[PS3/360] Final Fantasy XIII-2

[SinisterDeath]

Just picked this up today, have been debating back and forth whether I could afford it or not, but since I get paid in 2 days.. figured why not? :P

 

Theres several reviews out there

Like the Escapist Review

The Kotaku Review

Or the Metacritic Score

 

Scores on the latter tend to go up or down, generally down over time.

However most reviews will show it as being 'better' than FFXIII simply because it is far less linear, and improved on things people wanted improved, and removed things people hated... somewhat.

 

Since it is a sequal, there is still the obvious Fan Service ploy (Its japan for damned sakes! But hey... If you like captruing pokemon style monsters and dressing them up in little hats? Your going to squeee like a japanese school girl to.)

Not that I'll be doing anything like that... Unless its a freakin Fez (Think Doctor Who)

 

I'm currently downloading the update/patch for it (27MB) and will be playing it shortly.

I'll give my own personal review of it, when i actually complete it... or at least, one of the multiple endings available to the player.

[reyler]

Still undecided if I'm going to pick this up or not. Probably going to come down to if I can afford to get this as well as Kingdoms of Amalur. I didn't hate XIII as much as other people did the first time around despite still not thinking much of it, and it was much less terrible the second time, when I had a better idea of what I was doing and what to expect. Still have two achievements I need to pick up, come to think of it.

[Troilen]

I actually really liked 13, minus of course the fact that it was very linear, but then again, I just love Final Fantasy soooo..was actually on my way here today to ask if someone had tried it out yet, and here there's a post waiting for me already =D

 

Let me know what you think when you get a little bit into it please?

 

And also, I have every achievement for FFXIII if you need any help with it at all =) I loved farming the Shaolong Gui's, killed em in 90 seconds or less every time.

[SinisterDeath]

I actually really liked 13, minus of course the fact that it was very linear, but then again, I just love Final Fantasy soooo..was actually on my way here today to ask if someone had tried it out yet, and here there's a post waiting for me already =D

 

Let me know what you think when you get a little bit into it please?

 

And also, I have every achievement for FFXIII if you need any help with it at all =) I loved farming the Shaolong Gui's, killed em in 90 seconds or less every time.

 

I never got that high level enough in FFXIII to take them on that easy. I just simply can't devote that time towards the 'platinum' trophy, that I pretty much have to restart the game over again just to get it... (I missed a couple of things early on thats required for platinum)

 

As for 13-2? I'm liking it so far.

But I'm also a huge sucker for Time Travel, so i'm probably biased. (Seriously, final fantasy fan & time travel fan? Whats not to love!)

 

Theres still the obvious fan service that sony's doing towards the sequels, but its definately toned down in this one compare to X-2.

Theres other things though, like making monsters your party members, upgrading them, merging them, making them better...

 

I like the change in the leveling system.

[reyler]

Bit the bullet and picked it up last night. So far I like it well enough. Combat is even quicker than XIII, and I like that they've removed the impediments to leveling. From what I can tell, there's nothing to stop someone with a lot of time to kill from grinding all the way to max levels before ever leaving New Bodhum. I tried that in a recent runthrough of XII, but around level 50 decided I'd rather just get on with playing the game.

 

Story isn't much so far. Kinda seems to be there just to give them an excuse for you to screw around with temporal anomalies.

 

The linearity was honestly the biggest problem for XIII. Yes, it was pretty much necessitated by the story, but in that case the story probably should have been given to something that wasn't called Final Fantasy, which comes with certain expectations. XIII-2 throws that right out the window, not just in the ability to explore and revisit places you'd been to before, but even being able to replay them.

 

I never had the impulse to punch Snow like most people seemed to, but sometimes I wanted to punch Hope, and now in the sequel I find myself wanting to punch Chocolina. Wondering how long before she starts cropping up in cosplay.

 

The only achievements I have left in XIII are Master's Seal and Treasure Hunter, which are more time consuming than they are difficult. I figure by the time I'm done with Master's Seal, I'll have racked up enough platinum ingots to make all my equipment leveling go by quick.

