Honestly if FFXIII wasn't what broke people's trust with the series, it was probably LR. Goddamn that game reeks of cut corners and budget constraints...
@@itsbrunhilda9704 I actually liked that game, Mainly for combat and customization, progression there absolutely sucks I feel you need a guide for it and yes I gave up on beating it.
@@itsbrunhilda9704 And it was LR that really got people to realize why the producer really wanted to keep the XIII train going...insert picture of Lightning waifu shrine here.
Personally I still enjoyed LR more than XIII, but XIII-2 is for sure the best one. That being said, my experience with LR probably would've been a lot worse without a guide.
Fun Fact about Mass Effect: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was actually a big influence on the game's aesthetic, so the ME DLC costume puts things in full circle.
And the story spanning an entire trilogy was too much. It should've been a do-over as Lightning was cryptic as ever, and this was the first time I sat out on a major game series. Not only were they getting expensive, but the quality was catching up to Hollywood: a total gamble. Will it be fun, or will it be a waste of money?
@TwelveSevven i did,and it was really good.because he geniunely cared for those games His ff videos on the other hand is him.just doing the doug walker bullshit gimmicks
never picked on that with Yuel, the e being at the middle rather than the end was enough to throw me off but yeah, and I wonder if that was intentional, probably is since it happened twice.
@@SuperMizuki111 They said that they hope that he bounce back, not that he wasn't guilty. He was really good reviewer. It is still sad that he disappointed fans like that.
I love this game. Definitely my favorite of the XIII Trilogy. I went out of my way in postgame to capture all of the chocobos I could find for my team, and they are definitely worth it because they kick ass in battle! Next up: Lightning Dress-up Simu- I mean, Lightning Returns!
I'm not gonna lie, I wish this was a stand alone FF game lol From the review, this look like a wickedly charming entry! Just seemingly bogged down by having to be connected to the last game. Considering how non important the other 13 characters were, I think they could rewrite it to have an original cast instead
Agreed. Its the only one of the trilogy I played and I didn't like the 13 cast in this. Except for old hope which apparently wasn't good enough to keep for 13-3 lol 🤦♂️ Also Noel should have been the lead in 13-3
Actually the mythology of 13's world is one of the best pieces of worldbuilding in FF history and I'm glad 13-2 used that baseline and did something worthwhile with it. I wouldn't want to see this incredible game being dragged down by a bad story just because they couldn't use the FF 13 world.
Pretty much every sequel to a previous Final Fantasy game. Not the games with roman numerals, but the franchise as a whole. There's like a bajillion titles with sequels to most of the games, and they felt different, like crisis core is litterly a western game, while 10-2 is straight up goofy.
Thanks for this. Your longform retrospectives like these are few and far between, but I look forward to the nights they come out so I can tuck my phone under my pillow and listen along to sleep. Appreciate the sleeping assistance. Stay safe and sane, Clement!
Ff13-2 is my favorite modern Final Fantasy game of all time. I was in the same boat of disliking 13 but decided to give 13-2 a chance and was blown away. I even love the combat system. I learned so many small things in this game that made me appreciate the world so much more than the first game. And in some ways made me enjoy aspects of the first game (though doesn't mean I like it all that much). Serah and Noel are some of my favorite final fantasy characters and I straight cried when Serah died. I became so invested with these goofballs that I pre ordered ff 13 lightning returns because I wanted some closure....and in a lot of ways I wish I hadn't. I think square hit something special here that they haven't been able to replicate since. While the MMOs are able to grab the feeling of final fantasy. A main single player entry hasn't hit the same mark since 13-2. And I still feel that way now.
Similar thing happened to me, this game genuinely grew my appreciation for the first game (was inspired to go back and re-experience +complete XIII properly after completing XIII-2) and the sequel (LR) maintained enough hype through this one for it's connection/closure for the series to be worth it.
Its because it was character focused. Jrpgs are at their best when you like the characters and their interactions with each other and story NPCs or quest lines. Heck just having only played this of the trilogy I can tell you the rest of the 13 cast weren't exactly captivating.
Three take-aways after watching this review. One: Final Fantasy XIII-2 actually looks decently fun. Two: Wait. Jason Marsden, the greatest voice actor ever, is the voice of Noel?? SOLD!! Three: I now seriously ship Noel and Serah!
But you have to give props to the extent Noel would go to save his waifu. Too bad for Serah but Snow is like the husband who is never home and is allergic to responsibilities.
@@lenleon3699 That was another dumb holdback from the previous game. Since Serah was already engaged to Snow then all she has is this weird non-relationship with Noel, he's her "partner", barely an acquaintance and not much else, I don't think she even calls him friend once in the entire game. Human relationships in this universe are distant or non-existent and when they aren't, they're told, not felt.
@@MASJYT In that sense Noel does show a lot more emotion towards Serah than she did. Even though the game makes it clear it was motivated by his own failed love towards Yuel, he still showed genuine anguish and emotions at Sarah’s suffering. Which is the sad part of the entire thing since it is obvious the writer could done better but chose not to (instead shoving most character relationship information to the Japan-exclusive light novels).
XIII-1 and XIII-2 were the games in my backlog that went unplayed the longest, and last summer I finally did it. I may've had a LOT of issues with XIII, but honestly it was completely worth it to play XIII-2. I have a fair share of issues with XIII-2's story, but all the exploration and faster battle system pleased me a lot. If it weren't for this being an awkward middle stage without a real start or end, I'd call it the best starter Final Fantasy. Especially because I hate Lighting Returns.
My favorite part of this game was the "Dying World' segment, the scenes were shot in a stage play kind of way with a neat red colored sky, hearing Noel's narration and such with that one song I myself really like, and the idea of being the last human on a dying world. Even the pretentious dialogue was enjoyable to me, hearing Noel's line he says about setting off on his journey after Yuel died, "Ranks of obsidian mountains pierced the heavens, bone white deserts chocked the land....." or before that "As I set towards Valhalla I realized something, if it brought Yuel the happiness she deserved, I didn't care what happened to me, if I died so be it. Maybe beneath the layers of cold numbing pain, I wanted to fade away from this world completely"
When did Thanos summon bugs? Unless you're counting the Outriders, which were more like six limbed cyber apes than anything. Or an obscure storyline. IDK, I don't read comics regularly.
