Posted by Rexly Penaflorida II on Tuesday, February 7, 2012 ? Leave a Comment?
Welcome Back, Welcome Back, Welcome Back?
The fal?Cie, a group of?deities?who once controlled most aspects of human life, are no more and people have stepped out of the confines of the airborne city of Cocoon to begin anew on the wild and untamed world of Pulse. However, a strange meteor has crashed and it is the catalyst that sends the time-traveler Noel Kriess and his companion Serah Farron on their adventure across time and space to find Lightning, the protagonist of Final Fantasy XIII and Serah?s older sister,?and return the world to its rightful state. This is the world of Final Fantasy XIII-2 and while?Final Fantasy XIII did not meet the expectations of many, its sequel remedies some of the various flaws of its predecessor.
Come for the Scenery, Stay for the Goodies
One of the things that people did not like about Final Fantasy XIII was the constraint of linearity. The only direction that Lightning and crew could go was forwards and backwards. Fortunately, the issue has been resolved in XIII-2. Most of the locations are huge, detailed and feature multiple paths that showcase its size. If that isn?t enough, one of the side quests entails the player to fully explore an area. Aside from that, it actually does pay off to fully reveal the map. Treasures and important quest items can be found in nooks and crannies. Some of them are invisible but with the help of Mog the Moogle, a cute and tiny creature who accompanies Noel and Serah, finding these hidden objects is easy. If the player is near invisible treasure, Mog will speak, and with a push of a button the treasure will become visible.
There is more than enough extra content to keep fans satisfied throughout the game. Completing each these odd jobs yields some crystarium points and a fragment, which offers either information on the world or a little bit of back story on some of the characters. Finding these missions is no easy task. Most of them can only be found by talking to the NPCs that litter the area, so once again, the game rewards players for exploring. There were many times when I found myself distracted by taking on multiple objectives. Even though I only had one or two of them at a time, they were fun and were a good distraction from the story, and it?s hard to complain when I get both points to level up characters as well as additional story points as a reward.
Most of these missions make you an errand boy, but they are rewarding.
In order to restore the timeline to its original state, Noel and Serah have to travel to different locations at different points in time. For example, the story begins in Serah?s hometown of New Bodhum, 3 years after Cocoon fell from the sky. The years are counted as AF, or After Fall, signifying the fall of Cocoon. Other locations include the Bresha Ruins in 5 AF and the giant city of Academia in 400 AF, just to name a few. In each location and time period, the duo must destroy paradoxes, or strange beings, throughout the different timelines. Some of these involve solving anomalies, which are puzzles of various difficulties. These range from matching crystals to create a certain image to removing all the numbers from a clock-like interface. They might take a while, but they are not frustrating. In fact, I found myself enjoying them a lot. Each anomaly has multiple levels of puzzles, so there is no shortage of using your brain power.
As far as distractions go, the casino world of Serendipity is probably the most fun area in the game. With slots, chocobo racing and card games (to be released in future DLC), players can find themselves stuck in this world for hours. The races are the most fun since you can choose to enter your own chocobo, or simply bet on a competing one. Having your own chocobo in a race is tough. Many of the opponents are fast and there is a constant need to level up your own prized fluff in order to stay ahead of the pack. As for slots, the concept is simple, but it is very addictive. In order to increase the chances of winning, players must reaching the highest multiplier as well as comb through multiple challenges. All it takes is one pull of the lever and you will be instantly hooked on the mini-game.
Winner, winner, chocobo dinner.
Same Fight, More Bite
The combat has changed a bit in XIII-2. Instead of weaving around monsters to avoid them as players did in the previous game, they now pop out of nowhere. This causes a circle to appear around Noel and Serah. If the circle is blue, then escaping from enemies will be easier, but if the circle is red, there is a chance of entering combat. This is all happening while a small clock at the bottom of the screen ticks from right to left. However, if Noel or Serah attack during this phase, a preemptive strike is awarded. Having that early attack is a good thing to have in most battles since it deals a large amount towards the opponent?s stagger meter as well as casting Haste on the player.
I can't tell you how important it is to have a preemptive strike. Especially against this guy.
