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.
Final Fantasy XIII-2
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. Initially, I was rather sceptical 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.
Final Fantasy XIII-2
New to XIII-2 is a jump function, albeit it doesn't 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 cut scene 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 differing 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./p>
Final Fantasy XIII-2
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 carry over 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.
Game: Final Fantasy XIII-2
System: XBox 360
Developer/Co-Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