@@jlev1028 I had gotten the chitauri mixed up with the big insect things from Justice League. But to be fair, the chitauri were about as dumb as insects
"Take care of her, for I no longer can" Lightning, talking to a brown-haired boy about her pink-haired younger relative or King Tycoon, talking to a brown-haired boy about his pink-haired younger relative
ehh that FFV reference I like it!! ^_^ (I spent about 250 hours trying to 100% all Jobs in FFV on the gameboy advance...) good times. ^_^ Unfortunately the one time I took it to school.. someone stole it... :(
@@ZenoDLC nope... my sister was nice though.. and gave me her pink GBA.. and that got stolen too when I went to job corps.. And this time with all my games. :( but it ain't so bad.. cause of that I got emulators for it.. and having the save state feature was pretty cool for some of those games. I did get a very old GBC and played some pokemon yellow on it... I was literally drawn in for hours.. I started at 7 in the morning.. did get off till 4 pm... Nintendo sure knew what they were doing making the GBC something like a book you hold up to your face... it completely grabs your attention, and you forget everything else. I wonder if that was on purpose?
I am surprised there was no discussion of Cauis's theme, this is one that honestly rivals One Winged Angel for me. It just feels like a slow funeral march, which fits Caius perfectly. A warrior forced to walk forever, wishing for death, knowing it will never come. God I love it.
@@meowz1894 Cauis is honestly one of my favorite Final Fantasy villains, if not my favorite, because you understand his motivations perfectly. He doesn't want to become god, he doesn't want to rule the world, he wants to tear down the old world and system to save one person who's death he's witnessed for centuries on end.
I just recently beat FF7. Gonna admit I was VERY disappointed with One Winged Angel. Like... 🤨 The f*ck's this? Why people say this song is amazing when it's clearly not
I played only Persona 5 and both Persona Q games. While logicaly it does not make sense that the partymembers can not revive I like that loose condition. Its fun to work with. Funny how despite this I sometimes use Joker as a shield fore the party. Thanks to an infiltration tool I can force single target attacks to target a partymember of my choice. So a boss that uses a lot of physical attacks I can force to target Joker who rflects physical attacks with his Persona. Its also a godsend in the twin boss fight becuse I can prevemt the twins to hit my teammates weakspot by forcing them to target Joker. Morgana really earned his keep with his awsome tools. I love that little fellow. Funny how I make my life easier by using the guy who is not allowed to die as a shield.
As someone who was introduced to the FF series through FFXIII (heretic, I know) I really enjoyed the battle system and characters a ton. I also loved the music since I prefer the orchestral tracks way more than XIII-2's vocal tracks. But my goodness I loved XIII-2's exploration, customization, and general shenanigans so much more. And I actually like replaying this game, which I can't say about the other two entries
XIII was decent but XIII-2 was so fun, outside the story the game was solid 8/10 it improved everything for the most part fans asked for. The monster catching system was the best edition to the game.
XIII-2 is such a good game, not amazing but still, pretty damn good. And this video sums up my opinions pretty much the same way. Noel and Caius being foils of each other was really engaging to see play out, the monster collecting was addictive, the music is INCREDIBLE, the weird mandatory Graviton Core fetch quest was jarring, the ending was omega sequel bait, the battle system is still automated as hell, but overall it was a really fun time. If I ever feel weird and want to boot up a FFXIII game, XIII-2 is absolutely my go-to.
"lightning died on the way back to her home something or other" Come on clement you're the sonic guy, the recap mention would have been a perfect time to mention Sonic adventure (for real though I got those vibes seeing that). *Clement mentions music* Me: "BUT DO YOU THINK YOU CAN RIDE THIS CHOCOBO?"
Timed button presses for attack boosts and total damage negation were probably not the best mechanics to push on to turn-based RPG players. I personally loved it, but I can see how some would not like it. You don't have to do these things I guess, but the player is also punished with limited healing items as well. It must be a rough road for the players that can't get the 'perfect guard' system down. I enjoy parry/riposte mechanics, and relied heavily the perfect guard in lightning returns.
@@trenton1232 It will be a while though until he covers XVI since I don't think the game is coming anytime soon since Square Enix games take forever to release
I guess I was too young to notice how «bad» 13 was. Replayed 2 years ago and they are still amazing, maybe the nostalgia is too strong. The ending on part 2 is still making me cry man
Now that I think about it, FFXIII seems to have the same problem that I had with Sonic Colors. That game had amazingly creative locations you went to in each level, but you were placed on a long and mostly-boring path for most of it. Unleashed and Generations had some neat set-pieces, but Colors was almost all blank 3D roads that led to different 2D sections. (On top of that, I could never get the hang of the double-jump) I remember seeing Aquarium Park for the first time, and all of the underwater Asian-style buildings, and was just raging. "Wait, I don't want to go this way! What's over there? I want to go over there instead! I'm running past all the cool stuff!" All of FFXIII gave me the same feeling, and it kicked in insanely fast. I remember originally thinking that people had to be blowing things out of proportion. Final Fantasy X was linear as well, but it was one of my favorite games ever. I played XIII and I remember one part where I hit a switch and a huge and elaborate area rose up, just waiting to be explored. The game immediately switched characters to somebody else, and after their hallway section, everybody met up. The cool and elaborate exploration was teased, just to be literally done off-screen! I trudged through that game all the way until reaching Pulse. Not because I was enjoying myself, but because I was working on playing all of the non-online Final Fantasy games in order to learn how the series evolved over time, much like this whole retrospective thing Clement's doing. I actually started enjoying Pulse because it was more wide-open and gave side-quests. Once I finished Pulse and needed to return to Cocoon for the finale, I couldn't do it. I still can't bring myself to finish that game despite being so close to the end. Everybody says that the sequels are much better and much more enjoyable, but I haven't gotten around to trying them yet. Mainly because everybody says it's better, but up until this video, nobody bothers to explain HOW they're better, or what things got improved. I suppose I ought to get to playing them so I can finally wrap up my little marathon, I already own XV. I also need to finish X-2, but it was an insanely bad idea to try and play that immediately after replaying X, and trying to go for 100%. I don't suppose anybody knows of a decent LP of XIII, so I can at least see the ending and the remaining "gameplay" without having to force myself through it personally? Seems like a difficult game to LP, making a good series would require a damn strong personality on part of the LP-er, to make up for how dull the game itself it.
@ClementJ64: I just hope I could try to explain some of the questions you had about the ending. I did some answering on gamefaqs years ago and I'll copy it here: 1) Only when he is killed by the hands of another guardian does Caius stay dead and the heart is transferred. But if the new guardian will is strong enough, the heart is rejected and is destroyed. THAT what Caius wanted and spend the whole game building up Noel will so that he would reject the heart. (That why he doesn't killed you outright at the beginning and toys with you the whole game.) 2) Caius can't travel through time. The Caius that at the secret ending is the True Caius. From the end of time, he sends messages to ALL the Caius from across time.
