Final Fantasy 13-2

Square Enix and Tri Ace team up once again to bring gamers the direct sequel to Final Fantasy 13, dubbed, Final Fantasy 13-2. Directed by Motomu Toriyama whom has been working at Square since 1995 and produced by Yoshinori Kitase who is responsible mainly for the Paradigm Shift battle system, they both envisioned huge improvements from Final Fantasy 13.

Available now for the Ps3 and XB360, Final Fantasy 13-2 takes place three years after the events in Final Fantasy 13 and is a part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis universe. “The New Tale of the Crystal” takes us to different locations with different heroes and villains but all surround the same folklore. Games that are included within the same mythology are Final Fantasy 13, Final Fantasy Type-0, Final Fantasy 13-2 and Final Fantasy Versus XIII.

During this adventure, you will follow two main characters, Noel Kreiss and Serah Farron. Noel is the dark, mysterious character from another time sent to find Serah and bring her to Lightning. This time around, Serah is no longer the shy NPC but one of the playable characters in Final Fantasy 13-2. Along with Noel and Serah, a Moggle by the name of Mog, also tags along. Friends from the past will be seen throughout Final Fantasy 13-2, but in the manner of how they appear vary.

The main focus of Final Fantasy 13-2 is that the main hero from the past installment, Lightning, has gone missing. It is up to her younger sister Serah to woman-up to find Lightning. As far as Final Fantasy games go, we all know that the story is much more complex and deeper than just a missing sister.

Feeling a bit like Doctor Who but without a Tardis, you will be traveling through time and space in order to save the future from its current dreadful fate. Final Fantasy 13-2 introduces the Historia Crux. This is where you will be able to navigate within the past, present and future and each will be unlocked when you locate Time Gates around the world. Every location in Final Fantasy 13-2 has at least one gate and you should always be on the lookout for more. Each location will tell you how many gates are within that area in the Historia Crux menu. Closing gates will reset the area. Consider this as a fancy reset button. Time rewinds and everything is back to the way it was before exploring the area. Atifacts are special keys that allow you to unlock a Time Gate. These are also scattered around the world and must be found to unlock each Time Gate. Fragments are also tracked within this menu. The Shards of Time are obtained when anomalies on the timeline have been corrected. These fragments are memories and there are 160 to collect. Completing side quests from certain NPCs will reward you with fragments. Once a certain amount are collected, you may want to travel to a place called Serendipity to unlock fragment skills, which are new abilities for your characters or other special little extras.

Before starting up Final Fantasy 13-2, if you wish to take a refresher course on what happened three years ago, on the title screen there is an option called Beginner’s Primer. This tells the story of Final Fantasy 13 to allow anyone who may have forgotten what happened to remember. This primer allows you to choose which chapter from Final Fantasy 13 that you wish to know more about.

Those who played Final Fantasy 13 and are using the same system that the save file is on, Final Fantasy 13-2 will detect this and bestow upon you a special item. Bonuses and special items will be awarded to you for doing special tasks within the game.

The opening of Final Fantasy 13-2 doesn’t hold back on action and visual eye candy. The game starts up with action and shows you the basic battle controls. If at any point you need any information on how the game works, check out the main menu, it is filled with tips to help you along the way. Throughout the game, Final Fantasy 13-2 tries to make every aspect of it exciting.

Fighting foes and encounters work a tad differently than usual Final Fantasy games. Here you have the Mog Clock. When an enemy is within range, a clock will appear. This is your chance to attack the enemy first, gaining an edge and possible item bonuses. If you don’t wish to fight, simply move out of the circle and away from the enemy. There are three different color codes when it comes to fighting and the Mog Clock. Green means you have that advantage for a preemptive strike. Yellow is your standard battle color while red means the monster will attack and you cannot retry the battle. It is wise to engage the enemy while the Mog Clock is green for the best chance of winning, starting bonuses and better item drops.

Final Fantasy 13-2 uses the Active Time Battle (ATB) system. This is where the battle does not pause so you must always be alert when fighting foes. Here you can use items to aid you as well as switch between different Paradigms. Your character’s health as well as who you are fighting’s health are both shown. Abilities must be manually selected and are not part of the Paradigm. These abilities are learned over time as your character levels during the game. The best way to take down an enemy in battle is to stagger them. Continuously hit a target enough times to stagger it which allows it to be more susceptible to damage and will fall faster than a non-staggered enemy.

