So I have kind of a love-hate relationship with Final Fantasy XIII.
Like I said in my review of the first game, I would go so far as to say that its gameplay is flawed on a foundational level. Your level is capped between story chapters, which you progress through by travelling from point A to point B along an extremely linear overworld map. Most of the gameplay is locked for a solid ten hours of the play experience, with some features only opening up near the end of the game. The game looks outstanding, and the character writing is a lot better than it's given credit for, but it comes at the expense of gameplay depth and it's kind of a slow, arbitrary jog to a decent enough conclusion.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 is an outstanding RPG for the seventh generation of game consoles. It's a time travel story where you jump between a handful of locations at varying states of the future - the maps are recycled, but they're open and full of side quests and monster battles. You have two main characters, with the third character slot reserved for a monster that you assign based on its combat role, and on top of levelling up those two main characters, every single monster you find has an upgrade tree. The game is absolutely superb on the gameplay front - I love it.
That being said? I think the story and characterisation suffers from a lack of depth.
In the first game, there's this continuing storyline that's tied up between three different character arcs. Lightning is a cold, standoffish person, putting up walls because she thinks it's the best way to step into her role as a parental substitute after her and Serah's parents die. As she travels with Hope, who's this regular kid in mourning over his dead mother, this side of her comes out to motivate him to keep going - to callous over like she has, and embrace his revenge as a motivating factor.
But as they travel, Lightning realises that she was wrong. She re-evaluates the way she treated her sister, and she sees that she's making the same mistakes with Hope - so she tries to pivot. I can't go further than that due to spoilers, but over the course of the game, Lightning and Hope have their own arcs that influence each other's growth and notably affect a third member of their party as well. I honestly think that FF 13 does a great job in regards to how it handles its character arcs and stuff - and this leads into the ending, where the characters have a scene that showcase just how far they've come over the course of the game and get to end the game off on a high note. It might not hit the high notes of the franchise's storytelling potential, but it's competent and effective.
In Final Fantasy XIII-2, two things happen.
First, in order for this new game to exist in the first place, they retcon the ending of the first game on a cosmic level.
Secondly, Noel and Serah mostly trade in that strong narrative writing for character banter and more of a lightweight, shonen-ass character arc for both of them.
I like the character dialogue, especially since you get branching dialogue options where you can goof off a bit. But Noel gets a basic arc of like becoming strong enough to face the destiny he's been chosen for and overcoming the past, and Serah gets a basic arc of trying to save her sister by Setting Right What Once Went Wrong, and the villain's motivation is obscured until almost the end of the game and is revealed to be kind of a generic anime bad-guy plan.
The dialogue mostly goes from juicy character drama and an evolving exploration of the party's ideology regarding their focus, to "We need the Golden Sheep to open the Gate!" to "We got the Golden Sheep! Time to open that Gate!" to "We opened the Gate with the Golden Sheep! Hold on sis, I'm coming...". And that's fine, especially since the game seemingly intentionally presents itself in a similar fashion to a TV show - episodic story arcs for every time period and location in the game, complete with "Previously on Final Fantasy XIII-2" bumpers whenever you load a save - but it's like the first game had a surprising degree of depth in how it handled Lightning, Hope and Snow's character development, while XIII-2 is more about the setpieces and the moment to moment storytelling.
And that's fine, because I LOVE XIII-2 as a game. I love it. This is my favorite game in the XIII trilogy, hands down. One of my favorite storylines involves rounding up a bunch of baby flans, realising they're up to no good and Serah calling upon her experience as a school teacher to scold some sense into the naughty flans. It's pure narative fluff, and I LOVE it.
My main point being - Final Fantasy XIII-2 improves on just about every element of the first game that I didn't like. The gameplay is restrictive to the point of limiting your level progression and your ability to fight enemies on the overworld, and the level design is a straight line. In the sequel, levels are open and bustling. Monster encounters are around every corner, and everyone's Crystarium is ready to slam experience points into at all times. I value that much more as a gameplay experience than what XIII did.
But it regresses on everything I liked about the first game, too.
I didn't find Serah or Noel's character arcs to be very compelling, and while I HATED the antagonist of the first game for being a boring invincible villain - Caius has the most petulant character motivation possible, and he's taking the most extreme measure to make his goals a reality. It's childish, in the way that an overly edgy shonen antagonist trying to destroy the world for shallow, petulant reasons is childish. It feels like everyone's character motivations are driven by the game, rather than the game being driven by their motivations. It's a step back, narratively - at least in my opinion.
And while XIII's ending was a nice cherry on top to thank the player for playing the game, XIII-2's ending... well, let's just say that they planned XIII-2 to lead into a third game, and I think ending the game without closure so a third game can tie up all the loose ends kind of harms this game's overall narrative. It's a cool ending at points, but it doesn't really stand on its own.
I genuinely believe that FF 13 and 13-2 are diametrically opposed. Name a positive quality of the first game, the sequel kinda fumbles it. Name a negative quality of the first game, and 13-2 improves upon it in spades. I didn't even mention the graphics - XIII-2 runs worse and the graphics are a little downgraded, but it's in service of a more open gameplay experience. It sacrifices visual fidelity for better gameplay, while the first game was a beautiful game marred by overly restrictive overworld design.
I've been very critical of this game, but it's honestly one of the best JRP Gs of its day. It's a ton of fun to play, and there are a bunch of bonus options for you to play around with like modifying the encounter rate. The story is pure cheese, but it's also full of character fanservice and it's a light and breezy time that you're certain to enjoy. I recommended watching the previous game's cutscenes on You Tube - for Final Fantasy XIII-2, do yourself a favour and play this game.
