XIII.2

@Erel--can you post the link to your FF13-2 review, I can't seem to find it on your blog

ahh, what a nice read

Gilgamesh is a DLC enemy to fight.

Do your Cap'n a favor... And fight like men. And women. And ladies who dress like men.

...and children who dress like skanks

Perhaps I should beat this game before I put my two cents in. I can only obtain the PS3 at night, since the tv it's plugged into is the "family tv" and is rarely open when everyone is awake, so I haven't gotten terribly far. About 8 hours of gameplay and 5 of those were devoted to grinding and getting a good feel of the new battle system elements. I have to say that my opinion about Mog combats yours, because I just have an affinity for moogles in general, but I can't help but like it, cause its cute as hell. Sure, it doesn't have a grenade launcher (or whatever Mog used in FFVI), but it's far from helpless.

As for Noel, he annoys me far less than more recent protagonists. From an immediate standpoint, I placed him ahead of Cloud and Squall before he even spoke, because I love his design, and Jason Marsden as his VO was very nostalgic for me. As for his personality, so far, I see nothing resembling the pussy emo trait that Cloud and Squall had, but maybe I have to wait a bit for that. I mean, Nomura just LOOOOOOOOOOVES the brooding hero quality, and seems to think the fans can't get enough of it, and I could never stand it from the beginning. Anyway, so far, the protagonists of XIII-2 are far more likable than Lightning already. The only thing I liked about her was her design, other than that, she can burn in hell for all I care.

As for the difficulty, I love this pace lots more than XIII, because enemies are now POSSIBLE to grind on and bosses are exciting and fast paced whether you grind or not. That's what pissed me off about XIII, because before every boss fight, no matter how close they were together always required hours of grinding to even stand a chance, and once you hit the level cap for that area, you had no choice but to test your luck in a boss fight that saw the Retry option so much it burned into my muscle memory. It's ridiculous to bust your ass powering up for a canon boss fight to increase your chances from "getting your ass totally kicked" to "getting your ass moderately kicked".

Anyway, I'll put the rest of this on hold until I get further into the story, because I have a good attitude about this game and I need to know if its going to take a hard right turn like XIII did.

In my honest opinion, the only problem I'm having with Jrpgs as of late is overcomplication of the story for complexity's sake. FF4,5,6 are perfect examples to this regard. The story needn't be so complicated to succeed, and FFXIII seems to suffer in this regard. The presentation from what I've played is pretty, yet not cohesive enough to convey its narrartive properly.
more after I play more I guess...

Maybe this will set the mood, I LOL'd at your entire statement. XD

Glad you brought up the bikini thing, because I actually have a small complaint about it. This isn't my opposition to slutty design or anything, it's actually really cute, but I can't help but feel that Serah looks a little...anorexic to me in the beachwear. It might just be my tv, but with that little clothing, she looks malnourished and dangerously breakable. This might have been excusable in the original to help feed Serah's timid personality, but she's much less shy in XIII-2 and its honestly a little off putting to see that. I try my hardest not to judge someone on their body (though I do fail sometimes), but its hard for me to use the beachwear too often just for that. :/

I'm actually very partial to the White Mage and the one with Steel in the name, I don't remember, its the free one. I can't say why, but Serah looks undeniably cute in those two costumes for me. Maybe it's cause I can picture my girlfriend wearing those clothes, that's probably it. I have a fan-crush for Serah and my girlfriend is the influence...for some reason, I find that amusing.

I can see why Noel would seem like an emo stereotype, he has the long, straight bangs, the girly face, and a less than slender body build, but as you may have guessed already, I'm into the girly man design. I'm not saying a total badass design like Snow's doesn't pique my interest, but I'm not usually turned off by the "prepubescent teen girl-boy" look. However, I think Noel has a good blend of an adolescent developing into a man thing going on. He is still young and learning how to live life, as he admitted to Serah early on in the game. I have to admit, I like his DLC outfits better, and his original concept design may seem out of place, but I think that's the point. He's from 700 years in the future exploring an unfamiliar time period. Now that I bring that up, it does seem like he should look more mature and well-rounded because according to him, he's been fending for himself for a while and should appear that way, I guess. So, I like the design personally, but you are right about him needing to look tougher.

Haven't seen Snow yet, but I was referring to his original XIII design. The beanie and the trench coat made him look pretty damn awesome. Although, I've heard rumors that "he goes a little wacky with his chocobo cosplay" from my friends on another forum. I have to say that Snow is actually a character I love to hate. He has the hero quality I look for, someone who is so confident that he makes mistakes and has to pay for them when he realizes he's done wrong. His overconfidence annoyed me, but when Square turned it around on him, I found myself thinking differently. I'm not saying it was terribly clever writing, but I liked Snow a lot more when he realized he couldn't be the hero he said he could be.

