FFXIII-2

[Crab_Cake]

Don't think that will happen. They've said again and again that the furthest you can travel to the past is to right where FFXIII ended.

Edit: Looking good so far. Allowing you to choose whether you want Extra Accessory, increased ATB, new role unlocking or improved current roles seems awesome.

Yes I know but I said it'd be neat if they could work it out as a flashback or something.

IMO there's a lot things they can do to expand the backstory. I would be a bit disappointed if they only focused on the new stuff only (I mean new + old would be nice).

For example they could *"directly elaborate" on white brands or how Ragnarok saved the world or what happened in the past, etc. Basically there's a lot more they could add to the backstory of the first game.

*A lot of stuff is just based on speculation but never directly stated or elaborated on in game.

Anyway while it can be assumed they'll expand and elaborate on those things (hopefully) there has been no real mention of it yet (most of it has just focusing on the new stuff).

[Gokulo]

Here you can vote for one of the DLC costumes:

http://www.ff13-2testplay.com/#/dlc

[Spira]

i voted for A, the black one!

[Nevex]

Same, not digging the Red Hood costume.
Besides the black one is very reminiscing of Lightning's original outfit, which I liked.

[Tyrath]

Voted B because it seems the most different from the typical costumes. Too bad it's not winning though.

[miokomioko]

Just say no to Little Red Riding Hood Serah. :<

[Jeryhn]

Voted B, because fuck you why can't we have both?

[Appie]

That would be quite funny if they tied haha. We must make it happen!

[Insanecyclone]

B looks slutty, picked A.

[Lonely]

The little shield looks kinda dumb on both of them, A is better except for the blue denim shorts, Now to only hope that SE will want our money.

[Insanecyclone]

http://www.siliconera.com/2011/11/16...antasy-xiii-2/


How Sunglasses Wearing Monsters Level Up In Final Fantasy XIII-2

Your Final Fantasy XIII-2 party consists of Serah, Noel, and a monster. Chocobos and Flanbaneros act just like characters. You can dress them up with sunglasses and acquire new abilities with the Crystarium system. Famitsu explains, each monster has their own Crystarium grid with skills to purchase with CP.



Players will train dozens of monsters and after awhile that Cait Sith you leveled up may become a benchwarmer. Final Fantasy XIII-2 has a system that lets one monster inherit the abilities of another. You can pass down four kinds of abilities: command abilities, auto abilities (like stat bonuses), special abilities, and resistances (presumably elemental and status guards). If the inheriting monster has the same role, say commando for example, they will learn the same command and auto abilities. Monsters that have a different role will gain new abilities. Of course, there’s a cost to this system. Transferring abilities require players to sacrifice a monster from their team.

[Gokulo]

More pokemon stuff :D You can also name your monsters

Other info:

Famitsu also has a few details on the Historia Crux time travel system, the fragment (quest) system and the game's world and story.

Regarding the Historia Crux system, the magazine shows two types of gates that you'll be able to cross to jump to new eras. Blue colored gates can be unlocked through general Wild OOPArts items. A yellow color means that a gate requires a specific key.

Getting all the fragments may be one of your goals, and it looks like the game does facilitate this. There are a total of 160 fragments. You can see how many you've gotten in the upper left of the Historia Crux screen. When cycling through gates on the Historia Crux screen, you can see how many fragments you've obtained from the corresponding era.

The story and world details this week include some conversation scenes involving Lighting, Serah and Noel (some of these appear to be just Japanese versions of the English screens that were shared earlier in the week). The magazine also introduces a strange building known as "Augustia Tower." This was built by the Academy, the group that was formed to make the people of the world acquire essentials without reliance on the fal'Cie, for a project that is not disclosed in the magazine. Because of disturbances in the space time continuum, the rooms and halls of this building are changing.

[Insanecyclone]

http://www.destructoid.com/i-played-...d-215950.phtml


I played 6 hours of Final Fantasy XIII-2 and it was good

I had a chance to visit the Tokyo offices of Square Enix to play through the first several hours of Final Fantasy XIII-2, from its beginning, straight through. I spent about a full day with this follow-up to Final Fantasy XIII. As a fan of the series, I'm glad to have had the chance to get this early hands-on time with the title. I'm also happy to tell you that this sequel improves upon the original and makes for a better game overall.

Series fans have expressed concern over this sequel. Numbered Final Fantasy sequels are still pretty new territory for Square Enix, so I understand the concern. That last numbered sequel didn't go over so well, did it?. This concern and the mixed reception of Final Fantasy XIII have put XIII-2 on thin ice for some.

I'm here to tell you that it's fine so far. I had no big issues with the full day I spent with Final Fantasy XIII-2. In fact, I think it improves on the original in several ways. It's more engaging than XIII, quite a bit more lighthearted, and way less linear. There's more variety and more action, too. The story is still absolutely insane, but it somehow works here. Stories are always crazy in time travel games, though.

Spoilers?

