WK Plays FFXIII-2

[Wolf Kanno]

Well, this should be interesting. I only ever checked out the demo a long time ago, and I barely remember it outside of something involving fighting Titan.

Wish me luck.

[Loony BoB]

Good luck!

I quite enjoyed the gameplay of this, perhaps the most in the trilogy. It's not the best Pokémon game in the world - that goes to World of Final Fantasy - but it's a good, fun journey that isn't afraid to mix in silly with the serious.

[Fynn]

The one FF that feels like every single aspect of it has been decided by committee. Hope you’re more sane after this than I was!

[Bubba]

I still need to play through the Lightning trilogy. I still have them all for my PS3 but the disc drive is currently buggered...

Good luck!

[Loony BoB]

Oof, I remember when my PS3 drive went tits up. It was after spending a load of time in Assassin's Creed 3 and I subsequently gave up on the game because I couldn't be arsed to replay all that. Never did play the rest of the series...

[Bubba]

Oof, I remember when my PS3 drive went tits up. It was after spending a load of time in Assassin's Creed 3 and I subsequently gave up on the game because I couldn't be arsed to replay all that. Never did play the rest of the series...

Apparently, it's not too tricky to fix if you have the right tool.That's what she said I'm gonna have a go at a repair soon.

Fun fact: FFXIII has some of my favourite pieces of FF music despite me never having played the game.

[Loony BoB]

I sense the growing pain in WK every day he doesn't reply to this thread.

[Wolf Kanno]

More like dread. I needed a psychological cleanse after FFXIII, so I am replaying BoFII. I'll start it up soonish. I made this thread too soon.

[Wolf Kanno]

Soonish turned into six months, but better late than never I guess.

So far, this has been a weird game. I'm going to take back any time I've mentioned that Kitase or Nomura dwell on their glory years, I feel Toriyama is the worst about invoking imagery from previous projects. The opening alone has a city being swarmed by weird insect like creatures that are reminiscent of Sin spawn, the big bad buries a girl in water for a eerily similar shot of Cloud burying Aerith, and he even summons a big ass meteor to squash a city. Hell, they even through in a visual similar from Kingdom Hearts, despite only the Lead Scenario Writer and character designer having worked on those.

The game also just feels more like X-2 than I was expecting. Maybe it's the heavy narration or the whiplash of going from a very bare story focused linear experience to one where gameplay is thrown in your face. The dialogue boxes are an interesting choice, but I'm not sure how I feel about the QTE's they added to cutscenes. The other aspect is the reused assets with Gogmagog just being the Orphan asset reskinned and partially used. And of course we get to watch a one-note damsel in distress Serah pull a Yuna and don a very skimpy outfit and wield a weapon that feels a little ridiculous for them to be using, but I'm knee deep into Toriyama's world and its not my place to kink shame him. There is something that feels off about her in-game model, and I can't quite put my finger on it.

Due to Sony deciding to hate on early tech that isn't a PS4, my PS3 is no longer capable of using internet, but I imagine the PSN store is shut down anyway, so no DLC for me.

I've beaten the first real boss and seem to have unlocked the Crystarium, which seems to be the inspiration for the Weapon Leveling system in FFVIIR, so that was neat. Game is confusing as hell, and I already feel the first major red flag in the writing is that we're trying to rush into the action of a time travel story, and that trout usually needs some slow burn exposition to get right. I also think having people just develop magic for no reason is a cop out answer, but maybe the plot ill make it work later. I also find it funny how worthless guns are in these games. Even the gun options I used in the opening cinematic was the least satisfying option.

[Loony BoB]

I agree anytime someone complains about QTEs. Not a fan.

I remember not caring much for the protags in this game, buuut I also remember loving the gameplay in general despite that. I also liked the multiple endings (especially the one that had something to do with a flan enemy), and I also liked seeing some of the old gang again.

[Wolf Kanno]

Moving slowly through this, just reached -5 A.F.

The opening is a little longer than I was expecting, but at least setting up stuff. I can't get over how much Noel looks like Squall's kid brother. I also feel like he should be voiced by Richard Cox. The ship tease between the two leads is a bit weird too. Especially since Serah is being very coy about talking about Snow. I'm still very early in the plot, but it was interesting to see NORA get some actual character development since OG thought that these four bumbling around and following Snow was enough.

The search for Artefacts is giving me 'Nam flashbacks to DQVII and looking for Tablet Shards by wandering over all of creation to find them. The CP lock on Accessories is an interesting idea, and I'm guessing it might play into crafting where I can make the same items but at lower CP costs, but we'll see. I am worried that I'm screwing myself a bit with the Crystarium, since it seems ability slots are shared, and so I have to choose which Paradigm Role to make better. I still don't like the skill ranking nonsense, but seeing how I don't have to farm weapon materials and the item drop bonus is very generous, it feels less like a nuisance outside of flubbing a boss battle here and there.

I am still on the fence about the new random encounter mechanic. It's not super annoying yet, but I must say that Serah has the most awkward swing animation for getting preemptive strikes.

New Bonhum honestly feels like something out of Spira. I remember walking around and feeling like I was in some offshoot village near Kiltia or Beseid. I believe its the same team overall (at least the X-2 team I imagine) but amusing none the less and again, showing that Toriyama has particular tastes in his design works. I really don't care for Serah's character design in this game. I think it's the fact she looks twelve and is wearing an outfit that wouldn't look out of place in a conservative lingerie magazine. Hell, even though Noel is older than Squall, I can't help but feel like the dude is fifteen or sixteen for some reason.

