History YMMV / FinalFantasyXIII2

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Some say Caius is a fantastic and well-written TragicVillain with a sympathetic backstory and motivation, is a total badass, and is also a cunning [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]] who manipulates everyone to get what he wants. Others say his motivation is selfish and flimsy {{Wangst}} that amounts to TheLostLenore, his powers are too exaggerated in the name of making him cool, and he succeeds in his plans because {{Gambit Roulette}}s and {{Idiot Ball}}s keep making things go his way.

* AudienceAlienatingEnding: The second part of an already divisive trilogy ends with [[spoiler:[[TheBadGuyWins Caius winning and destroying the world]], [[ShootTheShaggyDog no matter what the player does]]]], and your reward for getting OneHundredPercentCompletion is TheStinger that [[spoiler:just consists of Caius taunting you for thinking you could get a better ending]]. While clearly intended to be a SecondChapterCliffhanger, so many fans found this (along with the other disliked parts of the game) a giant slap in the face for all the time and effort required to beat the game that when ''VideoGame/LightningReturnsFinalFantasyXIII'', the third and final part, came out and ultimately provided a BelatedHappyEnding, [[http://www.siliconera.com/2013/11/27/lightning-returns-lowest-opening-sales-final-fantasy-xiii-game it only barely achieved]] half the sales that '''XIII-2'' did.

* DisappointingLastLevel: [[spoiler:Academia 500 AF]] is a long platformer section with rotating platforms, switch puzzles, and enemies that are a jump in difficulty from the previous areas. It's often criticized for slowing the game to a crawl right before the final boss.

* PortingDisaster: The [=PC=]/Steam port of this game is even worse than the port of ''Final Fantasy XIII'' as, in addiction to the various problems regarding graphics and performance, it also tends to crash on certain computers. Sure it's cheap and includes all of the DLC for free, but you have to watch the main ending to unlock most of it.

* BaseBreakingCharacter:
** Noel. He's either a surprisingly awesome, well-written, and generally pretty cool dude or a suck-ass ReplacementScrappy for Snow and/or Fang (who was originally conceived as a male).
** Mog is either [[EnsembleDarkhorse the best character in the game]] or [[TheScrappy the worst character in the game]].
** Some say Caius is a fantastic and well-written TragicVillain with a sympathetic backstory and motivation, is a total badass, and is also a cunning [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]] who manipulates everyone to get what he wants. Others say his motivation is selfish and flimsy {{Wangst}} that amounts to TheLostLenore, his powers are too exaggerated in the name of making him cool, and he succeeds in his plans because {{Gambit Roulette}}s and {{Idiot Ball}}s keep making things go his way.

* PolishedPort: [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-Zagged]] with the [=PC=]/Steam release. While it runs at 60 frames-per-second and all the DLC is free (although the DLC chapters are locked off until endgame), the game seems to crash for seemingly no reason and only load maps after a certain point when Steam Cloud synching is turned on, making it somewhat of a mixed bag.

* TearJerker: The true ending, if you ignore the [[SoundtrackDissonance Soundtrack Dissonance]], is this in a nutshell. [[spoiler:Serah dies, Etro is dead and the entire world will die with her, Lightning is crystallized (''by her own choice'', as stated on a Fragment), and Caius has won.]]
* ThatOneAttack: While they were largely absent from the first game besides Orphan's Merciless Judgment, cutscene attacks like the ones introduced in ''Videogame/FinalFantasyXII'' are a lot more common in this game.

* ThatOneBoss:
** The first battle against Caius, for those who haven't touched the sidequests yet. He can heal himself and buff himself up.
** [[spoiler:The Paradox Scope battles with Caius at A Dying World 700AF and the Void Beyond, with Serah (and {{Mons}}) and Noel going it alone respectively. If you're properly leveled with above average monsters in your corner in Serah's case he shouldn't be too much trouble, but he's not to be underestimated because he can still do alot of damage in short time. Weaker characters may be forced to use Wound, which reduces max hp (useful because once you kill him he instantly revives).]]
* 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[[note]]which requires you explore 10 maps 100%[[/note]] 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.

** ''Lightning''. Despite all the marketing and trailers focusing on her, it ended up being WolverinePublicity. Not counting DLC, she only appears in a handful of cutscenes and is only playable in the prologue, which lasts about five minutes.

* TearJerker: The true ending, if you ignore the [[SoundtrackDissonance Soundtrack Dissonance]], is this is a nutshell. [[spoiler:Serah dies, Etro is dead and the entire world will die with her, Lightning is crystallized (''by her own choice'', as stated on a Fragment), and Caius has won.]]

** The Arbiter of Time makes only one sinister appearance in the base game, and the Coliseum DLC doesn't expand much on him despite being ''its host'' and a BonusBoss. This hasn't stopped fans from hailing him as an incredibly cool character who would wreck Caius if not for story purposes; they're similarly disappointed by his absence in [[VideoGame/LightningReturnsFinalFantasyXIII the following game]].

* ScrappyLevel:
** Academia 400 AF, due to the high encounter rate and the fact that you can't run from any of them. At least it's a great place to grind for CP and Gil if you need either.
** Academia 500 AF. An unexpected platforming segment with long waits for platforms to get in correct positions (and featuring a few extremely difficult enemy encounters), the area was often criticized in reviews for slowing the game down to a crawl [[spoiler:right before the big finale]]. Mapping the area to 100% is an even bigger chore.
** 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. It is much worse with having to pay attention for the outline of Captain Cryptic because Mog will not detect him even once you do see him hidden in plain sight.
** Augusta Towers because its walkable paths are very narrow, making it difficult to avoid battles or getting a preemptive strike, since the battle clock ''starts'' at yellow in Augusta Tower AF 200. There's also the fact that its AF 300 rendition is a BleakLevel, with its only purpose being a keycard to obtain and map completion.
** A Dying World 700 AF, mainly because it's a bitch to get from one point to another, and there are ''tons'' of hidden treasure chests.
** If you dislike the time distortion mini games, then you will HATE Oerba 300 and 400 AF. Running around the same small map playing the three distortion mini games *over and over*. Some of them have 6 stages, and there are 8 or 9 per time period.

