FFXIII-2

[Burningthought]

I wish I could ask you to elaborate, but I don't want to spoil it for myself D:

Does it suck in a poorly written way, or a poor outcome kind of way? (Is that a spoiler?)

TL;DR: It's written in a way where there has to be a sequel (FFXIII-3).

The ending is probably one of the least satisfying endings i've ever seen, and the secret scene basically describes what Caius' intentions were for the entire plot. The amount of effort you have to put in to get the secret scene is pretty rediculous, you have to beat the game at least once, and then collect all 160 fragments. After that you get a pop up telling you to go to an area at a certain AF.

The paradox endings are "what ifs" and don't really explain anything about the plot, some of them are funny, some are sad, but almost none of them have anything to do with Lightning/Caius. You also can't change the ending. I watched the steamers do everything from time reversals, to answering Live Triggers differently, pressing Circle or Square or nothing during the ending scene none of it has any effect on what happens.

From what I could understand the dialogue is pretty well written, Yeul is a very interesting character, she also wrote a few of the analects in XIII, and might have been physically present to get the ball rolling on everything. XIII-2 makes the entire "XIII" series a lot more interesting, brush up on your FNC mythos because the Gods are pretty important, Buniberzei, Lindzei, and Etro. Knowing the mythology will spread a bit of light on the events that occur, or the events that will occur in XIII-3.

Don't expect to really get to see much of any of the main cast, mostly just Hope and to a lesser extent Sazh. Hope is a bit more bare-able this time around though. Lightning has about 15 minutes of screen time with 10 of that being in the opening scene. I believe you only really get to see Fang and Vanille during a paradox ending. One interesting thing I did see about XIII-2 is that you get to learn a bit about Lightning when she was in the Guardian Corps.

Like I said earlier in my post, the ending is done in such a way where there has to be a sequel. Square-Enix doesn't have the balls to leave the story where it is now. That and it's too much of a coincidence that they registered the domain for XIII-3. The ending is not something you would expect from a game that is supposed to tie up everything. Anyway, I hope that answered your question without spoiling anything.

Edit: Serah's titties look weird in her new outfit, I hope they release her old one as DLC or at least release the Bikini one stateside asap.

[Lucavi]

Am I the only one still not hyped by this game? D:

[Burningthought]

Am I the only one still not hyped by this game? D:

I'm more hyped since I spoiled most of the game for myself, I really want to soak in all the details and try to figure out what is going to happen.

[Kuya]

I need one of you guys to spoil the game's plot for me as if i were a strange whore, since i will probably not buy the game.

[Burningthought]

I need one of you guys to spoil the game's plot for me as if i were a strange whore, since i will probably not buy the game.

Spoiler: show

Caius kills himself, Serah and Mog die, Lightning becomes petrified/stoned, Chaos/Darkness covers Buniberzei and turns it into Valhalla basically. The secret scene shows Caius revealing that he is trying to create a world without a goddess(lightning/etro) presumably to save Yeul. It seems like everyone dies at the end, but if they didn't die, then Noel/Hope/Sazh are going to be the protagonists for XIII-3.


Also I want to make it perfectly clear that I do not read Japanese fluently, and i'm just stating what I observed while watching the cutscenes. There might be some dialogue that clears up any confusion.

[vadre]

TL;DR: It's written in a way where there has to be a sequel (FFXIII-3).

The ending is probably one of the least satisfying endings i've ever seen, and the secret scene basically describes what Caius' intentions were for the entire plot. The amount of effort you have to put in to get the secret scene is pretty rediculous, you have to beat the game at least once, and then collect all 160 fragments. After that you get a pop up telling you to go to an area at a certain AF.

The paradox endings are "what ifs" and don't really explain anything about the plot, some of them are funny, some are sad, but almost none of them have anything to do with Lightning/Caius. You also can't change the ending. I watched the steamers do everything from time reversals, to answering Live Triggers differently, pressing Circle or Square or nothing during the ending scene none of it has any effect on what happens.