After my time with the game, Square Enix hit me with a massive list of story points that I am not allowed reveal. They were aiming to shoot down spoilers before they became an issue, which I fully understand. Still, speaking of Final Fantasy XIII-2's opening easily spoils the end of Final Fantasy XIII, as this sequel takes up the story right where the last one left off. I'm going to assume that those reading this preview have finished Final Fantasy XIII. If you haven't, and wish to avoid spoiling the end of that game, you may want to stop reading here. For those that continue, note that I have taken special care to avoid spoiling the story of Final Fantasy XIII-2 in this preview. That said, if you want to avoid any opening story elements, please skip to the section labeled "Systems."

The Story Continues:

Lightning saved the world of Cocoon at the end of Final Fantasy XIII, and most consider her dead now. What does she get for that amazing sacrifice? A one-way trip to Valhalla, where she's now the "Warrior Goddess," stuck fighting forever. Caius, a being that wants to destroy everything, is her eternal rival. The game opens to a fantastic battle between the two, and the player is dropped right into the action, controlling a version of Lightining that is more powerful than anything you saw in XIII. She kicks off the fight by actually blocking the Meteor summon! This is the sword fight of the century, fans. I got goosebumps when Lightning was flung out to space by Caius, but was saved from her fall by Odin. Square Enix pulls out all many of their best tricks from their bag of over-the-top effects. Awesome stuff.

During this battle a person is seen falling from the sky into Vahalla. Lightning swoops in to save this person and finds out that his name is Noel. She somehow manages to chat with him while continuing to battle Caius' most powerful attacks. She's that good. I can't reveal the details of their conversation, but I can tell you that she sends him on his way with a Moogle, and that he hops through a portal of time to find Lightning's sister, Serah.

The game opens to find Serah sleeping at home. She's crying in her sleep, as she's having a dream about her sister stuck in a strange world. In this dream she gets word that someone is coming to help her. When Serah wakes up from this dream, the world continues to be dream-like. She finds herself in a fight in her village, up against monsters that have fallen from the sky. While fighting, she meets a stranger named Noel. Noel hands Serah a Moogle, and tells her it was a gift from her sister. And then it transforms into a crossbow. Yeah.

As the two fight together, they get to know each other. It turns out that Noel is from the future, and is the last of humanity. He tells her that Cocoon does not exist in his time. He also tells her that he can help her find Lightning, and that she is alive and well. While Serah and her friends do not fully trust Noel yet, she still decides to travel with him through time to find her sister. Hopefully they can also figure out what went wrong with the world so that they can save the future for Noel.

What a strange game!

Final Fantasy XIII seemed to take itself a bit too seriously. I'm happy to report that Final Fantasy XIII-2 does not have this problem. At all. In fact, this game is quite strange. I've already revealed that a Moogle transforms into a crossbow. Wait until he turns back into a Moogle and begins talking to you! That blew my mind.

There's wierd stuff everywhere in Final Fantasy XIII-2. In the game's opening, Serah's clothes magically transform on her body, just like in Cinderella, but more nightclub-y. Stranger yet, she doesn't really question it. There's warped worlds that mix future and past, crazy magical items, and music that will make you laugh out loud. The strangeness even extends to the in-game shops. You'll meet a traveling merchant named Cocolina; she cosplays as a sexy chocobo and even tries to speak like one while selling her wares.

Oh, Great: Time Travel

I'll be honest. I wasn't thrilled to find out that Final Fantasy XIII-2's story would center around time travel. The story of XIII was already confusing enough, and I felt that adding time travel to the mix would make things even worse. I feared plot holes and rehashed visual assets. While some of those fears faintly remain, I'm no longer worried about how time travel fits into the story. It's vast and crazy, but it sort of works, and it's really fun to explore.

While I won't go into specifics to avoid spoiling the story, the line of time is really messed up, and you'll work to resolve time anomalies to set things straight and possibly save the future. Time is so jumbled that you'll find spots of any one place to have sped forward by centuries, or slipped back by ages. It's like all time has blended together, and you'll have to jump into portals and other anamolies to straighten things out, all the while fighting enemies and righting wrongs.

By resolving these anomalies along the timeline you'll obtain fragments, which are memories of time solidified into shards. These are used to trigger even more time travel through entering the Historia Crux, the crossroads of the time continuum. This crossroads is a sort of compass for navigating rivers of time, and here's where the game's non-linearity comes in.

In the Hisoria Crux you'll select year and location to get into new time ages. Entering and exploring new gates opens more areas to travel along the timeline. You have option of closing a gate leading to certain space-time location, allowing the resetting of history. Through this you can relive events and explore every potential outcome of time. You can work through events to rewind time. I know it sounds confusing, but there's solid visual navigation to help. A large hexagonal map with numbered gates and percentages makes this all manageable.

The short of all of this is that you'll freely wander through time, moving through old and new worlds, encountering new people and revisiting several familiar faces. This is exactly the opposite of running down a one-way narrow corridor to one single goal in Final Fantasy XIII. It's as if the developers are saying, "You want non-linearity? Try this one on for size!"

