Final Fantasy XIII: Limited Collector's Edition

To be perfectly honest, if you dont pay the little extra for this collectors edition you are mad. Everything in it is very high quality and will become extremely collectable.
The game itself is spectacular, grahics are one of,if not the best I have seen for 360, I am around 6-7 hours into it and completely hooked, excellent storyline,excellent battles, excellent game

Awesome graphics, cleverly scripted storyline which makes MGS4 look even shorter with cutscenes included and a cleverly designed battle system.

One Issue though... Extremely linear! This game is composed of 13 chapters and the first 11 feel like you are playing the whole section of Midgar in FFVII. There is only one major area to explore (Gran Pulse) with is an oversized area like the Calm Lands of FFX and thats where the majority of the missions take place (thats if youre a completionist) but the 99% of the maps are just a straight line running from A to B.

The Crystalium leveling system is alot more basic than you may think its designed like a Talent Point System from WoW and by the time you find areas where you can powerlevel. But Square have decided to penalise people for that since you can only increase attributes to a level Cap and it will not increase till you defeat the chapter boss. This is a clever approach which makes every boss battle challenging and you actually need strategy to beat them (no more insane ULTIMA Weapons or Celestial Blitzballs to 1 hit overkill your enemy).

From my experience from completing the JP version which I own. There is no exclusive EU superbosses either (with the exception to a special Adamantoise) The game is story driven and beats the purpose of exploration. But I think making a game at this calibur for the PS3 and 360 would probably take 10+ years to develop.

To evaluate this. Think of this game as a MGS4 version of the RPGS.

To those who are Persona and other Hardcore JRPG fans you will feel dissappointed with your purchace.

But we still have FFXIII Versus (PS3 Excl.) and FFXIII Agito for the PSP to come out.

I dont see how they are anywhere near related to original however.

First of all I am suprised at the negative reviews this game is getting, mainly people who have not completed the 2nd disc so in my opinion should not be writing a review.
I got this the day it came out, I am still playing it occasionally now trying to complete all the side quest hunts.
First off all I understand a lot of people being disapointed and saying its very linear gameplay. Yes this is true until you get to chapter 11, which is disc 3 you can only progress through the story and you cannot wander too far. Even when you get to Chapter 11 unfortunately there are not too many side hunts you can go on at your experience level, its best to wait until after the story.
The graphics are just mindblowing as SquareEnix live up to their Final Fantasy name with the latest mindblowing graphics. The storyline is expertly written and I just couldn't wait to get to the next cut scene, by the time i got to chapter 11 and could choose to go off and do hunts, I decided to complete the story first as it is very gripping.
The story took me 50-55 hours to complete so the story itself has got a ton of value.
The side hunts however I think is the weak point of the game, they are very repetitive and there are 64 in all.
Yes 64 side missions just telling you to go kill X monster wit it getting harder and harder each time.
Although the battles are fun and testing I am disapointed with the side content no minigames just fighting, although it is fun.

In conclusion I was glued to this game, my addiction I guess i will call it stopped when i completed the story and got to hunt 11, completed that and then got bored. I still occasionally play it now and then still doing the odd hunt but once you have done them all with 5 star rating there is little to no replay value. Although that would take you over hundred hours so you get a lot of value.
Pros
Stunning Graphics
Amazing Gameplay
Gripping Story
Over a hundred hours of gameplay
A more advanced skill tree system to final fantasy 10
A very simple to use and excellent battle system
Battle graphics and motions are very good

Cons
Very linear taking around 30-35 hours until you can free roam
Lack of activities to do only fighting no side mini games like in previous final fantasys
Very repetitive hunt system
Looks like there will be no DLC although Square Enix are still yet to make a decision about this.

Although the cons this is in my opinion the best xbox 360 game out there, I think its a must have/play for all xbox 360 owners, it is a completely new experience and I and many people I know were completely blown away by this game.

I would also recommend you buy the guide as well, it is very helpful and has some great tips and all the maps to help you get around.

I brought the collectors Edition version of the game, I brought it mainly because I am a collector of Final Fantasy games, if you are a big final fantasy fan or collector I would recommend the collector's edition for the extras, but if you are just looking for a new game I would probably recommend the normal version as the extras with the collectors edition may not be worth the extra money to you.

as i write this i am currently at the begining of Disk2 and that's nearly seven and a half hours in, so if you don't like long games this isn't for you. Especially if you don't like cut-scene filled games either.

Now that's over with, i must say the first thing that hits you is the visuals. They are outstanding, baring a couple of odd overlays and texture difficulties, this game is visually breathtaking. the combat system itself is an amalgamation of older systems, like the Sphere grid from Final Ten and i find is also alike to the learning system from Final Nine. The difference in the Crystarium system is it is how you level, with varying job classes, which relate to the combat system and how you fight within it. As you battle your way through you use the Paradigm combat system, which offsets your party's abilitys in different combinations, to capitalise on combinations of magic, attack and healing among other things. and without spoiling things the new Eidolons will have you drooling in your seats.

To me, this is a small side note, the game itself is highly linear. with little or nothing to do except focus singly on the plot itselt, but that to me is no bad thing as the plot is epic in scale, and fantastic in it's execution.

i myself bought the collectors edition: while it isn't what i thought it'd be, it's still well worth the addition monies. due largely because i collect the Final Fantasy games and have no intention of getting rid of them ever.

If your a fan of the series, Invest in it. if not, It's possibly better to stay away from this game as a starting point the getting into them.

Very rarely have i come across a game where i can fall in love with the characters and almost bond with them, like halo players to master chief or MGS to snake, FFXIII has most definately delivered a game where you get to bond with the characters and get into the game the way it should be played, the cutscenes are just as interesting and epic as the gameplay and over all an incredible buy, i cant wait to see how much is left of the game for me and considering there are three disks, there must be a damn lot of it.