The ending to Final Fantasy XIII was beautiful. But imagine an ending in which Lightning did not come home after the final fight? What if she, along with Fang and Vanille, sacrificed herself to save humanity and the world? This is what everyone remembers. Everyone, except one person; Serah Farron, Lighting’s sister.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the direct sequel to Final Fantasy XIII, which released in 2010 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The story takes place three years after the events of the original, and this time, we follow the adventures of Serah Farron, the younger sister of Lightning (Claire Farron), and newcomer Noel Kreiss.

After the spectaculair opening movie in which we see Lighting from Final Fantasy XIII, you start at New Bodhum, a small village on Gran Pulse. The year is 3 AF en life is peaceful. Serah is seen in her bed en she appears to be dreaming. She sees Lightning, her sister, who, to save the world, sacrificed herself three years ago. However, not everything is as it seems. Because Serah has different memories. Memories that nobody but her seems to believe. She is said to be imagining things. But then… She wakes from her dream. On her are different clothes than those she wore when she went to sleep. However, she cannot remember putting them on. Ze gets up, and walks outside. People are fighting monsters. Her friends seem to be in danger, so Serah rushes to their aid.

During the fight, Serah, together with her friends, try their very best to eliminate the threat and make their home safe again. But even so, that seems to be harder than initially thought. Then all of a sudden, Serah is taken down. She’s on the ground and is in need of help. That help arrives, and Serah’s up on her feet again. However, not long after, Serah’s rescuer is taken down herself. Serah knows she won’t be able to reach her in time to pay her back, and at that moment, he arrives: Noel Kreiss. He says he’s from the future and that he has a message for Serah; a message from Lightning, her sister. This seems to be impossible, but Serah wants to believe. Could her recent dreams about her sister be connected to Noel’s visit? After a lenghty explanation from Noel, her adventure begins…

One of the most important elements of Final Fantasy XIII-2 is time-travel. Together with your newest ally Noel, you’ll be visiting a number of different timelines and histories. In these worlds you’ll find answers to questions you’ll surely ask yourself throughout your time in Final Fantasy XIII-2. The story is very interesting, and you’ll notice that you’re constantly interested in playing, to find out whether the theories you’ve hypothesized are correct. Nothing is as it seems in Final Fantasy XIII-2, and it’s just beautiful to see how the developers managed to tie the loose ends together.

Contary to Final Fantasy XIII, random battles from earlier games in the series, have returned. When you walk around in the world, it may happen that enemies appear. When they do, the Mog Clock will appear. When the Mog Clock appears, you have a few options: a) you can attack the enemy to initiate a preemtive strike. b) je can make contact with the enemy to engage in a regular battle. c) you can run away, hoping you don’t have to fight. If you’re not in time with any of these actions, and you’re still in the radius of the enemies, the battle will automatically start. The fight will be a regular fight, however the ‘Retry’-option will be disabled.

The battle system in Final Fantasy XIII-2 is, just like its predecessor, the ATB-system. ATB stands for Active Time-Battle, and what this means is that time does not stop during battle. Even though you as player may choose not to take any action during the fight, doesn’t mean the enemy can’t deal damage to you. Battles are turn-based, which means that it operates in turns. Through a menu, you choose different actions. Every action you take costs a number of segments in your ATB-gauge, which continuously fills during battle. You can, like mentioned before, choose your own actions. However, there is also another way of fighting; with the auto-battle function. If you choose to battle in this way, the game will choose a set of commands for you, based on exploiting the current enemy’s weakness.

Of course there’s more to the battle system than just that. There is also the Paradigm Shift-system. Each character has the ability to take on six (three at the start of the game) different roles. Each of these roles has a different set of skills which, when learned in the Crystarium (later in this review), can be used. A Commando, for instance, focusses on dealing physical damage to the enemy, while a Medic is working on healing team members. A Saboteur is good at conjuring spells which put the enemy in a negative position, while a Synergist does the opposite for team members. A Ravager employs elemental spells and a Sentinel protects team members by provoking enemies and absorbing a large amount of the damage dealt by the enemy. A combination of roles for each of your team members is called a Paradigm, and you can freely shift between the different Paradigms you set. And you better believe us when we say that you will have to shift between Paradigms more than you think. The system is very strategic and can, when used properly, make for some fast and explosive battles.

After every battle, you will be graded in stars. One star is the lowest rank, while five stars is the maximum amount you can earn. You will also receive an amount of CP (Crystogen Points), which can be used to upgrade your characters through the Crystarium. Each of the six available roles (Commando, Ravager, Medic, Sentinel, Synergist and Saboteur) can be upgraded to a maximum with the earned Crystogen Points. With each new level, you will increase your maximum HP, MP and you will improve your strength. With certain levels, you will also obtain new skills, which can be used in battle. At the start of the game, the number of CP needed to increase in level is not that high, but when you progress through the game, you will notice that the necessary amount will keep rising, making it harder for you to level up. This system works very well, and makes you want to spend more time in certain locations so that you can ‘grind’, in preperation for next boss battle, which will undoubtedly pop up sooner or later.

