XIII-2, Better than XIII

So I keep seeing XIII-2 at the game stop for like... $14. I got to pick out two games today and I was thinking about getting this one but...

I looked in the booklet and I saw the ATB bar that looked like XIII and the Auto-Battle was still there. And I JUST finished XIII and I didn't enjoy it too much and after playing it all month, just seeing that Auto-Battle soured me to it.

The time travel aspect interests me. I dunno, is it worth it to pick this up down the line? Is it better than XIII or worse?

It's definitely an improvement on XIII that's for sure. The battle system isn't radically different at all, so if you weren't a fan of that in XIII then you won't like it in XIII-2. I did like the idea of capturing monsters and having them in your party. The general gameplay is a lot more open and free than it was on XIII though.

Capturing monsters does make setting up your party a bit more fun, I think. The battle system is largely unchanged, but the crystarium is a bit different. It is more of a straight line rather than trying to give you an illusion of giving you some choice in the last one, but you don't have the arbitrary cap to your leveling as you play like in XIII. Battling feels less like a chore in this game.

The game isn't one long hallway. You have more open environments. Noel and Caius are both pretty interesting new characters, and I think Serah is a good enough character despite not being the most interesting. The story is a mixed bag. I like it for various reasons, but it doesn't make that much sense. The narrative in XIII is generally better in a lot of people's minds, but they are about even in my mind. You just don't get the wide variety in your cast in XIII-2 and the story seems less focused. That's my thinking.

For some reason, the monster thing just doesn't appeal to me. I used to catch them in Tactics but I never used them so I eventually stopped.

So the game itself is less-linear, but the abilities are more linear? What interests me about the time travel is seeing areas you see in XIII but at different points in time. Seems like that would be fun.

That is pretty cool. I like seeing how some of the places change over time. I guess I wouldn't call the Crystarium stuff more linear exactly. It was linear in XIII as well. It is a straight line essentially rather than giving you two directions that lead to essentially the same thing. The cool thing in XIII-2 is that (unless I'm remembering wrong), you have all of the roles open to you from the beginning pretty much, so you have more options on what to level up. The only level cap you get is level 99 for each role, which you won't be reaching until the end of the game. There's also certain nodes in the Crystarium which will give more stat points than others, so you will have to be smart about when to level up which role if you are wanting to try to max certain stats. The game is pretty easy outside of the DLC battles though, so it won't make too big a difference if you don't really think about that with your leveling. I didn't worry about it.

I wasn't big on the monster capturing before getting the game, but it is quite fun. Different monsters have different stats, different roles, and different potentials for growth. You can also have one monster absorb another one to absorb passive abilities, which is nice. I know you'd probably prefer to have a large cast to work with, but the monster stuff is handled quite well.

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Originally Posted by shion

For some reason, the monster thing just doesn't appeal to me. I used to catch them in Tactics but I never used them so I eventually stopped.

So the game itself is less-linear, but the abilities are more linear? What interests me about the time travel is seeing areas you see in XIII but at different points in time. Seems like that would be fun.

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It is far, far above the system Tactics used. You get a fairly high degree of customization out of it. To start with, there's just "which monster" (of which there are a huge variety). But, by endgame, you have a lot of freedom to customize on abilities and build them up as a full teammate. I was surprised just how strong the feature was.

Abilities are more linear for each job, but you have a lot greater freedom in picking jobs, with the artificial cap no longer there, and all jobs immediately unlocked. The fact that certain jobs give you different bonuses for the large spheres also mean that there is a degree of customization and min/maxing, even within the limited system.

I want to say hell yes, it's way better than the original. But the game have me huge Chrono Trigger vibes and flashbacks.

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Originally Posted by shion

The time travel aspect interests me. I dunno, is it worth it to pick this up down the line? Is it better than XIII or worse?

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that has really anoyed me in 1 way :S
i just want to take characters with me! :D

im not that much a fan of that time travel stuff, its what got me stuck :l

apearently i had to back track to get a certain thing.. but i have no idea who/what/where/when :l
i dont like that much of an open style where you can go back to the other time area's. it just confuses me and gets me lost :P

The story is poop, but the gameplay is better. If you didn't enjoy the combat of FF13, you probably won't think too highly of the combat in FF13-2

>>> XIII-2 is worse than XIII..:luca:

nah

I'm playing it for the first time from two days ago and it is already 10 times better than FFXIII ever was to me. Better on every level. I'd recommend it for the price.

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Originally Posted by Mirage

nah

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>>> Whatever floats your boat man, enjoy a entire game with a sad 2 character party, and washed up XIII maps/locations :roll2..:luca:

Already did. Liked it well enough to platinum, which is more than I can say about FF13.