Here's Everything You Need to Know About Final Fantasy XIII-2

Are you ready to ride this chocobo?

Yup that guy read off the script he was handed.

@Nomin: Absolutely. Nothing in Final Fantasy means anything anymore. I don't think I've played any game as spectacularly EMPTY as FFXIII. Back in Square's heyday, the simplicity allowed them to highlight small details.

I don't think I've seen any posts by the FFXIII apologists that highlight the game's strengths. Those of us who are over FF have been able to systematically detail our gripes. Lack of identifiable and interesting characters. Lack of customization (all characters end up the same). Repetitive battles. Lack of interesting antagonist. Boring story (seriously, do any of us REALLY remember the convoluted plot?).

And of course we get friggin willing-victim-of-statutory-rape Serah because Lightning is such a withered old crone.

But......I'll still defend FFXII as a flawed masterpiece dammit. If it wasn't for Vaan and the compromised vision, it would have been better.

@ZeekDaGeek said:

Is this a game trailer or are you pitching a game to me?

what do you think trailers are?

"I am listing the features of this game by reading a press release out loud. These features are standard fixtures in most modern role-playing games, but they are the primary selling points of this game. We worked hard on it. Please buy it. "
 
It does look better than FFXIII, which pretty much played itself. But that's a rather low bar. And whose BRILLIANT idea was it to include QTEs?

I love the description for this video "This is my voice. I am talking to you with it" lmfao! they should of got a girl's voice for this that would of be better : )

I liked it... strange I know. But there's no bullshit CGI, no glossing over the actual game parts of the game. Just the facts. That's what I want, that's what I got.

Paradigms ruined FF for me. The battle system seemed like, "pick a strategy type then we'll fight the battle for you." All I felt like I was doing was switching between paradigms then using the auto action BS. I didn't feel like choosing my spells would have helped or done anything extra. It was almost like the entire game was just watching a movie. I didn't even finish it. I got to Gran Pulse and just decided I was done with the FF series forever. This series has lost what made it great and I doubt we'll ever see another FF game that can compare to 6-9 ever again. btw fuck Patrick for saying 10 was better then 9. 10 was the beginning of the end for this series.

I dunno, I liked 13, and this looks better.

Man, I sure do hate Final Fantasy.

I waited to buy 13. Got it for $16 and still felt it wasnt even worth that. This looks even worse. It's not even about having towns or NPCs to talk to. It's about unique characters. All of them feel the same to me. XII just infuriated me. I could give two about XI or XIV, don't want an MMO experience. They have strayed so far from what the games used to be.

They will learn the harsh was, the same way that Sony (the whole corporation) learned, that your name will only hold value for so long if people don't feel they are getting what they paid for.

Final Fantasy art design has far surpassed Rococo indulgence. Yes, welcome to half a decade ago, but I'd go back further to prefer the sprites abstraction.

I can't even suffer through this...

'Smash hit' might be a little over generous.

And good, the one thing final fantasy was missing was quick time events.

When a feature of a game is "towns with npcs you can talk to" you know you fucked up.

Jesus Christ. Put it out of it's misery already.

13 year old looking girls in thigh-high stockings, creepy. Also, I had no idea what that guy was saying, maybe it makes sense in Japanese?

That voice is killing me.

I was interested in FF XIII-2 (as someone who hasn't played FF XIII-1). I don't really know much about FF XIII but I am itching to try a current FF out.

This video made it seem really confusing though and now I am not sure what to think :(

It's like they tried to emulate the Red Dead Redemption trailers but failed miserably. Actually, maybe it's a perfect fit to the tween angst and airport bookstore melodrama typically found in a Final Fantasy game.

@nrh79 said:

@bossman said:

Okay Square, you have officially jumped the shark. Who thought that adding quick time events and monster capturing to this game was a good idea?

I don't know what your opinion of past Final Fantasy games has been, but others had similar quick time-like events. VIII had several instances of this, so it's not necessarily a new idea.

