Final Fantasy XIII

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Final Fantasy XIII
Original title	フ ァ イ ナ ル フ ァ ン タ ジ ー XIII
transcription	Fainaru Fantajī Sātīn
Studio	Square Enix
Publisher	Square Enix
Senior Developer	Yoshinori Kitase Motomu Toriyama Kazushige Nojima Tetsuya Nomura Yoshitaka Amano
composer	Masashi Hamauzu
Erstveröffent- lichung	PlayStation 3: December 17, 2009 March 9, 2010 Xbox 360: March 9, 2010 December 16, 2010 Windows: October 9, 2014 iOS, Android: April 10, 2015
platform	PlayStation 3 , Xbox 360 , Windows , iOS , Android , Xbox One
Game engine	Crystal Tools (formerly White Engine)
genre	role playing game
Subject	Fantasy , science fiction
Game mode	Single player
control	Gamepad
medium	Blu-ray , DVD-9 , download
language	Japanese , English
Age rating	USK PEGI
PEGI content rating

Final Fantasy XIII ( Japanese フ ァ イ ナ ル フ ァ ン タ ジ ー XIII Fainaru Fantajī Sātīn ) is the thirteenth part of the computer role-playing game series Final Fantasy . It's the first Final Fantasy episode developed by Square Enix for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 . Final Fantasy XIII is the central game of the series Fabula Nova Crystallis - Final Fantasy and was first published on December 17, 2009 in Japan.

Production details

Square Enix originally started development for the PlayStation 2 . But since the release of Final Fantasy XII was delayed further, part of the team was already programming for the PS3 and they were so impressed by the Final Fantasy VII tech demo , the 13th part was decided for the PlayStation 3 develop. The development of Final Fantasy XIII included Motomu Toriyama as director, Yoshinori Kitase as producer, Tetsuya Nomura as character designer and Masashi Hamauzu as composer .

Final Fantasy XIII was officially presented for the first time at E3 2006 during the Sony press conference held there . At this point in time, there was no playable version, which is why the presentation was in the form of a trailer showing different game excerpts. According to Square Enix, all scenes shown were in-game material. A development team was commissioned to develop the cross-platform " white engine " that was to be used in Final Fantasy XIII . Producer Kitase said of the engine, “A team of experts was set up to develop an engine that could handle many onscreen elements, cinematic sequences, physics and special effects at the same time . We call this development 'White Engine' ”.

The game was released on December 17, 2009 in Japan for the PlayStation 3 and on March 9, 2010 in North America and Europe, where it was released for the Xbox 360 in addition to the PlayStation 3. On October 9, 2014, a Windows PC version was also released via Steam . A publication on the Xbox 360 in Japan was refrained from due to its limited distribution there.

technology

Final Fantasy XIII was initially developed exclusively for the PlayStation 3. After some development, Square Enix finally announced that the game would appear on the Xbox 360 in North America and Europe, but the PlayStation 3 version would still have priority. So it was finally ported to the Xbox 360 with some losses. Differences exist both in the in-game graphics and in the Render sequences that on the PS3 in 1080p but are available on the Xbox 360 only in 576p. The native resolution of the game is also only 576p on the Xbox 360 compared to 720p on the PS3. The Xbox 360 version has been compressed more so that it still fits on 3 DVDs.

Publications that compared the two versions always saw the PlayStation 3 version as technically better. There are more shadows in the PS3 version than in the Xbox version and far more details can be recognized. Various testers found differences, especially in the way the hair was displayed, which should appear more natural in the PS3 version than on the Xbox.

music

→ Main article : Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack

The music for the game was composed by Masashi Hamauzu . With the announcement of the release date for North America and Europe, Square Enix announced that the theme song there would no longer be Kimi ga Iru kara ( 君 が い る か ら ) by Sayuri Sugawara from the Japanese version of the game, but My Hands by Leona Lewis .

