X > X-2; I think XIII-2 > XIII

I liked both Finla Fantasy X and it's sequel, Final Fantasy X-2, but I think, X is far superior to X-2.

I liked Final Fantasy XIII, but I am not as appreciative of it as compared to the earlier games before it. For some reasons, I felt I'm not in the Final Fantasy universe. Now, I am hoping Final Fantasy XIII-2 can redeem it for me. With the addition of moogles and refinement in the battle system, I am more hopeful that it will be better in every way.

What about you? 

In many ways FFX is better than FFX-2, video games are, by their very nature, iterative. They are constantly being revised, updated and broken down to their core parts in order to build it all back up again. In a great many ways, it's just LEGOs with software. Some things are salvaged, some things are completely given up and others are refined.

Regardless, often enough, these changes are inevitably brought to bear in a sequel. And after that, they go through the whole process again before yet another sequel.

It should come as no surprise then that with all of these changes and updates that some sequels can tend to be better than their original counterparts. This even includes some of those games that many might consider classics. Sure, some might call that blasphemy but the fact of the matter is that some sequels just are better than the originals.

And from the look of it, FFXIII-2 looking better than FFXIII, here's the last trailer from PAX Prime 2011 coverage :).

People tend to prefer the original to the sequel/prequel/remake....unless we're talking Chrono Trigger, 'cause it seems most people like Chrono Cross over it.Aeolusfox

I have never heard of anyone that likes Chrono Cross more than Chrono Trigger.

[QUOTE="Aeolusfox"]People tend to prefer the original to the sequel/prequel/remake....unless we're talking Chrono Trigger, 'cause it seems most people like Chrono Cross over it.JensonHurasha

I have never heard of anyone that likes Chrono Cross more than Chrono Trigger.

You don't know a lot of people, huh? Poor guy. :(

[QUOTE="JensonHurasha"]

[QUOTE="Aeolusfox"]People tend to prefer the original to the sequel/prequel/remake....unless we're talking Chrono Trigger, 'cause it seems most people like Chrono Cross over it.Aeolusfox

I have never heard of anyone that likes Chrono Cross more than Chrono Trigger.

You don't know a lot of people, huh? Poor guy. :(

I know plenty of people and they know that Chrono Trigger is the superior game of the two.

If we are going to discuss Chrono Cross/Trigger let's use the non-FF thread :).

There's no rule to determine which should be better, but like I've said, sequels tend to be better due to the changes and updates developers add to the game, but companies usually focus more on the original game.

Very true, I meant it but didn't wrote it, will do now :).

I liked XIII and I hope XIII-2 is good too. I wish the characters from the first were more involved though. I want to be Lightning all the time again. Also, the only other XIII party member seen in trailers is Hope so far. Noel's voice actor sounds really familiar. If anyone knows who it is please let me know.

Some sequels are better then the original. Take Mass Effect and Dead Space for instance. In ME I love them both but I find ME2 to be superior and with Dead Space I find the opposite to be true since I prefer the survival driven narrative of the first over the mission driven one of the second.

@Aeolusfox: Are you mag or somehow related to mag, cause you talk alot like her just less insulting/agressive; plus you are using zidane same as mag, does anyone else notice this? 

I think its more thinking honestly. Aeolusfox is a newer member to gamespot, atleast as far as I can tell based off the level and posts go. Mag got banned in what, June or July so honestly its possible that mag made another account. Plus they both have a zidane icon and looking at the post from aeolusfox before my last comment, that looks like something that mag would say with the whole you might want to fix that kinda thing, that sounds alot like mag. But now aeolusfox says what does mag mean which leads me to believe that either this is mag and doesn't want to acknowledge her previous account or this is someone who honestly has no idea what I'm talking about and if that is the case I appologize, Aeolusfox.

Also, don't tell me she couldn't make a new account, cause unless they can block your IP address or something, I've had like 7 accounts on gamespot so it wouldn't be that hard for mag to make a new one after she got banned. 

