Take One Last Look At Final Fantasy XIII-2

I always wanted to play the Final Fantasy games but I never really get into it. Now I think I want to give it a shot, but can you play the new ones without have played the earlier ones?

I might be interested in a JRPG if the characters were, like, real people with real problems instead of just vessels for grandiose style and horrible melodrama.

@Rongaryen: lol I feel ya man. I still haven't finished that POS. My characters are still parked not long before the last fight... could probably finish it in a weekend, but... heh.

@Excast: Not just too Japanese, I think. Remember that Final Fantasy - the good ones - were made by Japanese, too. The problem, in my opinion, is that Square is clueless when it comes to story and character. They only know how to do technology (aka graphics). They seem to have this vague idea that the "moe" and tsundere character types are popular, but without having the slightest idea of how to do either correctly. The result is the brooding, emo, slutty, metro sexual nonsense that Square's known for these days.

Their past games had similar brooding character types, but they managed to strike a certain balance with story & character progression.

That's just the way I see it, though.

I hated FFXIII.

Everything that I've heard so far suggests this is markedly better, but we'll see. I sure as shit didn't pre-order this one thanks to the taste in my mouth that FFXIII left.

Hit Auto-Battle.

The title XIII-2 still makes me chuckle a little even after X-2.

the ff series has gotten boring the last one was really meh and this is meh with QTE wich is allso meh, the trailers and demo was meh, so why the hell am i still buying this and kinda excited about it i just cant wrap my head around it

Looking forward to this, I really did like FF13, so that with extras sounds like a good idea!

That said, I wish square would stop using the innocent girl/child story telling technique, if only because they choose the most annoying voices for them. Vanille and Hope were all but unbearable last time

I hope don't regret buying this too much.

Ever since FFX, I've found it so hard to care about and actually enjoy this series. Too bad. :/

@CottonWolf: Cheers for that!

Even that guitar riff was really Japanese....

Snow looks dumb without his hat. Put it back on.

here's my final look. hope i never see this again.

Woah, wait, was that supposed to be Snow? What did they do with his hair?

Versus 13 is becoming the new Half-Life 3.

I don't think it's fair to equate Japanese games with "crazy". The way I look at it is that it's become so obsessed with fashion that it's become a problem. Everything has to look like a shiny flashy Shibuya street. Maybe they are trying too hard to get away from FF's roots as Star Wars type stories.

And why doesn't Square have good villains anymore? Sephiroth was pretty chilling pre-KH. Kefka was a great evil clown. I actually liked Edea a lot. FFXIII had some of the vaguest antagonists in any game. There was that wannabe dominatrix librarian-lite. Then pretty boy Cid. Yaaaawwwn. The Falsies were an interesting concept but felt botched in execution.

@TorMasturba: Well, that's what I am saying. I understood those complaints that people had with XIII, but this game addresses them pretty effectively. XIII-2 is pretty open and non-linear after the first maybe...two hours?

@Addfwyn said:

@KingCrimson4life: I couldn't disagree more, this was my goty for 2011, it's actually really really good. I guess it depends what you come to RPGs for, but as far as fun gameplay mechanics, fantastic combat, and (to me) a really interesting story goes...it was great. Maybe not the best entry in the series, but that is a subject that can be debated til the end of time. I understand a lot of the criticisms that XIII got, even if I didn't always agree, but this actually addresses them really well.

The fact that most of the game is played in a really long corridor had something to do with why a lot of people really disliked it, and the story was for me just a lot of re-hashed cliche Japanese RPG archetype characters.

It's sticks and stones though, personal opinion plays heavily on how you find a game.

I really really liked Lost Odyssey and you could say the same sorts of things about that game too.

If my feelings on FFXIII are super refined down to their baser elements I would simply say that the game simply didn't pull me with it's story and the other elements bored me.

Sticks and stones.

@BigStupidFace: It's just Final Fantasy's bizarre naming convention. The mainline games are I, II, III, IV ect, then any direct sequels are 'numeral-2'. Which might make some sense if they rigidly stuck to that logic, but they don't, so... shrug.

I have absolutely no idea what was going on there. I had a quick look but couldn't find anything, but, why is it called XIII 2? Is it like how Mario 2 in the US, wasn't Mario 2?

@KingCrimson4life: I couldn't disagree more, this was my goty for 2011, it's actually really really good. I guess it depends what you come to RPGs for, but as far as fun gameplay mechanics, fantastic combat, and (to me) a really interesting story goes...it was great. Maybe not the best entry in the series, but that is a subject that can be debated til the end of time. I understand a lot of the criticisms that XIII got, even if I didn't always agree, but this actually addresses them really well.

I think this game looks better than XIII

@kollay said:

@spiderbat87 said:

I fucking hate this music. I just want Versus to hurry up.

Hasn't it been six years since they announced Versus? And full production started just started back in September? Can only hope it be the saving grace of this franchise.

I liked Type-0...

@KingCrimson4life said:

Any person with any passion for what the Final Fantasy series used to be would boycott this game.

I won't. I might like it.

Had a cool talk with my two roommates last night about the series. One liked XIII and was ready to play XIII-2, but the other was lukewarm on this upcoming game having not cared a great deal for XIII. We talked a lot about the previous games. The younger guy really got into FF around X; he was the one looking forward to XIII-2. The other guy started with VII, his favorite game. I remember having Nintendo Power's strategy guide to the first FF, getting the game, and loving it.

