Quick Look: Final Fantasy XIII-2

Hopefully this looks a bit better than the first one.

Hopefully it's not as bad as the first...

I gave FFXIII 20 hours of my time and I could do no more. :(

It feels like brad didn't play enough to accurately describe this game in the quick look, kinda sad :(

xcs

Curious to see how it turned out.

As someone who liked the first one, I am glad that this one is better in almost every way.

You should really feed your pets, Brad. During the demo I got mine to 20, which was max but yours are 6, 8 and 1?

@hapgood said:

Hopefully this looks a bit better than the first one.

@VikingKong said:

Hopefully it's not as bad as the first...

Have I got some bad news for you.

Been looking forward to this because I am really unsure about it. I was burned by how generally mindless and full of crappy melodramatic cutscenes FFXIII was. I never realized how low my tolerance for JRPGs were when I couldn't separate out the cutscenes with various hours of killing monsters, exploring and other activities.

Yes, skyrim was localized for Japan.

Guys, they added a JUMP button. That's a win right there already.

First one was alright, but XIII-2 completely annihilates it in every department other than music

Can't wait til friday! This looks great.

I want to like this game, but I hate the inclusion of this new male protagonist.

Point of note: you can download and install the Japanese voices for Skyrim.

If you're going into it with an "OF COURSE it's going to be bad!" type of attitude then it's probably not going to be good.

Brad is wrong. You do not need to play XIII to play this one. The stories are fairly independent.

After Skyrim, how could I possibly enjoy running around a dead, static world with these bunch of posers? I can't enjoy this shit any more.

It is fucking painful to see them play this on the 360:( I know it's on that system, but fuck - it's a Sony franchise, as far as I'm concerned. Not to mention FFXIII ran so much better on the PS3. If Brad switched over to the PS3 SKU of XIII, why would he play XIII-2 on the 360?

At any rate, it's a shame they haven't improved their storytelling at all. The "Tetsuya Nomura" era of Square games continues, it seems. Never really realized how good Hironobu Sakaguchi was until Nomura seemingly took over every RPG at the publisher. But beyond that (and that's a major thing in an RPG), XIII-2 looks awesome. More open gameplay, better characters in Serah and Noel* (though, how hard is it to beat the cast of XIII? With the exception of Lightning, Sazh and later on Fang, who were all fine), improved combat, a few modern RPG concessions (like half-assed conversation trees; I'll take it for now, but I really wanna see Square design an RPG with that in mind from the beginning) - everything except the story and music has been massively improved.

And even then, at least the story has laid off the stupid colloquialisms. L'cie and Fal'cie are still the most obnoxious made up words in any piece of fiction in the past 2 decades - they could've just called Fal'cie "Gods" and L'Cie "slaves" or "servants". "Focus" could've just been "Mission" -- there were WORDS THAT ALREADY EXISTED for what they needed, is my point. It was just poor, poor storytelling.

It's nice to know they actually listened to feedback; I know it's hard when most dumbass Square fanboys just keep screaming, "Where's the Final Fantasy 7 remake!!?!" and "Kingdom Hearts 3!!!" over and over again. There were some serious problems with XIII, and it's good to know they heard people's legit criticisms. For the most part. Too bad team Nomura is still being the most inefficient, badly managed, "world-class" team on Earth when it comes to Versus XIII...I've never seen a developer work that badly, and yet still attempt to make a triple-A title.

I still think the combat is overrated though. Just 'cuz it's different, people seem to like it? Like when Brad says he was getting sick of random battles and turn based stuff...but you JUST KNOW he hasn't exactly gone out of his way to play JRPGs. Radiant Historia and Eternal Sonata have much better, more progressive combat than FFXIII...it's just a shame that only, like, 50 people played those games over here. Stop complaining about turn based combat though, if you're going to ignore the developers who have evolved past that stuff already.

* - seriously Brad, wouldn't you rather have a bland character than one whose really annoying or stupid, like Snow, Vanille, Hope, etc.? Link and Gordon Freeman and Master Chief are all bland. I have no problem with Noel - all he had to do is not be most of the cast of XIII to be an improvement:)

When Patrick said let's check out some Japanese game I felt kinda weird like why make the distintion? does it matter if it japanese rather than saying let's check out some Final Fantasy game.

Huh, I guess I still have some hope left that I'll go back and finish XIII eventually, because I found myself stopping the video when they said they were gonna spoil the end of it.

nothing stops the endurance run, not even the ending

@CaptStickybeard: True, it depends what you're looking for. I still really like XIII-2, though I did enjoy the more streamlined linear quality of XIII too. XIII-2 is a pretty incredible package though.

