Final Fantasy XIII-2 DLC Collection Announced for Japan in July
Sera and Noel step up to the plate one more time before the end.
Final Fantasy XIII-2
Players: 1 offline
Publisher: Square Enix
Genres: RPG
Publisher: Square Enix
Genres: RPG
Release Date: January 31, 2012
Developer: Square Enix
MSRP: $59.99
Developer: Square Enix
MSRP: $59.99
The unfolding drama of FINAL FANTASY XIII, released in 2010 and selling six million copies worldwide, continues in FINAL FANTASY XIII-2. Explore a richly developed world featuring both new and familiar faces, and an exciting and highly developed strategic battle system. In this ongoing saga, the future is about to change...
Final Fantasy XIII-2 Review
Posted By Shaun K. about 1 year, 3 months ago
Final Fantasy XIII was a game that inspired strong feelings, whether negative or positive, in a lot of people and even two years later remains a highly divisive game among gamers. Now developer Square Enix has released a sequel to it in the form of Final Fantasy XIII-2 and the question remains: can the game appeal to haters and lovers of XIII alike or is it one journey too many in the world of Cocoon and Pulse?
| PROS | Excellent and compelling story, highly engaging combat, diverse and opened gameplay, lots of content, strong visuals, diverse soundtrack with many unique tracks |
| CONS | Casino mini-games are minor diversions at best, getting materials to level up high-end monsters can require some serious grinding at times, some aspects of the Crystarium are not explained in enough detail, load times for transition from Historia Crux to areas can take up to a minute |
| WTF?! | Why inflict Chocolina upon us Square? Why?!? |
Three years after XIII’s lead character (and poster child) Lightning mysteriously vanishes, only her sister Serah realizes that something or someone has altered the events of the original game’s ending. Upon encountering Noel, the last surviving human of an apocalyptic future, Serah joins him in a time travel filled quest to both find Lightning and change the dark destiny that awaits the worlds of Cocoon and Pulse. Encountering old friends and new allies alike, the pair soon also gets caught up in a conflict with a man named Caius, Noel’s former mentor turned depraved immortal, who has dark designs of his own for the future fate of the two worlds. With Caius prepared to go to any lengths to achieve his goals, Serah and Noel will have to push themselves to their limits if they are to ever have a chance of unwinding the endless web of conflict that has engulfed their lives.
Lightning plays a small but vital role in XIII-2′s proceedings.
Far from some meaningless cash-grab of a sequel, Final Fantasy XIII-2 manages to forge a story all its own while also enhancing and explaining upon the events of the original. While much of the story features some familiar tropes and building blocks, the way in which they are all weaved together helps to give the tale a far more fresh and original feeling than even I was expecting. Another plus for the game is the superb job it does developing its main players. Caius, for example, is not just some one-dimensional cackling madman, but instead a character with understandable motivations and desires for the often terrible things he does. I have always felt that the best villains are those who are capable of the most awful actions even while retaining just enough complexity to allow them to still be believable individuals and Caius fits this description to a T.
FF XIII-2: Sazh: Heads or Tails DLC Review
Is the first piece of story DLC for Final Fantasy XIII-2 a bet worth taking or should it just fold and go home?
Final Fantasy XIII-2 Video Review - ZGR
After so many long-time fans loathed Final Fantasy XIII, does the sequel bring enough new to the table to save the series? Daniel checks out Final Fantasy XIII-2!
Final Fantasy XIII-2 Review
Can this followup to the highly divisive Final Fantasy XIII appeal to haters and lovers alike or is it one journey too many in the world of Cocoon and Pulse?
Sage Reviews: Final Fantasy XIII-2
Is it good enough to repair the damage to Square-Enix’s reputation?
Latest Final Fantasy XIII-2 Trailer Shows Off Non-Combat Gameplay Elements
For the first time in a while, a Final Fantasy game will be including a number of non-combat gameplay elements and now Blistered Thumbs has a trailer that shows of these very elements to all who are interested.
