Probably one of my favorite FF games ever, I loved Serah and Noel's Journey across the timeline and Caius was simply amazing !
I just wish the final battle wasn't THAT hard bc even on easy mode I had to farm for at least 5 hours to be able to beat the three bosses at the end but whatever, now I'm sad bc of the ending aha 🥹🥹
I just wish the final battle wasn't THAT hard bc even on easy mode I had to farm for at least 5 hours to be able to beat the three bosses at the end but whatever, now I'm sad bc of the ending aha 🥹🥹
Playing this has given me a new found appreciation for Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth. Anyone complaining about that game going off the rails and becoming too much like Kingdom Hearts needs to see what this game does with the world set up XIII.
I'll start with my positive thoughts on the game. For something that was made in 18 months, it's actually quite impressive. The bulk of the design work for the combat was obviously already done but there are some smart, slight changes here that improve upon the already fantastic battle system. Being able to change leaders and no more 2 second animation when changing paradigms for the first time in a battle are welcome additions.
It's also a much less linear game, clearly a response to the criticisms of the incredibly straightforward area's of the previous game. Gone is the corridor level design in favour of more open area's with actual people to talk to. There's also the inclusion of a handful of minigames to break up the monotony that was ever present in the previous game. Clearly the developers understood that it wasn't just the level design that made sections of the previous game feel like a drag.
Unfortunately, the game just didn't have the time or scope to make these changes meaningful. It's the very definition of missing the wood for the trees.
The combat is vastly improved, but the game's difficulty curve is a complete mess. I fought most battles I encountered and did what I thought to be a conservative amount of side content and found the majority of the game to incredibly easy... until the final dungeon/boss which then became way too difficult. In 13, the potential to level up was capped so the developers were always able to design fights around a very small range of party power levels and thus, every fight felt engaging and challenging, but not too challenging. Obviously that approach was met with some backlash but the alternative this game presents left the combat feeling unsatisfying.
I did find it interesting that the majority of battles don't give that much CP, and the majority of that levelling currency will come from the side content so this difficulty spike at the end really encourages you to go back and do more of the side content. However, when I finally returned to the last dungeon area I had completely outleveled everything, including the final boss. The difficulty curve in 13 was so perfect that it's a shame it wasn't able to be recreated here.
The area's being open is also a nice idea, but the area's are filled with nothingness and just leads to constant backtracking for quests. There's nothing interesting and meaningful in the world. Gone are the enemies roaming the world and in their place are randomly placed quest items that only serve as a way to keep you running back and forth with nothing interesting going on. I'm completely fine with reused area's/assets, but when you're asking me to run through an area for the 4th or 5th time, looking for invisible items to throw my moogle at, it ends up feeling just as tedious as the previous game.
I'm not even gonna talk about the moogle throwing mechanic.
The story itself isn't totally without merit. It's a non linear time travel story that doesn't get over complicated, which I think is commendable. I also think Caius, the villain, is actually pretty well fleshed out and lightyears ahead of the previous game's villain, who is basically nonexistent.
However, the bulk of your time is spent with Noel, Serah and the Moogle and unfortunately they're just not as interesting as the villain. In 13, the party was diverse and lead to a plethora of interesting interactions but here, Serah and Noel don't really play off of each other that well, and their relationship wears out it's welcome sooner rather than later.
Perhaps the biggest disappointment in the story for me was the treatment of the party members from the previous game. While X-2 felt like a fun epilogue that allowed you to get a glimpse of those character' lives after the events of X, XIII-2 basically doesn't even try to continue the excellent character work of XIII. I guess it comes with the territory in being a less character driven story, but Snow (the literal love interest of one of the main characters) being relegated to a single chapter that teases things that are not resolved in any way is a travesty. Sazh is basically non existent and used as an incentive for DLC. Vanille and Fang are completely absent (which given the circumstances, I was completely fine with) and Lightning, while important to the story, has only a handful of appearances. Hope is arguably the only character that has a satisfying arc, but even he is fodder for the time travel shenanigans at hand.
