Game reviewers disagree on latest Final Fantasy's merits, but graphics win high praise
While the latest installment of the wildly popular RPG series Final Fantasy - Final Fantasy XIII - has been more poorly reviewed than its recent predecessors, its graphical prowess has been universally acknowledged to be excellent.
Gaming blog Kotaku writes that "characters move with a fluidity and grace that even extends to their mouths, as Square Enix made sure the lip-sync in the English version matched the dialogue, rather than trying to rewrite the dialogue to match mouth movement from the Japanese version, as is common practice."
In short, it sounds like Final Fantasy XIII is the sort of game best viewed life-size on a high-end, wide-screen format HDMI projector, in order to get the best look at its premium-quality visuals.
However, the Onion A.V. Club's review panned the gameplay itself, saying that the player is hardwired into a single path throughout the first 20 or so hours of the game. "The improvement - the epiphany that the player really does matter - comes too late to rescue the first major misstep of the main Final Fantasy series."
