FINAL FANTASY® XIII

If you're judging this game by its reputation, it has a bad rep it doesn't deserve. It's not perfect, but it's well worth giving a chance.

The game itself is alright, it's not for everyone. Others complain that auto-battle takes the fun out of battles, it does. Manually inputting your attacks and using the little optimisations during combat is where the fun is.
However, I can't run the game. I have no idea what is going on as I have uninstalled and reinstalled the game about 8 times now. I have tried the community mods, and I suspect that I am missing some depreciated dependency software (Microsoft did some updating apparently).
My hours show that the game was working 2 years ago, but not anymore.
I now have unplayable software and the good people at Steam don't think that it is a sufficient reason to get a refund.
Playstation 3 games are famously difficult to port due to the PS3 Architecture being otherworldly but it is a shame that they didn't port a working game.
note if anyone has an idea on how to fix please comment I would love to play this game.

This is the first time I played Final Fantasy XIII, and I really enjoyed it. I intend on buying the other 2 games when they're on sale. The story is pretty good, it can be messy sometimes but the character development is solid. The gameplay looks easy, but you will need to have strategies the further you get into the game. The camera made me dizzy at times since it's always moving around.

The port to PC is embarrassing, to have a good experience I had to play with the FF13fix + 4GB Patch, HD Project and a couple more mods. Though, the game looked much better by doing so. You can see the improvement in my screenshots.

Good game, took me some time to get all achievements but I've done it in 110 hours.

*Currently not completed 01/03/25*
Well going by its reputation this game and the wider XIII series is the DMC of Final Fantasy series, something that is both fair and unfair to both games. This was the first game played since playing 7 and 8 a very long time a go. The other long running Japanese series its a bit like is Yakuza, same stupid plot and flashiness with a mini games secret challanges, I guess the reason I like this game as much as I do is that this the nearest the series ever got to sprit within movie, which I did at the time enjoy far more than the games at the time. Combat resonably dynamic turn based following the JRPG typical process. One of the first from memory which brings dynamic actions and switching to the formula. Very flashy and again of its time.

Very pretty for a game that came out on PS3 in 2008. HD characters bring the character models up to reasonably modern standard. World textures are what you would expect for period and the port is half assed and FMV returns it to PS3/X360 standards unless you get the full HD pack which rather large. Has some strange slowdown and occasionally the frame rate tanks.

Running on a vintage computer 3570k, 1050ti win 10, overall good experiance, just enjoy the ride as a load of strangers find themselves and each other on the way to killing god. Don't think to much.

While I have my Issues with the linear story telling and the missing side quests, I still love this game and it definitely has the best story of all the FF13 Games.

At first I thought I wouldn't like a turn-based RPG like this one, preferring an action adventure game instead but after I played it, I wouldn’t want to have it any other way.

First, the setting - Final Fantasy XIII is a good example of “science fantasy” i. e. a genre that blends science fiction elements like advanced technology and fantasy elements like magic. It has an engaging story about a colorful cast of heroes fighting against destiny itself, there’s interesting worldbuilding, cool looking designs of characters and environments, and a memorable soundtrack. If you like the anime aesthetic, JRPG vibe and don’t have a problem with a bit of a melodramatic presentation, you should enjoy the experience.

When it comes to gameplay, it was very interesting to experiment with different paradigms. That’s the fun part of Final Fantasy XIII. Often you’ll control an entire team of characters and you can order them to change the combination of different squadmate combat roles mid-fight. This alters the behavior (paradigm) of the entire team and allows you to get creative with the way you combine different paradigms and different equipment when fighting.

During battles, you’ll always aim to fill a certain meter with attacks and eventually achieve a “stagger” - bring enemies to a state where the damage you do to them accumulates rapidly. It’s very satisfying. Overall, battles in Final Fantasy XIII are cinematic, complete with special attacks and summons that have unique animations.

