Ben-DutkaWhat's your take on Final Fantasy XIII-2 ? Might it change after watching this new trailer?
Square Enix has released the video that debuted at this week's Penny Arcade Expo, and it shows off more amazing cinematography, some gameplay – complete with that "Press Action Button" feature we know all you RPG fans adore – and plenty of storyline information. They keep saying Lightning is gone but that ain't true; look, there she is…she's like an angel now, or something.
And look who has a bow! We missed the bow in FFXIII. We miss the bow in any RPG that neglects to include it. Anyway, the latest trailer only reinforces the fact that when it comes to production values, Final Fantasy remains second to none. But does it also prove that FFXIII-2 is indeed an RPG? Or at least an action/RPG? Was that a town we saw…?
Related Game(s): Final Fantasy XIII-2
No vs or XIV?
Not until after this game releases. They have to focus attention on this thing.
Yeah Versus and XIV are all I'm really looking forward to right now from Square-Enix. Both are kinda fading off sadly… no idea when we'll get either.
Though, there's the possibility that when XIII-2 is right around the corner I'll give in and buy it, same as I did back in the day with X-2. We'll see… hope it's well received.
Versus…I hope you're kind of being sarcastic when you say they should focus on XIII-2 right now. They can do XIV whenever, but they announced Versus XIII back in 2006 and it's still not out yet.
They've been working on it since 2003 and they decide to announce a game beginning of this year and say "Oh yea…we're going to leave Versus aside, and put this on the top of the list."
Oh COME ON…REALLY?!?!?!
Eh…anyway, I hope Square Enix does its best. It's not going to be like the Square from the PSX days of course…but I hope this game does quite well and improve on where XIII lacked it's Final Fantasy.
I understand your grief, but focusing on the product that is about to release is the wiser business decision. Look at how many people are already saying "Forget this I'll wait for Versus".
It would be unwise for square enix to create more people that think that way by hyping other FF games.
I'm talking about what's best for them, not us. What's best for us is a real FF title. But that ain't gonna happen.
Last edited by WorldEndsWithMe on 8/26/2011 11:00:09 PM
Whether intentional or not, since they decided to make XIII-2 look at how many people now care about Versus when there wasn't much hype for it when it was expected to be released along side XIII.
Good point, highlander. We've heard about Versus XIII and XIV for years and suddenly this is announced no more than a year ago. Now it's likely that we're getting it first before the other two? What's going on at Square…
No its not a full rpg but I like it.Nice touch that they only showed Hope's Boomerang. I hope to see Fang and Vanille.
Agreed, and for the record I was gonna get this no matter what. I thought the new game play was innovative, something i never saw before. Was kinda slow to start but that was so you got down the new battle system. Other then the fact that you couldn't make full use of the Crystarium i loved XIII.
This looks like it could be better then the only other sequal (X-2) but i still liked it for what it was. Lets just say ill play almost any RPG, action/rpg or oldschool im a fan no matter what. I just could never get into tatics (Sorry Ben =P)
Last edited by Stabs88 on 8/27/2011 8:09:23 AM
Is a different team working on this or have they just ditched versus?
Versus was, once again, put on the backburner. Technically the games have different teams, but they keep pulling the Versus team away to do other stuff because they don't want us to have a good game ever.
Makes sense ….wait
Nice! Almost looks like everything I'd want. Seeing that they're not going back to the way things were with older FF play, I wish they'd just cut the facade and go ahead and make FF into an all out action hack 'n slash 😉 GoW, FF, NG, Bayonetta, and DMC can all be one big happy family.
Well, I found it kind of funny 😉
I gave you an upvote. 🙂 I thought it was funny, too. And it's true… who are they trying to fool, anyways?
It looks great to me. But then again I really liked the first 1. The same battle mechanics look to be back with a few minor tweeks. I'm sure that will anger many. I thought that it worked well though.
Last edited by MyWorstNightmar on 8/26/2011 10:20:34 PM
I didn't, even if you can get used to the fact that the game decides almost everything for you, the problem lies in the fact that it usually chose the wrong actions. Sure I can make somebody shift to the right paradigm, but that doesn't mean they will cast the right buffs.
Let me revise. The fighting mechanic worked well for what it was trying to be. It certainly was not a "think out your strategy as the battle progresses" game.
I do agree, your team didn't always pick a buff or spell that you wanted at the moment you want it. You had to wait to shift your paradigm until they completed the task you wanted them to
It did do a decent job of being a macro-management tool.
