Square-Enix Final Fantasy XIII-2?

those new outfits look awesome. Especially the Yuunagi style clothes for Serah. Although, the Blaze outfit or whatever for Noel doesn't seem to work as well. I think his default outfit is best. But that bikini outfit, who's idea for fanservice was that? Because I'm now going to have to play the game with just that

 

DLC needs to leave my Final Fantasy games.

 

DLC only works with stuff like Dissidia 012 for some reason. But I guess DLC for costumes and weapons isn't that bad. But I don't want side-character storylines as DLC.

PS. Someone has almost collected all the fragments and is close to getting the

Spoiler

Secret ending.

 

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-12-21-final-fantasy-13-2-sales-well-down-on-ff13

 

Whoa.

The sales are at 740,000 now with the PS3 bundles & XBOX360 sales. (apparently)

Hm. Impressive, but kind of a bomb considering all the advertising.

 

So, I played the beginning like a few minutes ago. Can't understand what they're saying but it's amazing. I'm absolutely loving the Cinematic Actions! Keeps you on your toes.

 

Looks like Type-0 got outselled by XIII-2. Currently stands at 697,146, while Type-0 stands at 696,428. They're both one of the most successful games in Japan in 2011.

Also......

Spoiler

Apparently there will be DLC for the True ending of XIII-2. Take it with a grain of salt though, it might not be true.

Goddamn it, I'm hating the ending more.....To be continued....ugh....

 

...

 

http://www.novacrystallis.com/?p=2487
FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 Tops 704K Sold

Also, apparently XIII-2 is sponsoring Spike's CES All Access show....XD

 

FF needs DLC in order to compete with the rise of the Western RPGs. SE is finally making some good decisions and actually making FF more western. Yeah sure, alot of people don't want them like that...but that's such a small group of people that SE wouldn't be able to make enough money. Good lord, there are still people out there that think SE should cut the crap and put final fantasy back in its 2D ATB days.

Dont buy the DLC if you dont like it, close your eyes when the Cinematic Actions appear (good luck with that one), but as long as you buy it all is well.

 

Anyone had a chance to play the demo yet? I'm downloading it on XBL right now

 

Looks like someone is playing through it on YouTube, but I haven't personally played it. It looks to me like it's the

Spoiler

Bresha Ruins

part of the game, though.

 

*Looks at video*

Oh god damn it, I played this at Comic Con! How could it have taken this long to make this demo???

 

Square-Enix just though "Why make a new demo when we can just make people pay for the same one?"

Well....that's what I think anyway.
http://www.finalfantasy-fxn.net/ind...XIII-2-Battle-and-Scenario-Guide-Covers--1220
Ultimania covers.

 

:{D

KHV I just finished the demo!

It was a lot of fun and I am very much enjoying the Cinematic Actions. (Don't try and eat a sandwich when you are playing this game ._. )

The game play was nice. It was almost the same as XIII but had little differences that improved it.

The story during the demo is so vague that it was nice cause I didn't really understand what was happening except for the current boss.

The graphics are wonderful, it rained in game a lot, and I am pleased to see the way you interact with other characters has been gracefully put in.

I logged about and hour and a half into it. I went around and tried to do as much fighting and exploring as I could so as to get the most out of the demo.

I give the demo an A.


Needless to say I am really really really looking forward to the 31st.

 

Alright, I just played through the demo because, despite my naysaying, I was still willing to give Square the benefit of the doubt. I will start by saying that they have lost that benefit of the doubt through this completely underwhelming demo. This is a great example of how NOT to do a sequel.

Perhaps I should start with the positives:

The game is beautiful. Granted, this was expected as it is running on the FFXIII engine. There was some very minor framerate choppiness that I assume was caused by the (great looking) rain, but it is possible that I'm only noticing it because I'm used to seeing the PS3 version of FFXIII (played the 360 version of the demo)

I like Noel. He seems like an interesting character and not a shoe-horned and pointless addition to the universe like Paine (FFX-2) was. On the same track, I'm curious to see what the story is, especially surrounding Valhalla and what's going on with Lightning. If they can balance the good character development FFXIII had and make the story more event driven, it could have a pretty good storyline. More on this when I get to the negatives.

The Crystarium might actually allow for open ended character development. In FFXIII, it was an even more linear version of the Sphere Grid, but was advertised as open ended, just like the Sphere Grid. Both were more or less pointless. This is one thing that Square actually learned their lesson on.