Ultimately, there's stuff I enjoyed about the game but when it comes down to it, this game feels incredibly rushed and the interesting idea's presented are both underdeveloped and ignore the strengths of the previous game.
I did like the ending, and I'm happy to have crossed another Final Fantasy game off the to play list, but I still think this is a bad game that has no respect for the story and world of XIII.
I'll start with my positive thoughts on the game. For something that was made in 18 months, it's actually quite impressive. The bulk of the design work for the combat was obviously already done but there are some smart, slight changes here that improve upon the already fantastic battle system. Being able to change leaders and no more 2 second animation when changing paradigms for the first time in a battle are welcome additions.
It's also a much less linear game, clearly a response to the criticisms of the incredibly straightforward area's of the previous game. Gone is the corridor level design in favour of more open area's with actual people to talk to. There's also the inclusion of a handful of minigames to break up the monotony that was ever present in the previous game. Clearly the developers understood that it wasn't just the level design that made sections of the previous game feel like a drag.
Unfortunately, the game just didn't have the time or scope to make these changes meaningful. It's the very definition of missing the wood for the trees.
The combat is vastly improved, but the game's difficulty curve is a complete mess. I fought most battles I encountered and did what I thought to be a conservative amount of side content and found the majority of the game to incredibly easy... until the final dungeon/boss which then became way too difficult. In 13, the potential to level up was capped so the developers were always able to design fights around a very small range of party power levels and thus, every fight felt engaging and challenging, but not too challenging. Obviously that approach was met with some backlash but the alternative this game presents left the combat feeling unsatisfying.
I did find it interesting that the majority of battles don't give that much CP, and the majority of that levelling currency will come from the side content so this difficulty spike at the end really encourages you to go back and do more of the side content. However, when I finally returned to the last dungeon area I had completely outleveled everything, including the final boss. The difficulty curve in 13 was so perfect that it's a shame it wasn't able to be recreated here.
The area's being open is also a nice idea, but the area's are filled with nothingness and just leads to constant backtracking for quests. There's nothing interesting and meaningful in the world. Gone are the enemies roaming the world and in their place are randomly placed quest items that only serve as a way to keep you running back and forth with nothing interesting going on. I'm completely fine with reused area's/assets, but when you're asking me to run through an area for the 4th or 5th time, looking for invisible items to throw my moogle at, it ends up feeling just as tedious as the previous game.
I'm not even gonna talk about the moogle throwing mechanic.
The story itself isn't totally without merit. It's a non linear time travel story that doesn't get over complicated, which I think is commendable. I also think Caius, the villain, is actually pretty well fleshed out and lightyears ahead of the previous game's villain, who is basically nonexistent.
However, the bulk of your time is spent with Noel, Serah and the Moogle and unfortunately they're just not as interesting as the villain. In 13, the party was diverse and lead to a plethora of interesting interactions but here, Serah and Noel don't really play off of each other that well, and their relationship wears out it's welcome sooner rather than later.
Perhaps the biggest disappointment in the story for me was the treatment of the party members from the previous game. While X-2 felt like a fun epilogue that allowed you to get a glimpse of those character' lives after the events of X, XIII-2 basically doesn't even try to continue the excellent character work of XIII. I guess it comes with the territory in being a less character driven story, but Snow (the literal love interest of one of the main characters) being relegated to a single chapter that teases things that are not resolved in any way is a travesty. Sazh is basically non existent and used as an incentive for DLC. Vanille and Fang are completely absent (which given the circumstances, I was completely fine with) and Lightning, while important to the story, has only a handful of appearances. Hope is arguably the only character that has a satisfying arc, but even he is fodder for the time travel shenanigans at hand.
Ultimately, there's stuff I enjoyed about the game but when it comes down to it, this game feels incredibly rushed and the interesting idea's presented are both underdeveloped and ignore the strengths of the previous game.
I did like the ending, and I'm happy to have crossed another Final Fantasy game off the to play list, but I still think this is a bad game that has no respect for the story and world of XIII.