Systems, Old and New:

Cutscenes are nothing new to the Final Fantasy franchise, but this interactive twist is. New "Cinematic Action Sequences" pop up during cutscenes to keep you entertained. Unlike other games with QTEs, these sequences actually determine how the cutscene will continue. If you miss an attack or a block, you'll see that reflected in the cutscene. There's actually hit point scores in these cutscenes. We've all worked through QTEs before, and know that mashing prompted buttons isn't particularly exciting, but these are a bit more dynamic that others, and the outcomes are always at least visually rewarding.

These cinematic action sequences actually extend into battle. Key battles will feature triggered events to mix up the action. For example, against a boss named Paradox Alpha, regular battle gave way to events where I was prompted to dodge. If successful, I was able to run up to its body to find a weak point to stagger it, making the fight much easier. Successfully executing commands in these sequences brings about bonuses and gear.

Having power over monsters is also new to the battle system. Defeated monsters can turn into crystals, which makes them equip-able, and then open to adding to your party. This compatibility mode lets you add beasts into your paradigms, letting you custom tailor your sets for specific battle types. Customizability is huge, as you're also able to level up and add abilities to these monsters via the Crystarium. In battle, through Feral Link, you can actually charge up a meter to use each beast's special attack. Before my time with the game was finished, I had fully armed my paradigms with buffed beasts, which sort of reminded me of the Shin Megami Tensei games. I had a pretty useful Cait Sith in my party that I enjoyed using. This system alone is a huge addition to the game, and will likely thrill any fellow fans of monster commanding.

Other than the action sequences and monster commanding, the battle system is just like Final Fantasy XIII. That's good, as that was my favorite part of the game. I'm glad to say that there isn't a long stretch of time with the training wheels on. No mindless button mashing here, folks. You'll have to properly use your paradigms from the get-go, using your quick reflexes and careful planning to take down even early bosses. I died five or six times in a couple of different boss battles in my day of play. That's good news to anyone concerned about having to work through another super-easy stretch of game.

There a lot of new system changes and additions outside of battle. One of the biggest is the Live Trigger element. You'll be presented with multiple choice questions and situations throughout the game. The game comes to a stop and lets you decide how to proceed. They're used to decide how to respond to people in a conversation, or decide on which path to take. Take that, linearity!

Moogle has a couple of tricks up its sleeves, too. The Mog Clock mechanic lets you decide on how to engage enemies. A clock appears near enemies and gives a color to their encounter state. A green clock means that the enemy is immobile, and that a preemptive attack is possible. Yellow means that the enemy is ready, and that you'll get into a standard battle. Red means that time's up, and you'll start the battle with penalties. There are some random encounters in Final Fantasy XIII-2, so you'll need to be ready to watch for and react to the Mog Clock at all times.

Mog's dangling head bobble actually has a purpose! It glows when you're near treasure or key items. You'll have to carefully watch his head while looking for things to see the difference, but it does help. You can also toss your Moogle to retrieve treasure that you wouldn't be able to reach alone.

Overworld travel has changed a bit. There are still chocobos for fast travel, though they seem bigger now. Serah and others can now jump on the overworld map with a dedicated jump button, replacing the silly prompted transport spots of the previous game.

The Crystarium also returns, but it looks more space-y and time warp-y now. As before, you'll use it to spend experience points to learn new skills and spells.

Eye, Ear Candy:

Final Fantasy XIII-2 manages to look even better than its predecessor, with flashier visuals and epic cinematic sequences. The game's insane opening fight and battle will have your jaw fully dropped. They've also somehow piped more pink and purple into the game. It all looks very nice. There is some revisiting of old locales, but there's something new in all of them, and there's plenty of completely new areas to explore as well. Final Fantasy XIII-2 pushes the eye candy bar up a bit further with this one.

One of Final Fantasy XIII's high points was its musical score, so I was interested to see how they'd top it with this sequel. Somehow they did. Square put together a team of three master composers: Masashi Hamauzu, Naoshi Mizuta, and Mitsuto Suzuki. This team has created the most varied and exciting score in the franchise. They wanted to do something different with this game, so they worked in as many musical styles as possible. The majority of the songs in XIII-2 are new, and among them you'll hear remixes, singing and even rapping. Orchestral score takes a back seat to soaring voices, buzzing synthesizers and lots of emotional, morning changes. The musical score is all over the place, and I mean that in the best way.

Where I Stand:

I suppose you'll need to know where I stood on Final Fantasy XIII to get where I'm going with this sequel. I liked it. I liked it much more than Jim did. (http://www.destructoid.com/review-fi...i-167136.phtml) Yes, the game's story hurt my head, some of the acting hurt my ears, and I hated all the silly proper nouns, but I stand firmly behind the innovative battle system. Some of the key battles were beautifully orchestrated, requiring a mastery of Paradigms. Others tested reflexes and reaction time, working to stagger enemies and then punish them as quick as possible. Once I was past the game's terribly lengthy training stretch and had learned most of the proper nouns, I thoroughly enjoyed myself with Final Fantasy XIII-2.

