Final Fantasy 13-2

[Kerreth]

The demo's out on XBL (and PSN, presumably), so I took some time out to see if it was an improvement over FF13. Well, there's some nice things... and a few setbacks.

THE GOOD:
Battle System - Is unchanged. I liked FF13's system, which revolved more around knowing what roles are appropriate for what situations and switching them around as those situations present themselves.

Leader Dies != Game Over - I actually only heard this from reading comments around the internet; I never actually died in the demo. If this is true, then YESPLZTHANKYOU, you have no idea how much I hated that.

Monsters - It seems the third party member slot will always be filled by a monster, which you randomly collect as you kill them. Each monster has a single role (COM, RAV, etc...) and you can equip a certain number of monsters that you switch in and out through Paradigm Shifting. This seems like it could be really interesting, but...

THE DOUBTS:
Monster Overload - In the demo alone, I got new monsters a bit... too often. One of the most annoying things an RPG can do is force you to go into the menu after nearly every fight (I'm looking at you, Lost Odyssey). It seems like there might end up being too much, and a fair share of them will turn out to be worthless.

Wounded - A new mechanic involves some enemies' attacks reducing your maximum HP for the duration of the battle, which shows up as a clear section on your health bar (Healable damage is red). It isn't really a hindrance in the demo, and there is a consumable item in the shop that cures it, but this looks like it could end up being extremely annoying. Or a nice new mechanic. But probably annoying.

The Graphics - Well, they're good for the first 10 minutes or so... then it starts raining. They don't do rain well. Other than that, pretty pretty.

QTE's - At the very least, they are pointed out to you way in advance of a QTE sequence happening, but... QTE's...

THE BAD:
Framerate - It might just be for the XB360 version, but the framerate is a slight bit unsmooth, even if nothing significant is happening. Either that, or the animation just sucks.

Random Battles, or rather, Random Loud Lightshow Pop-ins - Well, I wouldn't have minded if it were normal FF9/Golden Sun/Lost Odyssey type random battles, or FF13's old not-random battles, but no. FF13-2 decided to be dumb. Instead, enemies will randomly pop in on your screen, the music suddenly gets really loud, and most of the landscape except for a circular area around your character will turn red. Here, you can either run away, MMO style, to avoid the battle, or touch the enemy to fight. It seems like something that might have been in other RPGs I haven't played, but OH GOD LOUD DISORIENTING LIGHT AND SOUND SHOW.

Chocolina - (At least, I think that's what her name was) Seriously Squenix, what the fuck!?

The Crystarium - I don't understand it at all. It seems like All of the characters roles are merged onto one path, and you spend points to level up each individual role, and depending on the role you picked and the crystal that is next, you get different stats or something. I don't know, it confused the crap out of me and there is no tutorial in the demo.

So, thoughts anyone?

[Pie]

Thanks for the write-up Kerreth. =o I've been kinda curious about the demo, but not enough so that I'd download it. I'm surprised they kept the paradigm shift system, I honestly thought they completely changed it. XD Kinda like how X and X-2's battle systems are completely different.

Game over on hero death... ouch... Sounds terrible. >.< Reminds me of those Persona 3 moments when a random mob would get lucky with Mudo at inconvenient moment after hours of gameplay time. XD Yay!!?

LOL, decreased max hp status. I imagine that being more annoying that interesting. Breath of Fire 3 (and I think 4) have stacking temporary decreased max hp death penalties. It wasn't that big of an issue since I didn't die very often but the idea of the status being a constant issue reminds me of a time when I couldn't take down enemies on my current field map (I think due to completely running out of restoration supplies). I tried running from every battle and characters were dying left and right at every escape attempt. By the time I got off the field, everyone's max health was so ridiculously low. XD

[Soeroah]

Hmm. That thing about the Crystarium sounds sort of like the Sphere Grid from Final Fantasy 10? I loved that thing.


I enjoyed the first game so I think I'll enjoy this one as well. Potentially more, because time travel.

[Bear]

Has anyone bothered picking this up?

When our net connection went down, I picked up 13, dusted it off and started playing seriously for the first time. I was pretty impressed on the whole, the game changes a lot of things up and I think that the game is pretty refreshing overall. I really enjoy the battle system; there could be some tweaks here and there to polish it, but overall it is great. I had no intention of even looking at 13-2 stuff before, but now that I am fully invested in 13, I thought I would give the demo a spin.

And that was how, in the span of about 15 minutes, SquareEnix completely lost me. Magical girl Sera? Annoying sounding Moogle? Grown up Sora companion? QTEs? Terrible battle music? Horrendous rain effects? Graphics that look somehow worse than 13? Monster collection? Unnecessary effects in the menu system that make the Chrystarium look worse and menu transitions annoying? CHOCOLINA?!

At the point I heard Chocolina, I stood up from the couch and dropped the controller on the floor like a performer drops a mic. I was DONE.

WHAT THE HELL?! God damn it Squeenix. Why do you do this to me? I want to love you. I was even warming back up after 13. Then you turn me around and do unmentionable things to me. And I'm sore. SO SORE.

I felt heated about this because Gabe of PA gave a full recommendation and I just feel so confused. I can't even imagine this thing being good after the demo. I'm not opposed to change but come on. Stop going backwards please.

[RollCasket]

Having lost most faith in the numerical FFs at this point I didn't bother...but from my old roommate who has extensive experience in all games this is basically the sum up...

Really really fun battles...fuck awful story and characters

He had said almost exact quote "My eyes were glazing over as...things...were happening...and I couldn't care less." Just to defend a bit, rpgs are his favorite genre and he's played tons of every type of game so I usually take pretty good stock in his opinion on most games in general.

[Soeroah]

I'm enjoying it. I liked 13 and I love 13-2, but as I said, the Radiant Historia-like time travel is of interest to me. I prefer being able to do more right off the bat rather than what happened in 13.

But it's amusing. The general consensus is that this game is better than the first, because they took into account most of the complaints of the first game, except the story. It goes to show that everyone likes different things, when the game attempts to fix its past mistakes and becomes worse than the original in some people's eyes.

[ThePaul]

I bought it a Monday on Amazon. Won't get to play it till the weekend though. I don't know, fun combat tends to draw me into these things and annoying characters don't tend to bother me unless they try to murder me.

[Bear]

[Soeroah]

I prefered the linearity in 13 myself, the chapter where you get to go around whereever you want confused me some. And yeah, I can see how the presentation was a bit off, but at the same time it's kinda...realistic, I guess?

I'm an odd one. I find it pulls you out of the story less to pause, read some lore in the menu screen and return to the game than to have a character go all exposition and say things they wouldn't say just for the audience's benefit.



I'd never talk to my friends and go "man, it's sure hot in this state, South Australia, since summer started heating up due to global warming in the industrial ages all those years ago". I'd be far more likely to say "****, it's hot." :p


Now, if they had a character like Machen from FFX, that would be perfect. Have a historian who rambles about history when you talk to him and avoid both issues.

[Fixxxer 117]

Soeroah that's a very strange example, are you yourself from South Australia or did you randomly think of that,