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Game Title: Final Fantasy XIII-2
Platform: Xbox 360/PlayStation 3/PC
Developer: Square Enix/Tri-Ace
Publisher: Square Enix
Genre: Role Playing
Age Rating: PEGI: 16+, ESRB: T for Teen, CERO: B
Release Date: PlayStation 3 & Xbox 360: 15th December 2011 (Japan), January 31st 2012 (North America), 2nd February 2012 (Australia), 3rd February 2012 (Europe), PC: 11th December 2014 (World Wide), Android & iOS: 25th September 2015
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Game Score: 5.0/10
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Summery:
XIII-2 features some improvements which is worth admitting but the poor storyline and combat end up being the game's main paradox.
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I am going to be honest with Final Fantasy XIII-2, I did not want this game to even exist, Final Fantasy XIII was such a huge disappointment that the idea that it got a sequel is just enough to infuriate me. Basically Square Enix took in the complaints of Final Fantasy XIII where the game was a straight forward linear experience with no interaction with any of the characters and lacking of minigames. Cause of that the developers felt like they could improve on those problems with a sequel that unfortunately nobody ever asked for, and for plenty of reasons. I will say after playing XIII-2 for myself I think the game does have some improvements over the original and I am going as far to admit that much, however it features a time travel plot that is very convoluted and the battle system that is almost the same as the original.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 takes place shortly after the events occurred in the original XIII game, this time Lightning disappears and her sister Serah believes that she is alive and has to travel through different time periods to find her. She is assisted by a brand new character from a dark future named Noel and also a moogle gifted from her sister. Serah and Noel aren't bad characters and are much better then the original game's cast plus the overall voice acting is really good but mostly the whole time travel concept that the game involves around in ruins it. Moments in the heroes meet Caius who fought Lightning in the beginning and while he's cool his motivation become questionable when he mentions about changing the future in order to change the past. Also without spoiling anything I do find the ending just ridiculous and like in the original XIII the storyline is full of pointless and convoluted nonsense that is difficult to put up with but it isn't as bad as the original.
What the storyline does so bad at the gameplay gets a few steps right at, XIII-2 features a few improvements over the original game. First of which is the Crysterium system which is what you use to level up your characters, in the original game the system only boosts up in levels which only increases after beating a boss which left characters weak against some bosses, however in XIII-2 the Crysterium system allows you to fully level up your characters in a proper, effective matter like in the old games. Another huge improvement is during battles where your leading character dies the game switches to another character and doesn't give you a Game Over until both main characters are dead, thank goodness for that. You can actually earn Gil from battles and lastly which is most important is that the game is now non-linear, you are given different time periods to explore and the environments are very large compared to the original. While areas you travel to are disconnected areas and altered timeline versions plus some areas from the original instead of a cohesive world the environments themselves allow for plenty of exploration. In addition your moogle character can also use his abilities to reveal hidden items plus also later in the game you'll unlock an ability where you can throw the moogle into distant areas to reach items that are far away.
While the developers have done a decent job in making the game non-linear there is something that should not have been overlooked. The game does point you to where you need to go but that is during the storyline, if you decide to do side quests you expect the game to point out to where you are supposed to go, but that only happens in a small amount of quests while the majority of them do not. Instead you are given little to no clue where to go to complete each quest which will cause you to guess where you think the quest item is, it doesn't help that some sidequest items are invisible and you will not notice them unless you are lucky that Mog points it out or you use an online guide to reveal where it is. Trust me I had to use a walkthrough guide to be able to complete every quest in the game.
The game also throws in various Anomaly puzzles which are honestly the best moments of the game, each anomaly has various puzzles that need to be conquered which range from eliminating clock pieces to grabbing all the crystals without breaking the required steps. These are very interesting and each of them do get gradually challenging as you go through it but each are solvable and may require a little thinking.
