Final Fantasy XIII-2 (Spoiler Thread)

[AvecAloes]

I watched those scenes and I have a theory: What if those aren't the real Yuel? Is not like her to be so creepy and cruel, for what I've seen in the game and, the only time she actually gave me the shivers was when she talked to Serah directly for the last time in the Void Beyond, and that wasn't Yeul at all, but an illusion created by Caius.

What if Caius was just f*cking up Lightning's mind to weaken her and kick her ass?

And one question, if anyone could please answer me: For what I watched, I understand that, when one dies within the Void Beyond or Valhalla, he or she doesn't actually die, since life and death don't have any meaning, but falls into a dream where his/her heart's desire come true (whatever they might be). And said illusion never ends until the dreamer realizes that it's a dream and rejects it, waking up again. Am I wrong with this?

That's an interesting theory, actually, one that I hadn't considered. I admit that I was rather surprised by the sound of Yeul's voice and by the nature of the things she was saying, but I didn't consider the possibility that Caius could have been behind it. :ponders:

As for your question - I'm not sure...anyone have an opinion or info on that?

 

[Mwynn]

I personally think that the Chaos has taken over Yeul's original souland because she showed off malign auras in both recent DLCs, she might be a potential antagonist in a sequel-- if there will ever be one.

 

[Alex Strife]

Yeul, an antagonist?

 

[Arianna]

The fal'Cie better have something to do with XIII-3.

I'm a bitch that way.

 

[Madame Mayor]

The fal'Cie better have something to do with XIII-3.

I'm a bitch that way.

This mythology in 13-2 just felt so detached from 13 that I had to remind myself it was the same world.

 

[Arianna]

This mythology in 13-2 just felt so detached from 13 that I had to remind myself it was the same world.

Absolutely. And, as cruel as it may sound, Etro doesn't count.

 

[ForceStealer]

XIII had the better story, XIII-2 told it's story better. XIII had a more realized world, XIII-2 had more realized characters. XIII-2 improved upon every gameplay aspect.

If we could mash these games together we'd have a pretty solid product, I think.

 

[Arianna]

XIII had the better story, XIII-2 told it's story better. XIII had a more realized world, XIII-2 had more realized characters. XIII-2 improved upon every gameplay aspect. ... If we could mash these games together we'd have a pretty solid product, I think.

I agree about the gameplay. In my opinion, that is the greatest thing about XIII-2.

I do not agree about telling the story better. But, I do have to agree that XIII's story could have been handled better. Personally, XIII-2 really didn't have too much of a story; very weak at best.

I also agree that XIII's world was better. I liked the Archylte Steppe as shown in XIII versus XIII-2, same with the Yassaf Maschif.

Possibly a combination would be good; and, there is no reason why the fal'Cie were taken out of XIII-2.

Again, Etro doesn't count. Neither does Proto-fal'Cie Adam (poor Eden!!!) or Fenrir (who was an interesting addition.)

 

[Splintered]

XIII had the better story, XIII-2 told it's story better. XIII had a more realized world, XIII-2 had more realized characters. XIII-2 improved upon every gameplay aspect.

If we could mash these games together we'd have a pretty solid product, I think.

I agree that XIII-2 told the story better- one of the major problems with XIII is that it entirely relied on cutscenes and datalog to present story and little other game mechanics. There were some clever things, like different battle quotes in the story depending on the relationships during the plot, or the eidolon battles. But little else. It also tripped up when trying to explain a rather interesting and maybe complex world in XIII, they poorly described different aspects and terminology.

XIII-2's story was much easier to grasp and part of it was much better story telling. And yeah- towns, talking to people around towns is the best way for world building because you can grab casual references to culture and popular opinion. I think the only problem is that some of the plot points were so out there that a lot of people had a hard time understanding. Like the whole change the future, change the past- and NPCs explaining that the entire timeline changes according to that resolution- I thought it was pretty self explanatory but a lot of people needed to ask for explanations afterwards.

