FFXIII-2

[Alkar]

With the popularity Lightning has I seriously doubt she won't be fully playable. When they announced XIII-2 they also said she is the main character of the game.

[miokomioko]

Obviously she is playable to some degree. Obviously she is a main focus of the story. We all know that.

However, this does not automatically mean she is going to be one of your 3, main, playable party members alongside Noel and Serah. I, personally, do not see that happening with what has been revealed so far and the game being released this year... unless, at some point in the game, Noel leaves the main party and Lightning takes his place.

We'll see... but so far it's looking to me like a static party, a la X-2, with some "meanwhile" switches over to Lightning to solo stuff and/or deal with that mysterious antagonist.

[Tyrath]

Except she really should be one of the major playable characters because she is so popular. No one knows who the hell Noel is, and Serah hasn't had enough time to have a big fanbase.

Bottom line is that it's going to be a huge letdown if Lightning is only playable in select few special fights throughout the game.

[Cichy]

Except she really should be one of the major playable characters because she is so popular. No one knows who the hell Noel is, and Serah hasn't had enough time to have a big fanbase.

Bottom line is that it's going to be a huge letdown if Lightning is only playable in select few special fights throughout the game.

I'm afraid this maybe the case, I think Lightning is this super powerful being now so it maybe anti climactic if she fights along side with Serah. It seems like Serah's ability to summon the monsters will be the backbone of the game, I'm sure we going to encounter some characters that will also join us but unless Serah and Lighting reunite midway through the game or something I dont think we going to get Sarah and her party and Lightning and her party stuff.

I hate to say it but Lovely Bones poped into my head, where Mark Whalberg is looking for his daughters killer and she's trying to help him from other dimension lol

[ArchDizzle]

Serah/Noel are the only ones revealed to be played normally (lots of normal encounters, running around, fight completion, crystogen/loot, dialog, menus, tutorials, etc.). It's very possible (and I think very likely) that any other character (read: Lightning) is played separate from any standard random-encounter/exploration and not in any normal fashion (occasional story focus shifts). I mean, the demo'd Chaos Bahamut fight takes place on Odin, at full gallop, without any Gestalt timer/gauge/etc. It reeks of "this is more of an interactive cinematic than an actual boss fight."

There's really too many possibilities and way more customization with the third member always being a monster to have the option of replacing it with a human character that excels in one job, is alright in two others, and sucks at the rest.

Just because the monster additions are so intrical doesnt mean we wont get more playable characters that can be switched out in place of Serah/Noel depending on the players preference.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Alkar]

Noel obviously knows what's going on and that's pretty clear from the trailers. The fact that his mission right now is to find Lightning and not destroy whatever is messing up Pulse means that they will find her one way or another before the game ends.
This is not X-2 and "I'll look for my dead boyfriend", Serah and Noel's mission and possibly the key to save the world is Lightning. That's just too big for a character you cannot play as.
And let's not forget the reason why you had only 3 characters in X-2: the job system. There were tons of jobs and each girl had unique abilities in some of them.
XIII-2's growth is still unknown but we still have the roles in battle and they don't offer the same variety nor can you change monsters on the fly as far as we know.
Other sequels (TAY, Revenant Wings) actually brought back all the playable characters from the previous one (except the dead obviously) so it wouldn't be the first time. I doubt this game will only have 2 characters that weren't even playable or seen in the first title.

[Nevex]

High quality demo gameplay. The music is pretty amazing, reminds me of Persona 3.





Speaking of Persona 3, Noel's voice sounds like Junpei's.

According to GameInformer, it seems that the western version of the game will be released in January 2012.
DLC is also confirmed.

[Cichy]

Noel obviously knows what's going on and that's pretty clear from the trailers. The fact that his mission right now is to find Lightning and not destroy whatever is messing up Pulse means that they will find her one way or another before the game ends.
This is not X-2 and "I'll look for my dead boyfriend", Serah and Noel's mission and possibly the key to save the world is Lightning. That's just too big for a character you cannot play as.
And let's not forget the reason why you had only 3 characters in X-2: the job system. There were tons of jobs and each girl had unique abilities in some of them.
XIII-2's growth is still unknown but we still have the roles in battle and they don't offer the same variety nor can you change monsters on the fly as far as we know.
Other sequels (TAY, Revenant Wings) actually brought back all the playable characters from the previous one (except the dead obviously) so it wouldn't be the first time. I doubt this game will only have 2 characters that weren't even playable or seen in the first title.

There is no doubt this game will have more than 2 characters, I'm just saying that unless we reunite with Lightning we will most likely play her arch of the story only using her.

[Spira]

i too feel that the main story arc will mainly be Serah + Noel + monster. The current vibe i'm getting is that they're more of a dynamic duo sort of thing, and the story will play off their interactions and how they learn about each other, so that effect might be diluted if there were more mainstay characters..