Gameplay

As in Final Fantasy XII, there are no random battles and the opponents are visibly moving through the surroundings at all times. In contrast to its predecessor, however, the fights no longer take place directly on the map, but instead, as in older parts, on a separate battle screen. Opponents can be attacked with a preemptive strike if they are touched while turning their backs on the pawn. However, this will not work on opponents who have high reflexes. The character can also jump at blue markings on the map. With yellow markings, jumping is only possible with the help of a chocobo. In the game world, as in other Final Fantasy parts, treasure chests are more or less hidden away.

Character development

Fighting in Final Fantasy XIII gives you experience points , which are called crystal points in the game, in addition to objects left behind by opponents . While items are randomly distributed, there are always a certain number of crystal points after a fight. The crystal points are used to develop the characters' skills and status values ​​in the so-called crystal. This character development view is similar to the spherical board in Final Fantasy X , but the crystal is displayed in three dimensions. Each character has its own individually designed crystal, which has its own section for each of the six character roles. The sections do not overlap. Due to the individual crystal it is not possible in this part that every character learns all skills. It is also determined in advance how the characters develop in the individual roles. Individualization in character development therefore only consists of the sequence and prioritization of the development of the individual roles. However, there are also restrictions because the characters only gain access to all roles during the course of the game.

Combat system

Basically, the combat system in Final Fantasy XIII is based on the well-known Active-Time-Battle-System, which was already used in many parts of the Final Fantasy series and was further developed for this game. In Final Fantasy XIII , you don't necessarily have to wait for the character's ATB bar to fill up to launch an attack. If the ATB bar in the ATB bar (which is divided into three at the beginning of the game) reaches a certain point, you can perform simple attacks and spells. The selected attack is then placed in the first of three free slots. For stronger attacks you need more parts of the ATB bar. The fire spell, for example, occupies one ATB element, while the stronger Feuga occupies three ATB elements. As many commands can be selected until the ATB bar is fully occupied, the selection can be made manually or automatically. These commands are then carried out one by one by the character. The player can only control one of the characters in this way, the others behave programmatically according to the roles assigned to them, for example as a magician with attack spells, a magician with healing spells or a melee.

Another innovation is the paradigm shift . A combination of up to three roles (the same or different) that the player can put together between fights is called a paradigm . In combat, these paradigms can then be changed at any time, for example from an offensive line-up with three attackers to an extremely defensive one with two defenders and one healer. These paradigm shifts represent an essential tactical element for the battles in Final Fantasy XIII .

Another tactical element is the so-called series bonus : In addition to its hit point display, each opponent has a series bar that is gradually charged up by attacks. If the bar is completely filled, the opponent is put into a state called shock for a certain period of time , in which further attacks on him are much more effective than usual.

After each fight, a statistics screen with a fight balance is displayed, on which the player's performance is rated using a five-star system. The rating has an impact on the objects left by the opponent.

Incantations

There are six different Esper in this part of the series, each character can summon a specific one. Only the respective esper of the group leader can be called, as only he can be controlled. Of the six different Espers, four (Alexander, Bahamut, Odin and Shiva) have appeared in earlier parts of the series and two (Brynhildur and Hekatoncheir) are completely new. A special feature of Shiva is that for the first time she consists of two creatures. If an Esper is summoned, the other two combat members leave the field. The controllable character is also completely healed.

In combat it is now a matter of pushing a metamorphic bar as high as possible before the ESP value of the Esper drops to 0 and it disappears. By triggering the metamorphic mode, the Esper transforms into another form, e.g. B in the case of Odin in a horse. Relatively strong attacks can now be carried out until the metamorphic time has expired. After the end of the metamorphic mode, the Esper disappears and the other group members return to the battlefield completely healed.

