It's sad that people have heavily shunned this game due to the bad stigma that the first FFXIII game created
Because if you looked at it individually,Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a good game,it's a really .....really good game,it just had the bad luck to be a part of this horrible trilogy of games that overshadows it
Anyway
After the fall of Cocoon at the end of Final Fantasy XIII,Lightning got swallowed by the chaos into Valhalla due to a time paradox created when Etro decided to free her and the other L'cie from their crystalized fate.Due to the effect of the paradox,everyone thinks that Lightning is dead as if she didn't survive the fall of cocoon and only Serah can remember what exactly happened at the end of XIII-2,Snow believed her and decided to go on a journey to find Lightning.
Three years later,the village of New Bodhum got attacked by monsters,Serah gets assaulted by a couple of monsters until a young man named Noel Kreiss came to rescue her and gave her a new weapon,he told her he was a hunter from the future who got sent by Lightning to find Serah and team up with her to save the future from time paradoxes that are caused by a warrior called Caius Ballad
Serah believed that Noel can help her find her sister so she decided to join him on this journey to save the future and put an end to Caius Ballad's plans
The story really isn't hard to understand as some people claimed,I found it easier to understand and more straight forward than XIII as the game basically tells you your goal from the get go and establish itself from the beginning unlike XIII where after 20 or 30 hours you finally meet DysleyBarthandelus and learn WTF is going on.Here you know what you're supposed to do,whom you need to fight and stop and what your main goal in the story is.
And unlike her brick wall sister Lightning,Serah actually has a decent personality(SHOCKING!! isn't it?),she interacts and reacts with what's going on around her,she's kind and nice and she isn't afraid to crack a smile,she's determined to find her sister and she never gave up on her mission to save the world even though she knew that mission might cost her life
And the best thing about FFXIII-2's story has to be none other than the villain Caius Ballad himself
He's,hands down,one of the best villains I've ever seen in the Final Fantasy franchise in terms of how he was handled as the main antagonist of the game and his overall motivation to proceed with what he's doing.Because of Etro's action that caused the time paradox,Yeul's(whom Caius kept on guarding for centuries) life was cut short and she kept on dying on a young age every time she gets reincarnated due to her job as a seeress,he loved her as if she's her own daughter and he couldn't stand seeing her suffering this unfortunate fate over and over again with no chance to have a full life,so he went on a journey to slay the goddess Etro and release Yeul from her cursed fate.Caius is one of the few villains in the series that had actual motivation for what he;s doing rather than the usual world domination plot,he had a dear one he cherished and wanted to protect no matter what even if it meant going too far to destroy everything that stands in his way.Another thing I love about Caius is that he had an element that reminded me of how Golbez was handled in FFIV,unlike most FF villains where they'll wait for you to battle them in the last dungeons while sending their minions to stop you,Caius(like Golbez) was on your ass the whole game,he realizes how much of a threat you are and he won't stop until he makes sure you're out of the picture.Caius is an amazing villain and it's sad that he was a part of this trilogy that hindered him in it's third game
Even though I liked the story of XIII-2,that doesn't mean it's without it's shortcomings and mistakes,and that mainly revolves around the ending and how poorly it was handled,instead of giving you the whole ending,Square Enix decided for whatever reason to split the ending to two parts,one of them(the main ending you get) is with a "To be Continued" cliffhanger,you'd think that means a secret ending that you have to unlock right? but no,the other part of the ending is a freakin stupid DLC called "Requiem of the Goddess" that back when it was released costed around 7$ or 8$ dollars to buy just to get the other part of the ending that could've been easily fit into the game from the get go but they decided to charge us for it.This practice alone is the thing I hate the most about XIII-2,what could've been a beautiful package has been shat on by Square Enix's greed and shady business practices that hurt the game tremendously.Sure the DLC got a discount after a while but why should I pay to see the other part of the ending,which isn't that big of a DLC to begin with as it's just a gauntlet of fights between Lightning and Caius until you eventually beat him and get the other part of the ending that we were supposed to get in the game to begin with.If you're planning on getting XIII-2,just play the game and watch the DLC on youtube,don't ever buy that DLC as it might encourage Square Enix to adapt this practice in their future games like FFXV and KH3
Overall the story is decent,sure it's no where near as good as most of the previous games like IV,VI,VII and IX,but at least it makes more sense than Final Fantasy 8's story(I'm not joking here) and overall I enjoyed it,it could've been much better if it wasn't for that stinking DLC ending
Now on to the part I've enjoyed the most alongside the existence of Caius,the Gameplay
Thankfully,almost all of the problems I had with the previous XIII are almost gone,no more railroading and narrow hallways as this time you've got a good amount of areas to explore in a way similar to Final Fantasy X than most FF games