Latest Final Fantasy XIII-2 Trailer Lays Out Time Travel Mechanics
As Final Fantasy XIII-2 enters the final few weeks before its US and UK/EU release, Square Enix has released another in their series of trailers examining the specifics of the game.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 Video Preview
For all the Sturm und Drang surrounding Final Fantasy XIII, the game was both a critical and financial hit, so the decision for Square Enix to choose it as the third FF game to get a direct sequel should not be a surprising one. Now Blistered Thumbs is taking an in-depth look at the game to give you all the information you need in anticipation of its launch.
A Poor Debut for Final Fantasy XIII-2
I doubt this is the end of the franchise, but even I am a bit surprised by the numbers…
Final Fantasy XIII-2 DLC Collection Announced for Japan in July
Sera and Noel step up to the plate one more time before the end.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 Video Review - ZGR
After so many long-time fans loathed Final Fantasy XIII, does the sequel bring enough new to the table to save the series? Daniel checks out Final Fantasy XIII-2!
Final Fantasy XIII-2 Review
Can this followup to the highly divisive Final Fantasy XIII appeal to haters and lovers alike or is it one journey too many in the world of Cocoon and Pulse?
Sage Reviews: Final Fantasy XIII-2
Is it good enough to repair the damage to Square-Enix’s reputation?
Latest Final Fantasy XIII-2 Trailer Shows Off Non-Combat Gameplay Elements
For the first time in a while, a Final Fantasy game will be including a number of non-combat gameplay elements and now Blistered Thumbs has a trailer that shows of these very elements to all who are interested.
Latest Final Fantasy XIII-2 Trailer Lays Out Time Travel Mechanics
As Final Fantasy XIII-2 enters the final few weeks before its US and UK/EU release, Square Enix has released another in their series of trailers examining the specifics of the game.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 Video Preview
For all the Sturm und Drang surrounding Final Fantasy XIII, the game was both a critical and financial hit, so the decision for Square Enix to choose it as the third FF game to get a direct sequel should not be a surprising one. Now Blistered Thumbs is taking an in-depth look at the game to give you all the information you need in anticipation of its launch.
A Poor Debut for Final Fantasy XIII-2
I doubt this is the end of the franchise, but even I am a bit surprised by the numbers…
Latest Final Fantasy XIII-2 Trailer Has Real Character(s)
While some would say that a Final Fantasy game without its characters would be an improvement, fans know just how important these individuals really are. Now the latest trailer for Final Fantasy XIII-2 has arrived and it is all about these characters, new and old alike.
FF XIII-2: Sazh: Heads or Tails DLC Review
Posted By Shaun K. about 1 year, 2 months ago
FF XIII-2: Sazh: Heads or Tails DLC Review
Is the first piece of story DLC for Final Fantasy XIII-2 a bet worth taking or should it just fold and go home?
| PROS | Features full voice acting, unlocks Sazh in main game |
| CONS | Dull gameplay, terrible story, incredibly short, Chocolina |
| WTF?! | Chocolina gets a staring role in this DLC. WHY SQUARE WHY? |
I have made a name for myself on this site for my love of both Final Fantasy XIII and its follow-up Final Fantasy XIII-2, but even I am not going to try and defend this highly disappointing DLC. Sazh: Heads or Tails is the first major story based additional content for XIII-2 and hopefully it does not represent the level of quality that the remainder of such content currently in the works for the game will represent. This DLC nominally tells the tale of how Sazh and his son Dajh end where they are during the high energy finale of XIII-2’s main story, but for story based content it is amazing how little story, or any content period for that matter, there really is.
Sazh is playing card games for the life of his son but you would not know this from the lackadaisical approach he takes.
