So I've been playing quite a bit of Final Fantasy XIII-2 the past week and I am really, really enjoying it. I'm a stickler for RPGs, specifically Japanese developed RPGs, and FFXIII-2 has really hit home with me in terms of design, gameplay, story, and replayability. I'm a huge Squaresoft/Enix fan and have played probably 80-90% of the games they've released outside of Japan. I've gotta say, in my opinion, this is the best game they've put out. One major thing to note, Final Fantasy X (to the right), was a Squaresoft game. I'm not trying to say FFXIII-2 is better than FF7 or FF10 or whatever your favorite FF game is. I'm just simply stating that I think it's the best game the merged company has put out, and that's an incredibly good thing to happen now considering a lot of game critics and fans have ruled SE down and out and out of touch with today's gamer.

If you follow Square Enix or much video game blogging/discussion at all over the past few years, you've probably noticed a lot of talk about how Square Enix might be going into a lull or that they've lost their touch. I gotta say, after how much I wanted FFXIV to succeed and seeing how much it absolutely failed, I was a skeptic for a little bit as well. The argument against FFXIII was the linearity. I saw the linearity, and could see the frustration there, but I still enjoyed the game very much and put 120+ hours into it.

Having put roughly 40 hours into FFXIII-2, I've beaten the main story line and am beginning the process of trying to unlock all of the fragments, endings, etc. Like FFXIII, the side quests and optional content makes up a higher percentage of the overall playtime than the main storyline. I was a bit disappointed to see the main storyline of the game only last 25-30 hours, however I was excited to jump right back into things and look for alternate endings and more fragments.

The main reason I think this is Square Enix's strongest game is that they finally made a Final Fantasy game that had the feel and polish of one of their classics, but also incorporated modern RPG elements. Playing the game, it just felt like Square Enix had finally figured out the path they need to start taking with RPGs and I'm hoping they can continue to pump out more that feed off of this game in the future. I'd love to see SE create a brand new IP using and building off of elements they've developed and polished in FFXIII and FFXIII-2.

What do you think? Is this a valid argument to have? Am I way off? What's your favorite Square Enix game (cannot include Squaresoft or Enix made games)?

Can't really give a final verdict yet but I'll say this is the 3rd night in a row I'm up at 5 am having just played FFXIII-2 for hours on end. Its good.

@Demoskinos: I hear ya on that. I've had quite a few late nights this week.. including tonight.

Hmm maybe.. pretty close to Lost Odyssey anyway, which imo is pretty much a SE game.
Possibly best Square-Enix game.. not best Square game.
 
 
Also that is not a Moogle

Does Nier count? if you mean actual squeenix developed games, then I'd probably say 12, but 13-2 is rather good

There are alot of defenders of XII, and I don't get it.

Is the soundtrack in 13-2 just a bunch of japanes shitmetal? It won't stop me from playing the game, but it makes me sad when the soundtrack of a FF makes me less excited.

@RandomHero666: @Ashuramaru: 12 is really good, the only thing that sucks is how shoehorned and awkward Vaan is. Otherwise it's definitely better than a few other entries in the series.

@TobbRobb said:

Is the soundtrack in 13-2 just a bunch of japanes shitmetal? It won't stop me from playing the game, but it makes me sad when the soundtrack of a FF makes me less excited.

@RandomHero666: @Ashuramaru: 12 is really good, the only thing that sucks is how shoehorned and awkward Vaan is. Otherwise it's definitely better than a few other entries in the series.

There's only 2 songs, and one is a boss theme you hear very rarely and one you only hear if you are on a red chocobo, which isn't very often either

@mwng: @Animasta: You have no idea how much better the game sounds to me now.

Loopah? Wait what, how long have you been on Giant Bomb? I feel weird now, what's up man?! 
 