The game has much better freedom than FFXIII. Hopefully it won't fall into the same trap that FFX-2 fell into and give too much freedom.

And of course, the negatives:

First, the minor ones: The music ranges from bad (the initial battle music against Atlas' arm) to utterly forgettable (the normal boss music), you know, just like FFXIII. I expect that this is just a bad sample of music since even the other Final Fantasies without Uematsu had good music (yes, even a significant portion of FFXIII's music).

Mog doesn't really add anything. She's clearly just fan service. Her actually saying "Kupo" is annoying (its supposed to be an onomatopoeia) and finding hidden chests does nothing more than make you waste time walking over to where she found one.

Next, the not so minor ones: Random battles. Did we REALLY need to go back to these? I get not having battles on the same field as map navigation, but random battles? Those were outdated over a decade ago when Final Fantasy X came out. At the very least, they make preeminent strikes reliable and they're easy to avoid, though that's a mixed blessing since your characters can't progress without combat.

The puzzles. The Cloister of Trials was the weakest part of FFX as they were boring and time consuming. Did we really need to revisit those kinds of puzzles? Granted, the puzzles in FFXIII-2 are considerably better than FFX's, but they just waste time and add nothing to the game.

And, finally, the big one: The Paradigm System. The only thing they improved about this piece of **** battle system is that you don't have to pause your attacks for several seconds to switch paradigms, otherwise it is identical. I get the idea of "don't fix what's not broken," but that doesn't apply when the subject in question is ****ing broken in the first place. It still plays itself, it still has the same basic system of switching between a defensive, offensive and balanced Paradigm as needed with little need of actual strategy and enemies still take too ****ing long to kill without staggering.

Oh, but what about the Cinematic Actions, you might say. The fact of the matter is that the Cinematic Actions are just quick time events and change a grand total of NOTHING about the battle system.

Apparently Square, for all their talk about fixing everything the fans had problems with, missed the biggest thing people had problems with in the first place. The game's linearity would have been much more forgivable if the battle system wasn't so ****ing boring. The better part of your game should not be able to play itself.

Like I said, I was willing to give them benefit of the doubt, but they've lost my sale here. I'll wait to see if Final Fantasy XV pulls an FFIX.

 

Monsters are in the demo.

Personally I'm really excited. I adored FFXIII's battle system and am already loving XIII-2's improvements on it. I'm really glad they've fixed the linearity (Both of the maps and the crystarium). I'm not crazy about random battles, but everything else is looking grand. Can't wait for this game.

 

I hate random battles...but I kinda like the one in XIII-2 cause its kinda a hybrid of the random battles and open field battles. Basically you can avoid some/most battle. So it is kind of neat.

But I am very excited for the less linear-ness of it. Although I totally understand why it was so linear.

 

There's a lot of possibilities. Like I said, I have FFXIII on the PS3 and, as the game was built on the PS3, I have to assume that I'm only noticing the slight choppiness because I'm not used to the 360 version.

I'm still trying to figure out why they didn't just hire Uematsu like they did for FFXIV.

That's my assumption based on the voice.

Its kind of a hybrid. The battles are random, but you don't get forced into the battle. The monsters pop up on the field and you have to come into contact with them before you get sent to the battle screen. While they're infinitely better than the traditional instant jump to the battle, the point still stands that we're past the point where random battles are acceptable.

One thing I forgot to mention is that the puzzles take you to a completely different screen (only time in the demo it went to a loading screen, as well), do a couple puzzles, then get sent back. They try to justify it by saying that you're "fixing the paradox," but it does little more than interrupt the game. However, it is possible that the puzzles are optional as the one in the demo was to activate a machine to make the boss easier.

There are and it didn't. The monsters simply act as your third party member.

I don't even mind the QTEs. I don't really think they're well implemented here (for well implemented ones, go play the Asura's Wrath demo), but they're not too terribly intrusive. In fact, I only mentioned them there because I was sure that some people would try to claim that they change the battle system somehow.

I am looking forward to it, but I fear it might end up as the next Duke Nukem Forever.

I might eventually pick it up used for less than $25 as I genuinely liked FFXIII's narrative and it seems that they learned their lesson after FFX-2 in terms of sequel storytelling, but I highly doubt that FFXIII-2 will be worth $60.