holy flying expletive on a pogo stick

[auronlu]

[Don't worry, no spoilers.] Sometime during the final third of Final Fantasy XIII-2, I suddenly paused and realized: I love this game as much as X. 

 
 I care about the world, the characters, and the myths. Everything that was wrong with the first game was fixed, at least for me.

 

XIII had one of my favorite end sequences ever. (Okay, I'm biased. LESBIAN SQUEE FANG MMRPHLE MMRF.) 

 

Both games had strong female characters and female leads. Moreover, the relationships between female characters, whether they're lovers or dear friends or sisters, are major plot-driving themes, the way het "boy meets girl and finds twue wuv" is usually a major plot thread of previous editions of the franchise.  (Well, there's a fluffy het ship as well, but it's not THE STORY.) 

 

Now, having just had my ass utterly and completely handed to me in xiii-2's final boss battle, I'm going to spend another two weeks on sidequests and minigames that I actually enjoy (take THAT, X-2) to level up. And maybe even find some linking books to new MYST Ages gates to other times/places I haven't yet explored. Time travel done well is one of the reasons I love this game.

 

I confess, because it's Squeenix, I'm waiting for some fatal mistake to mar XIII-2 before it's over. Is the ending going to suck with great suckitude, to balance out the previous game's great ending after far too much slogging to get there? I... I dare not get my hopes up. But holy cow and all kinds of swearing, the last couple of hours of the game have left me physically hyperventilating again and again. 

 

...Not ONLY because my previous-owner-customized, used, back-compatible PS3 has a bad habit of freezing at awkward moments far from the last save. It froze TWICE during the hour-long final epic boss battle sequences, forcing me to replay a big chunk. When I finally got to the really-truly-last boss battle, my party was creamed like a soap bubble hit by Mega Gigaton. (Again, twice. I tried a different strategy and still died after putting up a heck of a fight.)

Comments

[thene]

heh, interesting. I adore FFXIII and found FFXIII-2 to be a let-down; it took a long time for me to even start appreciating the time travel element, because too often, time travel is simply an airship. Once the parallel timelines thing got started I was more up for it, though (and the alternate endings are mostly fascinating, I hope they all become AU fics eventually). I guess my main problem was not enjoying any of the characters except Alyssa, who is sadly underappreciated by the fandom. CLEARLY SHE IS TOO AWESOME FOR THEM. I need to get around to writing fic about her relationship with Serah, because omg all of the wrongness.

[lassarina]

I have a very uneven relationship with XIII-2; I love the villain, I like Serah most of the time, I enjoy the time-travel, and of course I love the world. I am much more ambivalent (shading to angry) about other things that I'll discuss when you're done. ^_^

but yes, the plethora of strong female characters in X and XIII/2 are definitely things that please me.

[auronlu]

I cringe a little in anticipation of learning what I've missed that makes something I enjoy sucky, but I very much trust your judgment, so I will post for the postmortem when I get there.

I am embarrassed to say that I find the villain's big ass sword so improbable that I have trouble taking him quite as seriously as I should. (As if the physics of nearly everything in these games isn't a bit naff.)

[lassarina]

I honestly gave up on physics in FF years ago. Caius's sword does make me laugh forever, though.

I plan to do my own postmortem soon, with applicable spoiler warnings, so you'll be able to bookmark mine for later too.

(Also: I recommend finding yourself a Bunkerbeast and an Albino Lobo for your paradigm pack for the final boss; Bunkerbeast is a solid Sentinel and AL is the best Ravager I found.)