I’ve Been Playing.. Final Fantasy XIII

FINAL FANTASY XIII (PS3)

Completed the main story in 17 days from 30 November – on the day of my final A Levels paper, but I’m still playing the side missions (which by no means inferior at all).

The main story is very engaging, albeit confusing at the start. Thrown into non-stop action from the very beginning of the game – with 13 chapters – players hardly have any moments where they can tour around a map freely like in many previous FFs without engaging in constant battles. Maybe Nautilus (Chapter 8) is one, but it’s only for a while, seriously.

There are 64 side missions altogether, excluding all those grinding and hardwork you have to do in order to win items and money to upgrade your characters and weapons. Constantly upgrading your accessories and weapons is mandatory alongside your missions because without upgrading you can never defeat the mission bosses of the latter stages. That’s I say they’re not inferior in any way to the main story.

On a side notes, I believe many would agree this FF is the one with the hottest female character ever. And this hottest female character accolade goes none other than Lightning, the main protagonist and that hot lady on the cover.

AfterEllen.com even ranked Lightning the second hottest female video game character of all time last year, only behind Lara Croft (what!?). Lightning becomes the latest addition to the Atmospheric family of the Final Fantasy franchise, which includes FFVII’s Cloud and FFVIII’s Squall.

There are 6 other playable main characters in the game. African-American Sazh; cutie pie Vanille (what a cute name!);  2+m tall hunk Snow;  14 yr old whinner Hope; and lastly cool tough Fang. Other non-playable characters include Lightning’s sister and Snow’s fiancee Serah and Sazh’s son Dajh.

The soundtrack this time isn’t very bad. Many would know “Lost in Zanarkand”, that famous tune from FFX everybody –  including non FF players – were playing on the piano  some time ago, and this album has pretty worthy tracks capable of dethroning that piece.