Woofels   15 February 2012

Right so after giving this game a second chance iv decided to write my full review up on it anyway as the impression it has left has over all been a positive one now that I'm done with my nerd rage

First off i will try my hardest to keep all spoilers to a minimum for those who have not finished the game and ill point **SPOILER** anywhere i think there may be a spoiler.

So prepare for a wall of text and in the words of Mario "Here we go!"

Story

The actual story will delve deeper into the Fabula Nova Crystallis mythology, and this time focus on the Goddess Etro.[8] The worlds of Gran Pulse and Cocoon in Final Fantasy XIII return in Final Fantasy XIII-2.[16] Players will be able to revisit old areas as well as new areas at various time periods, showing changes in appearance. Lake Bresha is now called the Bresha Ruins, and there is no longer a crystallized lake to cross. A re-created version of the city of Bodhum has been made on Pulse, known as New Bodhum, home of the former citizens from Bodhum. The Yaschas Massif on Pulse reappears with its ruins now inhabited by Cocoon soldiers and scientists like the Bresha Ruins. The Sunleth Waterscape is no longer a lush-green nature reserve. The Archlyte Steppe is now inhabited by hunters. Serendipity is a floating casino city packed with minigames like Slots and Chocobo Racing. The City of Academia replaces Eden as the new capital city, and is Hope Estheim's new hometown. Augusta Tower, a high tech area with a maze-like interior. Fang and Vanille's former hometown of Oerba is on the verge of being consumed by a black hole. The trash-filled Vile Peaks are now covered in snow. Valhalla, the realm of death and chaos at the edge of time in the distant future, otherwise known as "the unseen world" is also a playable area.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_XIII-2

It's a sad day for me personally when a Final Fantasy series game weakest point is it's story line. This used to be a series revered for it's story's and while the original XIII may of lacked in game play it made up for in very solid story.

I'm not the greatest fan of time travel stories at the best of time, but if done well i find them tolerable, Square however have not done this story well. There are plenty of plot holes and things that just dont make sense, very often you jump ahead in the story and sit there going WTF are they talking about.

Sarah and Noel are both used as plot dumps and have the character progression of a tin can, one moment Noel hardly remember's much the next he is talking about anomaly's, paradoxes and space time like he is a rocket scientist.

Sarah as well feels like a combination of stereotypical anime girl meets feminist ideals, she is extremely clever for a school teacher teaching grade schoolers, and really not much happens with her. Noel atleast is interesting to watch Sarah is just there for pretty factor.

the antagonist Caius is also very weak as far as FF bad guys go, you don't really dislike the guy he just comes across as an over dramatic pain in the ass who is way to easy to beat.

**Spoiler**

As for the games ending Square deserve a slap for it, as this goes down as one of my worst video game endings iv ever seen.

**Spoiler**

Maybe once some of the other character stories come out and we get a proper ending the story may seem a-little less crappy.

Gameplay

Right this is where the game shines and pretty much the reason I'm still playing it. As much as i loved the original XIII there is no denying the maps were too linear and very little explorer that is no longer the case:

Environment and Traveling

Square nailed it this time, the Histocrux which you use to move between worlds and time lines is a pleasure to use and very pretty to look at, the central hub feel really suits this game.

But now for the actual worlds... They are big, there are a few small maps e.g new Bodhum but most of them are fairly large in size and quite it's actually easy to get lost. Nothing how ever feels as open and empty as the grand planes did in XIII.

Battle

Battle in FFXIII-2 has received some tweaks the most notable being how a battle is initiated. In XIII you could see the enemies and getting a preemptive strike in need to used field items, here battle is random and you get the "mog clock" HUD that comes up when enemies appear, while in the green if attack you get a preemptive strike, if you hit an enemy with your sword you get a preemptive strike. While this works exceptionally well it does make it a-bit to easy to land them.

The actually battle system itself is the same as FFXIII with the exception of it runs somewhat smoother, you can change paradigm's mid attack and AI seamless carries on with the new role it's been assigned.

