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FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 |OT| Change the Future

D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
Just bought this for $38 Australian dollars off of Zavvi. That's more than a 50% price cut. Very happy.
 
P

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
156/160 fragments....soooo close! I just have captain cryptic's stupid quizzes and the bestiary to fill out, which might actually take a bit as I have no idea how I've been fairing on that end.
 
F

firehawk12

Subete no aware
Erg, I tried the slot machine trick and managed to lose 10k coins. Is there still a lot of chance involved even if you have the slot machines be in the "best mood"?
 
Nose Master

Nose Master

Member
Nohar said:
Screens of the February DLCs up on Andriasang.
Click to expand...

Sold.

EDIT:

After beating it, there's only two things this game does better than 13.

-Side quests. And this is because they're simply just not in 13. They were all shit. 90% were photo-hunt fetch quests.
-Plot. I'm going to get shit on for this, but I liked it a lot more. Hell, I barely even remember what happened in 13. This was at least fun and stupid. Noel was a great addition, and puts everyone in the original game to shame. And it even had a decent villain.

That's it. As for what they did worse:

-Monster system. Neat idea, gets annoying rather quickly. It sucked only having 3 job choices in the third party slot.
-Battle system in general. Ruined by the awkward difficulty. I plowed through almost every trash mob in the game by just sitting on com/com/com. What's the point of the stagger meter when you only use it during boss battles?
-Dungeon design. Ehhhh. The layouts were better, but the areas (that weren't re-used) looked terrible. Everything did, actually. Even the menus. Clear lack of polish on everything.
-
Giving the two main cameos to Hope and Snow, ffs. The two worst characters in the original game, by far. They are worse than the moogle.
-Crystarium. Cocked that up pretty nicely. You need to spread out your leveling to get the most benefit out of your jobs, which I didn't notice until the end. You need to have a node (maybe a big node?) activated in that level of the crystarium to be able to select the bonus perk at the end. I rushed RAV and COM to 99 on both, so now the jobs I intended to use primarily are nowhere near their max potential. There was also absolutely no reason for the monsters to have to use items to level.
-Music. Aside from a few decent additions (final battle), it's mute-worthy bad.
-Jumping. Only becomes useful in the last hour of the game, when you get the floaty jump.
-Academia.
Every god damn section of it devises a new way to be terrible. First time? Obscene encounter rate for no XP. Second? The introduction of the quiz machines. It also dawned on me how badly designed the entire city was on this trip. Third? Well, actually. I kind of liked the third one. But, I had the floaty jump.

I'm too tired to keep complaining.
It sucks they probably won't even make a sequel. And if they do, it will be a weird rush job like this.
It was good, despite the numerous flaws and idiotic decisions.
 
O

orion434

Member
I have 154/160 Fragments, just 5 More Paradox Endings, then a 1-of spawn monster in the final area to finish the beastiary... and 100% for me :)
 
H

hamchan

Member
I still have to beat the game. I tried fighting the last section...and got owned. So now it's fragment hunting and leveling up for me. Also I think I'm putting down this game until the new Serah costume comes out.
 
R

Ricker

Member
I am hating Augusta Towers more then Academia right now....trying to figure out which room to rotate with all the random battles that you can't escape from 90% of the time is starting to get on my nerves lol...
 
C

Conrad Link

Member
Noel's new costume is actually pretty cool, pity I'll probably be 100% by the time it hits, I would have full-timed him in that during the game.

Also Serah bewbs.
 
neoism

neoism

Member
Nose Master said:
Sold.

EDIT:

After beating it, there's only two things this game does better than 13.

-Side quests. And this is because they're simply just not in 13. They were all shit. 90% were photo-hunt fetch quests.
-Plot. I'm going to get shit on for this, but I liked it a lot more. Hell, I barely even remember what happened in 13. This was at least fun and stupid. Noel was a great addition, and puts everyone in the original game to shame. And it even had a decent villain.