One thing it came close to doing well was enemy memory. If your ally casts deprotect then realizes the enemy is immune to it, your ally will stop trying to cast it. That's good…. except…. if you fight the same enemy again some other battle… they forget and the cycle starts over…
No Lightning?
Errr… That might prevent me from getting the game.
She's in there, but she won't be the big shot.
That is an issue, a big one seeing how Serah and Vanille seemed the most annoying the characters in FFXIII. And where did this Noel guy come out of?
BTW, are you Final Fantasy purists happy with the fact towns are back?
The most annoying? That title goes to Hope, he's the most annoying character I've seen. Serah I didn't mind. Vanille was also annoying.
We don't know in what capacity towns are back. The town areas in XIII were just scenery on a straight path. If that is the case again then no I won't be happy. If you still do all your shopping at a save point no I will not be happy. For the purist it has to make sense, which means you go to a town to ferret out side quests and to purchase and sell things, and to experience cut scenes among other things. If they don't do all of that then the reintroduction of towns won't go far with fans.
@Clamadeus, Serah and Vanille's "sound effects" made them equally annoying. Their "uh's" and stuff. Hope was okay. The only annoying part was his plan to get revenge from Snow. But I think English voice-overs are usually annoying. You guys must know, cuz FFXIII was the first JRPG I've ever touched. I just don't like Turn Based games. I also bought FFVII, the story is great but I am stuck at the Shinra HQ after the LONG flight of stairs. I can't get past the guards.
@World, Hmmm. If SE is sane enough, they'll probably include full towns with shops although side quests seem… unlikely.
Unfortunately, my PS3 YLOD'd when I was at Chapter 9, the battle with the Cocoon Fal'Cie. Can't be bothered to play it ALL again. What should I do?
And when does FFVII let me free roam?
I didn't mind Serah, she didn't seem annoying to me. Vanille didn't like too much. Hope was annoying though with his constant whining and getting revenge as you said. But meh, everyone has different opinions so that's my opinion right there. lol
Serah was barely even in FFXIII, I don't know how you could be annoyed by her.
As far as FFVII goes I assume you're talking about the world map when you say "free roam" you're actually almost there already. Sorry to hear that you chose to walk up those stairs. Once that's over you leave Midgar and you have an entire world out there.
Yup, Midgar is just a dot on your map of an entire world. You are literally an hour or so (depending on how long your battles and running around lasts) from the world map.
As for those guards, they shouldn't be too tough to get past. Are you not getting past because they are killing you or because they keep seeing you run past?
If it's cause they keep seeing you, eventually you will have killed them all. If it's because you keep losing, then I would back track to the bottom of the shinra building, and grind up a couple levels. It's a little early to develop a really good and mean strategy… but give Barret the cover materia. He will eternally have the highest defense values and highest HP. Plus you can put him in the back row since most of his weapons are long range. He's FF7's perfect tank.
No thanks. After getting burned with the last one. I will take a wait and see. Worse case I will buy it a month or two after release.
Last edited by GuardianMode on 8/26/2011 10:36:10 PM
As difficult as this shift into mediocrity has been, at least I'll know not to expect much this time so hopefully I'll be able to enjoy it.
I know it will be a solid game, but you guys know how it is. You're playing a game and it doesn't do things or make changes from the first that every other sane human being in the world would have made happen during development.
I made a decision during E3 this one isn't worth the time or money.
HMMMM…more bad acting, more feminine looking characters, more weird music, etc…not sure I care to play this one. I like FFXIII, but I wasn't impressed by this trailer and seriously no lightning?!?!?!?!? WTF
Nothing wrong with the feminine characters FF was always like that, BUT no badass,weird and funny looking characters?, we want some variety SE, you know like the good ol times.
Dude, it's an art style. FF should no sooner change it's anime inspired characters than Gears should change its apes.
Well I get the anime inspiration….but bad acting is bad acting. FFXIII was full of bad acting.
@FM23
I disagree on both counts, and I'll explain myself.
1) In regards to feminine characters, maybe it's because I'm used to the anime style, or maybe it's because I don't think any woman on earth should look like Sahz or Snow, but I just plain disagree on them looking like women. Maybe it's me, but high amounts of facial hair on women isn't for me. Nor is a woman that I'm sure could bear-hug me to death like Snow probably could. If those guys don't look like men to you, then… you need to move to a better town or something. lol 😉
2) In regards to bad acting, I wholeheartedly disagree. The acting is not the issue. I've said this before in more detail with more of an explanation in the past, but the long and short of it is that the dialogue makes good acting impossible.