The other problem is that while I absolutely love the dialogue tree, they utilized it strangely sometimes. Like vital aspects of story would be missed if you chose one after the other. People STILL get worked up about Hope being in charge of a government 400 years ago or wonder why they need a whole new Cocoon, both of which are explained in the same dialogue option that will be missed if you ask the wrong question. When it comes to explaining plot- don't make it easy miss-able.

That said, datalog was more interesting and fun to get and read, story got stupid but never unexplainable, and they used more than cutscenes to say something. So definitely better story telling.


But I completely disagree with better realized characters. I felt that XIII's main characters were better by a mile, if nothing because they actually took risks on them. They were introduced the worst of who they were, broke them down, and them made them better. Serah and Noel have conflict, but I felt that they didn't really change and it was kind of safe. Which is actually better for XIII-2's story and if you are going to only have two characters, it's best to make them likable. But I don't think they are better realized at all.

Unless you are talking about the support characters and the NPCs. Then yeah, definitely.

 

[Arianna]

New stuff from Anoop, Famitsu!

http://andriasang.com/con1pj/toriyama_gdc/

http://www.famitsu.com/news/201206/28017122.html

With pictures!!!

Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2 director Motomu Toriyama gave a presentation at the Game Developers Conference yesterday. No, not that Game Developers Conference!
Toriyama spoke about Final Fantasy XIII and its sequel at the Game Developers Conference in Taipei, which was held on the 26th and 27th. Famitsu.com filed a full report, packed with pics of the presentation and the many slides showing top secret XIII-2 design docs.

When browsing the Famitsu.com pics, you'll want to look for one that says "Final Fantasy XIII Season 2." This was apparently what the game was referred to during the concept phases.

Toriyama also spoke about the use of download content in FFXIII-2. This is the first time Square Enix has placed such effort into download content for a numbered FF game. The plan to offer DLC for the game was in place at the start of development, revealed Toriyama. During the end of the main XIII-2's development, the staff started work on DLC in parallel. Toriyama believes that DLC will be a required feature for future games.

Toriyama's presentation ended not with Final Fantasy XIII or XIII-2, but with Final Fantasy VII. During a Q&A session, an attendee asked when a Final Fantasy VII remake will be released. Toriyama replied by mentioning the recent quote from Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada saying that Square Enix won't make an FFVII remake until they've made a game that surpasses FFVII. He joked, "As a creator, there's a bit in there that I can't agree with."

 

[Blade]

Surpasses? Well that depends on who you ask. FFVII's combat system has already been surpassed....plot? I dunno. Graphics? Easily...though not AC quality per se, still good.

I think the next FF to even TRY and surpass VII should be Versus-XIII....that's my thoughts...of course the critics on this website would disagree, but that's the hopeful one I'm looking forward to.

 

[Fangu]

I finally did Omega (chuckle) and Lightning & Amodar last night, got the Lightning crystal on my 6th or 7th try, and I have to say - having Light back in your party made this game a million times better Too bad monsters don't show up in the cutscenes, but I still feel a longing to go back and fight every boss with Lightning in my party.

I also realized I haven't maxxed out Noel and Serah, plus I haven't infused a single monster. Guess I felt done with the game when I was, eh, done.

I have to do the other DLC's too at some point.

 

[Ryushikaze]

Likewise, I did the Requiem DLC and got that lightning in my party... and for comparison, please note that I hadn't fight Caius yet in the main plot. So, yeah, I have a beast of a COM in party, and when I get a few levels higher up, I'll grab the other Lightning DLC and have her as my Rav and my Com.

 

[Fangu]

Okay so I had NOK 25 left on my PS3 account because the smallest amount you can pay each time is NOK 40. The Snow DLC was NOK 25 so I bought it.

PAAIIINNNNNNNNNNNN!!
I think I was sorta underleveled. I haven't finished Serah and Noel's crystarium yet... but I did manage to kill him in the end. Took me a good use of saboteuring, Bunkerbeast and non-goddess Lightning, plus 37 (!) Phoenix Downs. No stars, took me a delightful 34 minutes.

