Final Fantasy XIII-2

not really an RPG fan...haven't played a final fantasy game since VII on the playstation all those years ago (but enjoyed that a lot at the time).
saw XIII-2 for a good price and am glad i bought it.

my pros:
graphics...both in game and the video sequences. both are top notch. probably the best i've seen on my ps3. the worlds and cities look stunning. draw distance is excellent. in-battle detail is overwhelming at times (in a good way) as there's so much going on at once.

controls are simple and intuitive without too many buttons to remember. characters move well and don't get stuck behind scenery etc.

dialogue isn't overly cheesy. voice acting rather nice too.

a lot of gameplay...i'm about 50% of the way through it and at 17 hours (but then, as i said, i'm no expert at these games).

my cons:
some of the quests/puzzles are incredibly non-intuitive. i've had to resort to walk-throughs online on more than a couple of occasions. there's a lot of jumping between zones...maybe more than is necessary. i've heard talk of the first one (XIII) being too linear...think that would do me just fine.

oh too frequent battles in some places. for example augusta tower 200 and academia 400. you're trying to get somewhere and are accosted by monsters every 15 metres. it makes for a rather frustrating experience at times.

so more pros than cons. felt quite comfortable despite my lack of familiarity with the genre. was levelling up my characters in no time and enjoying watching their moves get more powerful and complex. and then there's riding a chocobo...whoop!
pleased with my purchase.

Square Enix definitely listened to fans comments of FFXIII. FFXIII-2 is much more open, bigger and you get to choose the answers when talking to certain NPCs, although from what I've noticed whatever you choose doesn't make mych difference because the story is still pretty linear.

The battle system hasn't changed that much but your group is limited to two human characters and an extra 'monster' character. Basically like in Pokemon games, every time you defeat a monster you have a chance of catching it to use later in a fight. Each monster has their own profession (similarly to human character they can be Ravagers, Commanders, etc) and can be levelled up. It's nice addition for everyone who likes collecting but the game is easy enough so you can get away with using only the monsters you got in the first hours of the game.

The story revolves around travelling through time and you are free to choose where to go next, which is a nice change from the long tunnel you were forced to use in the first part of FFXIII. However, this also means that you will revisit the same locations over and over again.

FFXIII-2 is a good game and a great improvement over the first installment but it is definitely not a 'day 1 purchase' and doesn't even feel like another part in the series, just something to do while waiting for the next 'real' Final Fantasy game to come out.

After playing Final Fantasy XIII and finishing it, I read up about this game some time after. This game really looked intriguing so I decided to get it.

5 minutes into the game I was in the driving seat in what appears to be a tutorial battle. It looked fantastic! The graphics are remarkable as expected for a Blue Ray Disc. Once I got into the game I had been exposed to the new mechanics that they added within the game. Some new and some old. The new were certainly fun to play with. But soon I found myself out of time to invest into this product, so I never really got to play it to the end.

Overall this product is worth getting if you have time to invest. You don't really have to have played the XIII in order to play this, but it does help you get into the game world although they do summarise up the past events for you.

The reason for my 3/5 score is that I feel this game has more to improve on. It is fun, but not gripping enough to make me want to come back.