Final Fantasy XIII-2 - A Square Enix Game (Some FFXIII Spoilers included)

The Final Fantasy series finally made its single player debut on the current generation of consoles two years ago with Final Fantasy XIII. Although massively successful, it was divisive amongst fans and critics. When Square Enix announced that it would be receiving a direct sequel, a rarity in the franchise, it promised to build upon XIII and fix some of the issues that it was criticised over. So has it done that?

Final Fantasy XIII-2 is set three years after the previous game where two of the characters, Fang and Vanille, turned themselves into part of a massive crystal pillar that is now supports the floating continent Cocoon, and is preventing it from crashing into the land below, Gran Pulse. The main character from the last game Lightning, having survived the events of that game has found herself thrown into the world of Valhalla, a city in an alternative dimension which surrounds a shrine to the goddess Etro. As an effect of the time distortion that has caused this, Lightning’s present history has been altered, with everyone believing that she is also encased in crystal having sacrificed herself along with Fang and Vanille. However, for some unexplained reason here sister Serah still remembers the original course of events where lightning survived. She then meets Noel Kreiss, who in 700 years times will be the last human alive. He has been thrown into Valhalla, and Lightning tasks him to help Serah fix the time distortions that have altered there past and future histories.



There are quite a few differences between this game and number XIII that you will immediately notice if you have played the previous game. Firstly, Noel and Serah and the only two playable characters. Although a lot of the characters from XIII make an appearance in the story, the game relies on you liking and wanting to develop these two, and to begin with it seems like a massive mistake. After spending the previous game crafting some great characters you really ended up caring about, it takes a while to accept these two new ones. But over time they do develop into two great roles that really interest you as the player and this drives you through the story.

Square Enix have introduced a new system where you “recruit” your third party member from the monsters you beat in battle. Adding a massive Pokémon-like element, most monsters you face have a chance of being recruited to your party bringing with it unique attributes that you can then develop by levelling up your character. You can also infuse monsters with other creatures you have recruited to absorb their power to develop your party’s skills. How you manage the monsters you are using turns into one of the most crucial elements of this game, and once you have got your head around the systems involved it becomes quite an addictive part of the game. There are also plans to deliver new party members through downloadable content that once you beat you can include in you party. So far these are quite formidable opponents that would be a challenge to beat until after the main story has been completed.

Almost to compensate for this new complicated aspect of the game, levelling up through the spending of Crystarium Points (XP) has become simpler, and a lot more streamlined than in XIII. Once you have picked which of the six character roles you wish to spend your points in, you move through increasing your abilities automatically instead of selecting skills you want to develop from a tree of choices. Although, this will probably make the game more user-friendly for the casual player, I have to admit missing the micro management of the levelling up system. Although time consuming, it gave you a lot more choice over the skills and abilities you were developing. Thankfully you do have access to this system almost straight away in this game; it was a major source of frustration that you didn’t have access to the levelling up system in the first few hours of XIII.

An effort has been made to make sure that people new to the franchise can quickly pick up the game systems and background story. The game provides just the right balance of optional tutorials to quickly bring new players up to speed. There is also an “easy combat” mode for those just wishing to enjoy the RPG and story elements of the game which doesn’t effect the majority of the achievements.

Due to the game revolving the ideas of time distortion Square Enix have been given a massive free reign to deliver a varied world to explore. Working through a central hub, the Historia Crux, the story takes Noel and Serah to areas throughout the timeline and in some cases alternative timelines that can develop. Although this means you can be repeatedly visiting the same area, accessing that area in different times offers up a lot of variety in environment and monsters faced. There are plenty of side missions to discover and these can take you backwards, forwards and sideways through time to complete which is a breath of fresh air after the linear gameplay of FF XIII. These optional side quests also bring their own strands to the main story, really helping to flesh out the world in which you find yourself immersed.

The downside to the time travel options is that sometimes the story can seem a lot more complicated than it actually is. Like XIII it takes a lot of effort towards the end of the game to fully explain what’s going on, so if you are finding yourself a bit lost don’t worry and try to stick with it if you can.

Once you have finished the game you can revisit any area of the game you wish as you are given the ability to reset the events in a particular area so you can face bosses and missions again at any time. Your first playthrough of the game will probably take you between 25-30 hours but you then have a hundred hours of post main story activities to keep you busy.



The ending of the story is both dramatic and very unsatisfying. I am hoping that this means a steady stream of new episodes to be delivered though downloadable content rather than Square Enix just teasing that this will turn into a trilogy.

The game world itself is beautifully visualised as you would expect from a Final Fantasy game. The majority of the time the game delivers very nice graphics and the FMV’s that are used to advance the story are beautifully made. The games soundtrack is also very impressive, and you really will find yourself admiring the music. It is really varied as you move through areas and the timeline and always seems to be perfectly suited to what’s going on at the time.

Some new fun elements have been added to the game to counter the serious tone the story takes. Noel and Serah have a constant companion, Mog, who can provide several light hearted moments and funny quips. You can also take time out from the main story relaxing in the games casino area, Serendipity, which reintroduces Chocobo racing. This can be quite a fun way to earn new items and money and means that while you are developing Chocobos into lean racing machines you are also building formidable party members that once levelled up are almost unmatched in combat.



Achievement wise, this game is a bit of a mixed bag. A run through of the story will net you between 300-400 gamerscore. The majority of the achievements require you to take part in post-story activities. Like XIII, it shouldn’t be a particular difficult game to max out gamerscore wise, just time consuming.

Overall, this is a much improved Final Fantasy game over it’s predecessor. It builds upon a great established game world to deliver a unique story. The long winded mature of the story can be off putting to some people, but it’s worth to stick with it as it develops the game world very nicely.

I think that where it makes concessions to improve early accessibility to the game it gives you new game mechanics that can really be embraced by the hardcore player. I just worry that Square Enix are trying to appeal to everyone at the same time and because of that it slightly misses the mark.

Score 8.5 / 10

Nice review mate. Seems, this is a good game and Square have listened to comments about the first game.

It seems no franchise is safe from being simplified for mass appeal. It's happening a lot these days. I guess that's the way the market is going. But at least in this case, there is the option for Hardcore play too! So that can't be a bad thing.

Nice review mate. I've kind of lost touch with the FF games since FFX but I do keep meaning to get back into them.

Can I jump into FFIII with out having played the previous ones? I assume they are new characters/ new story?

minkey_monkey wrote:Nice review mate. I've kind of lost touch with the FF games since FFX but I do keep meaning to get back into them.

Can I jump into FFIII with out having played the previous ones? I assume they are new characters/ new story?

Yes, new characters and story. Plus you can get XIII for about a tenner now, as strange as it sounds this game is a better entry point if you have played them before as it's a lot more like the older games that XIII is

Ohh, cool. I know that people class the old battle system as 'too easy' but the new ones started to confuse me. lol.
Will check them out, thanks chap

Well done niteowl, nice too have you back reveiwing again!

Sadly Square Enix rarely throw us a bone so I won't go official with this but I will send them a link too it and hope they change their line with us in future.

Good work! and I shall report back.

I forgot to add, you can dress up your monsters too by finding them items. Some picks of my Chocobos riding into battle with soft toys on their backs