2.5/5 ★ – Kolannut's review of Final Fantasy XIII.

A weird direction for the combat but I get what they were going for. The characters don't fully utilize what's fun about the combat, though, as most are pushed into pure magic rolls that are needed far to often. The game feels passable when you're playing with Lightning who is undoubtly the funnest character next to Sazh. The boss battles (most of them) thankfully fully utilize the potential of the combat system to make it more interesting. Unfortunately it isn't enough to distract from the overly linear maps and a story so poorly told it's kind of insane. It's like playing the third game in a Bioware trilogy as your first game in the series except this really is the first game of the trilogy. Nothing is explained and the characters are talking about so much fantasy termed bullshit that you will have a hard time following what's going on. Instead, you are given codex entries every few completed areas that fill in the background of what is being said. They come so late after the scenes that you basically forgot how it pertains to the story and half of this shit is supposed to be "but that's not how it really happened/works" drama I just get lost again anyway.