Anyway, I am totally in the camp that Final Fantasy XII is the best game that has been made since the two companies merged, but I think if you asked around enough the general agreement would be TWEWY even if it isn't as popular as say the Final Fantasy brand. That said I am having a blast with 13-2 as well, I am close to reaching the 40 hour mark. It's basically sucked me up since it came out. 
 
@TobbRobb: The boss theme doesn't play that often. Some bosses have other music and in general there are not very many story related bosses in the game. I dunno, like I've said in other threads the music in this game is really random. Even the normal battle theme changes depending on the area you're in. It clearly shows that 3 people (at least according to wikipedia) worked on the soundtrack for this game.

@TobbRobb said:

Is the soundtrack in 13-2 just a bunch of japanes shitmetal?

The rest of the soundtrack is actually quite beautiful, I've even been reminded of Nier at one point... I think in Oerba. Progress further in the game and you'll sure like the sound :)

Still have to play FF XIII-2. But if we're talking about Square Enix... then it's not really that tough for a game to be better than their other creations.

FF XIII was really linear and kind of boring for 20 hours. Also, irritating characters. And personally, I hate XII.

I love a game that can be called the worst game ever by one person and the best ever by another. I'm gonna play this when I get the time.

@Zenaxzd: Hey there! Didn't realize you were a Bomb fan. FF12 your fav huh? I definitely enjoyed that game and have been telling myself I need to go back and play through it again sometime this year. I didn't give that game enough playtime when I went through it the first time.

Maybe not their best game period, but it was certainly my favourite game of 2011. SE has some pretty hefty stuff in their backlog that were tremendous games.

Though XII, on that side topic, was one of my less favourite FFs. Fun gameplay, okay story, very very weak characters.

I've heard so many conflicting thoughts on this game. I want to play it, but first I'm going to finish XIII then finish up a playthrough of Persona 4. After that, I may pick it up.

Final Fantasy XII shits all over this game. (TWEWY is also an acceptable answer)

@Loopah said:

@Zenaxzd: Hey there! Didn't realize you were a Bomb fan. FF12 your fav huh? I definitely enjoyed that game and have been telling myself I need to go back and play through it again sometime this year. I didn't give that game enough playtime when I went through it the first time.

You mean you need to go back and let it play itself for you again, o-hohoho.

Wouldn't the best Square-Enix games naturally be an Eidos game? Something like Deus Ex : Human Revolution? Just kiddin'. Carry on enjoying FF XIII-2.

Does Nier count? if you mean actual squeenix developed games, then I'd probably say 12, but 13-2 is rather good

@Seppli: It could be, if that were your favourite game. Since no two people can even agree what is the best Final Fantasy (I've heard just about every single one except maybe the original or two), I can't imagine anyone is going to be able to agree on a best SE title of all time, considering how massive that company is now.

I've always been unclear to the hate directed towards XII... I'll admit, I hated who they chose for the lead roles (should've been Balthier) and the story was incredibly meh, but I loved their reinvention of the battle-system and the musical score was top notch, as always. Sure, it played itself at times, and the quests were redundant, but at least it offered something different....

@MadMagyar92: I guess it depends what you come to the game for. You accept that the characters and story were meh, and for a lot of people, that's the biggest draw for the genre. So when those things are weak, it makes for a weak game for them. Whereas people who maybe enjoy the combat and grind more, would really love the game. It's one of the reasons FFs are so darn divisive and usually breaks down into name calling after a while.

As much as I love this game, I have to say that it does have a lot of annoying aspects to it, even putting aside the lackluster ending. The time warps can be very tedious (especially in the post-game) and those quizzes in AF4XX Academia along with the Slots (where you have to hit a certain jackpot to get the fragment) are probably two of the most frustrating parts of the game. I also realized I was still missing four or five entries in my bestiary despite having completed all of the post game content except for the last two fragments (the slot machine one and the bestiary side quest). Still, I'm 70 hours in and I have to say I'm pretty satisfied with my experience, though I have to say that I dd enjoy FFXIII more.

 I didn't give that game enough playtime when I went through it the first time.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is their best game.