[SinisterDeath]

Bit the bullet and picked it up last night. So far I like it well enough. Combat is even quicker than XIII, and I like that they've removed the impediments to leveling. From what I can tell, there's nothing to stop someone with a lot of time to kill from grinding all the way to max levels before ever leaving New Bodhum. I tried that in a recent runthrough of XII, but around level 50 decided I'd rather just get on with playing the game.

 

Story isn't much so far. Kinda seems to be there just to give them an excuse for you to screw around with temporal anomalies.

 

The linearity was honestly the biggest problem for XIII. Yes, it was pretty much necessitated by the story, but in that case the story probably should have been given to something that wasn't called Final Fantasy, which comes with certain expectations. XIII-2 throws that right out the window, not just in the ability to explore and revisit places you'd been to before, but even being able to replay them.

 

I never had the impulse to punch Snow like most people seemed to, but sometimes I wanted to punch Hope, and now in the sequel I find myself wanting to punch Chocolina. Wondering how long before she starts cropping up in cosplay.

 

The only achievements I have left in XIII are Master's Seal and Treasure Hunter, which are more time consuming than they are difficult. I figure by the time I'm done with Master's Seal, I'll have racked up enough platinum ingots to make all my equipment leveling go by quick.

 

Thats one thing the 'sequels' have always had over the 'originals' in Final Fantasy games.

Better Gameplay. And you really do have to admit that the linearity is a gameplay issue, not a story issue. ;)

 

I can't really comment on how good the game is, because I'm just that huge a fan of Time Travel.

I'm half expecting to run into freaking McFly! Or perhaps some random refrence to Samuel Beckett.

 

And yes, I loved the movie, Retroactive, because it had time travel.

And thats why I love Futurama. ;)

(Doctor Who, is simply a No-brainer in this mind you)

[reyler]

There have only been three direct sequels, unless you count all the spinoffs of VII. X, XII, and now XIII have all had direct sequels. I don't think anyone is going to argue anything in favor of X-2 and Revenant Wings over their respective predecessors, especially the gameplay. Okay check that I guess IV got a sequel but nobody knows why.

 

The linearity of the gameplay in XIII was to an extent a direct result of the format of the story. If you had taken a story like that, where the characters are cursed and made so that literally everyone in their world is scared to death of them, and are constantly being hunted by the government and what not, and paired that with gameplay like XII, where for the most part you get to leisurely wander all over this sprawling world map questing and exploring, you're saying that wouldn't have been a little incongruous?

 

Also, about eleven hours and nine achievements in, I think I finally want to punch Snow a little. Haven't really had anything hard crop up yet, except maybe the Feral Behemoths (but I probably wasn't supposed to actually fight them and anyway it got me one for my COM/COM/COM paradigm), but that's probably because I've been more focused on building one role per character rather than spreading evenly.

[SinisterDeath]

There have only been three direct sequels, unless you count all the spinoffs of VII. X, XII, and now XIII have all had direct sequels. I don't think anyone is going to argue anything in favor of X-2 and Revenant Wings over their respective predecessors, especially the gameplay. Okay check that I guess IV got a sequel but nobody knows why.

 

I actually enjoyed FFX-2's Gameplay, The story sucked (kinda) compared to FFX's, but the gameplay was far and above that of FFX's, it was actualy FUN to play, and not a chore.

And I believe this is what Square-Enix's policy is.

Direct Sequels, Enchance the gameplay, and toss in fan service. (And FFX-2 was fan service)

Theres obivous fan Service in FFXIII-2, story wise, I've yet to say whether its better over FFXIII or not.

 

But the Linearity of FFXIII, is really gameplay. The story obviously necisated the linear gameplay.

FFXIII-2's story, allows for more open gameplay.

 

 

The linearity of the gameplay in XIII was to an extent a direct result of the format of the story. If

 

Also, about eleven hours and nine achievements in, I think I finally want to punch Snow a little. Haven't really had anything hard crop up yet, except maybe the Feral Behemoths (but I probably wasn't supposed to actually fight them and anyway it got me one for my COM/COM/COM paradigm), but that's probably because I've been more focused on building one role per character rather than spreading evenly.

