1. DnDcHick

   7

   The Final Fantasy series has been on a slow, steady decline since FFIX almost brought Square back to the elements that made the franchise great to begin with. The pinnacle being VII, everything after has been a slog, as more and more time and energy has been pumped into graphics, while the freedom, gameplay and most of all, STORY has taken a backseat. XIII-2 is only the second numbered sequel, and while I certainly don't think it is a great game, by any means, it at least shows that someone, somewhere inside SE is listening and trying to get the series back on track. I would suggest anyone who has an interest in this series give this one a go, if for no other reason than to give incentives for more risk taking in future installments.… Expand

   • Helpful? 6 of 10 users said Yes.
2. muzziklover

   6

   This game is better than XIII but the damage has been done. Final Fantasy XIII is one of my most hated games ever and in my opinion, the worst FF game ever. This sequel is what XIII should have been but the problem is that this game should have been XIII when XIII was released and instead we got the same horrible taste with salt and flavourings added to it for slight improvement. First, the good stuff. The battle system is more involving and intuitive, there is more emphasis on exploration and random encounters are tactical. Overall, it completely improves on the gameplay from XIII. Now for the bad stuff and it's a very major one: the story. It is so contrived, so depressing and so poorly written and the time travelling aspect actually makes it worse and yes, the writing is as bad as XIII. Most of characters from XIII are back and are annoying as ever but at least we only have to follow Lightning's sister, Serah, who I thought was the most boring character out of the cast but it is sort of an improvement. Did XIII-2 redeem XIII and the whole franchise? Hell no. Even though it is better than XIII, it isn't enough to save the Final Fantasy franchise because it is still hanging on XIII's shadow and that's not good but it is one small step in the right direction at least.… Expand

   • Helpful? 6 of 8 users said Yes.
3. OspreyB

   4

   Although I'm a long time fan of the series, I don't want to let my bias affect what I say about this game, so I'll review it from a neutral standpoint, as if it were not part of the Final Fantasy series. I have to say that I'm disappointed with FFXIII-2. Whether or not the game is well made, beautiful, interesting, or unique, it lacks the most important component in a video game. It just isn't fun. The graphics are fantastic, but the exploration feels like a chore. The area map is difficult to access, and doesn't feel accurate, and the setting is overly dramatic and uninteresting. The game failed to capture my attention. There are sidequests and missions that can be picked up from NPCs, but as far as I could tell there was no way to track any objective outside of the main storyline, making these sidequests frustrating to deal with and minimally rewarding. I'm sure there are many substories and special items that I missed because I just could not bring myself to go after the sidequests. That aside, even just wandering about in the game was never enjoyable due to constant chirpy quotes from annoying, unrelatable, characters. The music isn't anything special either, so turning off the dialogue volume doesn't solve this problem. Now on to the feature that should be FFXIII-2's selling point: the battle system. I was actually excited to try it out. Again, I was disappointed. You can select paradigm setups in the menu outside of battle, which I found to be enjoyable, but using them in battle is not as rewarding or fun as it should be. For the most part, you select what role you want each character to fill, and then you only have control as one of them in battle, and you choose a chain of moves from a list and then wait. The other charactes run around and do their job, healing the players or doing damage to the enemy. It's nearly impossible to pay attention to them, because the battles are a mess of spinning swords, flashing numbers, and explosions. It's all cinematic, you could select a paradigm that gives the party one attacker and one healer, and then put down the controller and go do something else. You'll eventually win. There's no skill, logic, or thinking involved whatsoever. Your input is completely insignificant to the outcome, and the battles drag on. It can take upwards of 5 minutes to win some of the early battles in the game. I found myself avoiding most enemy encounters, although in other similar games, I tend to search out battles to try out my parties new techiniques and strategies. FFXIII-2 ultimately failed in this regard. Nothing about the game captured my attention or was any fun at all, aside from setting up characters in the menu that I never used. All in all, whether you're a long time fan or a newcomer, I can't bring myself to recommend this game. Rent it or play the demo. Maybe you'll find something you like, but I honestly can't believe this game has receieved any ratings above a 6.… Expand

   • Helpful? 9 of 12 users said Yes.

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