Author's Note:Hey everyone, this episode has been delayed for several reasons, the least of which include me getting some of the worst writer's block I have had in a while. Nonetheless, when I finally buckled down to write the second episode, I realized it would be best to break apart the first and second half of the game into two parts instead of smushing all of the game's insane story into a single episode. So, in other words, you can expect at least another episode of my series on Final Fantasy XIII-2 by tomorrow. If you missed the previous episode, you can use the link below to get caught up with what I said about the game's mechanics and systems!
Part 8: Have I Mentioned How Serah Is A Far Better Protagonist Than Lightning
As noted in the previous episode, I love how Final Fantasy XIII-2 starts. In that post, I mentioned I appreciated the QTEs and how they clue you into the game's thematic changes from Final Fantasy XIII. The game effectively conveys its wildly rambunctious tone and pace within minutes. Nonetheless, I want to talk about what I think is one of the clearest examples of why Final Fantasy XIII-2 is an objectively better game than Final Fantasy XIII: its characters. Without a shadow of a doubt, Serah is a better character than Lightning. From the start, the game has two overarching themes related to Serah. The first is that she is one of the few people who recall the world of Final Fantasy XIII before paradoxes created an alternate reality. In the world of Final Fantasy XIII-2, Lightning is "dead," which is a pretty incredible mic drop moment. Unlike everyone around her, Serah recalls celebrating Fang and Vanille saving Cocoon instead of XIII-2's continuity wherein Lightning makes that sacrifice. By comparison, what does Final Fantasy XIII accomplish with Lightning as a character other than hammer home the point that she wants to convert her crystalized sister back into a person?
The other overarching theme is that Serah is secretly a sorceress, much like Yeul. The story eventually reveals that she has a connection to the goddess Etro and Serah's efforts to restore reality are slowly killing her. Now, I'm not going to say that Square-Enix plagiarized Cardcaptor Sakura, but I will imply that the comparisons write themselves. Nonetheless, Serah's two major storylines build a sense of mystery and add some much-needed stakes to the overall narrative. Again, compare that to Lightning, a character whose motivations I think most of you would struggle to remember. Yes, she wants to save her sister. However, do you remember anything else about her and her motivations for working with her teammates? I also feel like highlighting the strength of the interplay between Serah and Noel. The two characters we control naturally inquire about their pasts and organically fill in worldbuilding blanks left unresolved from Final Fantasy XIII. Compare that to Lighting in XIII, who would silently stand next to Hope while he moaned about his mother.
Likewise, when you start exploring the Historia Crux, Serah evolves as a character. At the start of the game, she maintains her bubbly personality. However, that subsides as the darker themes of the game start to get into full motion. Regardless, that transition is slow and works in stops and spurts. The first "true" level in Final Fantasy XIII-2 happens in the Bresha Ruins, and it serves as an opportunity for the player to get their feet wet and decide what version of Serah they want to roleplay as in their playthrough. I mentioned it in the last episode, but I am not interested in 100%-ing this game and elected to have Serah respond to every person and dialogue prompt with sass and sarcasm, and I don't regret a goddamn thing. Nevertheless, even in this pseudo tutorial level, you encounter a handful of NPCs who will transform and grow older before your eyes as you progress through the Historia Crux.
That leads me to one of the lesser reported recurring themes in Final Fantasy XIII-2. Every level in the game clues you into different parts of the story. For example, upon entering the game's third required location, the Yaschas Massif, Noel and Serah discover the city darkened thanks to the presence of the fal'Cie Fenrir. In Final Fantasy XIII, the game could never decide what it wanted from the fal'Cie. They actively impeded Lightning's progress during its opening act and visibly asserted their presence. However, by the game's mid-point, they fall to the wayside to make way for Barthandelus and whatever grand conspiracy Orphan was trying to enact. With Final Fantasy XIII-2, the mythological monsters are rampaging because they are out of place in the world's messy continuity. However, to return to my earlier point, the third location provides Hope's introduction and kicks off Noel's Farseer plotline. Every level does something to progress at least one element of the story. It's not a groundbreaking idea. However, it's a better alternative to Final Fantasy XIII. A game, by all metrics, that has levels and characters that exist for the sake of it.