In theatre or movies, a bad dialogue can be hidden by the action. In something pre-rendered like video games, that's impossible to do, especially since the original animation and acting wasn't done in English!
I mean, look at Lightning's character… she is supposed to pull off a cold, well-guarded soldier while typically only given 3-5 word sentences of dialogue. When there's nothing for the actor to work with, you can't blame it on the acting. Especially when all they are acting is the voices.
These voice actors are trying to pull off specific characters, while matching the animations, with a script that feels like the dialogue was written by a 12 year old.
FF7 suffered from the same symptoms… something I like to call, "Star Wars Syndrome". Epic storytelling… shitty dialogue. Everyone knows Star Wars had shitty dialogue… but you can't tell me that for that reason, Ewan McGreggor is a bad actor. And Natalie Portman has proven herself in years since Star Wars, as well.
Everyone knows FF7 has an amazing story, too… But I mean… at one point, Cloud says, "Alrighty everyone. Let's mosey!" Can you imagine a voice actor trying to pull off Cloud's character with that dialogue? It almost can't be done!
Last edited by Underdog15 on 8/29/2011 8:57:29 AM
Cute video but clearly these ass-clowns don't understand that gamers aren't stupid. Of the few mill who bought FXIII only a fraction will be seduced into buying this tripe with promises of towns and exploration. According to that video there isn't a single thing that's changed from FFXIII and that means bargain bid fodder for any who are remotely interested.
so true i saw the vid and stoped 2/3 in think its the same dam game
I just watched it again. Something's…wrong. The character models look to have been made blockier. Either there was some push back from dissatisfied 360 port owners or this is going to be the rush job we thought. Or both.
I noticed that too. The funny thing is that on teh andriasang website I read that the graphics would be better rendered than they were in the previous installment.
One thing to consider is that FF 13 was originially going to be just a PS3 game but later got ported to 360. This time around it's quite possible that FF 13-2 was developed simultaneously for both platforms and we all know thatit just has to look as identicle as possible.
Are you two sure? I didn't watch XIII enough to note a diference between the graphs, well that would suck if the graphics looks worse.
Isn't this supposed to be a sequel in order to improve everything and add more?, oh well perhaps they are just gonna paste all the material that didn't fit on the DVD's when they made XIII and add some gameplay features.
It could just be that it's an older build but even if they say things are better here, graphically, "better" could ultimately mean a little worse for PS3 and a little better for 360.
Well it looks like this game is giving 'fans (…) What they have asked for. The open world is clearly there.
One thing that bothers me thugh is they have kept the system from XIII where if the lead character dies its game over.. WHY?????!!!!!!! I actually had no other problems with the gameplay, it was fast and fresh and was more focused on paradigm shifts than actual commands, if you did not have the right paradigm set for the right moment… Anhilation.
One new aspect that bothers me is they have gotten rid of monsters on the field, they'll suddenly just appear whihc gives you a chance to get the advantage or not. But why have the monsters appear like that before the transition into battle… it does look quite poor.
Other than that I have no issue, Noel seems to be growing on me (Even if he is still missing from Kingdom Hearts III..) and I am looking forward to the final XIII game.
I was upset abouit that too. It would have been practical to implement the system from FF XII were when the leader dies, you would be prompted to switch to another available character. This would still work with FF XIII's paradigm system. In fact, this would have upgraded FF XIII immensely.
SE why is it that the fans can come up with better ideas than you as of late?
What? random encounters? come on! we all love the old FF's but that isn't a feature people missed.
I didn't really mind the random incounters except for the underwater research facility Ultima weapon dungeon in FF VIII. That was simply ridiculous becuase they were some area in that place were you would get into a battle with EVERY single step you took.
I will say however that being able to see the enemy that you will be facing ahead of time is good for controlled grinding.
They aren't entirely random, theres some kind of Mog-based interface based on how the encounters occur.
I don't mind the map critters being gone, it seems silly for me to go running at them.
As far as the leader death thing goes, that just blows and falls under what i was talking about when I said that any other sane human being would have changed that. But I think it would have been too much work for them.
@Shadow Scorpio
aw, dude, you did that underwater research the hard way!
If you try moving while the blue light is on, you get in a fight immediately. You have to move during the half second there is no blue light. Then stand and wait until it goes away. You'll still probably get into a fight or few, but only because it's hard to gauge when the light will come back on. (It's a slow fade on and off)
Game is lame. I've lost all hope for the FF series.