REVIEW: FINAL FANTASY XIII

ABOVE: Final Fantasy XIII

7th March 2010

By Paul Vale

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THE Final Fantasy series has been delighting fans of Japanese gaming since the late Eighties.

Why? I’m not too sure. I’m not the biggest fan of RPGs, especially when they have a heavily synthesized soundtrack and characters with two looks – angry and pensive.

Still, there’s no denying its popularity and not just in the East, with growing numbers of Europeans and Americans buying into Final Fantasy lore.

Since its Japanese release in December, this, the 13th instalment, has shifted close to two million copies, with similar numbers expected in the UK. Sales figures should be buoyed by the fact that FF13 marks the franchise’s debut on the PS3 – an easy fit considering both game and machine hail from the same part of the planet.

With the 360 version, this should dramatically widen the game’s reach, moving the action from the dark, biscuit-crumbed bedroom of PC users and into the healthier surrounds of the living room.

And you’ll need a big TV to play it as the visuals are stunning. In fact, the visuals are probably the main draw, along with a decent storyline and good character development.

The battle sequences are also well done, moving seamlessly from the narrative into scrap mode, where you’ll use a series of combos to take down a villain.

It’s your standard role-playing fare, polished to a highly impressive sheen.

There’s no doubt this will be a big seller, testament to the popularity of the RPG genre. It should also draw in a few new converts, dazzled by the unbelievably detailed sci-fi world created by the developers.

Unfortunately, I’m not one of them.

Still, I doubt fans of the genre or the series will be left disappointed. The game sums up what’s best about Japanese development – it’s flashy, story-heavy and mostly bonkers. It could also prove to be lucky number 13 for Square Enix.

Moving towards more western fare, Battlefield Bad Company 2 is the latest military kill-fest from EA, following on from a series of solid if unremarkable first-person shooters.

This release, available on the PS3, 360 and PC, shifts gear slightly, perhaps encouraged by the dramatic success of other games in the genre, most notably the Modern Warfare pair.

And Modern Warfare is how it looks and plays, along with some monster weapons, plenty of vehicles and the franchise’s trademark destructible environments. The single-player campaign is fun, with 13 missions set around the globe. The story is mainly tosh, shifting from the Second World War to the present day. But the action keeps you moving along at pace, taking in the delights of the Pacific, Alaska and South America, with your trigger finger permanently pressed.

Where the game looks a cut above is the multiplayer, which, according to shooter fans, could siphon away legions of gamers currently besotted with various incarnations of Call Of Duty.

A lot of the online boys have already downloaded the demo on XBL, to what seems to be universal praise.

Suffice to say, anyone looking for a shooter fix won’t be disappointed. The true measure of the game will only become apparent once it’s been giving a thorough test drive over the network.

But I think I’m safe in saying that it’ll probably do very well.