That's it. As for what they did worse:

-Monster system. Neat idea, gets annoying rather quickly. It sucked only having 3 job choices in the third party slot.
-Battle system in general. Ruined by the awkward difficulty. I plowed through almost every trash mob in the game by just sitting on com/com/com. What's the point of the stagger meter when you only use it during boss battles?
-Dungeon design. Ehhhh. The layouts were better, but the areas (that weren't re-used) looked terrible. Everything did, actually. Even the menus. Clear lack of polish on everything.
-
Giving the two main cameos to Hope and Snow, ffs. The two worst characters in the original game, by far. They are worse than the moogle.
-Crystarium. Cocked that up pretty nicely. You need to spread out your leveling to get the most benefit out of your jobs, which I didn't notice until the end. You need to have a node (maybe a big node?) activated in that level of the crystarium to be able to select the bonus perk at the end. I rushed RAV and COM to 99 on both, so now the jobs I intended to use primarily are nowhere near their max potential. There was also absolutely no reason for the monsters to have to use items to level.
-Music. Aside from a few decent additions (final battle), it's mute-worthy bad.
-Jumping. Only becomes useful in the last hour of the game, when you get the floaty jump.
-Academia.
Every god damn section of it devises a new way to be terrible. First time? Obscene encounter rate for no XP. Second? The introduction of the quiz machines. It also dawned on me how badly designed the entire city was on this trip. Third? Well, actually. I kind of liked the third one. But, I had the floaty jump.

I'm too tired to keep complaining.
It sucks they probably won't even make a sequel. And if they do, it will be a weird rush job like this.
It was good, despite the numerous flaws and idiotic decisions.
Click to expand...
:(
 
M

MechaX

Member
Finished the game with 110 Fragments and I think I have gotten my fill of the game for the meantime. Steam-rolled through the final boss really easily despite all the hype for it. I think others have listed the pros and cons of this game pretty effectively. In short, I feel like it is better than XIII in some ways, but still manages to get some things pretty wrong (worse story, brain-dead difficulty).
 
Clear

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
Yay 160 fragments got. Raspatil was a fun fight, probably the most enjoyable non big-event fight in the game.

Just got a few bits and pieces to do still, but I'm happy to give this game a solid 8/10 as a final score.
 
M

MrDenny

Member
XIII: Awesome plot/lore, poor storytelling. Supporting Chars/Villians/Narrarative were poorly developed.
XIII-2: Crazier plot, but story was at least more engaging. Characters overall more likable.
 
S

StuBurns

Banned
One thing XIII completely outclassed XIII-2 on was the cutscene direction, there is some horrific blocking on some cutscenes, bizarre crazy high cameras for no reason. Really poor.
 
C

Cjdamon042

Member
StuBurns said:
Do people generally prefer XIII's plot? I thought XIII-2's was much better.
Click to expand...

I'd say XIII's was more focused and it felt like more of a journey, probably due to the linearity of it. XIII-2's had the better villain and the plot wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but it didn't seem as well done as XIII's (not that it was well done in the first place).

I think bits of XIII-2 feel better and more polished than the first game, but XIII has parts that are also better.

They're two completely different games despite being fairly similar; it's odd.
 
D

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
kayos90 said:
With the exception of Noel and Caius, XIII is far superior. At least XIII was coherent and made some sense. This made no sense.
Click to expand...
Yeah. Characters were better in XIII-2, but the storytelling--bearing in mind that this is in retrospect and in comparison to XIII-2--was better in FFXIII, despite the narrative essentially falling off a cliff in Chapter 10.

Cutscene direction was better in FFXIII as well. Difficulty and balancing were a hell of a lot better in FFXIII.

Clear said:
Yay 160 fragments got. Raspatil was a fun fight, probably the most enjoyable non big-event fight in the game.
Click to expand...
Raspatil was reeeeeeaaaally fun. When I finished the battle, the first thought that went through my mind was, "Why can't the rest of the game, including the final boss, be like that?!"
 
Perfo

Perfo

Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
StuBurns said:
One thing XIII completely outclassed XIII-2 on was the cutscene direction, there is some horrific blocking on some cutscenes, bizarre crazy high cameras for no reason. Really poor.
Click to expand...

