At this point, I spent some time in the menu. The Crystarium looks completely different now. Instead of seeing the entire tree at once and going from branch to branch, you’re limited to just seeing the individual branches, only what you can afford to upgrade. Monsters are in the Crystarium now as well, but they use “monster materials” instead of Crystogen Points to upgrade their powers. There’s an option to go through all of their abilities as well and read up on what all of their powers do. The new look is sleek and very cool, despite the fact that I don’t quite understand how the leveling works just yet. Equipment optimization has also changed – now it’s strength-oriented, magic-oriented, and maximum HP, instead of XIII’s offensive, defensive, and balanced options. The map is also much more in-depth as well. And oh yeah, did I mention that you can jump now? Like, actually jump, for real? The Circle button lets you jump. I know, your mind was just blown.
There’s also a great section that goes into detail about each of the roles, and an explanation of something that had popped up in my first battle against Atlas. This new option, called “Wounding,” is pretty intense: “Certain powerful attacks are so damaging that they sap the life out of the target and reduce maximum HP. When the effect takes place, the damage displayed is accompanied with the word WOUNDED. Wounds cannot be healed by spells or normal potions, making foes with this ability extremely dangerous. Wound damage can only be cured using Wound Potions. It will also be removed at the end of battle.” Ouch. Adding a little Demon’s Souls to my Final Fantasy has certainly upped the ante a bit. Health still fully regenerates after battle, though, so it’s not totally unforgiving.
The first battle in which you utilize a monster gives you yet another tutorial, this one on the Feral Link mechanic. The Feral Link is a special move the monsters can use in battle, once they’ve filled up their meter. It’s very similar to how the Eidolons worked in the first game, but much simpler. As Cat Sith’s Feral Link filled, I hit the Square button, which gave me a cinematic and a Quick Time Event. The higher the synchronization, the more effective the attack is.
There was a lot going on in the game, and I hadn’t even been playing it for twenty minutes at this point! I was already supremely impressed by all the changes they’d made. I was glad they’d kept the components for weapons, and also saw that they had a more complex item system – you can also wear adornments, which can change your character’s appearance and add to their stats. Accessory capacity increases as your character levels as well, giving you more slots.
I went back to exploring, fighting monsters and gathering treasure. When the random monsters appear, you can hit them before the battle sequence initiates, giving you a pre-emptive strike. In some situations, you can also opt to simply outrun them and avoid the fight altogether if you choose to. I went around fighting them and gathering more monster crystals, experimenting with adding different monsters to my party. I also gathered more items and talked to more NPCs, though it seemed that most of them had the same exact voice, which surprised me. As I walked around, Atlas appeared again, but then disappeared into another world, or another timeline.
Talking to one of the soldiers gave me an option to take on a mission. A shambling C’ieth had appeared, and they were trying to destroy it. I took on the mission to find it and destroy it for them, and also took on another mission to try to find two capsules of materials that had gone missing. Finishing up these missions gets you fragments – killing the C’ieth gave me a “Ghast Fragment” and a bundle of CP. I also discovered Chocolina, a woman dressed like a sexy Chocobo. She operates as a travelling shop, buying and selling items as well as crafting weapons for you. I’m not sure if, in the full game, this is where you’ll be able to save, but it seems a lot like the options given at the save points in the first game.
As I was walking around, I reached a point where Atlas reappeared, and was given a “Live Trigger,” which was basically a tree of options. Atlas had reappeared, and so had a mysterious device. I could find out what Mog or Alyssa thought about the situation, or I could go fight Atlas, or go mess with the machine and see if that would help me in the fight against Atlas. Of course, I went right in for the fight with Atlas, who killed my whole party in one shot. Whoops! So I retried, and this time I went into the tunnels and found the machine.
As we approached the machine to use it, Atlas grabbed us, and Mog chased after us. We were then put inside of a “time paradox,” which put us into a “time labyrinth.” To get out of the labyrinth, you have to “figure out the labyrinth and its puzzles before we can get out, Kupo!” (I’ll let you guess who that quote was from.)
This is where the game becomes a puzzle game. It’s called “Temporal Rift: Tile Trial.” In this one, the floor disappears as you walk over it, and you must gather the crystals. So you have to plan out the path you will take to gather them all and get to the exit. This one had three relatively easy stages, only made easy through their comparison to the brutal Catherine. We popped out of the time paradox, turned on the machine, and went back to fight Atlas, who had been slowed down by the machine.
The battle against Atlas went much better the second time. I fought him, achieved a perfect cinematic, found its weak spot, and destroyed it. This part was very much a mash-up of God of War III, Shadow of the Colossus, and Final Fantasy XIII. The paradox dissipated, and the demo was over, leading into an amazing trailer that made me want the game even more than I already did, which I didn’t think was possible.
I was very pleased overall with the demo, and felt that Square Enix has done a lot to improve on the original game, making it smoother and more accessible in addition to all of the new features. All of these elements are combining together to make Final Fantasy XIII-2 a game to look forward to. If they have blended everything perfectly – which the demo makes it feel that they have – then this is going to be one of the best RPGs of this generation.