When the game came out, it was criticized for being very linear. This is only partially the case. Most of the story is indeed told in a linear way but around 70% through the campaign the game opens up and you get to explore a huge map, fight NPCs in the wild and level up your characters. You can even explore the open-world zone after you finish the main campaign but to be honest it becomes a bit dull after a while and to max out all the characters is a repetitive grind, just like going for 100% completion. Even if the latter is not your goal, the game is still worth completing - if not for the story, then at the very least for the unique combat system.

I am happy that I got the opportunity to replay this excellent game! It is challenging, the story is engaging, and the soundtrack is full of absolute bangers. Also, the visuals art have aged well.

Luckily, my game only crashed twice. For me it was playable from beginning to end.

If Final Fantasy 13 has a million fans, then I am one of them.
If Final Fantasy 13 has ten fans, then I am one of them.
If Final Fantasy 13 has only one fan then that is me.
If Final Fantasy 13 has no fans, then that means I am no longer on earth.
If the world is against Final Fantasy 13, then I am against the world.

Shallow Fantasy XIII. From the world to the character designs and especially the story, almost every element of this game feels soulless and hollow. Style over substance seems to be their guiding principle and only after the game was nearly complete did they realize no one had a clue what was happening in the story.

So they added a primer FILLED with hundreds of pages for the player to read in order to understand wth was going on. On top of that, the game is filled with perhaps the worst naming conventions of any FF game...from the characters (Snow, Lightning, Hope, Fang) to the enemies (endless variants of l'cie), and even the locales.

Ultimately, everything that allows a story to become greater than the sum of its parts was abandoned for flash and style and meaningless dialogue used as filler. Then all of this was plopped onto a map of endless corridors that doesn't even try to hide it or give the illusion of exploration.

So why do I still recommend it? No idea. The soundtrack has some all time greats in it which goes a long way and I enjoy the combat system once it opens up after a dozen or so hours.

Ultimately, its a bottom of the barrel FF game but like an alcoholic downing mouthwash in a desperate attempt to feel that liberating *click* again, I'm still chasing that FF high I used to get when I was younger and haven't felt since X.

I'd say it's worth a play-through for the battle system and the soundtrack. Buy I didn't feel the Final Fantasy vibe from this game at all 6/10

I'm glad I discovered this game when internet was not as relevant as it is now. Don't let yourself be swept by others' opinions. Experience the game yourself, /then/ decide whether it is good or not.

Great visual even all these years later, combat is weird but still kinda fun and interesting. I hate a lot of the characters and their personalities though.

So this is one of the so-called “black sheep” of the Final Fantasy series—well, at least that’s what FF fans want you to believe. I don’t really have a horse in this race since this is only my third (or fourth, if you count FFVII and FFVII Remake as separate games) FF game I’ve played. But after deeply enjoying FFXVI and seeing its controversial reputation in the community, it’s interesting to see people try to define what a "true Final Fantasy” game is, because I feel like it's a franchise that has reinvented itself on multiple occasions. There are some common threads, of course, but the gameplay, plot style, and overall approach always seem to morph.

I've seen people criticize the game's linearity, but honestly, I was completely fine with it. Linearity doesn’t equal bad, just like nonlinearity doesn’t automatically mean good. I also really liked that the game focused more on the characters—on their relationships, their struggles, the way they were shaped by the world closing in around them. And that party dynamic? I loved it! A group of people thrown together by circumstance, slowly learning about each other and softening in unexpected ways. Lightning, especially—watching her shift from isolation to connection and slowly revealing layers of vulnerability along the way—was one of the most rewarding aspects of the game.

And speaking of Lightning, I could gush about her for hours. When the game was released, I remember how many girls instantly adored her. The cosplays, the admiration—she was the moment. A female lead in a JRPG—an adult woman, no less. Stoic, composed, strong, captivating, effortlessly cool, and neither oversexualized nor reduced to cheap waifu bait. That kind of female protagonist is rare in JRPGs, and it’s truly disappointing that they are.

Another aspect I deeply enjoyed was the music score, with one song in particular leaving a lasting impression. When I finally arrived in Oerba, the melody that played felt like a mournful whisper of Fang and Vanille’s sorrow, weaving their tragedy into every note. It honestly gave me chills. And these are the kinds of moments I cherish most in story-driven games, when music transcends words and breathes life into the emotions of the story.

