Final Fantasy XIII Lightning Saga

[Balding Spider]

About the Snow plothole: it's explained not in a DLC but (wtf) in a japan-only novel.

Of course.

Oh fuck off you have to actually pay to get the full story too? God, Square is just as bad as Capcom with DLC.

[buba]

About the Snow plothole: it's explained not in a DLC but (wtf) in a japan-only novel.

Of course.

Who would be so worried about Snow and his story anyway?

From what I've played in XIII he only says: PEOPLE NEED HERROOOES! SERAH WANTS US TO COMPLETE THE FOCUS! SERAH THIS! HEROES THAT!

I seriously hope that he gets better, after all he is way too silent by now in chapter 10.

[Teoskaven]

Basically, half of the plothole list can be explained with DLC. The problem is, they are DLC, lol

But at least they are post release and not on-disc, since people don't find on it. They suck anyway, there's no trophy/achievement with them and most of them are just cheap boss fights.

Edited September 8, 2012 by Teoskaven

[KHCast]

About the dream sequence....well a lot of that kind of stuff happens in video games or plots in general. I really wouldn't call it a plothole. There pretty much guardian angels I guess.

[pppp]

Wow fantastic post Hogfather. I look forward to the next one

Out of curiosity, this a positive review of the game from a FF fansite i go to, what do you guys think?:

As most of you know, a few months ago I was flown out to L.A. by Square Enix and got to give FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 a preliminary spin. I’ll be honest, prior to attending this event, I was skeptical about XIII-2. Granted, I was excited for the game, the announcement trailer looked quite promising, as did the subsequent trailer featuring gameplay. Even so, after FINAL FANTASY XIII, I was unsure about a sequel. Don’t get me wrong, I liked XIII, a lot actually, I find I’m one of the bigger fans of the game. Criticism notwithstanding, I still felt wary about a XIII-2. So, it was a pleasant surprise when I finally got my hands on it, and almost instantly felt a lot better. It was clear right from the get go that Square Enix took XIII’s criticism to heart and worked hard to improve on things in XIII-2.

Now Square has thankfully given us a full review copy of the PS3 version, here is my final impressions of their attempts to win back some of the pessimists.

Lightning has been transported to Valhalla, a realm untouched by time, watching over the land and battling a mysterious and powerful enemy named Caius Ballad. In the midst of their battle a young man named Noel suddenly finds himself in Valhalla in an attempt to go back in time and save the world from its grim fate, a world where humanity is facing its last days. Lightning tasks him with finding and protecting her sister, Serah. After meeting Noel, Serah agrees to accompany him on a quest jumping through space and time to find Lightning.

As with most stories involving time travel, things can get a little wonky at times. Since you’re given a lot of freedom, some specific parts of the plot don’t add up right away. There’s no set order to complete accessible areas, so I completed some tasks earlier or later than the story’s timeline assumed. However, this minor issue dissipated as the game went on. Overall I actually found everything really cohesive and easy enough to understand. Even now when people talk about XIII I wonder, “When was that touched upon?” to which people respond “It was in the datalog.” Thankfully you’ll find less instances of that. While there is plenty of info to read in the datalog it didn’t feel all that integral, or rather it was purely more supplementary to the story.

Over the course of the game, Serah and Noel’s quest to find Lightning develops into an epic journey to save the world (doesn’t it always?) As you progress, Serah and Noel learn more about the state of things and how exactly things come to be in Noel’s future. It’s interesting to watch Serah develop from this naive, seemingly little girl to quite a strong heroine herself, not as strong as Lightning of course, but strong certainly in her own right. Even the enemy, Caius ends up being one of the most memorable, and dynamic villains in FF history. Props definitely go to Square on this one.

Now, onto the gameplay side of things. Environments are pretty much the same as in XIII, not to say that they aren’t varied or that there aren’t new environments to explore. There are plenty of new ones and some make a return, albeit with a twist here and there. Also, one of the first things that I noticed as I made my way through the world, jumping through time, was that the maps are much more intricate as opposed to the so described “hallways” of XIII. Heck, I even got lost on occasion. It was much more interesting traversing through areas this time around. Another aspect of exploration that’s more interesting in XIII-2 is the fact that you can jump on your own now with the O button. The environment concepts are the same as XIII though, so it’s not as if we suddenly have a platformer, or even platform elements thanks to this, but, in some cases, it makes traversal a little easier and of course it makes you feel as if you’ve got a little more control as you make your way around.