Influenced unquestionably by Capcom’s Monster Hunter series and even Pokemon (but with a twist), Final Fantasy 13-2 allows players to collect crystals to aid in controlling monsters within the world to assist in battle. When three monsters are willing to help you in battle, you can create a Paradigm Pack. This will enable you to summon monsters into battle when you need it to get that extra one-up on the enemy. Even the monsters that you capture have their own abilities. There is a gauge that tracks when it is available. You can also change their look and name to your liking.

Taking a page out of God of War, there will be moments during battle when a cinematic action will take place. This plays out like an action scene in a movie where you must press the correct button to pull off a certain action. Failing to do so will have different consequences. Not every cinematic scene will offer a single choice. Some will allow you to either perform a melee attack or use magic, for example. It’s a creative twist to an action sequence, allowing the player to have a choice.

Conversations within the game also offers a choice. In some instances, you will be able to explore every possible conversation, while others will not. If you choose to rewind an area, this will be your chance to revisit conversations and steer them in another direction.

The paradigms are back and not much has changed since Final Fantasy 13. Here your characters can be custom fit with six different roles to help win battles. This is where you need to pay attention to the tutorials if you are not familiar with paradigms and paradigm shifts. Here you can assign roles to your characters, each with their own bonus. The medic is just that, the healer, the back bone of the team. Without good heals your chances of surviving drop. The medic takes care of heals, restoring life and removing status aliments. Saboteurs break down the enemies defenses while the synergist enhances their teammates’ defenses. The sentinel leads foes away from a party members and makes them attack the sentinel instead. The commando focuses on raw power and strength whereas the ravager deals with magical attacks. You are allowed to switch between different roles during battle. This is key, especially when determining a weakness in your opposition. This is where you can have fun and experiment on what paradigm shift works best for you. If you don’t feel like creating your own you can opt for the game to generate paradigms for you. The paradigms goes one step further as it allows you to tune to your specifications. You can set a paradigm to normal, cross or wide. Normal is your standard attack, cross allows your characters to start off by attacking one enemy and wide is great for multiple enemies.

The Crystarium is back, which allows you to level up your characters after all of that grinding. When winning battles, finding fragments and anything and everything that gives you crystogen points (CP), you can use towards your character. Make sure you are fully aware of which character you want to do what. If you want Serah to be a healer, than work on the medic ability for optimal results. Furthermore you can level up any and all monsters that are now allies within the crystarium. You can even go as far as infusing the ability of one monster with the ability of another.

When taking a break from playing Final Fantasy 13-2 and then when you load up the game once again, a short recap on what happened before you turned off the game will play. This is a lovely surprise and exceptionally helpful for those who haven’t played the game in a while who might need a refresher.

Being able to save your progress within the game at any time is a very useful tool. In most JRPGs or RPGs in general, will only allow you to save when reaching a save point. In Final Fantasy 13-2, all you need to do is simply press start and save.

All of these small changes to how Final Fantasy 13-2 plays compared to Final Fantasy 13 is a warm welcome. Square Enix listened to fans and improved on what needed improvement on. At first the game can seem a little overwhelming with everything that it entails but after a few hands on battles and tutorials, the game will flow that much better.

Final Fantasy 13-2 is not a linear game and allows you to play and choose how you want to play. If you didn’t like how one outcome or battle turned out, you are allowed to do it all over again. You now have that freedom that was lacking in Final Fantasy 13 to roam and explore, just how a RPG should be.

The voice acting and musical score are tolerable. I do find myself cringing at some of the dialogue and tone of some of the NPCs within the game as well as the main characters. The music is a mix of instrumental, pop and rock and is sadly not the best mix of music for a Final Fantasy game. The music isn’t a memorable as past installments of the series and is easily forgotten, save for a few battle music scores.

The best part of Final Fantasy 13-2 is undoubtedly the battle system. It makes grinding fun and appealing. If you’re looking for an RPG to play that offers different elements, then check out Final Fantasy 13-2. However, just like Final Fantasy 13, it doesn’t have that true Final Fantasy feel to it like FF games from the past, nevertheless it is still more enjoyable than the past installment and worth a go. Final Fantasy 13-2 is a mix of God of War meets Chrono Trigger/Cross meets Monster Hunter and Pokemon. Different elements from different games all smashed up into one that actually works.