Final Fantasy XIII-2 Review

[Palademon]

One of the 4 games I'm buying this friday, and one of the two I'm getting a collector's edition of.

I thoguht XIII was fine. It looked good, it's music was ok, it's characters were of arguable quality, and I liked the combat. But what really shows, and is even demonstrated in this video, is how people view the combat. They'll say it something along the lines of "Yeah, you just let the AI do all the gameplay, but if you really want to do something, you can paradigm shift." They're missing the point. In XIII the strategy comes from the paradigm shifting. That's the active choices you're making. They made the autobattle so that the fights flow well in real time. Paradigms are the equivalent of choosing what attack you're doing, only instead of a specific thing, it picks a category that the AI will most likely apply in the exact way you wanted. Sorry if that sounds like a rant.

 

[Plinglebob]

I was one of the few who really enjoyed XIII (I like liniarity, sue me) so some of the changes that were announced really worried me (conversation trees, really?) but the reviews have given me a bit of hope. Just hope it isn't another XII where all the critics liked it, but I could get on with it.

If there's any game the FF series should be more like in terms of gameplay, playability and in-game tech, it's actually Final Fantasy 9. The characters are likeable (I'm still scouring around for a Vivi plushie), the story is lighthearted and the gameplay is actually playable. Actually, maybe if you took FF9's combat and added the tag-ins from FF10...

Change IX's levelling to be less grindy and I'd agree with you. The fighting to learn skills from items really got old.

 

[sketch_zeppelin]

I'm not going to play the game because i just don't care.

I just wanted to give you props for the Doctor Who joke. My eyes are watering as i write this.

 

[TheLastSamurai14]

PSN had the FF series going cheap, so yesterday I bought FF7 and FF8.

That's all the JRPG goodness I'll need for a while.

If you haven't played it or considered buying it, I'd recommend picking up FF9. Easily the best out of the PS1 trilogy.

OT: Already pre-ordered this, and I'm getting it on the 5th. I liked XIII a lot, so I expect almost nothing but improvement, and that's definitely got me hyped.

 

[Susan Arendt]

Final Fantasy XIII-2 Review

You won't love it, but hey, you probably won't hate it. That's something, right?

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video title says "Final Fantasy XII - 2" might want to fix that. lol

OT: I'll admit I don't own a 360 or PS3 on which to play any of the new final fantasy games (I'm stuck with the PSP, but dissidia is great ^.^) I've always liked the general direction Final Fantasy has taken though, mixing sci-fi with fantasy is always a challenge and extremely difficult to pull off. Lately because of my knowledge of how technology works, straight up fantasy classic (IE western fantasy RPGs) haven't been doing it for me because magic has become the "All purpose plot insulator" in most stories. This (and the fact that I love anime) is one of the reasons why JRPGs shine to me. Final Fantasy, despite people's complaints about it, is an exemplar of harmonizing story genres.

Roman numerals are hard!

Thanks for pointing that out, we'll fix it asap.

Now I have to ask did you name the Chocobo 'Daisy' or is the footage in the video from another source? Good review. I knew the story wasn't going to be amazing this time and it almost made me not want to get it but. then. epic. things. Long story short, I'm going to be getting it.

The funny thing is you know the demo that is out on XBL and PSN right now? Yea, I was playing the same thing at the end of september and the only change I noticed was there were side quests now, the characters no longer looked as ugly as they did then and you can name the creatures as well as level them up. Some progress was made at least.

Also the Doctor Who theme and the comment about "getting your ass kicked" as the action continues around you made me chuckle.

I did, in fact, name my Chocobo Daisy. You can choose a name for your monster from a pretty extensive list - another of my monsters is named Severus, for example, and my cat there is Fishstick.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

I never liked FF13s combat, because it required you to spend too much time looking at freakin' menus. I don't want to look at menus, I want to play the game! The other option was to let it run on automatic, I don't want to let it neigh on play itself, I want to play the god damn game!

Yeah, super cheap or no sale thanks.

(I don't hate the game, but it just doesn't meet my preferences).

 

[TilMorrow]

I did, in fact, name my Chocobo Daisy. You can choose a name for your monster from a pretty extensive list - another of my monsters is named Severus, for example, and my cat there is Fishstick.

Interesting, so does the game give you a preset list of names from which to choose? Or are you allowed to freely key in (aka button smash) whatever name you want? Because I was pondering over the possibility of having the opportunity of naming an Imp 'Bahamut' and a Tonberry 'Sir Stabby' for the laughs.

Also a Cait Sith called Fishstick? Nice one.

 

[Artemicion]

I for one am disappointed Dresspheres did not make a return.
However I do find most of the characters from XIII fairly likable, if perhaps unoriginal. Thanks for the review regardless.

 

[PunkRex]

10-2 had a terrible story but was at least fun. Would like to know weather 13-2 had that fun factor or not.

 

[Susan Arendt]

I did, in fact, name my Chocobo Daisy. You can choose a name for your monster from a pretty extensive list - another of my monsters is named Severus, for example, and my cat there is Fishstick.

Interesting, so does the game give you a preset list of names from which to choose? Or are you allowed to freely key in (aka button smash) whatever name you want? Because I was pondering over the possibility of having the opportunity of naming an Imp 'Bahamut' and a Tonberry 'Sir Stabby' for the laughs.