But for all the things FFXIII did right, it’s hard not to wish it had come out a decade later. It would’ve benefited so much from the franchise’s continued evolution, especially when it comes to combat. I cannot believe how long this game makes you play before combat becomes anything more than pressing one button. And there's so much combat before it finally opens up. Hours upon hours of walking down narrow corridors, triggering automated battles, and watching cutscenes. It’s slow. Agonizingly slow. The pacing just drags, and it didn’t need to. The combat system itself feels awkward, like it was trying to evolve but wasn’t quite ready to let go of its turn-based roots. It ends up in this weird middle ground—stuck between old and new—where battles feel more repetitive than engaging. And that’s the real problem. The combat is utterly boring.

And oh my god, but why the hell does the game turn into such a grindfest once you reach Gran Pulse in Chapter 11? The sudden difficulty spikes are incredibly frustrating. Forcing me to grind through this slow, repetitive combat was completely unnecessary and only made me dislike the gameplay even more. It didn’t add challenge—it just padded the game with tedious busywork. If I hadn’t been so invested in Lightning and the unfolding story, I might’ve quit right then and there.

But overall, I'm glad I finally got in the mood to play FFXIII, and honestly, I’m happy that it was popular enough to become a full trilogy. For all its flaws, it clearly struck a chord with people. And despite my issues with the combat, I’m cautiously excited to play through the rest of the trilogy. But it’s disappointing that the combat held back what could have been an otherwise great experience. I really hope future entries build on FFXVI’s combat and push it even further.

Amazing world and lore, beautiful graphics and music, great characters, fun combat, and it's no more linear than FFX. Severely underrated in my opinion. Just make sure to read the lore entries in the codex between chapters.

This game is cinematically beautiful, everything about it is a work of art. the characters are insanely well written and the story line is bomb. id recommend this game to anyone However, there are three things i wished i knew prior to buying this game
1. this is a TURN BASED GAME. for some reason, i didnt research anything about it before buying it so me learning its a turn based game threw me for a loop. i hate turn based games but this game somehow made it non-repitive and fun as hell
2. to avoid awkward dialouge, the creators put most of the "terms" used in the story in the datalog. Now, you can read it all or you can infer as you go. if youre not willing to think about a story and want it all spelt out for you, this aint the game for you.
3. the port doesnt suck, but it does rubber band slightly pretty often. Im not sure if theres a mod to fix this or not and it really didnt bother me to the point i wanted to stop playing, but it was jus a small issue

besides that, buy it. it changed my outlook on life i swear on my mama

It's very similar to Bleach. Or you love it or you hate it. Me? Cmon dude, I LOVE Bleach.

It has an engaging story and is visually beautiful. The combat system isn't my favorite in a Final Fantasy game but it's not terrible. The leveling up system is easy to use. It's overall an enjoyable game.

I recommend Final Fantasy XIII because of its captivating blend of strategic depth and extensive customization option. It encourages thoughtful planning.

~ DIFFICULTY ~

🔲 An old person could play it
🔲 Easy
🔲 Normal
✅ Hard
🔲 Hardcore

~ GRAPHICS ~

🔲 MS Paint
🔲 Bad
🔲 Meh
🔲 Graphics don't matter in this game
✅ Good
🔲 Beautiful
🔲 Masterpiece

~ MUSIC ~

🔲 Bad
🔲 Not special
🔲 Good
✅ Beautiful

~ VOICE ACTING ~

🔲 No voice acting
🔲 Oblivionly bad
🔲 Acceptable
🔲 Good
✅ Pure talent

~ STORY ~

🔲 This game has no story
🔲 Like playing Temple Runners for the story
🔲 It's there for the people who want it
✅ Well written
🔲 Epic story

~ PRICE ~

🔲 Free
🔲 Underpriced
✅ Perfect Price
🔲 Could be cheaper
🔲 Overpriced
🔲 Complete waste of money