Game world

The game world of Final Fantasy XIII consists of two sub-worlds. On the one hand Grand Pulse , a planet, and on the other hand Cocoon . Grand Pulse is named after the creator deity Pulse , who created the world according to the mythology of Final Fantasy XIII . According to a legend Cocoons, there is not only Pulse, but also an unspecified creator deity who is worshiped by the Fal'Cie Cocoons; This legend also mentions that Fal'Cie were formed from the flesh of this deity and humans from her blood. Cocoon, on the other hand, is an artificial spherical satellite created by Fal'Cie from Grand Pulse, which hovers stationary over it. The cities of Cocoons are inside the sphere. In Cocoon, Fal'Cie enable the people who live there to live a carefree and risk-free life, whereas on Grand Pulse there are no more people and the extensive surface is only interspersed with ruins. At the time of the game's history, Grand Pulse is only populated by monsters, which is because the Fal'Cie there arbitrarily choose L'Cie . L'Cie are chosen by the Fal'Cie who are given a purpose. If they fulfill this determination, they end up as a crystal, otherwise as a monster named Cie'th .

mythology

→ Main article : “Mythology” in the article Fabula Nova Crystallis - Final Fantasy

Cocoon

Except for chapter 11, all of the 13 chapters of the story take place on Cocoon. Chapter 13 has a special position here, as you can return to Grand Pulse to complete side missions away from the main plot of the game. The locations of Cocoon that are shown during the game are very different in terms of their appearance. During the game there are underground military bases, crystallized lakes, garbage dumps with remains from Grand Pulse that were dumped there after Cocoon was damaged in the course of a war and repaired with these parts. There are also different types of forests and cities, ranging from the maritime port city to the flourishing trading city ( Palumpolum ) to the highly developed capital, Capitol Eden . The appearance of the inhuman opponent always adapts to the environment.

Grand Pulse

Grand Pulse, which is visited in Chapters 11 and 13, is very different from Cocoon. There are extensive steppes, mountains, mine tunnels, crystal deserts and springs as well as a few ruins that come from people who lived there before the creation of Cocoon. In the meantime, however, these have all moved there or have been exterminated by the Pulse-Fal'Cie, in that they turned people into L'Cie for little things, but the people failed at the tasks set and so first to Cie'th and finally to Cie ' th statutes, which are spread all over Grand Pulse. The Fal'Cie from Pulse used the people living there preferentially to kill certain strong monsters. Certain statues on Grand Pulse also provide a teleporter function once their task has been completed. There is a whole network of teleport statues on Grand Pulse, which shorten the long distances.

action

Characters

main characters

Cosplayer as Lightning

• Lightning (dt. Blitz ) is the protagonist in Final Fantasy XIII . Her real name is Claire Farron (エ ク レ ー ル ・ フ ァ ロ ン , Ekurēru Faron ). She used to be an aspiring soldier in the Guard and chose the code name Lightning after her parents died. Originally from Cocoon, she was declared an enemy when she left the army to participate in the purgation to save her sister Serah, who was turned into an L'Cie by the Pulse-Fal'Cie Anima. Lightning also became a Pulse-L'Cie through the Fal'Cie Anima. Lightning's esper is Odin.

• Snow Villiers ( ス ノ ウ ・ ヴ ィ リ ア ー ス , Sunō Viriāsu ) is a tall, blond man. His fists are his preferred weapon. He is Serah's fiancé and, like Lightning, sets out to save Serah. Like Lebreau and Gadot, with whom he grew up, Snow is an orphan. Together with Lebreau, Gadot, Maqui and Yuj he forms the organization NORA , which is against purgation. His espers are the Shiva sisters.

• Oerba Dia Vanille ( ヲ ル バ ＝ ダ イ ア ・ ヴ ァ ニ ラ , Oruba-Daia Vanira ) is a red-haired girl who hails from Oerba on Grand Pulse. Vanilla is always cheerful and nice in the presence of other people, but it hides some things in a thick web of lies. Your esper is Hekatoncheir.

• Hope Estheim wears a short, yellow cloak and until the day of the purgation is an ordinary boy who is protected from the dangers of the world by his parents. He gets to know vanilla on the purgation train and makes friends with her relatively quickly. His relationship with Snow, on the other hand, is very tense, as he blames him for his mother's death. His esper is Alexander.

