Final Fantasy XIII

Final Fantasy XIII

Developers
	Square Enix
Engines
	Crystal Tools
Release dates
Windows	October 9, 2014
Reception
Metacritic	65
IGDB	81
Taxonomy
Series	Final Fantasy

Key points

Includes the "Easy" mode from Final Fantasy XIII Ultimate Hits International version of the game.

Ability to run at resolutions higher than 720p, and at 60fps.

English and Japanese audio voice overs are included in most of the steam region versions of the game except for the Asian steam region version.

Unfavorable than the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions in areas such as:

• Cutscenes are encoded a bit different resulting in it having some compression artifacts and washed out colors compared to the PS3 version.
• Shadow rendering is a bit different compared to the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, producing shadows that do not look good in most cases.
• No Controller vibration.

Issues specific to the PC version:

• Display resolutions other than 1280×720 causes certain graphical effects and a portion of the text on scanning an enemy to not render.
• 60fps is inconsistent and the game regularly dips to the low 40's or locks itself to 30.
• Constant stuttering in game.
• Lack of audio volume sliders, which makes it unable to adjust the volume of different in game audio elements.

General information

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		XIII + XIII-2 double pack available in Europe
Publisher website		European store
Publisher website		North American store
Amazon.com
Green Man Gaming
Humble Store
Steam

All versions require Steam DRM.

Essential improvements

FF13Fix

Mod that fixes low framerates on capable machines, and uncaps framerates. How this works:

• Removes aggressive frame pacer (works like a proper triple buffer implementation).
• Disables constant checks for input devices.
• Uncaps framerate, also properly utilizes the display's refresh rate.
• Fixes the slowdown when 2D elements are drawn in the HUD
• Fixes missing text on enemy scans.
• Enables vibration support.
• Works around the screen glitches when using 2560x1440 resolution

This fix is NOT compatible with GeDoSaTo and may not work properly on older Windows OS like 7, 8 or 8.1.

Remove unused cutscenes to free up space

Features dual audio English and Japanese for the ROW release. Removing the cutscene files for either language frees about 20 GB of space.

Verification and updating by Steam will redownload the files.

Remove English or Japanese cutscene files
Go to <path-to-game>/white_data/movie/ Arrange list by file size making biggest files to show up first. Ignore the 1KB files. To remove the Japanese cutscenes, delete the 18 files without the us prefix. To remove the English cutscenes, delete the 18 files with the us prefix.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\setup.xml
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/292120/pfx/

All in-game configurations are stored directly in the saved game data. Changes made while in the title screen are not preserved after loading a saved game.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\SquareEnix\FinalFantasyXIII\save\
Steam	<Steam-folder>/userdata/<user-id>/292120/remote/
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/292120/pfx/

The Steam folder is used when Steam Cloud is enabled; otherwise, the Windows folder is used.

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud		Up to 100 save files (29.3 MB) can be synced.

Video

Launcher options in ROW version.

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		Use Final Fantasy XIII Ultrawide Fix to force any screen resolution.
Multi-monitor		Pillarboxed 16:9. Use Final Fantasy XIII Ultrawide Fix.
Ultra-widescreen		Pillarboxed 16:9. Use Final Fantasy XIII Ultrawide Fix.
4K Ultra HD		Use Final Fantasy XIII Ultrawide Fix to force any screen resolution.
Field of view (FOV)		Use Final Fantasy XIII Ultrawide Fix.
Windowed		Set in launcher or see Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Always borderless. Use Final Fantasy XIII Ultrawide Fix to force fullscreen.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Use the GPU control panel or a tool like GeDoSaTo.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Up to 8x MSAA. Nvidia users can follow this guide for alternative hardware AA.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Always on. See Vertical sync (Vsync).
60 FPS		Frame rate is capped at 60 FPS.
120+ FPS		Uncapping the frame rate causes facial animation bugs during in-game cutscenes.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Windowed

Force windowed[citation needed]
Install FF13Fix. Open FF13Fix.ini. Change ForceWindowedMode = false to ForceWindowedMode = true.

