Turn Based Tuesday: Final Fantasy XIII-2 Review

When I first heard about Final Fantasy XIII being released with a sister game, both looked beautiful and had so much hype surrounding them that I thought it had to be the most epic release of the year. Well XIII itself wasn’t exactly as great as advertised and it’s been a couple of years with barely any news of XIII Versus. Still, I had no idea why they would have already made a direct sequel to XIII before I’d even heard news of Versus, so as you can imagine I was a bit skeptical due to the reputation instilled by previous direct sequels in the Final Fantasy series. 

 Final Fantasy XIII was a bit of an upset. Especially when you compare it to its otherwise amazing predecessors, it just doesn’t quite hold up to the standards we set for Final Fantasy. It was a funnel of linear world play, convoluted storytelling, and a battle system on training wheels. The game was easy, monotonous, and pretty boring.  Outside of the sheer beauty of the pre-rendered cut scenes and my general interest in the character Sazh, I had no reason to enjoy XIII.  So of course, I had little value in the idea of a sequel. However, ultimately, and pleasantly, I was surprised of how much more complete of a Final Fantasy experience XIII-2 ended up being.

TURN 1: Story

The game starts off with a pretty epic tutorial intro that shows our heroine Lightning battle it out with hordes of baddies and some purple prick with a glowing sword. The cut scenes were epic and pretty, something normally reserved for the final boss of any other title. But, the glory fades away as soon as the game reveals its true nature. Wait..Lighting isn’t the heroine?  Why is her kawaii as fuck sister taking the reins of my game? Well for better or worse you get to play the far less attractive Serah along with her plot device toss in and conveniently amnesia’d (standard fair for a jrgp) boy toy Noel in an adventure fueled by time travel, futuristic anime aesthetics, and Japanese style melodrama. New intriguing dialog trees open up some entertaining interactions. While it’s definitely a push in the right direction, it doesn’t make up for the hollow motivations of the characters and the sometimes ridiculous demeanor they exhibit during the game. Some “creative” liberties can be excused due to the obscure nature of how the game flows, but the game’s story is pretty balls. It’s full of holes and has as much to do with Final Fantasy XIII as X-2 did with Final Fantasy X.  It is kind of similar in that the characters set out searching for the previous main character…hmm…pattern? Perhaps a bit too harsh of me to say, but I expected more of the game and it failed to deliver on story for me as a whole. The characters seem all too cavalier in their situations and it has an all too innocent and light hearted feel. In an attempt to avoid any true spoilers, I will say the ending lacked substance and closure as well. The game does offer multiple endings due to its time traveling nature, so perhaps one of them fills the voids. Overall, the story was a flop.

TURN 2: Gameplay

Battle System

The game maintains the core battle system it had in XIII. 6 main jobs that can be changed on the fly in accordance with preset combinations make it easy to manage tactics and keep your characters doing what needs to be done. It still has the auto battle feature that made combat a breeze in XIII. Just mashing away at the respective consoles “GO” button made it easy to win battles without paying attention. This time around things are more or less the same. There are however a few subtle tweaks that speak volumes in the execution of this inherently monotonous combat system. Some key elements addressed, such as being able to change your point character mid-battle or not losing if your point character is on the wrong end of some butt-fuckerie before your heals had resolved can make otherwise frustrating battles easier on the soul. The paradigm switching is faster than ever, and the ability to add a formation to the paradigms adds that much needed reprieve from the otherwise aimless wandering of your characters during downtime being such a burden. The 6 man group so common among the Final Fantasy games has been replaced by the dynamic duo of Noel and Serah as your only main characters in the party. There is a 3^rd slot that is reserved for a new system of monsters that have been tamed by your skills in battle. Finding crystals in the world get you access to more monsters to have at your side, like some anime techno punk version of Pokemon. Each of the monsters maintains one of the 6 roles to add more dimensions to your paradigms and gives you more of a control over the battle. They are each equipped with an overdrive style move with quick time events to boost damage based on performance. This feature is more than welcome in the otherwise dry two man team. But the addition of more dynamic main party members would have been nice. Characters like Lightning and Sazh can be added to your list of monsters with the purchase of DLC you may or may not want to buy. Combat is MUCH better than it was in XIII, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t easy or tedious.  Luckily, the game was short enough that it maintained its enjoyability.