Almost immediately, I liked Final Fantasy XIII-2 more. The new tone, lightheartedness and look drew me in. The system improvements and additions kept me in. And the new, fresh story, vastness of time travel, and the promise of non-linearity and free exploration have me looking forward to spending more time with it.

I feel really good about Final Fantasy XIII-2 after spending some six hours with it. Of course, time travel stories can easily go wrong. Very wrong. That said, the story was still moving at a steady clip, even after hopping through several time gates. No training wheels, no obvious plot holes. Just big battles and bigger story developments. The good stuff.

I see Final Fantasy XIII-2 as an opportunity to clarify some of the first game's story points, and it seemed to be headed that way, especially with some of the encounters that involved familiar faces from the last game. Again, it feels like the developers clearly heard all the criticism of the first game, and have worked to remedy as much as possible in this sequel. Just like Noel has gone back in time to save the future, Square Enix has gone back to save the world of Final Fantasy XIII. I hope they both succeed.

[Hyan]

http://ps3.rpgsite.net/interviews/33...tase-interview

Interview with Kitase

The lovely folks at Square Enix Europe were kind enough to give us the chance to sit down with Final Fantasy XIII-2 Producer Yoshinori Kitase earlier this month to talk about the latest developments in the continuing adventures of Lighting and Serah.

We bend his ear regarding everything from character ages to development time and how Tetsuya Nomura's artwork has come to embody the main-line Final Fantasy series. A lot of these questions are from readers over Twitter and other communications channels, so be sure to keep an eye out for further chances to pitch your questions to the producers of games you're interested in!

We'll have a fresh hands-on with Final Fantasy XIII-2 looking at a large chunk of the game from the opening until several hours in next week, but in the meantime remember to hit up the Final Fantasy XIII-2 game page for our previous Previews and Interviews and the Media Vault for Screenshots, Videos and Artwork from the game.


RPG Site: First up, some people in the community have expressed an interest in the playable characters in the game. Final Fantasy has always had younger lead characters, and notably with Final Fantasy XII they had an older lead for a while in Basch and then switched him out for the younger Vaan. In XIII-2 you've Serah and Noel, who are both very young. Is the choice of character age a deliberate thing to attract certain kinds of customers?
Yoshinori Kitase: The young playable characters are not something we did on purpose, really. What we had, to start with - Serah was one of the characters from XIII and in the story of XIII Serah becomes crystallized and her sister, Lightning, has to go through all the adventures to find a way to rescue her or bring her back to life. We wanted to tell the story in the reverse situation in XIII-2. At the beginning Lightning is missing, so Serah has to look for her - that was the bottom line to start with.

Noel and Serah are a fairly young cast, even by Final Fantasy terms.
Then we thought about maybe we should add a party with some Monsters and a Moogle. When we visualized Serah as the protagonist and the Moogle and the Monster, that'd be a little bit like X-2, for example - a story with three girls. X-2 was criticized by some people for being too poppy and too cheerful and too casual, too light hearted. Because Serah - unlike Lightning, she's quite a cute girly character, just combined with the monsters it'd be a little bit too - too sort of - not really serious enough.

Because XIII has quite a serious air to it, we wanted to take that over into XIII-2. Plus we wanted to make XIII-2's story a little bit darker and more mysterious, so we thought a male character would perfect the kind of general air of the game. That's why we decided to include Noel.

RPG Site: You've got the focus now on visible equipment in cutscenes - so if you equip a weapon it'll show up in cutscenes. Final Fantasy is quite famed for its pre-rendered CGI sequences, though. Does this new focus on showing equipped weapons mean we'll see less CG in the game?
Kitase: Because we know we've got great platforms, we've got a high spec that we can utilize. We used to have to use lots of pre-rendered movies - that was the only option, really. Now we obviously have another option, the real time rendering. On the other hand, pre-rendered visuals, the technique has moved on at the same time that the real-time rendering has improved as well. It's a bit of a Catch 22 - you can't say one way is better than the other. They'll never be the same quality.

In some particular types of cutscenes, like if you can think of a huge group of people against another huge group of people on quite a big scale, for that particular type of visuals I think pre-rendered might actually be better. It's one of those things where we'll continue to use pre-rendered. It's not like pre-rendered movies will be wiped out from RPGs, but it is great that the equipment and costumes and things like that can be reflected on the characters in the cutscenes, and also you can enjoy some kind of interaction with the visuals. I think that those two things will cohabit in RPGs we'll be making.

RPG Site: Some of the costumes and weapons will be available as downloadable content. With Dissidia, some of the downloadable items were exclusive to certain territories or events and such. Will there be a way for people to obtain all DLC eventually, regardless of where it first appeared?
Kitase: Obviously, we've got to consider the needs of different regions. We also have got tie-ups which need to be finalized yet - so, yeah. At the moment, we don't know.

