HOENSTLY I THINK EVEN PEOPLE WHJO DIDNT LIKE FF13 PART 1 WILL ENJOY PART 2 ITS GOOD!!!! HAS AN AMAZING SOUNDTRACK AND SOME GENUINE HEART!!!!!

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN RIDE THIS CHOCBO??????
GOT CHOCUKS? YOU BETTER PUT THEM ON THIS COBOC!
SADDLE UP, IF YOU THINK THIS RODEO
ARE WE IN HELL? I DONT KNOW ... TO THE DIRT LETS ROLLLL

i am surprised to say i really like this game. it felt like a shitty cashgrab at the beggining, ngl. but honestly, what surprised me the most is just how much better this game is than ff13. like in the following ways:

- literally all open world, non linear. i skipped a bunch of the story in episode 3, had to go back and do it lol.
- the battle system is still amazing and fun. the monster collecting aspect is pretty fun too, plus there is a whole lot more options for party customization here.
- the crystal level up system is now actually pretty cool. it has multiple pathways for each character, i can make every character a fighter, black mage, white mage, buff, debuff, tank, literally whatever i want. and then choose a monster with it's own role. it has layers of interesting combinations and new stuff to try out.
- tons of sidequests and exploration. exploring the timeline is really fun, seeing how places evolve, or how they were in the past, really adds a lot to the story and mood of the game.
- you don't need to read the datalog (aka giant wall of text in the menus) to understand what's going on, for the most part (lol)
- the music is fucking goat, all battle themes are great and feel unique to this game. i even like the metal chocobo song, i get it's cheesy as hell but come on, it's just a bit of cheese.
- the story progresses naturally, shit's easy to follow, understandable.
- the art direction is still fucking great. some amazing environments here, and time traveling through weird, surreal scenarios really shows what the FF artists can do.

of course, not everything is great. the plot is still horribly cheesy, and the dialogue still sucks hard. look, it's not much worse than ffx or ffx-2, but there's still some gems like this one at the beggining of the game:

"Become an arrow through time and speed your way to Serah."
- Lightning (wtf?? why is the wording here so odd??)

lightning probably has the worst lines of all, literally all of her dialogue feels either out of character or just plain stupid. thankfully she doesn't appear much in the game lmao.

"That time was lost; yet time continued onward. Divine Etro. Go peacefully to your rest. I will stand guard over your legacy."
- Lightning (completely out of character lol)

there's also all this bullshit about a goddess of time, which was introduced completely out of nowhere. not to mention how they retconned XIIIs ending to squeeze a bunch of sequels, sleazy motherfuckers.

the story usually makes sense as well, thank god. starting this out i honestly thought this was gonna be a mess, like giving a complicated time travel storyline to the ff13 writers, who literally had to put exposition dumps in the game menu to make up for the shitty pacing and explain core plot concepts. surprise: nobody wants to read a wall of text after every boss fight lmao.

but this game, honestly it just works here. literally never had to read the datalog, this played like a normal rpg. you and your party do stuff, and the story advances there. shit just works.

also, the PC port is by far the worst console port i've ever played. if the game sucked, i might as well have been scammed. i experienced everything here: awful fps dips, constant slowdowns, graphical bugs, hours of messing with the graphics driver and fanmade fixes to actually get this game to work. it's just a mess man. definetly skip the pc version, go for ps3 or xbox 360, unless you have a fairly beefy pc (i have a 4th gen i5 and a gtx 1050, decent setup, and still had massive slowdowns, even if the game did run at 60 fps most of the time).

but, even with all the story woes and the AWFUL port, this game is still pretty good. just a fun experience, like an ffx or ffx-2, not mindblowing, but a good final fantasy game and a great jrpg for sure.

no one is ready to admit that this is one of the best rpgs to ever release in the 2010s. it does the "final humans in the world" troupe very well and is a great direct continuation to xiii-1. i also loved the ending to bits and the game left me broken and emotional as hellllll. 10/10 for meee. not to mention the OST is beautiful and has tons of different themes, for example: it can be beautiful and instrumental such as hope's theme or "wishes," or it can be more techno like "paradigm shift" and "parallel worlds."

"Let's make a sequel that ignores the worldbuilding of the original to focus on new wacky time travel lore, knock down the playable cast from 6 to 2, and harass you with a moogle navi that you can punish by throwing off cliffs!"

