Con un sistema de combate más entretenido que su precuela, nos muestra una historia algo más anodina con viajes temporales. Entretenido.
While today FFXIII-2 is not the worst in the series (unfortunately FFII has to retain that dishonor to me), I simply can't bring myself to like anything this game has to offer: I dislike the storyline, the characters, the simplified combat system, and overall the raw attempt to a continuation of my least favorite mainline FF game.
However controversial it may be, I think XIII-2 is worst than its predecessor, and that the sub-series should have just died with the first one.
However controversial it may be, I think XIII-2 is worst than its predecessor, and that the sub-series should have just died with the first one.
Wow this game is really good, I love it.
Almost excellent.
Almost excellent.
Comprei por causa de um amigo, mas não curti nem um pouco, não é pra mim, o fato de ser a segunda parte não ajudou também.
it was better than 13
This game was pretty good, I find it to be right below the first FFXIII, while they both play and look about the same, I gotta say FFXIII wins with much better characters, while 13-2 had a better overall story, both had great music though 13-2 wins there, it's a really good solid game, but for some reason the lack importance of the past characters brings it down for me, it lacked the same impact but did very well everywhere else.
cancel culture gun pointed at you
"Do you want to fuck Chocolina?"
"Do you want to fuck Chocolina?"
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.
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.
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.
- 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.
Chrono Trigger for the zoomer generation
Si hay que destacar algo bueno es que gracias a esto existe Lightning Returns
The best Final Fantasy game.
It's got the best music, most likeable main characters, and most convincing antagonist motivations of the series. It also has the most fun and engaging battle system. While not the best in the series, it still has fun worlds, non-linear gameplay, side-content, and post-game challenges. The "twist" ending which is actually well foreshadowed is the best part. The only 10/10 modern FF game.
It's got the best music, most likeable main characters, and most convincing antagonist motivations of the series. It also has the most fun and engaging battle system. While not the best in the series, it still has fun worlds, non-linear gameplay, side-content, and post-game challenges. The "twist" ending which is actually well foreshadowed is the best part. The only 10/10 modern FF game.
This review contains spoilers
If you've seen my review of the original Final Fantasy XIII, you'll know I walked away from that game surprised at how much I enjoyed the journey. XIII-2 is, for the most part, no different.
Mechanically, XIII-2 is a brilliant refinement of its predecessor. The game gives you full gameplay freedom almost immediately, it makes the crystarium much easier to parse, and it feels like it relies a lot less on the combat gimmicks of the first game.
The one elephant in the room, in terms of mechanics, is the QTE segments, and while they're extremely generous in their timing, they feel altogether unnecessary in most instances.
Additionally, the narrative, set pieces, and overall design choices go a long way to add depth to the FFXIII world as a whole, giving straightforward context to some of the more clandestine mysteries of the first game.
That said, at times, the narrative does seem to drag. The first and third acts are thrilling as the game introduces you to its new ideas and characters and ultimately ends with several impressive-looking boss fights, but the middle hump of the game can be rough.
It's not a waste of time, however. There's valuable character work, an ample amount of time to explore possibilities in your party's structure, and some interesting places to visit, but it's a lengthy slow point compared to the rollercoasters that bookend the game.
My one real complaint is the lack of an ensemble cast. The characters do a lot to carry the troubled footing of the first game, and I'd have loved to have more characters for our two main protagonists to play off in this one. If you played the previous entry, however, there are several returning characters that make impressive reappearances and touch on how lonely this journey is by comparison. The disappointing thing is that some of those characters receive a great deal more attention and care than others (Sazh, my boy, you were done dirty).
Worth noting: the villain is excellent. In a narrative where his vibe and motivations could have wound up totally nonsensical, he remains surprisingly grounded, making him a baddie worth chasing down every time he shows up.
Overall, while the first FFXIII left me feeling more excited at the end than its sequel has, this is still a game worth experiencing, even despite its obvious middle-part-of-a-trilogy syndrome.