And... I GOT HIS CRYSTAL.

Needless to say I was kinda overjoyed by that; I spent at least 4 hours on that fight. So I kinda felt I deserved it

The cutscene was sorta bleh but I expected as much. I still ship it. Snerah, that is. Or whatever the name of that ship is.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Congrats, and good work. =)

 

[Ryushikaze]

I'm gonna do the same for the Coliseum Lightning shortly. Mid Chapter 4, so who knows how well this will work, but Lightning is definitely a key part of my strategy for beating Lightning.

 

[Splintered]

Okay so I had NOK 25 left on my PS3 account because the smallest amount you can pay each time is NOK 40. The Snow DLC was NOK 25 so I bought it.

PAAIIINNNNNNNNNNNN!!
I think I was sorta underleveled. I haven't finished Serah and Noel's crystarium yet... but I did manage to kill him in the end. Took me a good use of saboteuring, Bunkerbeast and non-goddess Lightning, plus 37 (!) Phoenix Downs. No stars, took me a delightful 34 minutes.

And... I GOT HIS CRYSTAL.

Needless to say I was kinda overjoyed by that; I spent at least 4 hours on that fight. So I kinda felt I deserved it

The cutscene was sorta bleh but I expected as much. I still ship it. Snerah, that is. Or whatever the name of that ship is.

I never heard of anyone beating Snow without being fully leveled or having no monster infusion so hell yeah you deserved that. I don't think I would have the stomach for that.

 

[Fangu]

I never heard of anyone beating Snow without being fully leveled or having no monster infusion so hell yeah you deserved that. I don't think I would have the stomach for that.

Woo! Thanks. I have to say thought, when I say "not fully leveled", what I mean is that both Serah and Noel still have two paradigms that aren't finished. They both have one paradigm at lvl 90 something and one at 70 something.

The fight was easy enough once I got into a rhythm. You can barely see Snow's HP going down, but the way I did it was definitely a marathon, not a sprint.

Spoiler: What I did

Leader: Serah

RAV/COM/RAV (Relentless Assault)
SAB/SAB/RAV (Assassination)
SEN/SAB/RAV (Matador)
COM/COM/COM (Cerberus)
MED/RAV/SEN (Entourage)
MED/MED/SEN (Combat Clinic)

Monsters:
Lightning lvl 13, no infusions (RAV)
Bunkerbeast somewhat leveled, no infusions (SEN)
Reaver lvl 56 or something, no infusions (COM)


Start out by using Assassination. Use Serah as SAB manually to stick Imperil, Deshell and Deprotect (hereby known as "debuff").

Then it's all routine.
Use Assasination to debuff him. Switch to Relentless to do some damage and build his chain. After some moments he'll do "Time to go", where he buffs himself. Switch to Assasination to take off his buffs and debuff. He'll now hopefully start beating up on Lightning, after your SEN has taunted him right before "Time to chill" (if this is not your first run). If he picks anyone else than Lightning, let him kill him or her and revive by using Phoenix Down. Switch to Combat Clinic or Entourage (depending on how much healing is needed) to have your SEN provoke his attention, and you'll be back at "Time to chill".

After he's killed Lightning, switch to Combat Clinic (or Entourage, depending on the damage), revive Lightning with a Phoenix Down, let Serah and Noel heal and wait for SEN to provoke Snow. He's now back to "Time to chill".

The point is to build his stagger bar to Stagger, and try to time it so he has no buffs on, just our 3 debuffs, and launch him so he doesn't have a chance to land and buff himself. (If he does, Assasination to take away his buffs, debuff and launch him quickly.) Switch to Cerberus when his chain is about 7-800% and hack away. Right after his stagger ends it can be kinda random who he picks, so if he's already picked your COM which has a good deal of HP and Snow goes to 200%, it can be a good idea to use Matador to provoke him and let him kill Serah instead. Go to Combat Clinic, revive and let Bunkerbeast provoke. If he's picked Noel or Serah, go straight to Combat Clinic and wait for Time to chill.

