Final Fantasy XIII-2 Demo Impressions: Too Little, Too Late? (Geek Revolt)

GR's DeShaun Zollicoffer writes:

FFXIII gets a lot of hate. Sure, it had some issues, but none of them made it a horrible game—in my opinion it was above average. Anyways, here are a few of my knee-jerk reactions to the newly released Final Fantasy XIII-2 demo.

[BigDollarZoe954]

I thought the demo was real good and the game will be real good IMO

[welle]

totally agreed:D

[Ranma1]

This game will totally disappoint, even Japanese gamers hate it

proof: http://n4g.com/news/919715/...

[BigDollarZoe954]

@Ranma1 This game will totally disappoint you and others not everyone i guess Japanese gamers have there opinion and i have mine

[MariaHelFutura]

The japanese media are not the be all end all.

[GraveLord]

LOL user reviews.

I'm guessing American gamers hate Modern Warfare 3 right? It has like a 3/10 on metacritic so it must be true!

[radphil]

@Ranma1

You linked to one of a personal blog.....

[richierich]

I really enjoyed the demo I hope the full game is as good

[Godmars290]

But where FFXIII was suppose to be a buddy fugitive movie with a bunch of strangers thrown together who then discover that the world's endangered and only they can save it, XIII-2 is about a couple of kids who only remain friends as they try to pick up the pieces left in the prior movie. With the help of their magical pal of course.

Said it once, say it again: XIII-2 is fan service. The chocobo boob lady who's somehow in two adjacent areas at the same time says as much.

[Optical_Matrix]

Wow, hate hate hate as per usual then Godmars. But who am I judge eh? Just an opinion, which is fair enough. Can't hate on your for that at all. Now, in all seriousness it's good but, the graphics seem to have taken a slight hit in FFXIII and I don't have a CLUE what it may be. The hair looks grainy and it's just not as smooth or vibrant as FFXIII was. I dunno, it just seems to be showing through that this was a rush job cash in.

However, with that said it was enjoyable and seems to be more of an RPG than FFXIII. End of the day, until Square Enix fix the FF brand my expectations of the series have been lowered. As such I'm just going to go into FFXIII-2 and enjoy it for the decent RPG it will be. If it turns out to be average, it'll keep me going until The Last Story comes out at the end of February at least XD

[ThanatosDMC]

No, im on the same boat. I had high expectations for FFXIII but it was a disappointment and wasnt a Final Fantasy game. It was just another mediocre RPG. I'm hoping Versus13 wont disappoint.

[Godmars290]

What you're seeing in terms of graphics, especially if you're a PS3 owner, is what standardization of XIII would have looked like if it had been multiplatform from the beginning.

And yeah, I am hating on the game. But I can't see how you can't call it fan service, that you and other take offense of it being called such, when the game apparently only have one merchant who is in every area that you go to.

[Hicken]

She's a little off-kilter, and seems to be some sort of time-related anomaly, like much of what's going on in the game.

Fanservice is interesting: it can be completely irrelevant, literally only being a service to the fans; it can be integral to the story, being a nod to the fans wishes in some way or another; or it can be a bit of both, bearing both relevance to the story in some way, while also- in this case- giving certain fans a nice piece of eye candy.

The Chocobo chick seems to be the last of these, as her ability to be in multiple places- and times- seemingly at once mesh with the paradoxes prevalent in the current world, yet her costume is obviously not practical and seems to be designed primarily to show off her body. At the same time, her personality makes such an outfit more believable- if you stop and give it some thought- and eccentric individuals frequently wear impractical clothing.

[silkrevolver]

I could see myself really enjoying the full game. More than the first, at least... which I still thought was pretty decent, IMO.
Just pre-ordered.

[Slade]

It felt like a real square console rpg.

Dont get me wrong they rule on all other platforms

[Trenta27]

It was just blah. The story seems all over the place, not that the first one was great either. The graphics look better and so do the environments, but still.

[Vynzent]

Well that's what Square is throwing out there these days... you either like it or you hate it.

Too bad, it used to be you liked it or you loved it.

Hm... what does that say?

[Tanir]

type zero is amazing as was crisis core and birth by sleep and from the looks of it Versus is a mind blower.

you can't say Now a days whhen for the HD consooles square only made 2 games (ff13 and ff13-2)

other games were published

[Vynzent]

@Tanir
Crisis Core is indeed amazing, but you know why? Because it's a branch off FF7... you know, back when their games weren't "good," they were EPIC.

[GamingTruth]

the graphics look a bit better than 13s and theres lots more going on onscreen and more camera movement the graphics have taken a leap

[Baba1906]

i really enjoyed the demo a lot. i love the improvements. makes it much better. and i didnt hate 13 as much as a lot of people seem too.

[Trenta27]

Seems like you are one of few people around here that actually liked it. Congrats!

[Tdmd]

Out of the things that I hated the most about the demo was the ramdom encounters. Will that be the rule for the entire game? For it seems such an backstep, imo!

[radphil]

"Out of the things that I hated the most about the demo was the ramdom encounters."

It's...been in every FF game except for 11 and 12.

[Tdmd]

Well, clunky controls were part of every Resident Evil ever released. Will that justify Resident Evil 6 if it keeps the clunky controls? It's called evolution, and random encounters are way outdated mechanics, imo.
Anyway, it's late night now and that was the first example that popped in my head. Sorry if it sucked.

[radphil]

Well the thing is random encounters is used in games that people don't even make note to. Like Skyrim and the dragons.