Technically played on the Steam Deck, which was actually a good experience. A confusing one to gather my thoughts on..by itself, it’s a good game with a unique time travel traversal mechanic and story. The combat is just as fun as the previous game and improved on it. The puzzles and fragment hunting can get pretty annoying but guides fix that issue. I think as a standalone FF game, it would be stronger, but it does feel like an odd filler episode after 13, only because the jump from abandoning the Fal’cie plot/lore and replace it with a time travel story and a new antagonist seemingly out of no where felt jarring. Any connection to previous lore/story in 13 was minimal, to the point it felt like this time travel story could have been in any FF game really. It feels like we aren’t even in the same world of Pulse and Cocoon (beyond visually), mostly abandoning all the main characters from the prior game. It’s not a BAD game by any means, it’s just a weird one that feels really different from the previous game, and not nearly as much focus on characters. It doesn’t feel like a sequel, it feels much more like a spinoff game that takes place in the same world.

Minor lore spoilers: We go from a game where the Fal’cie are desperately trying to open Etro’s gate by destroying Cocoon in order to awaken god, to one where these Fal’cie suddenly lose the motivation to summon their makers/god for no obvious reason (besides maybe losing their control over humans after humans realize they have free will). The person to replace the plot of opening Etro’s Gate to bring about the Chaos and eventual events in LR, now goes to Caius, but his motivations are entirely different and mostly unrelated to any of the lore in the prior game. Etro is the only thing that really ties these two games together loosely, but you have to read about this in data logs and novels, which to me is an indication on the failure of the writers to weave together these games in a more logical way that reveals itself during gameplay. If you have to read content outside of the game to get the full picture, I think that’s a great sign of weakness. Etro is basically the catalyst of all the bad events that take place in both games, but suddenly introducing her seemingly out of no where in 13-2 heightens this disconnect. That being said, the ending was pretty good with an unexpected cliffhanger that had me very intrigued. I liked 13 more for the characters, as their motivations were stronger and more fleshed out, and the overall lore of the Fal’cie/gods. Also, soundtrack is a BANGER as always for this series, probably my favorite game soundtrack ever. Overall, I liked this game, even if it has some strange game design choices and a confusing existence.