Final Fantasy XIII-2 - Playstation 3

Even though I was someone who actually enjoyed Final Fantasy XIII, I freely admit it had rather large problems with its design - the level design was painfully linear, not much variety in terms of gameplay mechanics, and the post-game content was not all that interesting. But despite that, I still considered it a fun and enjoyable game. Fast forward to XIII-2, and I can say all of the problems I had with XIII have been fixed, and it's a much better game for it! As someone who lovesss exploring areas - I really enjoyed the nonlinear level design this time around. No more running down a straight path from cutscene to cutscene. As someone who is a rather large fan of time travel related stories, I thoroughly enjoyed XIII-2's story! It was all pretty interesting and held quite a few surprises - especially at the end. While yes, some might not care for the ending, I thought it was rather bold, and I cannot wait to see what happens next. Serah and Noel were fantastic characters, and Noel became one of my favorite Final Fantasy male leads in all the series - he's like a mixture of Zidane and Sora almost. Serah develops pretty well herself over the course of the game, and Caius is now one of my favorite villains in any video game. I absolutely loved his motivations. The battle system - one of XIII's best qualities - remains mostly the same with only a few tweaks here and there. No more 3 second waits for paradigm shifts, ability to tame and recruit monsters (which is a lot more addicting than I initially suspected), strategic use of feral links, and the cinematic actions were interesting (and thankfully were not overused). I especially loved the final cinematic action in the game - it was an epic moment with perfect music. The music is... well, it was mostly fine. I enjoyed many of the tracks (and they also reused some of the older XIII music in perfect spots) with only a few that I didn't care for. Thankfully the ones I didn't like are not a large part of the game. The graphics are gorgeous as always for a Final Fantasy game, but not perfect. While the environments and characters look stunning, there is a little bit of slowdown in some areas - particularly one of the cities later in the game. It's not game-breaking or anything like that, but you can easily tell when the frames dip a little bit. If you race through the game without doing any optional stuff, it'll probably take you between 25-30 hours to complete. If you're like me and love doing everything, all sidequests, all fragments, leveling up to max, and becoming addicted to finding and infusing new monsters, it'll last you a lot longer. I finished off everything I wanted to do (got the Platinum) in 92 hours. So if you didn't like Final Fantasy XIII due to the level design and lack of variety, I can safely recommend XIII-2 to you. :)

So my package arrived with the game in it 3 hours ago and I have been playing non-stop since then. In this review I will be discussing what I think of the game so far and I will update the review as I progress into the game. I will not be revealing any spoilers for obvious reasons. Anyway, the first few scenes of the game show some familiar faces from the XIII, but we meet some new characters as well which you might have seen in the commercials for the game. The first 20-30 minutes of the game is just cutscenes, but they are fairly interesting and keep the player entertained. Over time we start to see some past story development and how the original story fits into the new XIII-2 timeline. Funny I should mention "timeline" as time has an interesting concept, especially in the beginning of the game. So basically the first few hours of the game is basically an introduction of sorts. Square Enix does a fantastic job of explaining what happened in XIII so that even players who have not played XIII can get right into it with no difficulty. Players who have completed XIII will be in for a treat as the first few hours explain what happened after the ending of XIII and where the characters are now. I haven't delved deep enough into the game to fully understand the main conflict, but I am sure in time I will get to know what is really going on. I found XIII to be very similar: As time progressed I understood more and more what was going on. I quite enjoy the new features of the game as well. The pre-battle system is somewhat changed where monsters appear out of nowhere. A meter displaying green/yellow/red is what allows you to attack your enemies. You basically approach the enemy and attack it (with X [PS3] or A [Xbox 360]) and the meter goes further towards red the longer you stall. If you attack while in green you get a pre-emptive strike. If you attack while in yellow it is a normal battle. If you attack while in red it is a normal battle except you have no "Retry" option if you die. The speech system is very interesting in that from time to time you get 4 different options and you can choose what to say. Each option has a completely different response. In this way it is similar to Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect. The battle system is exactly the same except now from time to time you get a "live" battle function where characters do moves based on if you press a button in time or not (more like a cinematic battle). I also noticed that you can change characters outfits in the menu but I have not unlocked any yet. The crystarium looks different than in XIII and operates slightly differently, but XIII players will instantly get the hang of it. You basically still get points in battle and you can use those points in the crystarium. Instead of being able to navigate the crystarium you just press buttons depending on your class of choice (you only have COM, RAV, and SEN at the start of the game) to unlock skills. Another great thing they added to the crystarium is that you can choose a special power-up when you get to a certain level in all your skills combined. I don't remember what level it was but for one of my characters I had a choice between an ATB gauge segment, a RAV power-up, a COM power-up, and some other things which I do not remember off the top of my head. So far I haven't seen a single new skill or attack but that will most likely change. The one small gripe I have is that on the PS3 version (which I own) I get lag spikes from time to time during intense cut-scenes. I am assuming this is because of the aging PS3 graphics processor. I know that Square Enix decided to use the game's engine to create cut-scenes, could that have something to do with it? It's not annoying or anything but it is definitely noticeable. At some points I even saw the FPS drop down to ~10. Also, I have the PS3 slim and I just purchased it in November so I highly doubt it is an over-heating issue. Xbox 360 and PS3 users please leave a comment if you are noticing any FPS drops. Anyway, I really enjoyed the first few hours of the game. The game is not as linear as XIII which is a huge plus, and from the first hour you can explore the city that you are in and claim all the treasures. I will try and update this review as much as I can so players have a good idea of what they are getting into!

USA version as expected.

Item in perfect condition. Customer satisfaction guaranteed.

Llegó en buen estado y antes de tiempo. Corre perfectamente y no hay problemas hasta ahora. Definitivamente recomendado

Great game, and came quicker than expected!

Très bon état, livraison rapide. Je recommande