Final Fantasy has, for many years, been one of the titles that has sold many Playstation consoles for Sony as they are held in such high regard around the world by many RPG fans. So, when at E3 it was announced that the latest Final Fantasy would no longer be exclusive to Sony’s console 360 owners started to get excited. However, not all is as rosy as it should be.

Final Fantasy XIII is set on the world of Cocoon, a world that is controlled by magical beings called Fal’Cie. These beings control everything from the climate to food. The citizens of Cocoon are content with this arrangement and see the Fal’Cie as their guardians. While this leads to a very peaceful existence for Cocoon society, they still live in fear of other beings that exists on the surface in a place known as Pulse. Here the Pulse Fal’Cie dwell and many years before Pulse had attacked Cocoon, while Cocoon was victorious it's citizens fear that another strike may well come.

Unfortunately this happens when a Pulse Fal’Cie is found in a small city. The fear of Pulse Fal’Cie is so great that the government acts quickly and orders the military to Purge the town of everyone including the residents. Purging the town is a nice way of putting that they intend to ship the town’s folk away to a more discreet destination to then slaughter them. This is because Fal’Cie brand humans and bestow them with magical powers, making the human a cursed L’Cie. Citizens of Cocoon believe that anyone who comes into contact or has been near a L’Cie are tainted and are no longer safe to be around.

All the main characters are involved in the purge through various circumstances and the story slowly links them all together. Eventually they escape the purge train, become L’Cie and are tenaciously hunted by Cocoon's military as they are now enemies of the state. L’Cie gain the ability to use magic but at a cost they have a focus that they must complete. This focus is not known to them and they must find out what it is by themselves. If they do not complete there focus in time or refuse to they are turned into Cie’th. If someone turns into Cie’th they are doomed to an undead and unliving existence full of sorrow and regret.

This leads the story and the game on a relentless forward path as the main characters have no choice but to keep moving on to complete their focus and to stay one step ahead of the military. There is not a lot of exploring to be done and there are no towns at all to be seen. Which is strange as one of the biggest assets to Final Fantasy games was the searching for side quests or speaking to random non-player characters to find out your next objective.

All you do is move through a very linear path completing fight after fight to be rewarded with a cut scene. The occasional boss is thrown in and while the fight system is well done most fights are simple once you know the enemy's weakness. The battle system works very well and once again is turn based though it is extremely user friendly. Each character as an ATB gauge and when this is full they can attack. Different attacks take up more slots of your ATB gauge so if you are using weaker moves you can attack up to three or four times. Various selections are available such as attacking using magic or techniques and combining theses effectively are the key to winning battles.

If you don’t want to use a technique you can use the Auto Battle function which cues up your moves automatically and if you already know an enemies weakness it will pick those attacks. It is a clever system that saves you from having to click three or four buttons to attack. If you want to use a technique such as a summon though you will have to choose that yourself as the Auto Battle system does not touch these as they require TP.

TP is gained by fighting well and at the end of each battle you are given a rating out of five stars, the more stars you get the more TP you earn. Techniques are your more powerful moves so you will only use them sparingly but they can help turn the tide of a battle or to help take down some of the insane bosses that you come across.

Each character can take up various roles such as commando, medic, saboteur, synergist or Ravager. Each role has its own strengths and weaknesses and the key to battles is using the right roles for each battle. If however you have the wrong set up for a battle you can change what role a character is by changing your paradigms, and for many of the later fights switching your paradigms is essential. While all of this may seem complicated it really isn’t and is very simple and easy to master as Square have managed to create one of the most in-depth battle systems to grace an RPG that is so user friendly you will never feel overwhelmed despite all the option at your disposal.

Final Fantasy games have always been full of some amazing enemies and this title is no different. Some of the bosses are truly huge and taking them down will take a lot of skill. While fighting fight after fight does sound a little more action adventure than RPG it does keep the game flowing at a good pace.

The game is well presented and while the cut scenes are breathtaking they are all a little grainy as they have been compressed, possibly to fit on the limited DVD format that the 360 uses. In game graphics are also of high quality with the animations being spot on and no matter how much is going on is battle there is not a hint of slow down which is some feat as at times it can get a little manic during a battle.

Most of the main characters are extremely likable though at times they can be a little generic. With moody emo kid being present as well as the daft cheerful girl they are a little stereotyped for the genre. The voice work for the various characters though is spot on and they really have managed to capture the emotion of what they are all going through extremely well.

Linked together by one of the best stories to grace a video game it is hard to fault this game other than it is not a true Final Fantasy title that we are used to or were expecting. Having no towns to explore is a shame and the lack of side quests do hinder the title as once completed there is not much to go back to a second play through for. The battle system though is spot on and in many ways the relentless pace does work as it is extremely addictive. For a game that is designed to keep the player moving forward it is a shame that the series has taken a slight step back.