Poll: Sooo...Is Final Fantasy XIII-2 any good?

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Okay I had a bit of a search for posts along these lines and I couldn't see anything.

For those who bought it on release is FF13-2 good so far? I love Final Fantasy games but I felt burnt after FF13 for details I won't go into for brevity's sake.
Susan Arendt's largely positive review and Philip Koller's tweets have given me renewed hope, however I am unsure about buying it until I have seen some decent player feedback.

I can understand if the people who enjoyed FF13 where the ones who bought this game on release so please say whether you were a fan of that game, and why, alongside your appraisal.

 

[krazykidd]

Did you play FFX-2? If you liked x-2 two you might like this one XIII-2. I for one didn't like x-2 and i don't like this one. The reason i bought it is because i have a nees to collect jrpgs. Possible spoilers ahead , you have been warned

Where do i start? Well the begining is weird . Apparently the ending of FF13 is not What really happened. The main character of FF13-2 is serah and a new guy name noel . Serah remembers that everyone except fand and vanille came back safe from cacoon , apparently this didn't happen , serah was dreaming it , according to everyone lightning died.

The characters of the previous game are nowhere to be seen , snow ,sazh , hope , lightning, vanille and fang are not in it other than in flashbacks ( i'm not too far so i couldn't say if they make a cameo apperence). Now we got serah and noel. Noel is a boy from the futur who has come to the past to save the future ( chrono trigger anyone?) his memory is hazy ( cliche i know) but no one seems to question him too much , we apl just accept it .

The leveling system is better , and less linear , you choose which class you want to level , so thats pretty cool . The combat system is slightly faster , but also easier . You no longer get game over if your leader dies , it's a group effort now. You can also adjust the difficulty between easy and normal anytime during the game.

There are quick time events during cinematics , so don't let go of the controller when you watch a cut-scene , not the harder qte's but annoying non the less .

The graphics are pretty good, but this is a SE game , so thats obvious.

The music is terrible , no more epic classical soundtracks , we got some hard rock and pop music running in the background.

I personally don't like it but everyone has their own tastes .

 

[Legiondude]

I've heard it starts out similar to 13(gameplay wise), but starts to space out the differences once you get farther into it

 

[Zhukov]

I probably qualify as a 'hater' on this subject, so my opinion isn't really valid.

My roommate is playing it. I will just say that the dialogue is so bad that it makes me embarrassed to be in the same room.

 

[hazabaza1]

Have you tried the demo?
I did, and found it to be one of the dullest experiences I have ever had in my entire life.

 

[zombieshark6666]

Have you tried the demo?
I did, and found it to be one of the dullest experiences I have ever had in my entire life.

Ditto.

Also, I wanted to say Moogles, but they talk and they're fucking annoying. I bought FF9 on the PSN instead.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Wow...It's not looking great so far. Thanks for all the responses. I think I should really check out the demo. Then again, I really liked the DA2 demo and look what happened there.

FF9 is probably my favorite after 7 and 6. It's a shame they made the moogles talk, kupo was enough.

 

[Monkeyman O'Brien]

Do you like starting a game with no story for the first few hours and do you like quick time events?
Do you like the idea of buying extra characters like Lightning or Ass Creeds Ezio?

 

[Nalarion]

It's Final Fantasy, man. They're all great.

Wow... that's like saying sonic games are all great, that's just a rabid fanboy statement in its own right, I for one think the steady decline in square-enix's games is apparent, this coming from a 19 year old guy who grew up playing FF6-9 and loves the music, the only point to this game is to buy it, complete a collection, store it under the Sahara desert, and screw with future civilizations...

when they unearth FF1-13 and the two sequels to those games, they can then retch like the rest of us with at least half a mind on video games as a gameplay element, if i wanted to watch a movie, I'd go to my local theater and watch something with a similar story.... like the muppets, you know, a movie where they are trying to bring back something that should have died a long time ago, except the muppets are actually somewhat fun to watch...

Once upon a time, I was a fanboy, but nowadays, i am poisoned with and sense of loathing towards gaming companies who milk money from a bias of nostalgia and/or graphics based argumentative people

Edit: not posting here in ages, I'm not sure if this qualifies as "offensive", as such, please dont hesitate to shoot me a note about it so i can file it and think carefully about how i might have hurt this poor chaps feelings, i must state that, this was more pointing out his statement not a direct attack on my friend here (required amount of balance and political correctness)

 

[VoidWanderer]

I really do enjoy watching people playing it...

lol

I played some of FF13 and had the same opinion as Yahtzee. I have avoided the 'sequel' like the bubonic plague and after watching totalhalibut on youtube play it, I am glad and depressed.

Glad: I will NEVER but this atrocity

Depressed: This might become the 'new standard' for a legendary series rehashing the same old storyline over and over and over without tweaking the story or characters.

I am going to go weep for this series now.

 

[Luke McCarty]

Don't be fooled by the overwhelming amount of haters on this page. They're outrageously mis-representing it and I feel obligated to give a proper opinion of it.

