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| Yeul looks mysterious and cool in this picture, but thanks to her awkward walk, in the game she seems more like a cripple. Source. |
Final Fantasy XIII-2
2012
Developer: Square Enix and tri-Ace
Publisher: Square Enix
Director: Motomu Toriyama
Producer: Yoshinori Kitase
Designer: Yoshiki Kashitani
Artist: Isamu Kamikokuryo
Writers: Daisuke Watanabe, Kazuhiko Yajima and Nanako Saitoh
Composers: Masashi Hamauzu, Naoshi Mizuta and Mitsuto Suzuki
"Development of Final Fantasy XIII-2 began around March and April 2010 and lasted about one and a half years. The game was unveiled at the Square Enix 1st Production Department Premier in January 2011. Many of the key designers remained in their roles from the previous game, and developer tri-Ace was hired to help with the game's design, art, and programming. The development team wanted to exceed Final Fantasy XIII in every aspect while making the story's tone mysterious and darker than the previous game. The game builds upon the Paradigm Shift battle system used in Final Fantasy XIII and includes a less linear overall design." Wikipedia. I had some issues formatting this text since it's cut-n-paste, sosueme.
The team behind Final Fantasy 13-2 is pretty much the same as Final Fantasy 13, and it's a good thing they recognized they needed to make some changes for this next installment. The notable changes are that they contracted tri-Ace to help with programming, design, and art assets. Also, although Hamauzu did a wonderful job composing 13's soundtrack, two assistants were brought in to add some more variety in style musically to 13-2.
13-2 was better received than 13, especially by westerners, who praised the non-linearity of the game. I agree it is overall a much better game than 13, however, I still see too many warts in the combat against powerful foes. Many people thought it's story was a bit of a mess. I tend to agree, but that didn't take away much from my enjoyment of the game.
Mechanics - 13-2 definitely improves on the system set up in its predecessor. The worst parts are gone: wait time between switching paradigms, not being able to directly control more than one character, and the auto-death if your leader is knocked out. However, the prolonged battles against more powerful opponents still get frustrating and repetitive.
1. Final Fantasy 10
2. Final Fantasy 10-2
3. Final Fantasy 13-2
4. Final Fantasy 13
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| Here's another glorious battle summary from my first win in Lightning's DLC. 28 minutes... 28 minutes man! Some games I could have beaten in that time. Long battles aren't in themselves bad, but in this system you generally rinse repeat a number of actions, and hope you can do them fast enough each time to win. Not very interesting. |
Storyline - I want to give the story credit for being original, after all, whose ever heard "If you change the future, you change the past?" In the end though, verisimilitude is ruined by too much being left unexplained, and how the characters seem to know the set up of everywhere and time they go, for no reason.
1. Final Fantasy 10
2. Final Fantasy 10-2
3. Final Fantasy 13
4. Final Fantasy 13-2
Atmosphere - Not a lot is explained well in this game, but it's overall feel does put it above the undeniably silly 10-2.
1. Final Fantasy 10
2. Final Fantasy 13
3. Final Fantasy 13-2
4. Final Fantasy 10-2
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| The details of different weather effects, like the snow accumulating here, and the rain drops on the camera lens, do a lot to create atmosphere. Why is Serah wearing a swimsuit in the snow? You'd have to ask her. |
End Game - 13-2 sits below 10 because the final dungeons in that game were a lot cooler. 13-2 is above 13, because that game's series of final battles was just a hellish slog-fest.
1. Final Fantasy 10-2
2. Final Fantasy 10
3. Final Fantasy 13-2
4. Final Fantasy 13
 |
| Rain drops keep falling on my... colossal robot. Serah has a pose where she puts her hands out to feel the rain, I couldn't get it though. |
Difficulty - The extra content of 13-2 is very difficult, but the main quest isn't that bad, so it sits third.
1. Final Fantasy 13
2. Final Fantasy 10-2
3. Final Fantasy 13-2
4. Final Fantasy 10
Balance - Once again, not as bad as 13, but it still has the tendency to go from super easy to crazy hard in a flash.
