Final Fantasy XIII-2

So brings us to another release in the main series of Final Fantasy, something that has been a big deal for quite a number of people ever since it's first and astonishingly successful entry into the EU with FFVII.

FFXIII (as with XII) was a long time in the making, XII had it's fair share of devlopment problems midway, but with XIII shown early at the start of this generation, a lot of people were left wondering just what was taking so long. Eventually in 2010 the game released, and coupled with the drama caused by a rather late and shocking annoucement of the game going multi-platform, there was a huge backlash from long term fans of the series.

Now I could spend all day dabbling in the "issues" of FFXIII, but lets face it, if you are one of those people who are going to complain about the direction of the series in terms of it's setting, characters and dialogue/dramatics, claiming there is no longer "fantasy" in your Final Fantasy (dispite the series never actually having a staple) and that it's apparently turned into one big "soap opera", then you will want to steer clear of this sequel, those of you who took issue with the linearity and lack of variety delivered by XIII however may want to take a gander.

I want to start off my comments on XIII-2 by saying that it is strikingly similar to the one other sequel in the main series, that being X-2. This could end up worrying a number of people as, dispite my love for it, I know there was a lot of people who out right hated it. XIII-2 is lighter in tone, is full of mini-games and has a non linear structure in which you will be back and forthing between "levels" or areas in an attempt to reach that critical "100%", again as in X-2, the story can be completed reletively quickly, but with a story so reliant on the player piecing it together, doing so will likely leave you dissatisfied, this is a game where you will want to try and get everything, unlike X-2 however, this is a lot more lenient as you can't really miss things and gives the player much more freedom to go back and collect things or try scenarios again.

Battle system from XIII is back, it's probabally the thing that has changed the least, only this time you will be fighting with the same two characters the whole game. The third member of the party will be taken up by a monster, of which there are MANY to "collect" in the game (think pokemon ;)). These can be trained/leveled and cover different roles dependant on thier type and then swapped in and out dependant on the paradigms you wish to create.

Now I have put in many hours since it's Friday release, and to be honest I still have quite a bit to go in order to feel completed, as a big fan of the series, let down quite a bit by XIII, I really do think this game has made up for what it didn't manage to give us, it helps that it came out so quickly too and as a full "XIII" package with both games together, I am actually thankful of this thirteenth entry.

Expect Melodrama, anime tendancies, eccentric characters (Chocolina is awesome! down with the haters :3), mini-games, a plot to really wrap your head around, tons of hours of things to do and collect, and a smidge of cute fan service too (Mog's adorable). FFXIII-2 is actually .... good, you heard it here folks.

After all the fanfare and publicity, I am sorry to say I was very let down by this game. Rather than a whole new adventure it is more like an add-on. Or something along the lines of a clips show with guest stars. Playing it made me re-assess how good FF13 actually was - despite it having flaws, it was a good solid game with a plot and an awesome battle system. This one...well, sorry to say it, but it's a bit of a mess.

This time around you play as Serah (Lightning's sister, a character with a miniscule role in the preceding game). Serah has been saved from crystal and now wished to start her new life, but Lightning is nowhere to be found. Instead, Serah meets a feisty teenager with a big sword and spiky hair called Noel, who tells her he has come from the future, where he met Lightning in alarming circumstances. Together the pair decide to travel across time and try and find Lightning.

Now as plots go, that's hardly earth shattering. Not much to do with an evil menace trying to wipe out the planet, just a girl looking for her sister. It already screams "expansion pack" instead of a whole new game. And as the duo start to travel through time they come across (yes you've guessed it), stars of FF13 such as Hope and Snow, who pop up in their own little chapters. I found this very lacklustre. Especially when Serah meets Snow - their chapter sees them run around a forest fighting, and when the chapter boss is dead Serah says something like "Thanks for the help, I am off through a portal to the next time rift now" and yet Snow is supposed to be her fiance who had beaten insurmountable odds to rescue her!! The appearance of Vanille and Fang is even worse, they are like celebrity guest stars appearing via satellite to offer encouragement and wave for the camera. A lot of the cut scenes are like this... nothing but schmaltz.

Anyway down to the battle system. Happily, it uses the same Paradigm system as the last game which is great. But here's a shocker - you only have a team of two (Noel and Serah) for the entire game! What happened to the team of 6 to choose from? In this game you never change members, so all your levelling up is exclusively for this pair. As a result I found their rise through levels and experience very speedy as obviously there was no worries about how to distribute Chrystarium points, so both of them rapidly maxed out all their man role abilities. And maybe it was just me, but this game is darned EASY. After I had reached the middle portion of the game I found that I could auto-battle my way through every random encounter by just repeatedly hitting the X button without even looking at the screen. Something's wrong if you can play like that. Even boss battles lasted about 30 seconds, which was quite different from those found in FF13 - remember the battles against Barthandelus? There's nothing like that here.

