Better than the first in just about every way.
After saving Cocoon at the end of Final Fantasy XIII, Lightning vanishes from history and only her younger sister Serah remembers anything. At the beginning of the game, you play as Lightning in Valhalla, a massive city outside of time, in a constant battle with a villain named Caius (who looks and sounds a lot like FFIV's Kain). During their battle, a boy from the future named Noel, meets Lightning and she sends her to find her sister. Fast forward (or rewind) to three years after Cocoon's fall, and Serah meets Noel and tells her that he knows where Lightning is. This kick starts their adventure, which involves time travel.
While most of the original characters take back seats to Noel and Serah, there are some improvements for existing characters and some new ones that will get some mixed reactions. Hope, who people complained to be whiny in the first game, behaves and acts much more mature, while the time-traveling shopkeeper Chocolina, usually makes occassionally hilarious lines that make her seem like she wants you to succeed, but also wants your money. Caius is also not like many other RPG villians. He's driven by sorrow and grief, though I won't spoil the specifics, instead of just wanting to destory the future because he feels like it. While Serah may not have Lightning's badassery, she's still makes a great heroine. And same goes to Noel as a hero. His backstory is particularly fleshed out and also sad.
While the dialogue still isn't at the same level of quality you'd expect from a lesser company like Atlus or Aksys, it's still more than servicable. The only other complaint regarding the story is its ending. I liked it, but it's also incomplete. Let's just say, you'll be happy first, then sad and then you'll say "WTF". While this might hint at another game, the developer did say that it was rather a hint for the elusive Paradox Endings and upcoming downloadable content. Throughout the game, you'lll also come across Live Trigger conversations, which is a cute imtitation of the Western RPG dialogue tree.
The main complaint for FFXIII was that for the first 20-25 hours, you were just walking down a narrow hallway fighting enemies until a cutscene occurs. This linearity issue has been completely addressed in the sequel. The various locations you visit have a series of winding corridors and hidden nooks and crannies, usually keeping a valuable or rare item out of sight. There's also a bevy of side quests that you can undertake. While these mosty consist of typical fetch-quests, some of them offer interesting side-stories. One of my personal favorites is the "Honor of Blitz Squadron" quest.
You'll not only visit each area by location, but by time as well. By using items called Artefacts, you can unlock more time periods to explore in the Historia Crux. More like the recent Radiant Historia than the adored Chrono Trigger, you'll unlock various time gates using specific Artefacts or Wild Artefacts to unlock optional aread. You'll also obtain items called Gate Seals, which allow you to lock a time gate and reverse time to see how playing that area in a different way can affect the timeline. The use of these mechanics is crucial to unlocking the Paradox Endings.
Another one of the bigger changes to XIII-2 is being able to collect monsters to join your party. The only humans you'll play as are Noel and Serah, while the third slot is reserved for recruited monsters. When you defeat a monster in battle, there's a chance you'll obtain a Monster Crystal, which allows you to use that monster for your party. You can have a Paradigm Deck consisting of 3 monsters, and with a wide array to collect and choose from, you might be well-equipped to handle any situation. The Cystarium has also been revamped from last time. While it might not be better, you have greater flexibility in how you evolve your character. You can attempt to fully evolve Serah's Ravager and Medic roles or a Commando and Sentinel role for Noel. Monsters also have their own Crystarium system, which instead of CP, requires consumable items. Also, the battle system features that took 25 hours to introduce in XIII can be obtained within the first 4-9 hours of play.
With the story clocking in around 25-30 hours, it is noticably shorter than its predecessor. While that is still a lengthy amount of time, it's not as long as a typical Final Fantasy game. Looking at the glass half-full, it more than makes up for it in substance. There's also plenty to do after the main story is completed, which is necessary to unlock the Paradox Endings. I've clocked in around over 50 hours, beat the main story, viewed some of the Paradox Endings and obtained most of the Fragments. There's also DLC for the game, with a reasonably priced Lightning battle in the Colosseum, which if defeated, you can recruit. There's also some episodic content on the way as well and will continue to see DLC released at least until May. If you purchase FFXIII-2, just know you'll undoubtly be getting your money's worth (and possibly then some).
What some consider to be XIII's best asset remains mostly the same in the sequel (though for good reason). More than any Final Fantasy battle system, or any traditional RPG, XIII's battle system requires both timing and strategy for success. Sreah and Noel can access all 6 roles fairly early on (if you choose to unlock them) and each monster they collect has its own Paradigm role. Chaining a series of Paradigms to to stagger your opponent or alter the stats of all players on the field while keeping your health above 0 is satisfying indeed, and some of the tougher fights will require both hemispheres of the brain to create positive outcomes. Which is where I get to the only issue I have with the gameplay. While XIII-2 isn't exactly a cakewalk, it's not that difficult either, and I played on Normal. Still, fights are fun and when you do encounter a tough opponent, it's a satisying thrill.
While the system may not look like it changed, playing it tells that story a bit differently. Switching Paradigms is much faster, you can change Party Leaders during battle and if your Leader should die in battle, it's not a Game Over. While the exclusion of summons might disappoint some, the large number of collectible monsters allows to make your party truly feel like your own. One of the other additions to XIII-2 are Cinematic Actions, which behave similarly to QTEs. While some might view these as tacked-on, completing a series of them during a boss without a single failure unlocks certain battle spoils. If you hated this system before, XIII-2 won't change your mind, but for those that did or never gave it a try, this is a good time as any.
Back in 2010, Final Fantasy XIII won my Best Graphics award and XIII-2 did the same for my E3 2011 awards. While it may not improve on its precursor from a technical standpoint, it offers more artistic variety and characters models have never looked this good before in a game without seeming like puppets. Special effects such as fire, thunder, and in one stage, weather you can manipulate, offer plenty of eye candy. The same can also be said of the character designs. Lightning looks totally badass in that sexy armor, Noel looks like he'd fit perfectly as a guest character in a Kingdom Hearts game and Serah's new outfit manages to be both cute and sexy without going overboard on either.
I also loved the soundtrack in this game. While there are a lot more vocal tracks in this game, there are a lot if fun tunes. These vocals can range from typical Final Fantasy chorus lines to J-pop tunes. A couple of bosses have a song playing that is like a heavy-metal tune that really gets the blood pumping. My personal favorite tracks are "Followers of Chaos" with its haunting choir and "Plains of Eternity" for its soothing melody, making it perfect for exploration. The voice acting is also handled very well, particularly from the main cast. Ali Hillis once again provides a strong, sultry voice for Lightning, Laura Bailey (or should I call her Laura Willingham now?) does a large number of Serah's lines justice and Liam O'Brien delivers Caius' lines with a quiet confidence that makes him hard to resist.
Square Enix has certainly made amends with this sequel, offering a greater sense of free exploration and side stories to satisfy the hostile gamers who disliked the first for its linearity. If that's the only thing you hated about XIII, you will like or love this sequel. If not, this won't change your mind. XIII-2 is better than the original in just about every way and will keep you occupied for hours, days and weeks on end. It still has a few issues (what game doesn't), but they are easily overshadowed by the excellent content on display and that's one of many things I love about this game.