For reasons that I can't explain, I force myself to play through every modern Final Fantasy despite having lost most interest in JRPGs years ago. So I'm currently suffering through FFXIII-2 (on PC), finding it even less enjoyable and filled with absolute nonsense than the original FFXIII.

Then, about 20 hours into the game, I hop onto a "mutant" chocobo for the first time, and this plays:

All is forgiven. 2016's 2011 Game of the Year.

@sweetz: You're a better FF fan than I am. I got maybe a dozen or so hours into this before I decided I had no idea what was going on and, what's worse, unsure if I was missing wide swaths of gameplay without the chance to explore them later because of the time-shifting mechanic. Just kind of put me off of it. Also as someone who min-maxes, the notion of having to follow a guide like this to get the most out of the progression system (and yes I know it's not really necessary) irked me.

@sweetz: Its one of my goddamn favorite things about the XIII series. So many fucking goofy songs. I love it.

Crazy Chocobo is THE BEST. I actually like the XIII-2 soundtrack a lot, but yeah, Crazy Chocobo.

Fun Fact: The singer is the same guy who sang all the music in Devil May Cry 3. And the person who did the openings for Ghost In The Shell does the "timeline" music! It's a rad group of music!

I also love XIII-2 more than might be rational. And I say this as someone that hates XIII. I was really into it's particular brand of, like, anime Doctor Who nonsense. It also felt like it had a sense of humor that XIII was sorely lacking. I've debated buying it again on PC to try and get all the achievements again.

This isn't real....is it?

I didn't get far enough in XIII-2 to even see a Chocobo.

My brain hurts.

I liked XIII-2. Not as much as XIII, but it was still a fine game.

I got the Platinum for this game.

I rode that chocobo.

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN RIDE THIS CHOCOBO?

Man, Final Fantasy got real weird when they moved from chiptuney stuff that was supposed to sound like metal to actual metal.

Edit: I just listened to this song like 10 times in a row. I can't stop.

Wow... that is fantastic! Just wow.

yeah this game was much better than the first one. I really enjoyed it.

I skipped this game, but yeah Crazy Chocobo is pretty great.

fun fact in case if you didn't know, Serah's voice actress also did Rise from persona 4 and the TRUE VOICE of the main character in saints row 3 and 4. oh and kaine in Nier. and lots of others.

The crazy chocobo theme is just one example of how FF XIII-2 is all sorts of bonkers, which is definitely why I like it more than FF XIII.

Holy shit, FF Revengeance?

That's not even the worst part. The monster combining mechanic gets incredibly tedious if you want to build "optimal" monsters.

What made XIII and now XIII-2 bearable for me is trainers (yay for PC version).

I was actually enjoying the early, on rails parts of XIII that most people took umbrage with; when it opened up I personally saw it as turning into MMO-alike grind fest. I looked at what it would take to get the materials needed upgrade to the best weapons, which I wanted to see, because getting the best weapon in an FF game is simply a thing that one does (even if means dodging lighting 200 times in a row...shudder) - and it appeared that it would take many dozens of hours of grinding. Upon discovering that, I let go of the notion of playing these games "seriously" and found a trainer to give myself all the crafting items.

I've been doing the same with XIII-2. I don't use stuff like infinite XP or no damage cheats, so I don't circumvent all sense of challenge and progression in the game; but grinding for randomly dropped monster leveling items, no thanks, I'll happily cheat that tedium away.

Completely real. The XIII-2 soundtrack is a weird, for an FF game at least. Almost all the songs have vocals, even the basic background music for exploring an area. Reminds me a little of a Persona soundtrack.

I usually don't hear people preferring XIII to XIII-2. I definitely preferred the latter more both in terms of characters and gameplay.

I really do not want to hear any of this right now.

@zombiepie: Don't worry, you'll have plenty of time to listen to it when you're grinding out the "go x distance on chocobo" achievement for your 100% run.