I certainly recognize that the franchise has had less engaging iterations for me. I wasn't the biggest fan of IX or X, but overall I've always been a fan; I like a lot of what I've seen from these trailers, and I liked XIII.

@Rongaryen said:

I should probably just buckle down and finish FFXIII.

Yes you should.

Yay moogles!

Also yay Ozzy Osbourne from Brutal Legend, the car salesman from Supercars 2, the sparkly things from Chronotrigger, Tingle, the blue diamonds from Tomb Raider, the typewriter from Resident Evil and everything else that posesses more charisma than what passes for a Final Fantasy "character".

You may essentially just be shops or save points but next to these guys you're the fucking Great Gatsby.

@spiderbat87 said:

I fucking hate this music. I just want Versus to hurry up.

Hasn't it been six years since they announced Versus? And full production started just started back in September? Can only hope it be the saving grace of this franchise.

I already preordered this about two weeks ago, but I have to say that I don't understand Square Enix releasing about 8 billion trailers.

I feel that XII had the best moogles, strictly in an, "I could buy that something like this actually exists within the setting" sense.

I already preordered this about two weeks ago, but I have to say that I don't understand Square Enix releasing about 8 billion trailers.

Take one last look before this game fades into obscurity. Any person with any passion for what the Final Fantasy series used to be would boycott this game.

It's sad that i feel this way. I was a big fan of Final Fantasy as a whole but have been dissapointed since XII.

So yeah I can believe I'm saying this but I think I'll pass on this one.

Holding X to do auto-battle and doing a few quicktime-events...no thanks.

See you for Final Fantasy XV, if Square-Enix decides to get back to the drawing board and makes me feel the magic again.

I just hope it won't take the same setup as the first one to make me care about it.

Yeah, I'll probably be getting this next week

SO TAKE A LOOK AT ME NOOOOOW

nope, not interested!

What ever happened to the moogle redesign from 12? Why would they change it back? Those were some goddamn cute moogles!

The demon for 13-2 totally won me over. The changes they've made have actually gone a long way in making it feel like a more classic FF game and I am down for that.

I don't like that they felt the need to introduce a new male character that can stand heroically in front of Serah to protect her. God forbid that a "cute" girl can take care of herself.

I also hate the smirking Sephiroth-like bad guy trope. It's so predictable and uninteresting.

I'm sorry; I'm such a downer today.

I hope this game is good, but I dunno.  Square Enix seems more concerned with what looks good these days than what is actually fun.  It looks like another flashy FF game with a metro sexual hero, a heroine who dresses as slutty as possible,, and a villain who looks like a broody male model.  Couple that with the usual JRPG story nonsense and we'll probably have another game that is too Japansane (Japanese/insane) for Western audiences.

Is that Jareth in the thumbnail?

Already?! Wow.

@Grinsa said:

@Rongaryen said:

@Grinsa said:

@Rongaryen said:

I should probably just buckle down and finish FFXIII.

That right there is why I stopped playing/attempting Final Fantasy games, it's like committing to marriage, you have to be in it for the long haul.

But, you can say that about any RPG series.

Playing for 10 hours and still not being through the tutorial is slightly extreme, even for the longest RPG's.

You're right but, every RPG you're in it for the long haul. FFXIII is just poorly paced and does the japanese thing of needing to excessively explain itself because it thinks its audience is stupid. It reminds me of the Square that thought that Final Fantasy IV was too hard for Americans so they simplified it for us dumb Americans.

And Marriage is an RPG that you never finish the tutorial for.

Yup! This is probably gonna be the only game I play in February. As long as this baby is better than XIII, then I'll be satisfied.

I fucking hate this music. I just want Versus to hurry up.

A shame the demo was so unimpressive. If impressions from the Japanese release are anything to go by, they're also seriously misleading people about the extent of Lightning's involvement, too.

@SpikeSpiegel88 said:

To repeat myself: The demo allmost completely redeemed the game to me. I have not finished 13 yet (a first for FF games) but the return of previously obvious features and some fun new ones did start reeling me in.. But!.....

What the hell is the story in this game...?

I guess we will find out what the full story is when it finally comes out, well asides from the time traveler trying to prevent the end of the world. Hmm I do like the time traveling aspect that this game is using.

i hope this does good for them, because holy shit talk about trailer after trailer, and i even 3/5 liked ff13

@Rongaryen said:

@Grinsa said:

@Rongaryen said:

I should probably just buckle down and finish FFXIII.

That right there is why I stopped playing/attempting Final Fantasy games, it's like committing to marriage, you have to be in it for the long haul.

But, you can say that about any RPG series.

Playing for 10 hours and still not being through the tutorial is slightly extreme, even for the longest RPG's.

To repeat myself: The demo allmost completely redeemed the game to me. I have not finished 13 yet (a first for FF games) but the return of previously obvious features and some fun new ones did start reeling me in.. But!.....

What the hell is the story in this game...?

@Grinsa said:

@Rongaryen said:

I should probably just buckle down and finish FFXIII.

That right there is why I stopped playing/attempting Final Fantasy games, it's like committing to marriage, you have to be in it for the long haul.

But, you can say that about any RPG series.

Jeez, how many trailers are they going to make about this game? I hope they actually spent some time on the game itself.