Weirdly, I think XIII-2 has one of the better soundtracks in the series. I’m serious, tracks like Knight of the Goddess and Paradigm Shift rank among my favorite non-final boss themes in the franchise.
I liked FFXIII-2 while FFXIII was bad, they fixed some of my main complaints. I even liked Lightning Returns. For some reason FFXIII fans hate it cause it "ruined the story" as if the story was all that good to begin with. I enjoyed the sidequests, exploration, towns and all the shit the first game didn't have.
@@thunderthebright8469 Yup, thats what I was gonna say. The game gives plenty of time but I understand some people just want peace of mind and not have to worry about it.
@Syd Klem What good is all that lore and world building if you can't explore the world or even something as simple as visiting the towns. Gran Pulse is just a hallway as far as I'm concerned with FFXIII. Very disappointing for me coming from FFXII where you could freely explore the world, visit lots of towns and start doing hunts and sidequest within the first hour of the game.
This was my introduction to this series. A bit of a weird place to start but I got it from my cousin for Christmas and looked at the title confused for like 15 minutes
@31:00 I choose to believe Prompto's love for chocobos was so strong he superseded the foundational rules of time and space and went back in time and wrote this song.
@@557deadpool agree. 15 is bland. Empty world. horrible side quests which wouldn't even get a pass on a f2p mmo. no real cities and overall the "world" in which the story took place felt smaller than in older titles where you had a world map with way less mass to walk on. The story.. was a mess. Half of it isn't in the gamey the other half is presented in such a bad way, that I feel like they developed the game without a director. They wasted a genuinely interesting enemy. Ardyn was the only well written character, but didn't get the chance to have his motives developed properly and ofc lacked a world and characters to lift his drama to a deserving stage. 15 was the best square could patch together in a short time, after they lost focus and made one wrong decision after the other for a decade and it still wasn't enough. Still better than 13 though.
@@k4yser ah and don't forget the deluge of product placement also the whole story was in the game....you just had to buy DLC for it. there was literally nothing in Kingsglaive and Brotherhood that warranted their existence and sure it's better than 13 in some ways but let's be honest, it can be really easy to choose one over the other
One of the things 13 and 13-2 have as a hidden (kind of skill based) mechanic is Paradigm Refresh. It's an invisible cooldown that takes about 13 seconds to charge (or roughly two attack turns) and what it does is give you a completely full ATB Bar after you switch, which means you can be 150% times more aggressive which also means you can push Stagger Gauges and Stagger Chain Bonuses that much faster and higher into the 990.0% range to get the full 10x damage booster while doing 3 full commando attack bars for every 2 turns you'd normally have on the remainder of the Stagger bar. What this does is dramatically speeds up the pace of both games to the point where you can easily get through the first 10 chapters of 13 is about 17 hours. It also encourages you to create secondary paradigms that are copies or similar to existing paradigms so you can switch from a ravager to another ravager and get that sweet paradigm refresh so you can just hammer on enemies at a much MUCH faster rate than before. It turns the game into a much more active experience, since switching isn't needs based, it's a timing mechanic that rewards speed and dexterity and greatly increases the skill ceiling, making skill more important than stats. A low level lightning making use of Paradigm Refresh can beat Chapters 9 and 10 in about an hour each, whereas even a high level party that isn't using this system will end up taking hours upon hours in each chapter. Being able to end fights in less than half the time and easily two cycle-ing boss fights like Bartandelous. It's a great mechanic but the biggest problem is there's no HUD indicator to tell you that it's going on, which means most players aren't going to know to use it and will just take the slow way through the game. It really makes such a huge difference once you get the hang of it and you start Paradigm Shifting so frequently it could be called a Controlled Breathing mechanic. It lets you really push the advantage and play much MUCH more aggressively. What sucks is I had no idea this system existed either. I had to find out about it by watching a live event a speedrunner named LewdDolphin did where he explained all the hidden mechanics the game has that make it possible to be a really really good speedrunner game. Learning about that one mechanic was so significant that it made me go from not really enjoying the combat at all to absolutely loving it. It really makes everything click together properly and makes the battles feel like a more worthwhile and active part of the game. Oh and I think the framerate is better on PS3 than it is on 360? I don't remember having bad framerate issues when I played it recently.
hahahahaha I never knew that about Serah's airhead line, lol. Fun game, but dang finding the best commando microchu was the biggest b.s. and I got lost in Oerba finding that dang artefact with the Chocobo hop onto one of the buildings. Only time I had to look up something, was so annoyed
I remember feeling the same way about you Clement when I first played 13-2, ended up loving the game. Watching your video makes me want to get a ps3 again to play this game again
You were right, this is indeed a case study. FFXIII-2 was *not* that much better than XIII for me, but it was definitely more enjoyable. The combat was kinda better, but it was still the same and replacing the party formations with switchable Mons wasn't even close to a good idea. The main characters here were so much more interesting, and the previous cast, while not _everyone_ was salvaged from the terrible plot threads of XIII, managed to have some depth in their personalities. And XIII-2's story, while just another time travel story with some holes in its established theory, was still interesting to see play out. I can go on, but if you can't tell, I sounded pretty ambivalent towards the game. Because XIII-2 is a textbook example of credit where it's due; knowing how bad the last game turned out and trying to improve on it in every way, despite not exceeding very well on any angle except for THE MUSIC THO. I think this game became the impetus for me adopting that mindset, to always see something improve and do better, whether it be a sequel or a new developing game. Knowing Squeenix gave a damn enough to try harder gets them a thumbs up from me. Also, Noel is one of my favorite FF protagonists ever. But it's a shame he wasn't explored enough, and LR did not help on that front. Give this guy a crossover already.
I love 13-2 easily the best of the trilogy. The time travel plot is silly but I love Noel and Caius and the gameplay was everything I wished out of 13. A perfect balance of linearity and nonlinearity
Excellent retrospective Clement - in-depth, well edited, and quite informative, and thanks to you i may just buy this game's soundtrack. i'm looking forward to your next video on FF XIII-3.
I really enjoyed 13-2 for what it was. I'll also add the limited edition came with the FULL soundtrack(4 discs) I didnt buy it myself but someone gave it to me. It's still sitting on my shelf all these years later. Crazy Chocobo is also a bop and whenever I make people listen to it they are so confused.