@turambar: I prefer the latter in terms of some changes made to the in-combat stuff. However the characters and story of the latter are inferior to the former. I really had no desire to play as Serah or this cliche Noel anime character.

I thought FFXIII-2 was stupid and barely coherent, but the music and presentation were top notch.

The thing about the FF13 series is that the one constant is that all three have amazing music. The games get progressively worse but damn if the music isn't solid throughout. FF13 is still great though.

I also really liked the new bodum music, and this reminded me a bit of ico

@turambar: It's important to note, I have almost zero investment in the gameplay of these types of games anymore. I come for the anime nonsense and spectacle.

I thought FFXIII had more interesting characters, more spectacle, and a more compelling plot - where "compelling" is a very relative term given the absolutely ridiculous narrative of both games. Noel and Serah aren't as annoying as say, Hope or Vanille in FXIII, but they're also just kind of bland - and in some ways that's more damning. Caius seems like a decently charismatic villain for a change (and I'm a big fan of Liam O'Brien's voice), but I've seen very little of him as of yet.

If someone wants to make an argument for XIII-2 playing better than XIII, I wouldn't/couldn't disagree with them, because I don't care for either.

It's admittedly an odd, messed up thing that I'm still compelled to play these games. I think it's a mix of nostalgia and a kind of academic interest.

@kasaioni: I actually really liked Noel, and would happily take him over everyone other than Sazh.

hell, same. well, Sazh and Lightning. and he'd be about tied with Snow, because Snow is voiced by Troy Baker :3, but yeah. I prefer Serah to Noel, though. she's a really good character.

Also like the guy above the above says, the Caius voice acting is top tier. There aren't any of the weak characters that you have to put up with in most FF games in this one.

I really liked that despite the absurd nature of XIII-2's plot, Noel's entire character backstory is summed up pretty coherently by his own theme song. His character is sincere, with clear and coherent motivations, and a relationship with the antagonist that is actually pretty interesting.

FYI this is DLC in Theathythm Curtain Call and it's great.

His voice acting is great but every word that comes out of his mouth is complete fucking garbage nonsense and I hate it. He's written how I wrote 'cool' villains in high school.

This game has been out for five years. Why has nobody brought this to our attention sooner?

I kinda liked it, but then again I liked that Kabbage Boy song from the Brutal Legend intro

@spoonman671: We were punishing you for collectively hating on FFXIII-2 without playing it :D

Holy crap, I want to see MGR:R-2 use this song while riding a MG Ray

XIII-2 was all kinds of superior to its predecessor, basically fixing 2/3rds of what was wrong with that game.

But you're ruining the surprise. There's something special about the first time you jump on that multicolored Chocobo and all of a sudden you realize you don't have enough Greens to stay on forever to keep listening to it.

@sweetz: FF XIII has a far more coherent and cohesive plot, but XIII-2 has a lot more fun with its time traveling hijinks even when half of it is borderline total nonsense. Some of it's obviously done with a wink and a nod (I recommend checking out the paradox joke endings after you finish the game, some of them are fantastic) but a lot of it is played completely straight in a way I found endearing.

Your drive to play these games is pretty similar to mine, actually, but it turned out I thought XIII was mostly okay and XIII-2 was actually pretty decent. I haven't gotten around to picking Lightning Returns back up yet, but I can say with some confidence that the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy cannot be slighted for trying, if nothing else.

People comparing this song to the MGR soundtrack reminds me why I dislike the MGR soundtrack. Get that pop-rock Evanescence-remix shit outta here.

I'm going to have to agree with Sweetz on XIII though. Everything about the first game is more memorable and compelling than anything in XIII-2 or Lightning Returns. And I think it's easy to tell when comparing the games how much more time and thought was put into the world and characters of XIII, whereas the next two games come off as afterthought. Especially considering how forced the transition from the ending of XIII to the beginning of XIII-2 (chronologically) feels. XIII had an ending and a conclusive resolution, and then XIII-2 swoops acting almost like a retcon to the ending of XIII.

I also never found Vanille and Hope as annoying as most seem to. Maybe Hope is a bit annoying, but Vanille is just a vehicle for many anime-girl tropes that have been around for many years before that game came out. But both are still more memorable than Serah and Noel in XIII-2. Also all outfit changes that happened after XIII are ugly as hell.

hahah so fucking nu-metal.

@kasaioni: Comparing this garbage to MGR is preeeetty insulting. They aren't even that similar.

Legitimately surprised people like this. I guess music in the 2000s happened for a reason.

But hey, I haven't played the game. In context I could see this being pretty hilarious.

I love FF Xiii-2's soundtrack it's a pretty darn good one to listen to when working even with the occasional nu-metal. Easily my favorite for that sort of thing in the last 5 years, it might actually be my favorite in the series although boy FFvi's was awfully good too. My personal favorite off the soundtrack

http://www.giantbomb.com/final-fantasy-xiii-2/3030-33883/forums/so-this-chocobo-song-on-ff-xiii-2s-soundtrack-isum-528494/#97

Guess you missed this one :)

fwiw I prefer Xiii to Xiii-2.

I can certainly see arguments either way, both games have very different strengths. Just really depends on what aspects you value in a game.

@tobbrobb: If this song was put in MGR with whatever garbage "rules of nuture" lyrics, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

This song is like an undigested kernel of corn. It's the only part of the XIII trilogy that's recognizably not pure shit.

@takayamasama: It's the realest, and it's amazing. I giggle whenever I think of it. I need more Crazy Chocobo in my life.

EDIT: I love FF13 and this thread hurts me. Why'd I have to read the replies :(

I keep thinking about buying this game because I enjoyed FF XIII but then I keep getting scared away because of all the stuff I hear about it.

then threads like these keep pulling my interest back in..

@falling_fast: I recently discovered that Lightning's VA also did Scout Harding from Dragon Age: Inquisition. I honestly had no idea Ali Hillis had that kind of range! Liara and Lightning sound more-or-less exactly the same to me.

I finished the game tonight, or at least got the "basic" ending. Joking from my original post aside, my opinion of the game has not improved; it's gotten worse actually. One thing I really don't understand about Final Fantasy games, and JRPGS in general, is the developers' propensity for putting the most fantastically inane and tedious bullshit in their games.

The aforementioned lightning dodging in FFX being a prime example of that - however at the very least there was an element of skill there. FFXIII-2 has some parts that are arguably even more egregious. In particular, it has a slot machine minigame. I use the term "minigame" loosely, because it is literally just a typical randomized slot machine, with odds seemingly only slightly better than its real life Vegas counterparts. Obtaining one of the items needed for 100% game completion, which gets you a "bonus ending" (which I'm sure is underwhelming for the effort required), relies on getting a big payout from the slot machine. It seems that many people resort to taping the autoplay button down and leaving the game running overnight. This is ridiculous, and the mere presence of something that so viciously demonstrates a complete lack of creativity and respect for the player makes me despise the game - even if it's something I won't even engage with because I'm just going to look up the endings on Youtube.

Granted that's one small aspect of the game, but the fact that it even made it in there in the first place is symbolic of a game design philosophy that has significant problems - the same problems which I believe are at the root of the Japanese game industry continuing to wane. They need to ask themselves "is this fun" far more often than they currently do. Maybe XV will be the one to finally do away with that kind of thing, but I don't have high hopes.

@sweetz: Yeah, that casino having any impact on getting the "real" ending is straight up undefendable, even as someone who likes XIII-2. I just used cheat engine at some point and busted the whole thing wide open though, so there's that.

Well it's good to see that not everything surrounding final fantasy 13 and it's sequels is terrible. I almost get depressed thinking about how much 13 ruined my love for final fantasy. :-(

@kirkyx: Scout Harding was a well-acted character, but I wouldn't exactly call her a huge stretch from Lightning.