Repeat. Until boredom. And then he'll hopefully die.

Oh, and have some Wound Potions ready. Use them when you have a breather, if you need to. With this technique you shouldn't really need them as Snow does his would damage when his energy is building. I also prefer Potions over healing a few times - a faster strategy could be to stack up on Potions, equip Grimoire hats and use Potions while using COM/RAV/SEN instead of, say, Entourage.

PS, it's a good idea to not let Snow stay long at 200%, especially after he's lost half his HP. He'll do Soveregin Fist much sooner when his HP is low (It looked like after 300% to me.)

 

[Lex]

All this XIII-2 chat makes me want to get all the DLC and play it

Why couldn't you people have done this in the 3 month of nothing gap in my schedule between May-September? I am outraged.

 

[Fangu]

Kay so I finally got that fragment you get from collecting all the maps. Took me long enough.

Then I went and checked how many monsters I'm missing from my Bestiary.

Spoiler: Oh my.

Albino Lobo - Bresha Ruins 5AF
Ceratoraptor - Sunleth Waterscape 300AF
Tabasco Toad - New Bodhum 3AF
Amanojaku - Bresha Ruins 5AF
Notsugo - Bresha Ruins 5AF
Shaguma - Vile Peaks 10AF
Samovira - Archylte Steppe ???AF - Cloudy, South-East
Haguma - Vile Peaks 10AF
Triffid - Archylte Steppe ???AF
Navidon - Archylte Steppe ???AF
Calautidon - Sunleth Waterscape 300AF
Exoray - New Bodhum 3AF
Vouivre - Archylte Steppe ???AF - Sunny, maybe Cloud? East
Kanna Kamuy - Yaschas Massif 110AF
Deathgaze - Yaschas Massif 100AF
Illuyankes - Sunleth Waterscape 400AF
Tezcatlipoca - Academia 500AF
Long Gui - Archylte Steppe ???AF - Sunny,East
Flangonzola - Archylte Steppe ???AF - Sunny or Rain, East
Narasimha - Yaschas Massif 01X
Sahagin Prince - Sunleth Waterscape 300AF
Cactuar - Archylte Steppe ???AF - Sunny, East
Giant Cactuar - Let Cactuar live, and he'll grow into it eventually
Cactuaroni - Cactuaroni - Cloudy, East
Flowering Cactuar - Flowering Cactuar - Sunny, East
Metal Gigantuar - Archylte Steppe ???AF - Sunny/Rain? Rare Encounter
Tonberry - Bresha Ruins 300AF
Don Tonberry - Bresha Ruins 100AF
White Chocobo - Oerba 300AF
Black Chocobo - Vile Peaks 10AF
Vespid - Vile Peaks 200AF
Thermadon - Augusta Tower 200AF
Garuda - Vile Peaks 200AF
Immortal - Archylte Steppe ???AF
Centurion Blade - Archylte Steppe ???AF
Cloudburst - Archylte Steppe ???AF - Cloudy, South-east
Tempest - Bresha Ruins 100AF
Debris - Archylte Steppe ???AF - Cloudy, South-east
Wladislaus - Archylte Steppe ???AF - Stormy, South East Area
Yomi - Archylte Steppe ???AF - Stormy, South-east platform
Raspatil - Oerba 400AF
Proto Fal'Cie Adam - Augusta Tower 200AF
Right Manipulator - Augusta Tower 200AF
Left Manipulator - Augusta Tower 200AF

When am I gonna find time to find and kill them all?! I am so in awe of you guys who 1 month after the game were released were like "ooo I finally got my 160 fragments." Do you people even have lives?????! XD

Just kidding. What I mean to say is, this is a lot of work. But it's nice to pick up a game half a year after I worked on it. The DLC's are nice too. I still have hours and hours of entertainment ahead of me.

