Back in 2009, Square Enix released a movie called Final Fantasy XIII. Oh wait, did I say movie? What I meant to say was “Interactive Movie RPG”. An inspired term coined by Final Fantasy producer Yoshinori Kitase, who decided it was time to strip away the engaging role-playing experience that popularized the series and replace it with Call of Duty-inspired action (their words, not mine) and enough melodramatic cutscenes to steal Hideo Kojima’s soul. The thirteenth installment was very much a Final Fantasy in name only and as you can imagine one of the most controversial titles of the series to date. So naturally Square Enix thought it was a good idea to give it a sequel.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 opens up with a stunning cinematic battle between Lightning, the protagonist of the first game, and a mysterious challenger known as Caius Ballad – and if you ever wondered what Sephiroth would look like if he joined Tokio Hotel, here’s your answer. Of course, at this point, I have no idea of the backstory behind this earth-shattering event. Admittedly, the Final Fantasy series is no stranger to dropping the player in media res but be prepared to wait ten hours before the game finally decides to throw you a bone.
After that little tech demo, we then cut to Lightning’s younger sister, Serah, who you will remember spent most of FFXIII imitating an ice sculpture. It’s three years on from events of the first game. Lightning is nowhere to be found and Serah is the only one who believes her sister is still alive, while everyone else doesn’t seem to know …or care, for that matter. All of a sudden, inter-dimensional monsters and time distortions are wreaking havoc and Serah’s only hope lies in a Hammer pants-wearing Marty McFly by the name of Noel Kreiss – a traveler from a post-apocalyptic future and the other half of Final Fantasy XIII-2′s dynamic duo. Having encountered Lightning on his travels, Noel understands that by fixing the timeline he can save his own future from impending doom and reunite Serah with her sister along the way. Thus is the plot to Final Fantasy XIII-2.
I’ve never much cared for time-travel fiction. Don’t get me wrong, it can be a well-written genre, provided it follows a tight set of rules and understands that suspension of disbelief can only go so far. More often than not it relies on the concept as a cop-out for lazy writing. Final Fantasy XIII-2 is no exception to the rule, using the ‘paradox’ schtick to handwave any gaping plot hole or deus ex machina that takes place. It doesn’t end there, as FFXIII-2 is plagued with further narrative problems. Whereas FFXIII was an obtuse tale that left the player to consult cliffnotes to figure out what the hell was going on, the sequel goes to the other end of the spectrum, bogging down the plot with clumsy, awkward exposition for almost every detail. The greatest irony being that the more the game tells you, the less sense it all makes.
Thankfully, most of the characters who made FFXIII a lesson in torture are downplayed second time around and relegated to cameo status. Newcomer Noel’s mature and down-to-earth attitude is a welcome break from the brooding stereotype, and Serah is likeable enough, when she isn’t being a random airhead for the sake of plot convenience. The only problem is that in the absence of a strong supporting cast, the plot hangs its hat squarely on these two leads and neither of them are compelling enough to carry it. This only leads to a lack of dramatic payoff later on. And the less said about Mog, the better.
Time to get down to the nitty gritty of the gameplay. Almost straight away you get the impression the boys at Square-Enix sat down and went through a checklist of everything the ungrateful gaijin hated about the original. One of the biggest gripes with FFXIII was its painfully linear structure. Players spent the best part of the game confined to a series of narrow hallways with breathtaking scenery you couldn’t immerse yourself in, and when it did eventually open up at the 20 hour mark, it was too little too late. FFXIII-2 attempts to rectify this by breaking the game into a series of open-ended ‘time periods’ which you can level select in the Historia Crux screen. The name of the game is to solve the various ‘Paradoxes’ of each world and gather ‘Wild Artefacts’ that unlock gates to new locations in time. You can even reset worlds and attempt them again to retry a previous boss with your upgraded party or explore the dialogue wheel (though, most of the options are inherently pointless).
...once you got to the third chapter 
SE plz