Clement thank you for the fantastic video!! This actually ended up being one of my favorite games of all time just because of how fun it was. It really did feel like what XIII-1 should have been gameplay wise and character wise and its the shame its stuck between the first and third game : /. Noel/Caius remain two of my favorite FF characters of all time :)
I'm in the same boat. I hated Final Fantasy XIII, but actually enjoyed XIII-2. XIII-2 is definitely the best of the trilogy, in my opinion. I haven't even finished Lightning Returns. I found the story too dull and I didn't like the gimmick of giving you a time limit. I made it to the 14th day on my first playthrough (although I was playing on the easier setting) but just never really felt a drive to finish the game. To this day I'm not even sure how the story ends.
Wow someone else who was disappointed with FFXIII but actually liked FFXIII-2, they definitely were looking to address the complaints of the first. Sidequests, towns, exploration, no party leader dying=gameover BS, and it didn't feel like a tutorial and restricted for the first 25-30 hours.
Disappointed you don't bring mention to Noel having the same voice as Max Goof. Granted, I didn't know that until I watched this video and thought "he sounds really familiar". Turns out he's also Rosh in Jedi Academy.
So that entire game Caius could have just stabbed himself in the chest and he would have won. He *knew* that it would kill Etro and give him his goal. Sooooo... Why didn't he just do that?
3:504:02 I feel the same tbh, just reminds me of when I was young and carefree. This stuff hit me like a gunblade to the sternum out of nowhere. I said, out loud, Bourne style, "Oh my god, that's Brutal Force." I recognize so many of these titles for rent just based on the cover from browsing rental places when I was a kid, it's such a specific sort of burned-in memory the way you'd burn things to a CD. I can't get all of them, but- that's Advent Rising, front and center where it... belongs......? (It didn't belong anywhere, really, but man it tried.) Glad to hear XIII-2 was a radical departure from the original.
The ending of this game just broke me, I didn’t even play anything post-game related. I was DONE. Looking forward to your Lightning Returns review, I bought the game when it came out but didn’t like the first couple hours so I never finished it haha
"the best entry in the XIII trilogy"
well that just sets a mood for Lightning Returns, huh
Honestly if FFXIII wasn't what broke people's trust with the series, it was probably LR. Goddamn that game reeks of cut corners and budget constraints...
@@itsbrunhilda9704 I actually liked that game, Mainly for combat and customization, progression there absolutely sucks I feel you need a guide for it and yes I gave up on beating it.
@@itsbrunhilda9704 And it was LR that really got people to realize why the producer really wanted to keep the XIII train going...insert picture of Lightning waifu shrine here.
As someone who played it... the ending is incredible... but the journey is *NOT* worth it...
Personally I still enjoyed LR more than XIII, but XIII-2 is for sure the best one.
That being said, my experience with LR probably would've been a lot worse without a guide.
FFXIII Lightning: I am no one's slave.
FFXIII-2 Lightning: Command me goddess uwu
That is one of the reason why this game for me is an spin off and the original FFXIII is the only one
@@La-hora-del-terror Well technically she was trapped in said goddess realm. You have to adapt.
@@lenleon3699 i know but i like her concept in the first one (that thing of challenge the fate, i like it)
Well in this case Lightning knows that the universe is fucked without Etro so I think she'll be able to put her hatred of gods aside for now
if you're going to be a sub be a sub for an actual goddess am i right
Fun Fact about Mass Effect: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was actually a big influence on the game's aesthetic, so the ME DLC costume puts things in full circle.
And the story spanning an entire trilogy was too much. It should've been a do-over as Lightning was cryptic as ever, and this was the first time I sat out on a major game series. Not only were they getting expensive, but the quality was catching up to Hollywood: a total gamble. Will it be fun, or will it be a waste of money?
Didn't spirits within came out before mass effect?
@@rawrdino7046 Yes. You can't inspire something if you came out after it.
@@DarthJoshReturns I read the comment wrong lol
Oh God really?
for the no-nonsense soldier she was in the last game, lightning suddenly got very poetic here
Clement broke a Spoony curse! Finally a proper FF13-2 review.
This guy "Ranting Spiderman" did a review on it that was very "Spoony" like to me. Also
AVGN like too
It finally went through the render queue.
At least clement's retrospectives are thorough and come from the heart
Unlike spoony who spends 30 minutes on snow's jacket and sazh's afro
@TwelveSevven i did,and it was really good.because he geniunely cared for those games
His ff videos on the other hand is him.just doing the doug walker bullshit gimmicks
I had fan fic idea that spony and clement were once one then split in 2
Fun thing is, both "Yuel" and "Noel" are words meaning Christmas
I can confirm for Noel.
Yule
Yule
The power of Christ compels you!!!
never picked on that with Yuel, the e being at the middle rather than the end was enough to throw me off but yeah, and I wonder if that was intentional, probably is since it happened twice.
Clement got to reviewing Final Fantasy XIII-2 way sooner than Spoony ever could.
I doubt Spoony will ever pick himself back up.
Savage.
F
Admittedly, Spoony has gone through some seriously hard times. He doesn't have to get back to making video content. I just hope he can find his way.
@@deltasceptile7805 Please don't defend people who scam fans out of their money
@@SuperMizuki111 They said that they hope that he bounce back, not that he wasn't guilty. He was really good reviewer. It is still sad that he disappointed fans like that.
Every time I hear Caius speak, all I can hear is “25 cents, Kevin. 25 cents is all it takes.”
_Perfection_
OH MY GOD WHY
I can't hear Liam O'Brien's Voice without thinking he's gonna pull a Sand Burial on his opponents.
Or punching out good for making his daughter cry
These videos are always a nice surprise. I never know when one will drop, but I always make sure to watch them.
I love this game. Definitely my favorite of the XIII Trilogy. I went out of my way in postgame to capture all of the chocobos I could find for my team, and they are definitely worth it because they kick ass in battle!
Next up: Lightning Dress-up Simu- I mean, Lightning Returns!
I'm not gonna lie, I wish this was a stand alone FF game lol
From the review, this look like a wickedly charming entry! Just seemingly bogged down by having to be connected to the last game. Considering how non important the other 13 characters were, I think they could rewrite it to have an original cast instead
I always thought the same thing to be honest
Agreed.
Its the only one of the trilogy I played and I didn't like the 13 cast in this. Except for old hope which apparently wasn't good enough to keep for 13-3 lol 🤦♂️
Also Noel should have been the lead in 13-3
Actually the mythology of 13's world is one of the best pieces of worldbuilding in FF history and I'm glad 13-2 used that baseline and did something worthwhile with it. I wouldn't want to see this incredible game being dragged down by a bad story just because they couldn't use the FF 13 world.
Pretty much every sequel to a previous Final Fantasy game. Not the games with roman numerals, but the franchise as a whole. There's like a bajillion titles with sequels to most of the games, and they felt different, like crisis core is litterly a western game, while 10-2 is straight up goofy.