Mechanically, XIII-2 is a brilliant refinement of its predecessor. The game gives you full gameplay freedom almost immediately, it makes the crystarium much easier to parse, and it feels like it relies a lot less on the combat gimmicks of the first game.
The one elephant in the room, in terms of mechanics, is the QTE segments, and while they're extremely generous in their timing, they feel altogether unnecessary in most instances.
Additionally, the narrative, set pieces, and overall design choices go a long way to add depth to the FFXIII world as a whole, giving straightforward context to some of the more clandestine mysteries of the first game.
That said, at times, the narrative does seem to drag. The first and third acts are thrilling as the game introduces you to its new ideas and characters and ultimately ends with several impressive-looking boss fights, but the middle hump of the game can be rough.
It's not a waste of time, however. There's valuable character work, an ample amount of time to explore possibilities in your party's structure, and some interesting places to visit, but it's a lengthy slow point compared to the rollercoasters that bookend the game.
My one real complaint is the lack of an ensemble cast. The characters do a lot to carry the troubled footing of the first game, and I'd have loved to have more characters for our two main protagonists to play off in this one. If you played the previous entry, however, there are several returning characters that make impressive reappearances and touch on how lonely this journey is by comparison. The disappointing thing is that some of those characters receive a great deal more attention and care than others (Sazh, my boy, you were done dirty).
Worth noting: the villain is excellent. In a narrative where his vibe and motivations could have wound up totally nonsensical, he remains surprisingly grounded, making him a baddie worth chasing down every time he shows up.
Overall, while the first FFXIII left me feeling more excited at the end than its sequel has, this is still a game worth experiencing, even despite its obvious middle-part-of-a-trilogy syndrome.
Great Soundtrack, can't recommend though
this is the greatest battle system in the entire series i cannot even put into words how good it is. i hope whoever designed it feels nothing but joy for the rest of their life
This game certainly didn't need to exist but at least we got that Crazy Chocobo theme out of it.
Easily the best of the FF13 games. I liked Serah as a protagonist and Noel as a support character. The villain was pretty good and had some good motivation. Some aspects of the game worked pretty well but it's stuck in the FF13 verse so it can't be all that great. Overall it was pretty average. Had it's moments but not all that.
This was the first Final Fantasy I ever finished, that's about it.
super fun despite the convoluted story and time traveling shite. idgaf. i live it. i love having motherfuckers summoned next to me. this game rules. thanks masashi hamauzu
This game was the step up and sequel in my opinion to the first of the three FFXIII games. But this time while you may see Lightning on this cover you don't have control over her.... You have control over her more bubbly and positive sister Serah Farron! Who isn't a hardened soldier but a teacher and all around just sweet person. But due to a LOT of events which I shall not delve into which will spoil but also maybe lead to some confusion if you played the first game... Yeah. The best way to put it is there will be some timey-wimey BS on the way. Despite that being the angle of this game though, the battle system is fun and this creature capturing is a nice little addition to the game. I love that it now takes both of our protagonists dying now instead of before where whoever was the one YOU the player had control over, meant game over if they died. Yeah this game was a bit easier but with all the DLC and everything that it had attached to it. You have a lot to play with especially those bosses that are from previous FF games. But back on topic to keep this short, I like this game much more than the first for numerous reasons. I enjoy this soundtrack and i consider it one of the best to be in a Final Fantasy. Gameplay is great. The story is a mess and that is something that I can admit having played this through a few times myself. Let's let it be known though. If you can make it through FFXIII then this is the next logical step but rest assured this game is fun!
The fascinating product of intense reflection driven by reading internet forums following the release of Final Fantasy XIII in late 2009/early 2010.
XIII-2 follows Serah Ferron, Lighting Ferron's younger sister and previous driving force for one third of the XIII party, as she joins forces with newcomer Noel Kreiss to stop the nefarious bad dude Caius Ballad. Get this - he wants to save the past by changing the future; in doing so various gates to different locales are opened, allowing free access to these locales across different time periods, sometimes not entirely by choice.