Sounds like an idea of the unhinged, one that would be laughed out of the room at pre-production stage, right? Nope—these ideas made their way into the final product, because somehow everyone involved in the decision making process thought this was a good idea.

And they... were right??? This game has no right to be as good as it is, it's a complete overreaction to all the criticisms of FF13, and yet it somehow just works. Making the main cast Lightning's mostly absent sister and this random guy from the future, complete with a cutesy mascot, sounds like the premise of a creatively bankrupt sequel; instead, it leads to one of the most memorable trios in the Final Fantasy series. Serah was already a decent character in the original, especially considering her role as a plot device damsel, and here they capitalise on that by allowing her to shine as a protagonist, on a journey with very real stakes to restore her old life. Noel slots in excellently with the new lore, has amazing chemistry with Serah—without creating romantic girl/boy duo #124812490 in media—and provides a very emotional story that left more impact on me than I was expecting.

Hell, even Mog is pretty lovable; and when he isn't, you can just throw him over the edge and listen to his sweet screams! Ludonarrative dissonance, pfft, more like ludonarrative resonance.

Battle wise I unfortunately don't think this sequel is better, it's one of the areas I feel the original was stronger. The improved QoL such as removing the long animation of the first paradigm shift (thank god) is appreciated, but overall it's just... a bit too easy for my tastes, and lacks the expertly designed game balance of FF13. The monster collector system is a fun idea, but I found it a little jank and grindy, and would've preferred a third character instead. Also, Serah and Noel are garbage synergists!! Either you infuse a chimera of abilities through a monster grindfest, or accept that debuffs are The Way this game. I'll remember you, haste...

Thankfully, exploration is here to save the day! Unlike FF13, which has the openness of my bathroom outside of the Archylte Steppe, 13-2 understands that it's nice being about to revisit areas and walk about a little. Each area is fairly small, and to call them "open areas" would be a ludicrous exaggeration outside of the returning Archylte Steppe, but the way they get around this is quite clever—time travel! There's so many hidden gates to find that take you to completely optional areas and time periods, it really makes it feel like you're exploring the 4th dimension. I wouldn't say the approach to exploration is perfect: a major blemish is how absurdly hidden most quest items and even some story items are, practically expecting most players to have a guide in hand, along with a bizarre lack of sidequest markers. But hey, I still had fun screwing around!

Encounter rate is a bit high for my tastes, though at least unlike FF13, it's pretty easy to avoid most enemies. The big exception to this being a certain "Cie'th city", with such outrageously frequent encounters that I'm convinced they didn't playtest this part of the final product—they even interrupt active voice dialogue! Why is the active voice dialogue longer than the time it takes for battles to start!

I do like the fun little puzzles they throw at you, though I do have to say the clock puzzles are an absurd spike in difficulty, you go from relatively easy puzzles to this... monstrosity. I mean, it's not bad and actually decently big brained, but it's a bit much to expect from a game not designed for hardcore puzzle gamers! Not to mention giving some time limits: it's pure evil, I tell you. Good thing there's helpful tools online to solve these so you don't have to git gud—of course, I'd never resort to cheating like that, I totally solved all these puzzles on my own, haha...

Music-wise I was pretty darn excited to get to this game after hearing how good the tracks were in theatrhythm, and it certainly delivered there. Like FFX, this soundtrack takes full advantage of having more than one composer, delivering a huge variety of tracks with their own unique styles, along with a bunch of beautiful and fun vocal themes. Highlights being: Plains of Eternity, Warrior Goddess, Full Speed Ahead, New Bodhum, Historia Crux, Worlds Collide, Yuel's Theme, Crazy Chocobo (sue me), Noel's Theme - Final Journey -, Unseen Abyss, and 'Closing Credits' which basically collates all the best tracks in the game under a deceptively bland title.

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STORY SPOILERS START HERE
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Wow, time travel! This should be a dreadful idea for a sequel, but it ends up working oddly well. They quickly make it clear that time travel has limitations and consequences, with only one true timeline being allowed, along with so many ways of accidentally creating world-ending paradoxes through butterfly effects. Our protagonists can't go wherever the hell they want either, as they are guided through gates that take them to static points in history. In fact, most of the game is really about undoing the paradoxes created by a certain reckless goddess we never meet, as she's too busy dying in the corner. Etro is a unique take on divinity—unlike the Fal'cie which are predictably manipulative and apathetic, Etro's benevolence towards humanity is her undoing, as every blessing she attempts to bestow leads to equivalent curses that doom others. Even better, that's the motivation of our villain: he's a bit tired of the goddess ruining the timeline by 'saving' people, causing the seeress he's been sworn to protect to keep dying as her brain gets microwaved by forced visions of every little change in history.