You can revisit previous areas through the historia crux to explore them more and find hidden stuff in them or you can even replay a previous even you've finished by resetting the time gate of that area in the historia crux which can give a decent amount of replayability during post game especially with the paradox endings(which I'll explain soon),some of the areas in the game have multiple timelines in which their dungeons are structured differently with some new NPCs that wasn't there in a previous timeline of that dungeons which might have a new set of sidequests,monsters and sometimes bosses to battle.Also,you can use Serah's new companion Mog the Moogle to find some treasures by throwing him at out of reach places where he might find some loots
There is also a variety of mini-games,most of them are paradox puzzles called the Temporal Rifts,which can be found in most dungeons in the game and they get harder the more you progress through the game especially in a post-game alternate timeline in Oerba and that hard Hands of Time puzzle,there is also an area called Serendibity in which you can play chocobo racings with a Chocobo you've captured and raised(there are a variety of chocobos that you can raise and level up) alongside a slot machine mini-game and two downloadable mini-games of Serendibity Poker and Chronobind,sure they're not as good as the mini-games in FFVII especially the Gold Saucer but they were fun to play and gave more variety to the game that XIII horribly lacked,and the dungeons here are much better than XIII's and they actually makes you feel that you're playing a FF game again
The Crystarium system is back but thankfully it's nowhere near as stupid as the crystarium in XIII.
All the Paradigms roles are unlocked from the beginning of the game and you can level them up however you want and THANK GOD there is no level cap like original XIII(where your grinding is capped until you beat the boss) so you can grind as much as you want anytime you want.
The battle system from XIII is back but now it's more customizable than before and more fun to play with this time,For starters,you can switch party members during battle anytime you want and unlike XIII you won't get a game over if your leader died,you'll be switched to the other character so you can use Phoenix Down to revive the knocked down leader and continue on fighting
One of the cool additions that I personally loved is the ability to capture monsters and train them,it's kinda similar to Pokemon and that's why I like it,you can catch tons of monsters,each one specializes in a certain paradigm role and has it's own Limit Break that you can unleash when the Feral Link meter fills,the only thing I don't like about this is that the monsters have a random capture rate and you don't catch them normally like in Pokemon,they have a catch rate that when you beat them,you might capture them or not so it works kinda like item drops which can sometimes get annoying especially if you're looking for powerful monsters like the Proto Behemoth.
The game's main quest takes about 25 to 30 hours to complete and once you finish the game you'll get an item called the Paradox Scope which allows you to experience alternate outcomes of certain events in the game called Paradox Endings,like what if you decided to defeat the monster Atlus or the Flan King without using the devices that weakens them...etc,and with alternate timelines to unlock and some superbosses to beat the game has a decent amount of replayability during post-game
There are also some DLC bosses for the colosseum like Gilgamesh,Ultros,Omega weapon which are the only DLC worth getting specifically Gilgamesh,you can find the DLC nowadays for cheap on PSNXBLA so at least try to get Gilgamesh if you can
As for the graphics they're not as detailed as the first game but they're decent enough
The music is really good especially since some composers from XI and XII returned to compose this game alongside Masashi Hamauzu the composer of the first game,there are a lot of awesome tracks in the game even though some are recycled from XIII and some of the new ones aren't that memorable,but overall the soundtrack was great
Especially since it has one of my favorite final boss tracks of all time
Overall,Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a very good game,if it weren't for how poorly the ending was handled and some other minor issues I would've given this game a 9 or 9.5 out of 10
But as it is Final Fantasy XIII-2 deserves a solid rating of:
8.5 out of 10
I had fun with this game and it pains me that because of Square Enix's greed and incompetence that the game got shunned by most FF fans despite being a solid RPG and at least it deserved to be called a Final Fantasy game unlike the other two games in the trilogy
You can download XIII-2 from PSN or Xbox Live under a very cheap price so you won't lose much money that you would waste on the third stinker in the trilogy
When I finished XIII-2 two years ago I was legitimately excited to see how the story would end despite the stupid "Requiem of the Goddess" DLC I really was,I thought that we might get at the very least a decent ending to the XIII series I really did...........and then this happened...........................(cry in pain and agony) uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhh
It's sad that people have heavily shunned this game due to the bad stigma that the first FFXIII game created
Because if you looked at it individually,Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a good game,it's a really .....really good game,it just had the bad luck to be a part of this horrible trilogy of games that overshadows it
Anyway
After the fall of Cocoon at the end of Final Fantasy XIII,Lightning got swallowed by the chaos into Valhalla due to a time paradox created when Etro decided to free her and the other L'cie from their crystalized fate.Due to the effect of the paradox,everyone thinks that Lightning is dead as if she didn't survive the fall of cocoon and only Serah can remember what exactly happened at the end of XIII-2,Snow believed her and decided to go on a journey to find Lightning.
