Final Fantasy XIII-2 (PS3 - 1st completion)

[leathercubster]

I managed to complete all of Final Fantasy XIII-2 earlier this week on Normal difficulty with the exception of some DLC opponents that were just too tricky for me. It's no big deal, I don't gain any PS3 trophies or whatever and I can always try again if I replay it in the future on Easy difficulty. I managed to get all 160 of the game's Fragments, all PS3 trophies (my third Platinum trophy), get both of my characters to their maximum Crystrium levels, beat two of the three major DLC episodes, and did it all in just over 79 hours of gametime. I have the Collector's Edition (couldn't find a good picture of the box online) which has the game (though without the case you see above), a small booklet of concept art, and the entire Official Soundtrack on 4 CDs! Sweet! Besides the Final Fantasy concert last week and now this review, I should have a review of Dissidia: Final Fantasy sometime this month. It certainly has been a Final Fantasy-based spring LOL! Don't worry, I'll be taking a small break from the series to work on other games.





Three years after the events of Final Fantasy XIII - 3 AF (After Fall - when Cocoon was falling and saved by the crystalized pillar forms of Vanille and Fang at the end of the game), the Pulse town Serah Farron lives in is attacked by monsters. A stranger named Noel and Mog, his moogle companion, appear to help fight the monsters and claims to be a time traveler from 700 AF. He arrived in her time via Valhalla, where he claims to have met Lightning, Serah's sister and protagonist of FF XIII, as she guarded the throne of the weakened goddess, Etro. As part of Lightning's transfer to Valhalla, she was erased from the fall of Cocoon onwards (making everyone except Serah forget her being with them on Gran Pulse), and paradoxes have erupted throughout time, warping the timeline. Serah joins Noel in a journey to resolve these paradoxes by removing items and monsters, which are out of their original time and correct the timeline. Serah hopes to find her sister and Noel hopes in changing the bleak future he comes from. While journeying to 5 AF to resolve a paradox on Cocoon, they meet and help Alyssa, an Academy member and survivor of the Purge, a massacre by the Sanctum at the beginning of FF XIII. Traveling to the ruined city of Paddra in 10 AF, they find Hope, who has become the leader of the Academy, with Alyssa as his assistant. They also find a recording of prophecies made by one of the seeresses of Paddra, who are believed to have died out centuries prior: one fragmented prophecy shows Lightning in Valhalla. Paddra is shrouded by an eclipse, which Noel says is not supposed to happen for several centuries. While Serah and Noel resolve the paradox causing the eclipse, they encounter Caius Ballad, a man Noel knows from 700 AF who opposes their mission, and Yeul, who looks identical to a girl of the same name Noel knew in the future. After resolving the paradox, an alternative timeline appears in which there was never an eclipse. The repaired prophecy shows Caius in Valhalla fighting Lightning and the crystal pillar supporting Cocoon collapsing. Noel claims that this takes place around 400 AF, devastating the human population as well as the world, creating a future where he is the last human in existence. Serah and Noel move on, while Hope and Alyssa work on finding a way to prevent the pillar's collapse.

To see the game's opening, go here or below:

Click to view

Part 1 continues here or below:

Click to view

Part 2 is here, Part 3 is here, and Part 4 is here. I recommend skipping through the regular battles as they eat up a lot of time and aren't interesting in the early parts of the game.







Graphics/Art-9
+ Excellent graphics, animation, textures, and lighting! Once again, the FMV is sharp and in-game cinematics are great to look at.
+ Character models are well done and the monsters look great too.
+ There is some good level design. While some areas repeat in a different time period, they look usually different. Some areas are accessible while others are not depending on the time period and paradox.
+ You can customize your characters outfits (through DLC I'm afraid) plus collect and apply adornments on your recruited monsters. I didn't bother with this but I suppose it's a fun option.
- The graphics seem to have taken a small step back from the original game. There seems to be pixelation (if you look closely at Serah and Lightning's hair) this time around either because things have been compressed, the artists were under time constraints, or the PS3's hardware.

Sound/Music-9
+ A surprisingly good soundtrack. While the first game was better, this one still does a good job.
+ Some tracks from the first game make a comeback here! These include: Blinded By Light, The Sunleth Waterscape (Japanese version), etc.
+ Some good voice acting. Great sound effects.
- Almost all of the side-quest NPCs give dry lines. Some actual dialogue would be nice.
- Mog is irritating at times. Throwing him would be funny if he didn't whine and beg.