Caius makes for an absolutely fantastic antagonist with a sympathetic and downright reasonable motive—erasing the concept of time probably isn't a bad idea when you live in the apocalypse—along with high emotional stakes in facing him, being the mentor of Noel. While Yuel is a giant plot device with little personality beyond Nice and Good, this becomes a non-issue with how well she is used in the story, and it honestly is somewhat believable she's become so emotionless and unaffected considering what she's been exposed to throughout all her lifetimes. This makes Noel and Caius' relationship very interesting, as they both have the same goal, just drastically different ways of going about it.

Noel himself is a great deuteragonist—while the way we slowly uncover his memories is very plot convenient, it ends up unravelling in an emotionally satisfying way as we're exposed to his past and the hopeless world he lives in, where everything is dead and the only people he has left both die and vanish into the black mist of villainhood respectively. By the end he's practically on a suicide mission, until Etro saves him: it's impossible not to feel for the poor guy.

Speaking of Etro, we have Etro's Champion here in the form of Lightning. I'll be frank, I don't think this is an organic continuation of Lightning's role from 13—in that game she was a fairly down to earth person, so turning her into this servant of the goddess feels beyond excessive and doesn't do much for her character. We also don't really get to see much of a relationship get built between her and Caius, despite them both being on the cover and the entire story revolving around their eternal conflict on the edge of time, which is a bit disappointing. However, they do stick the landing in the finale to the story, where she is unable to prevent Serah's death, and forced to accept her failure as she enters an eternal crystal sleep.

Hope's role in this game, on the other hand, feels like a very organic continuation of his role in 13, now pushing the world into a new age through his leadership developed throughout the original game. I found it interesting how he paralleled Etro, in that his good intentions often led to... many problems, until we hit the climax where he creates a new Cocoon called Bhunivelze (????? Hope you madman, read up on your FNC lore!) Alyssa is an interesting character with a fun twist, though unfortunately we don't get a good resolution for her... outside of a novel apparently? I hear that novel also explains why Snow is a L'cie again, talk about cut content lol. Also rip Sazh, he really got the short end of the stick this game... I won't speculate as to why, as I feel that's heading in very dangerous territory!

Climax of the game is absolutely fantastic, with a really strong confrontation between Serah & Noel and Caius, ending in expected tragedy D: Then it gets even worse when oops, Serah died and we all failed, Caius got his way after all! I like the extra bonus ending that reveals Caius planned this all along, one of the rare villains to actually succeed in his goal and win against the protagonists. Though I will say, I'm pretty disappointed at the lack of Noel x Caius content, the angst practically writes itself! I guess I'm going to have to make my own contributions ;p

Paradox endings are all quite fun, ranging from serious to completely absurd, I love it. There's a ton of endgame content that ups the difficulty quite a bit, though I wasn't in the mood to grind up all my monsters to get too involved in it.

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STORY SPOILERS END HERE
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So yeah, overall this game is surprisingly great! For a sequel built on such a ridiculous premise, it ends up playing out shockingly well, and delivers with a really-well done and emotionally resonant story. There are flaws, such as the combat being a bit of a sidegrade from ff13, and practically requiring a guide if you truly want to see everything the game has to offer, and it's admittedly quite low budget compared to the gorgeous graphics of its predecessor. PC port is also REALLY bad, I had to use like 10+ mods and mess around with my GPU settings to get it in a decent state—you sure aren't getting 60fps in certain areas without bruteforcing it. But, BUT, this game is something really special all in all, and I really would recommend it to anyone who wants a shorter, more experimental FF with a strong story, even to those who didn't care for FF13.

I didn't like this sequel as much as the original. It starts out alright, with the introduction of Noel and the reintroduction of Serah. It really doesn't get itself together at all after that, unfortunately.

Gameplay is essentially the same as Final Fantasy XIII with three party members and the paradigm system to swap what your characters can do. XIII-2 only has two permanent party members (Noel and Serah) and your third slot rotates in monsters you tame, depending on what paradigm type you choose. This seems cool at first, but the monsters are strictly less interesting than an actual party member would be.
The fights in this game lean into the weaker aspects of the combat system pretty hard. Most of the fights don't really allow you to utilize any jobs other than commando or ravager (even medic is outclassed by simply using potions). It feels like the designers don't really have any idea what makes this system interesting and fun.