 

I take it you went 'straight' on that p athway? Cause I took the first 'left' turn. ;)

But yea, those behemoths, you definately need a couple of sentinle specs.

 

I've found though, that a

Sab/Rav/Rav works pretty damned good.

I've made the girl focus Sab, The guy focus Synergy.

With the rest of 'her' points split up between rav & medic, and 'his' between rav & com. Going to put more into sentinle later on.

 

I've got 'one' role as Sab/Syn/Rav (so I can buff and keep my combo going on the mob.)

I think my layout goes like this

 

Sab/Rav/Rav

Rav/Rav/Rav

Com/Com/Com

Sab/Sent/Rav

Medic/Sent/Com

Sab/Sent/Medic

 

I'm split on the new cross/wide/nomral methods. Doesn't always seem to work correctly.

Like with Synergy.

I want them to ALWAYS use the Group version, over the single target version! Even if osmeone aready has one up! But regardless of there playstyle, they NEVER use the group version if someone already has that same one up!/gar.

 

I do like the 'pet' mechanic in it, it definatley adds that 'weapon upgrade' flavor to the game, in another method... and making some kinda freakish super pet.....

 

(I gotta get me a cactor/Chocobo/cait Syth. :P)

[reyler]

Usually fanservice means boobs, not time travel; not everyone is a chronophile like you.

 

Initially I started off trying to spread CP equally, but I find the support roles in this game aren't as critical as they were in the last game. And considering I've almost maxed out RAV for Serah and COM for Noel, not to mention my handy dandy little Garchimacera taking up the third spot, at this point I don't seem to be running into anything new that poses much of a challenge. The best defense may be a good offense?

 

Until you mentioned the group/cross/whatever settings just now, I had literally forgotten all about them. I've been getting by just fine steamrolling everything in my path. The only thing I've fought all day that gave me any trouble was Geiseric, and I probably wasn't supposed to be attempting him yet.

 

As a heads up, if you haven't gotten there, one timezone has all its fragments obtained a quiz game that will make you tear your hair out. Seriously, find an answer list, because the questions are randomized and at least half of them have literally no way to figure out the answer beyond guessing. It's as much of a pain as dodging lightning or racing chocobos in X.

[SinisterDeath]

Usually fanservice means boobs, not time travel; not everyone is a chronophile like you.

Uhh, no. Fan service is also having monsters you can 'dress up', and 'revisiting' other 'characters' post the orginal game.

 

as much anime as I watch, I can spot fan service, and this has a Ton of It, just not as sexulaized, and obvious as X-2.

 

Initially I started off trying to spread CP equally, but I find the support roles in this game aren't as critical as they were in the last game. And considering I've almost maxed out RAV for Serah and COM for Noel, not to mention my handy dandy little Garchimacera taking up the third spot, at this point I don't seem to be running into anything new that poses much of a challenge. The best defense may be a good offense?

 

Yea, at this point in time, I basically got each of them with 4 Roles, and they are around level 50-60 each in them.

I'm kinda disapointed that Serah doesn't have a 'group heal' and almost want to get noel up levels in medic just to see if he gets a group heal. I know some of the monstesr do.

 

 

As a heads up, if you haven't gotten there, one timezone has all its fragments obtained a quiz game that will make you tear your hair out. Seriously, find an answer list, because the questions are randomized and at least half of them have literally no way to figure out the answer beyond guessing. It's as much of a pain as dodging lightning or racing chocobos in X.

 

Between these two

http://www.ps3trophies.org/forum/final-fantasy-xiii-2/144353-daddy-bear-quiz-machines-questions-answers-guide.html

http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps3/619315-final-fantasy-xiii-2/faqs/63720

 

The only one you can't actually answer, is the pick a hand.

These?

Red or black?

(X) Black

© Red

 

Odds or evens?

(T) Evens

© Odds

 

Heads or Tails?

(T) Heads

(S) Tails

You can get 100% right all the time.

take the Heads or Tails option.

