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I know Backfired already posted this at the XIII thread, but since it's a new game it deserves its own thread

Final Fantasy XIII-2 Announced
Square confirms RPG sequel.



First Look: Final Fantasy XIII-2
We've got a logo and a screenshot, and that's all you're going to get for the next two days.




I know many hated FFXIII, but I loved it!

I'm excited to see this sequel




EDIT: Trailer @ Destructoid

http://www.destructoid.com/final-fantasy-xiii-2-gets-trailer-screenshot-bit-of-art-191944.phtml

I hope it's as good as X-2 Gais! kirbyhappy

Is it coming out for Xbox 360? If it is then I'll buy it.

Turns out that it is.

I will probably buy it, but...that screenshot has worries popping up in my mind that they're going to go the same route they did with FFX-2. That armor is just so...un-Lightning-like.

(also, her hair is pink, not purple Or...never mind, that's just a really awkward sentence.)

It's crazy that it's being released so soon. It's usually takes years for the game to come out from when we first of it, but it's scheduled to be released in Japan this year!!?

I don't know what to think. In one hand I liked Lightning, caccoon and the mythology the game offered. In the other I didn't really like the whole linear thing although it didn't stop me from playing the hell out of the game. The fact it is been made by the same team worries me becase we might probably get the whole linear thing once again. Although the same team working on it means the canon won't be affected much(I hope) It been released so soon probably means we are going to get a lot of re-used backgrounds etc. Ugh I dunno I'll be waiting for it because well its a FF. Lets just hope it turns out better than X-2 did.

Since they are in Pulse now and Cocoon was pretty much destroyed, I expect the game to be less linear... or at least not at obvious, since all JRPGs are linear anyways, grinding and sidequests mask that fact.

I'm also surprised it'll be released this year, they can reuse many assets, but no so much backgrounds, and as big as cocoon is, is not nearly as much as the other locales used in XIII.

I also wonder how they're gonna port this over to 360. The Linearity help tremendously in the multiple disc thing so to not feel like an issue...


Funny this is one coming before Versus-XIII

Originally posted by S_D_J

Funny this is one coming before Versus-XIII

I know, that crazy, since we first heard of versus like 3-4 years ago and we first heard of FFXIII-2 yesterday.

I'm not sure how much unused content from the first one they could use as I'd imagine this game would take place entirely on Pulse, unless they cut a ton of Pulse content.

So, turns out it's got no pop songs. I didn't like the constant use of pop songs in Final Fantasy XIII, just ruined the game a bit for me in places. Also, it looks like they've analyised the critism of the first part in order to improve it.

So in general yeah I am kind of looking forward to it. It sounds better than the original XIII.

Originally posted by TheAuraAngel
I hope it's as good as X-2 Gais! kirbyhappy

As in, even worse than it's predecessor? Which was less than stellar to begin with.

Less than stellar? X is amazing! Guess it's a matter of opinion though.

FFX less than stellar?

Ugh gonna say I am going to disagree with you and leave it at that.

OMG SQUEEEEE more lightning. The best FF character ever!! Seriously i <3 her and i would want to get my sausage into her sandwich and shoot my load on the tv when i play the game.

Anybody here read the supplementary story material out of curiosity?

They seem to be bridging the gap between the two games and it would seem that Lightning has been placed on some kind of metaphysical journey by the Goddess Etro immediately following the aftermath of the first game's events that seems to be far more closely connected to the deep mythology of the Fabula Nova Crystallis and which might explain what seems to be her metamorphosis in the Final Fantasy XIII-2 trailer. The protagonists of the first game all seem to be parting ways now and building their lives for the future (Hope with his father, Snow with Serah, Sazh with Dajh), and it's strongly hinted that they won't be joining her on her quest to free Fang and Vanille from the crystal pillar connecting Cocoon and Pulse together, though Serah seems to respond to some otherwordly force at the end of the story and could quite possibly join her.

There's also an awesome story centered around Buniberzei (The Maker) and a really long prequel/interquel that I have yet to read.

