Final Fantasy XIII-2: An Honest Opinion

Final Fantasy XIII is unarguably one of the most divisive entries in the series. There was no real middle ground with the game: you either loved it, or you hated it. Developer Square Enix took all the fan criticism to heart, and attempted to lay it to rest with the release of Final Fantasy XIII-2, which is (as far as I know), only the second direct sequel in the series, (the other being Final Fantasy X-2, which we don't talk about). So, did Square succeed in its attempts to both please the fans of XIII, and address the criticisms of those who hated it?


First off, you should know, I was one of those people that actually liked Final Fantasy XIII. I didn't get a chance to finish it, as my 360 suffered a fatal hardware malfunction, and was laid to rest, but I got pretty close to the end. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that when I went out to buy XIII-2, I actually looked for a used PS3 copy of XIII to pick up at the same time. I figured I'd bull through all of XIII before playing XIII-2, which probably would have precluded my giving XIII-2 an honest opinion here. But, I couldn't find a used copy of XIII, so, here I am with my opinion on XIII-2.


Final Fantasy XIII-2 takes place 3 years after the events of XIII. Due to some weird flux in the timeline, Lightning has ceased to exist in her own time period: her sister, Serah - who, along with newcomer Noel Kriess, are the primary story characters, - is the only one who believes Lightning is still alive. The rest of those that knew Lightning just assume she's in the crystal pillar, holding up Cocoon alongside Fang and Vanille. That is, until Noel shows up, and informs Serah that Lightning is, in fact, alive, kicking, and most definitely not crystal, in a place called Valhalla, and offers to help Serah find her.

She's also got this feather sword going on. Must be a Valhalla thing.

This is your springboard into the rest of the game. The closest analog I (or any other website on the internet that you'll look), can give you to this story is Chrono Trigger. You end up travelling to different time periods in an attempt to reach Valhalla and Lightning. Early on in the game, like Episode II early, you're introduced to the idea of paradoxes: things are happening that shouldn't be. Something's causing the timeline to shift big time, and a lot of the story is focused on righting these wrongs in order to find artifacts, which allow you to use the time gates. The problem with this is that the idea of these paradoxes is thrown around so much that they start to lose meaning. If you were exposed to three or four huge paradoxes, (like Chrono Trigger), and then left to try and solve those while the story played out, the consequences of your actions would have been a lot stronger. There's also the problem that you leave your newly established community on Pulse (that's delving into XIII's back story a little bit, so I'm not going into it) at the end of the first chapter, and through what I feel is a bit of a cop-out, warned that you might not return. I feel that the story would have had more impact if something really wrong happened in Serah's own time, adding further motivation to her journey: yes, she wants to find Lightning, but she wants to right the wrong that plagues her home, as well. The idea is toyed with at the beginning of the game, but not capitalized on. Granted, I haven't finished the game, so that may be a later plot device, but as it stands, I feel like Square Enix missed an opportunity there.

This is the closest thing to a paradox in your home time that I've found, and it can't even be bothered to crawl all the way out of its portal.

