Final Fantasy XIII-2 (Multi-Platform)
Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a game about time-travel. In it you voyage to the past to undo your mistakes. The symbolism isn’t lost on those who were disappointed by the previous game. For every complaint the masses made about Final Fantasy XIII—the level design was too linear, the mission objectives were too straightforward, Vanille was too annoying—XIII-2 has an answer. In the end, the changes mean that XIII-2 fails for all new reasons. If Square Enix could travel back in time to address the flaws of their latest game, maybe they could start by not paying such close attention to griping fanboys, and instead give this series the fresh start it deserves.
Yes, Final Fantasy XIII was rigidly linear, but for a reason. Its emphasis was on the battle system, and so the designers pruned away all of the superfluous systems that didn’t support combat. While players traveled along a predetermined route, there was variety in the enemies they faced, in and in the makeup of their party, which kept the action fresh and surprising against cannon fodder and bosses alike. And the straightforward nature of the level design ensured a sense of constant progression.
In XIII-2, the defined pathways have been replaced by wide-open arenas, each representing a different time period. When the player arrives, there may not be any pathways to follow at all. Instead, they may have a poorly defined goal, and no clear sense of how to achieve it. Much of the main question objectives amount to searching for nearly invisible objects in some time period or another. It is not an exaggeration to say that I spent several hours of my playtime with Final Fantasy XIII-2 running in circles looking for things I couldn’t see. To declare non-linear gameplay superior to linear gameplay is a dubious argument to begin with, but only a zealot could think that XIII-2’s approach represents an improvement.
The same is true of this game’s side missions. That’s right: unlike its predecessor, Final Fantasy XIII-2 is chock-a-block with optional stuff to do. And it is all terrible. I came to XIII-2 immediately after playing Fallout: New Vegas, a game whose endless diversions were scripted with such depth and care that every corner seemed to hide a novel’s worth of storytelling. In Final Fantasy XIII-2, the side quests feel like they were hastily brainstormed by a design team that was eager to break for lunch. Characters have lost items, and need you to return them. Or they want you to pick flowers for them. And so on. Rather than making good on the previous game’s shortcomings, this feels like a passive-aggressive rebuke. All right, you whiners, you want side quests? Here are some really crappy ones!
The combat system that serves as the game’s core has been refined, not overhauled, and it’s still the saving grace. As before, the player’s task is not to give specific instructions to party members, but to designate “paradigms” under which the characters mostly direct themselves. Outside of combat, the player’s job is to set up the paradigms in order to strike the right balance of physical attack, magical attacks, defensive techniques, and status buffs and de-buffs. One major departure is that, besides the two main characters in the party, players also conscript monsters to help out. The variety of creatures available to capture is impressive, but it also means that you’ll tend to settle on a couple that you like, leaving dozens languishing on the bench. You can, however, infuse one monster’s powers into another, creating ever more powerful teammates.