Exploring is also made a little bit more interesting thanks to your new partner; Mog. I didn’t know what to think of him at first, but after just a little while I started to really love the little guy and I think he’s adorable. While exploring, you’ll encounter your typical chests and some that are invisible. Mog’s main job on the field is to help you uncover these hidden objects. You can also throw him to chests out of your reach and have him grab the contents for you. It’s an enjoyable experience and works perfectly in the world, it also made me think to look around a little more.

The battle system remains mostly untouched at its core, which I thought was fine, as I never had a problem with it. A typical Active Time Battle system accompanying fast paced battles as you jam Auto-Battle and change paradigms accordingly. It continues to focus on shifting roles as a strategy rather than selecting abilities. You can of course choose which abilities exactly to use whenever you need to. The small changes to the system, while not entirely necessary, make everything feel smoother. Faster Paradigm Shifts and the cinematic quick times added during boss battles are enough to make it feel fresh without breaking what worked in the first game.

The newest and most major addition to this system however, is in the form of Paradigm Packs. Serah and Noel are accompanied by a monster you’ve managed to catch while battling. You place up to 3 monsters into your pack and use them in your customized paradigms accordingly. The monsters switch in and out automatically during battle when you switch to the Paradigm with them in it. The system seemed so-so at first but once you really get going with catching the monsters and leveling them up with their own Crystarium (you can receive certain items as spoils from battle that you use in the monster’s Crystarium in lieu of points) it starts becoming rather fun. It was cool to try and get the most out of my monsters whenever I could, grinding for components in order to heighten their abilities, or trying to catch a new, strong looking monster. I’ve ended up spending a lot more time on them than I thought I would be. Rather than just seeming like a Pokemon-esque after thought, they end up being an interesting and integral part of battle. The ability to name them and place adornments onto them was a cool touch.

Of course, the Crystarium is back for Serah and Noel, that being said, it’s been overhauled a bit. No longer does each role have it’s own Crystarium. Instead Noel and Serah are given one Crystarium in the shape of their respective weapons (or in the case of monsters, their Crystarium is shaped like them). Serah and Noel’s Crystarium contain nodes and the choice is up to you as to what role you want to pick for each node. Essentially the path is a set one, however there is an illusion of freedom that was very welcome as it caused me to put a little more thought into the abilites and bonuses that I wanted next as opposed to choosing a role and holding down X, as it tended to be for me at least, in the first game. Once you make an entire round, the Crystrarium expands and you’re given the choice of a decent bonus, a boost to a role you have, unlock a new role, increasing your max accessory capacity or gain another ATB segment.

Whenever I felt the need to want to stop progressing in the story or if I just wanted to take a break and just play around with things, I felt that I could. One of the best things about this game is that you aren’t confined to any one space for too long and there is just so much to do. There are over 150 objects to collect called “fragments”. You can get them by finding them on the field or as rewards for completing various side missions offered throughout the entirety of the game. There’s even a casino called Serendipity that has Slots, Chocobo Racing, and more (to be added with DLC). Now that Gil is much easier to obtain, you can blow it all on coins for the casino. Win coins and you can exchange them for prizes and exclusive adornments for your monster. You can even talk to an NPC there who will give you various new abilities if you’ve found lots of fragments, a decent incentive to go searching for them.

Overall, I was quite impressed with XIII-2. There were some nostalgic FF aspects about it mixed with newer things of course and the combination just seems to work. Even if some facets of the story seemed a little goofy or out of place, I found everything forgiven when I saw the big picture. I’d go so far as to say almost everything has been improved from FINAL FANTASY XIII although I’d love to stop comparing the two. I thought this when I first played XIII-2 back in October but this game definitely feels like a true FF. If you have any doubts about it, whether they are because of XIII or from what you’ve seen so far, cast them aside, go out, buy the game at launch, or at least eventually. You will enjoy it!

Edited September 8, 2012 by pppp

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

What FF fansite is this? One of the great reviews written about this game. Still, they have to go a bit deeper with the story.

[pppp]

What FF fansite is this? One of the great reviews written about this game. Still, they have to go a bit deeper with the story.

Don't bother Shana. Ethan(The guy who wrote the review) is the only one there that likes the game. There's a lot of...how was it? Oh yeah there are "clown haters" there too

Edited September 8, 2012 by pppp

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

Don't bother Shana. Ethan(The guy who wrote the review) is the only one there that likes the game. There's a lot of...how was it? Oh yeah there are "clown haters" there too

Are you pulling my leg? It's a Final Fantasy XIII fansite (I instead googled a quote from the review).

