Is Final Fantasy XIII Worth Revisiting in 2021?

Final Fantasy XIII was initially released on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in 2009, developed by square Enix, this game was one of the best-looking games of the 360/ps3 era, with an amazing soundtrack and story to go with it. FFXIII follows the story of Lightning, an Ex-soldier on a quest to save her sister. As well as 5 other playable characters who have been brought together by fate. In an epic quest to ultimately save the world from destruction.

Command synergy battle system

One of the more memorable sides of Final Fantasy XIII for me is the battle system that this game has in place known as the command synergy battle system. A system where you get an action point metre that is divided equally and each action you use will consume a certain amount of the action metre. For example, the attack command could take up 1 slot of the action point metre whereas blitz will take up 2 slots of the metre.

Depending on the number of segments you have in the metre you will be able to chain together different commands. Unlike regular systems that are like this in FFXIII you are only able to control the party leader's commands in battle whilst the other party members act independently. The role they have in your party will determine what they decide to do. Which brings me to my next point.

Paradigms

Paradigms are a unique system in place for FFXIII. Simply put, each character can be assigned a role such as sentinel which focuses on defence, white mage that focuses on healing, etc... When 2 or more party members are assigned a role, which will happen automatically within the game, but you can set them manually, the composition of these roles are known as paradigms.

The way you set your paradigms will determine how well you do in battle due to the other gameplay mechanic known as Paradigm shifts. Which is the ability to swap paradigms in the middle of combat. So, if you feel that you need to focus more on magic attacks and your party is full of physical attackers you can paradigm shift to a team of mages instead.

Graphics and enhancements

The story of FFXIII is great and the battle system is great and these alone are enough reasons to revisit this amazing game, but I'm here to talk about the enhancements that this game has received over the years. On the 360 FFXIII ran at 576p, which back then was okay, but technology has definitely improved since. In 2018 final fantasy XIII received an xbox one x enhancement, boosting the game to 4k resolution. This alone made the game look significantly better and changed the entire feel of the game.

However, with the release of the Xbox Series X, FFXIII has been enhanced even further than it was in 2018, with auto HDR being added to the game as well as faster load times that comes with the new console. If i played this game not knowing it was from the 360 era, it would be difficult to tell this apart from other titles that have come in 2021.

So, when I ask is Final Fantasy XIII worth revisiting, my answer is definitely a strong yes.

Pick up your copy of Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2 for Xbox here.

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