~ REQUIREMENTS ~

🔲 You can probably run it on a calculator
🔲 Average
✅ High end
🔲 NASA computer

~ LENGTH ~

🔲 (0 - 2 hours) Very Short
🔲 (2 - 15 hours) Short
🔲 (15-50 hours) Average
✅ (50-90 hours) Long
🔲 (90-110 hours) Extremely long
🔲 No ending

~ FUN ~

🔲 For the Achievements
🔲 I'd rather watch paint dry
🔲 Hard to enjoy
🔲 Repetitive
🔲 Actually pretty amusing
✅ The kind of fun you'll remember
🔲 Ride of your life

~ WORTH BUYING ~

🔲 No
✅ Wait for sale
🔲 Yes

I never expected to give a negative review on a FF game but here we are.
17 hours in I have been simply running on a straight path.
The environment is pretty boring.
I had no input whatsoever in defining character progress.
Weapon and item upgrade is substantially pointless.
The music in nothing special.
It is nothing more than move forward, auto battle, distribute points.
I played all FF titles up to XIII, and this is the only one I have no desire to finish.

great game no lie,there is a few bug but not really bother for me 8/10.

A childhood favorite, with older eyes it's still a captivating story with good old gameplay.

The gameplay is an evolution of old rpg style.
It's fun to play without waiting for the opponent to attack.

No bug, very nice cutscene.

Only the PC port is disapointing but some mods (FF XIII fix on github) fix the performance issue and 30 fps cap.

I played FF13 long ago when it first came out on PS3. I couldn't beat it back then, so I wanted to finish my childhood game this time.

Back then, I was bewitched by Lightning's beauty and never really paid attention to details. But as I play this game again in the 2020s, I am starting to see many flaws I didn't recognize back then.

This game has many annoying aspects that JRPGs had back then. You cannot save whenever you want, and the linear storyline can be very exhausting. The ATB system was interesting, but I eventually grew tired after hours of repeated battles. Also, fuck all those Cie'th Stone Missions.

PC optimization is one of the worst in the series. However, Square Enix was never known for smooth PC optimization, so I wasn't surprised.

Even with all that, I still clicked thumbs up because I appreciate how pretty Lightning was in this game.

2 years in the making, I finally finished this game. It took me so long, as I was savoring it like a fine meal during a warm night. I was right to, as rushing this game would have made me not enjoy it as much. The music, the cutscenes, the story and the visuals of this game are stellar even nowadays apart from a couple of sections. Masashi Hamauzu has made a soundtrack up to par with Uematsu's compositions, and each track suits this game like a fine silky black glove. Great entry point into the Final Fantasy franchise, more so than games like 10 or 7, and I would encourage you to play this if you have the 40 hours that you need to finish it (Grinding included).

It's been a while since the game launched, if you wanna play this then you know exactly what you're getting into. Bought it on sale and I live playing it. Getting the hang of the combat. I see why people complain about the linearity of the game and yes it is all true but if you accept that and want to experience a final fantasy very unique then go for it.

Lightning is a badass. This is my second time playing through the game since I first played in on it's original release on the XBOX 360 many years ago. It's not my favorite FF but it definitely has it's high points, a fine story, and great music. I give it around a 7.5/10 if I were to give it an all around score. The 13 series unfortunately gets progressively worse imho after this game. But still a good go for any Final Fantasy fan.

So this game definitely got a bad complaint especially from me when it first came out when i was in my 20s but i decided to play it again bc of the song and MAAAAAN i so do not regret giving it a second chance i love this game . i did not like the upgrades back then now i dont care lol. The graphics on the pc is so freaking amazing and the music oh the beautiful music **chefs kiss**. Definitely the story line is awesome so i will continue the trilogy bc i want to know what happens in the end. Just give it a try the story line is worth it and the music is just awesome. Then again i never dislike final fantasy music i am glad the composers put thier all into them.

Game starts slow. No denying that. But it's so worth it by the time you get where you're going.