Visual elements like weapons, costumes and monster customization form a big part of 13-2.
RPG Site: Will there be more than just monsters, costumes and items available for download?
Kitase: It's already been announced that there will be costumes available but also Omega, a monster. Because of the Monster recruitment system of the game once you've had a battle against Omega you can recruit it to be one of your party members. Other than that, after the release for several months we are planning to make different types of DLC available - not just monsters and costumes but other content as well. Unfortunately I can't give you any more details at the moment.

RPG Site: Final Fantasy XIII-2 is coming around a heck of a lot quicker than XIII did, but it is of course a sequel. Then you've got Versus which is taking quite a while - but it's crazy to think now that IV, V and VI all came out in the space of four years, and VII, VIII and IX came out in a mere three. Do you feel that age where you can kick out three all-original games in quick succession is gone, or are there lessons to be learned where you can speed up development again?
Kitase: You can't really talk about RPGs and FPS together - with some of the big name Western titles like Modern Warfare and Battlefield you can expect a new game in one year or two - a very quick turnaround. On the other hand, FPS the basics are already there - it's established, so you don't have to create everything from scratch. That's one of the reasons that they can make these games in such a quick turn-around.

When it comes to RPGs like Final Fantasy, obviously you have to make everything from scratch. As you say, Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a sequel to Final Fantasy XIII, so all the basics and technology was already there, so we only had to upgrade some aspects. If we wanted to make a numbered Final Fantasy title, you have to create a story, mechanics - everything. It's a painstaking process. In a way, it's inevitable that we take a little bit longer time.

RPG Site: I spoke to Mr. Yoshida about Final Fantasy XIV recently, and we talked about how open he's been since taking over the development of that game. XIV's having what I'd call an inclusive process, more directly involving fans in the process. Obviously that's an MMO and is different, but do you think there'd be a benefit to having a more open process with the fans for a single player game?
Kitase: Generally speaking I think it's a good idea to get all of the community involved, and we are definitely about that. On the other hand, you have to think of the natures of the different genres. MMO and 'boxed' titles are very different. For example, Final Fantasy XIV is an online game, and after the release it still has to keep evolving and taking in all sorts of ideas, and even if there's some mistakes or some areas that could be better, you can actually release a patch - there's a different way for the game to develop.

If it's a boxed title like Final Fantasy, once it's been released you can't really fix any problems - in a major way, anyway. What we did was this - we carried out user research sessions in all of the three regions periodically - we did it several times. We rounded up ordinary gamers rather than professional gamers, and they played a current build - it could've been Alpha version or whatever - and we collected their opinions and the pros and cons from these people. That reflected on the next build. In that way, the game could be - could represent - what ordinary gamers feel.

Tetsuya Nomura's influence is clear even on characters he didn't design.
RPG Site: The main Final Fantasy series has been mainly defined by one particular art style since VII, spearheaded by Tetsuya Nomura. Even when Nomura hasn't been the lead character designer, like with XIII, he's had some input and the game has overall followed his style. Do you see that as 'the' style for the main-line series of Final Fantasy, meaning we'll see other styles in things like Crystal Chronicles and the MMOs but not in the main single-player series, which is now defined by that style?
Kitase: You mentioned VII - that mark, that new departure into the world of 3D graphics and the high spec platforms and all the rest. So now we've got a much better graphics engine which means we're able to draw very realistic environment; everything is getting more and more real. If somebody was to turn around and ask us 'Would you like to make the characters look like Live Action?' our basic answer is no, because we don't need to.

Those characters don't need to look that realistic. They already look almost like actual human beings. Our basic sort of style is that even though they look quite realistic they still should have some elements of animation, manga taste to it. It's a nice sort of marriage of these two aspects will be something we always aim for. In that sense, Nomura's direction is perfect.

Also, that's something that Nomura is aiming for anyway - that's the kind of visual concept that Final Fantasy should stay with. At the moment, that is something that we think is the best.

RPG Site: We're over-running, but we have one last quick yes-or-no question from a reader. Hiroyuki Itou held various major roles on the Final Fantasy series right back to the original game in 1987, but he hasn't been credited in a production role of a game since 2007's Final Fantasy IV DS. Is he still with the company?
Kitase: (In English) Yes.

RPG Site: Thank you very much for your time! Good luck with the Japanese launch.

FFXV inc.

--------------------

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...y-13-2-preview

If you don't like Final Fantasy 13-2, it's your own fault.

For better or worse, the sequel to Square Enix's hard-to-love 2009 effort is a product of democracy. From its opening moments, it's clear that the franchise's core fanbase - or at least its noisier elements - has played a central role in how the game has taken shape.

Did you complain that Final Fantasy 13 was too linear? Square has listened - the corridors have widened out. Thought the first one took an age to get going? Fixed - FF13-2 throws you straight into a wildly OTT boss battle. Were you one of those stamping their feet at the lack of towns to explore and NPCs to chat up? Fear not - 13-2 is busier than Bluewater on Boxing Day. Or perhaps you took to a message board to decry the lack of merchants or Moogles? Rejoice - they're back.

"After we finished making Final Fantasy 13 we had lots of opportunities to listen to our users, as well as the media, and to pick up their feedback," producer Yoshinori Kitase tells Eurogamer in Square's Tokyo HQ.