1. Final Fantasy 10
2. Final Fantasy 10-2
3. Final Fantasy 13-2
4. Final Fantasy 13
Soundtrack - I'm changing the "music" category to "soundtrack", because I compare them by listening to the soundtrack and deciding which I like better, not necessarily how the pieces are used in the game. Also 13-2 has some arranged tracks that I'm not sure are in the game, and I like 'em, so it gets credit for those. This soundtrack was music to my ears (ouch... straight to the pun-itentiary), such a great variety of tunes, from orchestral, to rap, even metal. I really dug it, I could put this on in my car. In fact, I think I will. My favorite tune is probably Eclipse.
1. Final Fantasy 13-2
2. Final Fantasy 13
3. Final Fantasy 10-2
4. Final Fantasy 10
Art - As can be expected from its shorter development time from the main series titles, this one lags a little behind 13 and 10. It still looks very good, but a lot of the new levels end up being pretty boxy looking. Also, there is pretty much only one male and female face for NPCs, which is then combined with different hair colors, hair styles and clothing. I found that distracting.
1. Final Fantasy 13
2. Final Fantasy 10
3. Final Fantasy 13-2
4. Final Fantasy 10-2
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| You may have noticed I'm trying to use up my extra screenshots. Running Serah around in skimpy swimwear made me feel awkward, but... I can certainly think of worse things. |
Best Villain - He only shows up momentarily in DLC content. But, I love me some Gilgamesh, he's by far my favorite Final Fantasy character. Even in his few seconds of dialogue, he still made a bigger impression on me than Caius. He starts out by breaking the fourth wall, "I was starting to worry that you'd never download this part of the game, and I'd be stuck in digital limbo!" Quite in line with his character, I appreciated it. He also starts out with six arms full of firearms, until he realizes guns aren't his jam, and he draws his signature blades. Then, he proceeded to hand me my scarred and bleeding ass time after time, after time. As much as I love him, he sits below Yunalesca and Bart, because those characters are more developed within their respective games.
1. Yunalesca (FF10)
2. Barthandelus (FF13)
3. Gilgamesh (FF13-2)
4. Shuyin (FF10-2)
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| Hehehe... you go Gil. Source. |
Worst Villain - This one easily goes to Alyssa Zaidelle, Hope's right hand woman. First off, even when you think she's your ally she's a common trope, a bubbly, squeaky, annoying, wunderkind. Then she gives a speech about how we all just need to get along... then betrays you. F* her. As annoying as Leblanc is, I have a much deeper hate for Alyssa.
1. Yu Yevon (FF10)
2. Alyssa Zaidelle (FF13-2)
3. Leblanc (FF10-2)
4. Jihl Nabaat (FF13)
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| Yup. Source. |
Best Ally - Mog the moogle. Who doesn't love moogles? He's cute, he's funny, and very knowledgeable, kupo! He also (somewhat begrudgingly) let's you Moogle Throw(TM) him to find hidden items, nice! He's pretty awesome, I'm putting him at the top of the list.
1. Mog (FF13-2)
2. Auron (FF10)
3. Sazh Katzroy (FF13)
4. Rikku (FF10-2)
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| "Whose the moogle?" That's right Mog, you the moogle. Keep on kupo-en on brother. Source. |
Worst Ally - Chocolina. 1/10 Amusing, 4/5 groan inducing, 1/10... vomit inducing. She's still not as annoying as FF13-era Hope. I'm surprised at myself, but I'm going to put her below Dona and Beclam because they are assholes. Chocolina is at least nice and helpful.
1. Hope Estheim (FF13)
2. Dona (FF10)
3. Beclam (FF10-2)
4. Chocolina (FF13-2)
Best Enemy - Honestly, non of the enemies in this game really lit my fire all that much. The ones I find memorable are so because they were such a pain in the ass to beat. It's not a strong pick, but I'll go with Jihl Nabaat from the DLC, because Squaenix was kind enough to add a battle with her after the snub in FF13.