Also a Cait Sith called Fishstick? Nice one.

Preset list of names - no option to just key stuff in yourself. But the lists are quite wacky. There's the "recommended" list of names, the "wild" list, the "tame" list, and then "other." There's everything from silly to human names - I have a giant cactaur named Ned, for example.

 

[Thetwistedendgame]

Many people already said it, that doctor who joke made me crack up at the end.

 

[antipunt]

Ooo.. a slight recc by Susan. Now I'm torn a bit.

I've been on the fence on this one from the start. Started out really negative (eww serah?!). Then more neutral (oh neat). Then I found out about the ending (YUCK. To be continued. seriously?..)

then susans comments about the story being 'ok' (a little positive).

Then finding out about the DLC-trap that is the casino. (more negative... i hate the feeling of paying -more- than $60 for the complete game...)

and then discovering that the 'to be continued' is prob a setup for even more dlc... or something along those lines.

Basically I hate the feeling of getting 'jipped', considering that the price tag is hefty enough as it is...it just isn't satisfying.

The basic mentality is why start something if you're not going all the way. Even more importantly, why start something 'of only medium quality' and go all the way. That essentially kills it.

I like to complete things; hate being left hanging... -especially- if cash is involved. Partial reason why I dislike MMORPGs

 

[ManupBatman]

I'm very excited to try this out. Personally love the FF13 combat, a quick paradigm shift seems much more skillful and thoughtful than the ATB of yore. I just wish they really played to that, making it a bit more of a juggling act.

I'm going to go ahead and consider this the actual FF13, and the other one an OVA prequel.

Also, are the buffer and debuffer classes worth anything this time? Or did you not use that strategy?

 

[AetherWolf]

I'll wait for it for it to die at the bottom of a bargain bin.

Then I'll think about it.


(seriously, Square Enix doesn't deserve my money at their current state)

 

[littlewisp]

Serah was one of the characters in XIII whom I could not stand at all. I would groan whenever she came on scene, and spent a good portion of time thinking nasty thoughts about her. Is her personality the same in XIII-2? Is she still a wilting flower?

 

[FinalFreak16]

Whilst you do need to pay attention, you can't actually put the controller down and get a beer and comeback when it's done. The combat is some of the most laid back, effortless, thoughtless button pressing in history.

In fact the player is PUNISHED for trying to direct combat himself. The higher combat rankings are MUCH easier to get by just automating the entire battle. I tried a few myself and always got lower scores compared to just auto-attacking.

I also agree with this. While fighting in XIII never got completly dull it was a shame that the players job was reduced to managing player classes instead of planning attacks. I personally hope they attempt another battle style similar to FFX in the future as it involved a lot more strategy and forward planning.

Though I imagine Square-Enix assumes everyone wants fast paced action nowadays. To which they may be right, I dont know, I havn't done the market research. But still, I can always hope I guess.

 

[Susan Arendt]

Serah was one of the characters in XIII whom I could not stand at all. I would groan whenever she came on scene, and spent a good portion of time thinking nasty thoughts about her. Is her personality the same in XIII-2? Is she still a wilting flower?

She starts off pretty useless, then becomes more empowered as the game progresses. I couldn't stand her at the beginning, but she winds up holding her own fairly well.

I'm very excited to try this out. Personally love the FF13 combat, a quick paradigm shift seems much more skillful and thoughtful than the ATB of yore. I just wish they really played to that, making it a bit more of a juggling act.

I'm going to go ahead and consider this the actual FF13, and the other one an OVA prequel.

Also, are the buffer and debuffer classes worth anything this time? Or did you not use that strategy?

I wound up using them pretty much exclusively in boss fights. Once I had maxed out Serah and Noel's combat levels (he's a Commando, she's Ravager), I just hit things in the face really hard. I had my little Medic kitty on hand to apply Band-Aids as needed. For bosses, it helps to throw in some buff/debuff for a while, but by and large, I didn't really need it.

 

[Sassafrass]

By the way I heard you can turn off the auto battle option, is this true?

Well, technically yes and no.

There's an option in the Options menu that allow you to place the cursor on "Abilities" (Or whatever it's called now, I think it's Abilities.) by default, so your cursor starts over that option instead of Auto. So, it's not technically gone, but it kind of is.

 

[DSQ]

I liked the combat from ff13, it was the best part. What I didn't like is how the frist 20hrs were like being directed down a hallway and you lost some of that 'adventuring' vibe.

Overall ff13 was a really decent game, so

I would have bought ff13-2 now if my ps3 haddn't been stolen. Nice review Susan.

EDIT: I should say that the fact that Sazh only being in the game in post story DLC did really piss me off.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

Really great review Susan! Also, the ending made me laugh.

I was kinda concerned and curious to know how those two characters would work out. I don't have much of an opinion about Noel so I'm pretty neutral towards him, but I didn't like Serah and I found her to be useless, so I was shocked to find she was going to be one of the main characters. I thought it was gonna be weird and awkward, but I'm so glad it's not the case.

Do they give you a limit on how many monsters you can have or is it you get every kind of monster that the game offers you? I was kinda wondering about that ever since they announced that the game will let you do this.