"We took all of the views - both negative and positive - on board and incorporated those ideas and views into the making of 13-2."

And Square seemingly went much further than just skimming a few message boards. It actually shipped players into the studio for a full debrief on where they felt the game went wrong.

"We didn't just do simple questionnaires, we did more than that. What we did was carry out lots of one-on-one interviews with Final Fantasy gamers to collect their opinions and find out what they're looking for," he explains.

"Basically we wanted to build a very close relationship with gamers and get them involved in the process of making a new Final Fantasy game."

So, does the customer really know best? Well, judged on the game's first five hours or so, the jury is still out.

1/6 One area where FF13-2 doesn't disappoint is the boss fights. Expect eye-watering spectacle.
Previous Next View all ▸

As already mentioned, in sharp contrast to 13's meandering first third, its sequel bursts out of the gate at a furious clip. The action kicks off in Valhalla, with Lightning facing off against a new foe, and the game's principal antagonist, Caius - a purple-haired dandy seemingly in control of the universe's fractured timeline. Following a dazzling cinematic, we're straight into a boss fight, with Lightning racing along a beach on horseback while fending off Caius' Chaos Bahamut form.

The sequence acts as both a fierce statement of intent and a welcome refresher for the game's breathless Paradigm Shift battle system. As in 13, it's the game's undoubted highlight - dizzyingly fast and complex at first glance, but intuitive and very moreish under closer inspection.

"We took all of the views - both negative and positive - on board."

Yoshinori Kitase, producer, Final Fantasy 13-2

There are a couple of key refinements this time around, the more welcome of which is the new Feral Link feature that lets you recruit conquered monsters as a third member of your team, each with its own QTE-controlled charged special attack. It adds another layer of depth to proceedings, not to mention additional replayability for the collect-'em-all crowd.

On top of that, Square has added 'Cinematic Action' sequences - or, in layman's terms, more QTE. At certain points in key boss battles you can trigger a cutscene where a sequence of button presses and stick waggles result in you inflicting a devastating attack on your foe. Hardly boundary pushing.

With the opening Bahamut boss battle out of the way, the action switches to Gran Pulse, picking up a few years after the conclusion of FF13. We're reunited with Lightning's sister Serah as her adopted hometown of New Bodhum comes under attack from a gang of monsters. Mysterious new character Noel appears out of thin air to save the day, scoop up Serah and embark on a convoluted pan-dimensional quest to reunite her with Lightning and missing fiance Snow.

As promised, the action that follows is more expansive and less linear than in its predecessor. For example, you can wander round New Bodhum at your leisure, chatting to its inhabitants and rifling through their homes. Similarly, you're offered some freedom in your route to the next prescribed story trigger point, with paths branching off in various directions.
Play in standard definition
Play in high definition

Nope, the dialogue hasn't improved. Noel gets more than his fair share of the clunkers - 'One more thing... don't lay down... and wait to die!'

It is, in a literal sense, a far cry from the constrained corridors of its predecessor. That said, on the evidence of the game's first few areas, all this new space is largely empty real estate. The NPCs rarely offer more than glib one-liners, their houses are barren and the branching paths all eventually loop round to the same end point. Here's hoping a little more imagination is on display later on in the game.

It's worth noting that the game's new Historia Crux map system, that lets you revisit areas in different time zones, also promises to help make the game feel less linear. However, we can't comment with authority on just how effective it is, as it doesn't really come into play during the game's first few hours.

"I'm utterly convinced it's going to be a success."

Yoshinori Kitase

The game's other big addition is occasional sequences which see Serah transported to something called The Void Beyond and asked to solve a spatial puzzle in order to move the story along. These differ slightly but are basically all variations on navigating your way across grid squares in the correct order. It's an unusual addition and the implementation is rather clumsy, but it does serve to make Final Fantasy 13-2 feel a little more like a game and less like an interactive movie.

All these tweaks, along with the introduction of a Moogle traveling companion for Serah called Mog and a merchant who pops up every now and then to offer various potions and power-ups demonstrate generous respect for the game's fanbase. However, it's also indicative of Square's lack of confidence in Final Fantasy 13's relatively bold template and, like anything designed by committee, at times it all feels like a hasty compromise.

1/23 Serah's preening squeeze Snow Villiers is among 13-2's returning cast members.
Previous Next View all ▸

But while the changes might sound relatively drastic, at its core 13-2 plays very much like its predecessor - albeit more streamlined and crowd-pleasing. If you were sucked in by 13's brash spectacle and flashy combat, you'll be more than happy with what Square has to offer here.

However, if you dismissed it as a bloated CGI melodrama that demands little more from the player than an occasional frantic flurry of button presses to move the story along, then its various populist tweaks are unlikely to provide the volte-face you might have been hoping for.

But then, as Kitase admits, keeping every Final Fantasy fan happy is an impossible task. For a series boasting as long and storied a heritage as Final Fantasy, whatever direction Square takes is bound to leave someone out in the cold.

