Final Fantasy XIII-2

1. LastResource

   Jan 14, 2023

   10

   worth it and glad to play this game again. so much memories and nostalgia within this thirteenth game in the series.

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2. ComradeJonathan

   Mar 14, 2015

   9

   This title is amongst the best I have ever Played.
   
   You play as a young girl searching for her Goddess of a sister (both internally andThis title is amongst the best I have ever Played.
   
   You play as a young girl searching for her Goddess of a sister (both internally and externally) alongside a man sent by your sister to aid you, as you solve time anomalies and paradoxes in order to piece a broken world back together. Throughout your journey you meet some very interesting and occasionally melodramatic characters and watch yourself develop from a scared girl waiting for her hero into an avid fighter and competent problem solver.
   
   I get 60 FPS with my Radeon HD 7850 GPU, FX8350 CPU and 4GB DDR3 (aka a moderately high end PC) @ 1920 x 1200 resolution, 4k x 4k shadow resolution, and x8 AA, which is amazing for all intents and purposes.
   
   Unfortunately It crashes If I go any higher at all, assumedly from my RAM bottleneck. The game itself suffers from random crashes every once in awhile and it may be because I am using high end settings with only 4GB RAM.
   
   The controls are pretty good for a console port, and they are customizable, which is really all that matters.
   
   Anyhoo the game itself is amazing which is why I give it this particular rating. This is probably one of the best final fantasy titles ever released.… Expand

   • 2 of 6 users found this helpful
4. 0hope

   Dec 12, 2014

   8

   Where to start with this one, ah yeah there is something funny when you check game description and features and then find there highlightedWhere to start with this one, ah yeah there is something funny when you check game description and features and then find there highlighted ability to change resolution, texture detail and volume sliders!
   Those are thing that should be standard for PC games.
   But then memory from last FF floods my brain and i came to remember how that one didn't even have volume sliders so yeah XD
   
   This one is actually fairly decent port. Have not had any major issues like with last FF13. Game was running smoothly on 60fps most of time, there ware some hick ups but nothing major.
   And it actually supports widescreen and most important the freaking ability to actually change resolution.
   
   This PC version have both japanese and english dub just like last one but this time without major increase in space taken, guess they did learn something instead of just dumping copy of movies with different audio.
   
   Now about game it self.
   This time around you have only 2 playable char and this is good and bad. Bad in sense that if you dislike both of them there wont be much redeeming chance. But this way there is far more character development so the story doesn't suffer from that issue much.
   Wont spoil anything regarding story it self but you don't really need to play last FF 13 to understand this one even though story is continuation of that one, well kind off.
   
   Combat is more or less identical, meaning real time ATB system where you pick commands only for your main char while other two act depending what preset you have selected (AI controlled).
   Yes i said two because 3nd party member is a monster(almost any monster NPC) which can be captured and added to your team. That is new part added to game its fairly interesting one.
   
   How ever combat still feels flawed in part that you never feel like you have complete control over your characters.
   Thing is monster do have hit boxes and its possible to miss or getting missed by just moving around or jumping in air during some move but those are random things which are hard to time or predict.
   And in some rare cases monster collision can even prevent you from getting to its hit box.
   
   But over all its nothing worse then FF 13.
   Game do suffers from some repetitiveness but over all i dare to say its best FF from FF 13 trilogy.
   And its worth to mention that all 'DLC' are already added into game with exception of certain that couldn't be ported because of some copyright laws and BS.
   
   Its only 16 euro on steam, not over all that expensive so i'd say its worth your money if you never had chance to play it or just want to replay it.
   
   Final score 8/10… Expand

   • 2 of 6 users found this helpful
5. Frein

   Apr 2, 2015

   6

   This review is based on 13h of gameplay and I have plenty of experience with the FF series, including FFXIII, which I beat.
   
   FFXIII-2 is inThis review is based on 13h of gameplay and I have plenty of experience with the FF series, including FFXIII, which I beat.
   
   FFXIII-2 is in many ways similar to FFXIII, however, it's clear that the designers wanted to address some of the criticism FFXIII received. They removed the endless linear corridors, for instance, however, not all changes were for the better.
   
   While the linear corridors are gone, the quite open ended nature of FFXIII-2 struggles to keep the narrative tight. Most of the side quests are completely uninspiring and even the main plot seems to be riddled with C-grade sci-fi writing. Despite the time traveling theme, Chrono Trigger this is not. As I mentioned earlier, I have not finished the game, so take this with a grain of salt, however. The story may well improve later on.
   