 

[Splintered]

Have you tried Valfodr? You fight him 5 times at different levels, and he's actually an insanely good ravenger apparently, although his level 99 is one of the harder battles ranging around Gilgamesh difficulty. He also drops one time only monsters like Odin/Gold Chocobo/Pichu

Do you people even have lives?????! XD

Nope, that's why I live vicariously through videogames NO REGRETS

 

[Lex]

I didn't really find getting all fragments that challenging. The only thing that bothered me was winning the 7,777 coins from the slot machine. That took patience.

Or rather, it took me generating about 20,000 coins from chocobo racing and just letting it auto-roll while I slept, but it was the last one I got.

Actually, now that I'm remembering - another annoying one is answering all the questions in Academia. That was really really irritating, because you got the random ones popping up every now and again, like "Left or Right" and you have to guess. Grrrr, those annoyed me greatly.

 

[Fangu]

Have you tried Valfodr? You fight him 5 times at different levels, and he's actually an insanely good ravenger apparently

I only fought him once (I think?), right after Snow. Where can I encounter him elsewhere?

Also I think it would be too hard to replace Lightning

 

[Splintered]

You just to fight him in the Colosseum again, he'll level up everytime you fight him automatically.

I didn't really find getting all fragments that challenging. The only thing that bothered me was winning the 7,777 coins from the slot machine. That took patience.

Or rather, it took me generating about 20,000 coins from chocobo racing and just letting it auto-roll while I slept, but it was the last one I got.

Actually, now that I'm remembering - another annoying one is answering all the questions in Academia. That was really really irritating, because you got the random ones popping up every now and again, like "Left or Right" and you have to guess. Grrrr, those annoyed me greatly.

I hate attempting to get fragments based of luck. Slots was helluvannoying, I just rubber banded my controller, made lunch, came back STILL NO, went to clean my house, oops ran out of coins, restarted the game, then cleaned my house some more. Worst idea ever.

The questions bordered from occasionally amusing, to the most trying test of my patience ever. I remember when I first saw left/right and I screamed at my computer screen. Then I pulled up gamefaqs and I still had questions I couldn't answer.

 

[Fangu]

Spoiler: Conspiracy time

Just had this thought. Noel and Caius kinda look alike, don't they. Caius is taller ofc (isn't he? Or is it just the heels?) As you get older your face turns more square/ less round, and your lips get thinner. Just look at them, they could be the same person. Same eyebrows, same nose, same ears. Caius looks like a Noel gone over to the dark side. (Caius is, ofc, much hotter. Ehrm.)

Now this couldn't be plausible plotwise, could it. But it leads to some psychological fun thoughts. Noel always wanted to protect Yeul.

Impulse thoughts. Fun, but in the end, kinda lame. If you look at pics like

, his jaw looks much squarer than in the pic in this post.

Edit: Also, I haven't read anything from the Ultimanas, but someone at tumblr pointed out a few interesting things from an interview:

1- The story is an endless loop, created mostly by Lightning and Caius, as they travel time and battle, endlessly. Lightning somehow breaks this time loop by transforming into crystal (?).
2- Caius wants to end the world because the many possible futures shorten Yeul’s lifespan. By ending the world there will be only one future and Yeul would be free from her suffering.
3- There are no toilets in Valhalla (i am not joking this was actually there).
4- The Snow-DLC was supposed to have a racing mini-game. You would take the Shiva Bike (as seen in FF13) for a spin through the Archylte Steppe. You would also fight monsters along the track. (WHY WAS THIS NOT DONE)
5- There was supposed to be Hope DLC, of which they even finished the interface. It would have been sort of a adventure game using live-trigger events, situated in Augusta Tower The goal would have been to stop Alyssa from killing Hope. (WHY WAS THIS NOT DONE)
6- In the Lightning DLC she has turned to crystal, but she does that in order to become a vessel for Serah’s existence. In the Secret Ending (after the staff credits), her resurrection is hinted at.

Spoiler: Spoiler tag just in case someone who hasn't finished the game wanders in

So Serah's really not dead??

Also, pout for not getting those minigames DLC's :/
Also, NoelxYuel is apparently canon.