Final Fantasy XIII-2 - Standard Edition (Xbox 360)

Final Fantasy has a huge fanbase and is criticized left, right and center when new outings are released - I think that alot of fans are after a perfect combination of FF7, along with elements of the other (this is a personal assessment). This game, sadly, doesn't provide that but does continue the story from th fantastic FF13 - which I thoroughly enjoyed.The RPG elements are still evident and leveling is alot of fun (Whats an RPG without leveling!) as you make your way across the Historia Crux to visit different areas at different times of history - leading to alot of different enemies, secrets and evil big bosses. This game expands on the previous installment as the group follow the evil villain - Caius - as he tries to basically destroy the world.The game continues with the Paradigm system which in my opinion is simple and easy to use, but also makes the game difficult - shifting paradigms at the right time can be a life-saving or death-inducing decision. The characters build up through the ranks and absorb new skills. This game also has an interesting twist in that you introduce a monster to your party, and they ca also be leveled and built up to be a bad ass. These monsters are monsters you fight and then capture; they all have different abilities and styles that can help in a battle. The two main characters - Serah and Noel - also meet the characters from FF13 on their adventures - though these characters only join you momentarily or for a limited time, the game is still fun and its fun to see these characters across different timelines.The graphics (as expected from Final Fantasy) are amazing and colourful - you can see and feel the japanese influence in the game. This game received mixed reviews on release, due to the enormity of the Final Fantasy fanbase, and whilst alot of fans don't like it, I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it. IT may not be everyones cup of tea, but you never know until you try, right?

I have played many of Square Enix's games especially the Final Fantasy series, all since Final Fantasy 7 (except the online versions) and generally love them all. This one is a great sequel to it's predecessor, that said, my opinion is that this game is so much better than Final Fantasy 13 in many ways, the story is great and really draws you into it and just makes you want to keep playing to find out how it progresses, whilst I felt that FF13 was so very lacking.I was happy to see all the characters from FF13 make an appearance in this game, even if only for a short period of time. I find that the game play itself is a lot better than the one before it as on this one you have the choice to go where you wish instead of the never-go-back style of FF13, however it is much shorter than it's predecessor - I clocked it at a little over 20 hours - but still much more enjoyable. I was glad they reintroduced gil (game money) reward for battles as getting large amounts of money needed on FF13 was (in my opinion) incredibly difficult, while on this you could get a large amount from just going through the game levels and not having to go through 100's of battles to earn a small amount. The game itself - I found - was very easy, even on normal mode, you didn't have to spend vast amounts of time killing everything you see to get past any of the bosses, you 'levelled up' very quickly by just going through the game and doing the occasional side quest, the real difficulty lies after you complete the game to get the original ending. I'll try not to spoil anything for anyone, but after you complete the game you have the chance to redo all boss battles using something called 'paradox scope' and this basically puts the game on super,super hard mode, as I generally like to call it, but by doing so you can unlock more interesting things - i.e levels/weapons/endings - that are unavailable without doing so.My opinon is that you could play this game without having to play the first to understand what is going on, as I don't think there were to many references to the first that you wouldn't understand without having played FF13, so you could play this as a stand alone game, but I would recommend playing FF13 beforehand to fully know the back story and why things happened the way they did.

The game builds on the first FF13 in almost every way but I understand it is not for everyone, but it's certainly been for me! The combat is more diverse due to the monster system, allowing one of many monsters to replace the 3rd person in your party. While you can only control one of two humanoids as a result of this; it allows for much greater diversity and a further RPG element (beyond regular FF fair) almost akin to Pokemon.Gone are the long narrow corridors for hours on end as in the 1st, whilst you are confined to one 'time/world' at any particular time, you can almost always come and go as you please and there is more than enough variety in landscape to keep the geography fresh.The graphics are even better than in the former, slightly. The cutscenes are the best on a console and the in-play graphics arent half bad either. Coupled with brilliant voice-acting, the characters feel human which is important for a game that is massively story led. Dont like an intricate story, plenty of chatter and further details? Maybe this game isn't for you.Negatives? In more confined areas the battle initiation system can be very tedious. You may be forced to fight enemies that simply waste your time, or you'd rather have avoided at that time (though you will gain XP). At times enemies may spawn too regularly than you'd rather, without spoilers, I thought this in both the 'tower' and 'night city' locals.The battle system can be very simple in instances also. This tends to be the case when you are too over-powered for an area and tactical strategy changes are replaced by continuous pressing of the 'a' button.If you didn't like the 1st, I doubt you'll like the 2nd instalment of XIII, it isn't too much of a change to convert any non-believers in the latest direction of the series. But if you liked the first, you'll love the second. It's a fantastic mixture of story and gameplay.