After a strange (and of course completely unexplained) phenomena causes the ship Sazh and Dajh are on to crash, the former finds himself in Serendipity, a mysterious casino that apparently exists outside of normal time and space. Serendipity is also the place where souls lost to the vagaries of the time stream end up but unfortunately Sazh finds himself there without Dajh at his side. And so does our brave hero set out to find his son by gathering mystical objects known as Fortune Tokens which are said to be able to change the fate of those who gather enough them. And how does Sazh get these Fortune Tokens you may ask? By playing card games. Yeah…
You read that right, there is no combat of any sort in Heads or Tails and even exploration is kept to the already well worn (and incredibly small) Serendipity locales that those who have played the main quest will be more than familiar with. Even worse, the card games that Sazh is being forced to play in his quest to gather the Fortune Tokens are not of a kind of say Triple Triad (the card mini-game from Final Fantasy VIII which I know I personally wasted an ungodly amount of time on) but instead consists of bog standard poker and an odd variation of War that makes use of a clock face and is really more trouble to explain than it is worth. Now I am about as bad of poker player as you will find, but even I was able to win most hands by simply constantly out bluffing the dumb as mud AI and even losing still nets you at least one fate token (you need thirty in total to beat the DLC). Sure you can theoretically lose all your coins enough time to get a game over but even this is easily avoided with some judicious use of the save feature.
Even the playing cards are generic. Could they not at least feature famous Final Fantasy characters on them?
The DLC does feature one major side quest by which players can gather a good number of additional Fate Tokens. There are just two problems: the side quest, which involves chasing down a number of lost chocobo chicks, is incredibly easy and is centered around *ugh* Chocolina aka the most annoying character to ever appear in a Final Fantasy game. Oh and each chick is named after one of the seven deadly sins for no apparent reason. No, really. Heads or Tails is weird even by the standards of this series. Yet the worst part of the DLC has to be how completely flat the brief story sequences (which are, to its credit, fully voiced) end up falling. Sazh comes across completely uninvolved for a man who previously slew gods to rescue his son the last time he was taken from him. Here Sazh just shrugs and accepts his situation with barely a word and starts playing poker.
Sazh: Heads or Tails could have worked. It could have expanded on the casino and the people trapped in its environs, ripped forever away from their home and lives. It could have taken an adventure game style approach to its concept or developed the personalities of the other players Sazh is going up against, raising the stakes by establishing the lost lives everyone else was playing for. It could have really opened up the casino and added a bunch of new areas. It, in short, could have worked. This can be seen in the DLC’s best part: its ending which actually does a nice job of being dramatic while setting the stage both for the game’s main ending and for the DLC yet to come. If only the rest of this DLC had matched the energy and effort of this one story cinematic, it might have been something worthwhile. As is, Heads or Tails comes across as just cheap and lazy game making at its worse. A quick stopgap while they work on the (hopefully) far more involved DLC featuring Snow and Lightning’s stories respectively.
I know Sazh. I am sad they blew your once chance to star in content of your own as well.
Maybe if Heads or Tails had been free or even the two dollars and fifty cents of the previous Lightning/Amodar coliseum DLC, this would have been content worthy of a purchase. Yet at five dollars it remains woefully overpriced especially since it gives players little in the way of substantial rewards for completing it. True, beating the DLC does allow players to add Sazh to the party in the main game via the XIII-2’s paradigm pack system but this will only be of value to the most hardcore of players. Heck the casino card games introduced in the DLC do not even get added to main game once it is over nor do the casino coins you win (I ended up with over a seven hundred thousand myself) while playing them get added to your main game total. The final nail in the coffin is that Sazh: Heads or Tails can easily be completed, even including the Chocolina side quest, in just under fourty-five minutes. I still believe that the remaining story DLC for Final Fantasy XIII-2 can be good additions to the game and wrap up the story in a satisfying manner but only if they are significantly better than this travesty. Final Fantasy XIII-2: Sazh: Heads or Tails is a terrible piece of DLC that only the absolutely most hardcore of fans of the game should even remotely consider buying.