The Monster System

Probably the most interesting change to the game is the ability to recruit your monsters. Each monster has a set roll and growth path when you catch it, some grow quickly and peak quickly maxing out at lv.20 while others grow slowly but can make it all the way to Lv.99

At anytime 1 of your monsters can be in battle with you, and when you shift paradigms that monster changes to what ever monster is assigned to that paradigm. Example: Cat Sith is a Medic, Zwedborg is a Ravanger and Behemoth a commando so when selecting Diversity paradigm (Com, Rav, Med) your party is Noel, Sarah, Cat Sith but when switching to aggression (Com, Com, Com) you party is Sarah, Noel, Behemoth.

Every monster also gets a Feral link ability which is a special move that has limit break style executions. Each monster builds their own separate Feral link bar and using these effectively with your paradigm shifts is the key to getting some 5 star battles.

Monsters can also get given Adornments which don't really do much besides make them look cute (A behemoth smacking the hell out of stuff with a Carbuncle doll on it's back is cute damn it).

Choices

The game integrates the choice system like in Mass Effect/Dragon age etc... however the effects of this system are so small it's really just to give the player some ability over the reply that's said. the only thing i can see that it does effect is what adornments you get at the end of each world, in every world when you get the choices there is some times the "funny answer" which break into a scene that breaks the pace and lightens the mood.

Overall a nice addition for now, im glad they didn't try get all Mass Effect on us and have every choice have an effect because they probably would not of got it right lol.

Leveling and Equipment

The crystalium is back and feeling rather pointless to be honest. CP (crystalium points for you pedo bear fans) is obtained easily in this game and leveling up is extremely quick by the time i was half way through the game i had already maxed out my equipment slots, atb bar and mastered my ravanger & commondo roles.

So this is actually a rather boring process for Sarah and Noel atleast. The crystalium for the monsters how ever is slightly more interesting. Like you would upgrade your weapons in XIII you can upgrade your monsters with components and depending on the components depends on whats upgraded Example:

Potnent Shard would upgrade all aspects of the monster equally while using a mana shard focuses on making magic more powerful etc...

FFXIII-2 also tries to bring in Equipment weight to the game which is the most pointless attempt iv seen at it ever. You can basically get enough to wear 3 decent accessory's they minus well of left it at being able to equip 3 accessory's like the first game.

Mini-games

Something that was non-existent in XIII is now here and not always for the better. Square really managed to screw themselves on these so far there are 4 main mini-games. Slots, Card Tables, Chocobo racing and Brain Blits first up the slots.

The Slots are terrible, it is almost neigh impossible to get all the correct symbols you need to start making any money on things, i spent over 40'000 gil on one machine and i barely got passed the set of symbols you need to get jackpot (you have to get the same set like 3 times).

The Card Tables are not even active yet because guess what DLC! yes they tell you this is dlc.

Chocobo racing! the one none broken mini-game! you can enter a chocobo you have caught and use him to race against the CPU, each chocobo has set skills that determine how fast they run, how much stamina they have etc... that can be increased by leveling up your chocobo.

Brain Blitz, the reason i started to hate the end of this game. It is a series of quizes that take place in the one world. You get 4 stations and 1 hidden station that moves where you have to answer 10 question at each station.

Fair enough except that these are some of the questions:
Red or black?
Which of the following is the Academy not responsible for?
Being oblivious to small, everyday occurrences...
Mixing soda water and what prompts sweating and...
In the film' MI: Sahagin,' what does the hero use to...
Which extravagant bottle of alcohol, known as PN...

while there are questions about the actual game mechanics as well the bulk of the questions are stupid things like this that really pissed me off. 90% of the answers are things people say out at random while your walking the worlds.

and on the note of DLC

DLC Plan

Square Enix's mission to take all your money, there is so much in FFXIII-2 that feels unfinished and I'm convinced that it's due to the fact they have left it out for DLC. There is also the card tables we will have to pay for, Squares already said lightening and other key characters stories are coming via DLC and even more DLC on DLC on DLC.

Dont get me wrong i enjoy DLC just not when it should of been part of the game in the first place, their idea with the Coliseum is great especially if they start bringing in characters but the story thing for Lighting is just rubbing salt in the wound.

Overall

Overall for me personally Final Fantasy XIII-2 does a poor job at living up to the legacy of it's forefathers in terms of story but does a great job of blending a new style of game play fit for a modern JRPG.

I give the game a 7/10 and hope that Versus doesn't disappoint me as much as this did.