"So long as we take a certain direction that means there will be people who won't be perfectly happy with the game we make," he explains. "We can't cover 100 per cent of the gamers. That would be a very difficult challenge to take on. But we want to make those people as few as possible."

But what if that ratio doesn't fall in Square's favour? What if 13-2 is met with even less enthusiasm than 13? Given the disastrous launch of Final Fantasy XIV Online, it's a series badly in need of a hit.

"I can't answer that question because I'm utterly convinced it's going to be a success," he replies confidently.

"If we look at the entire history of the franchise - now we have 14, and maybe 15 and 16 in the near future - there have been Final Fantasy titles that have been extremely popular and some that people liked less.

"But the beauty of the franchise is that we establish a new universe and new concepts every time with the numbered titles. Even if any particular game turns out to be a flop, the next one we can start afresh, we can reset and move on. It's going to be okay."

-------------------------------------------------

http://www.incgamers.com/Previews/35...y-xiii-preview

http://www.incgamers.com/images/scre...30881blade.jpg

“People thought that [Final Fantasy XIII] was too linear and it limited the amount of exploration available to players,” long time Final Fantasy producer/director Yoshinori Kitase tells us. “[We’ve] accepted it’s something that could have been better and something we’re looking at improving in XII-2.”

Our eight hours with Final Fantasy XIII-2 this far certainly demonstrated a focus on increasing exploration and decreasing linearity. The driving force behind the change is the Historia Crux, a hub that allows you to travel through time and space in a bid to unravel secrets and correct anomalies that have appeared in the timeline since the ending of FFXIII. Arrange in a simple grid system, each of the Historia Crux’s nodes represents an area for you to explore and further the story.

In essence it plays out like a level/mission structure the like of which you’d expect to find in an action or adventure game. Each location within the Crux is dubbed a ‘Chapter’ and all of those we’ve played so far have finished with a boss fight of some kind and a single key piece of story progression. While we didn’t get far enough to test this for ourselves, we’re told that once you reach a certain point you can choose to visit the Chapters at your own pace and in your own order.

“We have an expectation about which route players will likely take through the game but some players will take very unexpected routes,” Kitase said. “That’s been something we’ve thought about a lot and have had to take into account when designing areas and the time in history that they exist.”

http://www.incgamers.com/images/scre...30886blade.jpg

It’s a far cry from the stifling corridor system that dominated much of FFXIII. Once completed you can replay a Chapter to find treasures you’ve missed or beat enemies you were previously not strong enough to defeat.

Because different areas are set in different times, you’ll meet characters from XIII that are at a different stage of their lives than they once were. We’re bound to secrecy about specifics but rest assured that your favourites will most probably be here, but most probably older or younger than you remember.

Like the individual characters, we’re forbidden from giving much away in terms of the plot. However, the bare bones of it is that Lightning (protagonist from FFXIII) has been ‘crystallised’ and, playing as her younger sister Serah, it’s your job to save her. Anyone that has played XIII will immediately pick up on symmetry of the setup (Lightning had to save Serah in that game). The Serah of this game is a slightly older, more mature personality – the writers ridding her of the helpless child role she portrayed previously and kitting her out in significantly more sexy grown up attire.

I had previously not been a huge fan of the idea of direct sequels to Final Fantasy games, but the way in which this story focuses on character growth and viewing events from different angles is intriguing. In truth, despite only playing three chapters, it has gone some way to changing my mind about the sequel idea already. Just how much it changes my mind be something I’ll reserve judgment on until I’ve played the whole thing.

http://www.incgamers.com/images/scre...30883blade.jpg

Not everything has changed though, this is still a Final Fantasy game and it’s still a Final Fantasy XIII game. For starters, the opening is as epic as you’re ever likely to see. It employs that classic videogame technique of look-how-strong-you’re-going-to-be-later, before starting you off on your journey without any of those same abilities and a burning desire to regain them.

The battle system remains largely unchanged, also. It’s still based around Paradigm Shifts and levelling up your characters to fulfil certain roles (healer, magic user, melee, status effect shifter) and your attitude to the whether that’s a good thing will entirely rest on whether you liked it in the last game or not.

As far as Kitase in concerned, the battle system has always been a success:

"[XIII] was the first Final Fantasy for the current generation of consoles so we wanted to implement a new battle system which was speedy and tactical, and I think it was a success also."

This time around you’re able to bring certain defeated enemies into your party. While they’re not quite as powerful as your standard party members, these enemies often have unique abilities that can help you out in tough situations. For example, I didn’t have anyone with a healing ability for the first few hours (instead relying on potions) but bringing a foe-turned-friend into proceedings sorted that out immediately.

http://www.incgamers.com/images/scre...30876blade.jpg

Boss battles have been given a cinematic boost by incorporating quick-time events as certain key points. Usually, but not exclusively, these occur at the end of the battle to provide a flashy, over-the-top visual flair to the finale. While they look great and offer something we’ve not seen before in a Final Fantasy title, their inclusion is not always welcome.