This game is like Metallica's Load and Reload era. Everyone hates on it because it's not what they expected it to be. But if you open your mind, shut up, and listen... You might find a new favorite.

Final Fantasy XIII offers stunning visuals, a thrilling combat system, and a compelling story. While its linear progression may not be for everyone, the game's world and characters are captivating, making it a memorable RPG experience.

There's a 129KB patch for this game made by fans. it fixed crashes, increased my FPS and the stability of it and gave me more options to adjust the in game settings.

129KB. That's all it took to make this game more playable, yes Square Enix cannot take half a day out of their time to make this PC port far more playable.

Thanks fans for fixing the game but it's a hard thumbs down for buying a game that the player has to fix.

The game is mostly enjoyable. Right up until the forced Eidelon fights. Where they take all the freedom away from you with party combinations and force you to fight the boss in a specific way, with specific party members, with a forced time limit, usually focusing on a certain class role that you may not have even been leveling up that much.

Such a stupid design choice that actually ruins the game for me and made me stop playing it. Forcing me to retry a boss fight countless times to find some specific and convoluted series of commands that go completely uninuitive to everything ive been taught by the game up to that point. So dumb.

Game is OK but the bosses make this game almost unplayable as they are very unfair, and u often meet them when ur underleveled. 6/10

I need to be sincery i never was someone who knows a lot about Final Fantasy's games but i really got impressed when i started playing this the people costume to say the it's one of the worst Final Fantasy's ever released but at least for me it isn't to bad you should give a chnace for that and in my opnion it compensed a lot.

That game is awesome! I'm played in many of FF games, and in their times each of them surprised me with the gameplay, plot and graphic. I'm playing in this game in 2025, it should be outdated, but not at all. It still continued that wonderful tradition to surprising me. My personal rate is 10 of 10.

7/10 Played with mouse and keyboard.

I have played and beaten FF1 through FF10, FF10-2, and FF12. I finally played 13 and it really leaves me wanting more. It's missing it's heart.

Now I know several key figures related to the franchise are missing from this game but as a game in general it feels lacking.
The pacing feels off both in story and game play. I don't feel the characters or myself are being connecting to the game world successfully enough. The majority of the game play feels to circle around combat and grinding similar to the original 3 FFs. While I do like the combat design most of the battles feel like they are part of a MMO where I have to play a certain way. I can't just do what I want. Each location does not feel like it could actually be alive and filled with creatures. There are hints of the history of the world but it is never gone in depth during game play. More often you have to read about if there is anything at all.

I could go on but really all I am really seeing is hidden potential. There is so much. I wish this was being remade. The world is good. it just needs some more to it.

As a game FF13 is not bad just lacking. It is fun once you learn the combat flow. As a Final Fantasy though, I feel it's missing it's heart and deserves more work to bring it out.

Sill worth a play through if not at least a try. You may need to download a mod because the game is not completely compatible on PC. I played in windowless mode.

I love this game.
I bought this game at launch for the PS3 and every time I played through, I never finished the game. Something always happens when I make it to chapter 13 and either my save gets wiped or the game disappears.
Now I have a digital copy so I can FINALLY get to play all the way through the game from beginning to end.

This game is factually not good at all, but the combat system is good and the soundtrack too, shoving aside those, everything else is bad, cheers to who designed the encounters, they are bad :(, but give it a try, maybe it's for you.

A great game in a great series of games, everything is done wonderfully, I haven't finished the game yet, but I can say with confidence that FF13 is an example of a great JRPG. Despite the fact that Nobuo Uematsu did not contribute any works to the game in terms of music, the soundtracks are still amazing. Keep an eye on ATB and Crystarium. It would probably be best to watch the guides and save up the Gils after the ninth chapter. The atmosphere is wonderful, the design is amazing.