Structurally, it abandons everything that made Final Fantasy XIII so distinct; gone is the forward momentum that pushed our party forward. Instead, Serah and Noel are given free reign to travel across time and space as they see fit to complete side quests, resolve time travel paradoxes, and hang out in a casino that exists outside the boundaries of the game's story quest line. In some ways it feels like Chrono Trigger, if an entire game was based around the sequence in which you're given free reign to develop your party members' abilities at your leisure before jumping in to fight the bad dude at the end that stands between you and the credits. The problem is that many of the things you're tasked with doing to pursue this end up either being tedious or remarkably silly; a good hour of XIII-2 can be spent playing a fancy adaptation of connect the dots to earn experience.
The battle system is the absolute perfect evolution of the XIII ATB combat system; you get total control of the reigns over your character progression from the get go and can branch both main party members in any direction you'd like. Add in the monster hunting and training component that XIII-2 brings to the table to help fill out the third slot in your party and you have yourself quite the satisfying gameplay system.
There is a lot of really stupid stuff to ding into throughout a playthrough of XIII-2. Most of the game's storytelling falls somewhere beneath even the lowest of Kingdom Hearts story presentation, and huge swaths of the world building ends being so tonally jarring considering the stakes of the main quest that it just snaps you out of any hope of immersion with intensity.
It's a terribly fun time at its highest moments, and dreadfully boring at its worst. If Final Fantasy XIII was an overcooked steak from a fancy restaurant, XIII-2 is the bag of Doritos you purchase at the convenience store after a long night out on the town.
XIII-2 follows Serah Ferron, Lighting Ferron's younger sister and previous driving force for one third of the XIII party, as she joins forces with newcomer Noel Kreiss to stop the nefarious bad dude Caius Ballad. Get this - he wants to save the past by changing the future; in doing so various gates to different locales are opened, allowing free access to these locales across different time periods, sometimes not entirely by choice.
Structurally, it abandons everything that made Final Fantasy XIII so distinct; gone is the forward momentum that pushed our party forward. Instead, Serah and Noel are given free reign to travel across time and space as they see fit to complete side quests, resolve time travel paradoxes, and hang out in a casino that exists outside the boundaries of the game's story quest line. In some ways it feels like Chrono Trigger, if an entire game was based around the sequence in which you're given free reign to develop your party members' abilities at your leisure before jumping in to fight the bad dude at the end that stands between you and the credits. The problem is that many of the things you're tasked with doing to pursue this end up either being tedious or remarkably silly; a good hour of XIII-2 can be spent playing a fancy adaptation of connect the dots to earn experience.
The battle system is the absolute perfect evolution of the XIII ATB combat system; you get total control of the reigns over your character progression from the get go and can branch both main party members in any direction you'd like. Add in the monster hunting and training component that XIII-2 brings to the table to help fill out the third slot in your party and you have yourself quite the satisfying gameplay system.
There is a lot of really stupid stuff to ding into throughout a playthrough of XIII-2. Most of the game's storytelling falls somewhere beneath even the lowest of Kingdom Hearts story presentation, and huge swaths of the world building ends being so tonally jarring considering the stakes of the main quest that it just snaps you out of any hope of immersion with intensity.
It's a terribly fun time at its highest moments, and dreadfully boring at its worst. If Final Fantasy XIII was an overcooked steak from a fancy restaurant, XIII-2 is the bag of Doritos you purchase at the convenience store after a long night out on the town.
Fun gameplay but.. why Sarah is the protagonist in this one ?
What a fantastic game.
This game is genius. It takes a streamlined version of the first game and then adds onto it with the most genius RPG level design.
The time travel nature of the plot is a ) very unique and helps to set this game apart from the rest of the series and b) allows each level to really drive home that sense of continual progression that RPGs are all about. Most of the levels can be finished within one play session, or give you a major artifact within that play session, so you always feel as if you are making progress. And the way the Historia crux is laid out really appeals to the part of me that sees a map in front of me and just has to fill it out. And since you unlock the levels as you go, the map is never overwhelmingly daunting. I also loved the whole lock and key system of unlocking a gate and seeing where it would take you next. I was continually exploring the world and experiencing new adventures.