Vertical sync (Vsync)

Force Vsync off[citation needed]
Install FF13Fix. Open FF13Fix.ini. Change PresentationInterval = 1 to PresentationInterval = -1.

Input

In-game options in ROW version.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		Movement and camera orientation keys are not remappable.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus		Can confirm with the left button and cancel with the right button, but it may require alt-tabbing first.
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support		Launcher needs mouse or keyboard. Cannot exit the game normally using the controller.
Controller remapping		Confirmation and cancellation buttons can be swapped via the -decidebuttonreverse command line option of ffxiiiimg.exe. With it enabled (default for Asia) B becomes confirm and A cancel, disabling it does the reverse.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion		X-axis inversion also available

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers		Only through DirectInput.
Xbox button prompts		Manual toggle in the settings: On-screen Button Explanations.
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers		BT support through DS4Windows or Steam input.
PlayStation button prompts		See Controller button prompts.
Light bar support
Adaptive trigger support
DualSense haptic feedback support
Connection modes

Generic/other controllers		No rebinding.
Button prompts

Additional information
Button prompts		The game comes by default with its own Grey color Xbox styled prompts on PC. Alternatively, the Xbox 360 version colored button icons can be used as well, see Console button prompts. For DualShock button icons, see Console button prompts.
Controller hotplugging		Has to be disabled for Haptic feedback through FF13Fix
Haptic feedback		Can be modded back using FF13Fix.
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Console button prompts

The game comes only with grey Xbox button prompts, without differentiating colors. This mod restores PlayStation and colored Xbox prompts.

Unlock Confirm/Cancel button configuration

By default only Asian version of the game has this option available. By patching the launcher, it can be unlocked for all versions of the game.

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		See audio volume is low.
Surround sound		Up to 5.1. No in-game option.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost		Loses focus by minimizing in windowed mode.

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English				Worldwide (audio not available in Asia)
English				Mod which restores English subtitles to any version of the game. Download here.
Traditional Chinese				Asia only
Traditional Chinese				Mod which restores Traditional Chinese subtitles to any version of the game. Download here.
French				Not available in Asia
French				Mod which restores French subtitles to any version of the game. Download here.
German				Not available in Asia
German				Mod which restores German subtitles to any version of the game. Download here.
Italian				Not available in Asia
Italian				Mod which restores Italian subtitles to any version of the game. Download here.
Japanese				Worldwide (UI and subtitles only available in Asia)
Japanese				Mod which restores Japanese subtitles to any version of the game. Download here.
Korean				Asia only
Korean				Mod which restores Korean subtitles to any version of the game. Download here.
Spanish				Not available in Asia
Spanish				Mod which restores Spanish subtitles to any version of the game. Download here.
Polish				Fan translation, download.
Russian				Fan translation by «FFRTT.ru»

Issues fixed

Missing effects and text at resolutions higher than 1280x720

Display resolutions other than 1280x720 can cause certain UI effects and the notes portion of the text after scanning an enemey when checking to not render.

Use FF13Fix

Inconsistent FPS

While there are several workarounds and fixes for inconsistent FPS (an issue not entirely unique to the PC port), this may be due to issues within the game itself.

As the game was originally designed for the PlayStation 3's Cell processor, this port incorrectly processes all game logic on a single thread, making single-core responsiveness imperative.

The engine's resource management could be broken, leaving the CPU and GPU either underutilized or utilized in an improper way.

The game also uses a custom frame rate pacer that locks the frame rate to refresh rate intervals similarly to Vertical Sync, but much more aggressively. This leads to issues when locking at a lower frame rate than the 60 FPS cap, such as stuttering both in-game and during FMV playback. Manually locking the game at a lower frame rate through third party tools does not resolve these issues.