However despite the problems, i did like one new feature - Noel and Serah have a "monster team"! After random battles there is a random chance that you may "win" a defeated monster as a battle drop, and they can be used as a third team member. The monsters all have set roles Medic, Commando, Ravager, etc, and a set of skills that grow as they level up, including a unique "limit break" skill for each one, too. Monsters are levelled up by using ingredients that can be bought or dropped after battles - and this was actually where the lifespan of the game is extended greatly, as some of the high level ingredients cannot be bought - you just have to fight continually in the hope of earning a few after each fight. The range of monsters you can keep is very large - and it's quite a tough choice deciding which ones to feed up with the rare materials. Of course all gamers will have favourites, and you can have Chocobos, Big Flans, Mini Flans, Cactaurs or Goblins, or whatever takes your fancy, and its fun to see them in action. My personal favourite for a large portion of the game was the Feral Behemoth - gotta love the power!

Still even that became boring after a while - all that grinding just to earn rare drops to build the monsters abilities really outstayed it's welcome, however there are some rare monsters that players might enjoy trying to find.

Finally then, it's back to the plot - For me, this was the weakest part of the game. Anything that involves time travel and it's anomalies is dicing with disaster, and this is no exception. A very ambitious set up makes the plot extremely hard to understand. Changing the future changes the past and vice-versa...characters appear and disappear due to anomalies...I got lost all the time. Later on in the game, you are able to revisit areas and replay them to make different decisions. The game makes out that this is a big deal but it actually isn't, all that happens is you can view a special cut-scene that shows a short clip of an "alternative ending", but the real flow of the game only ever goes in the same direction.

To summarise then, this is a short, easy and un-involving game. Easy yet confusing. Easy because of the battles, confusing because you don't know what you are doing or why. Some side quests ca only be unlocked by meeting a set of incredibly obscure conditions that you would never work out unaided - such as finding hidden artefacts that open time gates, or knowing which weather settings reveal hidden Cactuar statues and where ...you'll know which bit I mean if you tried to do that quest! With two characters who you don't develop any real feelings for. The game is marketing around Lightning, but she's not a playable character apart from in the prologue, yet she's far more interesting that Serah or Noel.

As far as I am concerned, selling this at the same premium price as FF13 is a bit cheeky. It looks fantastic of course - I'd expect nothing less than this superior level of realism, so that goes without saying - but I finished it (reached last boss I mean, not 100% completion) in a couple of weeks and that's short for me playing a FF title.

So 72 Hrs later I manage to completely finish the direct sequel to Final Fantasy XIII-2 and I have to say it is a huge improvement over XIII.

Graphically you should expect pretty much the same as the previous game however I did feel that the first one looked more polished.
You play as Sarah who is joined by Noel and you can swap between the two at any time. Your 3rd party member is a monster which is different to what we are used to. Monsters are collected during battles like Pokemon and can also be levelled up and even fed to other monsters to pass on abilities, this I found was a nice touch however I still miss having 3 character party members. You can add up to three monsters in your paradigms, each one will have their own role. The battle system used remains relatively the same as 13's

Before the Game was released I heard all sorts of rumours which all turned out to be true, the first being random enemy encounters. When you hear this you automatically think that Square-Enix have turned back the hands of time and released a classic game where you get stopped every few seconds by invisible enemies. While it's basically that you do have the ability to see your foe for a few seconds, some will come at you while others will linger around waiting for you to either attack or run away. Something called mog clock is introduced and basically it's a timer you have until the fight becomes inevitable, once the timer starts you can get the drop on an enemy and attack them before the clock turns amber, this allows you to get a pre-emptive strike and the ability to retry the battle if you wish.
The other rumour I heard was that there would be quick time events! I really did hate this idea but luckily it's a very small part of the game and only used against certain boss battles! Phew!

The story is much better than 13's adding the laws of time travel and the ability to create and solve paradoxes really does add something new to RPG gaming and allows the game to step away from being too linear like the previous game. Because of the time paradox you can revisit time lines and even restart each story and change the way it's resolved.

The story in FFXIII-2 can be finished in a relatively short time and I found myself flying through the chapters until I stopped and got distracted by side stories and mini games. There is a time-line that opens up a place called Serendipity which is like The Golden Saucer from FFVII, you can bet and race Chocobos which can get relatively easy as you progress through the game and also play on slot machines. The Slot Machines are my biggest issue with the game

**SMALL SPOILER** To get 100% in the game you have to earn a total of 7,777 Casino Coins from the slot machine to earn a fragment but this is done completely by luck! I know some people who have gotten this after 2 hrs, it took me 8hrs of just playing a slot machine to get the required amount. In the end I had to use a book to put pressure on the L1 button so it would do it itself until I gained enough. This should have been handled better and not left to chance **SPOILER END**

Even though my game time seems like a lot the game feels quite short for a JRPG and there are not any major boss battles (maybe 1-2 you will have some issues with) you can level up to maximum quicker than any previous FF game I have played which stops you becoming over powerful for any of the big boss fights.

While I still miss town's with shops you can purchase items and weapons from a travelling vendor but I found myself using her less and less as I went through the game. FF13-2 see's the end of save points allowing you to save wherever you wish, which is probably the best as the areas are quite short.

All in all the game is a huge improvement with enough to keep you entertained for hours. Finding things you need to 100% the game can sometimes be a chore along with answering random questions to gain needed items and the slot machine being two of the games low points. I would recommend it to JRPG lovers, and haters of XIII should pick this up and give it a chance.