As mentioned in my first impressions post on the demo, the newest addition to the combat is having tamed monsters act as the third man in the battle party. Each one has a specific role, and only three different types of monsters can be used in multiple paradigms, and these monsters can be captured by fighting them in combat. When they fight for you, they have a meter below their health for a Feral Link ability. When full, this ability gives the monster a special attack. These boosters are very helpful in battle and can also be a tide turner in tough situations. When one Medic is not good enough, why not summon a Flanitor to help cure Noel and Serah, and with its Feral Link ability it can fully cure all party members?
Quicktime events have also made their presence known in XIII-2. They mostly come at pivotal points in the story or when Feral Link is used. While playing the demo, I was not huge fan of the concept, but after playing the full game for a while, it has become a significant part of gameplay. Instead of the alternative, which is to just watch the action unfold in a cutscene, players can now participate in executing some of the cool moves that Noel, Serah and their pack of minions have in store. As a reward for correctly hitting the right buttons, players will be given a fragment. It just goes to show that pressing a few buttons for a cool move is better than dropping the controller and watching the action unfold without your participation.
Very Big Letdowns
While the game does solve most of the issues from its predecessor, new concepts emerge that make the game strange, too easy and constrain the characters. Instead of enhancing the gameplay, these new additions are only seen as either a nuisance or out of place.
The biggest fallback is the story. As a fan of the Doctor Who series on BBC, the notion of traveling across time and space to repair a timeline by defeating monstrous beings and solving oddities is very familiar. Noel and Sarah perfectly fit the role as the Doctor and his female companion. All that?s missing from their set up is a TARDIS and a sonic screwdriver. The story is very unoriginal and there is very little motivation to take on the next challenge. All I know is that I have to get to a gate to go to the next location in the timeline and solve the paradox there. Rinse, lather and repeat. Most of the lines delivered are very strange and out of place, leaving me to wonder how what they said is in any way part of the story at all.
If the story does not make you scratch your head, then the new crystarium leveling system definitely will. All of the available roles are now compressed into one line. Unlocking other roles for each character, increasing item points or adding another ATB gauge can be done by finishing one round of the crystarium, but that is not the disappointing part. Points are so easy to come by that at some point, you forget that Noel and Serah have not leveled up in a few hours and then you decide to check their crystariums. I did that multiple times and after 16 hours of gameplay, both Noel and Serah had reached their maximum level on two of their roles. Because of this, waves of enemies that were supposed to keep you on your toes became a walk in the park. Boss battles that were supposed to challenge the strength of the party were seen as just another hurdle in the story. Granted, they took a bit longer to take down when compared to the average Cie?th, but they were easy nonetheless.
I swear, fight monsters for a couple hours then level up. It's like they took performance-enhancing drugs.
While the crystarium played its role as steroids, the item points system took the opposite role as a very restrictive barrier. Players can have a maximum of 100 points for items after leveling up multiple times. Most items encountered have a point value that ranges from 30?75 points. This greatly reduces the number of items that can be equipped at one time. I actually like the way that the first game handled this issue by awarding an additional item slot after a certain point in the game. The new method doesn?t allow me to get the right combination of items. Instead, I feel like Noel and Serah are only half as strong as they should be, but I guess the rapid acceleration of abilities through the crystarium takes care of that problem for me.
The last thing that didn?t mesh for me was the music. If there was one thing that stayed with me after Final Fantasy XIII, it was the sweeping orchestral music, especially the violin that dominated the music score. You still get that in this game, but it seems that the developers thought that adding metal to the mix would make it more exciting. On the contrary, metal, especially during boss fights, just gives me a huge headache. Except for when a metal band starts singing about chocobos. That one is just so bad, it?s hilarious.
The Final Verdict
Square Enix seems to have regained some ground by creating a more fun and open environment in Final Fantasy XIII-2. Improvements on the combat are small, but they make a big difference and provide new tactics against enemy monsters. Its flaws are few, but stand out like a sore thumb. Hopefully they take a page from other games with great stories and improve on their own. It is what keeps players going, especially through an RPG. Final Fantasy XIII-2 delivers on most of the issues created by its predecessor and makes the experience fun, but it is simply not enough to motivate players to keep playing the game.
Filed under Featured Articles, PS3, PS3 Reviews, Reviews, Xbox 360, Xbox 360 Reviews ? Tagged with Crystarium, Feral Link, final fantasy xiii, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Noel, Serah, square enix
Source: http://bnbgaming.com/2012/02/07/review-final-fantasy-xiii-2-ps3360/
prime suspect whitney whitney person of interest james spader james spader speed of light
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.