Well FFXIII got 8.5 by GameSpot, hope XIII-2 get something between 8.5 and 9 at least.

#Lightning__Evil - mag? You mean magitekk? kinda suspicious, but whomever he/she is welcome :).

I think its more thinking honestly. Aeolusfox is a newer member to gamespot, atleast as far as I can tell based off the level and posts go. Mag got banned in what, June or July so honestly its possible that mag made another account. Plus they both have a zidane icon and looking at the post from aeolusfox before my last comment, that looks like something that mag would say with the whole you might want to fix that kinda thing, that sounds alot like mag. But now aeolusfox says what does mag mean which leads me to believe that either this is mag and doesn't want to acknowledge her previous account or this is someone who honestly has no idea what I'm talking about and if that is the case I appologize, Aeolusfox.

Also, don't tell me she couldn't make a new account, cause unless they can block your IP address or something, I've had like 7 accounts on gamespot so it wouldn't be that hard for mag to make a new one after she got banned. 

Lightning__Evil

@magitekk: Aww... Magi, you haven't forgotten about FFE, do you?

@Amnesiac: I hope you won't ban her. :P 

Back on topic, I think XIII-2 gonna get a 8.5 at least (by GS).SQUALL20XX

I wouldn't doubt it.

I want to say that it's safe to assume that XIII-2 can't be worst than XIII. Whether it's better, only time will tell plus it depends on the individual playing it. I had no major problems with XIII. Yeah, it was linear...no traditional towns and NCP's to talk to. Story was kinda so-so. But for some reason, I didn't mind the hand holding the game gave me. Straight forward, fight, cut scene. After playing all these sandbox games where I gotta travel every inch to get everything...it was a nice change of pace for me personally. Of course, others didn't find it as refreshing as I did. The same can be applied to XIII-2. I hear they are going to open up the game so it's not so A to B. Some towns & NCP's will be present this time. So we might be looking at the more polish version of the XIII gameplay. Let's see if the story can glue it all together.

Now with the talk of sequels are usually better than the original, are we talking direct sequels or just sequels in general. Series like FF rarely have direct sequels and the two that I have played (FFIV-the after years & FFX-2)...I liked the original more. Now if you just look at the series as 13 sequels, then the debate will be all over the place. I never played Crono Cross (waiting for it to hit the PSN) but it's hard to think it was better than Crono Trigger. Not because it's not a good game. I don't think I ever heard anything bad about it. I my personal experience, as soon as the word Crono is mentioned, it's usually followed by Trigger. Cross doesn't get as much attention as Trigger does. Maybe in certain circles it does. I'm obviously not part of that circle.

Maybe we can take this discussion to the Non FF discussion board & come up with a list of games where the sequel was better than the original. Someone mentioned ME2 was better than ME1. That's very debateable. I love them both. Maybe ME1 slightly more than ME2 but not by much.

XIII-2 should be much more interesting to play with the time travel they've put into the game. I'm sure by now you all know that Noel has come back from a post-apocalyptic future in order to change the past and save the future. Given that he and Serah can use this device to travel back and forward in time by hundreds of years at will and this can be done for the same time period several times, I think that will offer more exploratory, non-linear features to the game. Not to mention this will give the game several possible endings, sounds like it will be good and almost be a combo of FF and Crono Trigger.

Also, as per your ME mention, I think that was me earlier. The first was memorable and it started it off but the controls could be clunky at times and the mako was pretty bad. ME2 refined everything and made it better in my opinion, other then the planet scanning system, that was aweful. 

To tell you the truth...I haven't heard much about the story of XIII-2. Sounds pretty interesting indeed. At this point...anything game that SE makes interest me, I try to not indulge myself with too much info. They take to long to release & I just end up liking like a fiend, scrapping for every morsal of info to hold me down. Now I take it all in stride and try not to get wrapped up in one game.

And for ME & ME2...I agree with you 100%. I think I found the story better in ME1 only cause it was the introduction to such a great franchise. And I played it about 3 times. Even once as a female Shepard. I only went through ME2 once, mainly because I let my older brother borrow my 360 so he can catch up with all the games he missed while he was...."away".