I don't really even know what to say about the story, but it manages to be even more incomprehensible than the original. They take the baseline jargon-world of Final Fantasy XIII and add in time travel. The events are random, the locations are random, characters from FFXIII show up randomly, and the antagonist is a random character with arbitrary motivations that don't make any sense. In fact, most of what is happening doesn't make sense, isn't really explained, or is just boring or dumb. I liked Noel as a character, but basically everyone else and everything else that happens in the game is pretty bad.

I still ended up having an ok time with Final Fantasy XIII-2, carried mainly by the strength of the combat system and Noel. Unless you are really invested in the story of Final Fantasy XIII, this game probably isn't worth playing.

After the atrocious first entry in the "XIII series", I layed my hands upon XIII-2 and oh boy, I was surprised. Unlike its predecessor, this feels like a JRPG. You can travel freely and are not restricted to a one-way street anymore. You get cities with NPCs roaming around. The battle system is not much deeper but with the new monster system, they added a cool feature. Unfortunately next to one active monster you only get two characters, Serah and Noel. Serah is sweet and lovely just like in the first game but Noel is your standard cookie-cutter JRPG hero with some neat details here and there. But one of the most important additions to the XIII series: The battle doesn't end when your active characters die. This time around it swaps to your other character and only if that one dies as well it is game over. So you have some time to resurrect your fallen party member. Too bad there are some mega attacks again that insta-kills your whole squad when you're lower than 70%-80% hp. But as far as I can say this is only in the last boss battle. Also, the grinding is less noticeable here because you have to backtrack every now and then. The problem is that at one point in the story you have to have enough keys to open portals to (what I thought at first) optional areas. Looks like some of them contain very important objects. And since you never know to what area a new portal will lead you to have to get lucky or own all those precious keys. And they are well hidden at times. All around the world are translucent objects and containers you can reveal with your Moogle. And oh boy they are hard to spot sometimes. Unfortunately, most of the side quests rely on this mechanic so I hope you have good eyes. But at least it got neat side quests. (I look at you FFXIII Archylte Steppe). Once again all levels look great with different looks and feel. They get rehashed but it's okay considering the plot. And yes story. Although it is muuuch better than Final Fantasy XIII´s mess of Fal'Cie, L'Cie and more it is still a tad convoluted. But because the story is sprinkled nicely in between the chapters and different areas I pretty much enjoyed it. The whole game just feels more complete and well thought out. Somehow the battles feel more fun, although they are practically random encounters. And the music is also fantastic again. A tad too much singing though but most of the time it fits. XIII-2 is in fact a huge step up from the first game but not a perfect Final Fantasy game. If you want to catch up on the franchise I would recommend skipping FFXIII.

Peak fiction in all fucking honesty.

By far the best Final Fantasy I've played and one of the best JRPGs I've had the pleasure to experience to the fullest. It's rare to come across a game that has masterclass levels of writing with characters so nuanced that no one is truly a hero and villain in this story.

You have three main characters, two "protagonists" and one "antagonist" that are trying to undo the burden of time and the paradoxes but none of them are in the right and they all face severe consequences because of their actions in the end. Towards the end of the game you even start to see the lines blur between what makes them a protagonist and what make the other an antagonist. The game doesn't really answer it for you either, you're just left with the repercussions of the choices you've made and for you to reflect on them.

The combat is no different from FFXIII other than just some tweaked up designs and a new entertainingly immersive cinematographic combat scenarios scattered throughout the game to really amp up the style this game exudes. It's probably the franchise's most stylistic game which is saying a LOT since Final Fantasy is notorious for its unique romantic and bold designs.

This game's OST is by far in my top three for Final Fantasy OSTs and without a doubt in my top ten for all time favorite video game OSTs as well.

As I write this review I'm also struggling to find any valid and reasonable flaws/complaints that come to mind and I have absolutely nothing to complain about. The game is just genuinely a well crafted masterpiece that I will constantly cry out to those who bother to listen.

It's truly a shame where Square Enix has been heading this last decade but they really created something incredibly beautiful and unique that it cannot be replicated no matter how hard someone tries. Truly a delicately designed game through and through and I am thankful for the developers that made it happen.