[buba]

Are you pulling my leg? It's a Final Fantasy XIII fansite (I instead googled a quote from the review).

Yup. http://finalfantasy-xiii.net/forums/showthread.php?t=15126

[pppp]

Are you pulling my leg? It's a Final Fantasy XIII fansite (I instead googled a quote from the review).

Yeah XIII. Not XIII-2. There are also a lot of clown haters of the original XIII.

[buba]

Yeah XIII. Not XIII-2. There are also a lot of clown haters of the original XIII.

There are other people there that seem to like the game or at least wanted to give it a try, which is more than the only dude who wrote the review.

[T-Min]

If you have any doubts about it, whether they are because of XIII or from what you’ve seen so far, cast them aside, go out, buy the game at launch, or at least eventually. You will enjoy it!

If only you knew.

Are you pulling my leg? It's a Final Fantasy XIII fansite (I instead googled a quote from the review).

It's probably more of an FF13 series discussion board than a fansite. It is a pretty hot topic, after all.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

Yeah XIII. Not XIII-2. There are also a lot of clown haters of the original XIII.

Apart from the story, both games "almost" basically share the same gameplay...

Obviously there will be some haters in there. The question is me though, why are the haters still there if they hate the XIII series. The site focuses on the XIII series.

[T-Min]

Apart from the story, both games "almost" basically share the same gameplay...

Obviously there will be some haters in there. The question is me though, why are the haters still there if they hate the XIII series. The site focuses on the XIII series.

Maybe they're still waiting for Versus XIII.

The poor souls.

[Badnik Mechanic]

What FF fansite is this? One of the great reviews written about this game. Still, they have to go a bit deeper with the story.

How much are Square Enix paying you?

Out of curiosity, this a positive review of the game from a FF fansite i go to, what do you guys think?:

I question if he actually played the game. First of all, the start to the first picture is just story and take note of the following.

Lightning has been transported to Valhalla, a realm untouched by time, watching over the land and battling a mysterious and powerful enemy named Caius Ballad. In the midst of their battle a young man named Noel suddenly finds himself in Valhalla in an attempt to go back in time and save the world from its grim fate, a world where humanity is facing its last days. Lightning tasks him with finding and protecting her sister, Serah. After meeting Noel, Serah agrees to accompany him on a quest jumping through space and time to find Lightning.

What is Valhalla? Who is Noel? Who is Caius? Why is Lightning not on Gran Pulse? Why is the world ending? Why does her sister need protecting?

He talks as if this is common knowledge where none of this happens in FF13, so exactly how is this supposed to inform us of anything?

Since you’re given a lot of freedom,

You're given freedom? You are given no such thing.

If FF13 was a 'long corridor' with no exploration. FF13-2 is 'a block of flats with nothing in them' each area is basically a 'room' in each room are some enemies and a few chests, there isn't any exploration because you have to pull yourself out of each area via a loading screen and enter via a 'level select' screen.

There is no freedom at all in the game, especially since the game will block specific areas unless you have wild artifacts or defeat specific bosses. You have no freedom because the game ties you down so much until you reach a specific point, from then your only freedom is backtracking and hoping you have enough wild artifacts that you won't go crazy on taking a side track into another 'room with some enemies in it.'

There’s no set order to complete accessible areas,

Which as we all know... is completely wrong. You have to complete accessible areas in a said order or else you can't do them. Case in point, Odin's side quest.

Secondary example, FF13-2's version of Gran Pulse. you can't beat that area completely until you get to a specific level, which means progressing with the story in order to get the XP required.

In fact you can't actually beat some areas 100% until you beat the game and get that item which lets you complete areas different... so this is a load of bollocks for starters.

However, this minor issue dissipated as the game went on. Overall I actually found everything really cohesive and easy enough to understand.

What did he do!? Spent 16 hours reading all the tutorials and primers and memorising them!?

Even now when people talk about XIII I wonder, “When was that touched upon?” to which people respond “It was in the datalog.” Thankfully you’ll find less instances of that. While there is plenty of info to read in the datalog it didn’t feel all that integral, or rather it was purely more supplementary to the story.

BULL SHIT MR HAN MAN! Bull fucking shit! What a crock of absolute shit!