A review copy of this game was purchased by the reviewer for Xbox 360. The reviewer spent approximately 40 minutes playing and completing the game.
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May 20, 2012 at 01:46pm
Are you going to review the new Lightning DLC? The Snow DLC was so inconsequential as to not warrant mention. The Lightning one…I want to hear your opinion on it, at least.
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March 03, 2012 at 05:04pm
Ugh. I can’t say I’m surprised.
To be honest, my initial supposition when I heard XIII-2 would be only one disk AND that it was going to feature DLC was “Oh. They ran out of room on the disk and some exec (wisely) wanted to get rid of disk swapping.”
So I’m horrified that S-E’s actually charging for the DLC. Less than an hour? Majorly disappointing. Oh, well. I never really cared for Sazh, so I don’t mind skipping this DLC.
But screwing up a Lightning DLC like this will really flush XIII-2 down the toiletbowl of time. Charging more than $1 an hour will make me feel like my digital crush has become an emo 1-900 number hotline.
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March 03, 2012 at 12:27am
So basically you’re paying $5 to unlock Sazh. Considering all the (bewildering to me) fanboy gushing he’s the focus of, I’m not surprised. Though, I can’t judge people who bought for that reason to harshly, if the game had any replay value what-so-ever, I’d drop $5 to unlock Fang. But, it doesn’t, and she’s not available, so that’s that.
Though, I find great humor in this. One of the huge failings (to me) for FF13-1 was how the party was scattered for the first 97% of the game and doing their own little missions in pairs or single. Now they’ve making you pay for the privilege of watching them faff about solo.
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March 02, 2012 at 11:36pm
40 minutes…I’m not really a stickler for longevity but that should say it all.
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March 02, 2012 at 10:57am
“Chocolina gets a staring role in this DLC. WHY SQUARE WHY?”
It’s like Square hates you man. XD
Poor Sazh, will he ever get the game he so rightly deserves?
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March 02, 2012 at 04:39am
I enjoyed playing texas hold ‘em poker. The betting system made it quite challenging to beat all of the players especially because they obiviously were cheating. One of the players seems to have been programmed to get a flush or straight or something on river quite alot of the time. He had a flush three times in a row, always getting the flush on the river, which seems quite unlikely to happen irl. And it happened quite often. Needed some serious luck to beat the guy. Taking away 10 000 coins from your opponents was really a hassle with the betting system. It’s quite exciting that going all in against an opponent that has 500 coins when you have 30 000 coins can make you loose everything. And going all in is required to make your opponent fold sometimes especially against the guy who always gets a flush with the river. I ended up getting all the 30 token in just one game. Ended up winning only 80 000. Didn’t even get to try the 100 000 bet game. Or the other mini game which seemed quite interesting. And I didn’t find the Chocolina mini game
Have to get back to it. I like Chocolina.Over all I think the dlc was worth the €5. The story was ok, though it’s sad how they wasted Sazh’s potential, and I enjoyed playing poker. And then there’s Chocolina minigame and the other mini game. S-E is ripping us off anyway with €2 clothes and alot more work probably went into this than the Lightning DLC so it’s logical that it costs more. Maybe there’ll be a €10 dlcs with some serious content.
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March 02, 2012 at 03:37am
Nitpick, since I’m apparently the first to notice: Tetra Master is FFIX’s somewhat convoluted card battle game. FFVIII’s global minigame is Triple Triad.
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March 02, 2012 at 02:18am
Well you can’t exactly WTF Chocolina’s appearance in this dlc unless you haven’t read the fragments which suggest she has a connection to Sazh. So it’s pretty obvious to expect that she would be in this dlc.
I will agree with the rest however for a dlc story I to had hoped for more story but the dlc just seems more like a minigame pack with a story tact to it.
