Final Fantasy XIII-2 really goes ‘back to the future’ for the series in multiple ways. Firstly, this is done by taking the franchise back to a more freeform play style and out of the corridors, while throwing in a lot more variety and discoveries. Conservative estimates say that the game has at least twice the content of its predecessor. Secondly, the game has an exceedingly elaborate time travelling plot that will surely get players and aficionados arguing about the logic and implications. It just might be that this was the game that Final Fantasy fans were waiting for.
No overworld but plenty of stunning vistas.
Set three years after the conclusion of Final Fantasy XIII, and the supposed disappearance of Lightning, Vanille and Fang, Final Fantasy XIII-2 shows Lightning depicted as what looks like a valkyrie, battling a mysterious figure named Caius in an unknown location. During the battle, a mysterious youth named Noel Kreiss drops in and is sent by Lightning back to the current time to find Serah, Lightning’s sister. Noel is apparently from a future 700 years after Serah’s time, and has been desperately searching for a way to fix his decimated time period. Noel and Serah make up the protagonist duo to the game, and set off on a journey, which if a particular menu is anything to go by, spans a ridiculous time span and has the players travelling through multiple time periods depicting the tenuous struggle for survival between the Cocoon and Gran Pulse.
While having sampled about six hours of the plot so far, it feels as if the surface has been barely scratched, as players are sent on a fairly expansive journey that seems to span many time periods and around 700 years. Serah is trying to ‘jump’ to meet Lightning in Valhalla and discover the whereabouts of her beau, Snow, while Noel is looking to see if there are any clues for saving his future. Along the way, the pair must solve a variety of anomalies that seem to have appeared out of place in each time period that they visit. Since this is a direct sequel, players who haven’t experienced the first game might feel left out… but the developers have added a ‘Beginner’s Primer’, which actually turns out to be an excellent and concise summary of the previous title. That way, new players aren’t totally in teh dark with what happened before and who the characters are that are reintroduced.
Confused yet?
It’s one of those things that will either make much more sense when you actually start playing it, or you’ll be completely put off, because the anime-inspired complexities are not the latest anti-terrorist war dudebro propaganda title. Those who belong to the latter, well, why are you reading this anyway? As mentioned from the outset though, FFXIII-2 does look to go and add back a lot of the things that had made the series successful in the past. The battle system, for all intents and purposes, is still pretty similar to its predecessor. This actually works pretty well, as the battles are quick and often require your full and undivided attention. So there is less to be said on the old, and more on the new.
The battle system isn’t untouched though, as many boss battles have added quick time events, referred to as Cinematic Action events. These are mainly attached to dealing extra damage and end-of-battle bonuses, so they won’t directly affect your results in the battle. The play time showed they worked reasonably well and kept the player on their toes. Furthermore, you will randomly acquire monsters to battle alongside you, and form new sets of Paradigm combinations, referred to as ‘Paradigm Packs’. This actually works pretty well, and if put together properly, will solidify your combinations for each Paradigm, which as players from before will know, are vital to success in battle. The demo difficulty curve was a little erratic, though we were informed that this will be smoothed for the final release.
Cinematic action will keep you on your toes.
While the game has been taken out of the corridors, there doesn’t seem to be much of an overworld (and frankly, this is for the better) and the early levels are rather basic in terms of their objectives and discoveries. However, the game progression doesn’t have to be entirely linear this time. Once you open the time portals in each time period, you’ll be allowed to head back and explore worlds that you didn’t fully explore before. Each will have secrets, discoveries and some will have extra story as you revisit them. Hopefully, the fetch quests are confined to the early hours of the game. And so far, the inclusion of the chocobo as a faster means of transport is quaint but doesn’t really seem that necessary… hopefully latter levels are larger and more justified.
Given the more freeform approach, enemies are now somewhat random. When they appear, you will have till the ‘Mog Clock’ strikes red to make your choice of action; you can either strike it to initiate to battle or try to run away. If you strike quickly enough, you’ll start off with a bonus, such as a better stagger. If you are too slow or fail to run away, you will start at a disadvantage. Furthermore, as you go along solving problems across time, you’ll come across ‘Temporal Rifts’ that act like giant puzzles. Solving these will help resolve issues within a particular time period. Other additions to the game are more of the ‘under the hood' variety, such as differences to the levelling systems and the additions of costumes and what not, which will no doubt be scrupulously picked apart by the fans upon the game’s release. As much as you wish there were some better interface features such as a history log, there are useful features such as the brief re-run of events when you get back into the game.
Why....hello there!
Somewhat unusually for the franchise, Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a direct sequel to last year’s divisive title that has had a lot of effort put into it and has taken a lot of feedback. It’s back to the future; from the perspective of the gameplay, which is much more ‘traditional’ and conducive to the exploration that many players have loved, and the story, which is an ambitious time-travelling epic filled nicely by Norse mythology (and terrible dialogue). It just might manage to win over the fans if it can continue to build on the crescendo started in the first six hours. However, it has a lot to cover if it’s to retake the top JRPG spot, especially after the impact of Xenoblade Chronicles.
I'm looking forward to the western release!
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