Beastly sidekicks
The other big addition to combat is Serah’s ability to unleash monsters during fights, up to three customisable beasts can be integrated into your line-up. Yet it’s a premise more exciting in principle than in practice, because, once more, you have no direct control over them. Indeed, only Serah and Noel are controllable directly but never simultaneously.
Talk to the hand
Once the adventure-proper begins our heroes band together in a bid to traverse time to save Lightning and, you know, save life, the universe and everything. The unique aspect being that the same areas can be revisited during different time periods, in a nod to the likes of Majora’s Mask. It’s by far the best aspect of the game and an idea which might have been best utilised to form an entirely new entry into the franchise.
Admittedly, the game’s beautiful environments are a joy to behold, but their exploration is less rewarding than you’d hope and certainly not in the same league as FF VII’s locations, to once more compare to this entry to its rich heritage.
My my, what big horns you have
On occasion, NPCs might task you with random errands, but never anything that takes any thought beyond following Mog – Serah’s pet moogle – to the exact location, before fighting yet another monster guardian.
Verdict
I went into Final Fantasy XIII-2 of a mind to have a fantastic time. I’d been blown away by the many trailers of the game, was excited by the noises emanating from Square Enix – regarding how determined it was to make up for the wishy-washy FF XIII – and was all set-up to rediscover my love for one of gaming’s most treasured franchises.
Light topic of conversation
Yet despite featuring some gorgeous visuals and mind-blowing effects, there’s nothing beneath the exotic exterior, nothing to make you want to explore the game fully, or to return for the 50 hours or so of plodding gameplay. If Square had decided to go the whole hog and simply put out a CGI film as sequel to FF XIII, I’d have been all over it, if only for the action sequences. Sadly, that’s kind of what has happened, the problem being that Square Enix is trying market it as a game. ®
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Final Fantasy XIII-2
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.