Music Samples:
A Wish
Knight of The Goddess
God of War
Run
Noel's Theme
Paradigm Shift
Groovy Chocobo / Rodeo De Chocobo
Future
Last Hunter
A Song For Time
Caius's Theme
Parallel World / Aggressive Mix
Starting Over / Aggressive Mix
Plains of Eternity / Aggressive Mix
Followers Of Chaos
Serah's Theme
New World (sung by Charice)

Control-10
+ Controls are similar to the first game so it was very easy to get into.
+ Serah and Noel can jump around this time.
- You can throw Mog to collect treasure spheres. Sometimes it requires good aiming and execution which is slightly frustrating.





Gameplay-9
+ Gameplay is pretty similar to Final Fantasy XIII though less linear. There are two difficulty modes: Easy and Normal modes (the only "punishment" is that you cannot gain one or two trophies on Easy mode).
+ Navigation through the worlds is done through the Historia Crux, which you can access almost anytime. You can visit a region in multiple time periods and multiple regions at the same time period. For example, the region of Oerba can be reached in the years 200 and 400 AF, while the Sunleth Waterscape and Augusta Tower regions can be visited in the year 300 AF. Some regions, because of plot points within the game, have alternate versions of themselves. For example, two versions of the Academia region in the same year can be accessed once the plot has made the second version available. The game's regions are represented as a branching path instead of being accessed linearly. New regions can be unlocked via plot points or by acquiring optional special items and you may transfer between unlocked regions at any point.
+ When accessing a previously visited region, you'll appear in the location of your last visit. Upon acquiring items called seals, you can revert regions to their previous statuses to play through them again; regions can be unsealed again at any time.
+ The game auto-saves when you enter the Historia Crux as well as at key moments in the plot. You can also manually save at any time (except in battles). Because of this change since Final Fantasy XIII, you now purchase items from a character named Chocolina, who is found throughout the game. Her stuff updates as the plot goes forward.
+ An in-game datalog and bestiary includes incidental information about the game's world and tracks the monsters you have fought. Great for also keeping track of side-quests and where you are missing fragments!
+ When talking to certain characters, sometimes a "Live Trigger" system happens, in which your choose a response from 2 or 4 options. These dialogue options are generally not repeatable. For most parts of the game, you get an item after all Live Triggers in an area have been done.
+ Some areas have temporal rifts, in which you must complete a puzzle to close the rift and continue the adventure. Some of them are fun, others - like the clock puzzle, are annoying.
+ Combat is almost identical to the previous game's version of the series' Active Time Battle (ATB) system, called the Command Synergy Battle system. Under this system, you select an action from the menus, such as Attack, Abilities, or Item. Each action requires a specific number of slots on the ATB bar, which continually refills at a constant rate to a set maximum number of slots. The ATB bar can be increased in size throughout the game from three slots to six. You may select less than the maximum number of possible actions or may stop the filling of the ATB bar and perform as many actions as can be done with the current ATB amount. The vast majority of the time you will select the "Autobattle" command, which fills the ATB slots with actions chosen automatically. It's very intelligent though at times you may have to exercise using manual commands, especially with bosses and very strong enemies.
+ Actions cannot be performed outside of combat, and the characters' health is fully restored after each fight (YAY!). You have the option of restarting a battle while in the middle of a fight which is helpful if you want a better ranking or you want to try a better strategy.
+ During some boss battles, you are now put through quick time events called Cinematic Actions that allow you to deal higher damage to foes and end certain battles. A pretty nice addition.
+ Monsters do not freely roam the map like in Final Fantasy XI to XIII, but instead they randomly appear as in the first ten Final Fantasy games. For a limited time after monsters appear, you may attack them to gain a combat bonus; after this window expires, the monsters attack you to begin a regular battle, and if too much time passes before combat begins, you cannot restart the fight during combat. If you manage to run far enough away from the enemies, you can avoid battle.
+ Three characters are used in combat: Serah, Noel, and a monster. Monsters must be captured from battles before they can be used, and there are around 150 different monster types available to be collected. Captured monsters act just like the main characters, but can also perform a "feral link" attack that increases the chance of capturing another monster. Either Serah or Noel can be selected as the one that the player has direct control over at any point; the other character and monster are then controlled by the game's AI.
+ Just like in the previous game each enemy has a meter, called a Chain Gauge, consisting of a percentage that increases from a base level of 100 when the enemy is struck by attacks or spells. Different attacks have different effects: magic attacks raise the chain by a larger amount while physical attacks prolong the time before the Chain Gauge resets to 100 percent so a combination of both is very helpful. The amount of damage performed by an attack is multiplied by the chain percentage before it is applied to the enemy. When the chain counter reaches a preset amount, different for each enemy, the enemy becomes Staggered. In this mode, the enemy has lowered defense and is easily interrupted, and some may even be launched into the air, preventing them from attacking and stopping their ATB gauges from replenishing.
+ The Paradigm system from the previous game allows you to program six different roles, which the characters can assume to perform certain formations in battle in response to specific conditions. The roles consist of Commando, which uses non-elemental physical attacks to stabilize the Chain Gauge. Ravager, a Black Mage-type role which uses elemental magic attacks to fill the Chain Gauge. Medic, a White Mage-type role which can heal the party and cure bad status effects. Saboteur, which can weaken enemies with various effects. Synergist, which can strengthen allies with beneficial effects. And Sentinel, which increases defense plus has protective abilities. Serah and Noel initially start at three roles, but they can learn others at your choosing as the game progresses. You can only choose from specific sets of paradigms that you've set up before the battle. Monsters only have one role; different ones are used when you switch paradigms. You can select up to three monsters you wish to use in paradigms outside of battle. You can also map the behaviour of the AI controlled character and monster: "Normal" is based on the character's parameters, "Cross" concentrates on a single ally or enemy, and "Wide" concentrates on multiple allies or enemies.
+ The Crystarium system returns in this game as the stat and ability growth system for Serah and Noel plus and the recruitable monsters. This game's Crystarium differs from the original in several ways. Now, each character can access the ability to unlock other roles from the start and there is no cap on the development of the Crystarium at any time. The stat growth is determined by crystals' size and role selected to expand. For example, if the crystal is large and you choose to raise the Sentinel level by one, the HP growth will be larger than when raising the same role on a small crystal. For Serah and Noel, you spend Crystarium Points (CP) to advance your levels. For your recruitable monsters, you use components that you win from battles, collect from treasure spheres, or buy from Chocolina. Leveling up your characters will expand their abilities which you choose one at a time. You can increase the ATB gauge, increase the effectiveness of a role up to two levels, increase your accessory capacity, etc.
+ Besides leveling up your monsters and increasing their abilities, you can sacrifice a monster and "Infuse" them into another monster, granting them their passive abilities. This requires some research and component farming but it makes for powerful monsters in return.
- Unlike in Final Fantasy XIII, you cannot summon the Eidolons, as the giant creatures were only available to the protagonists of that game. Bummer...
- I miss some of the linearity of the previous game. To its credit, I'm glad you can do the vast majority of side-quests before you beat this game.
- There is a place called Serendipity, which is a Casino world. It has a couple of minigames - which is good but technically, they should have had the 2 extra from Sazh's DLC. His DLC adds in Poker and Chronobind which I feel is nothing more than a cash-grab. Chocobo racing wasn't that impressive and I'm glad it wasn't required for full completion though, I did do some of it.