I normally don't get caught up in the hype or every news feature for FF, but I liked XIII and liked X-2 despite everything so I'm really loofing forward to XIII-2.

As for ME, I think I beat the first 4 times and the 2nd about 7 or 8 times. I actually used a Femshep for the majority of the time :P 

So..I haven't been on this for about 2 years...college was rough.  Anyways Hi everybody!

 I suppose I don't really know what XIII-2 will brings except that I'm wondering if it will be just a fanservice thing like FFX-2 was, or if it will be a genuine, fully thought out sequel.  Given, FFX-2 had a well done combat system that is often underrated so at least the fighting was fun (even if said fighting revolved around changing clothes :D) I'm expecting at least that much from XIII-2.  I have to say FFX was overwhelming the stronger of the two, imho.  Btw...does everybody here already know about how SE is for sure putting out the remake on FFX for PS3?  You probably do since i'm usually slow on getting my SE updates but I didn't see a topic for it so I figured I would ask

Yep, Final Fantasy X HD for the PS3 and Vita.

@Juke: Hi there! Welcome back! It's been a while.. ;)

I hope this is more than what FFXIII has accomplished. 

@CMaka- I didn't even know they were working on FFXV, with all the XIII iterations, versus, and fixing their blunder with FFXIV, I thought they would be to busy.

@Dread- Yes I saw that Easter Egg but Deus Ex is set in what like 2027 or something, I doubt FFXXVII will be out by then.

@cjimrun- I agree that plot was better in X but not sure if I agree with the whole gameplay thing. Yes, the gameplay for X was some what simplistic and it gave you a break so you had more time to decide what to do but I found that kinda a nice change, plus that was my first game and that slower gameplay was a nice entry point. However, the use of what like twenty dresspheres was an interesting way of being varied and complex to make gameplay more interesting, but finding them could be a pain at times and having to upgrade each of them individually was also a drag. 

@cjimrun- I agree that plot was better in X but not sure if I agree with the whole gameplay thing. Yes, the gameplay for X was some what simplistic and it gave you a break so you had more time to decide what to do but I found that kinda a nice change, plus that was my first game and that slower gameplay was a nice entry point. However, the use of what like twenty dresspheres was an interesting way of being varied and complex to make gameplay more interesting, but finding them could be a pain at times and having to upgrade each of them individually was also a drag.

Lightning__Evil

Active-time is a Final Fantasy staple and I find FFX-2 to be particularly quick. Also the ability to chain attacks for damage bonuses is awesome. I'm not crazy about the dresses, but they represent one of the best uses of the job-class system which is another FF stable. Being able to switch jobs in active-time is wicked (after you switch off the long sphere changes in the config menu). Also, being able to walk across most of the map from the beginning of the game is really great. There is just so much to do everywhere with tonnes of mini-games and side-quests. The only thing I like about X's conditional time battles is the ability to gain experience with every character in every fight. I find the slow pace gets boring after a while though and trying to find ways to rotate each character into battle becomes a chore. Plus, the sphere grid is so massive that you could be grinding forever...but there are very few useful places to do it. Basically, most of Spira is a right-off once you finish the main story. The best way I found to grind was running in circles around the Omega Cavern...but that gets old fast too. Blitzball is the only thing I find really fun in X, but just like sphere grid grinding, it goes on forever with no change and very little payout. Bottom line, I think X-2 is way more fun to play...but I firmly believe X has one of, if not THE best story of the entire series. Also, the total cast is a series high and Uematsu's "Zanarkand" is a definite favorite.

2015 suits me, but backwards compatibility consume the consoles, that what a salesman told me when I gave him my broke PS2, it was working fine until I played FF9 on it :/

Yeah funny, IMO it's not because the PS3 can't play DVD's, they are still selling the PS2, and by letting us playing PS2 on the PS3 it will be the end of PS2 sales as nobody going to buy separate consoles while they can buy one console doing both things ;).