If me positively talking about Final Fantasy XIII-2 is surprising to you, then buckle up because I have another hot take that will blow you away. I will discuss this point shortly, but I don't hate Noel's backstory. If anything, it makes the connection between Noel and Caius explicit, which is to the game's benefit. Final Fantasy XIII-2 is one of the FEW Final Fantasy games with a communicated villain that sticks with you from beginning to end. I will agree with the general sentiment that Caius's motivations and actions are often over the top and convoluted. Trust me; we will talk about the game's ending next time. Despite that, when examined under the lens of Final Fantasy XIII, Noel's attempts to end a vicious repeating cycle, and Caius's "I want to kill you" attitude, are refreshingly coherent.
If anything, the Farseers' storyline finds an exciting way to tie in Vanille and Fang and their experiences on Gran Pulse to Final Fantasy XIII-2. I feel people who claim that they dislike how Final Fantasy XIII-2 aggressively discards Final Fantasy XIII's themes overlook the fact that Noel's whole deal feels like a soft reboot of Final Fantasy XIII but in a more cohesive manner. If you liked Final Fantasy XIII, I'm curious why Noel's quest to "rewrite destiny" isn't viewed as an improved retread of what XIII attempted with Vanille. The overall ideas are similar, and they share the same plot points. Yet, I think we are dancing around the single best part of Final Fantasy XIII-2: Caius. Caius is the best!
Part 9: Caius Is One Of The Better Modern Era Final Fantasy Villains!
As mentioned earlier, when you first meet and talk to the game's matured version of Hope, it starts to pull the curtain back on Noel and Caius. Both are Farseers that once protected a sorceress named Yeul. This sorceress supposedly predicted the "Day of Ragnarok" and attempted to catalyze the world's end by inciting a riot. In the subsequent level, Serah confronts Noel, who, upon seeing what he assumes to be Yeul, beckons for her to stop Caius from doing evil shit. Caius remarks that Noel is seeing an echo of the Yeul Noel is familiar with and laments that if he doesn't burn everything down to the ground, all of the alternate Yeuls will meet the same unfortunate fate as the original. I know that that last sentence is a bit of a mouthful, but it is also something we can all agree is quintessential Square-Enix. This point, again, returns me to the issue of my not understanding the hatred for this game. What you get here are hyper-charged characters who communicate their aspirations clearly with a plot that repeats much of what we have come to recognize as "typical" Square-Enix storytelling. Yeul being a sorceress trapped in alternate timelines is a fascinating Final Fantasy VIII callback, and there's an element to Caius that pines for Siefer and Kuja.
Speaking of which, let's talk about Caius. Caius wants to kill Noel and Serah, and you almost end up rooting for the guy for the lengths he goes to make this happen. Likewise, when you discover that he wants to burn everything down to the ground because Noel fucked up, there's an element to him that feels like a throwback to Final Fantasy villains of old. His "If I can't have it, no one can" attitude reminded me of Kuja's character break at the end of Final Fantasy IX. While Kuja is a far better character, Caius's driving character motivations are similar. Nevertheless, Caius's serious and sometimes under pronounced nature makes him feel different from the rest of the game's cast, allowing him to shine better during cutscenes. Also, as you progress the story, he becomes less of a mustache-twirling villain and more a figure of sympathy. For example, his claims of not wanting to be a person without freedom of choice are entirely understandable.
I didn't even mind Caius's Super Sentai-looking armor decorated with purple feathers. It is a very "of the era" Square-Enix character design. Still, when you consider that the guy's actual attacks are essentially the ultimate moves of Kamen Rider villains, with him announcing them as a good Kamen Rider villain should, I thought it was more than justified. It is also worth mentioning that the collectible fragments you can find strewn about the multiple timelines address Caius's backstory even further. You discover that Caius has insecurities about a battle he almost lost and that his relationship with Yeul is what drives his quest for ending the universe as we know it. His connection to the goddess of Etro is a bit messy. Still, for the game's purposes, you start to accept what Caius wants, but as with most good villains, understand that his way is incorrect. If he is victorious, you know his actions will bring forth untold horrors to a world still in the process of rebuilding.
None of this is to suggest that Caius's characterization is perfect. When the game's final story arc kicks into gear, everyone starts uttering proper nouns at a breakneck speed, making even fans of the Final Fantasy XIII universe dizzy. Likewise, Yeul, despite being the focal point for Caius and Noel's rivalry, never feels like a full-fledged character. Often, she spouts a series of names, usually the names of goddesses or gods you have never seen before, and evaporates into a mote of dust. When you discover how her death is what "breaks" Caius and sets the game's events into motion, the story becomes almost intolerably ham-fisted. Final Fantasy XIII-2 is at its best when it revels in its silliness, but there does come the point when it decides to bludgeon you over the head with melodrama. And I'm sorry, but the big plot twist involving Serah at the end is stupid. I get that Lightning Returns makes good on some of its unresolved elements, but the characters you come to grow to love in this game don't exactly get the sense of resolution they deserve.
