everyone has their favorite final fantasy. A lot of people love Final Fantasy 7 because of how much it left behind on the transition to 3D, and simply because it was their first work. Some people love Final Fantasy 9 because, well, Vivi. It’s messy, but you can’t help but fall in love with those 15-year-old boys.But probably nothing is more divisive than Final Fantasy final fantasy 13.
For years, I’ve only heard complaints about the game. The word “corridor” would bring some horrific flashbacks to their gameplay, with many calling Lightning a “cold copy of the cloud” and some simply disliking the game having two sequels. So, when I saw Final Fantasy XIII coming to Xbox Game Pass over the holidays, I knew there was only one thing I could do: find the truth. Do you know what I found? Shock Horror: An awesome video game.
Now, I’m about to say this: some of the hallways mentioned earlier are long. There’s no doubt that this game could certainly make some cuts here and there.But the first frustrating point of criticism I’ve heard for over a decade is that the negativity surrounding the game has completely washed away any possible deep dive into how OK Gameplay is. On top of that, it introduces the paradigm system, a game mechanic that requires you to switch between characters.
Turn-based RPGs have a habit of glossing over some of the finer and more important details of their combat systems, and it takes time for you to figure out how they work. This has not happened to me when using the Paradigm system. Just switching from one character to another, and paying attention to the various gauges in the game, I was able to understand exactly how the game worked. When you finally have the ability to choose your party members and decide their roles, you’ll suddenly find that there is so much freedom to play as you please. This is the exact opposite of what I heard before joining the game.
Some fights are a little too hard, and there are odd cases where things get repetitive due to the lack of enemy variety. But the game forces you to change your teammates in the first half, so you need to constantly re-evaluate the way you approach the fight. You can’t just rely on the same rinse and repeat technique. Final Fantasy 13 keeps you on your toes.
But a fun game isn’t necessarily a good game. After all, it’s Final Fantasy; the series is known for its grand and ambitious storytelling and complex, layered characters. This leads to one of my biggest frustrations when it comes to historical criticism of the game.
In the beginning, you were just thrown into the story. The narrative takes some time to explain itself, and even as it all starts to come together, it’s just digging into what l’Cie or Fal’Cie is, or even. But that’s okay. People are often confused by the pointless fantasy language that some games use (as a Kingdom Hearts fan, I’m used to it), but lore isn’t really what 13 is, is it?
I was surprised to find that this is a game about the roles of parents and children; each of the main actors plays a role. Lightning has to take care of her younger sister Sierra, and reluctantly becomes Hope’s mother figure, too. Snow is an orphan, and he is also Hope’s parents. Sazh is a true father who does his best for his son Dajh while also taking care of Vanille a bit. Heck, the game’s final boss is actually called the Orphan. The game isn’t very subtle.
Above all, Final Fantasy XIII tells a story that is surprisingly relevant to our current experience. Cocoon – the world in which most of the main cast lives – is backed by Fal’Cie, which I think is God (like I said, it’s not 100% clear). But the government is more than happy to sacrifice ordinary people for these gods, these unelected puppets who run the world. Sound familiar?
It feels like a condemnation of the state mixed with the church, and how a government that acts only in its own interests will fail. These are some of the heavy, complex and often emotional themes contained in trauma and fantasy dramas. I love Final Fantasy 15 wholeheartedly, but it just wishes it tackled the political themes as interestingly as Final Fantasy 13.
Both the characters’ desires and needs intersect with the destiny offered to them by their misguided government, and I was shocked to find out how interesting Lightning’s character development actually is. A few hours into the game, Lightning ends the hope of witnessing her mother die not long ago, and follows Lightning around like a lost puppy.
Lightning is a trained soldier who is ruthless even towards those she loves. In those early hours, when she and Hope were alone, she taught him some really bad lessons. He learned to be aggressive and lonely, focusing solely on his mission to avenge his mother’s death. Lightning doesn’t seem to care about him too much, but still plays the role of mother and educator. But over time, she began to see the damage her influence took on Hope’s happiness. So she changed, she relaxed, trying to untangle those knots she was pulling so tight.
That’s not to say Lightning isn’t as cool as shit anymore. There’s an incredible line where a soldier tells her to die and she says “you first” without blinking and I love it. But she’s learned not to be so cold and open up to believing that having others around you is a good thing. The comparison to Claude ends up feeling completely unwarranted and steeped in misogyny.
Cloud’s development after the events of Final Fantasy 7 positioned him as a moody bastard, and the remake actively changes that as it doesn’t match his character. A forum post from over a decade ago describing why they didn’t like Lightning just felt reductive seemed to imply that a woman couldn’t possibly have complex character development. Is everything about lightning perfect? Of course not, but what the heck.
I know Final Fantasy 13 is far from a perfect game. But it’s a great one. The Final Fantasy franchise has been very chaotic since Final Fantasy 13, and the development period for Final Fantasy 15 was notoriously difficult, and Final Fantasy 14 had to be completely rebooted due to the poor reception of the 1.0 release. However, the next game, Final Fantasy 16, may shake off some of the same complications.
Naoki Yoshida is now known for helping save 14 and positioning it as an MMO so popular that they had to temporarily stop selling the game. We’ve only seen a fraction of the 16 so far — because of the pandemic — but new Final Fantasy is always exciting. I do worry that another game in the mainline series doesn’t have prominent female characters, because historically the series has always been filled with them. I worry that using Lightning as the poster child for Final Fantasy over the years will make Square Enix afraid to do it again.
Most importantly though, I hope 16 is a little weird. Final Fantasy is at its best when trying different things, which I think is the best thing about Yoshida and co. Can learn from 13. With a possibly imminent release in 2022, we may soon find out what the development team has learned.
Oh, and 13 is the best game for Sazh’s Chocobo.