@@ShockwaveFPSStudiosCrisis core is japanese anime cranked up to 11 idk wym lol
Thanks for this. Your longform retrospectives like these are few and far between, but I look forward to the nights they come out so I can tuck my phone under my pillow and listen along to sleep.
Appreciate the sleeping assistance. Stay safe and sane, Clement!
Not good to put a phone under a pillow
Ff13-2 is my favorite modern Final Fantasy game of all time. I was in the same boat of disliking 13 but decided to give 13-2 a chance and was blown away. I even love the combat system. I learned so many small things in this game that made me appreciate the world so much more than the first game. And in some ways made me enjoy aspects of the first game (though doesn't mean I like it all that much). Serah and Noel are some of my favorite final fantasy characters and I straight cried when Serah died. I became so invested with these goofballs that I pre ordered ff 13 lightning returns because I wanted some closure....and in a lot of ways I wish I hadn't.
I think square hit something special here that they haven't been able to replicate since.
While the MMOs are able to grab the feeling of final fantasy. A main single player entry hasn't hit the same mark since 13-2.
And I still feel that way now.
Similar thing happened to me, this game genuinely grew my appreciation for the first game (was inspired to go back and re-experience +complete XIII properly after completing XIII-2) and the sequel (LR) maintained enough hype through this one for it's connection/closure for the series to be worth it.
Its because it was character focused.
Jrpgs are at their best when you like the characters and their interactions with each other and story NPCs or quest lines.
Heck just having only played this of the trilogy I can tell you the rest of the 13 cast weren't exactly captivating.
Three take-aways after watching this review. One: Final Fantasy XIII-2 actually looks decently fun. Two: Wait. Jason Marsden, the greatest voice actor ever, is the voice of Noel?? SOLD!! Three: I now seriously ship Noel and Serah!
But you have to give props to the extent Noel would go to save his waifu. Too bad for Serah but Snow is like the husband who is never home and is allergic to responsibilities.
@@lenleon3699 That was another dumb holdback from the previous game. Since Serah was already engaged to Snow then all she has is this weird non-relationship with Noel, he's her "partner", barely an acquaintance and not much else, I don't think she even calls him friend once in the entire game. Human relationships in this universe are distant or non-existent and when they aren't, they're told, not felt.
@@MASJYT In that sense Noel does show a lot more emotion towards Serah than she did. Even though the game makes it clear it was motivated by his own failed love towards Yuel, he still showed genuine anguish and emotions at Sarah’s suffering.
Which is the sad part of the entire thing since it is obvious the writer could done better but chose not to (instead shoving most character relationship information to the Japan-exclusive light novels).
Serah and Noel, plus, Lightning and Snow always seemed like the best couples in that universe.
"We can change the future"
Shulk?
"If you change the future, you change the past." - Actual, repeated dialogue from Final Fantasy XIII-2
XIII-1 and XIII-2 were the games in my backlog that went unplayed the longest, and last summer I finally did it. I may've had a LOT of issues with XIII, but honestly it was completely worth it to play XIII-2. I have a fair share of issues with XIII-2's story, but all the exploration and faster battle system pleased me a lot.
If it weren't for this being an awkward middle stage without a real start or end, I'd call it the best starter Final Fantasy. Especially because I hate Lighting Returns.
My favorite part of this game was the "Dying World' segment, the scenes were shot in a stage play kind of way with a neat red colored sky, hearing Noel's narration and such with that one song I myself really like, and the idea of being the last human on a dying world. Even the pretentious dialogue was enjoyable to me, hearing Noel's line he says about setting off on his journey after Yuel died, "Ranks of obsidian mountains pierced the heavens, bone white deserts chocked the land....." or before that "As I set towards Valhalla I realized something, if it brought Yuel the happiness she deserved, I didn't care what happened to me, if I died so be it. Maybe beneath the layers of cold numbing pain, I wanted to fade away from this world completely"
Oh same here
"Purple Man turns a woman into dust and summons a bunch of insects"
Thanos: "Am I a joke to you"?
When did Thanos summon bugs? Unless you're counting the Outriders, which were more like six limbed cyber apes than anything. Or an obscure storyline. IDK, I don't read comics regularly.
@@jlev1028 I had gotten the chitauri mixed up with the big insect things from Justice League.
But to be fair, the chitauri were about as dumb as insects
@@weirdotzero7065 Parademons. You're mixing up the Chitauri with Parademons.
@@jlev1028 I do, which is why I can say that I don't recall Thanos ever summoning bugs.
"Take care of her, for I no longer can"
Lightning, talking to a brown-haired boy about her pink-haired younger relative
or
King Tycoon, talking to a brown-haired boy about his pink-haired younger relative
ehh that FFV reference I like it!! ^_^
(I spent about 250 hours trying to 100% all Jobs in FFV on the gameboy advance...) good times. ^_^
Unfortunately the one time I took it to school.. someone stole it... :(
@@AragonBattleBorn Tough luck man, is the GBA at least safe?
@@ZenoDLC nope... my sister was nice though.. and gave me her pink GBA.. and that got stolen too when I went to job corps.. And this time with all my games. :(
but it ain't so bad.. cause of that I got emulators for it.. and having the save state feature was pretty cool for some of those games.
I did get a very old GBC and played some pokemon yellow on it... I was literally drawn in for hours.. I started at 7 in the morning.. did get off till 4 pm...
Nintendo sure knew what they were doing making the GBC something like a book you hold up to your face... it completely grabs your attention, and you forget everything else.
I wonder if that was on purpose?
1:17:58
It's funny cause Liam O' Brain also Voices Gill in SF5.
SuperFusionAJ93 well time to main Gill
And Weiss in NieR!
@@bmoney1860 And Kariya Matou in Fate/Zero
All I hear when I hear his voice is Infinite and Nephrite :T
He is also Gunnar Maelstrom in the Carmen Sandiego show
I am surprised there was no discussion of Cauis's theme, this is one that honestly rivals One Winged Angel for me. It just feels like a slow funeral march, which fits Caius perfectly. A warrior forced to walk forever, wishing for death, knowing it will never come. God I love it.
It really makes you feel for Caius and that he really is an anti-hero
@@meowz1894 Cauis is honestly one of my favorite Final Fantasy villains, if not my favorite, because you understand his motivations perfectly. He doesn't want to become god, he doesn't want to rule the world, he wants to tear down the old world and system to save one person who's death he's witnessed for centuries on end.