Three years later,the village of New Bodhum got attacked by monsters,Serah gets assaulted by a couple of monsters until a young man named Noel Kreiss came to rescue her and gave her a new weapon,he told her he was a hunter from the future who got sent by Lightning to find Serah and team up with her to save the future from time paradoxes that are caused by a warrior called Caius Ballad
Serah believed that Noel can help her find her sister so she decided to join him on this journey to save the future and put an end to Caius Ballad's plans
The story really isn't hard to understand as some people claimed,I found it easier to understand and more straight forward than XIII as the game basically tells you your goal from the get go and establish itself from the beginning unlike XIII where after 20 or 30 hours you finally meet DysleyBarthandelus and learn WTF is going on.Here you know what you're supposed to do,whom you need to fight and stop and what your main goal in the story is.
And unlike her brick wall sister Lightning,Serah actually has a decent personality(SHOCKING!! isn't it?),she interacts and reacts with what's going on around her,she's kind and nice and she isn't afraid to crack a smile,she's determined to find her sister and she never gave up on her mission to save the world even though she knew that mission might cost her life
And the best thing about FFXIII-2's story has to be none other than the villain Caius Ballad himself
He's,hands down,one of the best villains I've ever seen in the Final Fantasy franchise in terms of how he was handled as the main antagonist of the game and his overall motivation to proceed with what he's doing.Because of Etro's action that caused the time paradox,Yeul's(whom Caius kept on guarding for centuries) life was cut short and she kept on dying on a young age every time she gets reincarnated due to her job as a seeress,he loved her as if she's her own daughter and he couldn't stand seeing her suffering this unfortunate fate over and over again with no chance to have a full life,so he went on a journey to slay the goddess Etro and release Yeul from her cursed fate.Caius is one of the few villains in the series that had actual motivation for what he;s doing rather than the usual world domination plot,he had a dear one he cherished and wanted to protect no matter what even if it meant going too far to destroy everything that stands in his way.Another thing I love about Caius is that he had an element that reminded me of how Golbez was handled in FFIV,unlike most FF villains where they'll wait for you to battle them in the last dungeons while sending their minions to stop you,Caius(like Golbez) was on your ass the whole game,he realizes how much of a threat you are and he won't stop until he makes sure you're out of the picture.Caius is an amazing villain and it's sad that he was a part of this trilogy that hindered him in it's third game
Even though I liked the story of XIII-2,that doesn't mean it's without it's shortcomings and mistakes,and that mainly revolves around the ending and how poorly it was handled,instead of giving you the whole ending,Square Enix decided for whatever reason to split the ending to two parts,one of them(the main ending you get) is with a "To be Continued" cliffhanger,you'd think that means a secret ending that you have to unlock right? but no,the other part of the ending is a freakin stupid DLC called "Requiem of the Goddess" that back when it was released costed around 7$ or 8$ dollars to buy just to get the other part of the ending that could've been easily fit into the game from the get go but they decided to charge us for it.This practice alone is the thing I hate the most about XIII-2,what could've been a beautiful package has been shat on by Square Enix's greed and shady business practices that hurt the game tremendously.Sure the DLC got a discount after a while but why should I pay to see the other part of the ending,which isn't that big of a DLC to begin with as it's just a gauntlet of fights between Lightning and Caius until you eventually beat him and get the other part of the ending that we were supposed to get in the game to begin with.If you're planning on getting XIII-2,just play the game and watch the DLC on youtube,don't ever buy that DLC as it might encourage Square Enix to adapt this practice in their future games like FFXV and KH3
Overall the story is decent,sure it's no where near as good as most of the previous games like IV,VI,VII and IX,but at least it makes more sense than Final Fantasy 8's story(I'm not joking here) and overall I enjoyed it,it could've been much better if it wasn't for that stinking DLC ending
Now on to the part I've enjoyed the most alongside the existence of Caius,the Gameplay
Thankfully,almost all of the problems I had with the previous XIII are almost gone,no more railroading and narrow hallways as this time you've got a good amount of areas to explore in a way similar to Final Fantasy X than most FF games