What that list says, is if heads is on 'triangle' its the right answer, as 'x' would be tails on that spot. But if Tails is on Square, and heads is on circle? tails is the correct one.

 

Which hand? Never changes position and is the only random question.

And yes, I treid doing the m legitly and then I'd get asked a question that made no sense! :P

[michellem]

I adore XIII-2 to bits, I like Serah a lot, Noal is kickass (seriously Serah, ditch that sucker Snow and marry Noal instead!) and I like the monsters in the party (YAY I GOT A PET BEHEMOTH! Ahem. 'Scuse me.) I loved the story, and the worlds, in XIII, so Im superhappy to get to stay in that world a bit more. Im sort of in the middle of the game I think (Im curently at that tower-thingy, about to take down the boss at the top, after Yeul speaks with them).

 

So yes, love it I do.

[Imperium]

Bloody stupid ending to the game......

 

It was an improvement on 13 apart from the disappointing end. I'm now playing through the extra content. Still 6 times I haven't unlocked.

 

Downed the Long Gui, Immortal and Ochu earlier which weren't much of a problem.

 

Had more problems with a random frimoire (think that's how you spell it)

[SinisterDeath]

Bloody stupid ending to the game......

 

It was an improvement on 13 apart from the disappointing end. I'm now playing through the extra content. Still 6 times I haven't unlocked.

 

Downed the Long Gui, Immortal and Ochu earlier which weren't much of a problem.

 

Had more problems with a random frimoire (think that's how you spell it)

 

Don't forget about Yomi!

Lightning, cliff near that time-thingy.

 

I had a HELL OF A TIME killing Ochu... bastard creature!

I may have been under-level, or it was because I was playing normal difficutly and not easy.. but... Uggh. Stupid mob!

 

The old secret technique was..

Keep one of his minions alive, and none else would spawn...

and he kept spawning them.

It litterally got to the point, that I'd kill all but 1, or all of them, and he'd already spawned 6 on me...

I went through a-z 4 times!

 

And on a side note.

The ONLY fragments I have left to get, are from revealing all of the maps.

and the Beastiry One.

 

Trophy's, I currently have '56%' of them. Most of them are going to be fairly easy to get, I have to check out what some of the 'other'

??? ones are.

I am Going for Platinum.

And I am going for the Secret Ending.

I could youtube the secret ending, But I'd rather get there my self this time.

 

That said. The Ending?

I loved it.

It feels like they took some fricken clues from FF6!

[Imperium]

I thought they ending was going great until the very end..

 

Won't put spoilers here.

 

I still got loads of fragments left to get. Think I'm on 60 odd atm.

 

Not looking forward to getting the whole bestiary.

[SinisterDeath]

I thought they ending was going great until the very end..

 

Won't put spoilers here.

 

I still got loads of fragments left to get. Think I'm on 60 odd atm.

 

Not looking forward to getting the whole bestiary.

 

Neither am I! lol

But exploring the entire map, should pretty much grant the beastiary.

 

Obviously though, the 'rare' mobs are going to be a pain. I don't know if you actually have to BEAT them to get them on your list or not... but with the upped-monster spawn rate..

[reyler]

You do have to kill a monster to get it in your bestiary. Fortunately there are lists out there that tell you what you need, because god knows the game doesn't give you any hints. There are a couple of fragment skills that are a big help, though. One you get for getting all fragments in the different Yaschas Massif timelines, and one you get for 100%ing all maps. The Battlemania skill especially, because it makes rarer monsters appear more often. The fact that completing the bestiary meant replaying the entire last level with its stupid platform puzzles ticked me off.

 

I got the last few achievements on this yesterday. Some advice: don't play the slots at Serendipity. Getting a positive result out of those is a crapshoot. You're better off getting a silver chocobo and leveling it up and racing it for that achievement. Also Giant's Fist became a lot easier when I realized that neither my Buccaboo Ace nor Behemoth's feral link, which both supply buffs, actually cast bravery. Get a Testudo into the mix and bring down a Long Gui chained up to 999%, and have at him with Meteor Javelin.

