It’s been three years since Cocoon almost plunged into the land of Gran Pulse below. Three years since the disaster was diverted by the unlikeliest of heroes, ones meant to facilitate the destruction. The fal’Cie have retreated from the affairs of humanity, the crystalized l’Cie are once again human. Serah, the unfortunate soul transformed into crystalline form and sister to tough as nails Lightning, joins them as flesh and blood. In the aftermath, some citizens of Cocoon decided to make a fresh start in the harsh, hostile land below of Gran Pulse.

Things are looking great on New Bodhum: the sky is shining, the birds are chirping. Life is tough but the residents find a true purpose in their everyday lives. Serah still hasn’t come to grips with the disappearance of Lighting, she swears her sister was with her and their friends after the fall of Cocoon. No one else remembers it, they believe she gave her life to save her home. Snow, Serah’s fiancée, has left on an adventure to search for the missing Lightning.

Late one night Serah is awoken from another dream involving her sister to chaos. Monsters have invaded her cozy sea-side home, monsters no one has ever seen before. In the fight, a mysterious character arrives to save her hide from the malicious evil-doers. Recognizing him from her dream with Lightning, she accepts his help and begins a journey throughout time to find her sister.

Thus we set off onto a true sequel of a Final Fantasy game. After 2010′s hit and miss Final Fantasy XIII, Square Enix went back to flesh out not only the story but fix some of the irritants fans had with the game. The question is, did they succeed? Did they fail miserably? Hit the break and let’s go to it! Worry not about spoilers, nothing here that hasn’t already been spilled in the hype up.

As a long time FF fan, I was dismayed by the lengthy and linear opening dozen or so hours of XIII. It was more of an A to Z situation, instead of the usual A to B to C to…Z that is a characteristic of a Final Fantasy game. It was hard to keep going when the next section could involve losing the team members I had just spent an hour learning and leveling up to another set of hapless fools. These two major gripes have been fixed in XIII-2. While there is still a slight amount of straightforward action in the beginning, it has been kept to a reasonable minimum. Just enough to set the tone of the game and brush up on the game mechanics. Instead of a large cast of swappable characters, we have just Serah and Noel – her mysterious savior. We get to focus on this duo, build them up, really get to know them. Makes the narrative flow better, more concise.

What’s a FF game with only two-party members you ask? One where you get a more addictive element than raising Chocobos – Monster Collecting! During battle, there’s a chance a defeated foe will leave behind a shiny crystal containing its very life force. Once these vicious enemies are captured, they can be added to the party paradigms. Want to add another Ravager to the mix? Need a medic? There’s a monster for that. Up to three of the little buggers can be stored in a Paradigm Pack which will give strategic players a better way to manage their tactics. What makes it addictive is that there are tons of them to catch tame and employ. Certain monsters are uber-rare and can only be snagged under just the right circumstances. Once brought into the fold, the beasts are upgradeable by using materials dropped after battle or purchased in stores. The final element to the monster mayhem is the ability to infuse abilities of monsters into others. Gamers can level up their precocious pets then merge them into another to make a super beast. A lot of time can be chewed up just in the monster mash!

Some FF purists might complain about the Historia Crux, saying it’s not like racing around location to location on a chocobo or airship. Well I like it personally, it’s just a much better version of Fast Travel. With all of the different areas that unlock, the different times, alternate timelines and such it’s positively necessary to keep everything straight. Plus, who needs an airship when you can zip through time?

Random enemy encounters, oh how we sometimes loathe you! Modifying XIII’s visible enemies, XIII-2 utilizes the Mog Clock. Baddies now appear out of the blue again but can be avoided or attacked how players see fit. Want the Preemptive Bonus? Strike the creature while the arm is in the green on the dial and the first strike goes to Team Serah. Need to skip a fight on the way to an encounter? Run away far enough to get the blood thirsty heathens outside of the encounter circle, they’ll disappear and onto the next area the player will go. The Mog Clock can also penalize slow-moving gamers by locking the retry option if the hand hits over to the red side when the fight starts. Gives more balance to the random fights and some choice in how they’re approached.

Gripes, I do have a few. For some apparent reason, Serah runs like she has an impacted colon. She might sprint along just fine but then she stops to walk slowly. Really gets frustrating when I’m trying to zip past a fight to head to some far off spot. Slashing at baddies to start a preemptive bonus is sporadic, swings may go right through the target or miss completely, even when they’re right in front of me. Missed too many times for it to be a fluke or skill. Sad as it could give a nice bit of action to the game.

Throughout the game are different types of Temporal Puzzles. By completing them, the paradoxes of time will be resolved. While not bad in a sense, they just seemed out-of-place. Running around on a tiled grid connecting crystals or collecting said crystals was a disjointed experience. The Hands of Time puzzles seem to serve no purpose beyond filler, frustrating filler at that. Not sure the design thought behind them but I would have rather not dealt with them. Some may like them, some probably won’t. Just comes down to personal preference.

I haven’t touched upon the story because quite frankly, Square Enix can’t please everyone. The story line worked for me, maybe because I appreciate it for what it is. Grand, crazy, massive and insane – it’s everything I want in a RPG narrative. It’s not too convoluted with enough moves to still make my jaded jaw gape. I liked it, what more can be said?

Pick it up geeks, you’ll have a blast! The monster taming portion will keep plenty of you occupied way after the story is done. There are tons of activities to break up the main quest, just like any good Final Fantasy game. You can even replay every area as if it was your first time, keeping all your levels and monster buddies. Kupo, kupo! Just like every Final Fantasy game, this one is a purchase.

Thanks to our friends at Square Enix for the Xbox 360 to review!

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