Final Fantasy XIII
Okay, this isn't so much of a review as it is a commentary because 1.) I'm not even halfway through the game (I think?) and 2.) I said I wouldn't review majorly played video games.
However, even with that promise in place I feel that Final Fantasy XIII MUST be discussed, and Square Enix really needs to be applauded for their latest addition to the Final Fantasy series.
Here's a quick rundown for those of you who haven't played the game. This time around the main hero is actually a Heroine named Lightning. (You do play a lot and find out a lot about the other characters, but Lightning is certainly your main man.) Lightning lives in a world with these things called L'Cie (As a note none of this stuff is going to be spelled right.) Now there are two kinds of L'Cie. Sanctum L'Cie, the good L'Cie who live in Lightning's world, and the Pulse L'Cie, which are from the neighboring... planet/thing/whatever called Pulse. Now both L'Cie will mark humans, who then become Fal'Cie. Fal'Cie are given a mission by whatever L'Cie marked them. Supposedly Pulse Fal'Cie become nefarious plotters who want to destroy Sanctum. The story starts as Lightning chases after her sister, who has become a Pulse Fal'Cie. Her sister turns into crystal (Which is what happens after a Fal'Cie completes their mission. Talk about weird.) and instead Lightning and a rag tag band become marked Pulse Fal'Cie as well. This gives them the power to use magic and summon... entities. During the game they are tracked through Sanctum and Pulse, running from the Sanctum army.
So that's that! Now to my point!
This is the FIRST TIME Square Enix has created a super powerful female main character!! Now we all know Yuna was the star in the sequel to Final Fantasy X, but then you just played as three female characters, not to mention it was a SEQUEL. Lightning, on the other hand, is by far the best fighter in XIII. She's also the only character with military experience, and her stats are pretty sweet. Plus she's not at all perky/cute, she's actually pretty stoic and very mysterious.
The super cool thing about the Final Fantasy XIII fighting system is that it's not traditional. For all the other final fantasy games you would generally have the predictable party. One character (usually a girl) would be a healer. There would be an agility/strength character (Squall, Tidus, Cloud) a magician type character, a thief, and so on and so forth.
This time around you have a grid system which kinda echos Final Fantasy X's system, however the characters have multiple roles they can play, which you can switch at any given time during the battle. Because of this there isn't just one character who can heal, there's three. (Maybe more, I haven't gotten that far.) ALL of the characters can do some pretty decent damage, and actually I think Hope, a boy who is also the youngest party member, is probably the most defense/cleric type kid because of the multiple roles he's got besides fighting.
I find this excessively refreshing! Square Enix reported they made Lightning a bad@$$, girlpower type character on purpose. They said they wanted to make a strong heroine. This is MAJOR for the Japanese. Anyone who plays video games or reads manga or watches anime knows what I mean. The Japanese, although they are getting MUCH better, are still pretty sexist. The fact that Square Enix made a GAME about a girl is beyond impressive. Think back over the final fantasy games or even Kingdom Hearts. Girls are for saving. Girls are healers. Girls are not the best fighter in the group, they do not LEAD the group, and they CERTAINLY aren't military personnel.
For that reason alone I am a MAJOR supporter of Final Fantasy XIII, and I hope that the game is sucessful enough that Square Enix will feel compelled to continue making strong female characters.