Out of all the Final Fantasy mythologies I think I'd say Fabula Nova Crystallis has now probably become the one I find the most intruiging. Really looking forward to the sequel, and the other two games in development.

hu_EmiZfLHM

KbB1NcS2iss

Looks like Lightning is taking back seat for a new protagonist. And a very uninspired one at best. Looks like a cross between Tidus and Sora.


edit: Lightning is playable but not the center protagonist it seems.

A cross between Tidus and Sora? gsdmlgklsdfmgkr

That said, I didn't care for Lightning anyway.

Originally posted by Phanteros
hu_EmiZfLHM

KbB1NcS2iss

Looks like Lightning is taking back seat for a new protagonist. And a very uninspired one at best. Looks like a cross between Tidus and Sora.


edit: Lightning is playable but not the center protagonist it seems.

don't care about the new character... but I still wanna play this as soon as is out

where the f* is Snow?

Inorite?

Needs moar Snow or Sazh, with both being preferable.

Originally posted by Zack Fair
FFX less than stellar?

Ugh gonna say I am going to disagree with you and leave it at that.

My main point was that X-2 is shit.

Nah. It has the best gameplay of any Final Fantasy game. And Paine was awesome.

It was garbage.

Paine is admittedly hot. But who cares about her character?

It really wasn't. X-2 gets a lot of unwarrented hate. I really don't get it to tell the truth. Sure, it wasn't by any stretch a 'great' game, but it was at least a good one.

Originally posted by Nephthys
Nah. It has the best gameplay of any Final Fantasy game. And Paine was awesome.

The Story was Sh*t and it sh@t on FFX ending






that said: It has one of the best gameplay of any FF to date, FFXII was better but ... those gambits

The gameplay in FFX-2 was great, but everything else was lame.

I've lost all interest in this game.

12's gameplay is not better. I say that as a man playing through 12 (almost finished.... 90 hours in. http://i.somethingawful.com/forumsystem/emoticons/emot-suicide.gif ) as we speak. It is pretty boring and good to zone out to. The few bits it does get interesting is pretty good, but thats it really. Also FVCK some of the gameplay designs. Like the rare drops and steals needed to get the best weapons or the looooow chances they'll spawn in the chests (1/1000 chance for the second Zodiac Spear. Fvck you.), meaning you have to run backwards and forwards between zones to respawn chests or monsters. FVCK whoever designed those parts. Also Zodiac Spear bullshit as well as the other dick moves Square put in that game.


Personally I quite liked the story of X-2. It and teh whole game were very much laid back for the most part. It was an enjoyable romp. And the bits that were serious (Paines backstory, 'Tidus' running around, Vegnagun) was handled pretty well.

Plus the backrub scene. You know the one. http://i.somethingawful.com/forumsystem/emoticons/emot-colbert.gif

I loved the gameplay in FFXII. it was much more dinamic, and you had control of any character at any time... but the gambits made it feel like autoplay but still

I didn't care that much about the loot and certainly don't care about a single weapon you don't need to finish the entire game (and any monster available)

Originally posted by Nephthys
Nah. It has the best gameplay of any Final Fantasy game. And Paine was awesome.

Uh, no. It was based all around a cop-out excuse to lessen the record-low party member count. That's in addition ****-ifying characters that were already uninteresting enough (yet the best thing to come out of the game was Rikku's new get-up), introducing the 21st century to how corny, generic Jpop-abundant mainstream sci-fi anime atmosphere to JRPG's, and handling turn-based fighting the worst way it can be handled: lessening the actual turn-based aspects, consequently squandering any sense of strategy, the only thing turn-based combat in general has going for it, all for the sake of adding a faster-pace to an inherently slow-paced gameplay system. And Paine can pretty much be tapered down to a more-goth-less-***** Lightning.

How so?



How so?



How does that reflect the gameplay? And I liked the music.



