Final Fantasy XIII-2

 PC
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

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  1. scarfake
    Dec 19, 2015
    5
    game is improved. 13 was lineer but nice game. 13-2 is not lineer and you can choose your decision in dialogues. soundtrack is perfect. i like new bodhum. graphics and cutscenes is great. cutscene actions is really good but port is terrible. it is really bad port. you should play on ps3
  2. 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 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    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    … Expand
  3. SanctumRevel
    Dec 17, 2014
    7
    a saga of dreams the ff games have allways been the treasure of consoles for many years and now coming to pc is a long and difficult path as we have seen on ffxiii the previous one i bieleve they haven't really payed much attention to pc optimization just throw it out in the market now a slight improvement has been made in this one but it still needs fix or patches but you can enjoy it nonetheless
  4. dislexicpotato
    Jul 4, 2020
    5
    Final Fantasy XIII-2 is an incomprehensible mess, with a story that is very convoluted and the same mediocre FF XIII gameplay with annoyances being added such as quick time events and random encounters. The battles have been made ridiculously easy in this sequel too which makes the game boring and completely unsatisfying to play. It should be noted that the game has great art direction,Final Fantasy XIII-2 is an incomprehensible mess, with a story that is very convoluted and the same mediocre FF XIII gameplay with annoyances being added such as quick time events and random encounters. The battles have been made ridiculously easy in this sequel too which makes the game boring and completely unsatisfying to play. It should be noted that the game has great art direction, character designs and music like its predecessor and doesn't suffer from the 'hallway simulator' feeling that XIII had however the story is just so difficult to follow with gameplay that is so mediocre that it just feels like a chore to play nevermind the laughably bad PC port that has countless issues. I won't be playing Lightning Returns after this experience.… Expand
  5. cahan
    Jul 4, 2020
    5
    Final Fantasy XIII-2 is an incomprehensible mess, with a story that is very convoluted and the same mediocre FF XIII gameplay with annoyances being added such as quick time events and random encounters. The battles have been made ridiculously easy in this sequel too which makes the game boring and completely unsatisfying to play. It should be noted that the game has great art direction,Final Fantasy XIII-2 is an incomprehensible mess, with a story that is very convoluted and the same mediocre FF XIII gameplay with annoyances being added such as quick time events and random encounters. The battles have been made ridiculously easy in this sequel too which makes the game boring and completely unsatisfying to play. It should be noted that the game has great art direction, character designs and music like its predecessor and doesn't suffer from the 'hallway simulator' feeling that XIII had however the story is just so difficult to follow with gameplay that is so mediocre that it just feels like a chore to play nevermind the laughably bad PC port that has countless issues. I won't be playing Lightning Returns after this experience.… Expand
  6. jayman007
    Aug 6, 2015
    7
    This game turned out better then expected. After playing FFXIII on the xbox during it's initial release, I remember feeling underwhelmed and completed it for completion sake.

    When news came of XIII-2 I avoided it like the plague; the idea of more XIII with only 2 playable characters hardly felt like a compelling buy, especially since the lead this time around being Serah, who I found to    This game turned out better then expected. After playing FFXIII on the xbox during it's initial release, I remember feeling underwhelmed and completed it for completion sake.

    When news came of XIII-2 I avoided it like the plague; the idea of more XIII with only 2 playable characters hardly felt like a compelling buy, especially since the lead this time around being Serah, who I found to be a bland, generic princess archetype from the first game.

    I caved in eventually and bought the game when it was ported to pc, partially due to obligation and partially because it was a steam sale and the game was purchased on the cheap side. Months later, I finally decided to play it and the game was surprisingly good - not amazing mind you but definitely a solid attempt.

    The main leads are as bland and generic as I feared and the main villain is nothing special, however, what made this game shine for me is the time travelling backdrop. The game is at it's best when seeing the effects of time unravel, travelling to parallel worlds, and jumping hundreds of years into the future and seeing how all these timelines are linked to one another.

    Also, for the most part, cameos from the original cast of XIII didn't feel like they were out of place or shoehorned in and that they had an actual purpose in the grand scheme of XIII-2's story.

    Game play mechanics have been tightened and gone are the linear corridors that plagued the original.

    As a PC port, it ran ok for me, I was getting 30-60fps throughout the game however due to the large frame variance and stutter, this was very noticeable but not unplayable. That said, I do run a very beefy computer (i7-3930k, titan x playing on a resolution of 3440x1440).

    Overall, this game was a surprisingly good entry and has got me interested in the sequel lightning returns (when it comes on steam).    … Expand
  7. Nyakuya
    Oct 20, 2017
    6
    Una historia muy interesante empañada por un pesimo port. Utilizo medidores de consumo, mi procesador esta al 20%, mi placa de video al 60%, y el juego corre a 20 fps siendo que podria utilizar el resto de mis componentes para aumentar el rendimiento, pero no, porque está mal programado y ni teniendo una PC de la Nasa lográs que funcione bien.

    La historia del juego me gusta mucho, y eso    Una historia muy interesante empañada por un pesimo port. Utilizo medidores de consumo, mi procesador esta al 20%, mi placa de video al 60%, y el juego corre a 20 fps siendo que podria utilizar el resto de mis componentes para aumentar el rendimiento, pero no, porque está mal programado y ni teniendo una PC de la Nasa lográs que funcione bien.

    La historia del juego me gusta mucho, y eso de poder elegir que decir cada tanto lograr sumergirte mas en los dialogos, (aunque las opciones que elijes no tengan mucha importancia, si que aveces te harán reir, y si que te meten mas en las conversaciones).

