Yes, it’s faster. Yes, it gets to the meaty gameplay straight away. Yes, it has learnt its lesson. And yes, these questions are annoying. It’s okay, we’ll tell you everything you need to know, you don’t have ask.
Lord knows that Square-Enix is desperate for us to get the message out there that the infamous 20-hour slog from ‘tutorial’ stage to ‘having fun’ stage that slowed down Final Fantasy XIII is gone. Dead. Finished.
Consigned to the dustbin of history labelled Failed Experiments In The Final Fantasy Series, where it’s sharing sob-stories with Final Fantasy VIII’s Draw system and Final Fantasy XIV’s… everything.
That’s because after listening to feedback from the press and the players, Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a game of improvements. The tempo is faster. Platforming introduced. Player choice has been gently massaged into the system.
Moogles now play a big part, QTEs kick in during boss battles and there’s a whole new combat subset of options devoted to capturing enemies and having them help you attack. There is a lot to talk about. But as this is a hands-on session we’re reporting, let’s start right at the beginning.
We begin ‘near the start of the game’ in archaeological ruins that Square-Enix hasn’t announced details of yet, with Serah Farron and Noel Kreiss running into the open.
Serah is now the starring character, as she searches for her sister Lightning following the events of Final Fantasy XIII (no spoilers on why, just in case you haven’t played it).
Her weapon is… hmmm. How best explain this? Serah followed by a Moogle called Mog – imagine a pink, flying teddy bear with a red ball above its head if you’re not familiar – and Mog turns into Serah’s bow and arrow when combat kicks in. Of course it does!
As for Noel, he’s a typical Final Fantasy hero wearing the fingerprints of Tetsuya Nomura’s hallmark design. Imagine a cross between Cloud, Tidus and Kingdom Hearts’ Sora. He fights with a sword, wears his pants down low and… Christ. This is turning into a rap song.
All you need to know is Noel ticks the character design boxes of most leading Squeenix heroes – emo hair, slight build, eccentric fashion sense and a voice that swerves between assured and whiny more often than a younger sibling. Love him or hate him, he’s typical Final Fantasy.
So Serah, Noel and Mog run through the ruins where a monstrous, blue hand is poking out of the ground, towering above the trio. There’s scaffolding built around the hand suggesting it’s been there a while.
Yet the three adventurers are called into action when the hand moves and rocks the ruins, as invisible giant Atlas forms around it. This is the beginning of our hands-on with Final Fantasy XIII-2 and we’re already thrown into battle against a boss we can’t even see, bar its giant hand, which is clenched into a fist and threatening to slam into the party. Crumbs.
It’s not been that long since Final Fantasy XIII was warming up our Xbox 360, so given the battle system in Final Fantasy XIII-2 is largely the same as its predecessor, instinct quickly kicks in.
The Paradigm Shifts have returned with the same classes such as Commando, Ravager, Medic and so on. You can set yourself to Auto-battle and fire off attacks at Atlas, until there’s a sudden break in the action.
Noel runs up Atlas’s arm and finds himself having to dodge a sudden swipe from the giant boss. Suddenly, a symbol flashes up on the screen with Noel having to press Right on the Left analogue stick. This looks suspiciously like… Argh! A QTE!
There's nothing quite like single-handedly lifting a feral behemoth in the air.
Quickquickquickquick phew. Left analogue stick flicked, Noel rolls out of harm’s way. We’re not sure what happens if you fail the QTE – we presume you take a hefty chunk of damage rather than Atlas scrapping Noel’s innards off his arm while groaning “Ewwww” a lot – but the idea is that you don’t settle into the gentle, hypnotic rhythm that Final Fantasy XIII was prone to.
The battle grinds on and Serah’s party is soon joined by blimps that hover into view. Another QTE demands you mash X to fill a circular prompt and doing so sees the blimps drop bombs on Atlas.
Air strikes! In a Final Fantasy game! Cue an extremely tenuous link to Call Of Duty gameplay mechanics that we’re definitely not just mentioning for SEO purposes when we upload this preview online.
Job done, the blimps roll onwards and Atlas retreats, leaving the group to survey the carnage as scaffolding lies strewn over the ruins and disheartened workers are left to pick up the pieces. Serah’s bow transforms into Mog and the trio are left to explore.
