Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes
There has been much controversy around the trilogy of Lightning in Final Fantasy XIII, related to the need to extend the story of this character, the ‘little charisma’ that according to who has the heroine of the Fabula Nova Crystallis or even the fact of that the tactic of launching three games responds more to a series of business objectives (identical base engine, world already created) than to the real need to tell a story.
But indifferently from all the above, it seems quite realistic to admit that none of the three games that make up the thirteenth part of the Final Fantasy saga is a bad game; maybe as the title of the series are short but Square Enix has not done, not even remotely, a disaster judged purely as a video game.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 may be the best of the trilogy, in that it takes the base of the original and the power in each and every one of its aspects and, if we already valued it a couple of years ago when the original game reached PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, denying it now would be ridiculous. With the release of the PC title, we recovered one of the most entertaining JRPGs of recent years, which stands out for production values that match the expectations of the franchise.
Final Fantasy XIII-2So it comes to PC keeping absolutely everything that made it shine in consoles, no more, no less. There are no strict add-ons because the novelties are actually the DLCs of the original versions, retrieved free of charge in this edition for compatible.
The content is thus identical, as well as the story, which starts with Lightning in the Valhalla being attacked by Caius. The sudden appearance of a young man named Noel causes Lightning to ask him for help to go to the past and contact his sister, Serah , to change the destiny of the world and thus avoid the destruction of it.
The argument starts from this fact, with the arrival of Noel to the place where the young woman lives, something that coincides with a monsters infection; and after a series of dialogues, it is concluded that traveling in time seems the most logical way to avoid disaster.
FFXIII-2 is not highlighted by his argument despite having good ideas, but in this sense is lighter than other titles in the series and that the bulk of the JRPGs of the ‘ golden age’ . However, he manages to maintain interest with what really matters: with effective mechanics . Part of the blame for this is that tri-Ace has it
, a studio that co-developed the game with Square-Enix and was able to combine the essential elements of FFXIII (formations, visible enemies on stage) with other additions
that improved the overall experience decisively. In Final Fantasy XIII-2 we are thus two clear divisions at playable level that correspond to the exploration and the combats. In the first block, we talk about a game much more open than FFXIII ,
especially the first half of that, in which we just limited ourselves to moving through corridors, ending enemies, watching video sequences and creating links with the characters (or trying). Here there is much more freedom and although we are not facing Skyrim
or a sandbox, nothing is further from reality, it is true that what is breathed by the cities is a much more organic feeling, everything is more alive from the minute one and we found many npcs willing to talk, provide details about the history and even give us secondary missions that can grant us extremely interesting rewards to progress in the adventure.
Within the citieswe can do the usual thing, which goes from what has already been mentioned – talking with npcs – to buying items, accepting secondary missions or collecting hidden objects thanks to the help of our Moguri. Leaving them and entering into what we might consider the dungeons, ie environments in which enemies roam at ease, we find more variety of options and therefore a less tired feeling of progression
. In these segments we run into the combats, of course, that as in the previous game we can avoid or go head-to-head for them even though the way of presenting them has changed.
Now, the enemies appear randomly but for a few seconds we can decide whether to fight or not, representing the possibility of escape with a range of movement and a kind of roulette in which it is decided if we will attack first (green), without order (yellow) or if we end up in initial disadvantage (red). In any of these last three cases, we will appear in a different scenario, fighting by turns in the classical style. This is the second important aspect of
Final Fantasy XIII-2 and corresponds to the way in which the battles have gained dynamism with respect to Final Fantasy XIII. To begin with, it is based on the fact that we already know the system and there are not very long tutorials in which each of the things on the screen is counted.
