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Final Fantasy XIII debuts on Xbox Game Pass tomorrow

ffxiii-xbox-game-pass-final-fantasy-xiii.jpg


Microsoft and Square Enix continue to make good on the November 2019 X019 promise to add Final Fantasy games to Xbox Game Pass. Rather than all appearing immediately, they’ve gradually rolled out in 2019, 2020, and 2021. Another entry will show up on the service on September 2, 2021. That is when FFXIII will make its debut on Xbox Game Pass for both consoles and PCs.

FFXIII was the first PS3 entry in the series and follows Lightning and a group of l’Cie chosen by the Anime fal’Cie to accomplish a mission. This gets them branded as traitors and pursued by the governing force of Cocoon, the floating home of everyone that is above the planet Gran Pulse. It’s known for its linearity and for inspiring two sequels that finish its story.

When FFXIII joins, it will be one of four Final Fantasy games on Xbox Game Pass. The other active ones are FFVIII Remastered, FFX | X-2 HD Remaster and FFXII: The Zodiac Age. FFVII was removed in August 2021.

Here are all the September 2021 Xbox Game Pass additions.
  • September 2, 2021: Craftopia (cloud, console, PC), FFXIII (console, PC), Signs of the Sojourner (cloud, console, PC), and Surgeon Simulator 2 (cloud, console, PC).
  • September 7, 2021: Crown Trick (console, PC)
  • September 9, 2021: The Artful Escape (console, PC), Breathedge (cloud, console, PC), Nuclear Throne (console, PC)
Also, the following games are leaving the service soon.
  • September 13, 2021: Red Dead Online (cloud, console)
  • September 15, 2021: Company of Heroes 2 (PC), The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics (cloud, console, PC), Disgaea 4 (PC), Forza Motorsport 7 (cloud, console, PC), Hotshot Racing (cloud, console), and Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales (cloud, console)
FFXIII will join Xbox Game Pass on September 2, 2021.

 

Kev Kev

Member
You are in for a treat if you haven't played it since they did the 1X enhancements. Game looks amazing now compared to the PS3/360 release.
nice! yeah i only ever made it a few hours back when it released so itll basically be my first time playing. ill have to track my progress the FF community thread for an LTTP
 

Aldynes

Member
FFXIII playing itself with auto-battle is what turned me off from it. If I'm just going to be hitting selecting auto-battle most of the time, what's the point?
I'm on board with you on that point, I still don't get why they limited the combat system so much until you reached 30-ish hours into the game, coupled with the corridors levels it's frustrating, it's weird since FF X was pretty much straight forward 90% of the game too, but this is the one who is remembered for that flaw.

Music is lit, graphics were bonkers for the time.

For many younger gamers, this was their first Final Fantasy game so I know there's nostalgia for it, even fans of it in the JRPG community, any Gaffers here who would gladly share their love for that FF ? I'm curious.
 

Vagswarm

Member
Bummer. Wouldn't mind trying it again, but my 3 month game pass subscription (included with separate purchase) just expired. Really didn't play many games on that service; was busy with the backlog. lol
 

Jigsaah

Gold Member
That's a pleasant surprise. I wonder if my current self would appreciate it more than I did when I had it on PS3.

I was really upset when it came out, but looking back I think I was too hung up on the lack of exploration in an airship that I never really gave it much of a chance.
 

nush

Gold Member
I was really upset when it came out

We remember...

Square just shot themselves in the foot.

I don't know how much the rest of you know about Japanese culture (I'm an expert), but honor and shame are huge parts of it. It's not like it is in America where you can become successful by being an asshole. If you screw someone over in Japan, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.

What this means is the japanese public, after hearing about this, is not going to want to purchase FFXIII for either system, nor will they purchase any of Square's games. This is HUGE. You can laugh all you want, but Square has alienated an entire market with this move.

Square, publicly apologize and cancel FFXIII for 360 or you can kiss your business goodbye.
 

Kagey K

Banned
Help yourselves.

Relive the worst mainline entry in a franchise. And afterward, realize there are two more direct sequels you can play.
I still think XV was worse (at least at launch, I haven't replayed it since they "fixed" it.)

13-2 is good too, and I haven't got that far into Lightning Returns even though I bought it after they made the BC announcement.
 
I'm on board with you on that point, I still don't get why they limited the combat system so much until you reached 30-ish hours into the game, coupled with the corridors levels it's frustrating, it's weird since FF X was pretty much straight forward 90% of the game too, but this is the one who is remembered for that flaw.

Music is lit, graphics were bonkers for the time.

For many younger gamers, this was their first Final Fantasy game so I know there's nostalgia for it, even fans of it in the JRPG community, any Gaffers here who would gladly share their love for that FF ? I'm curious.
Punished Miku Punished Miku is a big fan of this entry, if I remember correctly.

Hopefully they add Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Lightning Returns to complete the trilogy.
 
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01011001

Banned
The best version by far, of one of the worst AAA RPGs ever made!

huzzah!

p.s.: I already see people say it runs at 4K on One X/Series X, that's not the case, it runs at 1728p

One X enhanced does not mean 4K... it means 9x res boost (4x on Series S for 360 games)
 
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TheInfamousKira

Reseterror Resettler
Final Fantasy XIII was a game that I absolutely loved, story notwithstanding. I've been meaning to do a write up about it for awhile now, I think it's definitely a title that was ambitious in the wrong ways, and gives you control to a piece meal fault, but graphically it STILL holds up, the music is amazing, and the battle system is fun as hell if you give it the thought it deserves.
 

