Fear not my intrepid readers, for this blog is not dead! You could I say I got side-tracked with a side-project that I ended up dumping a lot more time into than I originally intended. The good news is... that side-project involves a game, and I'll be blogging about that soon as well!
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On to the next game, the sequel to the much maligned Final Fantasy 13. At the time it was released, interviews made it seem like Final Fantasy 13-2 was meant to "make up" for the mistakes of 13, and give the fans what they really wanted. I'm curious how Japanese fans felt about 13, but I haven't been able to figure that out. I would just peruse Japanese sites, but, alas, I don't speak the language. I wonder whether Japanese fans had the same complaints as US fans about 13, or if the new game was purely an apology to western fans. The good news is, I think the improvement is noticeable from the get go. I felt 13-2 was a much better game the first time I played it, and about ten hours into my second trip, I still feel the same.
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| The start screen. |
The story movement is a bit strange, and at times hard to follow. The story and gameplay uses time travel as it's main device. This includes an altering of the timeline. Despite Lightning being on the cover and in the intro movie, her sister Serah is the main character, controlled by the player. Lightning is now the servant of the goddess Etro in a place outside of time called Valhalla. The gods were mentioned slightly in the first game, mostly in Datalog entries, however, I still think this game isn't related thematically to the first.
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| A "Beginner's Primer" is available to catch the player up on the events of the first game. |
In Final Fantasy 13, there was very little NPC dialogue, with most messages just popping up as you walked close to an NPC. There were only a couple times in the game where the player could walk up to and choose to talk to someone. Pleasantly, 13-2 has a lot more NPC interaction. I'm certain there is more player driven NPC action in the first area of 13-2 than there is in the entirety of FF13.
13-2 also introduces a level of dialogue that is new, as far as I can remember, to the Final Fantasy series, multiple dialogue options. These are called "Live Trigger" events. It's not much, but it's a welcome bit of role-playing. The player usually only gets to pick one option, then, depending on what they pick, different items become available as "Live Trigger Rewards". So, not only is it a nice bit of role-play, but it also adds some re-playability to the game, with the ability to try different options on future play-throughs.
The game begins with Serah waking up from a dream in her village that has been dubbed New Bodhum (named by Snow). She dreams of her sister Lightning fighting with a purple-haired man in a mysterious city. Serah also has memories of seeing Lightning alive after the crystal pillar saved Cocoon, but... no one else remembers. As far as everyone else is concerned, Lightning holds up the pillar along with Vanille and Fang.
Before the events of the game, good ol' Snow was the only one who believed Serah, so he set out on a quest to find Lightning. Serah had since continued her life as a school teacher in New Bodhum. One day, as the game begins, a swarm of monsters attacks New Bodhum! In the confusion, a young man mysteriously appears, his name is Noel. Noel says he was sent to find Serah by Lightning, by way of a mysterious place called Valhalla. After a bit of convincing, Serah comes to believe Noel, and decides to join him on a wacky time-travel adventure to find her sister!
This post has been one of the toughest to write, probably because I've been away for a few months. So, in the interest of getting some momentum back, I'm going to call this good!
Welcome back friends... to This Bard's Tales!
Estimated Total Play Time: 2 hours
Estimated Time to Write Post: 2 hours
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| Serah and her companions, Noel and Mog, on the beach of New Bodhum. The icon over Noel's head indicates he can be talked to by the player. |
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| Not a lot of really different options in this one... but it does show what the live trigger screen looks like, kupo! Source |
Before the events of the game, good ol' Snow was the only one who believed Serah, so he set out on a quest to find Lightning. Serah had since continued her life as a school teacher in New Bodhum. One day, as the game begins, a swarm of monsters attacks New Bodhum! In the confusion, a young man mysteriously appears, his name is Noel. Noel says he was sent to find Serah by Lightning, by way of a mysterious place called Valhalla. After a bit of convincing, Serah comes to believe Noel, and decides to join him on a wacky time-travel adventure to find her sister!
This post has been one of the toughest to write, probably because I've been away for a few months. So, in the interest of getting some momentum back, I'm going to call this good!
Welcome back friends... to This Bard's Tales!
Estimated Total Play Time: 2 hours
Estimated Time to Write Post: 2 hours