XIII-2 looks great, and I appreciated the straightforward delivery of the video.

Yeah i mean it was a little cliche... but i actually really like the changes and updates! Summons that level up and get captured in tandem hasn't really been seen since like ff8.

@Nymphonomicon said:

@Excast said:

Lost me at "smash hit"

Yeah, I think calling that game even a minor success is pushing it...

I'm pretty sure they can call a game that sold over 6 million copies (which was their goal) a smash hit.

guys i'm trying to sell you this game, but if you don't want it, that's cool too

i mean whatever, i don't really care, i'm just a disembodied voice

Wow, could he sound any LESS excited about the game he's selling?

Jesus, that was....terrible...

It's not on rails.

Just fucking call them what they are. QUICK TIME EVENTS

After the disaster that was Final Fantasy XIII, I'm still not sure. I'll give them credit for the fact they've clearly added a lot of new features to the game, but a lot of it looks like a bit 'iffy' as to whether it will actually be an improvement or a tacked on/ annoying feature. I like that they have finally added NPC's that you can talk to. Final Fantasy games have always been about adventuring vast worlds and towns and interacting with individuals. FF13 was severely lacking in this. One thing that does bother me about FF13 is the character's outrageous outfits. I know that a lot of FF games have fantasy-styled outfits for the characters, but they are usually based around town culture, like in FFX when all the Blitzballers on Besaid Island have those yellow overalls, or the distinctive appearance of Al Behds. In this one there doesn't seem to be any real explanation as to why they look how they do, other than just trying to make them look really obscure (Lightning I think is somewhat in uniform of what I remember from playing 13, but other than that...). I really wasn't sold on the linear world of 13, but JRPG was always my favourite genre until this generation, and I am desperate to see it turn a corner. Please let this game not suck balls.

Ok, I'm sold. Despite the girly-boy & girly-girl main characters, moogles and all the shit thrown in there to appease people who just want the same old tired FF formula, this reminds me enough of the FFXIII I love.

I do hope that it's way harder or has a difficulty setting this time around, though. Only like the top 5 toughest enemies in FFXIII (all outside the main quest) actually required you to use the paradigm shift to it's extremes, I think.

Does anyone know if this will have random battles? Those are almost as bad as QTEs.

They're not quick time events, they're Quick Reflex Button Prompts (tm).

The English voice work in this is pretty typical of what Japanese marketing finds to be professional - evenly paced, precisely enunciated dialogue. Nuances of inflection or charisma get in the way of presenting information in a clear and orderly fashion, after all.

As for the game, Final Fantasy left me behind a long time ago. They just kept saturating the soil of the series until it stopped holding water. Now it's a long, tiresome acrobatic light show featuring genderless characters with translucent skin who are only somewhat identifiable by their ridiculous clothing and absurd weapons. To be fair though, my sensibilities have grown too western to enjoy Japanese kitsch like I once did. I'm sure plenty of other people are happy with what Final Fantasy is.

4.02

The Wiki needs a page for "Do what you want gameplay."

It's completely understandable why they made this video. There was so much ill will towards their last official FF outing that they had to explain why this one wasn't complete and utter Jank. In my opinion, they should put out a lengthy demo featuring all the changes they included so that we can see for sure that it's not just a bunch of b.s. Quick time events? C'mon...talk about 2 steps forward and ...'hit A now' ...'failure'...2 steps back. After the abysmal pile of unplayability that was FF14 (necessitating a complete re-do of a recently launched MMORPG) and the less than stellar reception of FF13, Squeenix needs to rethink somethings if they want to remain viable as anything more than a publisher of games. Especially if they want to hold onto any fans they had of the good FF days who are quickly losing their patience with their once favorite jrpg developers.

Never reading the comments section of Final Fantasy coverage ever again.

