Final Fantasy XIII-2

[Joe]

I was originally gonna pick this up at launch but after reading some crap reviews I held off. I still kind of want to get it but don't wanna pay full price so I'll probably wait some.

Thinking back, I think I might've been a touch harsh on XIII-2. It's not great, but it has its moments. Noel was pretty good (except for his weird parachute pants) and I remember the story line with him being the last person alive on earth being pretty sad / interesting.

 

[Tarvis]

Well I finished Lightning Returns over the weekend and out of all three games, I think Final Fantasy XIII-2 was probably the better one. Lightning Returns ending is awful. Like Mass Effect awful or maybe worse. Final Fantasy XIII-2 had all the best things; lots of areas to explore, awesome music, one of the better enemies in the Final Fantasy line, awesome ending. Only complaints I really have for Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the cheesy dialogue and the battle system is kinda meh.

Lightning Returns does have the better battle system out of the three. It's much more fun than waiting for that ATB gauge to fill to do anything. They probably had to make that change, because besides a few times during the game, Lightning fights alone. The other problem, is Lightning Returns can be a very short game. If you do the main quest, you can complete the game very fast. Doing the side quests is almost pointless, besides increasing some stats and making gil. Once you complete enough to unlock the bonus dungeon, there isn't any real incentive to do any more (not even a trophy/achievement). New Game+ is nice I guess, and you actually unlock the ability to upgrade weapons and shields which is cool.

That ending, bleh. It also sucks shit there is only 4 areas to see in the entire game. Even the bonus dungeon is in one of those same areas. The final dungeon, again is mostly all in one of those areas. I will say there is a ton of crap to collect in regards to weapons, magic, shields, and GARBS (clothes). I think there is like 90+ garbs in the game, and no way am I going to go collect all those, so if you like to play dress up then you'll have fun with that. I also had to laugh that they had to write in a plot device for Lightning's wooden personality for this game, when it's exactly the same as the other two games.

I guess I would rate the games in the series as Final Fantasy XIII-2 -> Final Fantasy XIII (because it's the more of a traditional Final Fantasy type game) -> Lightning Returns. Lightning Returns is fun, but it doesn't give any sense of closure or anything on the story itself.

 

[Joe]

So I decided to give 13-2 another chance and play through it again. Maaaan, the first half of this game is so boring. Once you get to I guess Academia it kinda picks up and gets interesting. But oh man up to then it's a slog. I'm going through the "we're trapped in a dream world!" stuff now and it's pretty interesting, especially Noel's bit.

 

[Tarvis]

Yeah, I agree. I also didn't like that area with the damn circular platforms and elevator in the middle where you go through the different floors. Both versions of that place sucked.

 

[Joe]

Yeah oh sweet Jesus that place sucks

 

[Joe]

I feel like somebody should make a supercut of Troy Baker's characters yelling female names.

SERAH! ELLIE! ELIZABETH!

 

[Joe]

Lol I died on the last stage of the last boss. I really can't be bothered to go through all that fucking shit again. Oh well I already know how it ends. Guess I'm done!

 

[Joe]

Game has some music which was really good (Caius' theme, Noel's theme, the stuff that plays in the beginning with Lightning fighting Caius on horseback) and some music which was really fucking awful. Like the death metal chocobo song? Whose bright idea was that?

 

[Tarvis]

I also like how they give you an option to make that the music that always plays no matter which chocobo you use. They really proud of that one.

 

[Joe]

Well I finally got around to picking up that Lightning Returns. Travis's review is pretty much spot on.

 

[Tarvis]

I'm sorry.

 

[Joe]

I don't hate the game, it's pretty fun really. The sidequests mostly suck though. And the characters kind of suck too. So these people have been immortal for 500 years and they're still hung up on stuff that happened centuries ago? I get the whole theme about humanity being stuck in a stagnant, awful immortality and all but come on, 500 years is a LONG-ass time. Would you even remember stuff from that long ago?

I do like the battle system. I have the Cloud Strife DLC, and also the FFX Yuna bonus from buying the FFX HD remake - those two costumes fucking destroy everything, especially Yuna, damn that spell tears shit UP.

 

[Tarvis]

Yeah I pretty much used Cloud and Yuna (FFX-2) costumes the entire time because they are so overpowered.