I found Chronobind to be an interesting game so for those who enjoy minigames they could prolly enjoy the 5 dollars they get out of it. But ya when it comes down to it only three groups would get it
-Those who want Sazh in their party
-Those who want to play more mini-games
-Hardcore fansThe fanbase being left out in all of this are the ones who wanted story and action. There’s no sense of exploration and again you learn nothing new from this dlc. The DLC was supposedly meant to expand the story as a whole but when we look at Sazh’s arc all we get is some nonsense story with gambling involved. He doesn’t give us anything we didn’t already know from the CS seen in the History Crux we already knew that Sazh would be involved in there for one reason or another.
Hopefully they can pick it up with Lightning though if you noticed there were 2 crux still locked out, now one if you bought Sazh. The other is 100% Valhalla and if it’s anything like the Sazh dlc odds are we will get to fight as Lightning but there will be no leveling involved. Odds are if we control Lightning in battle she’ll have access to the moves she used at the start of 13-2.
I do honestly have to wonder why they thought people would enjoy Sazh’s misadventure, it’s in no way a journey or even an engaging situation it’s just so dull like something you’d see in some cheesy kids cartoon.
I do like your idea though to have Sazh come off as a father mentor for the dead to perhaps help them move on just like in the game with the red orbs. It would have enhanced his character and showed off how he is a responsible father but sadly this seems to further the fact that he’s a pretty bad daddy lol.
Since all the people here are gambling perhaps Sazh could have traveled through the crux found said person and play a minigame designed towards their personality. It’s not like it would be that hard to make multiple minigames ranging from pure luck to skill based. Have it where there are 20 souls to help move on and you only need 10 to be able to get Dajh back but if you get 20 you get a special ending that gives Sazh a bigger role within the whole plot of 13-2. As it stands now the story is pretty much tact on to explain why he was even in the game and that it. it doesn’t feel like much though was truly involved in bringing Sazh into the game. They could have easily just made it a generic airship pilot named Cid.
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March 02, 2012 at 01:45am
I think 3/10 is being generous to be honest. It’s probably the most pathetic DLC I’ve ever seen. The costume downloads were worth more than this to me because at least those were just for fun; this is a waste of time as it adds nothing to the story, absolutely nothing and in fact only serves to damage the character of Sazh; the one character in XIII I genuinely loved and thought was extremely well written.
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March 02, 2012 at 01:42am
Yeah, disappointing doesn’t even sound appropriate. I’m not the biggest fan of Sazh like most people are, but it’s a shame that this had to be so bad.
I have yet to encounter Chocolina in the main game, but is she really as bad as I’ve heard? That’s rather worrisome. Still, I’m enjoying XIII-2 so far, so I the good will (hopefully) outweigh the bad.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 Video Review - ZGR
After so many long-time fans loathed Final Fantasy XIII, does the sequel bring enough new to the table to save the series? Daniel checks out Final Fantasy XIII-2!
Sage Reviews: Final Fantasy XIII-2
Is it good enough to repair the damage to Square-Enix’s reputation?
Final Fantasy XIII-2 Video Preview
For all the Sturm und Drang surrounding Final Fantasy XIII, the game was both a critical and financial hit, so the decision for Square Enix to choose it as the third FF game to get a direct sequel should not be a surprising one. Now Blistered Thumbs is taking an in-depth look at the game to give you all the information you need in anticipation of its launch.
E3 - Final Fantasy XIII-2
For this interview, Mark “Psychotaku” Fujita gets a hands-on look at the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII-2 game from SquareEnix.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 Trailer
ZOMG! The new English announce trailer for Final Fantasy XIII-2. I want your thoughts!
Final Fantasy XIII-2 Video Preview
For all the Sturm und Drang surrounding Final Fantasy XIII, the game was both a critical and financial hit, so the decision for Square Enix to choose it as the third FF game to get a direct sequel should not be a surprising one. Now Blistered Thumbs is taking an in-depth look at the game to give you all the information you need in anticipation of its launch.