So far this meme is turning out to be really true so far...
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[Wolf Kanno]

Got some more playtime in. Let's do the classic Pros and Cons list

Pros:

• Now that monster collecting has been introduced, the combat system has gotten much better. I like the fact that some monsters have high growth versus others that don't. You can tell they were looking at DQV's mechanics when they decided to do this system because it almost feels the same.
• With that said, I am grateful someone on the design team took a look at XIII's monster designs and noted that if we were going to have monster collecting, we're going to need better looking monsters and more variety. I'm almost curious to know if some of these new designs for bosses even are left overs from XIII's development that didn't make the cut...
• I feel vindicated that my own suggestion to fix the Crystarium system from XIII was actually used in this game, and it actually does bring more weight to the system.
• This game feels like X-2 to me mostly because of the design whiplash of going from a very bare bones game that wanted you to focus on the story presented to a game that is constantly throwing gameplay ideas at you and player choice. I actually screwed myself a bit because I think I jumped to a later sequence early and was having a hell of time with the enemies and boss battles.
• I can honestly say I'm feeling more invested in this entry than I was for XIII.

Cons:

• Snow really needs his beanie back
• I'm annoyed by how hard it is to find a second healer mon, I'm getting to the point where my starter guy is getting expensive to level up.
• Why did neither character start with a Medic class, and why is it the second role you can unlock for both of them?
• I feel this game has way too many statuses and it' a pain using SAB and SYN roles because they take too long to use in battle. At least it looks like they gave SYN some actual -aga level spells.
• This game is surprisingly buggy. Like I know some other entries have their bugs as well, but this is like Ubisoft levels of bugginess. I had a cutscene occur where Serah ended trying to take up the space of another NPC and it was jarring to see. I've also watched Noel teleport a bit because his character was on a ledge and he kept "falling off" so to speak.
• Speaking of, the in-game models that are not major characters have some of the most atrocious speaking animations. Depending on the camera angle, it gets into some body horror territory.
• Though I'm more invested in the narrative, I can't say I'm in love with Serah and Noel as characters. They are both thankfully not as obnoxious as XIII's cast, and generally look better in comparison every time they interact with one of them, but neither of them are very endearing to me either. They just feel inoffensive at best as opposed to interesting.
• While I appreciate that dungeons and story beats are more involving, I do feel like sections over stay their welcome a bit. Like it's not really a deal breaker yet, but it's a little concerning this early into the game, especially since the game is likely going to make me return to every time point at least twice by my estimation. This may be a non-issue, but usually pacing issues happening this early is an indicator that it's going to get worse later.

[Dr. Acula]

I quite like XIII-2, but I agree that the characters aren't all that interesting. Serah and Noel are both pretty bland.

[Wolf Kanno]

Got some more playtime in.

Pros

• I feel the two best changes to the battle system are the fact that staggering is purely optional and not a requirement for random encounters. Normal enemies don't have ridiculous HP totals yet, and so I don't usually see them get staggered often since they die before I get there with a few exceptions. The second is that the Monsters have far more variety to team building and though they are stuck to one role, their roles are not as pure as the human characters with magic builds still having a melee attack and vice versa. The Limit Breaks they have are also neat and are thankfully balanced enough to add variety and not break the game.
• I also appreciate that these changes to the battle system actually encourages me to change up my Paradigm shifts based on the area I am in, as opposed to OG where there really is an ideal team and paradigm setup that can coast you through the whole game.
• Just broke the timeline, so I got to experience my first changed timeline.
• Looks like their is a trans-dimensional theme park/casino in the future.
• Finally acquired a second medic monster and found my first Sentinel one.
• Mog is surprisingly less annoying than I thought they would be.
• I still keep chuckling about the Simpsons meme I posted in this thread every time Lightning and her whereabouts are mentioned. Like calm down, you already know where she is, and you know she's more or less fine spending eternity fighting discount Leon.
• I already went to the timeline that has all the Chocobo monsters, and I acquired a Commando type, but I kind of want to go back and get the Red Chocobo I encountered and see if they have a Black one as well.
• Just as I predicted, some of the crafted accessories give altered bonuses for lower CP cost. I am also happy the game kept the equipment set bonuses from the OG game and seem to have added some skills. I don't know if it will be well implemented yet since I only have a few options at the moment, but it was one of the better ideas from the OG version.

Cons

• Oh god, they were not lying when they said Late Bloomer, some of my monsters are in the 20s in terms of level and won't earn another skill for like forty levels. Yeesh... Not helping me is the fact that I don't have access to the item tier to get them much higher at this point, so some of my monsters are stagnating.
• The variety of monsters is nice, but it certainly feels like they are not created equally. Like my Chocobo COM is way meaner and more dominating than some. I have a few SAB monsters, but only two really have useful spell selections from the get go. I am probably going to have to consort a guide before I reach the end.
• Caius is a cheating bitch. I almost nailed him with little effort in our first fight and he nearly killed my party by pulling off some uber powerful attack at last 10% of his health that crippled my team and gave him like five buffs with another move before he kept alternating between his annoying attacks and this one super attack.
• The Yeuls have no personality whatsoever, and I feel that is going to be detrimental down the line when I get to their backstory.
• I have reached the first point in the plot where I need to backtrack to figure out where to go next because I've reached the end for a few timeline at the moment. I am also annoyed because I've reached the point where I'm getting side missions that are going to require time-traveling smurfery to complete and I'm likely not far enough along to do any of them.

[Fynn]

I think Serah and Noel’s general dynamics are one of the better parts of this mess of a game. And yeah Serah’s outfit is absolutely weird. Personally, I take less issue with it being stripperific and more its general quality. Her XIII outfit looked like actual clothes someone could wear, whereas this looks like it’s made of plastic, like she’s in cosplay all the time