12 is by far my favourite, so no.

I'll say this about the game, it does a far better job with the paradox endings than Chrono Trigger did.  By allowing you to simply close and rewind time gates, going back and getting the alternate endings was a breeze.
 
Also Noel Kreiss was a far better character than I had expectations for.  That and his theme is probably one of the best in the franchise.  Considering the area that it plays as back ground music, fucking christ.

*cough* no *cough*

if we are going final fantasy id say 12 or 6

Square overal id say TWEWY or vagrant story

published would be deus ex or Nier

I'm not ready to call it the best Final Fantasy, but XIII-2 is pretty damn good. Gotta love huntin' fer Chocobos ('specially the Blue ones).

while 12 still stands as my all time favourite, ff13-2 is definitely up there and far better than 13. Although i did enjoy 13, i hated the fact that you had very little control over the leveling system. I used to love leveling up my characters well beyond the recommended level. i'm glad square has decided to turn the autopilot off in this game.

@Turambar: Being able to open and close gates with Time Reversal is huge.

@snakefry said:

while 12 still stands as my all time favourite, ff13-2 is definitely up there and far better than 13. Although i did enjoy 13, i hated the fact that you had very little control over the leveling system. I used to love leveling up my characters well beyond the recommended level. i'm glad square has decided to turn the autopilot off in this game.

One of my biggest complaints about 13 and 13-2 is how restrained you are with leveling stats and abilities. In these two games, all you really get to do when leveling up is head to the Crystarium and spam the button until you have no CP left. It's something I hope SE changes in future FF's. FFX was great. I absolutely loved the Sphere Grid.

@Zenaxzd: Yeah, I noticed the large node/small node stuff, but it's very minuscule and it's still just a static increase of stats that the game decides for you rather than you deciding if you want your HP/Atk/etc to grow by X number.

I mean I get why they need to do it. The whole paradigm battle system tends to require that you have set classes with set abilities. Don't get me wrong, I love the paradigm shift battle system. It's just I don't feel like I'm actually tailoring my characters in a different fashion than anyone else anymore like you did pre FF13.

@TobbRobb: Yeah, I could really do without the heavy metal for the boss battles. Terrible, terrible thing to have in Final Fantasy game. The rest of the game's music makes up for it though. Really great stuff, and a lot brought over from FFXIII which is perfectly fine with me.

Not to disparage FFXIII-2, but I submit FFTA-2 as the best game since the merge.

@Loopah:

Well, I'm assuming we're talking about games Square-Enix developed and didn't publish (because they've published better games then developed). I looked and I think you may be forgetting one game; Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (http://www.giantbomb.com/tactics-ogre-let-us-cling-together/61-32143/).

@RandomHero666 said:

Hmm maybe.. pretty close to Lost Odyssey anyway, which imo is pretty much a SE game. Possibly best Square-Enix game.. not best Square game. Also that is not a Moogle

I want to say that LO is moreso a Square game, considering that most of the brains behind it is Sakaguchi and his old crew, who largely left Square by the early 2000s IIRC.

I really want to pick this up, but I just don't have the time for a JRPG right now.

@JasonR86: You're correct, I do mean SE developed games only. You got me on Tactics Ogre for PSP, I have not played that game and it's killing me that I haven't. I've heard it's amazing, and I hadn't thought about that game.

I find absolutely nothing interesting about the world or fiction surrounding FFXIII and its sequel, but I do think there is an important lesson to take away from this. See below.

@RandomHero666 said:

Also that is not a Moogle.

I liked FF13. But i cant wait to play this one hearing how everyone says its so much better. Payday cant come soon enough!

@BrockNRolla: Yeah, whoever captioned it got it wrong and I'm too lazy to find a new pic. Gone!

@Loopah said:

@BrockNRolla: Yeah, whoever captioned it got it wrong and I'm too lazy to find a new pic. Gone!

Huzzah!

Just Cause 2 is the best squeenix game.