Use FF13Fix to immensely improve frame rates

In the GPU and Power control panels set the power management mode to maximum performance. this is required if you are using FF13Fix[citation needed]

Turn off the mini-map in-game
The mini-map can drop the frame rate up to 10-20FPS depending on the scenes. If you are not using the FF13Fix, then you can toggle the mini-map off in-game to improve the performance.

Constant stuttering in game

Use a controller instead of the mouse/keyboard, or fake using one

This slowdown is fixed by FF13Fix. Some users have reported that using a controller instead of mouse/keyboard increases FPS and prevents stuttering. If you don't have a controller, vJoy is an alternative. This may be because the game is searching for an input device and timing out, causing the stutter. It fires the event every one second. In addition, the following steps may help, possibly needed every launch: Unplug controller Launch the game Exit the game Plug in the controller Launch and play the game

Disable hyperthreading on Intel processors
Somewhat extreme.[citation needed]

Disable all occurrences of "HID-Compliant Device" in the Device Manager
Helps for some, but is somewhat extreme and can make your OS unbootable.

Try closing web browsers (such as Google Chrome)[citation needed]
This solved a stuttering issue in one particular instance.

Shadows appear pixelated, jagged and blocky

Example of pixelated and jagged shadows at lower shadow resolution.

Shadow rendering is a bit different compared to the console versions, and they appear pixelated and jagged at lower shadow resolutions and blocky at higher shadow resolutions.

Increase the shadow resolution in the launcher
This helps in mitigating the issue to an extent and makes them less pixelated and jagged, but causes them to render quite blocky. The optimal shadow resolution recommended is 4096x4096.

Increase the shadow resolution via GeDoSaTo
GeDoSato is depreciated and if you want to use it, then do not use the FF13Fix along with it. In the GeDoSaTo .ini file mentioned under missing enemy text there is an option for shadowScale. Set this value to 8 or 12.

Game uses incorrect refresh rate

By default the game forces a 60 Hz refresh rate in full screen mode.

Override refresh rate set by game
Download the latest release of FF13Fix. Copy dinput8.dll and FF13Fix.ini to <path-to-game>\white_data\prog\win\bin. Notes The game will now use the same refresh rate selected in Windows. You can edit FF13Fix.ini to specify a custom refresh rate.

Audio volume is low

The game has a low volume level that is about half as loud as a typical game, and there are no in-game volume options. The only thing a player can do is crank up their speaker volume.

Crashes when loading a new area

The game can crash when loading a new area. This can be fixed with going into windowed mode, or borderless windowed mode.

Force exclusive fullscreen

Force fullscreen[citation needed]
Install Final Fantasy XIII Ultrawide Fix. Open Settings.ini. Change Fullscreen = 0 to Fullscreen = 1.

Native fullscreen mode doesn't work

See Force exclusive full screen[citation needed]

Use FF13Fix[citation needed]
Install FF13Fix. Set Borderless = true in FF13Fix.ini. Set windowed mode and the internal resolution you want to use in the launcher. Notes If you wish to use higher resolutions, use the Combined Launcher. This can also be used to easily supersample the game (simply set a higher resolution than your monitor supports).

Pixelated screen bug when using 2560x1440 resolution

2560x1440 resolution breaks the game, making it look more pixelated than it should.

Use FF13Fix
The internal resolution is reduced to 2559x1440 to workaround the issue.

Launcher doesn't launch

Use Final Fantasy XIII Combined Custom Launcher
Use it instead of the official launcher. It also provides more options (e.g. more windowed mode resolutions)

Bypass the launcher and run the program directly

Run <path-to-game>\white_data\prog\win\bin\ffxiiiimg.exe with the desired command line arguments: -Width=1920 and -Height=1080 control the width and height of the display resolution. -Shadow=512 controls the shadow resolution (512, 1024, 2048, 4096, or 8192). -Msaa=4 controls the MSAA amount (2, 4, 8, or 16). -FullScreenMode=Force runs in full screen mode. -Fullscreen=window-mode forces windowed mode. -VoiceJPMode runs the game with Japanese audio. Without this the game has English audio.