Non-combat

A timeline navigation serves as your overworld

Exploring the world of Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a much more open experience than its predecessor. You follow a flow of time portals that bring you to different areas (or the same areas in a different time) with more varied inner world maps that reward exploration and provide a sense of freedom XIII lacked. Towns exist now with no threat of monsters; they harbor shops and side quests and bring us back to a more familiar formula Final Fantasy that has existed for quite some time now. NPC’s are amuck all around the worlds with pennies to throw into open world real time dialog and various activated conversations as well. It makes it feel more JRPG than ever. You can revisit old stages to pick up left quests, complete missed ones, find treasure, or just take in the sights. On top of that, you can reset the worlds as if you’ve never completed them while retaining all your items and levels.  You can experience different dialog or make new choices that can change how some of the quests turn out. It’s a fresh and unique addition to progression and it makes the game feel more at home, even though I myself chose to ignore the feature entirely.  Approaching battles in these worlds have become a sort of hybrid of random encounters and the Star Ocean style choice encounters that XIII presented. This mixture of old and new makes it more entertaining and it is an improvement overall. After the “hard work”, leveling from these battles have become much more streamlined. The crystarium of XIII has been simplified and is no longer class specific. You flow the grid putting points into either role you wish, they affect only those roles and the abilities garnered in each. As you complete a level in the grid (or constellation, or whatever you want to call it), bonuses can be chosen. These range from extra ATB bars to increased passive class bonuses such as chain boosts or defense. I preferred the old style that garnered more control and kept my vegetables and my meat separate. During some of the more intense battles, cinematics with quick time events will occur. These don’t change the core experience, but it does force you to pay attention to what would otherwise be more of a movie and less of a game. Speaking of cheap and lame ways to change up game pacing, during various moments in the game, a basic platform puzzle rears its unwarranted head. In the name of curing the world of enigmatic time paradoxes, you will have to completely waste your time on easy puzzles that break up the pacing in a most undesirable fashion. I applaud the attempt at mini-games. But next time, stick to Chocobo racing and card games.

TURN 3: Presentation

Although not as breathe taking as XIII was back during its release, this is still a Square-Enix game. It is quite polished and the characters look amazing. The environments aren’t anything to revel over, but it is still very much so a gorgeous game. The pre-rendered cinematics are still just as much of a visual orgasm as you would expect. The voice work is amazing even if the source material is cheesy, and for those who aren’t a fan of the English dubs, it’s all you got; the Japanese voices are not available (sometimes a deal breaker, I’m looking at your Star Ocean 4). What I can’t get over is how awesome the soundtrack is to this game. Some of the tracks that play during battle are still stuck in my head. It feels like Persona, but with a less jazz/funk feel and way more rock and techno. Although not as heart-stopping as XIII was in 2009 (2010 for America), you’ll find it all wraps up to a package that looks and smells great, and it feels good enough to warrant the play through. Games to don’t often surpass Square-Enix productions, and this one lives up to the reputation. For those of you who are not a fan of the default costumes of our duo, you can acquire DLC costumes to further the coolness factor of your characters in an assortment of flavors.  However it’s a massive price for the content, do these costumes do shit too? For $3 a pop, they better include a coupon redeemable for a handy at your local homeless shelter. 

THE RESULT:

Final Fantasy XIII-2 is overall an engaging experience. It outclasses XIII in almost every way and is an attempt at redeeming the franchise’s glory. XIII-2 is short for a main quest, but it bolsters play time by adding more quests, completion bait, endings, and extra DLC content to try and keep it fresh, or at least lingering, beyond the initial 20-25 hours. The game is hardly a clinch for game of the year, but it’s not gonna tank the genre either. If you truly hated the departure from the familiar that XIII was from the likes of VII or X, then you probably aren’t going to be won over by XIII-2. For those who are willing to explore the systems further and pick up where XIII left off in more than just storyline, XIII-2 isn’t going to disappoint.

No...no your not, this shit is real

As a grade, it gets an 84%. Hey, it’s still a B right? Past average and quite passable but still lacks what it needs to be truly great. Keep at it Square, maybe you’ll get it right when Versus comes out...if it ever does.