Final Fantasy XIII-2

 PC
Metascore
75

Generally favorable reviews - based on 6 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 6
  3. Negative: 0 out of 6
  1. PC Gamer
    Jan 23, 2015
    59
    A better game than XIII but with an intolerably bad story, this is a still-flawed sequel that clearly isn’t at its best on PC.

User Reviews

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User Score
6.6

Mixed or average reviews- based on 167 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 83 out of 167
  2. Mixed: 46 out of 167
  3. Negative: 38 out of 167
  1. 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 in    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 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    … Full Review »
  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 and    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 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.    … Full Review »
  3. jvmcnk
    Dec 18, 2014
    2
    They fu..ed this game with merging the auto and manual saves to a point of no return. Hate it. Rest is nice and worth playing if you tolerateThey fu..ed this game with merging the auto and manual saves to a point of no return. Hate it. Rest is nice and worth playing if you tolerate the auto-save system.… Full Review »
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