LogFAQs > #899976923

I just wish they did more with the time travel mechanic. I liked the Historia Crux but many of the different time periods for each location were just reskins with different music and different monsters. I also wasn't too thrilled with the amount of content recycling here, but at least they didn't copy-paste the exact same maps from the previous game. FFXIII/Fabula Nova's world is huge and seems to have a lot of lore, but there were a lot of things I wanted to know more about and explore more of it that were introduced in the last game, and unfortunately FFXIII-2 takes place in a new era with brand new locations. It's a shame, I really wanted to explore more of Cocoon.

And as for the story, it's okay...it builds momentum but has pacing issues near the end. It's also largely unfinished. Basically the ending promises the return of these characters in the next game, which I have not played because of various reasons (I hear the time limit stuff is terrible). But from what I've heard, these characters' storyline are resolved poorly in the third game. It's really unfortunate. Caius was a great villain and his story with Yeul and Noel was the highlight of the game's plot, culminating in an epic and one of the best final battles in JRPG history here, but the ending was basically a required bad ending.

Also, the characters from the previous game felt completely shoehorned in. Why is Lightning a goddess now? She went from being one of the most annoying characters in FFXIII to suddenly being one of the most powerful beings on the planet. I know Square drools over her but they could've used like actual Lindzei which seems to be an omniscient presence instead of putting her in that role. Same goes for Serah, she was a decent character in this game (as opposed to being worthless in the previous) but they could've basically used anyone for that role. No, the story is mainly about Noel, not her. Snow and Hope also felt like shoehorning for the sake of shoehorning. I wasn't too bothered by Hope as he had some plot relevance, but it's stupid that FFXIII-3 basically retcons his look. I also find it hard to believe he built a proto fal'cie and the entirety of Academia using his knowledge because FFXIII never really establishes him as the sharpest tool in the shed. And adding Fang, Vanille, and Sazh felt like last minute cameo nods.

Square Enix also seemed to release tons of information almost on a daily basis with this entry, prior to its release. I got really hyped for it sometime in 2011 and I'll say that it met my expectations. It didn't exceed them, but I still loved it. It's a shame I have no interest in playing Lightning Returns. I will give them this though-- I felt like they actually subtly listened to the fans and recognized the problems they had with FFXIII, because on a small scale some of the bigger issues were not really present in this sequel. They even went as far as to create some decent DLC.

So you think you can ride this chocobo?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEUOOgNzOv4" data-time="