Final Fantays XIII-2 Import: First Impressions
In December 2009 I imported Final Fantasy XIII before it came out in the USA. I could just barely handle the level of Japanese, but I managed with a great deal of determination. 2 years later I imported Final Fantasy XIII-2. Japanese is no longer a problem, which just leaves me to enjoy the game. I've played through the first 3-5 hours of the game and these are my first impressions (I'll try to keep this spoiler-free. Remember, I'm not far in the game myself.):
I was worried this would be another Final Fantasy X-2 (fanservice!) but despite the image above, my fears appear to be mislead. The game is much darker. It is set three years after the events of Final Fantasy XIII. The happy ending of the first game never happened. The main character Lightening has disappeared and is believed to be dead.
There is an amazing opening sequence reminiscent of Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, but I won't spoil it for you. The game is told from Sera's Serah's point of view. Remember she wasn't even a playable character in Final Fantasy XIII? She lives in New Bodhum, a small settlement in Pulse, not far from Cocoon. Her and Snow never got married and he is gone. Something seems wrong with the world and Serah doesn't believe Lightning is dead. When a boy appears out of nowhere claiming he can lead her to Lightning, she chooses to follow him.
Non-Linearity
This game had a very short development time compared to XIII. XIII-2 feels like an apology from the developers about XIII. The game is not as linear. You have free control of where you want to explore, but at this point I suspect you have to go to the correct places to progress the story.
Side-Quests
From what I played there are also some side quests, although of the three that I did, two were fetch-the-item quests and the other I had to find and kill a specific monster (a Cie'th aka シ骸 aka Shi-gai).
Pokemon
Keep in mind that I'm not far into the game yet, but it appears that you can tame monsters and have them fight with you. They have their own Crystarium (who thought of that name?) screen and you use items to level them up. The one I have now is Cait Sith (written ケット・シー)!
Mog
Mog the Moogle is one of the main characters, and I believe transforms into Serah's weapon.
Random Battles
Or semi-random to be exact. Monsters will randomly appear in front of you and you have the choice to either attack them and enter into a battle, or flee and try to make it far enough away before you run out of time. If you strike them you get a preemptive strike. If they strike you it's a normal battle. If you don't make it away in time I believe it is a surprise attack.
Soundtrack
The music is really good so far. It's not too far off from XIII. A lot of the songs have subtle lyrics in the background. One of them had a hilariously bad English rap, but the music made up for it. I wonder how much of it they'll change? Most of the tracks have English lyrics even though the singer was obviously Japanese. I really liked the theme for New Bodhum. It reminded me of the theme for Besaid Island in Final Fantasy X. Also when you're attacked it changes to the "aggressive" mix, which is excellent.
New Bodhum Theme
New Bodhum (Aggressive Mix) (Listen for at least 45 seconds!)
There's a lot of other things to talk about. Time traveling, Chocolina, the freaky Chocobo-shop lady. Multiple responses in dialog conversations. Let me know if you have any questions!
I was worried this would be another Final Fantasy X-2 (fanservice!) but despite the image above, my fears appear to be mislead. The game is much darker. It is set three years after the events of Final Fantasy XIII. The happy ending of the first game never happened. The main character Lightening has disappeared and is believed to be dead.
There is an amazing opening sequence reminiscent of Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, but I won't spoil it for you. The game is told from Sera's Serah's point of view. Remember she wasn't even a playable character in Final Fantasy XIII? She lives in New Bodhum, a small settlement in Pulse, not far from Cocoon. Her and Snow never got married and he is gone. Something seems wrong with the world and Serah doesn't believe Lightning is dead. When a boy appears out of nowhere claiming he can lead her to Lightning, she chooses to follow him.
Non-Linearity
This game had a very short development time compared to XIII. XIII-2 feels like an apology from the developers about XIII. The game is not as linear. You have free control of where you want to explore, but at this point I suspect you have to go to the correct places to progress the story.
Side-Quests
From what I played there are also some side quests, although of the three that I did, two were fetch-the-item quests and the other I had to find and kill a specific monster (a Cie'th aka シ骸 aka Shi-gai).
Pokemon
Keep in mind that I'm not far into the game yet, but it appears that you can tame monsters and have them fight with you. They have their own Crystarium (who thought of that name?) screen and you use items to level them up. The one I have now is Cait Sith (written ケット・シー)!
Mog
Mog the Moogle is one of the main characters, and I believe transforms into Serah's weapon.
Random Battles
Or semi-random to be exact. Monsters will randomly appear in front of you and you have the choice to either attack them and enter into a battle, or flee and try to make it far enough away before you run out of time. If you strike them you get a preemptive strike. If they strike you it's a normal battle. If you don't make it away in time I believe it is a surprise attack.
Soundtrack
The music is really good so far. It's not too far off from XIII. A lot of the songs have subtle lyrics in the background. One of them had a hilariously bad English rap, but the music made up for it. I wonder how much of it they'll change? Most of the tracks have English lyrics even though the singer was obviously Japanese. I really liked the theme for New Bodhum. It reminded me of the theme for Besaid Island in Final Fantasy X. Also when you're attacked it changes to the "aggressive" mix, which is excellent.
Click to viewNew Bodhum Theme
New Bodhum (Aggressive Mix) (Listen for at least 45 seconds!)
There's a lot of other things to talk about. Time traveling, Chocolina, the freaky Chocobo-shop lady. Multiple responses in dialog conversations. Let me know if you have any questions!