I just recently beat FF7. Gonna admit I was VERY disappointed with One Winged Angel. Like... 🤨 The f*ck's this? Why people say this song is amazing when it's clearly not
XIII-2: "Unlike XIII, it's not an automatic game over when the party leader dies."
*Take notes, Persona!*
To be fair on Persona, the game gives you the ability to use multiple personas and make you really, really tough to kill.
@@StarforceOnAir What's stopping your party members from using a Phoenix Down on you?
The 1st 3 games (p1 and p2 duology) didnt game over when the protagonist died. They decided to make that a thing in p3 for some reason though
I played only Persona 5 and both Persona Q games.
While logicaly it does not make sense that the partymembers can not revive I like that loose condition. Its fun to work with.
Funny how despite this I sometimes use Joker as a shield fore the party. Thanks to an infiltration tool I can force single target attacks to target a partymember of my choice. So a boss that uses a lot of physical attacks I can force to target Joker who rflects physical attacks with his Persona. Its also a godsend in the twin boss fight becuse I can prevemt the twins to hit my teammates weakspot by forcing them to target Joker. Morgana really earned his keep with his awsome tools. I love that little fellow. Funny how I make my life easier by using the guy who is not allowed to die as a shield.
Yeah, that's been a thing since shin megami tensei and in that franchise only the leader can heal, so ...
As someone who was introduced to the FF series through FFXIII (heretic, I know) I really enjoyed the battle system and characters a ton. I also loved the music since I prefer the orchestral tracks way more than XIII-2's vocal tracks. But my goodness I loved XIII-2's exploration, customization, and general shenanigans so much more. And I actually like replaying this game, which I can't say about the other two entries
XIII was decent but XIII-2 was so fun, outside the story the game was solid 8/10 it improved everything for the most part fans asked for. The monster catching system was the best edition to the game.
XIII-2 is such a good game, not amazing but still, pretty damn good. And this video sums up my opinions pretty much the same way. Noel and Caius being foils of each other was really engaging to see play out, the monster collecting was addictive, the music is INCREDIBLE, the weird mandatory Graviton Core fetch quest was jarring, the ending was omega sequel bait, the battle system is still automated as hell, but overall it was a really fun time. If I ever feel weird and want to boot up a FFXIII game, XIII-2 is absolutely my go-to.
I knew it. The moment i saw chocolina and heard she wasn't human i was like "she's a chocobo turned human!".... I played too much moemon.
"I'd still rather play this than Megaman X Command Mission" ouch....
"lightning died on the way back to her home something or other"
Come on clement you're the sonic guy, the recap mention would have been a perfect time to mention Sonic adventure (for real though I got those vibes seeing that).
*Clement mentions music*
Me: "BUT DO YOU THINK YOU CAN RIDE THIS CHOCOBO?"
I like how the Chocobo theme in this game is my favorite Chocobo song in the series and I'm not a fan of Heavy Metal music at all.
The best combat in FF franchise is Lightning Returns though..
Too bad no one cares enough to play it
I dont think so.
Too bad there wasn't much incentive to fighting since you get stat boost from side quest.
@@taylord5381 Abilities came from enemy drops. And so did materials for weapon synthesis I believe.
Timed button presses for attack boosts and total damage negation were probably not the best mechanics to push on to turn-based RPG players.
I personally loved it, but I can see how some would not like it. You don't have to do these things I guess, but the player is also punished with limited healing items as well.
It must be a rough road for the players that can't get the 'perfect guard' system down.
I enjoy parry/riposte mechanics, and relied heavily the perfect guard in lightning returns.
Did anyone hear about Final Fantasy XVI? Clement should cover that when it comes out. He should also do Final Fantasy VII Remake after XV.
That's what I said and still waiting
@@trenton1232 It will be a while though until he covers XVI since I don't think the game is coming anytime soon since Square Enix games take forever to release
Hey it's Square Enix what do you expect
@@agents5307 Isn't FFXVI currently expecting a 2021 release?
I think the game will come out closer to 22' or 23.
1:36 YES! Finally someone mentions Lost Odyssey! I love that game!
I guess I was too young to notice how «bad» 13 was.
Replayed 2 years ago and they are still amazing, maybe the nostalgia is too strong.
The ending on part 2 is still making me cry man
I recognize Caius' sword. It's the Sword of Shadows from Dragon Quest 11. (I know that FF XIII-2 came out before DQ 11. I am just making a joke.)
I prefer butt ass ugly sword.
It tends to appear in many games.
Now that I think about it, FFXIII seems to have the same problem that I had with Sonic Colors. That game had amazingly creative locations you went to in each level, but you were placed on a long and mostly-boring path for most of it. Unleashed and Generations had some neat set-pieces, but Colors was almost all blank 3D roads that led to different 2D sections. (On top of that, I could never get the hang of the double-jump) I remember seeing Aquarium Park for the first time, and all of the underwater Asian-style buildings, and was just raging. "Wait, I don't want to go this way! What's over there? I want to go over there instead! I'm running past all the cool stuff!"
All of FFXIII gave me the same feeling, and it kicked in insanely fast. I remember originally thinking that people had to be blowing things out of proportion. Final Fantasy X was linear as well, but it was one of my favorite games ever. I played XIII and I remember one part where I hit a switch and a huge and elaborate area rose up, just waiting to be explored. The game immediately switched characters to somebody else, and after their hallway section, everybody met up. The cool and elaborate exploration was teased, just to be literally done off-screen!
I trudged through that game all the way until reaching Pulse. Not because I was enjoying myself, but because I was working on playing all of the non-online Final Fantasy games in order to learn how the series evolved over time, much like this whole retrospective thing Clement's doing. I actually started enjoying Pulse because it was more wide-open and gave side-quests. Once I finished Pulse and needed to return to Cocoon for the finale, I couldn't do it. I still can't bring myself to finish that game despite being so close to the end.
Everybody says that the sequels are much better and much more enjoyable, but I haven't gotten around to trying them yet. Mainly because everybody says it's better, but up until this video, nobody bothers to explain HOW they're better, or what things got improved. I suppose I ought to get to playing them so I can finally wrap up my little marathon, I already own XV. I also need to finish X-2, but it was an insanely bad idea to try and play that immediately after replaying X, and trying to go for 100%.
I don't suppose anybody knows of a decent LP of XIII, so I can at least see the ending and the remaining "gameplay" without having to force myself through it personally? Seems like a difficult game to LP, making a good series would require a damn strong personality on part of the LP-er, to make up for how dull the game itself it.
Finish ittttt
Caius doesn't teleport through time. He's just lived long enough to see a lot of it.
Same thing happened to me.