Could not secure sufficient VRAM

This issue occurs when launching the game due to the inability to allocate the required VRAM.

Check if you meet the system requirements through Steam. It can be done directly by entering steam://checksysreqs/292120 in a web browser. There are additional checks such as Can You RUN it available.

Run "dxdiag.exe" and ensure at least 256 MB is shown under "Approx. Total Memory" under the "Display" tab.

Close other applications and services using VRAM[citation needed]

Assign more RAM to the GPU
This is a method for just one particular setup. Other setups may vary. Restart and enter the BIOS configuration when starting up, typically by pressing one of the F1-F12 or DEL keys. Under "Peripherals" then "GFX Configs" ensure the "Graphic Interface" is set to "Force". An option to assign RAM should appear. Select the a sufficient higher value from the list such as 2 GB.

Abnormal eyelashes and hair

When antialiasing is completely disabled through system drivers or external programs, features such as eyelashes and hair display abnormally.

MSAA is required for proper alpha-to-coverage on hair and eyelashes.

In the Nvidia Control Panel ensure "Antialiasing - Mode" is not set to "Off" in "Manage 3D settings"[citation needed]

In the AMD Catalyst Control Panel ensure "Anti-Aliasing Samples" is not set to "None" in "3D Application Settings"[citation needed]

Macroblock-like hair artifacts

This fix is for Nvidia users with GeForce 400 series (Fermi architecture) or higher and occurs only when using MSAA (on by default).

Follow the Nvidia anti-aliasing guide under the section "anti-aliasing" to create or modify an Nvidia Profile Inspector profile for "ffxiiiimg.exe" and set "Antialiasing fix" to "On" under "Compatibility"

Continuous cursor cycling in menus

Symptoms of this issue include continuous cursor cycling through menu entries as if the user was pressing a directional button.

Disable offending HIDs in Device Manager
Go into Device Manager and start disabling your Human Interface Devices (HIDs) one by one until you find which one is causing the issue. It's been reported that redundant HID-compliant gaming controllers are usually the issue, often created by third party accessories such as DolphinBar.

Crashes when saving

The game can crash on certain configs when saving with Steam Cloud synchronization active. This can also result in corrupted save files.

Disable Steam Cloud synchronization for the game[citation needed]
Right-click the game in your Steam library and select "Properties". Uncheck/deselect "Enable Steam Cloud synchronization for FINAL FANTASY XIII" under "Steam Cloud" in the "Updates" tab. You'll have to copy your saved data from Steam Cloud to %LOCALAPPDATA%\SquareEnix\FinalFantasyXIII\save\.

Mouse cursor stays on screen

The mouse cursor may appear on program launch and will not disappear.

Use FF13Fix[citation needed]
Install FF13Fix. Open FF13Fix.ini. Change HideCursor = false to HideCursor = true.

Xbox One Controller bug in menus

This issue seems to happen when using the controller in wireless mode.

Try using the controller plugged in via USB

Use Final Fantasy XIII Fixer
Run the utility before and alongside the game each time you play. This may be incompatible with FF13Fix.

Controller vibration doesn't work

The game lacks the controller vibration support found in the console versions entirely.

Use FF13Fix

Crash to desktop on Chapter 8: City of Dreams (Nautilus)

Change resolution temporarily
Set the game to run in windowed mode, or a lower resolution full-screen mode. Run through where the crash occurs and watch the cutscene save the game and change it back to your regular settings

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Cutscenes	Bink Video

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP SP2	Vista, 7, 8
Processor (CPU)	2 GHz dual core	Intel Core 2 Quad (2.66 GHz) AMD Phenom II X4 (2.8 GHz)
System memory (RAM)	1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	60 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 8 Series ATI Radeon HD 2000 series 256 MB of VRAM	Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 AMD Radeon HD 5870
Sound (audio device)	DirectX 9.0c compatible	DirectX 11 compatible
Other		XInput controller (map DirectInput controllers using drivers)