It doesn't take away your ability to strategise at all. You just need to do it faster. The system is a lot more dynamic and faster-paced as you said. This doesn't lessen it, it improves it. It adds a sense of urgency and detracts from the slowness of turn based gameplay. I don't care if its 'inherently slow-paced', making it faster and more energetic is a good thing. It gets you more invested in action.



Paine never says anything as dumb as 'WE R PETS!' http://i.somethingawful.com/forumsystem/emoticons/emot-downs.gif She actually has all the best lines in the game. Plus her dress-spheres are cooler than the other twos.

Yeah, at times it feels like I'm just pushing the thumb stick from encounter to encounter. Some fights are good though, when they're really challenging.

Challenging as in hard though, not as in 'Ha I throw up a shield that makes me invincible for 5 minutes, fvck you!' The Gilgamesh fight was awesome. Definately a highlight. Except when he pulls that shield bullshit again.



You don't (though its much, much harder), but its still a dick move on their part. Grinding should stay in MMO's.

Originally posted by Nephthys
It really wasn't. X-2 gets a lot of unwarrented hate. I really don't get it to tell the truth. Sure, it wasn't by any stretch a 'great' game, but it was at least a good one. *unwarranted

Originally posted by Phanteros
Looks like a cross between Tidus and Sora.

He kinda does.

I see more Zidane in him personally. Maybe that's just the blue colors.

Its the baggy pants.

His pants remind me of Terra.

Actually, never mind. He just reminds me of Terra.

Originally posted by Nephthys
How so?



How so?



How does that reflect the gameplay? And I liked the music.



It doesn't take away your ability to strategise at all. You just need to do it faster. The system is a lot more dynamic and faster-paced as you said. This doesn't lessen it, it improves it. It adds a sense of urgency and detracts from the slowness of turn based gameplay. I don't care if its 'inherently slow-paced', making it faster and more energetic is a good thing. It gets you more invested in action.

-Trying to add in a number of different styles shared across each character in which the differences can be tapered into maybe three REAL distinct categories is a cop-out that just emphasizes even further the minimal characters. That's how.

-Have you even LOOKED at the characters ffs? Or do you actually think Yuna going from a conservative symbol of hope amongst the people to a Jpop singing celebritant was warranted? The whole Dressphere gimmick just proves my point even further on a gameplay standpoint.

-Not my point. My point on that aspect is that it's the worst atmosphere any Final Fantasy ever had, and the only good thing that can be said of it is that it fit in with the rest of the game. But then there's the part of the game being shit to factor in...

-Yes it does. If they wanted to make a system that requires you to act in fast while also maintaining a sense of strategy, they may as well have made it real-time altogether instead of just adding that kind of senseibility to the turn-based combat. Turn-based combat wasn't made as a system to be dynamic in the sense of fast-paced battles, because that goes against it's entire sense of prioritizing strategy. Trying to make something strategy-based into something skill-based doesn't work when the combat system in question was never made for that--and that's exactly the case here.

Reminds me more of Yuna than of any of the other FF heroines.

Originally posted by BloodRawEngine

-Have you even LOOKED at the characters ffs? Or do you actually think Yuna going from a conservative symbol of hope amongst the people to a Jpop singing celebritant was warranted? The whole Dressphere gimmick just proves my point even further on a gameplay standpoint.

FFX-2 was a terrible game, but if you're going to complain about it, at least get your complaints right. Yuna didn't actually do the Songstress thing herself - that was LeBlanc impersonating her the first time, and the second time, her being pretty much possessed by Lenne, both because of the dresspheres. Yuna was actually trying to stay pretty low-key and out of the limelight.

You mean the dressphere thing? How is that a cop-out? Its just a way to return to the Job system.

Unless that isn't what you mean. I'm not too sure from your wording to be honest.



That wasn't Yuna.

And yes. The entire story is about trying to recover and have fun after the trauma of Sin and to a more Yuna-centric extent, the loss of Tidus.



The Dressphere system was just a way to return to the Job-based gameplay a la FF-5. Also as seen half-way down this page it was excellently implimented into FFX's continuity and world.



