Can I get a rewind?
As far as the story goes, FF XIII-2 is a true sequel to its predecessor, beginning just a short time after events of the previous game and once more set across the worlds of Pulse and Cocoon.
Just as things were looking up...
To be precise, it begins within a beachside village, as a mysterious spiky-haired, dual-sword wielding chap from the future, one Noel Kreiss, appears as if from nowhere. A good job too, given Serah and the rest of her fellow villagers have come under sudden and violent attack.
It’s the first time you’ll get to experience the games ‘Paradigm Shift’ combat, a system much debated when it debuted in FF XIII and a system which, once again, removes the need for any genuine user-participation.
Lights, paradigm, action
That’s not to say you’ll do nothing, there’s still the action button to hammer as you hit the auto attack choice – the AI nearly always picking attacks most effective against your current foe.
Paradigm shifting itself is perhaps where the player has most impact – much as a football coach might change tactics mid match – as you’re able to swap character roles on the fly. For instance, turning one of your charges into a medic and the other into a sentinel (a defensive role) when the going gets tough.
You'll peyote for your crimes!
For those who delight in this managerial type role, it’s all well and good, but as a veteran of Final Fantasy games past, it all feels rather removed and impersonal – a complaint made of its predecessor. In a failed attempt to paper over the cracks, larger foes can trigger quick time events – the successful completion of which causes damage to said foe, but it’s really nothing particularly game changing.
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COMMENTS
FF7 always
FF7 was most definitely the finest game they ever made, just huge in scope.
That's what I've always loved about the FF games, right from when I started playing them on the old GB with their B&W graphics. I've now played every version, upto and including 13 (and even the online one) and to my mind 13 is definitely the worst. It's as if all the thought went into what you do *after* the end credits, and no thought was put into the actual storyline itself. Maybe what they ought to do is what they did with FF1-6, go right back to the beginning and redo them, bring out a FF7 redux for the PS3 with updated graphics and a game that I would be quite happy to spend months playing, instead of completing in just a few hours and being left wondering why on earth I spent so much for a game I would have been happy to wait for a second hand copy of.
FF-X?
zero charm? i think it's one of the best in the series. I almost cried when Auron "died", i actually did have to wipe away a tear when Tidus fades away and i bought FFX-2 not only because i love the series, but also because i felt the game wasn't finished.
The father/son scenes, the beautiful scenes with Yuna and her "dance macabre"
Not much of a point to hang a game on is it?
I remember when all games visuals were done in-engine. They may not have been pretty but at least you could you-know *play* them.
Meh
There hasn't been a good Final Fantasy since 9. When they screwed up the fighting mechanics, ditched the world map, and made all the protagonists whiney and dull I gave up. And yes, the voice acting ruined the series.
I will happily sit and play through classic FF. It may not have the graphics of its younger cousins, but by God it had 1000 times more heart.
@DAM
It's a creature called a Cactuar.
Usually they're an absolute bugger to hit in melee and suicide for under-levelled characters because of the way they always do 1000 damage per hit. Also apparently edible according to some games in the series.
