Final Fantasy XIII-2 takes place three years after the ending of XIII and follows Serah, the sister of the previous game's protagonist, Lightning. Serah lives in a peaceful seaside village alongside her friends and fiancé (one of the main characters from the previous game, Snow). Everything seems normal enough, but Serah can't shake the feeling that something is not right. For some reason, it seems that everyone in the village has a different memory of the events directly following the final battle of XIII. Serah remembers that her sister survived the battle and had lived with her in the village, while everyone else accepts that Lightning sacrificed herself alongside Vanille and Fang to save the falling moon Cocoon.
One night Serah is awakened violently after dreaming that her sister was trying to contact her. Upon leaving her home, Serah witnesses vicious monsters attacking her village. Strangely enough, a young man named Noel appears alongside a magical creature that can turn into a weapon for Serah. The two battle side-by-side until the monsters are pushed back from the village.
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| Attack of the Christmas light monsters! |
After things settle down, Noel explains that he has been sent from the future to assist Serah. Noel also tells Serah that her memories are, in fact, the correct ones and that Lightning is trapped in a world beyond time. It is also learned that someone or something has been messing with the timeline, making changes wherever it has deemed fit. With this knowledge, the two set off on an adventure through time with the goal of rescuing Lightning from her prison and setting the timeline back to its correct state.
This journey sends Serah and Noel to many areas of their world, and to multiple ages of each area. This time traveling is a major change from the previous game. Players can now explore multiple versions of the same location, each with its own storyline. Quests in the game force players to travel back and forth through the ages to complete them, adding and interesting layer to the gameplay. By using time gates, Serah and Noel are thrown through history and gain access to each of these areas. Players can also reset areas to their original states in case they wish to replay events that have already been experienced.
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| Yeah that totally looks like something safe to jump into... |
While visiting an area, players control one of the two main characters in third-person. Players can freely explore each area and interact with NPCs and other items. While in the previous game monsters would be visible on the map and would not attack unless you came into direct contact with them, XIII-2 has the monsters randomly appear in your general area. To be honest, I really missed the monsters constantly being on the map, and didn't like that XIII-2, in my opinion, took a step backward with by allowing random battles to reappear in the series.
While the battle system remains the same as it was in Final Fantasy XIII, Serah's natural affinity to animals adds the ability to fill your third character spot with captured monsters. XIII-2 keeps the paradigm system seen in the previous game, and each monster captured is set to a specific role. Some monsters are naturally attackers, while others are great defenders. Using these monsters' strengths alongside your own is key to successfully toppling the challengers faced across time. Each monster also has a special "feral link" attack that can be used once their affinity gauge fills. This gauge slowly builds as the monster is used in battle.
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| They have some extremely strange dog breeds on Gran Pulse... |
Leveling up is handled in the same was as it was in XIII, with battles awarding crystarium points that can be spent to increase the level of each specific role for each player. Monster friends can be leveled up similarly, though special items are spent instead of CP.
I know it's kind of a strange complaint, but I was actually quite disappointed in the variety of weapons in the game. I really enjoy collecting the next strongest weapon over and over in games, and seeing what each unique weapon looks like. I'm sorry to say that I only changed weapons maybe three times in XIII-2, as the weapons that became available always seemed to be worse than what I had purchased previously. In the end, I never saw what a large number of weapons looked like due to their lack of scaling to where I was in the game.
Another new addition to the game are various quick-time events. In many battles throughout the game these events will trigger once a boss reaches a specific amount of HP. These events require players to enter a series of button press commands in order to perform cinematic attacks - usually finishing moves - on enemies. While the attacks are interesting, the events really break the pace of battles and seem out of place.
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| Who knew it was so easy to use a bow? |
If you focus only on the main quest, Final Fantasy XIII-2 will last you around 25 hours. I went for broke and 100% completion and it took me around 70 hours to finish everything. This is much shorter than the previous game in the series, though it doesn't take away from the game's value in my opinion.
Some players may be annoyed by XIII-2's story as it never completely makes sense until the end of the game. In fact, I was completely lost until a few hours into playing. You really have to be ok with doing things without knowing fully what your goal is to enjoy the story. Even when the game ends, the story is left as a cliffhanger. In fact, the ending is somewhat abrupt and very unsatisfying. This was clearly a way to create excitement about the final entry in the XIII series.
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| This should say "buy our next game or remain disappointed." |
The whole manipulating time thing can be kind of annoying in media, but FFXIII-2 glosses over some of the more complex issues with time travel. The different timelines do however allow for the game to have multiple endings; nine in fact. After finishing the main ending, players unlock an item which allows them to explore other possible points throughout the game that could have ended Noel and Serah's journey. These endings vary from emotionally intense to just plain silly. I thought it was really cool to see where things could have ended, but I have no idea how you would find all the endings by yourself without following a guide.
I found myself going back and forth between liking this game and being annoyed by it. Overall I enjoyed it, but it definitely took some patience to proceed at some points. XIII-2 improves greatly on some issues present in XIII, but I still would only recommend the game to fans of XIII. Chances are, if you didn't like the previous game, this one is similar enough that you're still not going to enjoy it.
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