Shame about the story, characters, worldbuilding, level design, and gameplay





But the music is good tho

I tried to like the game, I really did. Compared to all prior Final Fantasy games, the battle mechanics along with pretty much every aspect of the game are just abysmal. The worst one out of the 13. The only positive I can think of is the effort that went into the cut-scenes. I don't understand why Square-Enix designed FF13 the way they did but it made me feel obsolete. As others have already mentioned, the story is linear, the battles are semi automated and you can't fully control your character. You only have control of 1 member of your party until way further into the game and you go into the game not knowing enough of what's going on to really appreciate the RPG aspect of it. Not worth your time if you're expecting the same caliber as the more modern Final Fantasies like 7, 9, 10/11 or even 12 (which I liked, minus the grind).

I always say "Always play to reach your own conclusions". It's no surprise to anyone that FFXIII is a game involved in several controversies, however it was quite important for the portfolio at Square, as it also built a saga. I recommend the first title if you like Final Fantasy, good stories and captivating characters, otherwise stay away from it, the linearity bothers to a certain extent, but with that in mind, you will enjoy an excellent JRPG

Overall, it's a good Final Fantasy game, and my review will only focus on the negative aspects (my personal opinion):

1.This version of the game only comes with Japanese audio. There's no option to change the audio language.

2.The gameplay is very linear. The path feels like a long tunnel or corridor. The only place where you can start free-roaming is in Grand Pulse (Chapter 11).

3.The mini-map is rotated, with no compass directions (North/East/South/West). It became so annoying when I reached Grand Pulse; I lost count of how many times I had to open the big map just to check my position and make sure I was heading in the right direction.

This certainly IS a game.

I think this game is way too hated, however, I do get why people don't like this game at all. At best, I would definitely rate this game like a 6.5 out of 10, it's not a terrible game as people make it out to be. But it sure does have its faults.

To start:
- The beginning of this game is really boring, up until Chapter 3 where the "real" mechanics begin. Yes, the combat (paradigm/crystarium system) finally works 3 Chapters in. I can see why people who don't know absolutely nothing about the game will quit it before Chapter 3 begins because it is SO BORING.
- The beginning of the game also makes you think you should know everything that's going on and it kinda forces you to make you read about the events unfolding. Yes, this is a common negative a lot of people talk about, the "datalog" and the lore. However it isn't as bad as people make it out to be. Yes, it's way too much information going on, and the narrative should've explained things much better instead of just blurting out names from the characters.
- You won't get a full 3 person party until Chapter 10. This honestly kinda pisses me off, the game is close to ending and you're barely giving me the permission to have a 3 person party. Yes, events happen where the previous chapters are only 2 party members. Still, it is really annoying just missing a person for almost the entire game.
- "The game opens up at Chapter 11." So you're telling me, the game actually becomes a game, 2 chapters before it ends. ??? Not only that but man does the difficulty spike hit super hard once you get to this chapter. You are forced to grind which depends on the type of player you are can either be really annoying or just part of the rpg genre. Had to grind about 2 hours because a basic enemy was 2 shotting my entire team lol. Call that a skill issue on my part. Still, this game makes Chapters 1-10 a glorified tutorial which is baffling to me, I just don't know how to feel about that.
- The main villain sucks and his name is literally Bart. Plus the final boss has an random chance instant kill spell, which is super dumb.
- Nitpick; when entering combat and switching paradigm, you're forced to watch a 3 second cutscene of your whole party switching classes. This is just me but this pissed me off because you can get a game-over during this small cutscene.
- Your party AI can sometimes be utterly brain dead to the point where YOU have to put matters in your own hands. Especially healer AI, they don't Esuna or Raise UNTIL all the party members are full health. This is stupid and I hated it.
- You cannot control your character's movements during combat, meaning ALL of your party members WILL stack together to get hit by an AOE attack. WHY????????????????????
- Upgrading system sucks.
- Save station menu navigating SUCKS.
- Whoever designed the camera needs to get punched in the face.
- If the party leader dies it's game over, go fuck yourself.
- My biggest disappointment, and others can definitely say that I'm wrong about this, is that the summon system is terrible? Summons, KNOWN for dishing out TONS of damage hit like a wet napkin. They're only ever used for getting your party out of dangerous situations only for a short while.
- PC support is horrendous and the game looks horrible if you don't get a modfix. Base FF13 has a weird diagonal cut?? It's really bizarre, also the game is capped at 30fps along with ugly as hell graphics. The mod made this game look amazing though, so good on them for fixing it.
- The story is just mid. There's some good moments and then there's RIDICULOUS moments. JRPGs are known for being really tropey, but this game does it to an extreme. There are several parts in the story that legit makes no sense and the characters just play it off as nothing happens.
- Speaking of characters, I feel very mixed. I like them, but mostly their entire personality consists of just talking about one person, THE ENTIRE GAME. SHUT. UP. SNOW WE GET IT. The first half the characters are unlikeable, which I kinda like, they're all douchebags to one another and eventually will come together as a true party. Especially Hope, who can be super annoying at the beginning of the game. Vanille's stupid "noises" during combat and exploring is really annoying too. Lightning can also come off as having the personality of stale bread and I'm pretty sure anyone who played this game has called her "Girl Cloud" at least once. Fang is too cool to change. Either way, this game is way more character-driven than story-driven.
- The music is pretty good!

