It's been about two months since I've finished Final Fantasy 13, so decided I'd start Final Fantasy 13-2 as one of the games I'm playing.  After four hours of playing, I'm probably going to quit early and not going to review.  One less bad review right?  But yeah, this game is so bad. 

Same gameplay as Final Fantasy 13, and as I said in that review, it's actually somewhat of a good idea as they're very little strategy behind it, but instead of choosing your attacks, you're just hitting L1, switching paradigms, and letting the game pretty much do all the work for you.  You can have up to three monsters in your monster party at one time, and you can set each monster in your different paradigm shift roles.  So you'll need your characters to focus on all the major roles you'll use, and monsters can focus on just a few roles.  You'll want a ravager monster for three ravagers, and I'm not too far, but I've also got a medic and a commando. 

The whole open world thing, you'd think it'd be better than the straight line, but each area you're in is a small hub.  Much smaller than Gran Pulse for those of you who have finished Final Fantasy 13, and you're constantly doing a lot of back tracking having to go here, then back here, etc.  Whether you're looking around with the right analog stick or moving around, monsters with drop on the field requiring you to fight them regardless, but whether you get a melee attack on them in the field is whether you get first strike or not.

In the four hours I've played there's pretty much no story other than traveling through different times collecting artifacts, but the way it's written is even worse than Final Fantasy 13.  It's like literally everyone in this game knows everything about everything regardless whether it was their very first time in contact with it or whatever.  I've only been in this time stream once, but I know exactly what it's called and why it's here. 

For those that were maybe thinking of trying Final Fantasy 13-2, and most of you probably have common sense not to try the second game when you know it's got the exact same gameplay, if you didn't like Final Fantasy 13, then you're not going to like this game.  If you did, and you don't mind a bad story, which I'm sure you don't because you liked Final Fantasy 13, then you'll like this one.

So, are you going to try Lightning Returns?

I knew that game was bad since the day I finished FF XIII. No more lightning, no more pulse, no more cocoon please. Give me a proper Final Fantasy Square Enix!

It really bugged me the direction they went with 13-2 as far as the story goes. Square has a serious problem with direct sequals...

As for the combat. To say that it is too easy because you are using auto combat is like blaming a game for being too easy because you play it on easy mode.
The fact is, combat would be too hard for people like you if it weren't for the auto combat button. The battles against stronger opponents can be quite nuanced and auto battle is more than often less optimal. The paradigms add depth by creating the right ones and using split second timing. If you find, tame and develop your monsters they will take on major roles and excel the two MCs.

You can say everything about the rest of the game but the combat is certainly not shallow or easy. Unless of course you're using auto combat like a pussy.

Yes.  I'm still going to give ita chance.  The gameplay looks amazing.  I mean Final Fantasy 10-2 had a bad story, but its gameplay was so good that I was able to get through it. 

I might try to revisit Final Fantasy 13-2 like, years from now just to complete it.  But right now I just can't do it. 

Call me crazy, but I liked both games, especially Xiii-2 that has my favorite soundtrack in the entire series. But yeah, they are pretty far of previous games overall.
PS: 13's story is pretty good, it's just that Square couldn't exploit its potential, besides the characters are bad, except for lightning & serah -_-

So... you've played the game for 4 hours and created this thread to give us your first impressions of it...? Allright...

Look, I'm not criticizing you for having an opinion. I believe that people take anything anything I say that is FF-related with a grain of salt, given my sig. But this thread just seems... pointless. It reeks of trollbait. No offense.

Oh well, haven't played XIII-2 yet. The demo was really weird, didn't spark my interest, despite the fact that I loved XIII. But LR looks pretty fun, so I'll have to play this one eventually.

I actually enjoyed 13-2 a bit. Can't say I would ever play it again but it was an improvement over 13. Lightning returns just looks bad though.

Final Fantasy 13-2 had a nice Battlesystem that didnt tear you out of the world like FF usually does. But FF13-2s problem was the cut up world the Nexus and TimeTraveling felt like a stage select screen for dzends of miniature levels. FF13-2 felt not epic but small and cut into tiny pieces. Why is it so hard for Square to make a World like Xenoblade a huge seamless world. The Story wasnt that great either. The only place I thought was well done is the big City it did really feel like a city now pack those cities into a seamless huge environment and make a great story and you have a good FF.