Fun/Story/Misc-9
+ There are plenty of ways to outfit your monsters with little trinkets and accessories but it's not necessary. I never bothered with it. There are some DLC outfits for Serah and Noel which are used in the in-game cinematics. Some of the the cooler ones are "Ezio Auditore" for Noel from Assassin's Creed II and both he and Serah can also get battle armour from the Mass Effect series!
+ DLC expands on Lightning, Sazh, and Snow's stories. I recommended checking them out (I highly recommend doing Lightning's sometime during post-game). You can purchase various cool Final Fantasy series opponents and battle them in the Coliseum. They are difficult but you gain their crystals and can be used as recruited monsters in battle!
+ You get Fragment Skills when collecting certain fragments that add to the game's experience. Some of them I just want to say: "Thank you Square-Enix! You finally figured it out!" For example, you can increase the likelihood to run into rare and powerful enemies, increase or decrease battles, change the chocobo music, manipulate the game speed, increase the chances of recruiting a monster in battle, unlock paradox endings, etc. It really cuts down on the bullshit that previous games in the series and JRPGs in general have.
+ Saving the game anywhere is very convenient. Reloading and going back to the same place and time was also helpful.
- Story is kind of confusing and didn't care much for it compared to the first Final Fantasy XIII. I'm not a fan of Caius, the game's main antagonist. Also, Mog and Chocolina can got on my nerves.
- Long load times. I can kind of understand given what is programmed and what needs to be loaded from your progress. But at times it gets downright repetitive.
- DLC is a little pricey to get everything. Another good example of milking customers for content that should have been on the disc to begin with.

Total: 46/50 (Grade level: A)



To see some gameplay videos go here, here, here, and here.

To check out the main Final Fantasy XIII-2 website, go here. It has plenty of media and information. The Wikipedia article is here and the Gametrailers.com video review is here.

Next Game: MadWorld (Wii)

Currently playing: Dissidia: Final Fantasy (PSP)