The random encounter system has changed slightly. Get close enough to an enemy and Mog Clock appears. The timer under your feet shows a clock counting down. Attack the enemy while the clock is green and you get the first strike in.
Leave it too long and you’ll likely hit the enemy when the clock is yellow, which is neutral status. If you leave it really long and don’t bother attacking until the clock is red, not only are you incredibly slow, but your dawdling is punished as the enemy will land the first strike on you.
That was the boring GameFAQs description of how Mog Clock works. What it means is that you have to make a quick judgement call, figuring out where the enemies are when the clock springs into life and striking them.
We don't even know who this lady is. No doubt she's very important.
What if you leave it too late? What if you can’t afford the battle? What if the enemy looks too strong? Then you can run past the encounter if you’re quick enough.
That might seem like a lot of words to describe a relatively simple function and that’s because it is a lot of words to describe a relatively simple function yet once.
The other new facet of the combat is capturing. In each area, there are enemies you can defeat who turn to crystals and become part of your party.
We had Flanbanero (red flan with rush punches) and Stonefist (defensive armadillo-like creature) helping us after beating them in battle. You can switch between your creatures with Paradigm Shifts and build up their Feral Link, which serves as a super move of sorts.
There’s also platforming. You’ll notice when you first press O in the ritual what-do-all-these-buttons-do experimenting that Noel jumps. Jumping! In a Final Fantasy game! There’s jumping in Call Of Duty, too!
And the jumping here is as stilted and awkward as our cackhanded SEO attempts. The only other game that attempted jumping in the series to our recollection was, interestingly enough, Final Fantasy X-2 although the platforming there was regimented and stiff.
At first, we thought Final Fantasy XIII-2 would address that because you can jump anywhere and you’re in ruins. “The possibilities are endless!” we would have thought to ourselves, if we weren’t so miserable and thought a bit like an American advert.
Unfortunately, there were enough red flags on show – clearly highlighted jump spots, invisible walls constricting areas – that platforming is likely to remain an ill-fit for the series. Shame.
At least the puzzles are coming together nicely. As part of Serah and co’s attempt to take down Atlas, who re-emerges elsewhere in the ruins and lies in wait for your party, you can solve a temporal rift in an area known as The Void Beyond.
Cocoon has changed dramatically since the last game.
Yes, it’s a little vague and a little weird but the point of this is that it’s an excuse for some puzzle solving. To solve the puzzles, you have to cross a room of collapsing platforms while hitting crystals on the way. It’s not stuff that will twist your grey matter into knots but a nice change of pace regardless.
It’s also worth noting that Final Fantasy XIII-2 seems to have been shaken up to make the structure more interesting. There’s an open town hub that you can roam around in following the first Atlas fight, with linear tunnels to be explored if you want to go hunting for secrets.
Further to that, there are ‘secret’ items, which are flagged up when you stray near enough with Mog. His (her? We never checked, ahem) head lights up like a firework show, as he fizzes over to the item in question.
It adds a little more purpose to the world of Final Fantasy XIII-2, which is good if you were one of those who hated the linear tunnels of the original.
Having fought enough monsters to level up and with Flanbanero in tow, we’re ready to take on Atlas again. This time, he’s a formidable foe and there isn’t the luxury of nearby blimps to drop bombs from above.
Even so, it doesn’t matter too much. Having the extra sidekick in tow – Square Enix still hasn’t confirmed the final number of party members – makes the Atlas fight much easier, as nailing successful Feral Links by getting the prompts right sees Atlas get slapped about by Flanbanero’s flailing fists.
With Serah set to heal and Noel on offensive duty, it’s not long before Atlas withers and falls. Our time with Final Fantasy XIII-2 comes to an end.
While Final Fantasy X-2 was lambasted by some for shifting away from traditional Final Fantasy values, Final Fantasy XIII-2 will be praised for shifting back towards it.
Open towns, engaging introductions, new characters, extra battle options and the same dazzling mix of stunning graphics and brilliant music underpinning it all, this is very much the project of a powerhouse studio who has listened to its fans. Now we just have to wait and see if the fans were right to demand everything they did…
