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The Hawk Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Gamer's Corner column [The Hawk Eye, Burlington, Iowa]
(Hawk Eye, The (Burlington, IA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Feb. 12--"Final Fantasy XIII-2 available for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Rated "T" for Teen. $59.99
There was a time, not that long ago, when the majority of story-driven, role-playing games came from Japan. While American game developers still were fiddling about with platformers and shoot-em-ups, Japanese developers were telling epic fantasy stories capable of making young boys weep.
That was half a lifetime ago (the 1990s), and the gaming world has been flipped upside down since then. Those weeping boys grew into video game programmers, who learned to infuse their western sensibilities with the epic scope of the Japanese RPGs they grew up playing.
In a gaming world where story-focused games are dominated mostly by adult-oriented American RPGs like "Mass Effect" and "The Elder Scrolls," Japanese games featuring ultra-cheery characters with pink and purple hair might seem a bit unusual to those who didn't grow up on it. Truth be told, these young whippersnappers weaned on dark fantasy games like "Dragon Age" cannot possibly comprehend the amount of Japanese pop culture we were exposed to as children.
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For them, a bubble-gum RPG like "Final Fantasy XIII-2" is an oddity, best left to aging gamers who maintain a disturbing fascination with all things Japan. For me, the game is an extension of my never-ending childhood. It also happens to be a pretty damn good RPG, if you can look past the anime-influenced zaniness.
Personally, I think that's part of the charm.
Just as the incredibly awkward title suggests, "Final Fantasy XIII-2" is a direct sequel to the 2010 RPG "Final Fantasy XIII," which is a completely original game. Despite the numbering system, each subsequent "Final Fantasy" title is completely unrelated, save for the names of spells, items and a few common themes.
The story of "Final Fantasy XIII" concerned a small group of adventurous travelers (doesn't it always) who defied the gods that kept their floating city of Cocoon suspended above the monster-infested planet of Gran Pulse. As the city fell to the ground, two of those heroes were transformed into a crystal pillar (don't ask) that managed to hold Cocoon up in the sky. Roll end credits.
"Final Fantasy XIII-2" picks up three years later, putting you in the role of the Serah, the little sister of the main character from the previous game, Lightning. And things are not looking good for Serah and her friends. Lightning has gone missing, and the survivors from Cocoon were forced to migrate to the dangerous landscape of Gran Pulse due to the instability of their formerly floating city.
Of course, Lightning isn't really missing. She's just trapped in the land of Valhalla (a favorite Norse city among Japanese game developers), which sits outside the realm of time and space. You'll take control of her during the opening moments of the game as she engages in an epic battle against a blue-haired baddie who appears to be the amalgamation of every "Final Fantasy" villain who went before.
I spent the majority of my time in the game trying to figure out what's going on, but in a time travel adventure like this, that's not necessarily a bad thing. During her epic battle, Lightning stumbles across one of the last survivors of humanity, Noel, who hails from the future, and sends him hurtling back through time to put right what once went wrong.
It's kind of like "Quantum Leap" or "Back to the Future," only with swords, monsters and crazy futuristic Japanese fashion. Noel soon comes across Serah, and the two decide to start crisscrossing time in order to save the world.
To be honest, the story is much more fleshed out and coherent than I thought it would be, even if it is full of cringe-inducing dialogue about love and valor that barely serves the one-dimensional characters. Noel's sandals and blue baggy shorts make him look like a reject from the "Kingdom Hearts" franchise, and Serah's pink and white dress (along with her pink hair) give her the look of a J-Pop music star rather than a warrior.
But what are you gonna do? It's Japan. And if you don't know what that means, watch "Lost in Translation" sometime. You'll understand.
Where "Final Fantasy XIII-2" truly excels is in the ultra-strategic, turn-based combat, which is an expanded version of the battle engine from the previous game. It starts off simple enough. You assign roles to your characters that makes them defend, attack or use magic, and you can constantly shift those roles during the battles. But then you get the ability to collect monsters, who fight along Serah and Noel, and you must level them up in their specific roles. The combination of character classes are nearly endless, and my sluggish mind was barely able to keep up with the tutorials.
You'll eventually get the hang of the system, even if you never get very good at it, like me. It is with no small amount of shame I must admit to shifting the combat difficulty from "normal" to "easy" about 10 hours into the game.
A special mention should be made of the graphics, though, which are simply outstanding. No matter how you feel about the characters, the landscapes are truly a sight to behold. Everything is bright, beautiful, and cheery -- like a brochure advertising cobbled together fantasy lands that only could exist in dreams.
The familiar turn-based combat and pretty visuals exist for one reason -- to lure in veteran gamers (Japanese and American alike) who still yearn for the Super Nintendo RPGs of yore. From the first tick of the clock, it is embarrassingly obvious the time travel gimmick is lifted straight from the 1994 game "Chrono Trigger," which is hailed by many (myself included) as one of the greatest RPGs ever made. How can a crusty gamer in his 30s not fall in love when you tickle his nostalgia?
Less obvious is the game's remarkable similarity to the 2011 RPG "Radiant Historia" for the Nintendo DS, which used a time-travel selection menu nearly identical to the one found in "Final Fantasy XIII-2." The idea of solving a side quest in one timeline to fix another is also remarkably similar, but that could be said of any time-travel game.
The game's only glaring weakness is the underdeveloped side quests, which rely on poorly textured characters who usually just want you to talk to someone else 20 feet away. There's more than 60 hours worth of gaming here if you want to do absolutely everything, but unless you're a hardcore "Final Fantasy" fan, the incentive is low. The frustration you'll endure, however, is extremely high.
I was in it for the familiarity and Japanese weirdness, which is best experienced by plowing through the main quest in 30 hours.
If you enjoyed "Final Fantasy XIII," you might as well play this even zanier sequel. Everyone else should stay far away. All you'll find is a big pile on nonsense buried under pink hair and talking moogles -- mythical creatures that look like the offspring of a kitty cat and a koala bear.
Three out of Four Stars
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(c)2012 The Hawk Eye (Burlington, Iowa)
Visit The Hawk Eye (Burlington, Iowa) at www.thehawkeye.com
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