FINAL FANTASY® XIII-2

This one takes.... significantly more effort to make playable on PC. Probably took me 2-3 hours because I messed up at some point with the process. I think its the better game between this and its predecessor. Naoshi Mizuta's addition to the music team helps a lot. Not nearly as challenging, and some terrible DLC practices for the time, but none of that really matters with this version of the game. Less polished overall, but a lot more enjoyable than the first. If it was any other game I'd recommend against this terrible port, but its FFXIII-2 so it gets a pass. Idk what was up with these pre-2018 Square ports.

Fun game, but lotssssssssssss of bugs, be prepared to spend the first hour finding patches to fix them, then u can enjoy the rest

The most obtuse and gimmicky game I have ever played. Guess the making of a good FF sequel by SE is downright impossible.

this game absolute ruined me !!!!!! ! ! ! ! 11!! i love it so much

Игра не работает, позорище

FF13-2 is fantastic... and annoying at the same time. It flip-flops between being one of the coolest experiences to the most tedious ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ imaginable. Yet, I still loved my time with this sequel to FF13. The Good: Soundtrack - A major standout for me, so many diverse tracks. "Full Speed Ahead" is a banger. "Noel's theme" & "Yeul's theme" are hauntingly beautiful. And I can't forget "Crazy Chocobo" for being the most out of left field metal track about what is essentially a giant chicken (even if you don't play the game, check the soundtrack, it's great!) Story - I rather enjoyed the story, time travel shenanigans and all. Of course things are gonna get a bit sloppy with that element thrown in, however, I managed to follow along without being too lost. I enjoyed all the characters and the cameos from the previous installment, and even though the payoff from the secret ending was a bit disappointing, I would say I was satisfied. Art direction - Loved all the character designs, and the worlds of Cocoon and Gran Pulse are phenomenal to behold. Battle system - Returning from the last game is the paradigm system, and I really enjoyed how it worked then. For the most part, it's the same (or at least very similar), so no complaints there. I was disappointed at first with the monster catching system to include with your party, but I quickly ended up loving it, it really lets you go nuts with creativity in your team. Even with the infusion system, whilst it was a tad confusing, a guide set me straight and I was soon demolishing most enemies with ease. The Bad: PC Port - It's a horrible port. It barely works on a first launch. I had to follow guides to get it working, which was the same as the last installment, but man, even with the patch it was still sketchy in some areas. I kept getting alt-tab issues, and issues with closing the game altogether. Performance issues happened in some areas (however, I got used to it after a while, it wasn't game-breaking, just inconsistent frame rates). So it loses points for that and all the other port issues. Level/Quest Design - I know I said a lot of the locales are great to look at, but some (not all) are a ball-ache to navigate and complete. The worst offender is definitely Academia 500AF. Jesus, those platforms move so slowly, it's excruciating. The fragment quests are the worst. I've never had to pull up so many guides in my life for a game. There are 150 of the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ things across the timeline, all linked to random side quests and hidden boxes. Some are okay and easy, but then ones like the monster professor or captain cryptic are just obtuse and time wasting. The worst thing is they're tied to full completion of the game. Almost forgot about those puzzles as well, the clock ones... I will have nightmares about those. I'm sure there are more things I can list that I love, hate, and tolerate about this game, but I feel I've got my point across. It's a game which has definitely left a mark on me; I will remember it fondly. Will I play it again? Maybe if I forget the trauma of some of the egregious parts. I'm excited to play the sequel. Do I recommend this game? If you have a lot of time to spare on it, and like grindy JRPGs. If not, maybe skip it.

[b]You need to patch this game to run it properly. This game is like talking to a family member recovering from crack or something. They've always been kind of cool but they're so much better off now.[/b] First thing first, this game is way uglier than it's older brother. Second thing is plot. Where FF13-1 was about slaves killing their masters, political scapegoating, and deciding the course of your own destiny, this game is more of a comic book-style multiverse sci-fi fantasy. You're trying to find peace amid chaos as fractured timelines cause memories and even physical entities to disappear or exist in places they should or shouldn't be. You're Lightning's little sister is who isn't a super tough Guts-esque character like her sister. Although she almost no control over the events unfolding around her, she's just naively hopeful and a bit of a ditz. I don't mean ditz in a mysognistic way either but she literally forgets the background of her partner like every 15 minutes especially when they go to cocoon in the second level. We also get a new character Noel from a broken future where he is the last child ever to grow up and peace is a storytale. Both protagonists are extremely likable, but Noel in particular is pretty cool as a protag, he's so positive despite his circumstances but also grounded and not like a shonen-parody. FF13-1 was clearly trying a lot of new things and I really thinks devs at the time thought players wanted oversimplification of systems. The criticism towards FF13-1 was well received. This brings back sidequests, has dialogue options, makes maps less redundant, has creature collecting and outfits! Music is a banger too. I don't like the changes to the crystarium system here though, I think FF13-1 did it better. The combat still uses the paradigm system but it feels more interactive with action events. Things are still pretty fast paced but I do feel like there was a major decline in animation quality in some areas but it makes considering release dates and compromises since this is basically like X-2 or a third Pokemon game in a generation. Now that I've played FF13-1 and this I can really see the natural evolution towards the game design we see in FFXV and FFVIIRE.