Similar to Ni no Kuni, I completed FFXIII-2 months ago, but thought I’d see every nook and cranny and get the platinum trophy before I wrote my impressions. The developers of FFXIII-2 seem to have taken on board the criticisms of the first game – that it felt far too linear, like running down endless corridors – and gone too far in the opposite direction. In this game, the player can hop between multiple timelines, altering future events and choosing non-linear paths through the story. The effect, unfortunately, is disorientation and a rather bland world – with another terrible final dungeon.
On the plus side, moving Serah to the spotlight was a great idea, Noel may be stupidly-named but is a great character to look at and in writing terms is an intriguing concept, and seeing Hope grown up is pretty cute. Like its predecessor, the game is incredibly nice to look at, and I actually found the combat system fairly fun.
You also get to chuck moogles about, which is a stroke of genius.
I must say, while the game held sway over me for a while, I never felt it was moving me emotionally, and I grew tired of the various stages that involved rotating little rooms about. Fighting the enemies never ended up with me feeling powerful, as the best RPGs do, and I didn’t honestly care very much about Noel’s ambitions.
As for the ending, well, it only served to make this game seem like a stopgap – and I haven’t rushed out to buy Lightning Returns, I have to admit. It’s on my to-play list...but fairly low down.
Square’s games look great – that’s more or less a given. But they really have to learn to have characters that an audience can identify with again – that can get you in the heart. Sadly, these aren’t them. But this is another I intend to replay some time in the far future.
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