As a big fan of wacky time travel stories, this game hit all the right notes for me. The concept of traveling between the same couple locations but in different time periods is great and makes the world of XIII-2 more memorable than most of the original XIII. Gameplay-wise, it polishes some aspects of XIII's combat, which was already really good, but I prefer XIII's iteration of the Crystarium and the traditional party members over monsters. Splitting the party up in XIII allowed for a great exploration of those characters and their motivations, so although in this sequel we only have 2 protagonists to focus on, Serah and Noel remain pretty consistent throughout the story. Still super happy to see Serah's character being explored after her role in the events of XIII. And Noel's backstory, dealing with time travel shenanigans, was really appealing to me. I would say the first game was better, but I got so hooked into this game trying to 100% everything that I have to give it some extra points. XIII-2 shines in different areas than XIII, and I'd say that makes it a worthy follow-up.