• Oerba Yun Fang comes from the same village on Pulse as Vanille. Fang fights with a staff with blades on the ends. She works with the military at times, although she is also an L'Cie. Your esper is Bahamut.

• Sazh Katzroy ( サ ッ ズ ・ カ ッ ツ ロ イ , Sazzu Kattsuroi ) is a dark-skinned middle-aged man who meets Lightning when she voluntarily goes into purgation. Sazh is a caring man with a soft heart and a great sense of justice. In addition to two pistols that Sazh carries as a weapon, he has a chocobo chick that lives in his hair. His son Dajh became a sanctum L'Cie. The Cocoon military takes Dajh to do research with him. Since then, Sazh has been feverishly trying to transform Dajh back in the hope of being able to return to his fatherhood. When they meet again, Dajh turns into a crystal in the arms of Sazh. His esper is Brynhildur.

Opponent

• Yaag Rosch is a lieutenant at PSIKOM. The role of the silver-haired rival of Lightning and her companions is comparable to that of the Turks from Final Fantasy VII . Yaag's goal is also peace for the citizens of Cocoon. However, with his approach, he repeatedly clashes with the group of heroes.

• Jihl Nabaat : Jihl also belongs to the army and is the commander of the PSIKOM soldiers. Her advancement within the army was constant and effortless. She is beautiful, but also cruel and heartless. Yaag Rosh is her right hand.

• Galenth Dysley / Fal'Cie Barthandelus is the Primarch of the Sanctum, the theocratic government of Cocoon. He makes sure that the L'Cie fulfill their destiny and destroy Cocoon.

Minor characters

• Team NORA : The abbreviation NORA stands for "Down with obligations, rules and authority". The team consists of the black-haired girl Lebreau ( レ ブ ロ , Reburo ), the muscular, red-haired Gadot ( ガ ド ー , Gadō ), the blond boy Maqui ( マ ー キ ー , Mākī ) and Yuj ( ユ ー ジ ュ , Yūju ). The head of the resistance group is Snow Villiers. Many other members have already lost their lives in the resistance struggle. Team NORA's headquarters are on a beach in Cocoon, which is outside the government's control.
• Serah Farron : She's the sister of Lightning and the fiancée of Snow. She is made into a L'Cie by Fal'Cie Anima and transforms into a crystal at the start of the game.
• Cid Raines : He is Brigadier General of the Jagdgeschwader, a relatively independently operating division of the Protection Guard, and the commander of their flying base, the Lindblum.
• Amodar : He is a lieutenant in the Bodhum Security Regiment and was therefore Lightning's superior. He is particularly distinguished by his care for the soldiers in his unit. This can be seen, for example, at the fireworks in Bodhum.
• Nora Estheim : Nora Estheim is Hope Estheim's mother. The leader Snow Villiers animates their motivation to fight and distributes weapons to able comrades-in-arms, even to children. Nora Estheim volunteers for the fight, although Hope does not like it. During the violent attacks on both sides, the bridge is bombed and Nora falls into the depths. Snow can just grab her hand, but it slips out of his fingers and dies.

history

prehistory

Cosplayer as Oerba Dia Vanille

The game's plot initially begins on day 13 of the story when Lightning and Sazh try to stop the purgation train. The purgation is an alleged Grand Pulse relocation that affects those who were near a Pulse Fal'Cie when it was discovered. In truth, however, the goal of the purgation is to kill the occupants of the train. However, the real storyline of the game begins 13 days before with Fang and Vanilla awakening from a crystal sleep. The day after, Snow met Lightning for the first time, the sister of his fiancée Serah. However, Lightning is not enthusiastic about her sister's choice, considering Snow is an inflated show-off, and recommends Serah to leave him. With the awakening of Fang and Vanilla, a pulse residue opens in the port city of Bodhum. Serah discovers and explores it, but becomes a L'Cie when exploring through the Fal'Cie Anima. On day four, Fang can't remember her destiny, while Vanilla just pretends that she's forgotten everything. The stigma of Fang is gone, but that of vanilla is still active. So that vanilla doesn't end up as Cie'th, both have to find their destiny again. Therefore, on the fifth day of the action, both visit the power station in the Eyride Gorge, hoping to get their memories back through the hostile Cocoon Fal'Cie Kjata that is there. But even in the vicinity of the Fal'Cie, Fang and Vanilla do not get their memory back, but the Fal'Cie senses the presence of the Pulse-L'Cie and takes defensive measures by making Dajh, the son of Sazh, an L'Cie power. Sazh happened to be in Eyride Gorge with Dajh at the same time as Dajh wanted to see a Fal'Cie. Fang helps Vanilla to escape by standing alone in the way of the soldiers and stopping them. The incident in the Eyride Gorge causes riots in nearby Bodhum and there are rumors of an attack by Pulse-L'Cie. The unrest arises from people's centuries-old fear of an invasion from Pulse.