    Otro punto negativo es que solo tienes 2 personajes en TODO el juego para utilizar, Serah y Noel. Listo, ninguno más. (La saga final fantasy se ha caraterizado por tener varios personajes jugables... Excepto en este caso que utilizas a los 2 mismos todo el rato).

    El combate, la progresion, y lo de utilizar mounstruos en tu equipo está genial... Pero es repetitivo debido a las pocas opciones que tienes, (ya que como dije arriba, solo hay 2 personajes jugables durante TODA la historia).

    Los mapas dejan de ser tubos alargados como en FF XIII (al fin), y esto es una mejora total ya que al anterior final fantasy ni siquiera lo terminé por repetitivo y cansino. Ahora tienes mapas con varios caminos concectados entre si, no lo suficientemente grandes como para perdertes y tener que revisar el mapa, pero si lo suficientemente "grandes" como para no tener que caminar todo recto y ya está.

    Estuve jugando al juego con un joystick, y esto me hizo dar cuenta de otro problema del cutre port que es. Cuando usaba el joystick, la interfaz seguia mostrando el teclado, y mostraba las teclas, pero no los botones del joystick. Esto hubiera sido menos molesto si este juego no tuviera quick time events, ya que debido a que me mostraba que botones del teclado pulsar en lugar de mostrarme los del joystick, se me complicaba muchisimo adivinar que boton era el que tenia que pulsar.

    Pros:
    - Buena Historia.
    - Buena inmersion.
    - Exploracion mejorada en comparacion con FF XIII. (No mas tubos en lugar de mapas, pero no mas mapas gigantes en los que te pierdes. Mezcla perfecta)

    Contra:
    - Pésimo port que empaña la jugabilidad por completo.
    - Pocos personajes y opciones que vuelven a los combates muy repetitivos.
    - Te permite usar joystick pero sigue mostrando el teclado en todo momento en lugar de los botones del joystick, (convinado a los quick time events, es horripilante).    … Expand
  8. HRChan
    Aug 1, 2020
    7
    This didn't really hooked me in like FFXIII did but still fun nonetheless, the story just didn't do it to me. It felt like this whole part is pointless ngl. Sorry not sorry.
  9. dotrem
    Feb 12, 2022
    5
    This game is all way worse than FFXIII. Especialy a story. If in previous game we have a solid lineiar storyline, but there we have shattered something. This don't encourage you to play to know how it's ends.

    Gameplay is pretty same as FFXIII, but with a little twist. If you remember that original Half-Life mod what you buy monsters, upgrade them and after they fight for you. So twist    This game is all way worse than FFXIII. Especialy a story. If in previous game we have a solid lineiar storyline, but there we have shattered something. This don't encourage you to play to know how it's ends.

    Gameplay is pretty same as FFXIII, but with a little twist. If you remember that original Half-Life mod what you buy monsters, upgrade them and after they fight for you. So twist here is: you tame monster, grind for n hours to collect all needed components to upgrade it, and after you get a commpation that can be stronger that your main character. That is 50% of game play. You grind. So interesting.

    Other things just a same as in FFXIII. Nothing new. Yeah there are time trevels, but who cares how you were delivered into next location.
    I can't say that the game is unplayable bad, but can't say anything good about it. If you want to beat every FF game - play it and forget, if not don't play.    … Expand
  10. NN010
    Feb 16, 2023
    7
    It's better than XIII! With a somehow more straightforward story and an emotional core about the value of life & determining your own destiny XIII-2's highs are much higher than XIII's. Combine that with the game giving you access to XIII's combat system's full potential from the get-go & great as always music, XIII-2 is worth playing if you managed to get through XIII. Hell, skipping XIIIIt's better than XIII! With a somehow more straightforward story and an emotional core about the value of life & determining your own destiny XIII-2's highs are much higher than XIII's. Combine that with the game giving you access to XIII's combat system's full potential from the get-go & great as always music, XIII-2 is worth playing if you managed to get through XIII. Hell, skipping XIII & jumping straight to XIII-2 wouldn't be the worst idea given the story does sideline most of the first game's main cast & focuses on new characters (and Serah, but she was a crystal for most of XIII anyway).

    Now I'll have to see if Lightning Returns keeps up this momentum! Especially given that cliffhanger.

    As for the issues with the PC port, just install FF13Fix & a Large Address Aware patch, and you'll be fine.

    Ratings:

    Creative score (story, gameplay, voice acting, art direction): 7.5/10

    Technical score (graphics, audio, performance)): 6/10 (pretty good graphics for its day, but the PC port is terrible)

    Business Practices score: 6.5/10 (not terrible, but there was a lot of DLC for this game, including some bizarre Assassin’s Creed & Mass Effect crossover costumes)

    Overall score (my thoughts on a game’s overall quality, doesn’t consider the business practices unless they are detrimental to the experience): 7/10    … Expand
  11. imalynxcat
    Aug 4, 2023
    6
    optimizasyon sorunlarından oynanmayacak seviyede ama bir şekilde oynattırıyor bana kendisini.
  12. Tintler
    Jun 25, 2023
    6
    İlk oyunda olduğu gibi port kötü olarak hatırlıyorum ve topluluk patchi olmadan oynanmıyordu diye hatırlıyorum. Hikaye olarak güzel bir değişiklik yapıyordu ve zaman arasında zıplama mekaniği güzeldi.

Critic Reviews

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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. GameStar
    Feb 1, 2015
    80
    It's not perfect, but fans of JRPGs will like it if the played the first part, too.
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  2. 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.
    Read full review
  3. Vandal
    Dec 22, 2014
    80
    FF XIII-2 is just one of those versions without relevant upgrades, but good enough if you missed it on the original platforms. Probably, the best episode of the Lightning trilogy.
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