Final Fantasy XIII-2
Reviewed By Stephen Pastic
When Final Fantasy XIII was finally released after a lengthy
development time, it was welcomed with mixed reviews. Now, for the
second time in the main series, Square Enix has returned to have a
crack at a direct sequel to a Final Fantasy game with XIII-2 - but does
it address any criticisms of its predecessor, or is it some more of the
same?
Picking up several years after the conclusion to XIII, the game focuses
on Serah trying to find her sister, (and XIII's main protagonist)
Lightning after the events of the first game. Serah is also
joined by Noel, a time traveller from the future who claims to have
information on Lightning's whereabouts.
Much of
the cast from XIII makes an appearance throughout as Serah and Noel
travel back and forth through time in an effort to eradicate anomalies
which have caused a large number of complications with the space time
continuum. Initally, i was rather skeptical as to how this
would pan out given how time travel as a narrative device typically
results, but the way it is structured within the game is quite
effective and works rather well.
Obviously,
with this being a direct sequel, there are still some fundamental
issues with the story which carry over from XIII's somewhat clumsy set
up and framing of the world and its major plot points, but what is
presented is more than enough to propel the player forward and give the
incentive to continue on.
Right
from the get go i should establish just how beautiful the game
looks. Final Fantasy XIII was no slouch in the visual
department, and it has been well and truly kicked up another notch here.
Gameplay
wise, XIII-2 continues much like its older sibling with its modern
shake up of JRPG battle systems. Each character can be
assigned a specific role in battle (for example, a commando who is
focused on dealing direct damage), and the various permutations of each
character's battle role within the party make up differing battle
"paradigms", which will determine the actions available for each
combatant.
Whilst
players can still manually input individual commands if they wish, the
system is designed around utilising the "auto battle" function (which
automatically assigns appropriate actions specific to the character's
role) to take out a lot of the busy work, while the player focuses on
effective use of shifting paradigms as the battle unfolds.
One
throwback to Final Fantasy games of old are pseudo random encounter
battles whilst moving throughout the world. Every so often
enemies will materialise, but unlike previous games, most of the time
it is possible to simply run away from the enemy and avoid an encounter
- so to some extent, players can determine how much JRPG-style grinding
they are comfortable with.
New to
XIII-2 is a jump function, albeit it doesnt really seem to serve much
of a purpose outside of traversing areas of terrain where the game
could have simply performed it automatically.
Furthermore,
XIII-2 does away with the entourage of party members of XIII, and as
such players will primarily be with Serah and Noel - somewhat filling
that gap are monsters that can be developed for certain battle roles to
take the place of a third member. Different monsters can be
assigned to different paradigm set-ups (allowing players to switch them
out on the fly), and there is quite a decent level of customisation and
development available for making these support characters increasingly
useful.
Quick-time
events (known in game as "cinematic actions") make an appearance
throughout, and Square Enix was at least smart enough to communicate to
the player when they will occur - unlike other games (such as Resident
Evil 4), you are unlikely to be ambushed by one with no warning during
a cutscene when you may have put the controller down.
Another
new feature is the "live trigger" system, which basically will present
the player with choices on how to respond to certain conversations, and
have differering rewards based on the choice/s made.
XIII-2 addresses one of XIII's biggest
criticisms in that the player will no longer have to put in 20 hours
before gaining access to many of the game systems. XIII was
rightly criticised for essentially being in "tutorial mode" for a large
percentage of the game, whilst denying the player access to many of the
game mechanics - not so here. Pretty soon after beginning,
there is little locked off from the player, and as such the gameplay
systems come into effect as a much more appreciable pace.
Another point worth mentioning is XIII-2's
soundtrack - running stylistically across many genres (even featuring a
metal chocobo riding theme which simply must be heard), there is little
chance of much in the way of audio boredom.
My biggest complaint with XIII-2 is that so
much of what frames the story is just downright clumsy at
best. True, whilst much of it is simply a carryover from the
previous title, the business about fal'Cie, l'Cie, and Cocoon strikes
me as tremendously uninspired, despite my best efforts to get on board
with it all. Whilst the moment to moment story was adequate
in making me want to move forward, any time these central elements came
into the mix the story was no longer something i could easily get
invested in.
When all is said and done though, Final
Fantasy XIII-2 is a very enjoyable game. With a much quicker
pace than its plodding predecessor, I suspect that anyone who even
somewhat enjoyed the first game will be pleasantly surprised.
For everyone else, if you dig JRPGs and would like something a little
different than the kinds of battle systems we have traditionally become
familiar with, you should give XIII-2 a spin.
Rating:
80%
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Game: Final Fantasy
XIII-2
System: XBox 360
Developer/Co-Developer: Square
Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
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