Did I like Rikku's design in X-2? I think I should explain why I didn't like Yuna's design first. I didn't like X-2 as a whole because it changed everything, sometimes slightly and most times, radically. Yuna's outfit immediately told me that she wasn't the shy, but strong-willed person anymore, and seemed more like a gun-toting badass who would charge in without a second thought. Which I guess is a good thing, because Yuna had to have had a substantial growing period after the events of X, but seeing a character I grew up knowing change so significantly is hard to accept. Rikku stayed pretty much the same, and her outfit wasn't terribly shocking I have to say. Oddly enough, I consider it a step up from her outfit in X, but all the Al Bhed had strange attire. Most of the Al Bhed seemed like they bleonged in an episode of Trigun, which I don't mind in the slightest, its fitting to the desert, and looks like it would fit in an excellent anime. Anyway, I didn't think her outfit was really that bad, it was her hair style that made me blink. Seriously...what the hell, Nomura?

As for the weapons, again, I don't think I've experienced enough of that yet. I've only just obtained my second weapon set for Serah and Noel, and it made me think Square was just recycling the same weapons with just a different palette, but whatever. I'll get back to you on that one. :]

I would say that just looking at Caius' weapon I can see what erel is getting at (I think).
The thing only erroneously looks like a sword and doesn't seem very practical for someone so straight forward and rigid. (although it looks kinda cool). But on what Erel said, It couldn't hurt to go with something the atleast partially resembles the type of weapon it supposedly is.

So...um...I saw Snow. Um...wow. Excellent chocobo cosplay, but is that really the 'do he was hiding underneath the beanie? It's one of those hairstyles that as long as you don't look at the top of the head, they look human, but once you do, you have to find the nearest spork to gouge your eyes out. I didn't get a very good look, cause Snow's picture showed up on one of the Artefact pages, but that's one hell of a hairstyle, and not really in a good way. Nomura really likes anti-gravity, I've come to notice. It isn't ALL bad, but from the scalp up is just weird to look at.

And Caius' weapon honestly reminds me of Soul Edge from Soul Calibur 3, 4 and 5. Yeah, it looks unwieldy, yeah its pretty dumb looking, but no I'm not building up to a defending statement. Anything that reminds me of Soul Calibur is an immediate 0. Hate that game so much, but that's beside the point. Wait, no its not. Soul Calibur is dumb and so is Caius' weapon.

I lost my taste for Soul Calibur quickly after IV was released, because instinctively I knew the series was gravitating away from what I loved about it. 2 was great, 3 was...okay, but IV was just shit.

Anyway, I'm finding the disappearence of the level cap has sort of a drawback, as I've let myself get carried away with grinding. I'm 24 hours of gameplay, just finished 01X AF, and I'm already level 41 in all six roles with both characters. I've also been perma Normal mode while I grind, so I have lots of monsters at their highest level possible at this stage, due to the high drop rate. I also haven't had any worry of low money since enemies drop more than a fair amount of gil. My money hasn't fallen below 40,000 in about 10 hours. I can see what you mean by XIII-2 being significantly easier than XIII, but I guess a LOT of people complained to them about the difficulty and now gamers think it's too easy. I don't have any complaint so far about it being too easy, but I haven't had a Game Over yet, never even hit Retry. However, I like a game mostly for the story, so this isn't really a big issue for me.

I'm not saying I don't enjoy challenge, but I certainly didn't enjoy XIII's standard of difficulty, seeing as it took me 80 hours BOTH TIMES to get to Pulse. I think 18,000 CP for a measly, yet somehow important 10 HP boost is ridiculous. And capping off levels to force challenge onto the player is a low blow. Challenge should be handled gradually and willingly, I feel. XIII-2 may dumbed down the difficulty a little too far, but I can still make a challenge run in the future, and as long as its up to me how my experience goes, I have no complaints. That's how I live my life as a gamer, and not IRL, because there's no difficulty setting for real life.

Anyway, I enjoy challenge, but not when it makes me question whether or not the game is worth beating, which I considered XIII is ultimately not worth the time and effort.

nemo, you lost me once you said Mog was a viable character...

I'm surprised none of y'all brought up the Mog Throwing minigame since you guys hate him so much. Seems like something that would redeem that kind of thing. But if we want to leave Mog behind and concentrate on other things, I won't pester. I would like to point out that I did not play VI, and I know the moogles played a big part in that one, but I feel that Mog is a good representation of moogles in general. Mysterious, cute as fuck, and very helpful in tight situations. If a bit annoying at times, even though it sounds like she's played by Tara Strong, but still helpful.

And the dialogue seems a bit cheap to write, but so was X-2. The direct sequels aren't going to have really good writing, or character development. Speaking of which, Nomura needs to step out of his high chair and let someone else design characters for once. Bring Yoshitaka Amano back, HE WAS AWESOME. At least his art style was, until they used him ONLY to make the title cards.