This game is the exact polar opposite of Final Fantasy XIII.
So I have kind of a love-hate relationship with Final Fantasy XIII.
Like I said in my review of the first game, I would go so far as to say that its gameplay is flawed on a foundational level. Your level is capped between story chapters, which you progress through by travelling from point A to point B along an extremely linear overworld map. Most of the gameplay is locked for a solid ten hours of the play experience, with some features only opening up near the end of the game. The game looks outstanding, and the character writing is a lot better than it's given credit for, but it comes at the expense of gameplay depth and it's kind of a slow, arbitrary jog to a decent enough conclusion.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 is an outstanding RPG for the seventh generation of game consoles. It's a time travel story where you jump between a handful of locations at varying states of the future - the maps are recycled, but they're open and full of side quests and monster battles. You have two main characters, with the third character slot reserved for a monster that you assign based on its combat role, and on top of levelling up those two main characters, every single monster you find has an upgrade tree. The game is absolutely superb on the gameplay front - I love it.
That being said? I think the story and characterisation suffers from a lack of depth.
In the first game, there's this continuing storyline that's tied up between three different character arcs. Lightning is a cold, standoffish person, putting up walls because she thinks it's the best way to step into her role as a parental substitute after her and Serah's parents die. As she travels with Hope, who's this regular kid in mourning over his dead mother, this side of her comes out to motivate him to keep going - to callous over like she has, and embrace his revenge as a motivating factor.
But as they travel, Lightning realises that she was wrong. She re-evaluates the way she treated her sister, and she sees that she's making the same mistakes with Hope - so she tries to pivot. I can't go further than that due to spoilers, but over the course of the game, Lightning and Hope have their own arcs that influence each other's growth and notably affect a third member of their party as well. I honestly think that FF 13 does a great job in regards to how it handles its character arcs and stuff - and this leads into the ending, where the characters have a scene that showcase just how far they've come over the course of the game and get to end the game off on a high note. It might not hit the high notes of the franchise's storytelling potential, but it's competent and effective.
In Final Fantasy XIII-2, two things happen.
First, in order for this new game to exist in the first place, they retcon the ending of the first game on a cosmic level.
Secondly, Noel and Serah mostly trade in that strong narrative writing for character banter and more of a lightweight, shonen-ass character arc for both of them.
I like the character dialogue, especially since you get branching dialogue options where you can goof off a bit. But Noel gets a basic arc of like becoming strong enough to face the destiny he's been chosen for and overcoming the past, and Serah gets a basic arc of trying to save her sister by Setting Right What Once Went Wrong, and the villain's motivation is obscured until almost the end of the game and is revealed to be kind of a generic anime bad-guy plan.
The dialogue mostly goes from juicy character drama and an evolving exploration of the party's ideology regarding their focus, to "We need the Golden Sheep to open the Gate!" to "We got the Golden Sheep! Time to open that Gate!" to "We opened the Gate with the Golden Sheep! Hold on sis, I'm coming...". And that's fine, especially since the game seemingly intentionally presents itself in a similar fashion to a TV show - episodic story arcs for every time period and location in the game, complete with "Previously on Final Fantasy XIII-2" bumpers whenever you load a save - but it's like the first game had a surprising degree of depth in how it handled Lightning, Hope and Snow's character development, while XIII-2 is more about the setpieces and the moment to moment storytelling.
And that's fine, because I LOVE XIII-2 as a game. I love it. This is my favorite game in the XIII trilogy, hands down. One of my favorite storylines involves rounding up a bunch of baby flans, realising they're up to no good and Serah calling upon her experience as a school teacher to scold some sense into the naughty flans. It's pure narative fluff, and I LOVE it.
My main point being - Final Fantasy XIII-2 improves on just about every element of the first game that I didn't like. The gameplay is restrictive to the point of limiting your level progression and your ability to fight enemies on the overworld, and the level design is a straight line. In the sequel, levels are open and bustling. Monster encounters are around every corner, and everyone's Crystarium is ready to slam experience points into at all times. I value that much more as a gameplay experience than what XIII did.
But it regresses on everything I liked about the first game, too.
I didn't find Serah or Noel's character arcs to be very compelling, and while I HATED the antagonist of the first game for being a boring invincible villain - Caius has the most petulant character motivation possible, and he's taking the most extreme measure to make his goals a reality. It's childish, in the way that an overly edgy shonen antagonist trying to destroy the world for shallow, petulant reasons is childish. It feels like everyone's character motivations are driven by the game, rather than the game being driven by their motivations. It's a step back, narratively - at least in my opinion.
And while XIII's ending was a nice cherry on top to thank the player for playing the game, XIII-2's ending... well, let's just say that they planned XIII-2 to lead into a third game, and I think ending the game without closure so a third game can tie up all the loose ends kind of harms this game's overall narrative. It's a cool ending at points, but it doesn't really stand on its own.
I genuinely believe that FF 13 and 13-2 are diametrically opposed. Name a positive quality of the first game, the sequel kinda fumbles it. Name a negative quality of the first game, and 13-2 improves upon it in spades. I didn't even mention the graphics - XIII-2 runs worse and the graphics are a little downgraded, but it's in service of a more open gameplay experience. It sacrifices visual fidelity for better gameplay, while the first game was a beautiful game marred by overly restrictive overworld design.
I've been very critical of this game, but it's honestly one of the best JRP Gs of its day. It's a ton of fun to play, and there are a bunch of bonus options for you to play around with like modifying the encounter rate. The story is pure cheese, but it's also full of character fanservice and it's a light and breezy time that you're certain to enjoy. I recommended watching the previous game's cutscenes on You Tube - for Final Fantasy XIII-2, do yourself a favour and play this game.