Combat was one of the things a lot of fans agreed Square did right with XIII, and for the most part, I agree. The paradigm system affords you the choice to drastically change your combat strategy on the fly. In XIII-2, it's seen a few tweaks. Shifting paradigms, for example, no longer uses any momentum, so you can literally change your paradigm while an enemy is preparing for an attack. That becomes a key strategy to quite a few of the fights you'll come across. It also helps eliminate the feeling of automation combat can sometimes have. For a lot of the fights, especially early on, you can pretty much just hit 'Auto-attack,' and let the game queue up your moves for you. If the paradigm system weren't in place, this would be rather insulting, and, as it is, there are times when combat is a little less than enjoyable for this reason. Square has also seen it fit to add 'cinematic moments' to combat. These are basically quick-time events, but I hesitate to use the term, because you're given ample time to perform most of them. I think it's just a device Square put in place to give the battles a little more theatricality, and ultimately, whether they succeeded or not will depend on the person playing. Personally, I didn't find these moments to either add or take away anything from the game. They were just there. Alongside these 'cinematic moments,' Square has added a - and I hesitate to use this analogy, because it's been made a thousand times since the game's launch a week ago - Pokemon-(shudder)-like system, whereby you can gain the ability to summon some of the monsters you fight. This adds a third member to your party, whom you can add to whatever paradigm you'd like, and level up individually. Though it has to be said, each monster only has one paradigm role: medics can only be medics, ravagers can only be ravagers, you get the picture. This makes sense, as the set role plays directly into the monster's strengths. Even so, if you really like one monster, you could conceivably use it for the entire game, and just build your paradigms around it. The thing is, this monster system is the only thing that adds any real party variety: Serah and Noel are your only two party members, (at least so far as I'm aware). This is an incredibly odd design choice for a Final Fantasy game, as usually you have a cavalcade of colourful characters to choose from. It also means that you'd better either like Noel and Serah, or feel indifferent to them. If you actively dislike them, you're going to have a hard time playing the game.

I shall call him Squishy, and he shall be mine.

Square was attempting to fix the criticisms that it received for Final Fantasy XIII, while still not alienating those who enjoyed it, and for the most part, they succeeded. There's more exploration to the world, combat has been tweaked to make it more fun, and the balls-tacular weapon upgrade system was removed, replaced instead with the old RPG standby, that being equipment you can buy. They also made some puzzling design choices, though. Dropping the party down to two characters and a monster is one. It doesn't hurt the game, exactly, but it seems to be a little out of left field. There's also the ridiculous dialogue choices. I think I discovered earlier what they're for: if you pick the 'best' choice when you're given the option, you're given items at the end of a section. I noticed that at the end of the first episode, but couldn't have told you at the time why a treasure box suddenly appeared floating next to me after a cutscene. So, if you're wondering what to do with them, try to pick the option must germane to the conversation you're having. If it turns out I'm wrong, then I give up, because they don't seem to have any ramifications on the way the story is played out at all. Oh, and there's the music. If you're a J-Pop fan, I think you'll like this game: the soundtrack is brimming with the stuff. It's sickeningly sweet and upbeat for the most part, although during boss battles, you're exposed to some odd Japanese metal music. J-Metal, I guess? Either way, the soundtrack is definitely not one of the game's strongest features.  There also seems to have been some slight change to the characterization of Serah between XIII and XIII-2. I can't quite put my finger on what it is, but she doesn't seem to be as - I don't know, tough? - as she was when she came up in XIII. Noel's interesting enough, and pretty well characterized, for the most part. You know his wants and motivations perfectly almost from the get go, but there's still a little bit of enigma surrounding him. The only thing that falls flat is his voice. I've never been a fan of the guy who does his voice (even though I can't name him). I just wonder, though, whether choosing Serah as the game's primary protagonist was a good choice. She doesn't seem as compelling a lead character as Lightning was. At least in my mind. If you disliked Lightning, then you'll actually probably like Serah. She's the antithesis of Lightning in most ways.

Seriously, though: Who looks like they'd carry the lead better?

All in all, XIII-2 is a fairly good addition to the series. It does what a sequel is supposed to do (unlike Final Fantasy X-2, which I'm actually now going to gamer's hell for mentioning twice), in that it keeps what made the original enjoyable, (for the most part), tweaks it a little to make it work better, and then fixes the weak points of its progenitor. There are a few points about the game that I didn't mention: the change to the Crystarium, which is your system of levelling up, for example, or the addition of Chocobolina and her crafting system, (and general ability to unnerve), and there were a few more points on the story I could have made, but I feel it's best to render my verdict now, before I start to drag on. Personally, I like Final Fantasy XIII-2. If you enjoyed XIII, you probably will as well. If you didn't enjoy XIII, it's worth a rent, at the most. The necessary changes are there, but I still don't know if Square took them quite far enough to quiet the shouts of those who truly disliked Final Fantasy XIII.