It's the same game with monster allies, yeah.  I went in thinking it might not be as bad as Final Fantasy 13, which I blame you, no offense, we're still friends.  I gave it a chance, but the additional parts that made the game supposedly better, really had no effect on making the game, or the maps which featured a lot of backtracking, actually made game a lot worse. 

Also.  Lightning Returns gameplay, atleast combat, is nothing like FF13 or FF13-2.  It's like if I said Final Fantasy 10-2 had the same gameplay as Final Fantasy 10 does since they're in the same world and they're sequels of one another.  Not at all.

So you're saying that it's impossible to gauge your interest in a game, especially one that's the exact same as the prior game but worse, within fours.  You have pretty much every single gameplay option available since hour two.  I think an additional two hours of the gameplay at its full potential is enough for anyone to judge whether they like the game or not.  

The only people that wouldn't are the ones that are dense enough to believe that Final Fantasy 13 actually gets better after 20 hours, just because Gran Pulse gives you freedom to explore.  Oooooo wow, you can explore Gran Pulse.  The gameplay doesn't change one bit, so what does it matter.

It's not like Final Fantasy 13-2 is Dragon Warrior 7 where first you might not even see your first battle in an hour and it's not until around 10-20 hours in that you reach class change.  Even Dragon Warrior 7 though was good during its first four hours though.  Whenever you get levels up you were constantly learning new skills and it wasn't until a certain level later in the game that it stopped.  Part way through Dragon Warrior 7 was like your classic games where you gained skill by level and the rest of the way it was based on the class change system, completely changing the style of the game. 

Dragon Warrior 7 was a great game, but even if you didn't reach Dharma Temple.  Even if you only got four hours into the game, which by that time you would have played with three party members, the main character, Keifer, and Anibel, four hours would have been enough time to know if it was a good enough game to keep playing.

Here's another.  Star Ocean 2.  If you play as Claude, you won't get into a battle until the two hour mark.  Even if you only get Rena and Celine in your two hours, and you've fought a few battles making your way through Cross Cave, then making it to that one port town I can't remember the name, you'll have experienced the game enough to know whether or not you like it.  You can't do super specialties and other such things until you learn them by leveling up certain skills, but none of that changes the gameplay which you can easily experience in your first battle.  It doesn't change throughout, you get new attacks, and undoubtedly during a few hours you'll have gained atleast three skills per character to know that.

So how many hours should people put in a video game before giving a preview, or stating their opinion about the game.  It's not like I'm reviewing Final Fantasy 13-2, which I feel should only be reserved for those who complete the game, even if some games drag out too long and aren't good enough to where they deserve to be completed to do as such.

My post was that I've been playing it and while I would have written a review on it, I decided to give up playing through the game and post my preview about the game.  My opinion in my short amount of time playing it, an opinion I could have made up after playing through the first two hours.

It's been a long while since I've played XIII-2, but I liked everything about it except for the story. To be honest, aside from the ending, I don't remember much regarding the story; all I remember were paradoxes and artifacts. Actually, I think that's the whole story of the game. Collect artifacts, fix paradoxes, fight the main villain, more artifacts and paradoxes, main villain, and then ending. Toriyama needs to go away.

The gameplay is pretty much the same as XIII, but finding that perfect third party member (monster) was kind of of a pain at first since they're limited on the skills they know and each monster had their own advantages in the role they're in. XIII-2's take on random encounters was pretty neat; enemies appear randomnly, but you have to option to run away and avoid fighting before the battle actually initiates.

XIII-2, eh? A mediocre game saved by a pretty good soundtrack and Liam O'Brian's AMAZING voice acting. Well, there was that one track where a white girl tried to rap, but excluding that....


No, really, I do like XIII-2. Noel has a really strong character arc and I actually really like XIII-2's bittersweet ending. And if Mog annoys you, you get to chuck him at pointy objects. I must confess, I thought that last bit was glorious.

BUT it's still got paradigmed combat, which is not for everybody. 100% map exploration quests are also way uncool, expensive equipment uses too much of your load to be useful, and enemies are tough because they have hit points only measurable in scientific notation, not because they fight back intelligently.

That last bit really irks me. The greatest potential advantage of paradigmed combat was that you could give your enemy AIs intelligent behavior within predictable bounds, like self-preservation instincts, cooperating in groups, or even predicting that attempt to stagger them. Different enemy personalities could be conveyed by how they fight. This never happens. Even the most powerful enemies go through a predictable cycle of attacks which gets old quick.

I like the game a lot... but I really don't think you'll change your opinion, and I'd just quit then.

There are some neat things that come up later. That make it cooler (for some like me and Basil) if you like the core game. However, the core game is extremely similar, with a decent amount of twists that some people think is better and some don't. 

However, the battle system has new issues, FFXIII battle system (like persona 3, nocturne) was balanced (though not as well) around the main character dieing, This game doesn't really change the balance, but gives you a whole 2nd character that can die which subsequently screws up the balance, most of the deaths are because of burst damage (IE not being a high enough level).

I edited some things.

But that's the gist of why some I've seen like XIII more than XIII-2's Battle System.

*edit*  Nevermind.