This is the sequel I wanted X-2 to be. Both games are pretty non-linear in their storytelling, but this game is essentially a second chance at doing a Final Fantasy sequel. It took the problem I had with that game and fixed them:
- There are many original areas in this game (Academia being the biggest original creation), and we aren't just re-treading levels from the previous game verbatim like X-2 did. I'm pretty sure that the only level that is directly re-used from XIII is Oerba. Even areas like the Yaschas Massif and the Sunleth Waterscape change their layout to feel fresh. And every time you do revisit a location, it's in a new time period, so has a slightly different layout, new monsters, and different weather, so it all feels fresh.
- XIII-2's story doesn't stop when you are off doing sidequests. While Y-R-P completely forgot about Shuyin while they went to do a side mission, each secondary level you do in this game ties into the theme and/or plot of the overall game. Caius first pops up in a side quest, taking you by surprise. And because of the way the Historia crux is laid out, you don't actually know if the gate you are going to unlock is going to be a completely unrelated side quest. A lot of levels link between each other (think the vile peaks or the Sunleth waterscape fetch quest), and (mostly) each level justifies it's existence.
- This game's creature capturer is probably a bit worse than X-2's in all honesty, as resources are way too scarce for you to build more than a handful of monsters. And then you don't really know if a particular enemy is going to be good or not until it's fully upgraded. But I did like just being able to completely defuse the tension of the final battles by having Gigantuar there hopping around comically. If you give me the ability to adopt monsters, I want the ability to build a team out of all the memes, which I could do here.
The characters. I will admit, I did not care for either of them when the game started, and was salty that Lightning was relegated to a side character, but Noel eventually did grow on me. Serah not so much, but I didn't flat out hate her.
This was the only game I have ever played where I have actively wanted to do side quests. I have a voracious appetite to get every fragment in the game, and I don't mind doing quests for random NPCs, because, and take note of this, because it's important, the quests aren't BORING! Even if it's a fetch quest, you are getting an item from a chest, and not having to farm random monsters and get lucky with drops. I get to just continue playing the game and look out for chests, which are helpfully telegraphed with the sound that will be replaying in my dreams forever now. And also, the sidequests differ between levels, and are presented in a unique way in different areas (the red orbs in yaschas, the quiz terminals in Academia, doing odd research jobs for Bresha ruins staff), so you never go, "oh great, ANOTHER sidequest", because each one feels new.
I do appreciate how this game doesn't take itself %100 seriously %100 of the time. Mog was a nice addition, and there were points in the game where I was genuinely laughing to the jokes.
I really like the side characters of Hope and Alyssa. I was at first predicting the game to switch side characters the further you went in time, but Hope and Alyssa were so cool that I didn't mind them sticking around. Hope went through some killer character development, and I consider Alyssa a honorary party member of the XIII trilogy.
This is how I want a game to handle dialogue choices. If you make the choices change the entire plot, it will piss off players who wanted to just play the game without worrying about seeing every possible outcome of story. Here you can pick whichever dialogue option you feel is best and the only difference is the accessory you get. And the accessories aren't needed for %100 completion, so you aren't missing out on anything by picking the funny dialogue option. (Yes, I do fell that there are times when games should have your dialogue impact the story, but this is not that type of game).
The final boss is...okay. The first time you get to the end of the game, you are way underlevelled, and I had the wrong roles and paradigms, so got the battle dragged way out. Which would have decreased my experience a bit, but levelling was actually really easy thanks to the metalicataur in a dying world. I was back within a few hours and enjoyed the final boss a bit more. He's probably the hardest final boss in the series (No, Zeromus doesn't count. He's unbeatable, not hard). It is kind of cheap to have a final boss keep re-summoning minibosses that you have to re-fight before you are able to hit him again though.
