Like many Final Fantasy fans, I have been playing the series since the release of the first and original Final Fantasy in 1990 on the NES. Faithfully, I have followed the series for years, and I have remained a huge fan up to XII. However, also like most Final Fantasy fans here in the States, while Final Fantasy XIII looked and sounded great, and introduced a unique battle system, it was plagued with one terrible element: linearity. For hours on end, gamers ran a straight line through a beautiful world, not doing much of anything except experiencing another muddled JRPG story. For those of us who made it through the game, we couldn't help but feel a tad let down, yet we still saw a glimpse in Final Fantasy XIII of something with potential to be amazing. Enter Final Fantasy XIII-2. While I have often been on the fence about these sequels of sequels, there was some real heart put into XIII-2. 

Final Fantasy XIII-2 tells the story of Serah, the sister of Lightning (our heroine from Final Fantasy XIII). Taking place three years after Final Fantasy XIII, XIII-2 offers us the same, muddled, obtuse storylines we've grown to love / hate / not care about in the past handful of Final Fantasy games. Serah sets off time-traveling to find out what happened to her now missing sister. Throw in the fact that the storyline of FFXIII-2 is supposed to be part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis mythology (you don't know what that is? Uh oh…. Looks like you'll be even more confused) and add in a new cast of boring characters along with more acid-induced philosophical and faith ramblings, and XIII-2 gives us a semi-coherent story (if you even pay heavy attention to what is going on). But hey, JRPG fans will love it!

Regardless of the muddled story, Final Fantasy XIII-2 saves itself in many ways. First off, there is quite a bit more exploring to do this time around. Of course, don't expect to see any level of Final Fantasy XII exploration here. Still, the maps in FFXIII-2 branch out, things are hidden, and there's plenty to explore, which is a huge jump from the linear movements of XIII. The battle system from Final Fantasy XIII thankfully remains in XIII-2 with a few new tweaks, and while Serah and her time-traveling pal Noel are the only two human heroes, a third slot will be open for monsters that can be captured and tamed. The addition of this "monster collecting" will please J-Gamers / Pokémon fans and infuriate anyone who doesn't give a crap. Regardless, it's not a bad addition, giving more play value to the entire experience, especially since major strategies during battle can be played out by swapping monsters in and out. 

While the battle system has been a bit streamlined (some may argue it might be too easy once A.I. is in full swing), another thankful addition is the dumping of the complex and frustratingly ridiculous item upgrading of Final Fantasy XIII. Weapons and items can now be purchased at shops (like the good ol' days), and also the crystarium system has been simplified (some may say too much), but overall, this makes FFXIII-2 much more accessible and easier to jump into. 

Another interesting element of Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the ability to jump through time. This time-travelling ability uses a system of access gates in which players can move ahead or back in time to various same locations; the ability to "reset" certain areas and play them over again, thus having the story play out a bit differently, is also possible. This system will no doubt be compared to Chrono Trigger over and over again, and of course, it's very similar, yet it's still not quite as charming. Luckily, it enables great replayability and makes Final Fantasy XIII-2 a world worth visiting.

The design, look, and flow of graphics hold up to the Square-Enix quality we've all come to expect. While the soundtrack goes without Nobuo Uematsu, Masashi Hamauzu returns again, and his pieces are quite stellar, even if they are lost in a lot of oddly-placed and bizarre-sounding tracks.

At the end of the day, it's frustrating that FFXIII-2 is what FFXIII should have been. While the production of FFXIII-2 was partially fueled because of fan's love for Lightning, it seems bizarre that the main story focuses on her sister. Despite these weak and sometimes annoying characters thrown into a convoluted storyline, FFXIII-2 fixes everything that was wrong with XIII. It throws in a ton of extras and gives FF fans a game worth playing. Unfortunately, it seems Square-Enix is on a "release-and-fix basis" with their last two Final Fantasy games (XIII and XIV), but hopefully they'll learn from this mess, because Final Fantasy XIII-2 shows that they are capable of delivering a darn good JRPG (though nothing that brings them back to what many fans would call their glory days). No matter how you put it, as far as JRPG goes, Final Fantasy XIII-2 is close to top-notch, and quite a gem in its class.

GameDynamo's Score for Final Fantasy XIII-2 (PS3)

	Score	Description
Graphics	90	Top notch. Legendary Square-Enix design and programming.
Sound	77	A mix of good tracks and oddly-composed music. It's not an OST I would go out of my way to own, nor does it always do FFXIII-2 justice, but it's good.
Gameplay	78	For a JRPG, FFXIII-2 does a lot of things right. Opening up the world, letting it breathe, streamlining the mechanics of a great battle system, and offering monster-collecting and other elements. There's plenty to like here, though nothing insanely groundbreaking.
Play Value	83	Monster-collecting, exploration, and the ability to time-travel and replay sections of the game in a different matter make the play value of Final Fantasy XIII-2 quite good.
Final Score	79	Final Fantasy XIII-2 fixes almost everything broken in XIII, streamlines it, and makes it an enjoyable game for JRPG fans and Western gamers alike.

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