You can revisit previous areas through the historia crux to explore them more and find hidden stuff in them or you can even replay a previous even you've finished by resetting the time gate of that area in the historia crux which can give a decent amount of replayability during post game especially with the paradox endings(which I'll explain soon),some of the areas in the game have multiple timelines in which their dungeons are structured differently with some new NPCs that wasn't there in a previous timeline of that dungeons which might have a new set of sidequests,monsters and sometimes bosses to battle.Also,you can use Serah's new companion Mog the Moogle to find some treasures by throwing him at out of reach places where he might find some loots
There is also a variety of mini-games,most of them are paradox puzzles called the Temporal Rifts,which can be found in most dungeons in the game and they get harder the more you progress through the game especially in a post-game alternate timeline in Oerba and that hard Hands of Time puzzle,there is also an area called Serendibity in which you can play chocobo racings with a Chocobo you've captured and raised(there are a variety of chocobos that you can raise and level up) alongside a slot machine mini-game and two downloadable mini-games of Serendibity Poker and Chronobind,sure they're not as good as the mini-games in FFVII especially the Gold Saucer but they were fun to play and gave more variety to the game that XIII horribly lacked,and the dungeons here are much better than XIII's and they actually makes you feel that you're playing a FF game again
The Crystarium system is back but thankfully it's nowhere near as stupid as the crystarium in XIII.
All the Paradigms roles are unlocked from the beginning of the game and you can level them up however you want and THANK GOD there is no level cap like original XIII(where your grinding is capped until you beat the boss) so you can grind as much as you want anytime you want.
The battle system from XIII is back but now it's more customizable than before and more fun to play with this time,For starters,you can switch party members during battle anytime you want and unlike XIII you won't get a game over if your leader died,you'll be switched to the other character so you can use Phoenix Down to revive the knocked down leader and continue on fighting
One of the cool additions that I personally loved is the ability to capture monsters and train them,it's kinda similar to Pokemon and that's why I like it,you can catch tons of monsters,each one specializes in a certain paradigm role and has it's own Limit Break that you can unleash when the Feral Link meter fills,the only thing I don't like about this is that the monsters have a random capture rate and you don't catch them normally like in Pokemon,they have a catch rate that when you beat them,you might capture them or not so it works kinda like item drops which can sometimes get annoying especially if you're looking for powerful monsters like the Proto Behemoth.
The game's main quest takes about 25 to 30 hours to complete and once you finish the game you'll get an item called the Paradox Scope which allows you to experience alternate outcomes of certain events in the game called Paradox Endings,like what if you decided to defeat the monster Atlus or the Flan King without using the devices that weakens them...etc,and with alternate timelines to unlock and some superbosses to beat the game has a decent amount of replayability during post-game
There are also some DLC bosses for the colosseum like Gilgamesh,Ultros,Omega weapon which are the only DLC worth getting specifically Gilgamesh,you can find the DLC nowadays for cheap on PSNXBLA so at least try to get Gilgamesh if you can
As for the graphics they're not as detailed as the first game but they're decent enough
The music is really good especially since some composers from XI and XII returned to compose this game alongside Masashi Hamauzu the composer of the first game,there are a lot of awesome tracks in the game even though some are recycled from XIII and some of the new ones aren't that memorable,but overall the soundtrack was great
Especially since it has one of my favorite final boss tracks of all time
Overall,Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a very good game,if it weren't for how poorly the ending was handled and some other minor issues I would've given this game a 9 or 9.5 out of 10
But as it is Final Fantasy XIII-2 deserves a solid rating of:
8.5 out of 10
I had fun with this game and it pains me that because of Square Enix's greed and incompetence that the game got shunned by most FF fans despite being a solid RPG and at least it deserved to be called a Final Fantasy game unlike the other two games in the trilogy
You can download XIII-2 from PSN or Xbox Live under a very cheap price so you won't lose much money that you would waste on the third stinker in the trilogy
When I finished XIII-2 two years ago I was legitimately excited to see how the story would end despite the stupid "Requiem of the Goddess" DLC I really was,I thought that we might get at the very least a decent ending to the XIII series I really did...........and then this happened...........................(cry in pain and agony) uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhh
Shitning Returns Final Fantasy XIII
and then I screamed
OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Edited by Metal Snake