Okay Geek Farm
Square: Final Fantasy XIII-2 releasing January next year in North America
Ricardo Trejo
I know, I know… Final Fantasy XIII was a mess of a game that tried to fit in so much graphical who-ha that it ultimately forgot to put in anything else that made it even resemble any other FF title previous. No more towns or shops, the weapon system was far from coherent, and the story was a blended cocktail of unnecessary language and dialogue. — So why do we even care about FF XIII-2? Well, it’s because I actually enjoyed the first game.
Sure, it lacked any real identity but its gameplay through me in for a loop that had me coming for more. The Paradigm Shift system which required you to go into battle with a set team and a set limited amount of possibilties through a definite number of jobs and abilities was a stroke of genius in my opinion. Changing jobs on the fly between turns is an exhillerating feeling, but one that only pays off after countless retries on how to properly execute this system. Fast-paced and intuitive, it truly succeeded in creating a true RPG experience despite it being limited only to the gameplay aspect of the game.
There’s a lot to be fixed in a game like FF XIII, and so that’s why I’m happy to hear we’ll be getting a North American release of the game in January of 2012.
I can only hope that the game has progressed to a point where not only is the gameplay enjoyable but so is the rest of the game, though I already know that the story is more Squenix fluff and Japanese shounen / moe fodder. Screens haven’t shown us much besides a few new characters and that the battle system remains unchanged, but what I look forward to seeing is an unlinear world where I can choose where to traverse and what I want to do. Mini-games should abound, and a whole stock of side-characters should fill me with wonder and whimsy only as a Final Fantasy title can.
