Final Fantasy XIII (PS3, X360)

Few series are able to make a lot of games back to back and still be good. Final Fantasy is the exception.



STORYLINE:

The plot of Final Fantasy XIII revolves around the fal'Cie (pronounced /ˈfælsiː "fal see"/), beings created from crystals residing inside them. People who are marked by the fal'Cie for greater purposes are called l'Cie. Each l'Cie has a Focus, a goal the fal'Cie wants him or her to fulfill within a certain amount of time; however, the fal'Cie do not explicitly say what the goal is. L'Cie gain the ability to summon Eidolons (monsters who fight with the l'Cie), but this ability comes with a price: if an l'Cie dies before completing his or her Focus, or fails to complete his or her Focus within a period of time, he or she becomes a monster known as a "Cie Corpse." For this reason, being chosen as a l'Cie is seen as a curse.

Some 1,300 years ago, a fal'Cie constructed a paradise for humanity: the shell-like city of Cocoon, which floats high above the surface of the world known as Pulse. Both Pulse and Cocoon are maintained by their own fal'Cie. Cocoon's fal'Cie created life forms and machines for its inhabitants to use, and humanity flourished. Over time, the people of Cocoon began to fear for the safety of their world, and they worried that it would be cast down from the sky into the hell that they saw Pulse to be.

Although most Cocoon citizens have never seen Pulse with their own eyes, it is known to be a dangerous place, and has strange effects on those who venture down to its surface. Anyone who is discovered to have visited Pulse is immediately subject to quarantine and exile by the theocratic government of Cocoon, known as the Sanctum. However, as Snow leads Team Nora in a vain attempt to stop the purging of civilians, the mysterious Lightning fights her way past PSICOM soldiers to find Pulse's fal'Cie with the aid of Sazh. Through a chain of events, these three, along with two exiles, Vanille and Hope, are chosen by the fal'Cie of Pulse against their will to become l'Cie, and with that become enemies of humanity who are tasked with bringing about the downfall of Cocoon.

TRAILER: