Many people didn’t like final fantasy 13 and for good reasons. Super linear, bland, etc. Blah Blah Blah. But, 13-2 seems to go above and beyond that with horribleness. Now, as a veteran of Anime Purity I will always argue[To the death] that the Japanese voice acting is always going to be better than that of its American counterpart. Some games however, do an OK job of this. FFXII-2 is not one of them. The main issue that I have with dubbing games in English is the fact that Americans aren't as animated as the Japanese are when they speak. Now we are very animated but, not with the same gestures that the Japanese use when they speak. So, never the less you see TONS of odd movements either while a character is still or making some odd motion that is completely foreign to us Americans because it simply does not exist in our culture. Serah is a pathetic squeamish character that is at best a cardboard standee in place of her older, better, stronger sister. Now, I'm not saying that you should switch to the other Character Noel (I’ll get to him later) and it be a better game, but I'm saying she is pretty much everything bad about women in games and possibly in general. She is cowardly, stupid, distrusting, weak, and fully of useless words that do not only distract from the game but, detract from the game as well. When I heard that SE was making FFXIII I was very excited. Once I saw me, I was even more excited. Once I heard that it was being ported to 360 I quickly began losing all hope in the game and franchise. Now, it's not a matter of fanboyism here but, the fact that the game was severely cut to fit the size of M$'s outdated storage system on the 360. With that in mind many reports came out about hot SE had "An Entire game worth of content" that was left out. Entire cities, places, boss, etc. Hearing that I became hopeful that one day all of this content would see the light of day. Upon hearing about FFXIII-2 I got excited again. Then the trailer of lighting with a modified Gun-blade in a suit of armor surface. "This game is going to be AWESOME!!!" is what I thought when the content started streaming about for the game. Then I started to see more and more about Lightning's waste of disc space sister Serah that was engaged to the skull-capped lunatic from the first 13. "Why does she have a bow?" "What she is playable... err ok." Then BAM!! She's the main character??? Seeing as she was literally a waste of space I could not imagine how someone so helpless and mentally challenged as her could be a party leader. Flame shield up, I liked Lightning She was a strong woman who, to some degree, was pretty well rounded and likable. While she wasn't a new Squall replacement for me she was pretty cool. XIII-2 opens deceptively with you playing as lighting but, then takes it all away from you and replaces it with some kid named Noel. I wanted a better version of 13 with the most of the same characters from the first one.

Once again, I managed to come up with a better Idea about what the storyline was for 13-2 in my mind before I had even seen the game. From the looks of everything, Lightning was obviously some leader of an army against this evil purple haired warlord and that the game would take place before or after 13 and show the rise and fall of this unnamed villain. Everyone would return to go all medieval on this guy. It would be great! All the Eidolons would come back and there would be this huge war spanning everything that was skipped from the first 13!

No.

THIS GAME'S ABOUT TIME TRAVEL!!

Ok, Chrono Trigger did that and that game was awesome.

Well, this one is just a poor excuse to use the same areas over and over by filling them with minor differences and bland characters.

This game is not awesome like Chrono Trigger.

I don't feel like even mentioning 13-2's plot. It's bad and uninspired just like everything FF at this point.

Instead of bringing back the character’s from the first 13 they have replaced the empty slot in your party for Monsters! HOW DUMB CAN YOU GET? No, I shouldn't ask that. Never mind, they beat me to it with 13-2. So instead of making new things monsters, etc. The monsters (or the ones that I saw before getting so sick of how terrible the game is) are merely recycled ones from the first 13!! There are more monsters but they are simply pattern variations of other monsters in the game. What's that? A goblin? No this is the Gollbina and it looks just like the goblin but, it is purple instead of green. So, it's a new monster! DUH!!! Kill me please.

I am a firm believer in the fact that you can judge an entire game by its demo and that you do not

Need to beat a game in order to review it. Honest to goodness it isn't the gameplay that is so off putting. I mean pick the Paradigm is a great game! It's just like rock, paper, and scissors. It's the dialog and horrible story that have caused me to put this disgrace down. Before you pull out the "weeaboo" comment, I'm not saying that the game would be better in Japanese. This is more like saying the medicine that makes you dizzy and gives you diarrhea is better if it is grape flavored as opposed to fish flavored. While the medicine will still make you have an upset stomach and make you dizzy it be as bad if it tastes better.

Simply put, this is like a band releasing B-sides to a commercial failure of an album. You hated the first album, you like the band's old stuff and you know these B-sides are from the same era of bad songwriting but maybe, just Maybe there will be something good in this that you will enjoy. They needed to make money off of the assets that they had left over from squeezing 13 on a DVD-9 for the 360. Good luck square, this game is terrible. I had such High hopes for the decent character Chocolina, until I heard her talk. She's hot and a shopkeeper, but she sounds like your friend's creepy grandma that likes to hug you too much and refers to herself in the 3rd person.

Hear me out square; you have lost your title. You aren't even a dotted out line of what you used to be. You are why Japanese games are dying. SO, stay quiet and make ONE MORE GOOD GAME!! ONE MORE CHANCE!! ONE!!!

But, until then, let Atlus do all the Japanese stuff and leave the other main games to us Westerners.

BTW: Edios was a bad company before you bought them. Other than Fear Effect and Deus Ex, that is. Those games are good.

Disagree with most of what you wrote but there's no point in arguing against someones opinion.  
 
Eidos(I think that's what you mean) are just publishers, aren't they? So Eidos had nothing to do with Deus Ex since Ion Storm Inc was the Devs on those games and Fear Effect was also developed by someone else. 
So SHAME on you Eidos for.. making sure those good games actually got released, how dare you(what?) 
 
 
Also, why is everything messed up? (pre-edit at least)  
 
"Kinda like 
 
 
 
this 
 
 
where something is written and then it 
 
 
 
 
ends"

I did not see an actual criticism in the game other than "YO THIS BE DUMB" without any context or reasoning behind it. A goblin and a goblin chieftain are different monsters, yes. They belong to the same family of monsters but they are different monsters with different roles and abilities. It is not hard to comprehend.

And for the record Chrono Trigger was a bad game.

woah there this is a little... paranoid, and also that "cool" idea that you had about 13-2 sounds like something a 12 year old would think is cool, sorry. Serah is not as bad as you say she is, she has way more personality than lightning and she does have character development... unlike lightning (also she is not mentally challenged and that's sort of insulting to actual mentally disabled people). I actually like the 13-2 story better because I can at least follow it without having to go into the menu to read text. Also the voice acting is perfectly fine (sorry you can't hate on laura bailey), stop being dumb

All JRPG are liner even Final Fantasy 7
 
P.S. The popular Final Fantasy X which is getting an HD release was more liner then Final Fantasy XIII

I was just super let down at how stupid the entire thing was. Serah is a bad character that shouldn't have been used. It would be the equivalent of sending a post card via same-day service UPS to your next door neighbor. Square-enix I am disappoint.

@Animasta: I like Laura Bailey a lot, but I found her insufferable in the demo for XIII-2 and even more so as Phyrra in Soulcalibur V. Basically, when she's saddled with a bad script or role, she has a lot of trouble finding her footing. The same goes for Yuri Lowenthal, who was often unacceptable in Soulcalibur V as Patroklos.

@mister1337: One, this formatting (as mentioned by @ZeForgotten) is hard to read. Two, demos can often be extremely misrepresentative, so beating games to write reviews is almost always extremely important. Even Konami's NeverDead is a far better game than its last hour, which IGN has claimed "will go down in history as one of most annoying fights in a video game." Three, I also don't want to play FFXIII-2 after the demo, so I'm still right there with you. Just don't make pure quality assessments based on a demo in a story-driven game.

I like to think of it as Doctor Who, Nole as the Doctor, who is always putting his companion into harms way, even thought he pretends to care about her safety. And Sarah as the companion, who knows nothing, but every once in a while, comes up with the brilliant plan that will save the world.

@ZeForgotten: Wrote it in notepad at first. That's why it is that way. I did it as a blog post and the site was like "DO YOU WANT TO ALSO POST TO FORUMS?? Y/Y"

Just for interest's sake, I love the Final Fantasy series but couldn't finish XIII because I thought the story was pretty uninteresting and the actual locations were generic and boring as hell.

Can anyone convince me XIII-2 is worth getting? I hold no grudges, and due to interest in the series am obviously interested, but from what I've seen in the QL and in general, it looks much the same as XIII despite Square's desperate pleas that it isn't and that it is "for the fans".

Thanks in advance (if anyone replies).

@liquidmatt: Don't get it. It sucks ass.

@Little_Socrates: Japanese Voices are a Must in all Soul Calibur Games

@mister1337: Are Japanese voices even an option in American Soul Calibur releases? Also, you messaged to me that you had purchased the game, which makes part of my #3 not matter, so that's cool. I wish that Moogle didn't talk.

@Little_Socrates: Yup, they sure are! I kinda wish the moogle wasn't even there.

@liquidmatt said:

Just for interest's sake, I love the Final Fantasy series but couldn't finish XIII because I thought the story was pretty uninteresting and the actual locations were generic and boring as hell.

Can anyone convince me XIII-2 is worth getting? I hold no grudges, and due to interest in the series am obviously interested, but from what I've seen in the QL and in general, it looks much the same as XIII despite Square's desperate pleas that it isn't and that it is "for the fans".

Thanks in advance (if anyone replies).

It is better in nearly every possible way from 13. The combat is faster so fighting mobs doesn't take forever, there's strategy involved in monster raising, there are actual towns and bits of exploration and dungeon crawling. It has a story that is badly told but isn't necessarily bad. If that makes sense. The two leads are fine, Noel is better than a lot of FF protagonists because he doesn't spend all his time in self doubt or pity and instead takes action and gets things done and Serah gets time to grow unlike her sister.

Screw your insult to monsters.I like collecting pokemanz in 13-2.

:D

Its awesome, that feel you get when a powerful pokemanz appear (Tonberry, or that chrome cactus). They're much more helpful than the 3rd party members were in 13 if you know how to use the monsters. IMO people should still that from FF. I'd rather have monsters in some games than retarded companions. Skyrim! now there's a game that could have used monsters instead of the boring and dull followers it had.

@liquidmatt said:

Just for interest's sake, I love the Final Fantasy series but couldn't finish XIII because I thought the story was pretty uninteresting and the actual locations were generic and boring as hell.

Can anyone convince me XIII-2 is worth getting? I hold no grudges, and due to interest in the series am obviously interested, but from what I've seen in the QL and in general, it looks much the same as XIII despite Square's desperate pleas that it isn't and that it is "for the fans".

Thanks in advance (if anyone replies).

If you didnt like XIII you wont like XIII-2, Its a little better with the areas, but not much.

@mister1337 : My eyes practically melted as they took in that post, but alas, they've lasted long enough to see me through to the end. It sucks that you aren't able to enjoy this game as much as I have, but at the same time I can't help but cringe at some of your statements. Lemme get something to work with:

Many people didn’t like final fantasy 13 and for good reasons. Super linear, bland, etc. Blah Blah Blah. But, 13-2 seems to go above and beyond that with horribleness.

Perhaps, but this isn't anything new for the Final Fantasy series. If you really think about it, they're pretty linear games. Sure, you often get a world map to muck around with and do little sidequests here and there, but in the end, you will have to follow the main story thread again. XIII gets a ton of flak because this linearity wasn't cleverly disguised behind an engaging story and the things people have come to expect from the series. If you take the time to dig into it a bit, you may come to realize that the story is actually pretty interesting.

Now, as a veteran of Anime Purity I will always argue

[To the death] that the Japanese voice acting is always going to be better than that of its American counterpart. Some games however, do an OK job of this. FFXII-2 is not one of them. The main issue that I have wiht dubbing games in English is the fact that Americans aren't as animated as the Japanese are when they speak. Now we are very animated but, not with the same gestures that the Japanese use when they speak. So, never the less you See TONS of odd movements either while a character is still or making some odd motion that is completely foreign to us Americans because it simply does not exist in our culture.

As far as the whole Japanese dub v. English dub debate goes, that varies from person to person. There are bad English dubs out there, but I'm positive that not all foreign voice actors are as great as we perceive them to be. The animation thing has been an "issue" for ages, and it only became more apparent as 3-D animation improved. Good luck finding a solution to that without robbing the title of its charm.

The rest of your post seems, uh, very opinionated and drenched in anger, so I'll just leave that alone. I respect Square's willingness to change things up a bit and I'm excited to see if they're able to make improvements in the future. Feel free to play other JRPGs while Square figures out how to make another hit.

@Hellstrom said:

Screw your insult to monsters.I like collecting pokemanz in 13-2.

:D

Its awesome, that feel you get when a powerful pokemanz appear (Tonberry, or that chrome cactus). They're much more helpful than the 3rd party members were in 13 if you know how to use the monsters. IMO people should still that from FF. I'd rather have monsters in some games than retarded companions. Skyrim! now there's a game that could have used monsters instead of the boring and dull followers it had.

You and I? We might be able to get along.

@Flappy: Everyone is entitled to their own opinion it just seems like Square is dead/doomed to die very soon. Just like Nintendo.

@mister1337: Final Fantasy might not be the powerhouse it once was, but people still love Kingdom Hearts. They'll be fine.

@mister1337 said:

@Flappy: Everyone is entitled to their own opinion it just seems like Square is dead/doomed to die very soon. Just like Nintendo.

Square will be fine.

Did your account get hacked by jay444111?

@Flappy: I'll be 100% on board for a Kingdom Hearts game with NO Disney. I hate Disney...

I hate Disney...

I'm in agreement with most of your points, but I will say that Lightening was, to me, a borderline tolerable character. Fang was a strong female character, who was shamefully pushed to the side for the first 20+ hours of that game, but Lightening seems to exist to rattle off nonsensical pseudo-philosophical banter, and deliver lines such as "Worst birthday ever". You're right about the voices, but really, its just lazy translation on Square's part. Sazh was an interesting character, with a lot of background that could have been extrapolated upon to flesh him out, but they missed that chance too.

The monster as your third party member idea was actually pretty cool, but judging from the demo, it doesn't really contribute anything to the combat system, which still seems boring and buggy.

The re-use of monsters isn't new, they've been doing that since X-2, so at least they're consistent...and they added a Moogle...so that makes up for it? Right? Apart from the fact that the Moogle is annoying and has no place in this particular FF universe.

A possible saving grace for the FF series would be Vs. XIII, but Square are pulling a Valve, simply dangling the prospect to keep us towing the line so we might purchase some of their lesser titles between now and then.

And in regards to the linearity: I never felt, and still do not feel, the linearity in FF VII, VIII or even X. That's because you weren't forced to run down narrow corridors for 20 straight hours, given some hope with a large, field-like area, then have it taken away again. If you give enough immersion and substance to the player, they won't feel the linearity. There was no substance or immersion to XIII, and judging from the demo, its the same story in XIII-2. Sure we have some diverging paths...that lead nowhere...but now they're longer! Still counts are linearity, they're just masking it poorly. The stories have always been laughable in this current series, with any and all interesting characters being thrown aside to make way for the emotionless husks that are the main 'protagonists' of the story.

Everything about the recent FF games scream shallow aesthetics and minor gimmicks, without any of the real charm that existed years ago.

What I can't understand is the severe rage people have against this game, when they bought it fully expecting Square to deliver an experience they haven't been able to create since, at best, the turn of the millennium. I hated XIII, XIV was an abomination, and given their track record, Square were going to either remain at that same level, or decline with this title. I know all too well the pain of being super-pissed at a FF title, but when you catch on this late in the game, you should really think about all the previous FF titles you've played, and ask yourself "where did this all go wrong?" I can guarantee you that the answer will be: FF XIII. All this title is doing is using the same template, cutting a large chunk off of an already worn-out concept, and adding bells and whistles in order to distract people from the sheer laziness they've grown accustomed to acting on. You're right not to play the game anymore, you're not deriving any enjoyment from the experience, but this is really nothing new. I'm not saying that its ok for XIII-2 to be the way it is, but if you were honestly surprised at what you've discovered, you may want to go back and play XIII again...though I would discourage anyone from ever experiencing the horror that was that game's script...and Hope...and Snow...oh as well as Vanille...god damn that game was poor.

@Dookysharpgun: X was way way more linear than 13. sure, X opened up more than 13 did at the end, but those areas beyond, like, the clam lands were pretty much long straight lines. and 13-2 has quite a lot of diverging paths in different areas; the big problem is that those areas aren't really that big, which is a different problem

@uniform: They abused me when I was a child.

@Animasta said:

@Dookysharpgun: X was way way more linear than 13. sure, X opened up more than 13 did at the end, but those areas beyond, like, the clam lands were pretty much long straight lines. and 13-2 has quite a lot of diverging paths in different areas; the big problem is that those areas aren't really that big, which is a different problem

I would say they are equally open late in the game one way or another. Unfortunately, X has a great story, XIII does not.

@CaptainCody said:

@Animasta said:

@Dookysharpgun: X was way way more linear than 13. sure, X opened up more than 13 did at the end, but those areas beyond, like, the clam lands were pretty much long straight lines. and 13-2 has quite a lot of diverging paths in different areas; the big problem is that those areas aren't really that big, which is a different problem

I would say they are equally open late in the game one way or another. Unfortunately, X has a great story, XIII does not.

hahahahaha great, did great change it's meaning the last time I used it? no? well then FFX does not have a great story. it does not, in fact, have a good one; it's probably better than 13 but that's not saying much. FFX has a terrible plot that is only saved by how hilariously awful it is

@Animasta said:

@CaptainCody said:

@Animasta said:

@Dookysharpgun: X was way way more linear than 13. sure, X opened up more than 13 did at the end, but those areas beyond, like, the clam lands were pretty much long straight lines. and 13-2 has quite a lot of diverging paths in different areas; the big problem is that those areas aren't really that big, which is a different problem

I would say they are equally open late in the game one way or another. Unfortunately, X has a great story, XIII does not.

hahahahaha great, did great change it's meaning the last time I used it? no? well then FFX does not have a great story. it does not, in fact, have a good one; it's probably better than 13 but that's not saying much. FFX has a terrible plot that is only saved by how hilariously awful it is

You sound like a completely jaded idiot to think that, but okay, bro. I'm too lazy to actually type out the plot, which is something you should already understand. If you genuinely think X didn't have a great story yet come here to defend XIII then you are beyond laughable.

I like XIII-2 
 
I'm about 15hrs in and have only discovered about 1/4 of the locations.. plenty of shit to do, unlock, and see

@CaptainCody: if you read the post I would admit that yes 10 has a better story than 13 (13 has better characters though), but the plot's still bad

@CaptainCody: I fucking love FFX, I've played it 4-5 times now, one replay not even a month old now.

That story is DUMB as hell. If you really, really look at it, there is not a lot of good things to say about it. It's interesting to a point, but Seymour is silly and nonsensical and the dream within a dream stuff "which I call interesting" barely has anything to do with the actual plot.

@Flappy said:

@mister1337: Final Fantasy might not be the powerhouse it once was, but people still love Kingdom Hearts. They'll be fine.

Oh you mean that franchise they ran into the ground by releasing all those portable games?

Yeah I fell off the Kingdom Hearts bandwagon awhile ago and a lot of other people did too.

When Kingdom Hearts 3 finally comes out it'll be even more complicated weird than Kingdom Hearts 2 was in the beginning.

Also TC how about just accepting you don't understand Japanese and that's why you think it's better...because you aren't actually getting all the details.

You do know Japan has an audience that wants the english dubs because they think it gets a Hollywood right? That's why they do all those international remix releases.

I liked what little I played from the Demo but maybe the game is not for me I still think the Battle system is way too frantic for me to enjoy sometimes I don't even know what's going on and I don't like the whole monster in the party , but I wouldn't say it's bad or anything I liked that you can explore the world now and the side quest seem a more involved with the world and the NPCs, the characters the dialog and the narrative is all subjective to opinions so if you didn't care for FFXIII I bet this isn't the game for you that's no surprise.

@mister1337: Having not played the game but being sympathetic to your point of view (not liking Serah to begin with, and having no interest in her as a main character), you really need to be more analytical in your language, and you need to tie your thoughts together better. This reads more like a rant than a review - which is maybe what it is, but one is more likely to be taken seriously than the other.

The feeling I get based on reading posts about this game is that people who were completely turned off by the promotional material for this game didn't play it and those that weren't played it and liked it. I assume this is because the worst things about the game are perfectly obvious from the trailers.

@Doctorchimp: I no longer have any attachment to the KH series (Lost interest after KH2), but I can't deny the fact that lots of folks still eat it up. It was cool at first, but once they started pumping out all the spin-offs, it was time for me to throw in the towel. I guess people really wanna see Mickey Mouse team up with Lightning or something.

@TobbRobb said:

@CaptainCody: I fucking love FFX, I've played it 4-5 times now, one replay not even a month old now.

