Final Fantasy XIII, released about a week ago, is definitely a visually stunning game, but there just seems to be something missing.

I have been playing the FF games since the first was released for the NES way back in 1987. I still think it was the greatest game ever released for that system. One of the first games I owned for my SNES was FFII (FFIV in Japan) and acquired FFIII (FFVI in Japan) when it was released. The sole reason I purchased a PSOne was to get FFVII and I played the real FFII, FFIII, and FFV as ROMs with poor translations on emulators on my PC. I even own FFX-2, that horrible shit sandwich of a game. The only FF game i dont have was the FFVII sequel that had Vincent as the main character. I couldn’t debase myself enough to purchase it, so I know my Final Fantasy.

This is not a Final Fantasy game.

One of the great things about the original FF was the open world aspect. While there was a linear story line, you did not have to follow it. Case in point, I always acquired the float stone, got the airship, and went through class change before going to the volcano to battle Kary. It was hard as fuck, but was extremely worth it. If you don’t know what I am talking about, then fie on you, go back and play the original FF. It’s available all over the place (even on iPhone). FFXIII has completely linear game play. What in the hell is that?

They also removed any real semblance of a leveling system. How many hours did we spend in FF going back to the Earth Cave fighting in the hall of giants grinding away the levels so we could defeat Chaos at the end? There are “spheres” that allow you to increase you stats and abilities, but I have heard if you fight every encounter in the game you will have enough CP for everything without grinding. Without grinding! Do you realize the grind I went through to beat the Ultimate Weapons in FFVII? And that was just for the bell of it!

While it is viasually stunning, I just find myself severly disappointed with the game play so far. If I want an interactive movie, I’ll go play Heavy Rain again (which is an amazing game). It appears if I want a Final Fantasy challenge, I should go buy the original for my iPhone.