* FanPreferredCouple: Canonically, Noel's LoveInterest is Yeul, and his primary motivation of traveling back in time is to save her from her fate. However, since their relationship is only briefly touched upon (the game doesn't explicitly describe them as a romantic couple either), and he spends the entire game traveling with Serah, he's more commonly paired up with the latter than the former.

* UncannyValley:
** [[http://www.siliconera.com/2012/04/04/final-fantasy-xiii-2s-most-unusual-collaboration-dresses-lightning-in-prada/ The Prada advertisements]] are getting in on it, despite the game being nowhere near it. Sazh's outfit, however, is getting universal praise. Lightning is generally well liked. It's Noel in particular that everybody doesn't like.
** There is a cutscene near the end of the game with Noel, Serah, Hope and Mog on an airship. It has a more detailed render than the other cutscenes, and while every individual part of their faces is more detailed, the general effect is a little bit off.

* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: Much like it's [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII prequel]], this game contains backstory for events and characters in wikipedia-esque entries in the datalog and fragments. For instance, some fragments shed light on Caius' past. It would have been awesome to see him duking it out with his predecessor or performing the [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique Incarnate Summoning]] of Bahamut.

* ViewersAreGoldfish: Possibly in response to criticism of the first game, this one has a bad habit of heaping exposition or repeating things mere minutes after they've been brought up. Unfortunately, it's not usually done subtly, instead hitting you over the head multiple times until skipping scenes suddenly doesn't seem like such a bad idea.
* ViolationOfCommonSense: [[spoiler: In Chapter 4, a shadow clone of Lightning asks Serah to come live with her in the (obviously fake) dream-world they're in.]] Saying no will advance the story. Saying yes will give you an alternate ending, a whole bunch of experience and place you right back before the question.

* EndingAversion: [[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".]]

* ThatOneSidequest: The goddamn Lucky Coin fragment. To get it you have to win 7,777 coins at the slot machines. And no one seems to be able to agree on whether that's a total number across all plays or all in one sitting (luckily losses aren't counted against that number), but either way expect to lose A LOT of coins, and thus gil in the process.

* GameBreaker: [[GameBreaker/FinalFantasy Here]].

* ScapegoatCreator: Not so much with the first game, but thanks to this game, a large part of the fandom has nothing but loathing for Motomu Toriyama. The mentioned MemeticMutation "Toriyama'd" is pretty much shorthand now for TrollingCreator.

* FanPreferredCouple:
** 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 [[NoYay otherwise]] [[ValuesDissonance squicky implications]]. [[HilariousInHindsight Hilariously,]] by the time they actually get together in [[VideoGame/LightningReturnsFinalFantasyXIII the next game]], Hope is 14 again.
** Noel and Serah shippers seem to be popping up everywhere as well, mostly due to the fact Snow left Serah in New Bodhum to look for Lightning and they work pretty well together during their travels.

** Noel. He's either a surprisingly awesome, well-written, and generally pretty cool dude or a suck-ass ReplacementScrappy for Snow.

* DieForOurShip: Alyssa initially suffered this just because she was shown being close to Hope in the previews. [[spoiler:Then the fans actually played the game, and discovered she was TheMole and tried to kill Serah and Noel. It didn't help.]]

** The entire scene before fighting Gogmagog's final form in A Dying World is utterly cringe-inducing, especially when Serah and Noel exclaim, in unison, "We ''will'' change the future!"

* WinBackTheCrowd: Was Square's attempt to do this after the first game's mixed response, adding in a more open world design, more sidequests, and more flexibility in the Crystarium earlier in the game. [[ContestedSequel It didn't take]].

** Yeul, or rather the many reincarnations of her. No matter which Yeul it is, she's born with the Eyes of Etro which lets her see the future and everytime she uses her powers (Which is often against her will), it slowly chips away her lifespan and she dies young.

* ThatOneAttack: While they were largely absent from the first game besides Orphan's Merciless Judgment, cutscene attacks like the ones introduced in ''Videogame/FinalFantasyXII'' area lot more common in this game.

* {{HSQ}}: [[http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/10/13/final-fantasy-xiii-2-change-the-future-trailer This trailer]].

* MostAnnoyingSound: The slot machine makes a loud 'BA-DUNK' sound every time you get two Microchus in a row. Three Microchus is the ultimate jackpot, but you'll virtually never win it outside of Super Victory Mode. The game ''knows this'', and loves to tease you with Microchus.

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

** Some say Caius is a fantastic and well-written TragicVillain with a sympathetic backstory and motivation, is a total badass, and is also a cunning [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]] who manipulates everyone to get what he wants. Others say his motivation is selfish and flimsy {{Wangst}} that amounts to TheLostLenore, his powers are too exaggerated in the name of making him cool, and he succeeds in his plans because of GambitRoulette where things go his way out of plot contrivances.

** The main antagonist Caius is either a well-written, sympathetic, yet still totally badass AntiVillain, or an absurdly overpowered villain who is [[LargeHam difficult to take seriously]]. There is also a remarkably deep divide over whether he's cooler and more powerful than [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Sephiroth]].