I can't say I care for the new male character and Serah isn't that interesting to me either. On the other hand, I don't think Brad is right that you should play Final Fantasy XIII because honestly, the story is a mess of jargon and FFXIII-2 seems to set up what you need to know anyway.

It is fucking painful to see them play this on the 360:( I know it's on that system, but fuck - it's a Sony franchise, as far as I'm concerned. Not to mention FFXIII ran so much better on the PS3. If Brad switched over to the PS3 SKU of XIII, why would he play XIII-2 on the 360?

@Ghostiet: I thought it was a Square franchise that has spanned numerous platforms...

@vinsanityv22: A sony franchise? I assume your first FF was 7...

FF was a Nintendo published franchise LOOOOOOONG before sony became involved.

I wonder why Patrick was so suprised that the moogle talked. Moogles have always talked.

This game isn't good enough to lick Brono's boots.

Pretty classy reload.

"I'm gonna allow Brad to spoil this..." ...aaand I'm out. I just bought FFXIII about a month ago because I've heard good things about this one (also it was 15 bucks).

50 hours into that first game I have to say it's less awful than expected, mostly because I actually like 4/6 of the main cast and their cutscene banter. Though yeah, first 10 chapters were too linear, Gran Pulse is too much running around, the "choices" the Crystarium offers are a fucking joke for the first 8 stages and a lot of enemies have too many HP. With that said, it's very flawed and I still enjoy it.

The demo of FFXII-2 really sold me on that one. Yes, the area was less linear, the Crystarium actually made you choose what class to focus on next, the third character in your party you get Pokemon-style and that one actually has a pseudo-Limit Break. Just quite a few solid improvements and new wrinkles as far as I could tell. I really hope they fixed the upgrade system though. Making Sturdy Bones and Superconductors the most effective options was fucking stupid.

I don't love the new music, but the rest looks awesome. I really liked XIII, so I'm pumped to play this!

I really can't fucking deal with how these games look anymore.

I really can't.

Fuck Aerith in FF7,

Alys in Phantasy Star IV !

FFXIII sucked and FFIX was the last main line FF game that wasn't awful.

I HAET FFXIII I NEVER PLAID IT BUT IT'S STUPID AND MAEKS MY SLIT MY WRIST AND DIE

You can put dapper hats on monsters. Suck it, other games.

@algertman: Then you haven't played XII.

Though XII is probably the only one I actually enjoyed.

@Antihippy said:

@algertman: Then you haven't played XII.

Though XII is probably the only one I actually enjoyed.

That's the only defense FF fans ever have. I played it, it sucks.

I'm excited for XIII-2, I had fun with the demo. FFXIII let me down, but I have loved almost every other (non-MMO) Final Fantasy.

@Ghostiet: Thought I quoted both, wasn't singling you out there, sorry.

Also is there some internet law where as soon as a FF game comes up, within 20 minutes it must become a conversation about which FF was the best and how all the other ones since that one have sucked? Of course, no consensus is ever made because that's pretty well impossible.

I really hate how segmented 13 and the demo for this game felt. Exploration was what made 7 and 9 great. Going to different towns at different points in the story through the world map and finding new shit was awesome. Making it not as linear on a story standpoint doesn't really fix the problem. The way it pauses everything and spells shit out to you in the dialogue choices really add to that dumb segmented feel. Even the goddamn battles are segmented by QTEs! I hated how the side quests were given in the demo as well with that full screen menu choice making everything about the world feel so incredibly artificial. Reducing everything to a menu choice really sucks, which seems to be extremely prevalent in this game based on this quick look and the demo.

"Technicolor future Cirque de Soleil" is the most apt description of post-FFVIII Nomura I have ever heard. Bravo, Brad.

@algertman: Oh don't get me wrong, I'm not really a FF fan.

12 is just the only FF game that I've enjoyed, so I guess I don't really like typical FFs.

Wait, you can buy hats for your monsters?

SOLD.

I actually really enjoyed 13, and I never even got to the chapter where the game really opens up.

I still wanna play this game, liked XIII and this looks improved so I'm buying it

Actually forgot it comes out tommorow, really liked the demo

@vinsanityv22 said:

It is fucking painful to see them play this on the 360:( I know it's on that system, but fuck - it's a Sony franchise, as far as I'm concerned. Not to mention FFXIII ran so much better on the PS3. If Brad switched over to the PS3 SKU of XIII, why would he play XIII-2 on the 360?

I'VE HEARD their capture software works best with the 360 so thats why they play all their multi platform titles on it.

Nope I'm good.

@Lucri said:

I gave FFXIII 20 hours of my time and I could do no more. :(

Me too! 20 hours of running in a line!