Academia 500af is mostly a cool final dungeon too. I like the idea of the moving platforms, but the second I arrived there, I knew exactly how the level was going to annoy me by demanding I solve the maze twice in order to reach %100 map completion. A bit infuriating, but it was the game's first time of actually annoying me, so I'll let it slide.
The minigames in this game rule. They are the only time in the series I have not groaned when forced to do them. The anomaly puzzles are very fun, and I want an entire game dedicated to solving those clock based puzzles, because they were very fun to write out and solve on a piece of paper.
I do have a few minor complaints, as always:
- Why are there fragments in Serendipity, including a wild artefact? I do not want to gamble or over-level a chocobo in order to progress with the game. I thought I was stuck having to get the wild artefact here to carry on, until I learnt about the one in the Archylte Steppe, so it didn't bother me that much, but having to still save up all my hard earned gil to buy the wild artefact eventually was a bit annoying. I don't like Final Fantasy content being locked behind random chance minigames like this (it isn't as annoying as Golden saucer was though)
- The sound mixing on the PC version absolutely sucks. Who did this? Why can I barely hear the dialogue in some levels where the music is very high? You didn't give me the option to change the volume for some reason, so I just had to live with it. Granted, the music is outstanding, but I would like to actually hear what the characters are saying. (Like, the music is actually sublime in this. It has my favourite ambient music of the whole series)
- The encounter rate in Augusta tower is way too high. And the narrow corridors mean that I can't flee from anything, so kept having to fight the same four monsters over and over.
- Would have preferred if the DLC content was unlocked before the ending, but eh, I'll mange.
This game is genius. It takes a streamlined version of the first game and then adds onto it with the most genius RPG level design.
The time travel nature of the plot is a ) very unique and helps to set this game apart from the rest of the series and b) allows each level to really drive home that sense of continual progression that RPGs are all about. Most of the levels can be finished within one play session, or give you a major artifact within that play session, so you always feel as if you are making progress. And the way the Historia crux is laid out really appeals to the part of me that sees a map in front of me and just has to fill it out. And since you unlock the levels as you go, the map is never overwhelmingly daunting. I also loved the whole lock and key system of unlocking a gate and seeing where it would take you next. I was continually exploring the world and experiencing new adventures.
This is the sequel I wanted X-2 to be. Both games are pretty non-linear in their storytelling, but this game is essentially a second chance at doing a Final Fantasy sequel. It took the problem I had with that game and fixed them:
- There are many original areas in this game (Academia being the biggest original creation), and we aren't just re-treading levels from the previous game verbatim like X-2 did. I'm pretty sure that the only level that is directly re-used from XIII is Oerba. Even areas like the Yaschas Massif and the Sunleth Waterscape change their layout to feel fresh. And every time you do revisit a location, it's in a new time period, so has a slightly different layout, new monsters, and different weather, so it all feels fresh.
- XIII-2's story doesn't stop when you are off doing sidequests. While Y-R-P completely forgot about Shuyin while they went to do a side mission, each secondary level you do in this game ties into the theme and/or plot of the overall game. Caius first pops up in a side quest, taking you by surprise. And because of the way the Historia crux is laid out, you don't actually know if the gate you are going to unlock is going to be a completely unrelated side quest. A lot of levels link between each other (think the vile peaks or the Sunleth waterscape fetch quest), and (mostly) each level justifies it's existence.
- This game's creature capturer is probably a bit worse than X-2's in all honesty, as resources are way too scarce for you to build more than a handful of monsters. And then you don't really know if a particular enemy is going to be good or not until it's fully upgraded. But I did like just being able to completely defuse the tension of the final battles by having Gigantuar there hopping around comically. If you give me the ability to adopt monsters, I want the ability to build a team out of all the memes, which I could do here.
The characters. I will admit, I did not care for either of them when the game started, and was salty that Lightning was relegated to a side character, but Noel eventually did grow on me. Serah not so much, but I didn't flat out hate her.