Part 10: The Tone Of The Story Is Goofy And Irreverent, And I'm Okay With That!
Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a rare game where I can pinpoint the exact moment when I "turned around" on it. After Serah and Noel resolve one of the required paradoxes, they fall into a realm called "The Void Beyond." Eventually, you discover that whenever the two "fix" the central paradoxes plaguing the universe, this void begins to populate itself with forgotten relics and monuments from the previous game. However, when the intrepid time cops first discover the area, it is a field of nothingness. Here, our primary characters relax, discuss their current circumstances, and share what they did before the start of their adventure. It seems like such an odd thing to praise, but it is here that Final Fantasy XIII-2 accomplishes something that its predecessor continually failed to do, time and time again: make our characters feel "real."
Outside of the one time Vanille and Sazh explore a casino, the characters of Final Fantasy XIII rarely talk to each other like genuine friends. It was such a bizarre storytelling decision as providing ample opportunities for party members to chat and chill is an unspoken series tradition. For example, when I think back to Final Fantasy VI, unlike most, my favorite moments are not the ones that involve Kefka or the Emperor. Scenes like the "Coin Toss" between Sabin and Edgar or Cyan chilling in a bar and getting hit on by a waitress resonate the most with me. I love those moments because they allow me to view the game's events through the eyes of the characters. Thanks to those quieter moments, I understand who they are and their emotional state. Final Fantasy XIII-2, despite all of its flaws, has humanizing moments like those that its predecessor desperately needed before playing out its "epic" storyline about fighting against religious dogma. For example, while I understand why Serah and Noel are working together, I still have ZERO understanding of why Lightning accepts Hope or Fang into her social network other than the story needs her to do that.
This point does lead to an issue that many of Final Fantasy XIII's defenders bring up against XIII-2: its story is too irreverent. To highlight, the one time Serah meets up with Snow, all they do is punch a giant slime in the face and throw Mog around like a sack of shit. I admit a giant Flan being the focal point of saving Cocoon's crystal pillar, one of the most important monuments from the previous game, is ridiculous. However, the game manages to do some compelling worldbuilding that its detractors ignore. First, the overpopulation of the flans is a direct result of the characters destroying the fal'Cie that once kept the Sunleth Waterscape's ecosystem in check. I genuinely thought this was an exciting way to manifest that the characters' actions in the previous game had real worldwide consequences. It reminded me of Final Fantasy X-2 and the slowly dying away of the Macalania Woods. Additionally, it is one of the better examples of a level that transforms when you go further down the timeline. Finally, it was nice to have at least one set-piece that shared the context behind why Snow and Serah love each other.
And I don't know; I thought the scene at the Academy when Serah yelled at the flans for roughhousing was a perfect example of why this game is at its best when it is being silly. Similarly, after your first visit to Oerba, the game presents an alternate reality at Yaschas Massif wherein the characters need to reintroduce themselves to Hope. There's a dialogue choice for Serah that amounts to "Aw, shit, seriously? We have to listen to Hope's lecture about the end of the world, AGAIN?!" If you tell me you didn't have any fun playing this game, I assume you actively avoided zanier dialogue options like those. When you return to a different date at the Augusta Tower, you find out that Hope made an evil robot that murdered everyone, and one of your choices for Noel is to say, "Yup, we sure don't want this to become our future!" The few times when the characters vocally share their bewilderment with the events surrounding them are the best moments in the game. In that same battle against the giant robot, Serah ends the fight in a cutscene wherein she charges the damn thing while shouting, "These machines are driving me nuts!"
But maybe you like a dash of melodrama in your modern Final Fantasy games! For the most part, Final Fantasy XIII-2 has you covered. In the Void Beyond, Noel explains that the Farseers always have a girl called Yeul with the same appearance and responsibilities. Caius is always her Guardian, but he's fucking done with the world's shit for reasons still unknown. Again, there's an aspect to the raw indignance to Caius looking at the mess the world has become and saying, "Yo, this shit sucks!" that I respect. While the conclusion is a disappointment, the early plot point of Yeul providing Serah "hints" about how to go about fixing everything worked for me. I do admit; the story doesn't do enough to explain why or how the timeline got fucked up from XIII to XIII-2. However, the first time you watch Yeul die, you understand that there is a cost to fixing things to be the way they should be AND why Caius is not having it. The existence of imposters allows the game to play around with the same Caius boss battle to where you never know what to expect until you fight him. The game is a mishmash, and you will never see me deny that fact, but it's one of those rare examples where even the shit that sounds weird is something you need to see in person to understand why it works.