As to returning to the game's list of offences another issue is the combat system. For the most the combat is the same as the original. If you haven't played the original XIII before then basically the battle system involves using paradigms as assigned strategies that your characters use and you can switch between different them that you have set up. Also the battle system still relies on the Autobattle which will go through every single fight in the game. While the fights are indeed just as active as the original it's a big shame that the developers didn't do anything to give the battle system a major overhaul. Although I did find the battles in the game much easier then in the original which is pretty much nearly a relief. They did add a new battle system mechanic is you can now recruit monsters in your party and they can be levelled up and enhanced with monster materials and fusing them with other monsters which unlock new abilities. Each monster has their own special ability which requires button input when activated which really gives little interactivity.
In addition the developers decided to add a new status effect to the game called wound which temporally reduces maximum HP levels. It can be cured with a Wound Potion but it only fills a small piece at a time which honestly makes this status effect little more then just a pain cause that can make fights harder. This is because if enemies use special attacks and you can only heal up to a certain point of your maximum HP it can sometimes leave you helpless unless you spend time grinding.
Another unless tweak is equipping accessories, you can equip an accessory but each accessory has a capacity limit which can make it cumbersome. That's because you have 4 different accessory slots that could have just been left with from the beginning, sure you can raise the accessory capacity but you can only raise it by so little. It's supposed to add realism maybe but the limit makes accessory managing difficult specially if you need various ways of protecting yourself from status effects or resisting enemy damage.
The game also has minigames that you unlock in a location that you unlock later in the game which are Chocobo Racing and Slot Machines. These have no interactivity what-so-ever because in the Slot Machine game there is a auto-play button that you hold down and then the game just magically beats itself, as for the Chocobo game you can bet how much casino coins on your chocobo and use an item to boost it's condition before a race. During a race you can only press a button to do a well timed starting boost and when you use your chocobo's boost power which barely has lasting impact. Whenever you can or cannot win a race depends on your chocobo's level and how well timed you get the running start or if you happen to be lucky. These minigames are very boring and lack any actual input making them a rather pointless addition besides for a sidequest.
Inputs have been added to some story sequences which sometimes you have cinematic actions where you have to press the correct button within the time limit. These are pointless because there is no distinct penalty for failing them, I actually put down the controller when these sequences played out and I still earned maximum stars for my battle performance. Story sequences also have dialogue choices during cutscenes, instead of giving some freedom with your choices there are some that require the right response to proceed and some of those responses are a bit dumb. Also dumb is that some responses do not give any lasting impact and doesn't help you in anyway. One example early on is one sequence before you face of against Atlus you get an option to either use either the control device or fight Atlus head on. Instead the game throws in four options that are unrelated and don't give the proper response, this got the game to point to Atlus which killed me instantly. It's the design of that which really the storyline and storyline sequences very terrible and it shows that some of the people don't even know what they are doing and again that is one of the games early moments.
Of course the main defender of the game is the presentation, the graphic details on the environment and character models are impressive, well animated and the weather effects are really cool especially when you see rain drops splash the screen and snow flakes appearing on the characters when ever in snowy areas. Sure there is some frame drops here and there but it's an impressive looking game. The soundtrack is a mixed bag between tracks recycled from the original, tracks that are somewhat decent to metal rock tracks that are just bad.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 does get a few tiny things right with the puzzles, crysterium and of course the presentation is top notch, but falls apart when it comes down to it's awful time travel storyline and the overall lacking of interaction with battles and minigames end up this game's main paradox. It does have DLC content which adds another minigame, costumes, boss battles in the coliseum and storylines that are just as lacking as the main game. The game at least functions better then the original XIII but it does not even fell anywhere like a complete product which is disappointing. The ending is just ridiculous but it leaves itself open to the last of the XIII trilogy and arguably the worst. If you were disappointed with the original XIII then XIII-2 is worth avoiding so that you don't get caught in a paradox but if you want to see some of improvements that the original XIII didn't do first time then it's only worth buying at a cheap second hand price. At least XIII-2 has a backstory mode where you look at the events that happened in the original so that the brings you up to spec.
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The Good Points:
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1. Non-linear exploration and Anomaly Puzzles
2. Improvements to the Crysterium system and you can earn Gil from battles as well as monsters
3. Excellent graphical presentation
The Bad Points:
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1. Ridiculous time travel storyline with plenty of nonsense and pointless sequences
2. Battle system which for the most part it's the same as the original
3. Lack-buster Minigames
4. Mixed bag soundtrack
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Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)
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