Final Fantasy XIII

Final Fantasy XIII was the first mainline entry in the series to release on a Microsoft console as well, and that alone made it something of an event. The story follows a group of people branded enemies of the state after being touched by the power of divine beings called fal'Cie. Each of them is given a fated task, the failure of which means being turned into a monster, and the game builds a narrative around six characters who initially don't like each other and have to learn to work together. Narratively, it's one of the series' most personal entries, even though a large part of the world's backstory can only be found in an encyclopedic in-game log, which was a frequent target of criticism at the time.

The combat system ranks among the series' best. Attacks fill up on a time bar, but the real decision-making happens at the level of so-called Paradigms, meaning instant shifts of the whole party's roles between attackers, healers, support, and defense. The key to victory is pushing an opponent into a Staggered state, where damage rises sharply, so even an ordinary fight has its own rhythm and drive. On the other hand, the first half of the game leads the player through corridors almost exclusively, and the open plain of Gran Pulse only arrives after quite a few hours. On Xbox 360 the game shipped across several discs and had a somewhat softer look to its pre-rendered scenes compared to the PlayStation 3 version, but actual gameplay ran smoothly, and visually it's still an impressively clean style. Masashi Hamauzu's orchestral and electronic tracks rank among the best things about the whole game.

Reception was mixed: praise for the technical presentation and combat, reservations about linearity and how long it takes before the game lets the player off the leash. Even so, it became the foundation of its own trilogy, and its role system returned in various forms in other Japanese RPGs. Today it can be seen as a very stylized, precisely lit game that rewards patience. Anyone who sticks it out until the world opens up and combat starts demanding real planning gets dozens of hours of above-average Japanese action with a turn-based heart.