Honestly, one of my favorite Final Fantasy games. It’s a bit of a confusing mess at times but for some reason, emotionally it all makes perfect sense. Serah and Noel are both compelling protagonists that you can’t help but root for through it all because of how simple and effective their character arcs and stories are. They both just trying to find the people most important to them as they navigate time travel and the responsibility of that power.

The game refines and improves on the mechanics in XIII pretty well and essentially cuts the bullshit when introducing it to the player. I could tell that the devs were actively trying to address the critiques of XIII, and within the constraints of a lower budgeted sequel to a game that no one really expected or wanted, I think it’s as perfect as it can be.

I can only imagine the kind of game this would be as its own beast on the scale of a mainline FF game. Maybe a story that’s truly allowed to go all loose with it’s time travel ideas and maybe a higher difficulty. What does exist however, is still one of the most fun I had playing a game as a kid. Maybe I didn’t know what was going on the whole time but I think I’ll never NOT have a good time with this one.

this game was a good news, bad news situation for anyone (like myself) who found XIII flawed with a lot of potential. the good news: they fixed a lot of the core issues that plagued XIII (i.e. your character death being a game over, lack of player self-determination/expression in paradigm choices until endgame, etc.). the bad news: the characters are rancid and the plot is even more indecipherable. would've probably liked this more than XIII if i gave even a fraction of a shit about any of the main characters.

Bearing numerous improvements, XIII-2 manages to bring XIII back above water--despite making many of the same mistakes.

I'll be writing this review just like Square Enix makes their sequel games. But not just any of their sequel games, I'm talking about the ones that boldly feature Roman and Arabic numerals strung together. Which means I'll be doing this one quick, cheap, and dirty.

After all, I wouldn't expect a film buff to spend much time on Disney's direct-to-DVD offerings, which is about where we're at right now in gaming terms.

Where's Lightning…?
But to be fair, these types of games aren't inherently a bad thing. Developers who are freed from all the expectations (and marketing budget) tied up in massive flagship titles are more likely to experiment and try out strange--and if we're lucky, interesting--new ideas. X-2 was ostensibly an asset flip of X , but was crammed full of so many weird, admirable, and frankly better ideas that it easily outshines its predecessor in every category. Its runtime (my casual playthrough clocked in at sixteen hours) certainly helped impressions as well.

One thing is certainly clear: when the stakes are so much lower, it's easier to roll with wacky ideas, faster pacing, and goofy presentation.

So, how does XIII-2 hold up compared to XIII?

Far, far better than I imagined it would.

Don't get me wrong, it's still not what I'd call a good game--it almost was--but if you even remotely enjoyed XIII, then you'll be hard pressed to not enjoy XIII-2 far more.

Nearly every single obvious issue from XIII has been addressed in some way--usually to decent success. The world is no longer linear, there are side-quests and NPCs galore, mini-games are constantly thrown in to spice up gameplay pacing, etc. etc. Even the battle systems have been refined to allow greater flexibility, player expression, and moment to moment freedom of choice.

So in that sense, XIII-2 not only outshines its predecessor, it also reminds just how fucking dire XIII was in the first place. Most of these "improvements" are (at least in any other game) the bare fucking minimum. But hey, XIII was a complete and total trainwreck, so let's give credit that some lessons were actually learned.

Even the fucking music has been massively improved--much like it was in the jump between X and X-2. Hamauzu's exceeding dry score has been bolstered by the more dynamic, energetic, and frankly fun work of Naoshi Mizuta. It's still a far cry from Uematsu's greatest moments, but XIII-2's score is at least filled with rhythmic intrigue and charming moments.

So in general, XIII-2 is--at least at times--a genuinely fun game. I can't say the same about XIII at all. So big points for that.

Valhalla is a place where nothing ever happens

However, XIII-2 still manages to drop the ball in many of the same ways XIII does. Don't forget, this is still a Toriyama/Watanabe joint. Even though the battle systems have been greatly improved…it's still sitting on an unstable foundation. The auto-battle system is still inherently unfun and requires players to seek out moments of enjoyment in an otherwise dull framework. It doesn't help that weapon and accessory choice is still rudimentary and often uninteresting.

Beyond that, most of my problems with XIII-2 come from its incessant need to meter out content as well as its disastrous narrative.