Question... how do you raise and level up monsters? How do you infuse monsters... erm... erm... Oh... you need to read the datalog... That is one of the major things about the game and there is no ingame mode for it, nor is it ever explained, you need to read several sections of the datalog just for that one thing!

Not to mention most of the time the datalogs automatically pop up on the screen anyway so you've already read them... theres a fucking datalog for 'what an ending is' for goodness sake!

Over the course of the game, Serah and Noel’s quest to find Lightning develops into an epic journey to save the world (doesn’t it always?) As you progress, Serah and Noel learn more about the state of things and how exactly things come to be in Noel’s future. It’s interesting to watch Serah develop from this naive, seemingly little girl to quite a strong heroine herself, not as strong as Lightning of course, but strong certainly in her own right. Even the enemy,

Telling us the games story is not revewing the game hunny.

Caius ends up being one of the most memorable, and dynamic villains in FF history. Props definitely go to Square on this one.

"I AM CAIUS! EVERY LINE I DELIVER IS FROM 12 YEARS STUDYING AT THE ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY!" When he does eventually come back into the plot it's for about 2min of dialogue about how much he doesn't like Noel. Then he turns into Bahamut because... ... ... Because Final Fantasy demands it.... and dies...

This was not a review

Now, onto the gameplay side of things. Environments are pretty much the same as in XIII, not to say that they aren’t varied or that there aren’t new environments to explore. There are plenty of new ones and some make a return, albeit with a twist here and there.

Why not tell us what these twists are? Why leave us on the edge of our seats! We want to know if this game is different or not! IS IT!?

Also, one of the first things that I noticed as I made my way through the world, jumping through time, was that the maps are much more intricate as opposed to the so described “hallways” of XIII.

YES! Now they're rooms! We've gone from hallways to rooms!

Heck, I even got lost on occasion.

Did the giant orange explanation mark not provide enough clues as to the direction you have to go in?

It was much more interesting traversing through areas this time around. Another aspect of exploration that’s more interesting in XIII-2 is the fact that you can jump on your own now with the O button. The environment concepts are the same as XIII though, so it’s not as if we suddenly have a platformer, or even platform elements thanks to this, but, in some cases, it makes traversal a little easier and of course it makes you feel as if you’ve got a little more control as you make your way around.

WOW The characters can jump! Thats going to come in handy for... arcadia gone bad... otherwise it's bloody useless aside from arcadia tetris zone.

If only they could have jumped in FF13 or even FFX that would have been.. ... oh wait... they could.

Exploring is also made a little bit more interesting thanks to your new partner; Mog.

YES! Now some chests require you to press 2 buttons instead of one!

The battle system remains mostly untouched at its core

Thats all you needed to say.... oh hang on... theres the whole business of building a monster up you might wanna mention that.

system seemed so-so at first but once you really get going with catching the monsters and leveling them up with their own Crystarium (you can receive certain items as spoils from battle that you use in the monster’s Crystarium in lieu of points) it starts becoming rather fun.

No it doesn't, it becomes predictable and boring. You'll only ever raise at most 4 monsters and you'll only ever do this for specific boss fights, the only time variety comes into it is for chocobo racing and even then it's just.

Pick white chocobo do this set up= WINNER!

or... Pick Golden Chocobo do this set up = WINNER 9 times out of 10.

In fact when looking for advice earlier as to how I should develop a commando golden chocobo the advice someone gave somebody else was this "Dude, it's a fucking COM, they're all the same!"

an illusion of freedom

Yes, it makes it harder to develop since you never get a full picture of what your characters have learnt or what they will learn... you'll slap yourself silly when you discover you've been training Noel as a Saboteur when you realise you should have given Serah that role.

I'm not even going to quote the rest of it, this review was terrible. Most of the time he talks about the story and tells us the bare minimum of the gameplay features without ever going into detail.

Not to mention, how long did he play the game for when he was at sqaure!? He did all that in how many hours? The monster raising gives him away since you need to be far on with the story to get some elements.... also notice how there was no mention of the following.

* No shops aside from chocobolina,

* No weapon upgrading.

* Accessories are limited based on points.

* No summons.

You know... things that people might like to know about. This review was terrible and he lies at the end too.

It sounds like he was so happy for being invited to square to play the game that he wasn't at all able to objectify with the game in any respect what-so-ever which is why so many of the typical complaints for this game are not mentioned and everything is pretty much great according to him.

Are you pulling my leg? It's a Final Fantasy XIII fansite (I instead googled a quote from the review).

