RAMBLING ABOUT: Why I Don't Hate The Final Fantasy XIII Trilogy (Part 1)
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Final Fantasy XIII is the thirteenth main installment in the Final Fantasy series and the flagship title of the Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy sub-series, developed and published by Square Enix. It was released in December 2009 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and has since been re-released on Microsoft Windows in 2014. It was directed by Motomu Toriyama, with Tetsuya Nomura designing the main characters and Masashi Hamauzu composing the score. The game runs on the Crystal Tools engine. It was the first multi platform Final Fantasy title, and the first to be translated into traditional Chinese.
Final Fantasy XIII is set on the world of Gran Pulse, above which floats Cocoon, an artificial biodome on which humanity lives, fearful of the surface world. Lightning, a member of the Guardian Corps military forces, goes rogue when her sister Serah is branded a l'Cie by a fal'Cie from Gran Pulse, designating her an enemy of Cocoon. The Sanctum government authorizes a Purge of citizens who may have come in contact with the fal'Cie, and Lightning meets up with the pilot Sazh Katzroy on her way to find Serah amid the Purge. Also caught up in the Purge are Snow Villiers, Serah's fiance and leader of the anti-authority group NORA, and the civilians Hope Estheim and Oerba Dia Vanille. The five come into contact with the Pulse fal'Cie, Anima, and are branded l'Cie, seemingly with the Focus to destroy Cocoon.
The gameplay makes use of the Command Synergy Battle system, a more fast-paced menu-based combat system that derives from the Active Time Battle system. The player controls the party leader, and chains as many actions as there are ATB gauges, with different actions consuming different amounts of ATB. The party's abilities and actions are determined by the current paradigm, with combat requiring the player to shift between paradigms and to level the paradigm roles via the Crystarium system. The first half of the game is linear, while the latter half opens up once the party reaches Gran Pulse.
Final Fantasy XIII received generally positive reviews from most outlets, who praised the graphical presentation and battle system, while the story received a mixed reaction and criticized the linearity. Final Fantasy XIII was commercially successful, with Square Enix announcing it sold approximately 6.6 million copies. A sequel titled Final Fantasy XIII-2 was released in 2011, and a second sequel, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, was released in 2014. Square Enix announced that the Lightning Saga had sold 11 million copies worldwide.