Final Fantasy XIII was a highly divisive game when it released last year. I found myself enjoying its finer points, but also finding fault in some of its design leading me to write a rather mixed review. With a sequel on the way, the opportunity for a more consistent experience has been opened.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 takes place three years after the first. Lightning has disappeared and Serah (her previously unplayable little sister) is out to find her with the help of a new character named Noel. The demo wasn’t heavy on exposition, but there was enough talk of “points in time” and “anomalies between dimensions” to pique my interest.

Almost immediately, I found myself in a boss battle. The hand of a giant, partially invisible creature named Atlas attacked while I got acquainted with the battle system. At first glance, the battles make use of a system quite similar to the one that turned convention on its head in the previous game. Focus is once again taken off of micromanaging individual actions and instead placed on when and how you switch job classes via paradigm shifts. Need a refresher on this system? Just watch my video explanation.

The first new change came in the form of “Cinematic Action” segments, which is really just a fancy way of saying quick time events. With a few button presses directed by on-screen prompts, I was able to deliver some extra damage to the boss. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t really add much to the experience. Thankfully, that wasn’t the only change.

My third party slot was reserved for captured monsters. Unlike the human characters, I could swap out monsters mid-battle with a paradigm shift. In fact, each monster seemed to correspond to a specific job class. My Ravager (Black Mage) was a Flan, my Commando (Warrior) a Behemoth, and my Sentinel (Defensive Class) was one of those scaly lizards whose name escapes me. I could definitely see monster collecting becoming an addicting feature.

Monster characters also have a “synchronize” bar similar to a limit break. When it’s full, you can unleash a powerful “Feral Attack”. This also involves light use of quick time events, but it feels less intrusive than the Cinematic Action segments and more similar to some of the special attacks found in older titles like Final Fantasy X.

I couldn’t help but notice that I recognized all these monsters, though. In fact, aside from the bosses, I seemed to recognize all the enemy monsters as well despite traveling through a new environment. I expected reused assets to some extent, but this seemed a bit much. Hopefully, the full game will have more new beasts to fight and tame.

Getting into battles feels like a hybrid of XIII and old-school random encounters. You won’t see monsters in the distance. Instead, monsters appear around you along with the Mog Clock. The amount of time you take to engage these monsters determines whether you receive bonuses or penalties at the start of battle.

Speaking of hybrids, the environment I explored was basically a town with dungeon paths jutting off of it. The center had lots of people walking around that I could speak with while the edges had paths leading to monster infested interior sections. It already felt a bit more branched than the maps found in XIII, but not as open as Gran Pulse. The map also had a few invisible treasure chests that had to be revealed with the help of your moogle buddy.

Eventually, I was presented with a dialogue option and a choice of how to proceed. The dialogue was more about who to hear advice from than what to actually do as the important decision was whether or not to walk up to a boss or try to weaken it first by locating its control unit found further in the dungeon. I decided on the latter as it seemed like a safe bet.

Near the control unit, I was presented with a puzzle section. I had to walk along a series of squares to pick up crystals while never touching the same square twice. It was easy enough, but the tutorial implied there would be other types of puzzles (though none were shown in the demo). It was a mildly interesting diversion along the lines of Final Fantasy X‘s Cloister of Trials.

Finally, I took on Atlas whose full body had now materialized. I assume the demo takes place very early in the game because, until this point, I hardly had to pay attention to battles at all. Atlas thankfully provided a little more challenge, forcing me to actually make use of the Medic class, but still went down rather fast, bringing the demo to a close.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 has potential. Collecting monsters excites my inner Pokémaniac and the prospect of towns, a bit of choice on how to proceed, and what appeared to be a more open stage map seemed promising. But the real test will be if it can avoid the painfully slow pacing of the first game.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 will release on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in January 2012.

Tags: Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XIII-2, hands-on impressions, JRPG, PAX 2011, preview, ps3, rpg, Square Enix, Xbox 360

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 31st, 2011 at 5:00 am and is filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.