Later, Fang also manages to escape from the Eyride Gorge and return to Bodhum. In doing so, she notices that vanilla is not in the residue. While searching for her in Bodhum, Fang is captured by the Jagdgeschwader, one of Cocoon's armies. Its brigadier general , Cid Raines, explains his doubts about the government, the sanctum, and offers her help. Fang doesn't trust Cid, but she needs help to find vanilla. On the seventh day, Serah tells Snow that she has become an L'Cie and that she wanted to leave him. Snow, however, vows to stay by her side despite everything. On the evening of the eighth day, Jihl Nabaat Sazh announced the results of the investigation into Dajh, which she led because of her work with PSIKOM, another army of Cocoons. After that, Dajh was given the ability to feel vibrations from pulses, but the PSIKOM was not able to fathom his purpose, which would lead to his end of life as a Cie'th. On the ninth day, vanilla happened to meet Serah on Bodhum Beach. Little does Serah know that her fate and that of Vanilla were linked in some way when Serah became a L'Cie. Vanille feels responsible for Serah and Dajh becoming L'Cie, but doesn't have the guts to apologize to Serah. Serah comforts Vanilla, because she does not yet know the truth, but this only leads to Vanilla wanting to escape her destiny even more, since she does not want to harm the Cocoon, which Serah loves so much. The next day, Snow buys two necklaces for himself and Serah and decides to propose to him the next day, to help her and to protect her. Meanwhile, Serah is looking for a present for Lightning, whose birthday is two days later. After Serah gives Lightning the gift, she also wants to confess to her sister that she has become a L'Cie.

On the eleventh day, Dajh suddenly wants to take a trip to Bodhum. This is approved by Nabaat as she believes that Dajh may have noticed vibrations from Grand Pulse. Dajh does not notice any of this, however, only the worries of his father Sazh, who cannot hide them from him. In addition to Dajh and Sazh, Hope is also watching fireworks with his mother, which is why he traveled from Palumpolum to Bodhum. At the same time, Snow Serah makes a marriage proposal, which she accepts with great joy. However, Serah still has no idea what her destiny might be. She has still not told Lightning about her fate, but she has the feeling that she can do anything with Snow. Then both of them wish something before the fireworks, because such wishes are supposed to come true. While the majority of the population is watching the fireworks, the PSIKOM discovers the pulse residue and sends an expedition team inside. He reports on the discovery of a Pulse Fal'Cie. Shortly thereafter, however, the contact with the expeditionary force breaks off, which leads the sanctum to assume that the soldiers have become Pulse-L'Cie. As a result, the residue is sealed by the sanctum and the purgation is arranged. The next day, Lightning's birthday, Serah finally confesses to her sister that she has become an L'Cie and that she has accepted a marriage proposal from Snow. But Lightning doesn't believe Serah and rejects her and Snow. Then Snow and Serah go to the Pulse Residual again, because Snow wants to visit the Fal'Cie to find out Serah's destiny and thus save her from becoming a Cie'th. At the residual, however, Serah is captured by the Fal'Cie. Snow goes to Lightning again and tells her what happened. Now Lightning tries to save Serah too.