XIII-2 basically became the game XIII should have been. The soundtrack was great too.
Mad respect on that muso comment. always a fan of warriors fans.
at first i thought id have to defend this game. this is legitimately in my top 5 final fantasy games, maybe top 3
Pfft OK bro
Honestly top 5 for me as well and I never played 13 or 13-3
Top 3 here, and personal favourite
Well now that clement uploaded a video there's no need for me to sleep.
Hey, I was waiting for this! I cant wait to see how you react to the rest of the games you're covering!
"Everybody's gonna want to ride your chocobo!"
@ClementJ64: I just hope I could try to explain some of the questions you had about the ending. I did some answering on gamefaqs years ago and I'll copy it here:
1) Only when he is killed by the hands of another guardian does Caius stay dead and the heart is transferred. But if the new guardian will is strong enough, the heart is rejected and is destroyed. THAT what Caius wanted and spend the whole game building up Noel will so that he would reject the heart. (That why he doesn't killed you outright at the beginning and toys with you the whole game.)
2) Caius can't travel through time. The Caius that at the secret ending is the True Caius. From the end of time, he sends messages to ALL the Caius from across time.
I love these retrospectives clement and cant wait for the next ones. I believe you'll be able to finish before 16 comes out in 2030
49:53 Wow...They called it 8 years ago.
4:08 "And then, I see it."
Yeah, I see it too. 3rd from the bottom, 5th from the left.
Weirdly, I think XIII-2 has one of the better soundtracks in the series. I’m serious, tracks like Knight of the Goddess and Paradigm Shift rank among my favorite non-final boss themes in the franchise.
I wish Noel Kreiss was the main protagonist in the entire trilogy
I love this game. It's a perfect summer game. The music and mood of the game is so summer-like.
yeah this and Super Mario Sunshine are perfect games to play in the summer
A personal favorite of mine in the series! Love Serah & Noel as protagonists.
I liked FFXIII-2 while FFXIII was bad, they fixed some of my main complaints. I even liked Lightning Returns. For some reason FFXIII fans hate it cause it "ruined the story" as if the story was all that good to begin with. I enjoyed the sidequests, exploration, towns and all the shit the first game didn't have.
@Drive Check. the time limit is a non issue imo. You have enough time to get your stats ready before you can get more time by doing main quests.
@@thunderthebright8469 Yup, thats what I was gonna say. The game gives plenty of time but I understand some people just want peace of mind and not have to worry about it.
@Syd Klem What good is all that lore and world building if you can't explore the world or even something as simple as visiting the towns. Gran Pulse is just a hallway as far as I'm concerned with FFXIII. Very disappointing for me coming from FFXII where you could freely explore the world, visit lots of towns and start doing hunts and sidequest within the first hour of the game.
This was my introduction to this series. A bit of a weird place to start but I got it from my cousin for Christmas and looked at the title confused for like 15 minutes
@31:00 I choose to believe Prompto's love for chocobos was so strong he superseded the foundational rules of time and space and went back in time and wrote this song.
53:57 Clement's "evil" laugh always gets me
Thank you for mentioning the chocobo theme, I was not disappointed. Also worth mentioning, that was composed by Nobuo Uematsu himself!
Final Fantasy XIII-2 is my favorite in th franchise. I'm a maniac, I know. 😶
Boy if you don't end up realizing how good Lightning Returns is so help me god
No, scratch that, I'll save it for if you don't like FF15.
@onion boi tf it is? FFXV is a soulless, garbage, waste of time and money
@@557deadpool agree. 15 is bland. Empty world. horrible side quests which wouldn't even get a pass on a f2p mmo. no real cities and overall the "world" in which the story took place felt smaller than in older titles where you had a world map with way less mass to walk on.
The story.. was a mess. Half of it isn't in the gamey the other half is presented in such a bad way, that I feel like they developed the game without a director. They wasted a genuinely interesting enemy. Ardyn was the only well written character, but didn't get the chance to have his motives developed properly and ofc lacked a world and characters to lift his drama to a deserving stage.
15 was the best square could patch together in a short time, after they lost focus and made one wrong decision after the other for a decade and it still wasn't enough.
Still better than 13 though.
@@k4yser ah and don't forget the deluge of product placement
also the whole story was in the game....you just had to buy DLC for it. there was literally nothing in Kingsglaive and Brotherhood that warranted their existence
and sure it's better than 13 in some ways but let's be honest, it can be really easy to choose one over the other
13-2 is somewhat extremly underrated ... idk i just love this game so much 😂❤
One of the things 13 and 13-2 have as a hidden (kind of skill based) mechanic is Paradigm Refresh. It's an invisible cooldown that takes about 13 seconds to charge (or roughly two attack turns) and what it does is give you a completely full ATB Bar after you switch, which means you can be 150% times more aggressive which also means you can push Stagger Gauges and Stagger Chain Bonuses that much faster and higher into the 990.0% range to get the full 10x damage booster while doing 3 full commando attack bars for every 2 turns you'd normally have on the remainder of the Stagger bar.
What this does is dramatically speeds up the pace of both games to the point where you can easily get through the first 10 chapters of 13 is about 17 hours. It also encourages you to create secondary paradigms that are copies or similar to existing paradigms so you can switch from a ravager to another ravager and get that sweet paradigm refresh so you can just hammer on enemies at a much MUCH faster rate than before. It turns the game into a much more active experience, since switching isn't needs based, it's a timing mechanic that rewards speed and dexterity and greatly increases the skill ceiling, making skill more important than stats.
A low level lightning making use of Paradigm Refresh can beat Chapters 9 and 10 in about an hour each, whereas even a high level party that isn't using this system will end up taking hours upon hours in each chapter. Being able to end fights in less than half the time and easily two cycle-ing boss fights like Bartandelous. It's a great mechanic but the biggest problem is there's no HUD indicator to tell you that it's going on, which means most players aren't going to know to use it and will just take the slow way through the game. It really makes such a huge difference once you get the hang of it and you start Paradigm Shifting so frequently it could be called a Controlled Breathing mechanic.
It lets you really push the advantage and play much MUCH more aggressively. What sucks is I had no idea this system existed either. I had to find out about it by watching a live event a speedrunner named LewdDolphin did where he explained all the hidden mechanics the game has that make it possible to be a really really good speedrunner game. Learning about that one mechanic was so significant that it made me go from not really enjoying the combat at all to absolutely loving it. It really makes everything click together properly and makes the battles feel like a more worthwhile and active part of the game.
Oh and I think the framerate is better on PS3 than it is on 360? I don't remember having bad framerate issues when I played it recently.