From what I could understand the dialogue is pretty well written, Yeul is a very interesting character, she also wrote a few of the analects in XIII, and might have been physically present to get the ball rolling on everything. XIII-2 makes the entire "XIII" series a lot more interesting, brush up on your FNC mythos because the Gods are pretty important, Buniberzei, Lindzei, and Etro. Knowing the mythology will spread a bit of light on the events that occur, or the events that will occur in XIII-3.

Don't expect to really get to see much of any of the main cast, mostly just Hope and to a lesser extent Sazh. Hope is a bit more bare-able this time around though. Lightning has about 15 minutes of screen time with 10 of that being in the opening scene. I believe you only really get to see Fang and Vanille during a paradox ending. One interesting thing I did see about XIII-2 is that you get to learn a bit about Lightning when she was in the Guardian Corps.

Like I said earlier in my post, the ending is done in such a way where there has to be a sequel. Square-Enix doesn't have the balls to leave the story where it is now. That and it's too much of a coincidence that they registered the domain for XIII-3. The ending is not something you would expect from a game that is supposed to tie up everything. Anyway, I hope that answered your question without spoiling anything.

Edit: Serah's titties look weird in her new outfit, I hope they release her old one as DLC or at least release the Bikini one stateside asap.

Thanks! I appreciate the non-spoilery description. In a way I guess I find that kind of disappointing, but when we started getting XIII-2 details I sort of guessed we might be on for a trilogy based on the fact that seemed odd that we wouldn't be playing as the original cast, and I could see a third wrapping up game getting the old and new gang back together (maybe 3-man team + monster?). In addition to that, I sort of guessed Caius was the bad guy working on behalf of whatever chaos is, but that sort of neglected the apparent threat that is Buniberzei (this is all going on assumption of course) and the fact that I sort of expected him to be a final boss as he emerges from being crystalised and gets pretty pissed at you messing with his plans.

It would be kind of neat if there's a third game where you get the team back all on Lightning's level being all god-slayerish.

Again, all speculation so I have no idea whether any of that's possible after XIII-2.

Oh and doesn't Serah have a 'summoner' costume that looks better than her basic one? I think it's a preorder bonus?

[Burningthought]

We still don't know a lot about Caius even at the end of the game. We don't know if he's acting under a God, or if he's a deity himself. All we really know is that he is the Keeper of Time, he can see the universe's true history and he's pretty much immortal. There's another important tidbit that i'm going to leave out just because it might be too much of a spoiler. I really want to get my hands on the game in English so I can iron out the little details. It's important to note that Chaos is a force, and not really a person/God.

Buniberzei is definitely going to be interesting, since he basically hates Etro since she has the likeness of Muin. Perhaps he's after the same thing as Barthandelus, maybe he wants to bring back the Maker.

[vadre]

I thought Muin was the maker and he killed her? I don't really remember.

Do you get to see Etro?

Spoiler: show

I know you see 'Etro's gate' or whatever (which looks exactly like the crystal thing behind orphan at the end of XIII, dunno if that's relevant to anything) that Noel appears from but that's it

[Burningthought]

I thought Muin was the maker and he killed her? I don't really remember.

Do you get to see Etro?

Spoiler: show

I know you see 'Etro's gate' or whatever (which looks exactly like the crystal thing behind orphan at the end of XIII, dunno if that's relevant to anything) that Noel appears from but that's it

That stuff can be answered on the FF Wikia if you spend a few minutes looking up stuff. I don't think Muin is the Maker, but I could be wrong.

Spoiler: Just stuff about Etro and nothing else. Spoilered in case people want to find out for themselves.

Spoiler: show

That is the Door of Souls, but yeah basically Etro's gate. No you do not get to see Etro but you get to see her throne. Lightning becomes a tool of Etro once she gets pulled by chaos into Valhalla.