   The most significant step backwards, in my opinion, is the character progression system. FFXIII-2 also uses the crystarium, however, this time it works differently. You can unlock available roles all the way to the end at any point of the game, which can lead to extreme variance in character builds. Also, optimal allocation of CP (exp in FFXIII) is an exercise in spreadsheet porn, which is extremely poor design. Basically, if you allocate CP to your various roles in the wrong order, your character will end up with worse stats. The tutorial doesn't even properly explain how this works and there is no going back, so you're basically screwed if you don't follow a guide from the get go.
   
   The weapon upgrade system from FFXIII is, thankfully, gone. The original system had shocking design failures that are no longer present. This time you hunt specific monster materials to modify your equipment in multiple ways. It appears quite confusing and not really worth the effort at the point in the game that I am at, however. Why can't we just go back to FFIX? Or even FFVII? They had much more functional equipment systems than these bloated messes.
   
   Instead of a third character, in FFXIII-2 combat the third party slot is occupied by a tamed monster. Monsters can have only one role, however, you can "equip" up to three monsters at the same time, which simulates the effect of having a character with three roles unlocked. The monster taming system is perhaps the best example of the systems bloat the game suffers from. Almost every foe you face can be captured, but capturing is luck based, so you may have to grind for a very long time before the game decides to award you with the monster you were looking for. Additionally, every monster type has a unique growth profile that can be further modified by feeding it different types of foods (monsters don't level with CP like characters do) and there are multiple tiers of each type of food with more advanced food types being required to level your monsters past certain points. There is no way of knowing how your monster grows and what abilities it will learn without looking into a guide, so you make significant resource investments with blinders on. As if this wasn't enough, there is also Infusion, which is essentially you feeding a tamed monster to another tamed monster in order to transfer over abilities. All this encourages massive grinding accompanied by countless spreadsheets if you want to have any direction with your monster game. It's like trying to breed a competitive Pokemon tournament team, the thought of which sends chills down my spine. Finally, because the monsters follow the same role system player characters do, they don't end up feeling all that diverse or unique despite having a some traits and abilities unique to monsters.
   
   Then there is the music. Let's just say that this is not your Dad's FF and the soundtrack is a 180 degree departure from the Uematsu masterpieces of the PS1 era games. I guess some people enjoy the extremely loud dance-electro-pop-whatever, but personally I find it extremely annoying. Why are there lyrics in just about every track? Why does it have to constantly blast into my ears like I was in a disco? Why can't I turn the music off or reduce the volume? The lack of volume controls seems insane even if you were confident everyone is going to love your soundtrack.
   
   But how does it all run on the PC? Pretty much identically to the patched FFXIII PC version, which is to say pretty damn poorly. It's not as disastrous as FFXIII was at launch as you can make all the same adjustments to resolution, AA and so on that were initially missing from FFXIII, however, the wildly fluctuating frame rate is still there. It doesn't matter how powerful your PC is or how low your settings are, the game is going to stutter, even if you implement some of the third party tweaks and workarounds that have popped up.
   
   After the first 13h of gameplay, I would rank this below FFXIII. While the original had its obvious flaws, it had more balanced gameplay, less bloated design and the story was more interesting and sensible… Expand

   • 2 of 5 users found this helpful
6. dotrem

   Feb 12, 2022

   5

   This game is all way worse than FFXIII. Especialy a story. If in previous game we have a solid lineiar storyline, but there we have shatteredThis game is all way worse than FFXIII. Especialy a story. If in previous game we have a solid lineiar storyline, but there we have shattered something. This don't encourage you to play to know how it's ends.
   
   Gameplay is pretty same as FFXIII, but with a little twist. If you remember that original Half-Life mod what you buy monsters, upgrade them and after they fight for you. So twist here is: you tame monster, grind for n hours to collect all needed components to upgrade it, and after you get a commpation that can be stronger that your main character. That is 50% of game play. You grind. So interesting.
   
   Other things just a same as in FFXIII. Nothing new. Yeah there are time trevels, but who cares how you were delivered into next location.
   I can't say that the game is unplayable bad, but can't say anything good about it. If you want to beat every FF game - play it and forget, if not don't play.… Expand

   • 0 of 0 users found this helpful
7. delaware80

   Mar 10, 2021

   4

   The only FF port that does not really work on my PC because of technical problems.
   I would accept this if FF 13-2 is the latest port I haveThe only FF port that does not really work on my PC because of technical problems.
   I would accept this if FF 13-2 is the latest port I have played - but all the other FF games on PC worked just fine.… Expand

   • 0 of 0 users found this helpful
8. Yucuvu

   Oct 2, 2022

   0

   Avoid this horrid piece of trash game.
   It's an atrocious Pokémon clone, in the worst possible way.
   Since the gameplay is garbage and theAvoid this horrid piece of trash game.
   It's an atrocious Pokémon clone, in the worst possible way.
   Since the gameplay is garbage and the cringe plot sucks.
   Don't waste your time with this… Expand

   • 0 of 1 users found this helpful

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