Chiggs

Member
The best version by far, of one of the worst AAA RPGs ever made!

huzzah!

p.s.: I already see people say it runs at 4K on One X/Series X, that's not the case, it runs at 1728p

One X enhanced does not mean 4K... it means 9x res boost (4x on Series S for 360 games)

It's still quite a looker on Xbox Series X, but man....it's not worth the ride. I got to that big planet where there's actually some level of freedom, but could not find the will to go on.

It's such a joyless game that even after all these years, I still keep laughing at all the Sony fanboys who lost their shit when it was announced for Xbox 360. Folks, it was not worth that level of emotional turmoil.
 
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Kagey K

Banned
Ewwww - I played it for 5 or 6 hours when it first came out and quit, nevermore to return. I was bored to tears and hated all the characters. This is one I'm not even vaguely excited about coming to Game Pass.
Boo this lady. 😅

I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed. 😉
 
Oh you'll have to share your opinion then, once you have played a bit.

The game itself hasn't changed, but as someone with a lot of time put into the old versions I'd really like to hear what you have to say about the IQ and performance changes.
Yep, I'll definitely post about it soon. I'll try it out tomorrow night. Beaten the game multiple times but its been a few years.
 

Naked Lunch

Member
XIII-2 and Lightning Returns havent gone on sale on XBL in like 2 years.
Hopefully theyll finally go on sale now.

I own but never played XIII but I find it funny people always complained how linear it is.
All the FFs outside of the online ones and 12 are linear - I still love the series - just saying.
Im playing thru FFX right now and you cant get any linear - the whole game is a straight line.
Never understood why XIII was singled out.
 

Little Chicken

Gold Member
I wish it had a one-hit kill mode because some of the scenery in the game is great, but I cant bring myself to play through that again.
 

Kagey K

Banned
XIII-2 and Lightning Returns havent gone on sale on XBL in like 2 years.
Hopefully theyll finally go on sale now.

I own but never played XIII but I find it funny people always complained how linear it is.
All the FFs outside of the online ones and 12 are linear - I still love the series - just saying.
Im playing thru FFX right now and you cant get any linear - the whole game is a straight line.
Never understood why XIII was singled out.
Because it wasn't exclusive anymore.

Plus no HD towns.
 
Is this the one where it doesn't get good until like 20 hours in? Or in my case never got good.
I honestly felt the opposite, the more I played after about 25 hours or so the more I hated the game. Been playing Final Fantasy Games since Final Fantasy 4 on SNES and 13 was the first one I didn't steamroll through at launch....Played about half of it and put it down for a year or two, had surgery and was bored and finished the rest lol
 
XIII-2 and Lightning Returns havent gone on sale on XBL in like 2 years.
Hopefully theyll finally go on sale now.

I own but never played XIII but I find it funny people always complained how linear it is.
All the FFs outside of the online ones and 12 are linear - I still love the series - just saying.
Im playing thru FFX right now and you cant get any linear - the whole game is a straight line.
Never understood why XIII was singled out.
Im not the biggest fan of Gamestop, but when they did the backwards compat patches for the Final Fantasy games they had FF13, Xiii-2, and Lightning Returns all for like 7 bucks apiece. I grabbed all 3 since I definitely lost my launch copies over the years..Did the same for the Ninja Gaiden games on Xbox(They were 5 bucks apiece)

I dunno about getting them digitally though and if they had a sale, but they definitely did in store. I still got the discs
 

Bernkastel

Ask me about my fanboy energy!
BTW the Xbox version is the best version of the game, even better than the Steam version. Runs at 4K and they even upgraded the FMVs for it.
Square just shot themselves in the foot.

I don't know how much the rest of you know about Japanese culture (I'm an expert), but honor and shame are huge parts of it. It's not like it is in America where you can become successful by being an asshole. If you screw someone over in Japan, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.

What this means is the japanese public, after hearing about this, is not going to want to purchase FFXIII for either system, nor will they purchase any of Square's games. This is HUGE. You can laugh all you want, but Square has alienated an entire market with this move.

Square, publicly apologize and cancel FFXIII for 360 or you can kiss your business goodbye.
 
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j0hnnix

Member
I bought it awhile back but
stopped playing 2 years ago on chapter 9 , I'll get around to it didn't have much issues with the game, found it entertaining, while it's not the best I do have fun with it but I am , as you can see playing in bursts over the years.

Surprised with the Auto-HDR kicking off Dolby Vision. Looks real nice.
 
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Kagey K

Banned
I bought it awhile back but
stopped playing 2 years ago on chapter 9 , I'll get around to it didn't have much issues with the game, found it entertaining, while it's not the best I do have fun with it but I am , as you can see playing in bursts over the years.

Surprised with the Auto-HDR kicking off Dolby Vision. Looks real nice.
I guess at least one good thing about the hallway is that you can't ever get lost if you stop playing it and decide to come back.

😅

Seriously though it sucks starting a game over because you can't remember where you were or how to play it.
 

j0hnnix

Member
I guess at least one good thing about the hallway is that you can't ever get lost if you stop playing it and decide to come back.

😅

Seriously though it sucks starting a game over because you can't remember where you were or how to play it.
Omg that's so true. Same walls from two years ago, just needed a refresher on mechanics which are pretty straight forward and was back in it.
 
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