1. Wumbmasta

   9

   This game isn't a masterpiece... But it is still fantastic. More open, good story, unique soundtrack, and amazing gameplay make this game great. A huge improvement on xiii and the whole feel of the game is much more loose and open while still having a good story (which is very hard to do btw, just ask skyrim and its amazing world and addictiveness but horrible plot). I don't understand all the people who give this game crap. I understand you want final fantasy to be like it used to be but you can't just let that cloud your minds from seeing when square has put out yet another great game. You won't find this game as one of the final fantasy classics, but this game is still very good and shows squares determination to make the game that the fans want to play.… Expand

   • Helpful? 12 of 24 users said Yes.
2. sandlefoxiv

   8

   For a sequel, this is about as big, epic, and robust as it can get. Taking locales and ideas they most likely already finished for the first game and instead using them as a second-game and basis, a lot of this game feels the same. However, as soon as you're ripping through the time-line and jumping to different dates and locales in the future--and past--that's soon easily forgiven and you find yourself having an absolute blast on this journey through time. The paradigm battle system is perfected and you can hunt down monsters and beasts to be your partners as you piece together the different futures and timelines you create. Without the previous story, it loses a bit of it's soul, but this still stands a bright point Square Enix has finally turned too--and should continue to do so in the future. Well done.… Expand

   • Helpful? 3 of 7 users said Yes.
3. 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? 7 of 9 users said Yes.
4. 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? 10 of 13 users said Yes.

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