GAMES 11: Final Fantasy XIII-2 Hands-On
September 29th, 2011 by Maitham
It was great seeing Square Enix having a presence at GAMES 11. They have a lot of work to do to wash off the bad aftertaste they left us with the flaw of Final Fantasy XIII. We were lucky enough to get behind closed doors of this demo.
The demo of Final Fantasy XIII-2 takes place 2 hours into the game. You start off with Serah, Lightening’s younger sister, and Noel jumping out of a time portal. Tagging along the party is a Mogul that can transform into Serah’s weapon or be as a guide. We only got very little information about the story in the demo. The group encounters a huge monster called Atlas, the main enemy in the game. Through out the demo, you will be fighting Atlas in multiple battles and each time you are trying to make as much damage as possible so that he’ll be weaker in the end battle. For example, there is a sequence at the end of a fight, where multiple flying ships attack Atlas. The amount of damage they make depends on how rapidly you press a button. This brings us to the improved battle system. The game uses a polished version of the Paradigm Shift system. They have introduced cinematic action sequences that takes place in-battle and they put the player through quick time events. Another addition to the battle system is the allies. Every enemy you fight can be summoned in the next battle.
The demo continues with Serah, Noel and Mogul exploring the world. Yes, we can confirm that the game is not linear! There are many paths you can take and hidden secrets you can discover with the help of Mogul. You will find Spheres in these hidden places that earns you skill points. This encourages the player to explore the world of Gran Pulse. There is also an improved Mog Clock system that can make you take enemies by surprise and give you an advantage if you attack them fast. Heck, you can even ignore enemies and not fight them.
Going back to the demo, after meeting a person in the game, you are told about a “device” that you can activate to weaken Atlas. The interesting part is, it’s an option. You will get a choice, whether you want to fight Atlas or go look for the device before that. This adds more diversity to the game and makes it less linear. In this demo, we were shown what happens if you go for the device. After a lot of exploring, we finally reached the device and we were attacked by a red shadowy figure that took us to another dimension. This is a Temporal Rift, a new addition to the gameplay. It is basically a series of puzzles you have to solve in order to advance. The one we saw involved platforms that disappeared when you passed them as you are collecting crystals on the way. These puzzles are sort of a palate cleanser from the long hours you spent JRPGing. After finishing the puzzles, we were sent back next to the “device”. When the device is activated, a sequence shows Atlas’s power weakens and you are ready to take down that ugly beast. The demo ended just before the big boss fight so that we can try it ourselves.
Frankly speaking, I was not very impressed with the new mechanics. QTEs? Puzzles? This is how you make the game better? But I hope all of these addition don’t compromise the beauty and essence of Final Fantasy games. I’m glad the game is not linear anymore and you can actually interact with town folks and do side quests. The xbox 360 version will be on one disc only, does this mean the cinematic sequences will be compressed? We will have to wait and see.
Release Date: January 31, 2012 in North America and February 3, 2012 in Europe