The game is in every way cheaper than XIII, so that's why also cutscenes – apart from the opening and ending sections – are not impressive at all. As a super fan as I am, I'd like to see more money put into the next FFs. This is not what I'm accustumed to.
 
C

Charles

Member
I'm trying to find the graviton core zeta in Oerba -400 AF-, but I have a slight problem; how do I get to Oerba -400 AF-? Where is the gate?
 
B

brandonh83

Banned
dear................ god

all the
distortion puzzles in Oerba 300/400

just... wow

That might have been the single most excruciating experience in a game right behind the turtle killing in XIII.
 
J

jorgeton

Member
Perfo said:
The game is in every way cheaper than XIII, so that's why also cutscenes – apart from the opening and ending sections – are not impressive at all. As a super fan as I am, I'd like to see more money put into the next FFs. This is not what I'm accustumed to.
Click to expand...

I really hope the next FF is way more epic, this one feels very small in scale compared to FF12 and even 13. But this is a direct sequel so I'm not too worried. And yes, more CG please, the few they squeezed in here were pretty spectacular.
 
B

burgerdog

Member
brandonh83 said:
dear................ god

all the
distortion puzzles in Oerba 300/400

just... wow

That might have been the single most excruciating experience in a game right behind the turtle killing in XIII.
Click to expand...

You don't have to do those puzzles unless you are going for 160 fragments.
 
Clear

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
The problem with the stories in both FFXIII games is that they are all heavily steered by a byzantine mythology that they never really spell out to the player. What these games need is a full-on Cosmo Canyon bit where it lays out the pantheon and metaphysics of this universe.

XIII-2 has some interesting ideas but its all made so obscure by the terminology used, XIII was much the same. Its almost like they are afraid to be up-front about it, its really odd because from what I've been able to figure out its an interesting mix of classical mythologies.
 
L

Locke_211

Member
I just to the bit after the second Academia section where the plot is sort of explained. One question from Caius' exposition:

So Etro saved the Fal'cie at the end of the FF XIII, which caused a rip in time or something that is causing all the Yeuls to die. Caius wants to stop this by destroying history altogether? Ok. But did Etro actually save them? Weren't they saved from being Falcie and turned back to humans because they did their Focus? What did Etro actually do to save them?
 
P

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
I cannot get a damn Black Chocobo to spawn, and it's one of the last enemies I need to fight. This game does not like me.
 
D

Die Squirrel Die

Member
Locke_211 said:
I just to the bit after the second Academia section where the plot is sort of explained. One question from Caius' exposition:

So Etro saved the Fal'cie at the end of the FF XIII, which caused a rip in time or something that is causing all the Yeuls to die. Caius wants to stop this by destroying history altogether? Ok. But did Etro actually save them? Weren't they saved from being Falcie and turned back to humans because they did their Focus? What did Etro actually do to save them?
Click to expand...

Completing your focus wouldn't turn them back into humans. It's the curse of the L'Cie that they can never be human again. They either complete their focus and become crystals or fail their focus and become Cie'th.
 
U

UraMallas

Member
MrDenny said:
XIII: Awesome plot/lore, poor storytelling. Supporting Chars/Villians/Narrarative were poorly developed.
XIII-2: Crazier plot, but story was at least more engaging. Characters overall more likable.
Click to expand...

Nice. Agree. I think XIII-2 had a plot that was wackier but easier to follow due to the way the story was handled, though.
 
Clear

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
Locke_211 said:
One question from Caius' exposition:
Click to expand...

Just to correct you on the terminology first:

The Fal'cie are the "gods", L'cie are mortals bound to do the gods bidding (their "focus"), which should they fail to complete will cause them to turn into monsters (Cie'th), if they are successful they get turned to crystal.

Just to mix things up, there are two factions among the "gods", the Cocoon Fal'cie are presumed benevolent, whereas those hailing from Pulse are considered evil.

Etro, is the most powerful of the Pulse Fal'cie and considered to be the goddess of death.