This was the only game I have ever played where I have actively wanted to do side quests. I have a voracious appetite to get every fragment in the game, and I don't mind doing quests for random NPCs, because, and take note of this, because it's important, the quests aren't BORING! Even if it's a fetch quest, you are getting an item from a chest, and not having to farm random monsters and get lucky with drops. I get to just continue playing the game and look out for chests, which are helpfully telegraphed with the sound that will be replaying in my dreams forever now. And also, the sidequests differ between levels, and are presented in a unique way in different areas (the red orbs in yaschas, the quiz terminals in Academia, doing odd research jobs for Bresha ruins staff), so you never go, "oh great, ANOTHER sidequest", because each one feels new.
I do appreciate how this game doesn't take itself %100 seriously %100 of the time. Mog was a nice addition, and there were points in the game where I was genuinely laughing to the jokes.
I really like the side characters of Hope and Alyssa. I was at first predicting the game to switch side characters the further you went in time, but Hope and Alyssa were so cool that I didn't mind them sticking around. Hope went through some killer character development, and I consider Alyssa a honorary party member of the XIII trilogy.
This is how I want a game to handle dialogue choices. If you make the choices change the entire plot, it will piss off players who wanted to just play the game without worrying about seeing every possible outcome of story. Here you can pick whichever dialogue option you feel is best and the only difference is the accessory you get. And the accessories aren't needed for %100 completion, so you aren't missing out on anything by picking the funny dialogue option. (Yes, I do fell that there are times when games should have your dialogue impact the story, but this is not that type of game).
The final boss is...okay. The first time you get to the end of the game, you are way underlevelled, and I had the wrong roles and paradigms, so got the battle dragged way out. Which would have decreased my experience a bit, but levelling was actually really easy thanks to the metalicataur in a dying world. I was back within a few hours and enjoyed the final boss a bit more. He's probably the hardest final boss in the series (No, Zeromus doesn't count. He's unbeatable, not hard). It is kind of cheap to have a final boss keep re-summoning minibosses that you have to re-fight before you are able to hit him again though.
Academia 500af is mostly a cool final dungeon too. I like the idea of the moving platforms, but the second I arrived there, I knew exactly how the level was going to annoy me by demanding I solve the maze twice in order to reach %100 map completion. A bit infuriating, but it was the game's first time of actually annoying me, so I'll let it slide.
The minigames in this game rule. They are the only time in the series I have not groaned when forced to do them. The anomaly puzzles are very fun, and I want an entire game dedicated to solving those clock based puzzles, because they were very fun to write out and solve on a piece of paper.
I do have a few minor complaints, as always:
- Why are there fragments in Serendipity, including a wild artefact? I do not want to gamble or over-level a chocobo in order to progress with the game. I thought I was stuck having to get the wild artefact here to carry on, until I learnt about the one in the Archylte Steppe, so it didn't bother me that much, but having to still save up all my hard earned gil to buy the wild artefact eventually was a bit annoying. I don't like Final Fantasy content being locked behind random chance minigames like this (it isn't as annoying as Golden saucer was though)
- The sound mixing on the PC version absolutely sucks. Who did this? Why can I barely hear the dialogue in some levels where the music is very high? You didn't give me the option to change the volume for some reason, so I just had to live with it. Granted, the music is outstanding, but I would like to actually hear what the characters are saying. (Like, the music is actually sublime in this. It has my favourite ambient music of the whole series)
- The encounter rate in Augusta tower is way too high. And the narrow corridors mean that I can't flee from anything, so kept having to fight the same four monsters over and over.
- Would have preferred if the DLC content was unlocked before the ending, but eh, I'll mange.
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
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
an interesting continuation to FF13 the music is better the combat is better. The time travel stuff is eh but it moves the story on well enough.
Honestly if it weren't for the later XIV expansions this would be my favorite Final Fantasy game to come out of the 2010s by a very large margin. XIII-2 is criminally underrated and far superior to its predecessor. It's a great jrpg tbh
Absolutely loved this one. A truly worthy follow-up to XIII. I was dealing with severe akathisia when I played it and it helped a lot with that, being able to freely travel to wildly different locations and times.
I got right near the end then realised I didn't care anymore..
PS3 died
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.
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.