 

Yomi was a piece of crap. Especially because, unlike Vercingetorix who you could just stick poison on and turtle the rest of the fight, Yomi clears his status every time he puts up his shield. Kind of wish I'd remembered that you can change the difficulty level of battles, but after being overpowered for the entire game and breezing through pretty much everything in my path, it mostly never seemed to matter except on a few specific fights.

 

Also Sin those lists I'd already used and they're woefully incomplete - at least half the questions I got asked were nowhere to be found on them.

 

The ending pissed me off because it essentially amounted to making it so that, plotwise, absolutely nothing you did in the game mattered. At all. The story was pretty weak to begin with, and then that's how they end it?

[SinisterDeath]

You do have to kill a monster to get it in your bestiary. Fortunately there are lists out there that tell you what you need, because god knows the game doesn't give you any hints. There are a couple of fragment skills that are a big help, though. One you get for getting all fragments in the different Yaschas Massif timelines, and one you get for 100%ing all maps. The Battlemania skill especially, because it makes rarer monsters appear more often. The fact that completing the bestiary meant replaying the entire last level with its stupid platform puzzles ticked me off.

 

I got the last few achievements on this yesterday. Some advice: don't play the slots at Serendipity. Getting a positive result out of those is a crapshoot. You're better off getting a silver chocobo and leveling it up and racing it for that achievement. Also Giant's Fist became a lot easier when I realized that neither my Buccaboo Ace nor Behemoth's feral link, which both supply buffs, actually cast bravery. Get a Testudo into the mix and bring down a Long Gui chained up to 999%, and have at him with Meteor Javelin.

 

Yomi was a piece of crap. Especially because, unlike Vercingetorix who you could just stick poison on and turtle the rest of the fight, Yomi clears his status every time he puts up his shield. Kind of wish I'd remembered that you can change the difficulty level of battles, but after being overpowered for the entire game and breezing through pretty much everything in my path, it mostly never seemed to matter except on a few specific fights.

 

Also Sin those lists I'd already used and they're woefully incomplete - at least half the questions I got asked were nowhere to be found on them.

 

The ending pissed me off because it essentially amounted to making it so that, plotwise, absolutely nothing you did in the game mattered. At all. The story was pretty weak to begin with, and then that's how they end it?

Well, they 'are' going to release DLC Episodes that go beyond the ending. (supposedly)

 

But really there were really only two endings that could have had.

Either A died or B ceased to exist.

Either Billions died, or One Died.

 

Paradox's are a biatch. :P

 

The quiz list has been updated numerous times. I've acutally found it very helpful on the quiz's, and ones it doesn't contain?

I just googled it and got the answer.

 

Yomi was annoying as hell with that turtle bs. but I found him Easier than Ochu!

Long Gui was pretty easy to in comparison to all 3.

I woudl have gotten 5 stars, but when he 'stood up' again, i ketp attacking the 'head' instead of taking out the legs first.

 

I still have to clear out the final levels map.. That right side is a pain...

[reyler]

What I've heard is that the DLC packs are going to cover what the other characters were doing while Serah and Noel were off totally not preventing reality from getting destroyed. Like, you get one following Snow around, one following Sazh around, etc.

 

I don't know how you're having more trouble with Ochu than you did with Yomi. I had him dead before he'd finished spawning his second set of Microchu. Spam the crap out of Firaga, that clears things up right damn quick. With Yomi I had my levels maxed out and I still needed a high-level Pulse Guardian in every paradigm to soak up his attacks. What was great about Vercingetorix in the previous game was that, 16 million hp or not, you could just poison him and defend until it killed him. I am aware that I got ridiculously lucky in some things, like catching a Don Tonberry on only the second try.

 

What's even worse than the stationary quizzes are the goddamn Captain Cryptic quizzes, because he turns invisible in one of eleven possible locations in the largest, most complicated map in the game, and then asks some questions that you absolutely need someone else to have figured out for you, and then he runs off and does it a couple more times.