Obviously, if you've played FFXIII you'll know that this isn't a true picture - the Cocoon Fal'cie aren't actually very nice at all, and the release of our heroes at the end of XIII seems like a gift from a more kindly deity... Etro as it happens.

*Giant* spoilers for XIII-2 follow:
Etro saves our heroes by using her godly mojo, essentially breaking history in the process and setting in motion the events of the game. This is because every Seeress in every period of history witnesses the change and has her lifespan cut-short as a result because they can see "through" time. This is why Caius freaks out; he's the immortal guardian of the seeress and is somewhat miffed at Etro for essentially injecting terminal cancer into every incarnation of his beloved throughout history.

His goal is to kill Etro in Valhalla -which is outside of time- in order to basically reset the entire universe.
 
G

GoshaDole

Member
I don't get why people would have too hard of a time understanding the plot of the game. Especially after beating it, it pretty much follows the story of the gods established in the Fabula Nova Crystallis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabula_Nova_Crystallis_Final_Fantasy#Mythology

In the beginning, the god Bhunivelze defeated his mother, the goddess Mwynn, to take control of the world for himself as Mwynn disappeared into the invisible world. But fearful of his eventual death due to what he believed was the curse Mwynn left on whatever lives within the Visible World, Bhunivelze created the first three fal'Cie: Pulse, Etro, and Lindzei. Giving no power to Etro due to her unintended resemblance to Mwynn, Bhunivelze gave Pulse the task of terraforming the world so the doorway to the Unseen World could be found, while Lindzei was serving as the god's protector as he enters a deep rest until the time comes for him to awaken once Pulse succeeds. However, fueled by their Focuses, Pulse created the fal'Cie of Gran Pulse, while Lindzei fashioned the fal'Cie that would create and rule Cocoon, a floating continent built to house humanity as a paradise.

As for Etro, motivated by her powerlessness, faded into the Unseen World after unknowingly creating humanity from her self-mutilation. By then, Etro finds Mwynn as she is consumed by an energy mass called Chaos that was caused by Bhunivelze's actions in creating the fal'Cie. Though unaware of the meaning behind the goddess's final words to ensure the stability of the worlds, out of love for the humans destined to follow her in death, Etro installed humanity with pieces of Chaos that they would call "hearts". Soon after, as their Maker Bhunivelze remains in deep sleep because of the balance restored by Etro's act of compassion, Pulse and Lindzei were worshiped by humans while Etro herself became known as the goddess of death.
Click to expand...
 
L

Locke_211

Member
Right thanks, that's what I thought. Just one remaining dilemma that is probably from me thinking too much:

One of the Yeuls reassures Serah that Lightning vanishing was a result of the timeline changing and if Serah sets everything right, then Lightning will reappear. But surely if all the L'cie were only saved as a result of history being broken by Etro, then wouldn't the true, correct timeline be making sure that didn't happen so everyone remains L'cie? While Lightning vanishing is a result of history being changed, by Caius' explanation isn't the six of them surviving the end of FFXIII in the first place also a result of history being changed by Etro?

To keep Lightning there, wouldn't they have to keep Etro breaking history by releasing them all, but just not make this create any damage, rather than fix history?

Or is all this going to be made relevant? I've only just finished Serah's dream bit. I liked Caius' argument that her excitement at everyone saved was what doomed the Yeuls, so Serah's happiness led to his sadness. Incidentally I can't wait to go back to that bit and make Serah take the other choice! Found that whole sequence really gripping

I do think this game is clearer as to its terminology than FFXIII. I wonder if the abstractness of that was partly due to translation issues? I love the camera pan as each Episode starts, with the really, really cool dramatic music playing.
 
K

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
Sorry guys but what persuades you that XIII-2 made any sense. The time travel/changes/timelines and anything temporal-related doesn't make sense at all. They do a horrible job of explaining, if any, and the main plot was mostly filler with the exception of the end. Go to this place, "please do something for us!" and the next place, "Please do something for us!" and on and on and on. Luckily it was episodic so it was nice but man. Plot, narrative, everything story related is average to bad. With the exception of Noel. I definitely blow him out of proportion but Noel and Caius is the saving grace in that game.
 
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