Part 11: Did I Mention How There Are Some Real Crummy Levels And Puzzles In This Game?
We will fast-forward things and jump to the events at the Archylte Steppe and then juxtapose to Academia (400 AF). For reference, I did tackle some of the content at the Coliseum. As I will discuss separately, I don't hate what Square-Enix did with the Coliseum, and I got a good laugh when I replaced my (not) Pokémon with Sazh. Nonetheless, the DLC involving Lightning seems like something that should be in the game, and while I am happy there are side quests at all in XIII-2, they are way too cookie-cutter for my taste. Moving on to the Archylte Steppe, this was the level that almost "broke me." Without a doubt, Academia and the game's final boss are no slouches, but the end-level boss at the Archylte Steppe handed me my ass more than any other part of the game. It spews a bunch of status effects that limit your character's maximum amount of health points, and the best solution appears to be leveling up your characters until that doesn't matter. I hadn't run away from that many of the random encounters, but as I discussed in the previous episode, XIII-2 has odd and off-putting difficulty spikes that come out of nowhere and often can only be resolved if you grind for hours upon end. That's what I had to do at the Archylte Steppe, and it sucked.
But the level that takes the cake in terms of lousy design has to be the one you encounter at Academia in the year 400 AF. The first issue involves the environment taking a note from the game's predecessor in that every street and avenue you traverse is a narrow neon-drenched corridor. The problem this time around is that XIII-2's random encounter mechanic makes this utterly untenable. As your pathways only have enough wiggle room for your characters and nothing else, they are utterly incapable of avoiding anything that pops up in front of them. Worse, the random encounter rate is utterly ridiculous here. When attempting to ascend a single set of two-story-tall stairs, I swear I had to resolve no less than four random encounters. Finally, the level subjects you to the same switch flipping and backtracking bullshit that made OG Final Fantasy XIII a slog. There are a ton of one-way stairs and escalators that lead you to a switch that then opens a new pathway next to a set of stairs two or three screens ago. This environment is not a "chore." It is a full-time job.
As if the game's middle chapter weren't already intolerable enough, it ALSO starts to pop off its "Temporal Rift" puzzles at a rapid clip. Outside of one specific set of clock-based puzzles, WHICH WE WILL DISCUSS SEPERATELY, none are especially challenging, but they are fiddly and annoying as fuck. Usually, you match similar colored crystals or symbols to create pairs, but even this task is a pain as symbols and colors flash in and out of the playing field. It was endlessly frustrating to be standing in the playing field, waiting for one specific color or symbol to pop up, only for it never to show up before the timer ran out and reset the entire puzzle. Trial and error define the Temporal Rift puzzles, but luck also plays a significant role. Finally, these puzzles are unfriendly for people with vision issues, particularly those with color blindness.
I highlight all of these points for a reason. Despite my initial enthusiasm for Final Fantasy XIII-2, this game has an almost catastrophically terrible middle act that progresses at a snail's pace. This second episode has been perpetually delayed because I kept getting stuck and needing to spend whole days of my time leveling up random monsters. It's a real testament to how wild and irreverent the story is that I felt committed to seeing the game through to the end. Nevertheless, while I think you can have fun playing this game, to anyone who decides to give it a shot, be aware that there's a mid-game wall that could inspire you to give up. The game has an almost vicious habit of reminding you that you need to level up your monsters during this point. And not just any monsters, but the random two to three with the specific Saboteur or Medic abilities that make any boss battle a cinch.
However, just as I thought I would drop the game, its story pulls me back in. For example, after slogging through the first ascent of Augusta Tower, shit gets fucking WILD! Things start with Serah seeing into the future and watching her own premature death. Caius arrives with the expected pomp and circumstance, declares Serah and Noel "contradictions" that died in the original timeline, and affirms his need to eliminate them. Deeper in the tower, Serah and Noel encounter Yeul, and Serah realizes that Caius was correct and that Yeul is dying because of their presence in the current timeline. Before they can do anything about it, Yeul dies but not before revealing that the Caius they encountered earlier was an illusion. The real Caius is ascending Augusta Tower at a different date. Serah and Noel hop into a time gate and travel to the Augusta Tower two hundred years earlier. They see Caius but notice something is off when they interact with the tower's staff. When they encounter Alyssa, they discover that everyone is a robot clone of their human counterparts. Academia's "real" citizens died hundreds of years ago when Hope initiated his "Proto Fal'Cie Project" and accidentally unleashed a robot apocalypse.