The purgation finally begins 13 days after the catch and vanilla have awakened. This was ordered because the sanctum feared that all of Bodhum's residents could be contaminated by the Fal'Cie. Therefore all residents of Bodhum and the Pulse-Fal'Cie are to be removed from Cocoon. The purgation participants are told that they will only be migrated to a different location, although in truth it is a deportation to kill the entire population of Bodhum. Vanilla goes into purgation voluntarily, because according to the sanctum in her home country Grand Pulse it should end. With that she tries to flee further from her destiny. Lightning also goes into purgation voluntarily to save Serah. The same applies to Sazh, who goes into purgation for his own reasons.

Main story

The banishment of the people of Bodhum from Cocoon is said to lead to their murder. Snow and his gang resisted PSIKOM. This resistance also encourages other purgation detainees, including Hope's mother, to join the fight against PSIKOM. However, most of the fighters and Hope's mother is killed after a short time. Snow feels guilty and wants to give up, but is rebuilt by Gadot, a member of his gang, and, like Lightning and Sazh, decides to go to the Fal'Cie and save Serah. Meanwhile, Hope is also in shock because he saw his mother fall to her death. He and Vanille also go to the Fal'Cie to confront Snow for blaming him for his mother's death. After Hope and Vanille find Snow in the residue, Hope is unable to explain his suffering to Snow, which increases his hatred of Snow. Snow doesn't notice any of this and decides to protect Hope and Vanille from the Cie'th in the residue.

Meanwhile, Sazh Lightning explains the fate of the L'Cie, after which there would be no rescue for them. This makes Lightning very angry. Shortly thereafter, the group found Serah, shortly before their time as L'Cie was up. Her last wish is that Cocoon should be saved, after which she turns into a crystal. Lightning's grief turns into anger towards Snow, who still believes he can save Serah. During the dispute, the PSIKOM begins to bombard the residue. Despite the existing danger, the group continues inside the residue to find the Fal'Cie. When the group reaches the Fal'Cie, Snow asks him to transform Serah back and offers him to become his L'Cie. Since the Fal'Cie does not react, Lightning and Sazh begin to attack him, who then wakes up. Shortly before its end, the Fal'Cie transforms the group into L'Cie. Then they plunge down with the Fal'Cie. There is Lake Bresha, which crystallizes from the impact of the Fal'Cie and its magical powers. The whole group survived the fall, but can't be happy about it as they discover they've become Pulse-L'Cie. However, none of them know exactly what their destiny is. The only thing is an opaque vision of a being called Ragnarök attacking Cocoon. While the others are skeptical and tend to believe that they should destroy Cocoon, Snow continues to believe in Serah's wish and that it is his destiny to save Cocoon, thus to kill Ragnarök. So he stays behind with Serah while the others move on. When Snow is attacked by some PSIKOM soldiers, the Esper sisters Shiva appear to him. These kill some soldiers and then attack him. Snow manages to defeat Shiva, but afterwards he is so weakened that he can be arrested by soldiers. Among the soldiers is Fang, who helps them even though she is an L'Cie. The rest of the group tried to escape in an airship, but were shot down.

After the rest of the group is shot down, they find themselves in a dump full of destroyed objects from Grand Pulse. Lightning sees no difference between the Pulse Fal'Cie, who made them all L'Cie, and the Sanctum Fal'Cie Cocoons. Therefore, she wants to go to the capital of Cocoons, Capitol Eden, and destroy the Fal'Cie Eden there, even if that would mean acting against her sister's wishes and possibly having to fight Snow. On her way she is only accompanied by Hope, who hopes to become stronger through the experiences and finally to be able to face Snow and confront him. However, Sazh and Vanille do not want to join this in their eyes pointless plan. When they see PSIKOM airships flying in the direction of Palumpolum, they both consider turning around to help their comrades, but decide to flee in the opposite direction through the Sunleth floodplain forest to the Nautilus amusement park. Meanwhile, Hope decides to take revenge on Snow with a knife that Lightning gave him. But before he can seriously injure Snow with the knife, he finally realizes that Snow is not to blame for his mother's death.

