Final Fantasy 13 did things differently from its prior chocobo-starring brethren. It kept players on a remarkably linear course for a hefty chunk of its story before dropping them out into something of an open world. This approach has frustrated some long-term Final Fantasy fans but it meant the game acted as a more forgiving starting point for anyone new to the series.

Related: Final Fantasy 13: Behind The Scenes Details

When FF13 gets going, the going gets good. We've often found that grasping the game's fundamentals and learning to embrace its distinct style can go a long way toward ensuring that players don't step away from the sci-fi dystopia called Cocoon dissatisfied. Here are six tips to keep you glued to this dramatic and dynamic — if convoluted and sometimes confusing — tale.

Characters Specialize In Certain Roles

Hope's Full ATB Skill in Final Fantasy 13 - Last Resort

Alright, so technically this isn't true. Great way to start a guide, right? Every party member has certain unique abilities tied to each of Final Fantasy 13's six roles: Commando, Ravager, Medic, Saboteur, Sentinel, and Synergist. But when you first start using them in combat, they each have just three roles. Stick with those. Experimentation isn't inherently a bad idea, and once you're far enough along in the game that the whole gang is together on a routine basis, feel free to swap stuff around to your heart's content.

The thing is, Final Fantasy 13 loves to split your party. This is going to keep happening to you, so learn to live with it. In fact, we'll talk about that more in a bit. Here's the deal: while you'll steadily unlock new roles for your characters, the predetermined party composition essentially dictates that you ought to focus on the roles they have built-in at the beginning of the game. They're good at those roles. They're designed for those roles when pitted up against whatever their story chapters toss at them.

Make The Most of Those Three Starter Roles

Vanille's Full ATB Skill in Final Fantasy 13 - Death

Paradigm Shifts are FF13's battle-related bread and butter. Myriad tutorial windows are going to pop up at you talking up how great they are, but if there's one thing the developers never quite grasped about game design here it's the concept of "information overload." After a while, it can all blur together.

The crux is that whenever your party members are chosen for you (commonly in pairs; eventually in trios), you need to get the hang of their starter roles and switch between them on the fly. That's what a Paradigm Shift is — a complete shift in paradigm you'll use against PSICOM and all your other nemeses.

Let's use an early-game example. In Chapter Four, your initial party is Sazh and Vanille. Every encounter is tailored to their strengths, even if it doesn't seem that way at first. Vanille excels as a Ravager here, so level her up accordingly. For his part, Sazh should stick with Synergist. The difficulty starts to spike here, so shift Vanille to a Medic whenever some healing's needed. This is all it takes to stay alive.

Embrace FF13's Linearity

Final Fantasy 13 Manasvin Warmech

On an entirely unrelated note, it helps to go into Final Fantasy 13 with the right mindset. When it first launched on PS3 and Xbox 360 way back in 2010, many gamers went into it with specific expectations. This didn't happen at random; most previous entries had side content in spades, including surprisingly fun minigames such as Chocobo racing, collectible card games, even submarine warfare.

Final Fantasy 13 eschews all that, especially for its first ten chapters. Your destination is almost invariably the only real path you can take, with some tiny side paths along the way that result in treasure chests it's virtually impossible to miss. The game is constructed first and foremost as a gauntlet. Regular enemies can be more challenging than one might expect, constantly reshuffling the fast-paced battle system to keep you on your toes.

The one nice thing about all this linearity is that it enabled Square Enix's art design gurus to paint a stunningly beautiful world that still holds up today. Whereas more open RPGs tend to demand a certain degree of compromise in graphical prowess in order to accommodate not just the scope but the plethora of camera angles that players can deploy, FF13 basks in the fact that you'll tend to soak in the sights from just a handful of angles along a guided tour. When you're feeling overwhelmed, stop for a few moments and ogle every detail.

Complete Lots of Cie'th Stone Missions

Final Fantasy 13 Long Gui Battle with Lightning

Later into the game, that linearity goes away for a while. And while all those aforementioned minigames are gone, there is an exceptionally lengthy side quest that arguably takes their place. They're called Cie'th Stone missions, and they involve "speaking" with various stones to learn about optional monsters strewn across Gran Pulse's plains and slaughtering them for fun and profit.

So much emphasis is placed on Cie'th Stone missions that FF13 actually forces you to do a few before you can continue the main story. These first few marks are mostly harmless, but dozens of missions later and you'll be hurting for solid strategies and top-of-the-line equipment. It's all rather addicting. You'll even reach a point whereby a familiar Final Fantasy icon will challenge you to some difficult trials.

It would all be for naught if the rewards for completing Cie'th Stone missions weren't anything to write home about. Thankfully, many of these rewards are worth writing essays about. The equipment upgrades you'll receive from fulfilling the undying wishes of fallen folks will lead you to some of the best setups FF13 can provide. Which is, in large part, why...

You Needn't Keep Your Weaponry Entirely Up-to-Date

Lightning from Final Fantasy 13 representing the Ravager Paradigm

Final Fantasy 13's weapon upgrade system is vast. There are hundreds of machine parts (and such) to be found that can combine with other parts and craft you some seriously wicked weaponry. Upgrading weapons may seem like a worthy endeavor. And it is... to a point. But don't go overboard.

It's rarely, if ever, necessary to strive for the most powerful arms on offer at any given time during FF13's first ten chapters. The grinding prerequisites are steep and the payoff is often surpassed shortly thereafter. Factor in that the Crystarium, FF13's character upgrade suite, has a set limit per chapter, and you're going to end up wasting hours of your time with party members at their temporary growth peaks scavenging around for minor upticks in combat prowess.

This isn't to say you should disregard upgrades entirely. For starters, it's a lot easier (and a fair bit more helpful) to dive into the system in Chapter 11, when those Cie'th Stone missions become available. Your prizes will come at a quick enough clip, and the battles ahead in the final two chapters are blistering enough, to fully justify the endeavor.

Read the Datalog

Sazh From Final Fantasy 13

Perhaps it's a tip only for the narratively-minded, but if you want to invest yourself emotionally in the melodramatic exploits of the fal'Cie, you shouldn't purely rely upon the game's (many) cutscenes.

That may sound weird. Frankly, it is a little weird. It's not that Final Fantasy 13's plot is incomprehensible so much as the sheer breadth of its in-lore terminology is astounding. Right from Chapter One, characters will routinely spout some dubiously samey stuff. Keeping track of the differences between fal'Cie, l'Cie, and Cie'th can be mentally straining. Toss in the fact that the cast includes words like "heroes", "protect", "Crystal", "Focus", and "Cocoon" so often you'd think they're hoping Google will be happy with the script's SEO, and you have the perfect recipe for player confusion. And frustration.

The datalog is your friend. So much jargon is cleared up so neatly so long as you keep tabs on all its periodic updates. An argument can be made that this is far from the most polished approach to narrative clarity, but it is what it is, and you may very well find this story endearing in the final telling. You just need to learn its language first.

Next: Final Fantasy 13: How To Defeat A Long Gui