Warning – contains some gameplay spoilers, but no storyline spoilers.

As the world of Final Fantasy fans rejoices at the release of the long awaited XIII, I take a look at the game for myself and offer my opinion on the game judging by my first impressions. Is it as good as we all hoped it would be?

Final Fantasy XIII (PS3) was due for release alongside the launch of the Playstation 3, but many delays in the release of the game began to anger a lot of die-hard fans of the Final Fantasy series. Dates continued to change, and many wondered if the game would ever be released. Finally though, the game is now readily available, and most will have their hands on a copy by now. But for those who don’t have that luxury yet, or those that aren’t sure about it, maybe this little insight will help make your mind up.

I have had the game for a little over a week now, and must confess I’m only at Chapter 7 right now, with around 10 – 15 hours of gameplay under my belt. So giving an accurate review of the game is not going to be possible. I can only tell it from what I have seen so far.

To begin with, fans of the series will instantly familiarise themselves with the style of game, as the characters, plot, and fight sequences are all very much identifiably Final Fantasy. It will not take long to get engrossed in the game as I have found. The game follows on from the previous title in that you can see the enemies before you fight them. In fact you can see pretty much everything around you, with environments being much more detailed. The large field-of-view means you can see far off into the distance, making you feel more like you are in the story. You will probably find yourself looking out at the scenery from time to time, and with High Definition being a must, I have to admit I have been very impressed with the look of the game.

On a negative side, I must admit I have been disappointed with the levels so far, in the sense that there is no freedom of movement as yet. It’s possibly due to the fact I’m not too far into the game, and this is yet to come, but certainly so far there is only one direction in which to travel. The levels are designed to take you from one end to the other, with only minor detours to pick up the inevitable treasure chest. There doesn’t seem to be the element of search like there has been in previous titles. Some people may welcome this but I’m not so sure as yet.

Hopefully as I get further into the game, there will be more freedom to move about, and the option of choosing where to go, but I don’t wish to know whether this is the case or not until it happens. I too don’t like spoilers.

In the last instalment of FF, you had the inclusion of Gambits. If you set them up accordingly, you could just sit back and let the characters take care of themselves during battles. This was a welcome inclusion for some gamers, but a bad decision in the eyes of most FF fanatics. True followers of the series want to be involved in the fights, and this is something that FF XIII has addressed very well I think.

You have control over each move the party leader makes during the fight sequences, whereas the other characters will fight automatically based on the role they been given. However, you can only perform moves based on this particular role. During the battle you can switch roles – both yourself and your other party – and this becomes a large feature of the battles. Knowing when to change roles and knowing what to change to is half the battle. Without giving too much away, how you fight each battle determines whether you win comfortably, or whether you fail miserably.

I purchased the The Final Fantasy XIII Complete Official Guide with the game, and was very glad of this decision. The guide offers all the information you need at every step of the way, enabling you to get as much out of the game as possible. The guide makes every effort to shield you from potential spoilers, and gives great advice I have found so far. I would wholly recommend purchasing this guide if you want to experience the game fully.

Using the guide, you find out early on that there are no experience points to be gained from fighting. Fans will be very disappointed in this, as I was. But fear not. Further into the game you learn about the Crystarium, a feature that enables you to grow each character in different roles. Each battle awards you with CP, points that can be used to upgrade certain parts of the character. HP, Strength, Abilities, Magic etc can all be upgraded here. Weapons themselves can also be upgraded; all of which is detailed in full in the Piggyback guide.

With all the usual status effects and ailments, potions and spells, and with a host of extras introduced in this latest instalment, you would be silly not to buy this game. As with all the games in the series, you can spend the smallest amount of time getting from start to finish, or you can explore every little detail of the game, spending hours on customising this, that and the other.

So in my opinion, even though the levels are a little too direct so far, the game as a whole offers so much more than previous Final Fantasy games. I would suggest most definitely purchasing Final Fantasy XIII (PS3), as well as the The Final Fantasy XIII Complete Official Guide. You may as well get your moneys worth

Later on I will give a more in depth review of the game, but I feel this may be some time away yet as the game looks huge.