Final Fantasy XIII is the flagship title of the Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy XIII collection.

Gameplay

The concept for Final Fantasy XIII s battle system is to maintain the strategic nature of command-based battles. The system stemmed from a desire to create battles similar to those found in Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. Like those in Final Fantasy XII, battle sequences are integrated into the world environment. The Active Time Battle (ATB) system will return, and it works differently from its predecessors. Users will be able to chain large numbers of commands together in order to achieve attack bonuses .

The battle system that was shown during the E3 2006 trailer was only a prototype. Recently, Square Enix showed battle footage in various Japanese magazines and trailers which introduced a new interface. In battle, the player can only control one character at a time out of a party of up to three. Multiple commands can be stacked into slots per turn and released at the same time to form a combo. The amount of command slots increases as the characters grow in strength. These commands include series staples such as Attack, Fire, Blizzard and Cure, as well as new ones such as Launch, which sends the enemy up in the air. The game does not make use of MP but introduces "cost points" for each command. Cost points determine how many times the commands can be used per turn. The player is able to view the HP and name of the enemy before engaging it in battle. When the player engages an enemy, the camera moves to another position and the battle menu appears, making the battle transitions nearly seamless.

Final Fantasy XIII's gameplay system still uses the multiple command system and the time gauge bar just like the ATB. However, the difference between this system and the ATB gauge is that commands can still be placed in the slots even though the bar has run out and the actions will be executed once the required slots are filled up. This however will affect the chain combo hits as the combo has been interrupted.

The after-battle victory screen in XIII holds information such as the time it took to finish the battle, the highest number of combos executed, the number of break attacks and the quality of battle which is determined by a ranking of one to five stars. The breaks refer to the times when an enemy enters a state of non-retaliation. This occurs when a chain combo has been maintained for a certain period of time on an enemy. When a high level combo has been achieved, the enemy will glow red and enter a break state, as indicated by the break bar. At that point the player will be able to execute the highest amount of damage to the target. However at that point, the chain bar will deplete slowly and when it is empty the break state becomes invalid.

A special command in the system is called Launch. This is used to toss enemies into the air and allows the character to perform mid-air combos on the opponent. This attack is useful when dealing huge amounts of damage to a target, especially when the target is in a break state. However it may be difficult to use this command on larger enemies.