History YMMV / FinalFantasyXIII2

* InternetBackdraft:
** While some DLC are well-received, a part of the fanbase doesn't like how Square is implementing it by making some of it available and advertised on day one. Square has stated that this is the first title they're working on to have planned DLC in one of their titles from the start of development, which doesn't help their cause.
** The scenario, especially the ending, led to a lot of bashing from the fanbase.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
** The actual story of humanity rebuilding on Pulse and adapting to the new world is largely glossed over, and aside from a couple parts early in the game, the story is focused around locations and time periods centuries after Cocoon's fall.
** A number of what ''could'' have been major plot twists are spoiled simply by the presence of the prologue, which shows decisively that Lightning is alive in Valhalla, Noel is her ally, and Caius is their enemy. Simply removing the prologue to leave Lightning's fate ambiguous and the moral standings of Noel and Caius unsure for Serah and the player would create an air of mystery over events and make for a much more compelling narrative.

* AntiClimaxBoss: If you prioritise story progression over character development, then the final boss fight can be Very Hard. If you end up with a high-level party because you've been on a long Fragment hunt or something ... not so much.

* BestKnownForTheFanservice: Some of the most infamous parts of the game are Lightning's badass and sexy {{Valkyrie|s}} armor, the scene where she receives it and is briefly seen nude, and Serah's HotterAndSexier redesign.
* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: During the introduction of the game, Serah spontaneously has her clothes change from her ''XIII'' outfit to her clothing in this game. While she and a couple other characters comment on how strange it is, none of them dwell on it beyond a brief mention, and no explanation or reason for why it happened is ever given.

** Oerba 300 AF and 400 AF, where a small number of base fights are interspersed with paradox events, where you not only get fragments, but gain a side story about Mog in the process.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xx_1XzRkhcg&feature=related Not to mention the theme that plays when Lightning fights Chaos-Bahamut]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuPV_TGy-U8 Lets not forget the new battle theme now.]]

* ThatOneLevel: Academia has a labyrinthine layout that is impossible to navigate intuitively. The map doesn't help since it doesn't separate the lower, middle, and upper levels to different screens, meaning that some areas are completely hidden from view, which also makes the "Paradox Professor" sidequest for this map a pain. It's even worse in 400 AF, since you're constantly being bombarded with Cie'th battles that you cannot avoid, while ''still'' trying to just find your way around.

* ThatOneLevel: Academia has a labyrinthine layout that is impossible to navigate intuitively. The map doesn't help since it doesn't separate the lower, middle, and upper levels to different screens, meaning that some areas are completely hidden from view, which also makes the "Paradox Professor" sidequest for this map a pain. It's even worse in 400 AF, since you're constantly being bombarded with Cie'th battles that you cannot avoid.

* BadExportForYou: The PC version will only have the Japanese voice acting in Asia. While a minor issue, it does get on some fan's nerves. At the least the price for the game is cheaper in those regions.

* BrokenBase: [[spoiler:The ending of the game is quite a DownerEnding, and also rather confusing, causing the fandom to split between hating the game for its ending or defending it for other merits and saying those who think it's bad "don't get it".]]

** Hope, which is odd, considering that he was TheScrappy in the previous game. He went from a wangsty SquishyWizard that only took a few levels in badass toward the end to [[TookALevelInBadass the leader of the Academy and the de facto ruler of mankind]]. It also helps that he's now [[ShesAllGrownUp all grown up]].

* PolishedPort: The [=PC=] release. It runs at 60 fps, all the [=DLC=] is free (although the [=DLC=] chapters are locked off until endgame) and all the hiccups from ''XIII's'' initial [=PC=] port were ironed out.
* PortingDisaster: The Steam release is largely seen as this due to the game crashing at times for seemingly no reason and only loading maps after a certain point when Steam Cloud synching is turned on.

%%** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGCOKEmkY40 Yeul's Theme]].
%%** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuPV_TGy-U8 Last Hunter.]]
%%** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xx_1XzRkhcg&feature=related Not to mention the theme that plays when Lightning fights Chaos-Bahamut]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuPV_TGy-U8 Lets not forget the new battle theme now.]]
%%** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKwI749rU0g&feature=player_embedded#! The Archylte Steppe theme was leaked. And it is fantastic.]]
%%** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NztBKlgQVHw&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL Caius' Theme]].

*** Commandos: Chichu, Omega (DLC), yrie Lightning (DLC)

* MagnificentBastard: Caius Ballard is a Guardian tasked with protecting the seeress and became Paddra legend because of his might. Moved by his honor and tenacity, the goddess Etro awarded the former l'Cie with the Heart of Chaos to make him an immortal warrior to continue his duty forever. Once Caius realizes the curse of immortality, he concocts a plan to destroy of all time, by opening the Door to Souls, so Yeul and indirectly everyone else can no longer experience the pain of mortality. To that end, he tries to kill Etro directly in Valhalla, but when that fails, he sets to collapse Hope's New Coccoon to cause mass destruction, even manipulating a scared Alyssa to put Serah and Noel—his biggest opposition—on a dangeorus detour. When that fails as well, Caius has Noel, his Guardian successor he personally groomed, stab the Heart of Chaos. In the end, Caius becomes one of the few series antagonists to completely win.

