This Final Fantasy XIII-2 review holds special relevance to all those who’ve played 2010’s FFXIII. First off, you can very well stop thinking about all those complaints you had with the earlier game, as this sequel has seemingly taken them into full consideration before manifesting itself. While playing it, any Final Fantasy veteran will be quick to point out that apart from a catchy story, almost every other element leaves you struck with déjà vu from time to time. This game is no giant leap for the series as a whole. But if you’re looking at it as an individual title to keep you busy for a week or so, it will most definitely bless you with that. For you see, FFXIII-2 does take the first offering’s narrative forward in a captivating way, but the overall experience which FF titles used to deliver in their heydays, is still nowhere to be found.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 opens with Lightning fighting a purple-haired fellow named Caius in a brilliantly designed, post-apocalyptic setting called Valhalla. Here we’re talking about a location that’s outside the constraints of time and space. This is when a guy named Noel enters the battle and is prompted by Lightning to travel through time and meet her sister Serah, to tell her about her existence. Noel meets Serah and thus begins the time-traveling journey of FFXIII-2. Both of them must now go through different timelines solving paradoxes and change history in order to craft a future where Serah meets Lightning and Noel has a better place to live in. The story has a lot of conviction packed into it, but if only the two protagonists were appealing enough. The bland nature of their dialogues and overall presentation fail to impress. Throughout your journey in the game, you meet familiar faces from the previous title, which adds a bit of much needed depth to the whole affair.
Structurally, the story does away with the linearity which we loathed in FFXIII and instead, presents you with a non-linear extravaganza which has you traveling back and forth through time and occasionally exploring the same areas in different time periods. This device has a lot going its way because, there’s a decent amount of fun involved in treading the same environments in different timelines. And adding to that, there are side quests which though short in length, really encourage you to use your brains. Another gameplay addition is that you will now able to tame some of the monsters which you manage defeat. This means you can have them by your side when in battle mode and they come complete with their own level up trees. You can either keep leveling up one of them or experiment with different ones; it’s all up to you. But what we can tell you is that this feature does add another dimension to the gameplay.
And then there’s the combat system in Final Fantasy XIII-2 which is enjoyable at every point within the game. Classes form a very important part of the title when you enter battle mode. Since these battles are team based, different roles are attached to every team member, constantly pushing you to find the right combinations in order to fare better against your adversaries. Paradigms can be shifted mid-battle using the Paradigm Shift feature. Finding the right combination doesn’t take much time and neither does fully leveling up your characters in a certain role. In fact, even before you reach halfway into the game, you can fully level up one role through the Crystarium and go on using the same combination till the end. That’s pretty cool and it makes the combat an incredibly simple trait to get a hold of. But even if that’s the case, some enemies are not so easy to defeat. So you just might have to re-think your strategies from time to time.
There’s a lot to do in Final Fantasy XIII-2 in terms of exploration. You can unlock secret objects, discover new areas riding on Chocobos, spend some coins in the casino town of Serendipity or just keep slaying the enemies who have the habit of popping up each time you blink you eyes. Technically, this game is very sound and in fact, it has a certain sense of finesse around it which is quite rare these days. With so many different environments, FFXIII-2 pans out to be a visual treat, to say the least. The character animations are good, and so are their designs and voice-acting performances. But as we mentioned earlier, dialogues fall a little bit on the boring side. However, that’s not the case with the title’s music which is filled with vocals and intense. The music transitions from soft tunes to heavy metal to some brilliant instrumental compositions, and this diversity just goes on show how resourceful the game is in this department.
Final Word: Despite a small number of hiccups here and there, Final Fantasy XIII-2 manages to get its act together by the time you reach the halfway mark. The steampunk atmosphere very easily succeeds in leaving a lasting impression on your mind. As a sequel, it definitely improves over its predecessor, but this title is far off from what FF games used to be with their tremendously intrepid offerings. Nevertheless, JRPG fans are sure to have a wonderful time if they end up buying the title. Here’s our score for this one:
Graphics: 8/10
Sounds: 9/10
Environments: 8/10
Gameplay: 8.5/10
Replay Value: 8.5/10
Overall (not an average): 8/10