[Kuya]

Spoiler: show

Caius kills himself, Serah and Mog die, Lightning becomes petrified/stoned, Chaos/Darkness covers Buniberzei and turns it into Valhalla basically. The secret scene shows Caius revealing that he is trying to create a world with a goddess(lightning/etro) presumably to save Yeul. It seems like everyone dies at the end, but if they didn't die, then Noel/Hope/Sazh are going to be the protagonists for XIII-3.

This is very confusing.

[Burningthought]

This is very confusing.

I know right. But that is seriously how shit went down. Go look it up on youtube/twitch.tv

Spoiler: show

This might shed some more light on what went down at the end:

One of the possible endings of Final Fantasy XIII-2 ends with Etro's shrine appearing in Pulse with a flood of Chaos, with Lightning petrified sitting on Etro's throne, making Etro appear to be more villainous than she seems. The event occurs after Caius' demise at the hands of Noel and consequent death of Etro herself, caused by the destruction of the "Heart of Chaos" entrusted to Caius by the goddess (said heart being her own).

I didn't really get a lot of reliable translations, so I mostly went with what I saw, and not what people were saying.

Edit: Also *without, in the original spoiler, accidently typoed.

[Jaxzer]

Ok I'm officially staying out of this thread lol.

[vadre]

Oh lordy, just looked at this on my phone and accidentally opened the one with the all the massive spoilers. First line could not be unseen, so I pretty much went crazy.

Still going to get it, sounds really interesting

Spoiler: show

Last question, was it ever uncovered what alyssa was up to? At one point I caught a bit of stream where she looked kinda evil and apparently messed with the historia thing, at which point I turned it off

[Burningthought]

Oh lordy, just looked at this on my phone and accidentally opened the one with the all the massive spoilers. First line could not be unseen, so I pretty much went crazy.

Still going to get it, sounds really interesting

Spoiler: show

Last question, was it ever uncovered what alyssa was up to? At one point I caught a bit of stream where she looked kinda evil and apparently messed with the historia thing, at which point I turned it off

Spoiler: show

Snow appears in Academia and stops Alyssa from tricking Serah and Noel into going to Caius's trap, before flying off with Serah and Mog on Shiva as Noel and Hope look on.

Edit: I didn't get to see this ending for myself.

[solracht]

Am I the only one still not hyped by this game? D:

I wasn't either until last month, then I watched a trailer and heard Liam O'Brien voicing the antagonist.

Motherfucking Kain, Lucavi. Come on!

I'm serious, this is why I started reading about this game.

[Elcura]

Liam O'Brien makes everything he voices absolutely epic.

[Alkar]

I honestly don't mind if they make a XIII-3 at this point. Anything is better than having to wait 3-4 years for the next big FF title on consoles.
It now makes sense why the focus in XIII-2 isn't the old cast but Serah/Noel, most likely a third entry will change things up again.
The only thing I'm kinda disappointed in is that Lightning is wearing her XIII outfit in that DLC trailer. I was kind of hoping she'd be using her new armor.

[Burningthought]

I honestly don't mind if they make a XIII-3 at this point. Anything is better than having to wait 3-4 years for the next big FF title on consoles.
It now makes sense why the focus in XIII-2 isn't the old cast but Serah/Noel, most likely a third entry will change things up again.
The only thing I'm kinda disappointed in is that Lightning is wearing her XIII outfit in that DLC trailer. I was kind of hoping she'd be using her new armor.

They might add DLC outfit for her, since you can customize monsters now.

[Lucavi]

I wasn't either until last month, then I watched a trailer and heard Liam O'Brien voicing the antagonist.

Motherfucking Kain, Lucavi. Come on!

I'm serious, this is why I started reading about this game.

Goddammit! Anything tied to Kain = winner! Slight urge now. D:

[lathia]

So what happened to Hope's Assassin's Creed DLC, any news?