Here is my opinion on the plot its good until after you start thinking about it after awhile then you start to realize that it honestly does not make a lot of sense. It seems a lot more effort was put into the first few hours (as it seems those were the best moments of the game) and then sprinting for an ending that is not even finished yet.
Also how exactly did Serah develop as character? Last I saw she was simply a foil for Noel he is the more interesting character after all he is: the last of his kind, has a relationship with the antagonist, and wishes to prevent the destruction of human race. Serah at least to me did not really develop as a character could you explain please?
While I cannot say I did not enjoy this game I would be a liar if I did. I had fun but I always say this about XIII-2 the ending can make people hate this game very easily. I know some people really like the ending and hey I am glad you must see something there that I don’t. But when it comes to Time Travel plots this games story is incredibly weak especially when you compare it to Radiant Historia (especially considering how epic the ending is) and that was a DS game. Overall I would recommend renting this game before deciding whether or not to buy it.
to be honest I hated this game until the ending . the plot may not make much sense and Serah is a boring character. my opinion of the game change after watching the ending several times. you right this game did not has a great time travel plot compare to Radiant Histora but this ending will say with you for longer in my opinion . you don’t mess with time and expect no consequences from it . this game just reminded me of the first final destination movie .
Yeah, I’ve seen Sean’s playthrough of this game and I gotta say that I’d buy XIII again over this game.
While they mended a couple of gameplay flaws that the last one had, the story is nonsensical and confusing as all hell, and it just didn’t have the heart like how XIII did. I still don’t like XIII, but what I can say about it is that at least a lot of heart was put into it. It completely failed sure, but I do see what they were trying to do with the story and the characters. With this game… I have no idea what they were thinking.
I basically see this game as a hasty apology to those people who didn’t like XIII with the combat system and whatnot. And while it is true that they did tweak the system a bit so that it isn’t AS bad as XIII, it is still a pretty bad system to be honest. The story was rushed, made no sense, and was really short (it took Sean about 20 hours to get through the main story).
Go and pick up Radiant Historia instead of this game. That game tells a much better time traveling story.
Make of it what you will. I personally will not pick up this game because from what I’ve seen, I honestly can’t support it. If you liked this game, then that’s cool. No, really, it is. I mean, I didn’t like it but at least somebody somewhere got their bang for their buck. I’m just glad that I first watched Sean’s stream of this first before I (for lack of a better word) wasted my money on this game.
really a 9/10 i watched sean fauz play this game on his stream and dear god i can not get how you like these characters, noel “oh i lived in the end of time and the only good thing was taken from me i am a tourtured soul” he is bland as all hell and not intresting at all, while hope is all “Lightning! lightning!” and that is her hole character
as for the story you will have no idea what is going on 90% of them and in the end it is all pointless sens he kills himself why couldn’t the main villan do it from the get go there is nothing that says he can’t
lastly why are female chocobo’s some kind of humanoid and how dose chocobo’s breed? O.O yeah kinda beastiallity there
“why are female chocobo’s some kind of humanoid…”
It’s called a costume. Not that hard to figure out.
“while hope is all “Lightning! lightning!” and that is her hole character”
You mean Serah? Hope is a guy. :\
You may have watched some sort of let’s play of the game but it’s obvious you didn’t pay attention. Like, at all.
I was thinking she was some sort of Were-Chocobo. Like, maybe she had been bitten by a Chocobo on the night of a full moon or something.
That sounds retardedly awesome.
You mentioned the horror of Chocolina but not *shudders* the metal chocobo song. D:
I’m contractually obligated by Satan to play every Final Fantasy game so I’ll get this game once it drops way down in price. I got XIII right when it came out and I still see new copies everywhere (for 10 or 20 dollars!) so I think I will save some money here and wait.
“Lightning plays a small but vital role in XIII-2′s proceedings.”
That’s still far too much.
I really need to get to playing more of this.