By Michael Quartly-Kelly
It’s the age of awesome opening volleys in games. Skyrim had us dodging the headsman’s axe and a rampaging dragon; Portal 2 had the familiar Aperture Science facility fall away from under our feet; and Mass Effect 2’s opening salvo was so exciting, the main character up and died before the first reel change. The beginning of Final Fantasy XIII-2 manages to kick it up a notch again. You are dumped head first into an epic battle at the end of the world against one of those impossibly fashion-forward Final Fantasy arch-villains. There’s lots of running and jumping and flying. There’s some summoning and transforming and at one point your robo-steed/god-being/side-kick explodes in a barrage of lightning. All pretty much par for course in the modern Japanese Action-RPG franchise.
The Final Fantasy series has been known for its incredible visuals ever since number VII gave us its first pre-rendered opening cinematic. Things have surely improved since those early polygon-heavy characters bobbled about and software publisher SquareEnix have remained at the forefront of cutting edge graphics, with every game produced setting a new benchmark. This latest installment is no exception. It is so very pretty and shiny and all designed with such an original and meticulous super-future aesthetic. If Japan is the future of today, as I believe it is, then this is a glimpse of how that future sees its own future, albeit through candy-coloured glasses. The high-rises rise higher, the street fashion is more street fashionable, the wildlife more wild – everything is bright and cheery, or bright and angry, or paradoxically, bright and grim.
After the initial blitzkrieg subsides, the story kicks in a few years after the end of FFXIII with the world recovering from the apocalyptic events that caused the flying city-world of Cocoon to fall from the skies of Gran-Pulse, ending the reign of the mad god-creatures called the fal’Cie, or something. It was all very confusing and convoluted in ways only high-concept Japanese-to-English game-drama can be. Things start out peaceful in the beach-side town of Bodhum, where Serah, the sister of the protagonist from FFXIII, teaches kids about accessory science and flawless complexions. Soon enough some random monsters materialize out of nowhere and start throwing their weight around and it’s up to Serah and mysterious stranger Noel to save the day. Turns out Noel is some sort of time-hopping vagrant set on a mission by Serah’s sister to fix game plot-continuity and save Cocoon once again. Suffice to say, in true Final Fantasy style, this will take a whole lot of action choreographed kung-fu and hair product.
The game mechanics follow closely to the previous installment, with each character learning Roles - like combat heavy Commando, party healing Medic or magic wielding Ravager. Combinations of characters and roles form your team Paradigm – which is just a fancy way of describing how your team work together to defeat the current opponents. For the most part combat just involves switching between a small number of Player-set Paradigms as the battle ebbs and flows. Brutalizing the enemy with magic, followed by some swift close quarter combat when they are in the weakened Staggered state, will get you through the bulk of enemies. There’s not as much micro-managing as some of the previous FF titles and this will be a boon to the new button mashing generation.
A nice addition to the series is Monster farming. You play most of the game with only the two main characters, with a little help from special NPC cameo-guests along the way. The third slot in your party is filled by your pick of the monsters previously captured along the way and grown through a special item assignment system. You can have up to three monsters on call during combat and shuffle them into your Paradigm as required. This appeals to collectors and to optimizers out there who want to create the perfect fighting team. Also, it is a lot of fun to bring out your favourite enemy on your side – I’ve never loved the Giant Cactaur more!
It’s hard to say where this game sits in the context of all the great games around at the moment. Final Fantasy games are very specific, even when compared to other JRPGs out there. If you love SquareEnix, in particular FFXIII – then you will, in all likelihood, love this at least as much. I felt it was a better game by half a star - even though I was at times utterly bamboozled by the story. It always seemed like I was having a lot of fun and it didn’t have a lot of the monotonous grinding that plagued the first XIII installment. The core game length is under 50 hours, but can easily be expanded out to 100 hours if you really like to explore and discover as you go. All in all this game is lots of slick, brightly coloured, neo-futurist fun!
Four and a half stars.
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Final Fantasy XIII-2
:: Publisher: Square Enix
:: Developer: Square Enix
:: Format: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
:: Rating: M