Final Fantasy XIII-2 (2011 Video Game) User Reviews (6)

Visually stunning and you have a bit more freedom, but the story is problematic

[Aaron1375 · 7/10 · 17 April 2013]

This game is a sequel and follow up to Final Fantasy XIII. There is yet another sequel to XIII coming out later in the year. However, Final Fantasy XIII Versus which at the time I am writing this review has yet to be released. This is a game that was supposed to be released at the same time as XIII or perhaps a couple of months later. It has been years now and still no XIII Versus. We do get this game which is a sequel to XIII a game that had mixed feelings. I enjoyed it for the most part as I enjoyed it more than twelve. However, I missed the towns and the more interactive non battle things one tends to do in RPGs. This one has some of those things present, however, there are problems with the story and I did not care much for the monster portion of your party. An okay game, but part of me wishes for the days of earlier systems as games these days are way to much cut scenes and making the characters look super realistic.

The story is the main reason I scored the game rather low. I do not know how quite to explain it. I will try though to explain my problem. In the first game (XIII), a whole world was created and a story created behind it involving all these complicated things like Fal Cie and this and that. Well, this game uses that stuff and slams on a whole bunch of other stuff that almost seems unrelated as it introduces a goddess and other things. The story has Serah, the sister of Lightening going on a quest to find out what happened to her sister as her sister seems to have disappeared. Everyone says she helped Vanille and Fang in supporting Cocoon, but Serah clearly remembers her sister being there when she and the others were freed from their duty. A young man named Noel appears and soon the two are on an adventure through time to try and figure out why time seems to have changed. It is very complicated, it does have a better villain in Calius, but he is basically a Seperioth clone to a degree. I did enjoy the way the story ended though.

The battle system is the same as it was in XIII. If you did not care for the fighting system in that game you will not enjoy the fighting here. I also did not like the fact there were only two playable characters (Noel and Serah) and the rest of your party was made up of monsters. It reminded me of the sequel to Tales of Symphonia. I just prefer playable characters then trying to catch the right monster. They were also a bigger pain to level up. There are towns in this game, which I liked, but at times the towns were set up with so many people and things to do that it became annoying. Not like twelve though, those towns were simply too enormous.

So this game did some things right, it was fun for the most part, but the story needed work and I did not care for monsters as part of your party. There were plenty of characters introduced in the first game that to add monsters was unnecessary. Characters from the first game make appearances in this one, but a couple of them seem very forced. That they really did not have a place in the story, but were added so fans would say, "There they are!" Still, I did like some of the twists and turns the story took, and the time travel stuff was fun. However, it will not be replacing Chrono Trigger as the best time travel RPG anytime soon. So, I shall look a bit forward to the next game and probably continue waiting for Versus indefinitely.

Close to being really good

[jshunter · 6/10 · 25 August 2012]

I'm going to assume you already know that Final Fantasy XIII Part 2 is an RPG, and have some familiarity with the series. If not, please Wiki it, as it's too much to cover in a review. So how does this latest installment stack up? Short answer: fun, but flawed.

A common criticism of FF-XIII-2's predecessor was that it was too linear. This game has gone overboard in the opposite direction; you not only have the choice of different large and labyrinthine locations, but also different time periods and even alternate time lines.

Unfortunately my joy of exploring these vast realms was thwarted by the frustration of having to find artifacts to unlock gates to get to new areas and advance the story. To make matters worse, some of these artifacts were invisible, and in locations where I couldn't stumble upon them just through casual exploring; I had to throw one of my companions to retrieve them. I had no clue that one of these artifacts was in an area, or if I'd already picked it up, so I had to resort to ticking off items on a walk-through printout.

It would have been easy for the game to meet me halfway; at least have the map screen let me know that I wasn't wasting my time laboriously exploring every nook. And let me zoom in on the map a bit more, and make the icons easier to see. I'm playing this from the other side of my lounge, not within arm's reach of a computer monitor!

As a result of all my exploring, I also battled a lot of random monsters. This was fun for a while, but I quickly became far too munty. I like to push through to the boss monsters so I can have a decent fight and am forced to be strategically creative. However, because of all my grinding while just trying to find where to go next, my boss strategy was usually just "hit it with my sword until it dies."

One nice touch is that you can capture monsters and have them fight in your party, level them up, and even infuse them with other monsters. Unlike other games in the series, you can't Summon a heavy hitter when times are tough, but your monster teammates do have special Feral Link abilities which are extremely useful and will form part of your battle strategy.