Snow, Lightning, Fang and Hope meet in Hope's house. They wonder how to proceed when the house is attacked by a PSIKOM unit. But with the help of the fighter squadron, they manage to escape in their airship. At around the same time, Sazh and Vanilla visit the Nautilus amusement park. After Sazh saw Chocobos there for the first time in his life, he decides to end his escape and to face the PSIKOM. It is clear to him that this very likely means his death, but he would like to see his son Dajh one last time to tell him about the Chocobos.

Vanilla tries to talk Sazh out of this idea again and thinks about telling him the truth about what happened in the Eyride Gorge when both of them are suddenly attacked. After the fight, Dajh appears, but when Sazh tries to hug him with joy, his son turns into a crystal. Jihl Nabaat then appears with a group of PSIKOM soldiers and presents Sazh with a picture from the Eyride Gorge showing that Fang and vanilla are to blame for Dajh becoming an L'Cie. Vanilla takes flight and Sazh pursues them. The PSIKOM squad wants to pursue both, but Nabaat gives the order to wait and watch the fight between the two L'Cie so that she can gain new knowledge. Eventually Vanilla and Sazh are arrested to be transported to Eden and publicly executed there. Cid Raines, the general of the Jagdgeschwader, believes that the Sanctum Fal'Cie want to calm the population and restore order and thereby secure their power. The other group members do not want their companions to be abused for such a thing and decide to save them. So they board the flagship of the Sanctum fleet, the Palmekia, although apparently it is a trap, as the sanctuary's primarch, Galenth Dysley, is on board to watch over everything. While one part of the group roams the ship in search of them, Sazh and Vanille manage to free themselves from their cell. Finally both parts of the group meet again and they decide to defeat the sanctum and the Fal'Cie and thus let the people of Cocoons decide for themselves the fate of their world.

So the group goes to the bridge to kill Dysley. But when they step on it, the latter shows his true form in the form of the Fal'Cie Barthandelus and first kills everyone on the bridge, including Jihl Nabaat, with the exception of the six L'Cie. They now fight against Barthandelus, but this appears unharmed again in the form of Dysley and informs the group of their destination. One of the group has to become Ragnarök and then destroy Cocoon. Serah's destiny was merely to gather the group in one place, and their desire to save Cocoon was purely personal. The group then flees and is brought to the fifth ark, a pulse residue in Eden, by an automatically flying airship. In this ark, the L'Cie are supposed to become stronger fighters in order to ultimately be able to destroy Cocoon more easily. At the end of the ark, the group encounters Cid Raines, a Sanktum-L'Cie and mostly a puppet from Barthandelus. But to keep his dream of a free cocoon, he starts a fight against the Pulse-L'Cie. At the end of this, it finally solidifies into crystal, although it has not fulfilled its actual purpose. The group then leaves Cocoon in an airship and goes to Grand Pulse. There they discover that civilization on the planet had perished centuries ago and that the alleged endangerment of Cocoon is only propaganda of the sanctum and its Fal'Cie. On Grand Pulse, Fang sets a trap for Vanille, so that she finally confesses the truth that she has been hiding from Fang so that she does not feel guilty when Fang had turned into Ragnarök several centuries earlier and attacked Cocoon.