Up until a few days ago, this was a Sonic site where you could make a Sonic 06 topic.

Also FF13 for some ungodly reason has a lot of sequels/spinoffs etc.

[Balding Spider]

>Goes back to watch other ff13-2 vids

>See's that Gilgamesh is in the game

>See's he can only be fought when paying for DLC

WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK SQUARE?!?!?!?!?!?!

It's Gilgamesh, he's been an opponent in the FF series for the longest time, one shouldn't have to pay to fight him!

Edited September 8, 2012 by Balding Spider

[Teoskaven]

The best thing is that he makes a fourth-wall joke about it at the start of the battle

[Balding Spider]

The best thing is that he makes a fourth-wall joke about it at the start of the battle

Well that and John Di Maggio reprises his role as Gilgamesh from FF12.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

How much are Square Enix paying you?

I actually chuckled a bit when I saw this.

Up until a few days ago, this was a Sonic site where you could make a Sonic 06 topic.

...your point?

Also FF13 for some ungodly reason has a lot of sequels/spinoffs etc.

Which IMO is good. I like the game(s), regardless on what you say. There is absolutely no point reasoning with guys like you so I have stopped defending the game here.

[Soniman]

I like Lightning before she turned into a softy.

Hard ass and snarky Lightning was best Lightning.

Old but yeah, this is why I actually Lightning. Of course, this is coming from someone who knows nothing about her XIII-series persona and basing all of her behavior in Dissida 012 (a game that's actually fun to play) and I really liked her there.

Edited September 8, 2012 by Soniman

[pppp]

It sounds like he was so happy for being invited to square to play the game that he wasn't at all able to objectify with the game in any respect what-so-ever which is why so many of the typical complaints for this game are not mentioned and everything is pretty much great according to him.

He didn't play the full game at Square, he played a demo. His review is based on a PS3 copy that Square sent to the site for review. Also,please be nice Ethan may not be the smartest tool in the shed but he is actually a pretty nice guy

[KHCast]

The only positive thing I can say about the dlc for this game is that you get cool party members like Sazh and Gilgamesh.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

The only positive thing I can say about the dlc for this game is that you get cool party members like Sazh and Gilgamesh.

Which they are kinda useless if you already completed the game.

I was disappointed they didn't release these DLCs within the first 2-3 weeks after the game came out. I have Lightning in my party, but since I already completed all missions and the story there's no point really.

[KHCast]

Which they are kinda useless if you already completed the game.

I was disappointed they didn't release these DLCs within the first 2-3 weeks after the game came out. I have Lightning in my party, but since I already completed all missions and the story there's no point really.

The requiem of the Goddess was just a joke. Seriously. You get NOTHING for doing it. And it makes no sense. You level up by dying?! Seriously, WTF square?

[Badnik Mechanic]

...your point?

You made the assumption that because one is a member of a said fandom... they must like all the games... otherwise why generalise the entire website because it's a FF13 website as you said.

There is absolutely no point reasoning with guys like you so I have stopped defending the game here.

Come up with a decent counter argument to the complaints then we'll talk about if theres any point in reasoning. Actually... I'll just give you the one for now number 8 on my last list of complaints about the game... that being Cocoon's collapse didn't really seem to do anything.

He didn't play the full game at Square, he played a demo. His review is based on a PS3 copy that Square sent to the site for review. Also,please be nice Ethan may not be the smartest tool in the shed but he is actually a pretty nice guy

He can be very nice, it doesn't change the fact that his review isn't that good... not to mention if it's a demo copy as you say, theres a few things about his review that can;t possibly be correct.

The opinion on Caius, he only appears at the beginning... his next major encounter is in Vaniells hometown... then he doesn't show up for ages. At the start, you've no idea why you're fighting him. Then in that first major encounter he drops hints that he's protecting the girl which suggests theres something else going on here. In fact it's not until you reach the 'dream sequences' that you realise the full extent of his plan. But thats enough to say he's what one of the most iconic villains ever? Had he reviewed FF7, he wouldn't even know who the villain was until he got to about three quarters of the way through the game! In fact FF8 and FF9, we don't know who the villains are until the final chapters of the game!

The comments regarding freedom though... you don't actually get the ability to pick where you want to go until you get to a set point, because the game limits you for a few episodes. With lack of items and your own XP levels. So either he had the worlds longest demo, or he made a lot up/assumed a great deal.