My best friend at work loves this OST a lot, and nothing ever prepares me for "SO YOU THINK YOU CAN RIIIDE THIS CHO-CO-BO?" Classic
Kept us waiting huh? (Yeah ik it's a MGS reference in a ff video but c'mon. You all waited awhile for this like I have).
Purple, blue ,green chocobos and the behemoths were my most used monsters
Fucking love Snow, one day I want to have his confidence and conviction. Snow is my favorite character.
hahahahaha I never knew that about Serah's airhead line, lol.
Fun game, but dang finding the best commando microchu was the biggest b.s. and I got lost in Oerba finding that dang artefact with the Chocobo hop onto one of the buildings. Only time I had to look up something, was so annoyed
That Caius/Infinate's theme gag was too good 😆
Oh my god, if only you saw the look on my face when I saw this video. Keep up the great work Clement. Cheers.
Love having the date title be AF
‘It’s 2020 AF mate’ would work particularly well
I remember feeling the same way about you Clement when I first played 13-2, ended up loving the game. Watching your video makes me want to get a ps3 again to play this game again
You were right, this is indeed a case study. FFXIII-2 was *not* that much better than XIII for me, but it was definitely more enjoyable. The combat was kinda better, but it was still the same and replacing the party formations with switchable Mons wasn't even close to a good idea. The main characters here were so much more interesting, and the previous cast, while not _everyone_ was salvaged from the terrible plot threads of XIII, managed to have some depth in their personalities. And XIII-2's story, while just another time travel story with some holes in its established theory, was still interesting to see play out.
I can go on, but if you can't tell, I sounded pretty ambivalent towards the game. Because XIII-2 is a textbook example of credit where it's due; knowing how bad the last game turned out and trying to improve on it in every way, despite not exceeding very well on any angle except for THE MUSIC THO. I think this game became the impetus for me adopting that mindset, to always see something improve and do better, whether it be a sequel or a new developing game. Knowing Squeenix gave a damn enough to try harder gets them a thumbs up from me.
Also, Noel is one of my favorite FF protagonists ever. But it's a shame he wasn't explored enough, and LR did not help on that front. Give this guy a crossover already.
I love 13-2 easily the best of the trilogy. The time travel plot is silly but I love Noel and Caius and the gameplay was everything I wished out of 13. A perfect balance of linearity and nonlinearity
Excellent retrospective Clement - in-depth, well edited, and quite informative, and thanks to you i may just buy this game's soundtrack. i'm looking forward to your next video on FF XIII-3.
I've waited all summer for this video, so worth it.
I really enjoyed 13-2 for what it was. I'll also add the limited edition came with the FULL soundtrack(4 discs) I didnt buy it myself but someone gave it to me. It's still sitting on my shelf all these years later.
Crazy Chocobo is also a bop and whenever I make people listen to it they are so confused.
50:36
My first and second thought was Akihiko and Gaara. He was literally the last one I'd think of.
Clement thank you for the fantastic video!! This actually ended up being one of my favorite games of all time just because of how fun it was. It really did feel like what XIII-1 should have been gameplay wise and character wise and its the shame its stuck between the first and third game : /. Noel/Caius remain two of my favorite FF characters of all time :)
@First Last World of Warcraft, Majoras Mask, Mario Sunshine, Megaman 2, Halo 3 just for a few
Out of topic but I got sonic classic collection for the ds. That just made my day.
Love Caius Ballad as a cool villain.
I'm in the same boat. I hated Final Fantasy XIII, but actually enjoyed XIII-2. XIII-2 is definitely the best of the trilogy, in my opinion. I haven't even finished Lightning Returns. I found the story too dull and I didn't like the gimmick of giving you a time limit. I made it to the 14th day on my first playthrough (although I was playing on the easier setting) but just never really felt a drive to finish the game. To this day I'm not even sure how the story ends.
Me hearing Caius’ voice for the first time and realizing it’s Grimoire Noire
Wow someone else who was disappointed with FFXIII but actually liked FFXIII-2, they definitely were looking to address the complaints of the first. Sidequests, towns, exploration, no party leader dying=gameover BS, and it didn't feel like a tutorial and restricted for the first 25-30 hours.
66
"I miss rental stores so MUUUUUCH...!" Me too man, me too... :(
I would probably enjoy this game for the dynamic between Noel and Caius alone, love a good hero and villain dynamic
It's become a classic. Let's face it FF13 when looked back 10 years later and all of it's installments add to the lore we all share for the series.
Just picked up the HD re-release of Final Fantasy X/X-2 after seeing your videos about them. Thanks for getting me into this series!
I really want to hear your thoughts on 13-3 cause I actually quite like that game, even more so than 15.
They literally turned this game into Shin Megami Tensei with the monster capture and fusion.
I don't know if Academia can survive a magnitude 11 earthquake.
Played the final fantasy X/X-2 remaster for pc and really liked X-2, changing jobs durning combat was really fun.
Your entire rant near the beginning is exactly how I felt when i played sonic forces
They should've made all the original party members unlockable like X-2 International{minus Wakka)did.
All things considered, this joke at 50:43 works so well, and it's very much welcomed.
The voice actor did the book character in Nier too, right? His voice is unmistakable.
Finally! Gonna binge this
13 was a dumpster fire, 13-2 put the fire out and salvaged the good ideas
Disappointed you don't bring mention to Noel having the same voice as Max Goof.
Granted, I didn't know that until I watched this video and thought "he sounds really familiar". Turns out he's also Rosh in Jedi Academy.
The Great Clement is back!
So that entire game Caius could have just stabbed himself in the chest and he would have won. He *knew* that it would kill Etro and give him his goal.
Sooooo... Why didn't he just do that?
Bad writing
I never have time to watch these sadly, but when I’m at work pushing carts...*starts playlist*
3:50 4:02 I feel the same tbh, just reminds me of when I was young and carefree. This stuff hit me like a gunblade to the sternum out of nowhere. I said, out loud, Bourne style, "Oh my god, that's Brutal Force." I recognize so many of these titles for rent just based on the cover from browsing rental places when I was a kid, it's such a specific sort of burned-in memory the way you'd burn things to a CD. I can't get all of them, but- that's Advent Rising, front and center where it... belongs......? (It didn't belong anywhere, really, but man it tried.) Glad to hear XIII-2 was a radical departure from the original.
The ending of this game just broke me, I didn’t even play anything post-game related. I was DONE.
Looking forward to your Lightning Returns review, I bought the game when it came out but didn’t like the first couple hours so I never finished it haha
did you never play final fantasy tactics advance 2? that game is great! easily one of my favorites.