A new aspect to Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the Paradigm Pack. The Paradigm Pack is a section in which you can manage the monsters you’ve captured within the game. During the many fights, you have to ability to capture the monsters you fight against. This happens automatically and not always. But when you do own them, you can add them to your team. Each monster has one set role which cannot be changed. For instance, when a monster has been set as a Commando, you cannot make it so that the monster becomes a Medic. Caught monsters which have been set in your party, will fight with you against your enemies. At maximum, you can have up to three monsters in a Paradigm Pack, but only one of them can be active in one Paradigm. So if you wish to switch monsters mid-battle, you will automatically have to switch Paradigms, as well. The collecting of the different monsters is a lot of fun, especially when you’ve had your eyes on a certain monster for quite a while. Behemoths, for instance.

Just like the human characters, monsters can be upgraded through the Crystarium as well. Hoewever, this isn’t done with Crystogen Points. For monsters, you will have to use components to upgrade. Components are earned through fighting battles, but you can also find or buy them within the game world. And just like with upgrading human characters, the amount of necessary components increases as they level up. Considering the many monsters in Final Fantasy XIII-2, even die-hard fans will have a hard time upgrading them to the max.

When Final Fantasy XIII was released in 2010, there was a lot of negative feedback on the game. Graphically, the game was unmatched in its genre and the story was interesting enough to suck the player in it. However, for a lot of players, there was just not much to do after you had seen the ending movie. There were no towns, and minigames were nowhere to be found. When Final Fantasy XIII-2 was announced, the same people that were disappointed by the original game, had doubts. Square Enix, though, told us that they learned from their mistakes and that every major issue with the original, would be looked at, and corrected, in Final Fantasy XIII-2. And Square Enix was right. Final Fantasy XIII-2 is much more open than its predecessor, and offers a large amount of activities to the player, even after they’ve seen the ending movie.

You can choose to kill time in a location called Serendipity. This is like a caino with a number of different activities. When you enter Serendipity, you have to buy Casino Coins, which are used to play the games. These points can be exchanged for a number of big (and sometimes mysterious) prizes, provided you have enough of them. Among the different activities, there are Chocobo races in which you can participate. These are comparable to the horse races in the real world. You bet on one or multiple Chocobo’s and you watch as they race, of course while rooting for your chosen Chocobo(‘s) and you cheer when they win. You can also let your own Chocobo participate, as long as you have at least captured one during the game. Also, there are slot machines, where the big money can be won. Aside from these things, there is also a Mystic to be found at Serendipity. This Mystic will help you obtain a number of skills that can make your journey through the world of Final Fantasy XIII-2 a lot easier. And that’s all we’ll say about that. If you want to know more, visit her for some coffee.

But it’s not just Serendipity that is a location worth visiting. The many other locations in the game also have lots of things to do. In each area, a multitude of sidequests can be found. These will net you cool rewards, so they are definitely worth doing. Furthermore, you can collect Fragments, of which there are 160 in the game. These fragments are connected to the Mystic we’ve talked about earlier, to give you a hint. There are also hidden objects that can be found, for which you will have to ask your little Moogle partner Mog for help. Special monsters also roam the lands of Final Fantasy XIII-2, which aren’t very easy to find, sometimes. Chocolina also appears in Final Fantasy for the first time. She is a very cheerful lady who dresses as a Chocobo. She runs a small shop and you’ll meet her in the weirdest places. She’s also the one person you want to meet if you’re looking for new weapons, items and/or components. And sometimes, she’ll even have some special items for you!

Graphically, Final Fantasy XIII-2 is beautiful. A lot of attention and work went into the areas within the game, which can clearly be seen. When it rains, you will actually see this because the floor is wet. Also, wind can be seen waving through the grass, and effects of snow are visible on characters when they are running through snow-covered areas. These things make it that the world of the game comes alive and it gives you the feeling of really being on a journey. Aside from the areas, character models look wonderful. They may not be as smooth as they could have been on a close-up, but they definitely look great from a distance. This also applies to the many different monsters and boss characters that you meet. Square Enix has put a lot of attention into the visual aspect of Final Fantasy XIII-2.

There is a lot of spoken dialog in Final Fantasy XIII-2. Lots of things are explained through voiced cutscenes, and if that is the case, you may expect it to be of high quality. Even though there is no option for original Japanese audio, we have to admit that the English language version is very well done. The voices used for the characters are fitting, and the emotional level of some of the cutscenes can almost be felt. Aside from these dialogues, there is, of course, also music. And we are glad that the music used for the different locations are very fitting as well, which enhances the experience. A little downer for us, however, was the battle music. The battle music is, in our opinion, inferior to the battle music used in Final Fantasy XIII.

While the main storyline of Final Fantasy XIII-2 can be completed in about 25 hours, and is a lot shorter than the storyline of Final Fantasy XIII with that, doesn’t mean that the game ends after you’ve seen the final cutscene. Like described in the review, there’s a lot you can do after. You’ll still be able to have fun for many more hours if you’re willing to spend the time. If you’re the kind of person that calls a game ‘finished’ after you’ve seen the credits, then after about 25 hours, your journey ends.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a big improvement over its predecessor, Final Fantasy XIII. Square Enix has done their best to expand the amount of content available. With a less lineair game, lots of side-quests, collectable monsters, collectable items, minigames, locations, unlockable skills and a promise for downloadable content (DLC) in the future, Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a strong JRPG that no fan should miss!