If there's one thing X-2 got right, it was its pacing. You could dick around with all the silly side content the game had to offer, which might be enjoyable if you were truly obsessed with the world and characters of X . Or, you could beeline your way through the game's main content in a fast and fun manner. In-and-out before you cracked the twenty hour mark.

XIII-2 comes close to this breezy pacing, but manages to blow it in the second half of the game. Which, at this point, seems to be the Toriyama specialty. There's just a lot of unfun, uninteresting, and tedious shit you need to do in order to finish up the game. From areas filled with uninteresting random encounters every five feet (that don't even give you XP!), to fetch quests across space and time, to massive areas filled with lame puzzles that are just plain unfun to explore and solve…XIII-2 has all of the Toriyama classics. The final area in particular is just plain cruel--requiring players to navigate a massive area filled with ultra-slow turning platform puzzles and random-encounters up the ass. I might have been kinder, if not for the fact that Square's dogshit PC port crashed on me three times during this segment.

And it’s a damn shame too. The first half of the game is filled with simple, quick, and fun set pieces that constantly have us rolling between random places in space and time--shootin' the shit with random side characters for just enough time before they become boring. If XIII-2 kept up this presentation, it definitely would have gotten an easy 7/10…but alas, Toriyama and co. just can't help themselves.

Which is pretty crazy when you think about it. Do you seriously care if your game is longer if it's at the cost of its enjoyability? I'd rather have something short and sweet. Sadly it seems like your average JRPG fan begs to differ. After all, Square has managed to turn a five hour rollercoaster ride through Midgar into a forty hour chore--to massive acclaim. Shows what I know.

Speaking of critical acclaim, can you believe that Famitsu gave XIII-2 its coveted perfect score? The early 2010s were a very curious time for gaming.

Beyond everything I've already said, it's hard to imagine anyone giving XIII-2 a perfect score on account of its awful narrative. X-2 certainly had a goofy story, but it played into its sense of camp very well. XIII-2 instead tries to create a "darker" tale about love and life strewn across many timelines and beyond temporal paradoxes.

I'm not gonna scrutinize the story in detail--it's really not worth the effort. But needless to say it's got that trademark Kingdom Hearts sense of melodrama and needless convolution. Which would be fine, if not for the fact that it takes up a good chunk of your playtime in the second half of the game. Instead, I'm forced to feel secondhand embarrassment for the development staff (and anyone who was forced to play the game on a shared living room TV) every time a cutscene starts rolling. If only they just owned up to the camp and took the X-2 approach…

In closing, I want to admire Square for managing to unfuck a lot XIII's bullshit. But, at the same time, they weren't able to lean into XIII-2's status as "silly asset flip cash grab sequel" as hard as they should have. We're instead left in an awkward middle-ground, one that’s too silly to be serious and too serious to be fun.

Who knows? Maybe a fucking third try at the XIII formula will give us a decent game. Only Lightning knows the answer…

Caius is probably the best villain this series has had since VII. If only because the Hamlet wannabe is always on your ass like a good Final Fantasy villain ought to be.

It's over the top, indulgent, festive fantasy drama with incredible costumes and locals that had a lot of work put into then. Three of the characters are from a future where the world is basically over and there are literally only those three humans left in existence living in barren wasteland desert. Despite this all three dress like royalty from a healthy, opulent kingdom and wield ornate swords larger than their torsos. So just chill out I guess. Collect monsters, level up your jobs, read the insane datalogs to learn the centuries long story of Gogmagogs travels through the Rift Between Eras.

The final boss is a bunch of bullshit.

I do appreciate the improvements made to the combat and the more open-ended design XIII-2 gives to the locations you travel to, this time it actually felt like I was interacting with the world the game was presenting to me instead of being led through the most boring rail track imaginable. That being said, it still has a handful of things I don't like about FFXIII by default, like the combat relying so heavily on everyone ganging up on one single enemy until it's staggered and destroyed, elemental resistances and weaknesses barely being relevant and MP just not being a thing at all, also most of the sidequests are just "NPC tells you to pick up a specific item and bring it to them" or "NPC tells you to kill generic monster", but the game does make up for that by having all the different unlockable time periods to explore and the alternate endings, so it's fine,I guess. The story is bad, but it's not like the story in the original XIII was good to begin with, so whatever, I'd even say that aspect was also improved because at least XIII-2 has Caius, he's easily the best character in this trilogy.