A certain boss battle was failed three times in succession on the same quick-time event. The result was that I had to start the entire battle over again every time. Adding a little zing is all well and good but it should never get in the way of the gameplay. Failing an epic battle on the back of something as trivial as not hitting ‘X’ fast enough seems wrong, especially in Final Fantasy.

The way in which non-boss battles are initiated is slightly different; the ‘Mog Clock’ giving you a slight element of control in selecting opponents and how they begin. When you approach an enemy in the world, your clock will pop up and scroll between green, yellow and red. The rate at which the colour changes is based on your distance from the target, their line of sight and their species.

For example, attack from behind and your clock will likely stay at green, giving you the first attack when the battle starts proper. If the clock turns red the enemy is about to attack and if you fail to beat them to it they’ll start with the first attack against you. Yellow will start a standard battle without advantages to either side.

http://www.incgamers.com/images/scre...30885blade.jpg

Other than that the rest seems typically Final Fantasy. Chocobos are back, convoluted speech is back, grand mythologies are back and 90 per cent of names are still unpronounceable. Still, the Historia Crux adds a fresh spin on old ideas and should satisfy those that enjoyed Final Fantasy XIII’s individual elements but didn’t like the way they were presented as a whole.

Oh, and there’s a jump button. But it doesn’t do a lot…

I’m going to be honest and say that Final Fantasy XIII was the first game in series (excluding the MMOs) that I haven’t completed since Final Fantasy VII. I couldn’t get past the linearity of that first 30 hours. A mere eight hours into Final Fantasy XIII-2 and I can’t wait to play more and explore the possibilities of choosing my own path through time.

Plus, Serah is a more intriguing proposition than Lightning. Gentler and more naïve than her older sister I’m much more interested about how Serah will grow and change over time than I ever was with Lightning.

-------------------------------------

GameSpot video interview:

<<link removed due to copyright issues/new policy>>

[Lonely]

Saw the link on destructoid leading to the original XIII review and it gave me cancer, then I saw who wrote is and his recent articles then laughed and moderately raged.

The first impressions are all generally positive which is good, though obviously some are trying to lean more to a "XIII was the worst game ever" thing which was popular.

RPG Site: Final Fantasy XIII-2 is coming around a heck of a lot quicker than XIII did, but it is of course a sequel. Then you've got Versus which is taking quite a while - but it's crazy to think now that IV, V and VI all came out in the space of four years, and VII, VIII and IX came out in a mere three. Do you feel that age where you can kick out three all-original games in quick succession is gone, or are there lessons to be learned where you can speed up development again?
Kitase: You can't really talk about RPGs and FPS together - with some of the big name Western titles like Modern Warfare and Battlefield you can expect a new game in one year or two - a very quick turnaround. On the other hand, FPS the basics are already there - it's established, so you don't have to create everything from scratch. That's one of the reasons that they can make these games in such a quick turn-around.

Honestly I kinda wish they would just stick with the core battle system in XIII and make more improvements/twist while pushing out new numbered final fantasys like 4-6 and 7-9 did. Looks like now they want to do something completely new in every title though. At least there will be XIII-1/2/3

Tetsuya Nomura's influence is clear even on characters he didn't design.
RPG Site: The main Final Fantasy series has been mainly defined by one particular art style since VII, spearheaded by Tetsuya Nomura. Even when Nomura hasn't been the lead character designer, like with XIII, he's had some input and the game has overall followed his style. Do you see that as 'the' style for the main-line series of Final Fantasy, meaning we'll see other styles in things like Crystal Chronicles and the MMOs but not in the main single-player series, which is now defined by that style?
Kitase: You mentioned VII - that mark, that new departure into the world of 3D graphics and the high spec platforms and all the rest. So now we've got a much better graphics engine which means we're able to draw very realistic environment; everything is getting more and more real. If somebody was to turn around and ask us 'Would you like to make the characters look like Live Action?' our basic answer is no, because we don't need to.

haha, what

[Hyan]

XIII was the worst game in the history of video games and also all forms of entertainment ever known to man

you just pressed x to win, wtf is that about

[Kaslo]

XIII was the worst game in the history of video games and also all forms of entertainment ever known to man

you just pressed x to win, wtf is that about

Not sure if trolling...

[Ratatapa]

Well officially reserved and fully paid XIII collectors

My body is ready

[Crab_Cake]

Not sure if trolling...

He is trolling. Hyan is an FFXIII fanatic.

Also he loves and respects Vanille like me amirite? (Hyan you better or I'll cry QQ.)


Anyway I like how they asked about FFXIV + Yoshida and whether they'll do it like that for single player games (more community interaction). IMO they should setup message boards for the FF single player games too. Maybe throw in polls + surveys, maybe have some of the developers post once in a while and address concerns, etc.

Obviously players can't really offer a lot of feedback on upcoming games (they have not played yet) but at the least offer what they'd like about previous FFs for devs to take into account for future games.

[Lonely]

It seems you have not seen the Final Fantasy community outside of BG, take a look at the XIV forums or gamespot boards.

Everyone would just cry they want magitek armor and scream when SE would change something.