The game play is certainly a lot faster and more engaging from the get go. You recruit a 3rd party member through capturing monsters, and this adds a bit more dynamic to the battle system. There are EXTREMELY difficult boss battle in this. Some you can avoid and return to in new game +, but I found it enjoyable to take them on at the level I was at. Just don't take on Atlas at a low level, you will be sad.

The music is awesome. Not the best Final Fantasy music ever written, but it plays its' part well. There is truly breathtaking orchestral pieces, especially during the opening sequence and the final moments of the game. Most else is computerized symphonic stuff that gives the battles and exploration a nice vibe. Plus I really liked "New World", even if the lyrics were a bit nonsensical.

The dialogue is probably the best we've seen in a Final Fantasy game. It's to the point, they don't beat around the metaphorical bush like XIII did. Sure it doesn't have the same non-voiced magic the old FFs had but times are changing. The voice actors especially were fantastic, especially Noel and Serah's VAs. Caius and Lightning's VAs did a fantastic job with the over-the-top dramatic stuff they were given.

The time travelling system is neat. Every area is unique to one another, and there's always something to do. Whether it's fighting powerful monsters, doing mundane side quests or chocobo races in the sky.

Did you hate XIIIs linearity? Then you will be pleased, it's gone.

And the graphics are amazing, such is expected of Final Fantasy.

--

The cons?

Well, the story doesn't make much sense until quite a ways in.. In fact, even then, it's still sort of weird. Although having played right to the ending, I can kind of see why.

Emotionally, the dynamic between the main cast doesn't pick up until around half way through. Which is fine, but I felt like the chemistry between Noel and Serah was very lacking for a lot of the journey. In fact, because the story isn't very easy to pick up on, progressing sort of felt a bit underwhelming until around half way through. Oh it's not linear, and the battle system is a blast.
But expect to be occupied by the gameplay for a while. At least until the emotional drama makes its' dynamic entry.

Also, the moogle is annoying. Holy fuck. Someone shoot it.

--

So all in all. It's worth the money you pay for it, for the most part.

+battle system
+music
+graphics
+exploration

-story takes a while to make sense
-characters have little chemistry for the first 10-15 hours

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

I've heard that it's slightly better than XIII, but saying something is slightly better than what something that was regarded as utter crap isn't saying much.

 

[LobsterFeng]

Have you tried the demo?
I did, and found it to be one of the dullest experiences I have ever had in my entire life.

Agreed, I couldn't even finish the first battle.

Also every forum post in the "Popular Forum Posts" box is a poll. Neat.

 

[Hisshiss]

Don't be fooled by the overwhelming amount of haters on this page. They're outrageously mis-representing it and I feel obligated to give a proper opinion of it.

The game play is certainly a lot faster and more engaging from the get go. You recruit a 3rd party member through capturing monsters, and this adds a bit more dynamic to the battle system. There are EXTREMELY difficult boss battle in this. Some you can avoid and return to in new game +, but I found it enjoyable to take them on at the level I was at. Just don't take on Atlas at a low level, you will be sad.

The music is awesome. Not the best Final Fantasy music ever written, but it plays its' part well. There is truly breathtaking orchestral pieces, especially during the opening sequence and the final moments of the game. Most else is computerized symphonic stuff that gives the battles and exploration a nice vibe. Plus I really liked "New World", even if the lyrics were a bit nonsensical.

The dialogue is probably the best we've seen in a Final Fantasy game. It's to the point, they don't beat around the metaphorical bush like XIII did. Sure it doesn't have the same non-voiced magic the old FFs had but times are changing. The voice actors especially were fantastic, especially Noel and Serah's VAs. Caius and Lightning's VAs did a fantastic job with the over-the-top dramatic stuff they were given.

The time travelling system is neat. Every area is unique to one another, and there's always something to do. Whether it's fighting powerful monsters, doing mundane side quests or chocobo races in the sky.

Did you hate XIIIs linearity? Then you will be pleased, it's gone.

And the graphics are amazing, such is expected of Final Fantasy.

--

The cons?

Well, the story doesn't make much sense until quite a ways in.. In fact, even then, it's still sort of weird. Although having played right to the ending, I can kind of see why.

Emotionally, the dynamic between the main cast doesn't pick up until around half way through. Which is fine, but I felt like the chemistry between Noel and Serah was very lacking for a lot of the journey. In fact, because the story isn't very easy to pick up on, progressing sort of felt a bit underwhelming until around half way through. Oh it's not linear, and the battle system is a blast.
But expect to be occupied by the gameplay for a while. At least until the emotional drama makes its' dynamic entry.

Also, the moogle is annoying. Holy fuck. Someone shoot it.

--

So all in all. It's worth the money you pay for it, for the most part.

+battle system
+music
+graphics
+exploration

-story takes a while to make sense
-characters have little chemistry for the first 10-15 hours

I was debating if I should post in this thread to add one more person to the Pro side of the game, since it's a fantastic sequel and isn't really being fairly represented in this thread, but you did most of my talking for me . So QFT.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Thanks for the extra feedback I'm still debating whether to buy it. I'm really indecisive haha. @LukeMcCarty that was a nice summation of a positive viewpoint thankyou.