The wait is over – Final Fantasy XIII is now released in the United States. After many long months of watching and hearing about our Japanese friends completing what is the 13th game in one of the most illustrious video games series of all time we now finally have the chance to play. Over the past several weeks, there have been a plethora of websites and pages arguing about whether the Xbox360 version is inferior to the PlayStation 3 version. We have chosen to review the Xbox360 version which is in all means identical to the PlayStation3 version, with the exception of being 3 discs instead of one blu-ray disc as well as the fact that the audio/video has been supposedly scaled down and modified for the Xbox’s hardware. Speculators have argued that the PlayStation 3 version of Final Fantasy XIII will use “almost 100% of the PS3′s capabilities”, which is definitely a nice bonus for PS3 fans allover the globe, after years of debate on which system is superior. For the most part, the Xbox360 has historically scored higher on all games that were released on both systems. Final Fantasy XIII may be the first exception to this matter.

Upon inserting Final Fantasy XIII, you are immediately transported to the world of Cocoon with some very nice cinematic to start off the journey. With a few minutes of  video introduction, you find yourself onboard a futuristic train as the main characters combat a few guards to break free. As you debark off the train, you find yourself along a big stretch of highway in which you are then introduced to the main characters of the game as well as the gameplay. We give a big thumbs up here to the developers for a pretty sweet and memorable introduction, as well as pretty good information on the game basics, controls and some of the storyline. Of course we don’t want to spoil too much, but the surroundings you find yourself in are some of the most pretty and unforgettable sights to see. The Final Fantasy series clearly prides itself on creativity, and while you may feel that the game has a very ‘Japanese’ feel to it, as it would per the developers, you will still quickly find yourself immersed in a world full of combat, strife, love, friendship and danger.

The combat system which is turn-based alike most games in the Final Fantasy series isn’t too different than what most fans would be used to. Each player has an ATB (Active-Time-Battle) bar, as when it fills up you get the opportunity to use your attacks or magical skills. A little bit of a surprise which upset us as die-hard fans of the Final Fantasy series – you can only control the actions of the one main character in your party. Your other party members will act on their own. You can however tell them to become more offensive or defensive in their skills, but we definitely miss the old days of when you can control each party member for each specific action. This may actually lead to a little more needed strategy when combating foes and bosses. Since you can only fully control the main character you must make sure to do some proper planning and heal when appropriate. We must admit that the combat is pretty fast paced albeit very smooth. Eventually when your characters become upgraded and have developed powerful skills, you will feel a great essence of teamwork in their abilities to work together. Each character will earn ‘crystogen’ which will allow them to advance their skills and levels. This is very reminiscent of the system put in place in Final Fantasy X. Although this doesn’t allow room for much innovation, we assume that it’s probably at least better than an auto level-up system.

As always – Final Fantasy will produce some of the most memorable and connectible characters from any other videos games to date. Most gamers will grow especially fond of Lighting – one of the main characters of this perilous journey. Aside from Lightning, you will encounter Sazh, Snow, Hope, Vanille as well as several others who will help during the course of the game. Throughout the first half of the game or so, each main character will be enticed in their own journey’s and courses of action in little separate factions of the storyline. It isn’t until the second half of the game that the stories will converge. While this is somewhat reminiscent of older Final Fantasy games, we felt that there should have been a little more convergence between the characters and gameplay earlier on in the story. This isn’t necessarily a ‘bad’ thing, but we just felt that it would have made for a better story.

Visually speaking, Final Fantasy XIII is absolutely no blunder and is probably one of the most graphically stunning games to date. We all know that Final Fantasy prides itself on awesome cinematics and fun combat, and you should expect nothing less from this series. The graphics on the Xbox360 were still spectacular despite comments from die-hard PS3 fans. It is also clear that no other game developers can tell a story quite like SquareEnix, as you will truly remember these characters and stories for years after play-through. Aside from the amazing visuals and sound, Final Fantasy XIII’s gameplay does have a linear feel to it. For the beginning couple hours of the game, it may seem like you are fighting, then watching a cinematic scene, then fighting, then watching a cinematic scene, etc. as it is somewhat repetitive earlier on until the stories converge and your characters develop more skills. Be sure to also check every hidden nook for hidden items, which are found in floating metal orbs for your taking pleasure. We were also a little disappointed not to see some other traditional Final Fantasy elements – a plethora of sidequest throughout the entire game, towns and villages to explore, a robust world map with vehicle exploration. It definitely feels that SquareEnix wanted to travel down a little different path for their release of Final Fantasy XIII. In all respect, the game is definitely enticing and fun to play and watch, however, a few missing elements keep it from being the perfect Final Fantasy video game. Final Fantasy XIII will definitely keep fans of the series happy for the most part – the amount of work clearly put into this game is astounding, and the amount of hours needed to complete the game astounding as well. Final Fantasy XIII will keep gamers busy for the months to come and will remain as one of the most memorable game titles of the year.