What Makes Final Fantasy XIII a Great Game?

I've just finished Final Fantasy 13 - the first FF I've played - and I want to share some thoughts on the game.

What makes Final Fantasy a great game?

1 Lightning

I just love Lightning's character. She's tough and she's cool, like a female Clint Eastwood. Sometimes morally ambiguous ("a target's a target"), she does soften somewhat throughout the game. A soldier by profession, a loner by nature, Lightning turns her back on the army to go on a one-woman suicide mission to save her sister. Somewhat reluctantly, she picks up an entourage along the way.

Game designers, please give us more characters like Lightning.

Lightning

2 Anarchistic Themes

Like many Japanese games, the storyline is hard to follow at times and too confusing to summarize here. The underlying theme, though, is clear: The Government lies to the people and abuses them; most people swallow the lies, but a few enlightened anti-authority types refuse to toe the line. Another theme is the Government's use of an invented 'enemy' to control the masses through fear, as espoused by Neo-con favorite Leo Strauss (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Strauss).

Just take a look at our fine anarchist heroes:

"No rules, authority or obligations"

3 Value

I put 70 hours in to beat the game. While many Western games are this long, it is unusual to find a Western game with this quality graphics and artwork of that length (the game takes 3 discs on the 360). Western-made games with the best quality graphics are often less than 10 hours to play through. How the Japanese manage it, I don't know.

Have a look at this eye-candy:

"I made a promise and I'll see it through"

That's a wrap, folks, and that's why Final Fantasy 13 is a great game. Buy it!