that force you to bend to their whims. Welcome to Final Fantasy XIII, a stirring and emotional

adventure starring Lightning, the latest in a long line of great final fantasy stars.

She's not the only star of this great story, however: Shes joined by four equally fascinating

companions... and one incredibly irritating one. They take a grand journey filled with

electric and heartbreaking moments that will stick in your mind long after the journey

is over. The great story comes at a cost: the larger portion of the skill progression

and exploration is shockingly linear. Freedom eventually comes, but the constant narrow

corridors diminish the sense of grand adventure. Fortunately, fun, flashy battles and gorgeous

visuals help pick up the slack. Final fantasy XIII is a great addition to the franchise

and a great role-playing game in its own right.

So I've mentioned Lightning, the beautiful and resolute heroine. She's the soul of final

fantasy XIII, but she isn't the only character worth caring about. Among others you'll meet

Snow, the roguish self proclaimed hero. And Hope, a lost soul looking for someone to blame

for his anguish. And sadly, you'll also meet Vanille, an annoyingly chirpy, happy go lucky

waif whose high pitched cries might want to make you reach for a set of earplugs. Fortunately,

the other members of your party are easier to root for. You meet them on the broken world

of Cocoon, where a great purge is underway to deport citizens to its nemesis world, Pulse.

While the story has a dull stretch in the middle, the tension between party members

and the great beings called Fal'Cie that govern the flow of society make the tale shine.

And what a world this is. Final Fantasy XIII is absolutely gorgeous, moreso on the PlayStation

3. The art design is quite lovely, equal parts organic, metallic, and crystalline. There's

a lot of detail everywhere and a nice variety of different locations. Everything looks meticulously

crafted, as if every rock, every blade of grass, every tower looks like it's exactly

where it belongs. And aside from some rare moments of slowdown, the game runs smoothly.

You'll spend a lot of time pulling up menus during combat, but everything is slick and

easy to navigate. And boy does that combat look good. It's flashy and colorful, and the

camera does a good job of making things look dramatic while still showing you what you

need to see. If you have both a PS3 and an Xbox 360, go with the PS3. The Xbox 360 version

features a lower resolution, so textures and cutscenes are blurrier. However, the Xbox

360 version is still lovely, so don't sweat the differences if that's the version you

get.

The combat is a blend of real-time and turn-based elements. You have an action gauge that's

split into segments, and it rises during combat. Each action you take costs a certain number

of segments. Once the bar fills, you execute all the moves you've queued up, or you can

cut things short early if you need to. You only have direct control of one character

at a time. The other two members of your party perform moves on their own, and this is where

paradigms come in. Each character can use abilities from several different roles, like

a medic or a commando, but party members can only fill one role at a time. A paradigm is

a combination of roles, and during battle, you'll switch back and forth from one to another.

The first half of the game is relatively easy, but during the second half, you'll need to

experiment to see what works and have a good command of paradigms if you want to succeed.

And frankly, the combat is just a ton of fun when you reach that point. You'll be switching

back and forth between paradigms quickly and occasionally micromanaging your own spells

and abilities. And the boss fights are a great challenge that will have you checking out

different combinations of party members and roles.

You spend crystogen points you earn in battle to improve your attributes and learn new spells

and skills. You're limited to the three roles the game assigns to your characters to spend

points in for the first portion of the game. But eventually you'll unlock all six roles

for every character. The problems with leveling up are twofold. First, character progression

is incredibly linear. There are a few short branches off the Crystarium tree for each

role, but there's no reason to skip over them since you'll be able to earn everything available

to you before you gain access to the next level. Second, by the time you're free to

choose any role, there's no reason to spend points in them. You just end up spending points

on low level upgrades when you can use them for much more powerful enhancements. When

it comes to character advancement, freedom is an illusion.

The limitations also apply to the exploration. There's a stretch where you can pick up side

missions in the middle of the game, but for the most part, you are always moving forward.

The fact that the walkways and corridors and canyons you navigate are usually rather narrow

just makes the linearity all the more noticeable. A little variety would have helped... minigames,

puzzle solving, or something else to help break things up. Of course the plus side is

that the story and gameplay have a lot of forward momentum, and aside from a tedious

jog through a tall tower, no one area overstays its welcome.

So yes it has its problems, but Final Fantasy XIII is a long and great game perfectly worthy

of the franchise. It's got a story you can get lost in and a mostly great cast of characters

that will eventually seem like old friends. Plus, it looks absolutely beautiful. If you're

looking for a fun and involving RPG in an exquisitely crafted world, this one will fit

the bill, and in the process, might even move you in unexpected ways.