Final Fantasy XIII's sequel, XIII-2, has been out in Japan since mid December and we are quickly approaching the release date for it's North American release at the end of this month, with a European/ Australian date to follow just a few short days later. In an attempt to show people what's new about XIII-2 over it's predecessor, Square-Enix has released a demo for the title on PSN and XBLA.
We, here at PinkSquadron thought it a great way to kick off our new segment entitled "Demo Scene" in which we'll take you through the demo and offer our thoughts on how it pans out.
Without further ado, our time with Final Fantasy XIII-2's demo:
We start in on XIII-2 with a quick load and an introduction to main characters Serah and Noel as they come hurling through a (Historia Crux) Portal along with Serah's trusty moogle, Mog. Just as quickly as we're introduced to the trio, a giant hand - attached to a ghostly enemy (Atlas) attacks the place, which we learn from dialogue, is Cocoon and more specifically the Bresha Ruins.
Noel tries to defend Serah and attack the hand, but get's thrown aside and Serah steps up, her pal Mog, transforming into her iconic bow weapon which she draws back, much like you've seen in media before this demo.
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| In XIII-2, Serah's Moogle friend transforms into powerful weapons she can use. |
This leads you into the battle scene and a tutorial on the 'Paradigm Shift' system is offered up for anyone needing a refresher, or anyone whom happen to be new to the game. The battle system plays out much like that in XIII. The 'auto battle' button returns, and is set above all the other commands in the list, which, depending on your Paradigm shift selection, will choose the appropriate offensive and defensive actions to take. For non-RPG players, this makes things go quite a bit quicker and if some core players, at some point down the road, need to level grind a little to make some quests easier, we'd assume it'd be an easier way to accomplish such a task. The other thing we noticed that is new to the fighting, is a quick-event like system where you are prompt to quickly press various buttons to avoid damage, to power up attacks and so on. Such a system along with a camera that doesn't like to stay still for too long inside these battles, gives the battle system of XIII-2 a more action based feel over that of traditional turn based battling. Fear not though, as you can also choose to follow the manual methods that were also available in XIII and choose your own battle options to your heart's content.
A cutscene, in which airships attack and bring down the ghost-like Atlas ends the battle, while Serah and Noel make their way to a populated district of the city. We of course instantly chose to switch out our leader Noel for Serah, something that's easily done via the menu. As far as we can tell, the rest of the menus included are all accessible. You can select equipment screens, check statuses of your team mates, upgrade each character, fiddle with some options, check the bestiary and so on.
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| Alyssa, as we've learned before now, will be a recurring character as the game progresses. |
You are then allowed to freely wander around and talk with NPCs. A jump button is included and explained to help if you need to get somewhere higher than you currently are. You run into a merchant, calling herself Chocolina, whom is described as a merchant whom will be available virtually everywhere you go if you happen to need supplies or a way to craft your own items. We also spotted Alyssa in this section, who lets you know that the area might be locked down as they continually fear Atlas becoming a danger to the people there.
As you wander about, talking to NPCs, you learn more of what's going on. One section leads to a new battle area, where you are shown that random encounters are making their return to the series. However, these random encounters do have a twist; When an enemy appears, a dial, or a "Mog Clock", appears along with a circle around your character to indicate where this enemy has spawned and gives you a chance to avoid the fight. It also works into figuring out (depending on how the enemy is approached) how a battle starts out (be it a preemptive strike or not).
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| The "Mog Clock" alerts you to enemies and gives you a chance to flee or get a first attack. |
A short battle later and you're introduced to the system in place that lets you use defeated monsters as fighting companions in battle. Your Moggle begins to explain this feature and then you are given the option to watch a tutorial on such. After the tutorial, you are then thrown into another battle where the game will further explain how these monsters help you in battle and the purpose of the new Feral Link gauge, which, as far as we can tell acts as sort of special attack used by your monster.
Atlas continues to make quick appearances and threaten to pull you into another large battle. However, you continue on your way. A new portal is found (different from the one you came in on) and Noel explains, to unlock it you need find an artefact which doesn't belong in the current time line to activate it. As you explore the further area and connected ruins, you're eventually given a choice to either find and attack Atlas straight on or go for a glowing item that has a rumored chance to be able to control Atlas.
We went the route of the glowing item in an attempt to make the battle an easier one. Here you are introduced to a rather simple puzzle solving piece where you control just one character and must navigate a series of floor panels that fall away a few seconds after you step on them. In these puzzle sequences you must hit each and every marked tile once in your route. We're not sure exactly why this had to be in the game... and only seemed to serve as a time waster.
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| You will need to use all of the skills learned before hand to defeat the mighty Atlus |
Either way you decide to go, you once again face off with the giant Atlus and are now expected to take all of the skills you've learned to defeat the beast. It's not an easy task unless you make sure to visit the upgrade screen to boost your stats as well as make a trip to see Chocolina (whom is conveniently located just before you run into Atlus) for some supplies to make the battle an easier one. We also played around with adding different monsters to our line up, Cait Sith being handy as a healing companion that allowed us to focus the attacks from both Serah and Noel on Atlus.The battle plays out until you've got the hp bar for Atlus down and you finish the battle in one of those cinematic events that has you reacting quickly to the command prompts to successfully land blows.
The scene fades and you're treated to a sort of trailer where you get to see Lightning doing battle, as well as a more in depth look at the Historia Crux - a system in the game that allows you to visit previous locations and at different times within the time line. Various types of battles play out in this to give you a taste of the different locations you'll be visiting. You are shown a few mini-game like sequences such as a chocobo racing game, slot machines, more of those puzzle rooms and various other components you be running into in the full game.
Then things faded to black, then white with the game's logo and we're done. Square thanks us for playing and outlines, once again, the dates for the game in North America and Europe. The demo itself did quite well, we believe, at showing the various aspects of the game and introducing you to each with easy to follow tutorials. The presentation was top notch, featuring beautiful smooth graphics, easy to navigate menus, great sounding music, wonderfully voiced characters and a polish one would expect from Square Enix. If you happen to own either a PS3 or a 360 we suggest you check it out for yourself.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Hush404