 

I'm glad I pulled a 1000/1000 on this game, because it's going to take weeks of not playing it to stop having some of the damn songs running in my head.

[SinisterDeath]

Yomi, all I basically did was launch poison him, once it stuck I went into rav/rav/com (with my chichu pet thats level 70) tried geting a stagger, dealing some damage.

Healed up, repeat.

 

half the time I killed him before his nasty Whirl attack.

 

Ochu though, as I said, he'd litterally keep spamming his minions over and over again, and before I could kill all of them, he'd spawn more. I think it was 'buggy' for me or something.

[reyler]

I'll say. For one thing, Yomi's Impenetrable Aura that he puts up every 5% you knock off of his HP clears all debuffs, including poison. And he starts throwing Wicked Whirl around much earlier in the fight than Vercingetorix did. With Ochu I was relying mostly on RAV/COM/RAV and chucking Firaga at Ochu, which picked off the Microchu along the way. I was already fairly high leveled when I did this, so take it with a grain of salt. You think that fight sucked, wait until you get to one of the Caius fights you need to replay for a paradox ending.

 

Jeez, were people really so disappointed they didn't get to fight Jihl Nabaat in the previous game that they had to make her a DLC Coliseum fight?

[SinisterDeath]

I'll say. For one thing, Yomi's Impenetrable Aura that he puts up every 5% you knock off of his HP clears all debuffs, including poison. And he starts throwing Wicked Whirl around much earlier in the fight than Vercingetorix did. With Ochu I was relying mostly on RAV/COM/RAV and chucking Firaga at Ochu, which picked off the Microchu along the way. I was already fairly high leveled when I did this, so take it with a grain of salt. You think that fight sucked, wait until you get to one of the Caius fights you need to replay for a paradox ending.

 

Jeez, were people really so disappointed they didn't get to fight Jihl Nabaat in the previous game that they had to make her a DLC Coliseum fight?

 

 

Oh god, I already completed all the paradox endings.

The Serah-Pet versus Ciaus Paradox... Sucked!

It wasn't Ochu suck, it was just SLOOOOW sucked!

 

15 minute target time fight right?

It took me 65 minutes!

[reyler]

... Okay that's pretty terrible. I beat him in about 19 minutes using SAB/SEN, MED/SEN, and SEN/SEN, because anything you hit him with as a Saboteur does wound damage which, even though he'll clear it with Absolution or Body and Soul, lowers his max HP. Because hell, you're not going to stop him from restoring more damage than you can do to him any other way, and otherwise you're too busy trying to keep up with the damage he's doing to you. That said, it did take me a few fights worth of trial and error to figure that much out.

[SinisterDeath]

... Okay that's pretty terrible. I beat him in about 19 minutes using SAB/SEN, MED/SEN, and SEN/SEN, because anything you hit him with as a Saboteur does wound damage which, even though he'll clear it with Absolution or Body and Soul, lowers his max HP. Because hell, you're not going to stop him from restoring more damage than you can do to him any other way, and otherwise you're too busy trying to keep up with the damage he's doing to you. That said, it did take me a few fights worth of trial and error to figure that much out.

 

I know.

thats how I beat him.

I had to use Poison to counter his health regen.

I actually got his max hp down to its cap! he had 20k hp and it wouldn't wound any further!

I even staggered him 5 times!

[SinisterDeath]

I think part of it was though, that I fought him once, died.

Next time I actually focused on healing when stuff happened.

I don't think I figured the wound out till say, 20 mins in. (wipe 2?) without the wipe. :P

The worst part was the full rez.. thank goodness for wounding!

[reyler]

Well, furthermore, when you have a quality Sentinel like Pulse Guardian busily maintaining Provoke on him, and because it's something ridiculously resilient like Pulse Guardian he can't do much damage and thusly will concentrate more on that than anything else, you can wear him down more with Serah switching into, say, RAV/SEN or COM/SEN. The point, like in that miserable Yomi fight, is that you never, ever don't have a Sentinel in there soaking up his attacks. Still one of the only battles I ever needed anything other than combinations of COM, RAV, and MED for.