Final Fantasy XIII-2 Review

Final Fantasy XIII  funneled players down a hallway for more than 20 hours while it told a provocative story of defying the gods. No matter how you felt about its battle system, you still had precious little to explore.

When word of a sequel spread, the fear of that linearity persisted. But it seems the developers at Square-Enix wanted nothing more than to prove the gaming populace wrong with the same level of defiance Lightning and her friends showed the gods. Final Fantasy XIII-2 showers you with choice and branching paths. The battle system functions faster and includes several new features like tamable monster allies. But with these improvements, the story sheds much of its focus. Characters act without clear motivation, and the only driving force is to find Lightning. Without question, it's a better game, but Final Fantasy XIII-2 makes costly sacrifices to its narrative in order to achieve mechanical advancements.
 Much like Final Fantasy X-2, this sequel approaches storytelling with a lighter heart. It still leaves plenty of room to get serious, but much of this emotional weight bears down towards the finale. In the beginning, Lightning somehow finds herself guarding the throne of Valhalla, a realm of chaos unbound by time. She fights a dark-haired man named Caius and -- in the midst of battle -- meets a stranger from a future age named Noel. She tasks Noel with traveling through time to find her sister and bring her to Valhalla, as Lightning can't leave the realm unguarded.

You acquire full control of Serah, Noel, and the systems that power them an hour or two after the opening sequence; a stark contrast to the slow build of the original. As soon as the two heroes leap into the flow of time, Final Fantasy XIII-2's open nature shines through.

Environments no longer follow a single path. With webs of rooms to explore and treasure chests hidden off the map, Final Fantasy XIII-2 encourages you to take your time and look around. You can access these environments, which dot the timeline, in more than one order. While a general flow from one place to another moves the plot along, the freedom to sidetrack greatly enhances the explorative flavor.

More impressively, you can unlock the ability to close time gates and start the area from scratch, correcting mistakes or just trying something new. This functions as a literal "reset button" mid-game. This sense of freedom, even if you choose to ignore it, helps Final Fantasy XIII-2 feel more like a traditional RPG where discovery dominates the experience.