To find a way to be freed from their fate, the group goes to Oerba, the old hometown of Fang and Vanille, but this is destroyed in the middle of a desert of crystal dust. Meanwhile, Cocoon sinks into chaos due to the unrest, which could be intensified by a return of the group or even lead to the destruction of Cocoon. Nevertheless, the group takes the risk because they want to save Cocoon for themselves and thus prevent the Fal'Cie's plans. Shortly before the group arrives in Cocoon, the Fal'Cie break the seals of the Pulse arks in Cocoon, causing monsters from Grand Pulse to attack the population of Cocoon. Meanwhile, the fighter squadron wants to implement its plan and destroy Orphanus, the battery Fal'Cie that supplies the Fal'Cie Eden with energy, but they do not know that this will destroy Cocoon. First of all, the captain of the fighter squadron, Rygdea, kills the newly appointed primarch Cid Raines, who no longer cares. The group sets out to prevent the fighter squadron from destroying Orphanus. When the group reaches the heart of the Eden Capitol, there is suddenly a flash of lightning. After he disappeared, all soldiers in the fighter squadron became Cie'th. Inside the Fal'Cie Eden, the group finally encounters Barthandelus again and is eventually attacked by Orphanus. The group destroys Orphanus, which would actually mean the downfall of Cocoon, but Fang and Vanille finally accept their fate and become Ragnarök. But instead of destroying Cocoon, they create a huge crystal pillar that Cocoon supports from then on. As a result, all L'Cie, with the exception of Fang and Vanilla, woke up from their crystal sleep, as did the rest of the group as well as Serah and Dajh.

reception

Ratings

Final Fantasy XIII received the 2008 MTV Game Award in the Do Believe The Hype category for the most anticipated game.

Final Fantasy XIII received the rating 39/40 in the Japanese Famitsu. One of the reasons for narrowly missing the dream rating was the too strong linearity in the first half of the game.

In the German online magazine 4Players , similar points of criticism impaired the rating much more so that Final Fantasy XIII only achieved 76 out of a possible 100 points. According to the test report, you are too limited as a player and have too little freedom. Due to this linear game course, the game is called a "great interactive film", but the role-playing elements would suffer too much from that.

Computer Bild Spiele gave Final Fantasy XIII a rating of 1.83. Here, too, the excessive linearity of the course of the game is rated as a point of criticism.

GamingXP rated the PS3 version with 89% and awarded 86% for the Xbox 360 version.

successor

On January 18, 2011, Square Enix will officially announce Final Fantasy XIII-2 at the "Square Enix 1st Production Department Premiere" . The game was released on December 15, 2011 in Japan, January 31, 2012 in the US and February 3, 2012 in Europe for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

With Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII the trilogy was completed. The game was released on November 21, 2013 in Japan and China, on February 11, 2014 in America and on February 14, 2014 in Europe.

Web links

• Final Fantasy XIII in theInternet Movie Database(English)
• Final Fantasy XIII at MobyGames (English)
• Official European website
• Official Japanese website
• Official North American website
• Official website of Square-Enix
• Article in the Final Fantasy Almanac
• GDC: The Difficult Birth of Final Fantasy XIII . heise online, March 13, 2010.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jimmy Thang: E3 2008: Final Fantasy XIII Coming to Xbox 360 . IGN Entertainment . July 14, 2008. Retrieved July 14, 2008.
2. ↑ Games Aktuell, issue 07/2006, page 42
3. ↑ GameSpot: E3 06: Square Enix announces trio of Final Fantasy XIII games , May 8, 2006
4. ^ Announcement from September 7, 2007 Cynamite / Gamefront
5. ↑ Anoop Gantayat: Final Fantasy XIII Update IGN .com, November 8, 2008
6. ↑ Report: Final Fantasy XIII within six months in Europe ( Memento of the original from April 13, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ↑ http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-final-fantasy-xiii-face-off
8. ↑ Lens of Truth: Head2Head - Final Fantasy XIII - Comparison between PS3 and Xbox 360 version
9. ↑ Report: new details about Jihl Nabaat and Yaag Rosch  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
10. ↑ Report: New information on the story and the Nora team  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
11. ↑ Final Fantasy XIII Test from 4players.de (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
12. ↑ http://www.gamingxp.com/bericht-3491-square_enix-square_enix-ps3-final_fantasy_xiii.htm ( Memento from May 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
13. ↑ http://www.gamingxp.com/bericht-3508-square_enix-square_enix-x360-final_fantasy_xiii.htm ( Memento from May 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
14. ↑ Final Fantasy XIII-2: Square Enix confirms development (January 18, 2011, accessed January 18, 2011, play3.de)