The battle system is almost identical to its precursor. I like the frenetic semi real-time pace, but my wife (who enjoyed all the Final Fantasy games from 7 through to 12) dislikes it, finding it overwhelming. If you like your RPG's to be turn based, be warned.

Leveling up is usually one of the most fun parts of a good RPG, but your options here are extremely limited. It's an entirely linear progression, with your only choice being which of the six roles to develop. You have no choice about when to learn an ability. Compare this with the leveling system of FF-IX; "Should I learn the Fire spell, or an ability which will earn me more money, or build up my immunity to poison attacks?" You had an array of options, and it was fun to choose. No so in FF-XIII-2.

On the plus side, the graphics are sumptuous, and the music generally pleasing, although sometimes jarring: after the first serious battle in your home village, your fiends and neighbors lie wounded on the ground. Something somber seems in order -- so why is this carnage accompanied by a nightclub dance track?

The story itself is okay, but ends on a "To Be Continued..." There is DLC (Down-Loadable Content) available to pad the game out, which activates the battle arena and adds extra mini-games. Part of me grumbles that I didn't have to download Battle Square or the Gold Saucer in FF-VII, but that's the game world we live in now.

In conclusion I enjoyed Final Fantasy XIII-2, but it could have really done with a few simple tweaks to enhance the gaming experience.

Do not listen to the bad review (be your own critic) Positively good

[usasuke-19108 · 10/10 · 22 May 2022]

Final fantasy xiii-2 is a continuation of the first final fantasy xiii games. The story is easy to understand. Although, I noticed online that a few people were confused by the story and they do not pay attention. I still like the freedom in combat like most games. Although, the game is good. Instead of following bad reviews, why don't you try it for yourself? You will not regret it. Please read my review for all three games.

Terrible excuse for a sequel

[darkphoenix-83164 · 5/10 · 18 December 2015]

I'm in no way saying that this is a horrible game, I'm saying it is a horrible sequel and it does not feel like it belongs in the XIII series. My five main concerns are this: 1. The game is nearly completely devoid of the characters that graced the first, instead making the bold decision to put the spotlight on a secondary character and reducing all the main characters to small cameo roles. It unfortunately, was a move that didn't work for me. 2. The plot is one gigantic mess. Yes, XIII itself didn't tell the most linear and obvious of tales, but it was intriguing and the narrative and interaction between the 6 characters made up for the minor plot drawbacks and in the end, it was unlike anything I have experienced. This time around, it feels like the writers got drunk on their success and then came up with 200 ideas and just threw them all together without caring that they didn't really make sense or seemed interesting. 3. The battle screen looks dull and colorless, except of course when you take damage and that sickening red pops up on the edges of the screen. 4. The final boss is insanely easy, so easy in fact that I didn't even need to shift paradigms once. 5. The dialogue and voice acting is sub-par. All the voice actors seem bored or as if they're reciting their lines to a friend while they're sipping margharitas on the beach instead of in a sound-booth. All in all, this was a huge disappointment compared to the high standards set in FFXIII and should only be played for the sake of continuation and understanding Lightning Returns.

one worst in the series and one of the worst game ever made, an utter failure of a sequel

[kupo77 · 1/10 · 27 March 2013]

Yep the title said my opinion pretty strong. The series have always been awesome but with mediocre rpg FF games like X-2, XII,XIII etc. this one was one of the worst ones i've ever played. It gave you the illusion that it was a good game but what kept you going was the mezmerising "hot" girl that Lightning boring sister was. And to prove my point on that "hot focus" that keeps male players coming back to the game btw, is the bikini DLC.

Anyway, the worst is that it had horrible storyline, very uninteresting characters, no music or anything. The battle mode and growth was decent but nothing cool. Graphics were the best part.

Worse than 13. Don't listen to the hype

[nickkulstadis · 4/10 · 30 December 2021]

Where to begin. The music is so bad and inappropriate for the situations, Serah is a very bland protagonist, the combat system is actually a downgrade from 13's and the inclusion of time travel nonsense already makes it a lesser game. Why they couldn't just leave it at 13 I don't know. It had a reasonably good conclusion that required no follow up. I recommend giving 13 another try if you're not a fan of it. It's not as bad as you remember. It's not one of the best FF games but it's alright and has some really strong moments and characters and has graphics that hold up reasonably well. 13-2 is much worse than you remember and Lightning Returns is even worse than this game was.