That story is DUMB as hell. If you really, really look at it, there is not a lot of good things to say about it. It's interesting to a point, but Seymour is silly and nonsensical and the dream within a dream stuff "which I call interesting" barely has anything to do with the actual plot.

I would refer more to the over arching plot. What with sin and Tidus discovering all the shit that will go down, every FF game has dumb shit, but I think the world they set up for the story is pretty good.

@CaptainCody: I differentiate between plot and world. Spira is great, It's probably the main reason I love the game so much. And I enjoy the religious "very badly hidden" commentary. The world is beautiful, developed and interesting. But the story that takes place in it isn't really.

Not hating on the game though, I'd still place it high on my list of favorites.

@ZeForgotten said:

Disagree with most of what you wrote but there's no point in arguing against someones opinion.

Actually there is a point, it's called critical discussion. If you're mature, you can debate the merits of each others opinions without resorting to name calling. Cutting off discussions early with the "opinion" line isn't the apex of internet debate, and we need to stop doing that.

How I feel whenever I have to listen to a song on XIII-2

Your text burns my eyes.

@Animasta: As I've said before, I never felt the linearity in X, whereas XIII had nothing but corridor crawling...and trust me, 65 hours later, I felt it a lot more than any other FF game before this. From the demo (as I've yet to rent the game) XIII-2's 'town' areas, as well as 'diverging' paths, aren't really all that different to XIII's.

Now X isn't my favourite game, but I can admit that at that time, it was very good, with the linearity being purely plot driven, but the plot was interesting at times, so I didn't really mind, and the inevitable open-world scenario nearing the end being a usual exploration-adventure thing. However, we don't get that in XIII. What we got instead were three portals to the three major areas so we could grind. Square didn't even try to mask the fact that this was purely so the player could grind in monotonous battle after monotonous battle, as the linearity literally hurt the progression of the player's team, due to the fact that 20+ hours had been tutorials, and hadn't allowed any control over character selection.

Even if XIII-2 opened up an entire world of space/time adventures, I still wouldn't care, because they wouldn't be worth a crap. The size of the areas, and the link to linearity, are are actually two sides of the same coin. If something is linear, and wants to mask it, then it gives smaller clusters of large areas to explore, with varying environments, or, if it doesn't, it can have a large number of smaller areas without any real necessity to them, that the player can choose to skip if they so choose.

And, just for reference, because I received 4 goddamn mail updates about this: The 'characters' of FF XIII were caricatures. Sazh and Fang were the two most interesting characters, pushed aside into generic roles without any attempt at delving deeper into what drove them. In fact, Sazh, who was a character who lost his son, has only one great scene that addresses that fact. Fang has a whole background that only gets mentioned in one quick cutscene, and really, other than that, I think Hope, Snow, Vanille, and Lightening can be summed up, respectively in single word descriptions: bitch, hero, *noise* and (because lightening has to break the mold,and also because its funny) "Worst birthday ever!".

To settle the plot dispute: X has emotional resonance, its the characters who let it down in the end though. Auron and Yuna are the only two characters who have any real reason to be in this game, with Tidus only there because he was like Jecht. The story was, if anything, Yuna and Auron's entirely. XIII had a bizarrely stupid plot, exacerbated by the ridiculous characters, and the childish overtone surrounding the plot. X had a fight against what was basically a god, XIII had a fight against a pope on steroids (I know I'm oversimplifying it, but that's just how I see it) While XIII had the potential to do well, with its ideas, it fell flat. X managed to siphon some form of coherency throughout the game, and ended up with a pretty emotional ending...unless you hated Tidus...well actually you would have felt an entirely different emotion in that case. X wasn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, I think it aged badly, but XIII, and I can only assume XIII-2, don't have that same luxury. In my eyes, at least, XIII started out aged and limping with ideas that were never fully developed and XIII-2 can only carry that trend onwards, with minor improvements attempting to veneer a very similar undercoat to its predecessor.

@Dookysharpgun: You are my Hero...

@mister1337: ...thank you?

How I feel whenever I have to listen to a song on XIII-2

@Sooty said:

How I feel whenever I have to listen to a song on XIII-2

Noel's Theme.  Your comment is invalid.

k.

How many people really care about Final Fantasy anymore? I mean, the last good FF game was FFX, since then it's just been ridiculous.