I've said a lot of bad things about this game but when it's good, it is actually engaging. The paradigm system can be a lot of fun once you start learning how to get around encounters, switching back and forth to see what meets and what not. A gripe I had is that some characters are miles better than others, Hope has a faster animation of casting compared to ANYONE else which kinda makes him a must have near the end of the game. However, any character can be viable, which is cool.

I've said enough; TLDR: This game has lots of faults, and can be summed down to be just a mid game, but it does have its highs.

I've tried very hard to get into this title but after 27 hours I can't safely say this game isn't for me.

The premise is very interesting and the characters do feel fleshed out enough to see where the writers wanted to go with them but I feel like the pacing despite being linear till chapter 11 is all over the place and I feel like the writers were butting heads with each other over interpretations of certain character arcs and the plot itself seems to be padded out for a much longer length then it really needed to be.

Combat is really a mixed bag as in the beginning it feels like they're afraid of you getting confused so they limit the amount of actions you can do till your a Lia'ce (magic user) and it doesn't really open up in terms of customization till about 10 hours in and hell you have no actual control of your party set up till....20 hours into the game. (at least for me) and for a 40 to 60 hour game to do that is abysmal.

If you do consider getting this game please install the fix mods as the port is terrible on its own.

Personally I'd say get it on a sale and try it on your own as I feel this game is made for a certain type of player and that player isn't me unfortunately. I wish steam could give a mixed rating as I feel that is how I feel about this game as it's not necessarily bad but it's not for everyone.

Normally, I'm not a fan of turn-based combat, but I have been enjoying this game so far. I got it mainly for the story, which doesn't disappoint, even though the pacing isn't the best.

The second half of the game is where the really good stuff starts to happen.
Beyond that, I vastly prefer Final Fantasy X all round.
But still, it's a classic FF that warrants download and playing it to the finish.

i love hope estheim & lighting. 10/10 game containing my favourites of the final fantasy series <3

I know the story is all over the place and the exploration is nonexistent. but i LOVE this game and its combat system. I don't know, maybe its just me. Love fang and Lightning. Trying to 100% the game.

Replaying this game after more than 10 years has been an incredible experience. I've never enjoyed it so much and it always ranked as one of my least favorite Final Fantasy games, but playing now is making appreciate it so much more. The music, art direction, combat system, characters and story (Which was the aspect i disliked the most back when i played it the first time). The combat system especially is incredibly deep and once you get it and start experimenting with it, it makes you never want to stop fighting enemies and it also makes battle end very fast, which was an issue i had the first time, where battles were insanly long, but it was due to me not utilizing the combat system properly and all the mechanics the game provides.
The characters and stoy this time around were so memorable to me. I could understand the story better because i was actively reading everything and paying attention (It's still a problem with the story "requiring" you to read the datalog). Definitely recommend it to everyone!

A game with peak story, world, characters but very boring combat (hope it improves with later games in the trilogy)