protagonist is rare in JRPGs, and it’s truly disappointing that they are. Another aspect I deeply enjoyed was the music score, with one song in particular leaving a lasting impression. When I finally arrived in Oerba, the melody that played felt like a mournful whisper of Fang and Vanille’s sorrow, weaving their tragedy into every note. It honestly gave me chills. And these are the kinds of moments I cherish most in story-driven games, when music transcends words and breathes life into the emotions of the story. But for all the things FFXIII did right, it’s hard not to wish it had come out a decade later. It would’ve benefited so much from the franchise’s continued evolution, especially when it comes to combat. I cannot believe how long this game makes you play before combat becomes anything more than pressing one button. And there's so much combat before it finally opens up. Hours upon hours of walking down narrow corridors, triggering automated battles, and watching cutscenes. It’s slow. Agonizingly slow. The pacing just drags, and it didn’t need to. The combat system itself feels awkward, like it was trying to evolve but wasn’t quite ready to let go of its turn-based roots. It ends up in this weird middle ground—stuck between old and new—where battles feel more repetitive than engaging. And that’s the real problem. The combat is utterly boring. And oh my god, but why the hell does the game turn into such a grindfest once you reach Gran Pulse in Chapter 11? The sudden difficulty spikes are incredibly frustrating. Forcing me to grind through this slow, repetitive combat was completely unnecessary and only made me dislike the gameplay even more. It didn’t add challenge—it just padded the game with tedious busywork. If I hadn’t been so invested in Lightning and the unfolding story, I might’ve quit right then and there. But overall, I'm glad I finally got in the mood to play FFXIII, and honestly, I’m happy that it was popular enough to become a full trilogy. For all its flaws, it clearly struck a chord with people. And despite my issues with the combat, I’m cautiously excited to play through the rest of the trilogy. But it’s disappointing that the combat held back what could have been an otherwise great experience. I really hope future entries build on FFXVI’s combat and push it even further.