Final Fantasy XIII-2 gets 5.4 on Gamrreview - how is that possible?

[Zim]

Very fair review. FF13-2 is such a mixed bag. Some great gameplay, pacing, graphics etc

But some of the worst dialogue I have ever heard, I don't think I have EVER cringed so much in a game. Gems like ''Be honest with yourself and you can get the future you want''.

One of the worst plots I have ever seen, seriously if you are going to do time travel it has to be VERY carefully planned or simple, not a hodge podge of nonsense. The fact Chrono trigger still manages to have a better plot from that many years ago is just embarrassing. The moment someone at Square felt the need to have the game give you a movie explaining what has happened EVERYTIME you load up the game should have been a sign that something was wrong.

Strangely it also has some of the worst game music I have ever heard. I actually had to turn it off at certain points because the music was so maddening. Bad covers of generic cheesy j-pop songs. All full of LALALALALALALALALA or horrendous lyrics like ''Ooo lalalalala got my friends so the futures bright LALALA keep hoping for that future LALALAA''

Likewise it's kinda clear why Square didn't feel confident to put proper NPCs with dialogue in FF13. They are so embarrassingly behind the times. 13-2 is a huge step up from 13 but compared to other games urgg. Nonsensical things like when you talk to NPCs your character will stay wherever they were when it started. So you can get things where you are talking a few inches from the person or with characters clipping through each other. Have the other party member run between you, other npcs walk into the camera shot blocking it etc. And oh boy are those animations stiff. It's an improvement over no side-quests, no proper dialogue etc but boy is it badly handled.

I mean when you have to pop up LIVE TRIGGER on screen to let you know it's a dialogue where you actually can choose questions well something is wrong.

It also doesn't work as a sequel. The world presented in this game simply doesn't match with the last game. It's surreal. If you didn't play 13 you will be totally lost, but if you did play 13 you will be annoyed at how this game just ignores that game and rewrites things.

It's a huge improvement over 13 but at the same time helps point out just how flawed 13 was. The whole mog clock thing is still horribly outdated by blue dragon, which had enemies on screen, you could combine different groups of enemies for xp bonuses, in-fighting and the attack animation was smooth (in 13-2 it is soooo clunky)

So yea it's a much better game than 13 but it's still below other Jrpgs this generation. I think most reviewers have just realised that they ridiculously overrated 13 because suddenly they have a better game that still has such big issues.

Seriously well done to the reviewer. Reading reviews of the original FF-13 was ludicrous. Pointing out HUGE flaws but then still slapping it with a high score. This reviewer points out the good and bad things and gives a score that can be justified.