Worst in your opinion. You have to remember that you are not the target audience for this game. Japan is. And Japan actually kinda likes J-pop.



That wouldn't have really worked with the system at all. You can't give orders to all 3 characters at once unless you add in a system like Baldur's Gate or something. And we can see how they did make it real-time in FF12 and look at how that turned out.



'Prioritizing strategy'? I fail to see how they've eliminated strategy at all. At worst you could say they've lessened your ability to formulate complex strategies by trading your time to plan for a faster pace. Is that inherently bad? No. Its a different take on the formula, one I thinks an excellent blend of real-time and turn-based. Which is what it is. It isn't strictly turn-based anymore, so your argument is moot.

Simply put they've gone from Chess to Speed Chess.

Edit: Plus if you ever need the time to think you can just, y'know, pause the game.



Well you're just plain wrong. It does work. I've met many poeple who agree it does work. From a technical viewpoint it works. Its a good system.






Whats your take on this? You're smart about these things.

http://www.platformnation.com/2011/09/15/final-fantasy-xiii-2-release-date/

December 15th for Japan, January 31st for the US, and February 2nd for Europe.

Guess I know what I'm getting for my birthday!

Originally posted by Peach
http://www.platformnation.com/2011/09/15/final-fantasy-xiii-2-release-date/

December 15th for Japan, January 31st for the US, and February 2nd for Europe.

Guess I know what I'm getting for my birthday!

Looking forward to February

Question: Why is everyone refering to Lightning as the protagonist of FFXIII?

She was in it as much as any other of the characters... You didn't even have to have her in your party....

Is it just becasue she is on the front of the box?

Ugh...Can't say I'm looking forward to more SnowXSarah romance.

I've became to accept Mistwalker games as the new Final Fantasy.

Lost Odyssey is FFXIII... as far as i'm concerned.

Amen.

lol.

Makes me want to play them now. Shame we haven't seen more games from mistwalker.

Originally posted by Peach
Well, considering that the founder of Mistwalker is the original FF creator...yeah. They're pretty much FF in all but name.

(my friends and I declared that that MMO never existed and Lost Odyssey was Final Fantasy XI, so yeah Blue Dragon was also great and highly underrated) It's a great tragedy that it wasn't called Final Fantasy tbh. More people might have played it if it was.

It's right up there in a list of my favourite RPGs...


Bue Dragon was good.... but it was a tad too easy... and there were waaaaay too many "Nothings",

Nothings?

Originally posted by Zack Fair
Nothings? You can check pretty much everything in the game... usually contain shitty items.... or "nothing".

A guy rewards you for how many "nothings" you have found.



Btw... I haven't looked for them all. (I'm sad... but not that sad)

So

Charice sings the game's english song entitled "New World"

Wym-ob2ux7g


H581nxuTDA0
http://itunes.apple.com/jp/album/new-world-single/id463990513

for what I hear is the exact same melody, same song, just in english...

Nice, I love Charice's voice

Demo out now for PS3 and 360


Damn it! I still haven't been able to fix my PS3


guess I'm downloding this one for xbox

So...



Nobody downloaded the Demo yet?


I liked it. Definitely different from the "linear" XIII, but the awesome Battle mechanics still intact.
The Cristarium is flexible enough to let you choose your own path, there's a sense of "towns" with all the NPC going around, and I like the sort-of Pokemon vibe is got going on with the Monsters


On a side note: the game looks great on 360, is still at a lower resolution than the PS3 version (the hair gives it away) but, imho, it looks tons better than XIII did on the 360, specially now that realtime cut-scenes are now render in game (as it should have been from the beginning in the original) instead of pre-rendered pixelated PS3 cut-scenes on the 360 version of XIII.

Apparantly this game is actually pretty good. Increased non-linearity, fixs many problems, new features. Writing this one off because of the first game might be a mistake.

I still can't wait until Spoony rips it a new ******* though.

I don't care about the new character becoz I always love to see lightning

Caius is a badass.