* BestKnownForTheFanservice: Some of the most infamous parts of the game are Lightning's badass and sexy {{Valkyrie}} armor, the scene where she receives it and is briefly seen nude, and Serah's HotterAndSexier redesign.

*** Commandos: Chichu, Omega (DLC), Valkyrie Lightning (DLC)

* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: The general consensus is that this game is much better than ''XIII''. So much so that ''Famitsu'' gave it a perfect score.

* NarmCharm: The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgdgW9QvQa0 Coliseum DLC intro]], especially when you've purchased all the characters. It is [[LargeHam incredibly, intentionally cheesy]] in a rather funny and awesome way.

** Academia 4XX AF just because of the Captain Cryptic quiz. He'll ''randomly spawn in any area'' and the only clues you'll have are from the townspeople which isn't really helping that much.

* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: The general consensus is that this game is much better that ''XIII''. So much so that ''Famitsu'' gave it a perfect score.

* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: The general consensus is that this game is much better that ''XIII'' and ''Lightning Returns''. So much so that ''Famitsu'' gave it a perfect score.

* EarWorm: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TCM2ay8cz8 Chaotic Labyrinth]] is perfect for the final dungeon, plus feels like it's from ''Franchise/SilentHill'.

* EarWorm: Par for the course.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TCM2ay8cz8 Chaotic Labyrinth]] is perfect for the final dungeon, plus feels like it's from ''Franchise/SilentHill'.

* ScrappyMechanic: The Hands of Time in the Time Warp Anomaly sections. Do you suck at math? Yes? Do we have a minigame for ''you''. Some of them that have a ''time limit.'' Oh and some of them also are randomized as well. "Oh, but surely there's a guide"- Guide my ass! Every puzzle is totally freaking random!! Mitigated now that people have made [[http://clockpuzzle.pl/ multiple]] [[http://nyusuke.com/game/ff13/ff13-2puzzle.html puzzle-solvers]] for it. Of course, that doesn't improve the mechanic itself; just make it less annoying.

* WinBackTheCrowd: Looks to be Square's attempt after the more mixed reaction the previous game received. [[BrokenBase Instead it seemed to break the base even more.]]

* ContestedSequel: With so many changes from the original XIII, both in gameplay and story, this was inevitably going to happen. The general rule of thumb is that people who disliked the original found the sequel to be an improvement in most respects, while those who enjoyed the original judged this one to be an exercise in dumping babies with bathwater. This trend would continue into its own sequel.

* BestKnownForTheFanservice: Lightning's naked scene.

** A number of what ''could'' have been major plot twists are spoiled simply by the presence of the prologue, which shows decisively that Lightning is alive in Valhalla, Noel is her ally, and Caius is their enemies. Simply removing the prologue to leave Lightning's fate ambiguous and the moral standings of Noel and Caius unsure for Serah and the player would create an air of mystery over events and make for a much more compelling narrative.

** In a more meta sense, the game itself, thanks to taking it's predecessor's gameplay and refining it while adding more layers of depth to an already deep gameplay system.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Alyssa. Think about it, had they somehow decided to throw her in as one of the three main party members, her dilemma would be much more profound and so many layers could have been added.

* GameBreaker:
** Dragoons are a pretty good early example: capturing them is pretty easy, they don't take much materials to level up and their Strength is generally double or triple that of Noel or Serah in that point of the game.
** Getting Lightning's DLC episode as early as possible (and spoiling most of the ending in the progress if you don't skip the cutscenes) allows you get her as a monster ally at any point in the game if you 5-star both of her battles, which is pretty easy to do as the levels in her episode are independent from the main story and thus 5-starring her battles is just as easy or hard at the end of the game as it is at the very beginning. Pretty much all the DLC contents count as this, the Coliseum DLC alone allows you to get the best Ravager (Lightning), best Sentinel (Snow) and the best Saboteur (Jihl) monsters in the game, although in their case you at least need to be strong enough to beat them first.
** The Sazh DLC. At the start, you are given 10,000 Casino coins and are told to go play. Bet them all on one of the card games, win and you might end up with around 50,000 coins. The kicker? These original 10,000 coins are free and Serah and Noel get to keep everything you win as Sazh, enabling you to buy out the entire casino as soon as you set foot there.

** It was pretty large in ''XIII'', but now that Hope has aged-up, oh, ''ten years'', expect Hoprai shippers to be royally pissed if Lightning and he don't get together now that the can avoid [[{{Shotacon}} otherwise]] [[ValuesDissonance squicky implications]]. [[HilariousInHindsight Hilariously,]] by the time they actually get together in [[VideoGame/LightningReturnsFinalFantasyXIII the next game]], Hope is 14 again.