Final Fantasy XIII-2 Gush

[Jason Tandro]

So I'm gonna straight up gush right now about how much I loved Final Fantasy XIII-2.

I know a few of you read my FF13 rant and how I basically felt that while the storyline, music, graphics and even the battle system were amazing, the game had several elements that I hated, mainly the fact that you're stuck in linear corridors for 80% of the game until you get to the open world (which admittedly is a very beautiful open-world).

Well I'm gonna go on a limb and say this: Final Fantasy XIII-2 is everything that is right about video games. (Maybe that's a bit of hyperbole, but I did forewarn you that this was a gush.)

Aside from going well down the "Games are art" route that most final fantasy's have been leaning since about Final Fantasy 6, this capitalizes on the fact that they have, essentially, a brand new world to work with. Honestly somebody could start playing FFXIII-2 with nothing more than the 5 minute primer they give in the disk and be able to completely follow what is going on in the game.

I don't want to give away much about the story, but I want to go over the features that back up my thesis statement:

+ The game is an open-ended time travel game. This means three critical things:
- The game can be played at your own pace
- The game allows for sequence-breaking (in fact there is a core "paradox" mechanic built around doing just that)
- Each location and time period is broken into bite-size chunks with some of the longer ones being Augusta Tower 200 AF and Academia 400 AF clocking in around maybe 30-45 minutes each if you watch the cutscenes.

+ You are able to obtain "Gate Seals" which allow you to essentially replay locations from the start of the story segment of that location and time.
- This means that you can replay the game without having to start all the way over and acts as a tool to correct errors and even (when utilized properly) a New Game + feature.

+ The story is incredibly engaging because as well as having mini-stories for each location and time, each "Chapter" has its own story which all combines together into the "Main" story.

+ While there are only two characters, your third party member is based around monsters which you capture, tame, and train.

+ The graphics are, of course, incredible.

+ The music in this game is probably among the finest in the series.
- I mean seriously, I don't normally like lyrical music unless it's in a foreign language, but all the lyrics in this game are in english and I find myself listening to it all the time.
This is the music for the first "real" area and it totally sucks you in...
This is one of the first battle themes...
And if you want funny and yet somehow awesome...

+ The battle system from FFXIII is refined so that three major improvements are noticed:
- Leveling up is faster and easier.
- Your party is more customizable with the addition of monster allies.
- The weapon system is much simpler.

+ The game has a few platforming elements such as free-jumping
- This is kinda cool (anybody else notice how the other direct sequel that was on a console (FFX-2) also added platforming elements.) but it is mainly awesome near the end when you get the Anti-Grav jump and can basically float.

+ Enemies are easier to avoid if you're in a rush.
- But still not impossible to avoid altogether.

+ The game has a freakin' mini-game location.
- Since FF7, I've been spoiled. And while we've never quite gotten back to the standard of Gold Saucer, we're getting closer. FF8 had Triple Triad, which was fun, FF9 had Tetra Master which was... less fun. FFX had Blitzball, which I swear to god I would play a game of just Blitzball and love it. To FFX-2's credit pretty much every location had a mini-game of sorts plus there were a few world-spanning ones, but most were just button mashing variants. Plus they ruined Blitzball! But again, to their credit... Gunner's Gauntlet, Bikanel Desert Digging and Sphere Break. I don't know of any mini-games in FFXII unless you count Marks and FFXIII really only had the hunts as well with the Ci'eth stones.
- FFXIII-2 on the other hand has Serendipity. While the default only has a fortune teller, slot machines and chocobo races, apparently more features are available in DLC, such as cards.


So... is there anything I don't like about this game? Well a couple of things bugged me.

