Final Fantasy XIII

[Smues]

FFXIII-2 collector's edition announced for America. $80.

Plunking down the extra $20 dollars gets you a fancy sleeve illustrated by the legendary Yoshitaka Amano, along with a high-end concept art book

meh, guess I won't be spending the extra

and a four-disc official soundtrack set.

oh shit! Sold!

There's also some store specific pre-order bonuses.

Of course, there's pre-order incentives that vary depending on where you reserve the game. Do it at GameStop, you'll get an alternate costume for Serah. An Amazon pre-order gets you an exclusive boss battle against an enemy baddie called "Omega," who can joins your party later. Plunk down your cash at Best Buy and get the hardcover Final Fantasy XIII – Episode I novella, which bridges together the stories of XIII and XIII-2. Anyone interested in picking any of these up should note that they're exclusive to North America. Because Japan's probably getting something cooler.

I prefer to get games from Amazon, and of those three bonuses the bonus boss battle appeals to me the most anyway, so I'll go with that.

 

[Mik]

I'm thinking Amazon too.

I seem to be in the minority who loved XIII and this game brings back in Moogles and an open world. I'm sold completely.

 

[Smues]

tffxiii2nutshell

 

[Mik]

Holy shit that looks amazing.

I like the recruiting of enemies and the improved crystarium. Plus, the open world maps and side quests from the get-go... wow. Very excited for this.

 

[Smues]

It's like the voiceover guy had a list of complaints (a long list) they got from FFXIII and he was addressing how they were fixed one by one.

 

[Broward83]

tffxiii2nutshell

God. Fucking. Dammit. I don't want to crack and buy this one like I did 13...

 

[Mik]

Character video. Updated Snow looks pretty good. Updated Hope looks like even more of a joke.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 Characters

 

[Conspiracy_Victim]

Xbox 360 players will get a special bow for Serah. Guess they're really trying to make up for the slightly inferior graphics.

 

[Smues]

Xbox 360 players will get a special bow for Serah. Guess they're really trying to make up for the slightly inferior graphics.

And it costs a dollar! Which makes me think that the PS3 version will get its own console specific pointless DLC as well.

 

[Conspiracy_Victim]

Xbox 360 players will get a special bow for Serah. Guess they're really trying to make up for the slightly inferior graphics.

And it costs a dollar! Which makes me think that the PS3 version will get its own console specific pointless DLC as well.

To get it from the start it's a buck. Otherwise you can buy it in-game at the start of Act 2 I think they (meaning IGN) said.

 

[Mik]

Demo's out today. I was only able to play a little bit but all the new stuff is in it.

Boss battle with cinematic action to start, followed by a town with a merchant, then a dungeon... in the dungeon you get to use enemies in your paradigms. The demo is basically them saying, look we listened.

 

[Mik]

I think everyone who had complaints with XIII should play the demo.

I made it through the whole thing and I think it answered most if not all of the complaints people had. I was dragging my ass on Pre-ordering but I did as soon as I finished.

I went with Amazon - new playable enemy/character in Omega and $10 credit sold me.

 

[Smues]

They added a ten dollar credit to it? Sweet, they weren't offering that when I Pre-ordered it. Very excited for it to come out.

 

[Sabre]

So... it was impossible to create towns and NPCs for the player to interact with in next gen consoles back in 2010. Two years later we get a fuck you we lied?

Whatever the case, the demo was sex.

 

[FLAM]

I tried the demo at a bad time. I was up for 20 hours the day before, and started playing it on about 4 or 5 hours of sleep. Just couldn't focus at all, but that first boss fight was pretty cool. I liked XIII a lot and I'm sure this one will be better in many ways. I just don't know if I have the time for it. I've had Skyrim since Christmas and am only about 10-15 hours in.

 

[vivisectvi]

Do I need to play XIII to get what's going on in XIII-2? I could just read spoilers from the first game, but I guess I'm more or less wondering if it'd be better to "experience" it..

 

[Mik]

Apparently the "codex" (or whatever this game calls the in menu history) has all of the info.

 

[vivisectvi]

That works. I usually am all for "experiencing" it, but from what I've read about the first game, I'm not so sure I want to put myself through that.

 

[Smues]

They added a ten dollar credit to it? Sweet, they weren't offering that when I Pre-ordered it. Very excited for it to come out.

Turns out the ten dollar credits doesn't apply to the collector's edition. Fuckers. Oh well, I still want that soundtrack so I'll stick with it. Though I might end up regretting that if the chocobo theme is any indication (cringe).

 

[Mik]

This is pretty fun. Looks like you can get every possible ending without restarting the game as you can re-do stages in the Historia Crux and influence time.

Should add some hours to that 30 hour clock.

 

[vivisectvi]

Mik, out of curiosity, did Squeenix include a Japanese language option w/subtitles?

 

[Mik]

Not sure - I didn't look. I can check when I get home.

 

[vivisectvi]

Thanks!

 

[Mik]

I couldn't find a way to change it, so I'm guessing no.

Game is a little weird, but fun. A lot of recycled from 13, combined with a disjointed story are the bad. But the good is that I still love the combat and I'm having fun playing so that's probably most important.

 

[Mik]

Anybody else playing this? I downloaded the DLC that came out today to fight Lightning in the Coliseum and recruit her to your party... got wrecked. Same with Omega. I'm just not leveled nearly high enough yet and I'm 14 hours in.

Glad I have some challenges waiting for me.

 

[Smues]

I got my copy Saturday and have about 10 hours into it I think. Keeping track of what the fuck is going on is difficult due to the time travel, but I'm enjoying it. The monster system reminds me of Tales of Symphonia 2 a lot, except it actually works here and is fun. Omega destroyed me when I tried him, no point in trying again for a longgggg time.

How much is the Lightning DLC? I'll probably buy that when I get home.

 

[Mik]

It's only 240 points... so what's that? $2?

 

[Smues]

$3, I can deal with that. And if that's the going rate for future DLC characters that's not bad, though I will say specifically in Lightning's case she should have been included with the game. It's fucking Lightning, she's involved in the story, and she was all over the marketing for the game. Hell, she WAS the marketing for the game. She shouldn't have been DLC. Now give me Cloud Strife or someone from a different Final Fantasy game (as I've heard rumors that we'll see some DLC from other FF games) then hell yeah that's completely acceptable DLC.

 

[Haws Bah Gawd]

I'm only about 2 hours in and I'm enjoying it so far. As with XIII, I have to keep reminding myself that repeatedly mashing X doesn't make the characters attack or the ATB gauge will up any faster

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

I watched a friend play FFXIII-2 last week while another gave advice... never before in my life have I fully felt like I'm 30 and the video game business has passed me by. I had no clue what was going on. Looked like fun though.