Final Fantasy XIII-2

Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the direct sequel to the hot garbage known as Final Fantasy XIII. I would have never guessed that I would have had so much fun with FFXIII-2 after my soul-draining experience with FFXIII. It is no exaggeration that Square Enix took fan feedback from the first game close to their hearts and did a thorough a 180° with this game. In fact, Square Enix made such drastic measures that they retconned the ending of FFXIII and pretty much wrote away most of the L’Cie, Fal’Cie and focus jargon. This is one of the few games I’ve played where the sequel is so much better than its’ predecessor that you could just pretend that the first game never existed (another game series that comes to mind is Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2).

The story takes place directly after FFXIII and changes the ending. Instead of Lightning reuniting with her sister Serah, Lightning is literally erased from history and everyone believes that she sacrificed herself along with Vanille and Fang to save the inhabitants of Cocoon. The only person that seems to remember what truly happened is Serah. The cause of all this is Caius, a man in a purple jumpsuit and wields a cool looking sword eye weapon who has manipulated time itself for some nefarious purpose. It is up to Serah and Noel, a mysterious time traveler from the future to fix the time paradoxes and confront Caius. As a time travel story, the game completely misses the mark and tries to explain mysterious things because of “time magic”. Fortunately at least what FFXIII-2’s story has going for it is that it is at least mildly comprehensible with no need to consult the Datalog. There are also nice episodic recaps everytime you load your save.

In the first hour of gameplay you can tell Square Enix immediately did right with this game. Characters no longer spout non sequiturs at each other. There are multiple branching paths to explore. You can actually talk and have conversations with NPCs! And finally you can access most of the gameplay immediately with the rest unlocking within the first three hours.

The Paradigm system from FFXIII also got a revamp. Serah and Noel will always be in your party, with a rotating slot used for monsters. That’s right, FFXIII-2 is also a Pokėmon-esk monster collecting game! Each monster represents a specific Crystarium role and it becomes a quest in itself to find and raise the best Commandos, Ravagers, Medics, etc. That said if you didn’t enjoy the Paradigm system in the first game, this game will not be changing your mind.

I was not a fan of some of the other changes that Square Enix has made. For some reason they learned that that QTEs are pretty popular with the kids these days and included them throughout the game. The QTEs show up in cutscenes and during battle. Hitting every QTE will deal bonus damage or reward you with a special prize. Fortunately failing the QTEs isn’t an automatic fail. Another feature included is branching dialog sequences. While branching dialog is much appreciated as it helps flesh out Serah and Noel, it usually only rewards an item if you pick the one correct/serious choice..

There are also severe pacing issues with FFXIII-2.The first 4 episodes are fairly easy and straightforward to follow. The 5th episode is gated off until Serah and Noel collect 5 specific fragments located in various timelines.The game give you hints in which timelines and areas to find these fragments, but the problem is, the game does not tell you how. In order to reach these specific timelines, you need to have enough Wild Artefacts, the keys to opening these timelines. The game never keeps track of which locations have Wild Artefacts are in them and it becomes painfully annoying to scour through each and every timeline for them. The problem is also exacerbated when these Wild Artefacts are impossible to access without pursuing some relatively long quest lines. Unless if by dumb luck you opened the right timelines and did the right quests, I strongly recommend resorting to a guide if you get stuck at this point.

FFXIII-2 suffers from a low production value and most of the content is recycled from the original game. The new music is eclectic and random and doesn’t quite feel like a Final Fantasy soundtrack.There are some catchy tracks like the Red Chocobo song, but also random ones like this heavy metal song they put in some boss fights. Most of the character models and monsters are recycled from the original. Voice acting with the exception of the main cast is shotty with Mog being the most annoying to listen to. Lip syncing is poorly done and you can notice characters moving their lips but not matching what they’re saying.

The poor production values also creep their way onto the PC port of the game. On Windows 10, the game will crash within the first few minutes of gameplay due to a memory issue. The framerate advertised to run up to 60 FPS, regularly dips down to 30 FPS even on powerful rigs. I experienced no issues playing FFXIII on PC so it’s strange how all of these bugs happen with the sequel. Luckily there is a great FF fan community that has provided most of the fixes to these issues (see: https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_XIII-2). It is a shame that Square Enix did not patch their game even though it has been released almost 4 years ago and counting.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 feels like a game that took major risks and paid off. Rather than living in the shadow of the first game and playing it safe, Square Enix decided to take the series into a whole new direction with this sequel. The game oozes with new ideas, some brilliant and some awful. This is a game that is so different from its’ predecessor that saying it is the sequel to Final Fantasy XIII is an insult. Yes, it is using the same main characters and battle system, but it does so much more than the original. Despite my complaints, I enjoyed my time playing Final Fantasy XIII-2 look forward to playing the end of the trilogy: Lightning Returns.

(This would have been a 4 star rating if not for the terrible job Square Enix did with the PC port of this game)