That's right, Hope played around with some "God Particle" and unleashed Skynet on the whole world! It's such a stupid plot twist that I LOVE IT! Nothing leading up to this point foreshadows that Hope's scientific research would lead to an army of Terminators taking over the universe, but here we are. And the best part is, this isn't even the craziest plot twist in the game! First, Yeul returns to lecture Serah about the meaning behind her visions. She reveals that Serah and Noel can indeed change the Historia Crux to the one Serah dreams about, but this will involve a "sacrifice." She also states that the Caius we fought in Academic was a robot and that there are other permutations of both her and Caius across the Historia Crux. Think of these Caius and Yeul doppelgangers like you would with Final Fantasy VII's Sephiroth clones. Serah and Noel fight a giant monster called the "Proto fal'Cie Adam," which is no easy task because it appears impervious to all forms of damage. In a fit of rage, Serah shouts out for Hope to "fix this" and manages to contact a human Hope in a different timeline where the robots DON'T take over the world. He then whisks them both to a "corrected" timeline before Serah has another vision of Lightning fighting Caius in Valhalla.
Part XXX: Is This The "Right" Kind of Schlock?
I end this episode debating the narrative validity of a duo of time cops needing to avert a robotic apocalyptic event. A Terminator-inspired fate, mind you, they resolve by shouting across the time continuum for friends they made in a different lifetime. Final Fantasy XIII-2 is an immensely stupid video game with large swaths that feel like a complete waste of your time as they involve mindless grinding and tedious puzzle-solving. And yet, I love this game. That moment when Serah turned to the screen to shout for Hope, I couldn't help but smile. From my perspective, it was the game recognizing that it does not have it within itself to bullshit you that this is a serious adventure that will remain lock and step with the narrative themes of its predecessor. In that regard, I deeply respect it and the people who made it.
I mentioned this in the previous episode, but I think it would have done the entire Fabula Nova Crystallis initiative wonders if this was the game that started things. The tone of Final Fantasy XIII-2 feels more quintessentially Final Fantasy and is better suited to introduce characters and thriving ecosystems than XIII. When the characters you control can shoot the shit and smile at the camera from time to time, you can at least pretend to have empathy when the rug gets pulled from underneath them or when shit goes sideways. On the other hand, Final Fantasy XIII drops you in the middle of a war where everyone is miserable and dying, but before you understand who is on whose side and why everyone's fighting. It's a joyless story that plods along at an excruciating pace with characters pantomiming emotions.
Then, you need to look at Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2 as parts of a larger puzzle. When you lop in Lightning Returns and Type-0, what did modern Square-Enix prove they were best at making during the 360/PS3 era? Their best tales revolve around simple character interplay interspersed with anime-styled melodrama. Even with their "darker" stories (i.e., Type-0), their best characterization comes through during quieter moments, like when characters cook, play, and gossip with each other. I'm one of the most anti-Final Fantasy XV people you will ever meet on the face of this Earth, but there's no denying that XV does a great job of building a sense of camaraderie with its cast of goofballs. With a post-Kingdom Hearts Square-Enix, that's almost all you can expect from them when Yoshinori Kitase and Tetsuya Nomura are attached to a numbered Final Fantasy game.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 is schlocky, and it's okay that it is. Its characters and moments are largely pleasing, even if they can be a little much. I also feel this game should be judged for what it is rather than what it isn't. The "well" that once was Final Fantasy XIII was dry, and there was no viable way to draw water from it. What's there to do with Snow or Sazh after the events of XIII? And before you submit your fan-fiction suggesting otherwise, this team isn't making an epic prequel with Vanille and Fang. Even if that's what they should have made if they wanted people to take this franchise seriously, the toothpaste is out of the tube. Kitase and Nomura create weird Kingdom Hearts permutations that get buck wild and have some good character moments from time to time. And when judged by that very low barometer, XIII-2 gets the job done. If only it played better. Otherwise, I would feel more emphatic about advocating more people give it a try. Oh... and the story's ending is total bullshit, but we'll talk about that next episode.
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