+ The ending is a punch to the dick.
- Forgive my crudeness, but that was the only way I felt I could accurately describe the ending. Again, I don't want to ruin it, but it will in the span of 60 seconds, make you laugh, then cry, then scream "WHAT THE FKKKK WAS THE POINT OF ANYTHING?!?!?!? RAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!" Okay, so it's a cliff-hanger. That's nice. I can deal with it. But here's the thing about a good cliff-hanger. YOU CAN'T JUST UNDO AN ENTIRE PLOT THREAD JUST BECAUSE IT IS CONVENIENT TO MAKE A CLIFF-HANGER!!!!!!!!!!

That notwithstanding, a few other things bugged me, but not nearly as much as this.

+ Some locations were basically just time-sinks.
- This is mainly noticeable with the later Oerba incarnations. You literally just go there to do a whole bunch of this one kind of puzzle that the game had rarely interspersed around other levels.

+ Academia could have been so much more than what it was.
- The big capitol of the game is visually amazing, and usually with big cities in Final Fantasy you can find a lot of stuff to do. This had a few quiz terminals (appropriate considering the name is Academia), but mostly it was just a lot of open space with really nothing to do other than look for random treasure spheres. Not a huge gripe, but you could have done more with it.

+ You will require a walkthrough for certain sections.
- I mean literally, it becomes a must for some of these sections. This is most damning in the afforementioned quiz terminals where they ask dozens of questions and only about 1 in every 10 are you throughout the course of gameplay given the answer to. I mean literally these are random questions about the culture of this world you have never fully experienced. (not to mention that there are four questions that are literally just "heads" or "tails" questions where you have to guess and hope you get lucky.) But there's also some unbelievably cryptically hidden gate seals and Artefacts and some of the challenges they expect, especially in Archylte Steppe are unrealistic to expect you to just guess.

+ A better use of prior characters would have been appreciated.
- Okay, you see a lot of Lightning, a lot of Hope, a bit of Snow and Vanille and Fang are referenced but never really seen. Sazh is apparently somewhere in Serendipity but I've yet to see him. I just feel they could have been better utilized (excepting Lightning and Hope, and to Snow's credit, you get to fight alongside him in a few segments).

+ The Final Dungeon is disappointing.
- While it gives you the chance to go full platformer on the game, that's not what I purchased. I purchased an RPG. I want you to reflect on the great, memorable final dungeons of the series:
- The N-Zone
- Kefka's Tower
- The Northern Crater
- Ultimecia's Castle
- FREAKIN MEMORIA.
Hell even Sin was kinda creative and in FFXIII Orphan's Cradle was downright creepy. All these dungeons are massive with lots of different areas that really make you reflect on the journey you've been through so far. I say "freakin' memoria" because while all of the dungeons before were symbolic recollections of your adventure, Memoria literally was a recollection.
- So, the final dungeon in FFXIII-2. How big is the dungeon?
One room.
No joke. A big room filled with moving blocks and with this really creepy ambiance and music, but essentially one big room. Epic fail, game.


Okay, I've rambled enough. That's pretty much the heavy points right there. Despite the afforementioned flaws I still love the game and stand by my original thesis. A weak ending doesn't mean that the adventure itself was flawed. Even if you haven't yet played FFXIII, I'd frankly skip it unless you really like good stories, and just jump into FFXIII-2.



[edit]

OH YEAH! And those Hands of Time puzzles. I FREAKIN' HATE THOSE. If you find yourself in a bind with those I recommend a solver, such as this.

[inferiare]

To be fair, 500AF was also infused with that one thing that's slightly spoilery but starts with C. I think it was supposed to be that long trail up to the main base in Academia 400AX so it was the linear corridor for that.

Not gonna lie though, that last dungeon - if you even wanna call it that - creeped me the hell out, especially with the nuke alarm going off in the end.

The Hands of Time puzzles weren't bad until you added a million numbers to it. :: I found a solution for it where you plug numbers in and it'll give you the solution. Made it not so bad. Oerba just made me sad though when I went there.

As for the DLC, just know that Requiem leads up to FFXIII-3 (even if they refuse to call it that) so it's still a punch to the dick but you can only hope it gets better with the last game.