The Merged Final Fantasy XIII-2 Thread

[Yoda]

I might stop off at my neighbor's and see if the CE is pretty enough for me.

[cj_iwakura]

I might stop off at my neighbor's and see if the CE is pretty enough for me.

It's not that impressive. Very sparse artbook.

+:
Gorgeous packaging, and it has the OST. Easily worth the $20 for a four disc OST, IMO.

[Agent D.]

Yay I has my game.

[Mickeymac92]

Just read the RPGFan review. Sad the story wasn't as good as it could've been, but I'll live. So long as the gameplay's as good as the review suggests, I'll enjoy it.

[Kevadu]

Sad the story wasn't as good as it could've been

Interesting choice of words.  How good could the story have been, really, given what they were working with and who was working on it...

Sounds to me like the game is exactly what I expected it to be.

[Prime Mover]

Dude, I'm not sure I can name a single jRPG with a good story. The best you can hope for is at the level of a teenage dime novel.  Seriously, have you ever tried explaining the plot of any RPG to a non-gamer? It's an excercise in self-desecration.  Dialog, yes. Characters, sure. Story? OMGWTF!

Probably the closest I've EVER played with Final Fantasy IX, but even then we're not talking award winning literature here. Point being, the most you can ask for is something not-excruciating, that has other redeaming elements. So far, FFXIII-2 seems to fit those criteria.

[Dice]

Yay I has my game.

More importantly.... you has pizza.

Discuss.

[Mickeymac92]

Dude, I'm not sure I can name a single jRPG with a good story. The best you can hope for is at the level of a teenage dime novel.  Seriously, have you ever tried explaining the plot of any RPG to a non-gamer? It's an excercise in self-desecration.  Dialog, yes. Characters, sure. Story? OMGWTF!

Probably the closest I've EVER played with Final Fantasy IX, but even then we're not talking award winning literature here. Point being, the most you can ask for is something not-excruciating, that has other redeaming elements. So far, FFXIII-2 seems to fit those criteria.

I heavily disagree, but that topic is best saved for another thread.

[Annubis]

Yay I has my game.

More importantly.... you has pizza.

Discuss.

I once ordered "all-dressed" pizza in New-York and they looked at me with a look of complete ignorance.
They thought I was crazy or something.

[John]

Yay I has my game.

More importantly.... you has pizza.

Discuss.

I once ordered "all-dressed" pizza in New-York and they looked at me with a look of complete ignorance.
They thought I was crazy or something.

I have no idea what the hell "all-dressed" pizza is.

[Sapphire_Fate]

Dude, I'm not sure I can name a single jRPG with a good story. The best you can hope for is at the level of a teenage dime novel.  Seriously, have you ever tried explaining the plot of any RPG to a non-gamer? It's an excercise in self-desecration.  Dialog, yes. Characters, sure. Story? OMGWTF!

Probably the closest I've EVER played with Final Fantasy IX, but even then we're not talking award winning literature here. Point being, the most you can ask for is something not-excruciating, that has other redeaming elements. So far, FFXIII-2 seems to fit those criteria.

This is pretty true, with an addendum of Shadow Hearts and SMT: Nocturne. Everything else is, as you said, a dime novel.

Well, actually, Koudelka is probably the only jRPG that I can think of that transcends the genre in terms of storytelling.

[Lucca]

So fucking angry I could eat ice cubes and shit fireballs.

Somehow, someway, this statement must make its way into my daily conversations.

I love how the live action triggers can make Serah look like the biggest idiot ever....if you wanted to.

"Good Morning, Kupo! :D"

Not really far yet, but I love the music.

[ZeronHitaro]

So far I think the game is quite enjoyable and will definitely be something I work through til the end. However it seems lots of little tiny problems are cropping up and gradually becoming a mountain of issues you can't really ignore when critiquing the game.

Like the lack of any difficulty (I've only done minimal side explorations yet I'm still steam rolling everything, including bosses, with a Com x 2, Rav x 1 formation; only changing over to Com x 1, Med x 2 once in a blue moon), or certain sections of the game which throw you into unavoidable battles literally every 2-3 seconds with crap rewards (looking at you Academia 400 AF...), or the sheer idiocy that went into the decision of "Let's make Mechanical and Biological monsters use different leveling items and make the items for Rank 3 Mechanicals very rare!", or how Chocolina really serves no purpose at all (I'm not talking personality here; her store pretty much almost never updates and when it does the items are far too outdated, weapons being the exception and over half her list of those are useless), or how things which should be in the base game are going to be sold as some of the most mundane DLC in a JRPG to date (Casino games)...

Not only is that scratching the proverbial iceberg but the list grows the more I play. Still; it's better than XIII by a long shot. XD

[Aeolus]

So far I think the game is quite enjoyable and will definitely be something I work through til the end. However it seems lots of little tiny problems are cropping up and gradually becoming a mountain of issues you can't really ignore when critiquing the game.

Like the lack of any difficulty (I've only done minimal side explorations yet I'm still steam rolling everything, including bosses, with a Com x 2, Rav x 1 formation; only changing over to Com x 1, Med x 2 once in a blue moon), or certain sections of the game which throw you into unavoidable battles literally every 2-3 seconds with crap rewards (looking at you Academia 400 AF...), or the sheer idiocy that went into the decision of "Let's make Mechanical and Biological monsters use different leveling items and make the items for Rank 3 Mechanicals very rare!", or how Chocolina really serves no purpose at all (I'm not talking personality here; her store pretty much almost never updates and when it does the items are far too outdated, weapons being the exception and over half her list of those are useless), or how things which should be in the base game are going to be sold as some of the most mundane DLC in a JRPG to date (Casino games)...

Not only is that scratching the proverbial iceberg but the list grows the more I play. Still; it's better than XIII by a long shot. XD

I see that the item crafting system still sucks out loud then.

[mjrpgfan]

It was inevitable that they'd reduce the difficulty of the game overall. The amount of complaints and hyperbole in XIII over random encounter difficulty, doom counters, leader death = game over, etc. was fairly significant. Doom counter replaced with a soft 'max HP damage' system that is reversible, you can switch leaders after the leader goes down, random encounters are now easy to splat with little strategy, etc. When most of the reviews state the battles are "faster" or "fast paced" what they mean is they're easier to steamroll instead of having to use appropriate strategy so the battle doesn't take 10x as long and end in a 1 star battle result.