1. Yojimbo (FF10)
2. Dahaka (FF13)
3. Angra Mainyu (FF10-2)
4. Jihl Nabaat (FF13-2)
Worst Enemy - This may be the only time this happens, the worst battle in this game shares the best villain, Gilgamesh. He is a "super-boss" available in the DLC. I wish it hinted that he is well-nigh impossible to beat. I had battles with him that took an hour before I was killed... an hour. I'm not the only one, I saw a message online where someone was fighting him for around two hours. WT absolute F* is that? Is that poor play testing? Do they expect you to realize you're doomed if the battle takes that long? My feeling is when I hit 15 minutes I'm not about to give up, because I've already spent so much time on it. The aggravating part is he changes approaches when he gets low on hit points, by adding an attack that is almost an instant kill. So you've wittled him down for an hour, feeling okay with yourself, then he powers up and kills you in seconds. That sort of game play drives me crazy, and I can't be the only one. He tops the list, because I think I sank 5 hours into beating him. Which is oh... I dunno, only about 8 tries. I beat him finally by lowering the difficulty, but haven't succeeded on Normal.
1. Gilgamesh (FF13-2)
2. Cid Raines (FF13)
3. Guado (FF10)
4. Claret Dragon (FF10-2)
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| Gilgamesh ver. 13-2: Great villain, tuuurrible battle. |
Best Mini-Game - Once again hoping to make up for its predecessor, there are a number of mini-games in 13-2. Some relatively innocuous ones include the path finding games to resolve paradoxes. Then there is chocobo racing, and a math game involving clock hands. Sazh's DLC adds two card games, one of which is good ol' Texas Hold 'Em. I love me some Hold 'Em, however, the NPC AI isn't all that great, so it's only good for a few hours entertainment. It beats the hell out of the slot machine as a way to make casino coins, though.
1. Blitzball (FF10)
2. Cavern of the Stolen Fayth (FF10-2)
3. Hold 'Em (FF13-2)
4. Bakti (FF13)
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| "You trapped me! All night, you check, you check, you check..." |
Worst Mini-Game - This one is the worst, because I'm not even sure it qualifies as a game. It's a slot machine, with all the thrill and excitement of a real slot machine! Without the only reason to actually play a slot machine! That is, making real money. I said I'm not sure it's really a game, because as far as I could tell, the timing when you hit the button to stop the reals doesn't make a difference, it's random. The reward for hours of effort at the machine is just a fragment. Were the designers trying to make a point here, don't gamble? The only reasonable justification I can find for this is that casinos, as they appear quite commonly in the US, are illegal in Japan. So apparently there might be some demand for a slot simulator in Japan. It's still lame though, inexcusably lame. I really expected Lightning Dodging to hold on to the top spot for a long time. Way to go Squaenix, you really outdid yourselves.
1. Slot Machine (FF13-2)
2. Lightning Dodging (FF10)
3. Spherebreak (FF10-2)
4. Hide-n-Seek (FF13)
I will not dignify this abomination with a screenshot.
Side Quests - There are a lot of side quests in 13-2, and much like 10-2 they are a mixed bag as far as how worth your time they are. 13-2 slots in second because 10-2's I consider a little more interesting overall.
1. Final Fantasy 10-2
2. Final Fantasy 13-2
3. Final Fantasy 10
4. Final Fantasy 13
Overall - 13-2 I consider neck and neck with 10-2. I broke the tie by popping in 10-2 to re-acquaint myself with it a bit. 10-2 wins by virtue of it having much more variety in both character development and items available.
1. Final Fantasy 10
2. Final Fantasy 10-2
3. Final Fantasy 13-2
4. Final Fantasy 13
Average Ranking - This time, I'm reversing the scores for the "Worst" categories, so that each game is adequately punished for such depravity! It's still close to in line with my overall, however, I think having a number of the most-worsts pushed 13-2 to the bottom of the pile!
1. Final Fantasy 10 (2.06)
2. Final Fantasy 10-2 (2.39)
3. Final Fantasy 13 (2.72)
4. Final Fantasy 13-2 (2.83)
Overall, 13-2 is a good game, I'd recommend it. It still doesn't live up to the standard set by its forebears, but it is a much better game than FF13. The end game and DLC content I would only recommend for the most determined gamers, as the super-boss battles get frustrating fast.
Play Time: 93.25 hours
Write Time: 3.5 hours
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