I think Lightning will have a story arc not unlike Laguna in FF8. Reason being that Lightning is supposed to be dead, so if suddenly shes running around towns with the duo it seems a bit odd that anyone you interact with who might recognize her wouldn't respond to that. Also because she feels more independent than tagging along.

As for the other characters, maybe cameo playability or limited play i think. That or Serah's character takes up 2 slots and if you wanna use other people you can only have 2 characters + 1 monster instead of 3...

[Nevex]

I'm really not buying the whole Serah+Noel+monster thing. That would mean giving the duo access to every single spell and ability in the game. Also, what about SYN and SAB roles? Do we have to rely on monsters for buffs and debuffs until Serah and Noel get them? Seems pretty unrealistic.

I think monsters are exclusive to Serah since they're essentially her Eidolon according to the interview but they're also entirely optional and we can use humans in their place if we want to.

[Skidz]

I think monsters are exclusive to Serah since they're essentially her Eidolon according to the interview

Can someone please link to this interview? I've read this a few times now in this thread (that serah "summons" the monsters), but all i remember reading is that there are 3 charatcter slots in your party, plus an additional 2 monster slots, and that you get the ability to use a monster only if that monster drops a certain crystal when killed.

[Nevex]

This is the interview where they mention it: http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/201...eam_interview/

[Spira]

I dunno.. it still feels like more of a duo thing than a party going everywhere thing.

Maybe the monsters take the place of 3rd character for most of the game, but in certain areas / parts of the story you get 'guest' characters popping in to do certain things that will occupy the 3rd slot.. or something..

too little info to say really.

[vadre]

I seem to remember somewhere it saying you could have 3 party members and 2 monsters on the go? (Edit: Just looked it up, apparently it might have just been a misleading IGN statement, and they probably take the third slot. This does not please me if so, especially if it's the same 25 enemy families, each with 6 different recolours
to equate to '150 possible!'. 5-man teams with 3 members and 2 monsters would've made for some epic strategy)

Also, not sure if this has been posted, but we get a clearer picture of the city in the 'invisible world' or wherever lightning is, looks pretty amazing: http://www.ff-xiii.net/images/media/...ormer-Scan.jpg . Definitely getting a 'distorted time' feeling from the sort of 'bendy green clock face' wrapped round the buildings, wonder if that was the design strategy considering this game's apparent space-and-time-faring stuff.

Edit:
http://www.ff-xiii.net/images/media/...mer-Scan-3.jpg <- What the hell is that thing on the left hand side?!

"Although she uses a sword in this demo, Serah will acquire a compound bow later in the story (a weapon intended to preserve her femininity, according to Square Enix".

"And at one point I heard Noel and Serah mention that Lightning may be in a place called Valhalla" < Still hoping she killed herself and is now a valkyrie of some description, goes pretty nicely with their 'dark atmosphere' for FFXIII-2.

(The other scans are on FF-XIII.net, if anyone wants to take a looksy)

[Spira]

the city looks nice...

and i think that s a cieth

[Elcura]

I'm liking the music, especially that Atlas Paradox fight. Does remind me of Persona, but it doesn't seem as annoying yet (because I haven't heard it repeated 20000 times).

[vadre]

the city looks nice...

and i think that s a cieth

Yeah, does sort of look like a frankencieth

[miokomioko]

This is the interview where they mention it: http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/201...eam_interview/

Eh... all they really said there was that she doesn't summon anything. There has been mention that it's possibly Mog that does the summoning/morphing/etc. If Mog is something that comes with Serah, that's easily what they meant by "in its place" since she's most likely not a l'Cie again. Or, that it's simply a battle mechanic there instead of being to summon Eidolons at all. (I'm pretty sure Noel didn't have the summon option at all in the demo and he looks a little too upbeat to ever encounter an Eidolon... not to mention he's probably not a l'Cie anyways)

To whoever said something about the two characters needing to know every spell in the game, that might be their aim for the monsters, since they are customizable. The two humans know a decent but incomplete array of jobs/spells/whatever while the NUMEROUS monsters will cover the rest of the bases. Many know spells and you slowly build your roster of summonable monsters that do know the spells you want to use.


...and that thing looks like Barthandalus didn't complete his focus. (possible?!)

edit: sadface that they didn't put the fanfare back in for this one

[Gokulo]

(I'm pretty sure Noel didn't have the summon option at all in the demo and he looks a little too upbeat to ever encounter an Eidolon... not to mention he's probably not a l'Cie anyways)

I think in one of the interviews they said that the option to use Eidolons will no longer be there, so I guess there's no point even pondering about that stuff.

[vadre]

...and that thing looks like Barthandalus didn't complete his focus. (possible?!)

That would be AMAZING.

Edit: The lack of eidolons is kinda disappointing, I mean, it would've been nice to see some new ones. That said, i think I've seen all of 5 models in this game so far that weren't in FFXIII :S