Of course! QUICKTIME EVENTS!! That TOTALLY makes up for lackluster gameplay, right?? I mean what is more thrilling than "Press X to see your character do a bunch of crazy stuff that looks like a whole lotta fun that you wish you were having, but aren't. OH WAIT! HERE'S ANOTHER ONE! Oooo but this time, you need to press B! Woaaaaahhhh depth!"

Also, holy fuck, the UI in that combat system looks god-fucking-awful.

@bossman said:

Okay Square, you have officially jumped the shark. Who thought that adding quick time events and monster capturing to this game was a good idea?

I don't know what your opinion of past Final Fantasy games has been, but others had similar quick time-like events. VIII had several instances of this, so it's not necessarily a new idea.

XIII-2 looks great, and I appreciated the straightforward delivery of the video.

W-w-w-wait... they dress Lightning up in this hot new armor, and then have us play this little bony ass twig instead? Shouldn't she be making babies with Snow or something? Everything else sounded alright, but that one thing is a serious disappointment.

that was way too much information...fuck

This seems like 1990s style advertising at its finest. "Here's what this game has in it! So many things you may or may not like, but it's there so I'll read them off a list! Aren't you excited?!" God, I'm jaded...

@paulunga said:

@Lazyaza said:

Such innovative things like, npcs you can talk to, quicktime events, and cinematic gameplay. It saddens me how much time and money still gets wasted on this franchise, especially when they could be making something like a new Front Mission. God what I would give for a new Front Mission. Fucking Square.

They released a new Front Mission last year. But I'm assuming you want a turn-based strategy game, not a shitty Armored Core.

Oh yes I am well aware of that.... "game".

Stupid VoiceOver aside this looks pretty good. I'm excited! Oh and thanks iPhone for inter capping voice over.

Is this video really necessary? When (or if) we played this, wouldn't we learn this in the game and through tutorials?

@poisonmonkey: The answer is "WHO CARES?" with a dash of "If you were first, did you want an award for that?"

Wow!!! They freaking solved it!! Quick time events!!! That is exactly what final fantasy needed!! Wow square Enix u make the most intelligent decisions!!!!!!!! HA!!

Wait. So instead of playing Lightning who was the more stronger of characters you play as her sister that I didn't bother caring about in the first place from the first game?

I think the best things about 13 were the combat and visuals and while those seam to be present still here I can't help but think it's still going to have another lack luster story.

I also found the crystalarium to be well...pointless. Instead of auto leveling your character in every other FF now you can continue to manually do it yourself in a fancy looking menu. Sigh.

Well I say kudos to those who are interested in this. I wish I could be, I do. However I think SquareEnix has lost me on this series. Bummer really.

@Nymphonomicon said:

@Grissefar said:

@Nymphonomicon said:

@Excast said:

Lost me at "smash hit"

Yeah, I think calling that game even a minor success is pushing it...

It's sold more than both of the Batman games.

I refuse to believe that. Unless Final Fantasy is Japan's Call of Duty...

Hate to tell this (unless someones done it already) but its true. People in Japan basically have a national holiday whenever a Final Fantasy game (proper one mind you) gets released.

Though to be honest I'm not too sure if that's still true today.

Very interesting. It would appear that they threw in a lot of things absent in XIII that seemed to disappoint a lot of fans of the franchise. It's interesting because while it shows that they did listen to the complaints, I can't help but wonder how that may have effected the creative vision of this game. Maybe many of these things shown in the trailer were tacked on and were not originally intended to be present.
 
 I'm looking forward to playing this.

Because playing as Lightning's prepubescent sister was what everyone wanted from the first game. "This is okay, but I want to play as that dumb 13-year-old that's totally not annoying at all." -- Everyone, probably.

@Grissefar said:

@Nymphonomicon said:

@Excast said:

Lost me at "smash hit"

Yeah, I think calling that game even a minor success is pushing it...

It's sold more than both of the Batman games.

I refuse to believe that. Unless Final Fantasy is Japan's Call of Duty...