I’ve been playing Final Fantasy XIII-2 for most of today and am almost at the end. I have reached the final boss, in fact, though haven’t beaten it as yet.

You are doubtless wondering whether or not it is worth playing this game, as you may have heard mixed reviews from around the Internet. I therefore present a list of bullet points which you may wish to take into consideration when deciding whether or not you actually want to pick up a copy and try it for yourself. I am going to present each point as neutrally as possible, as some people may react strongly one way or the other to each factor, and those reactions may not coincide with my own feelings!

I’m assuming at least passing familiarity with Final Fantasy XIII here.

• The main story can be completed in approximately 25-30 hours, making it significantly shorter than a lot of other RPGs in this generation.
• Following completion of the main story, there is a veritable shitload of stuff to do. Progress in the game is measured through your collection of 160 fragments. At my current point (final boss) I have 62. There is plenty more I can go back and do after the credits have rolled.
• The main story is somewhat confusing, and all the more so thanks to its non-linear structure. The antagonist’s motivations are not made entirely clear until the very end of the game.
• You play the same two characters all the way through the game. Neither of them have particularly “personal” stories to follow, though there is an underdeveloped narrative thread regarding Noel’s memories.
• There is a squeaky-voiced companion character present throughout the entire game. It is a Moogle, true in every way to past incarnations in the series, right down to ending almost every sentence with “kupo”.
• Final Fantasy XIII‘s characters all put in at least one guest appearance throughout the course of the game, but only one plays a major role in the story.
• When you meet Hope, he is older than he was in Final Fantasy XIII and seems to have got over his “issues”.
• The time travel mechanic is more of a location menu. There aren’t any particularly clever time manipulation puzzles throughout the course of the game, though there are a few sections where you revisit the same areas in different eras.
• There are puzzles in certain areas. These take the form of “anomalies” in which you have to complete one of three different types of puzzle — finding a route over a board of tiles which disappear when you step on them while collecting crystals; joining like-coloured crystals with lines to form pictures; and a complex clock-themed puzzle that requires either forward planning or a lot of patience.
• The game does not hold your hand as much as Final Fantasy XIII-2. This is most apparent around about 15 hours in when you are given a quest to go and find five items throughout time out of a possible seven, and given only vague clues and a picture to help you locate them. Said items are almost invisible in the field, but the Moogle reacts to them when you are close.
• There is a quest system, where certain characters will exchange a Fragment for completing a small task, which usually takes the form of either a fetch or kill quest. There is no means of visually distinguishing questgivers from just people you can normally talk to, though once you have accepted their quest they get a marker above their head and on the map.
• Collecting set numbers of fragments rewards you with extra special abilities.
• Gameplay has a much stronger focus on exploration and observation than Final Fantasy XIII‘s straight-line corridors.
• The automap is good and tells you how much of an area you have successfully explored. There is a quest late in the game to 100% as many maps as possible. Areas which you visit in different time periods share map completion percentage.
• The weapon upgrade system from Final Fantasy XIII is no longer present. Instead, certain new weapons which you purchase require certain components acquired from monsters.
• The Crystarium level-up system is a little different to Final Fantasy XIII. Both Serah and Noel do “laps” of a single crystal formation rather than having a longer “map” per role. On a lap, they can distribute their levels across any of their available roles. On completion of a lap, they can either unlock another role, enhance the bonus of one of their existing roles or extend their Active Time Battle bar, allowing them to complete more actions in succession.
• After 25 or so hours, I have maxed out 3 of the 6 possible roles for both Noel and Serah. Progress slows with each lap around the Crystarium, requiring more Crystogenesis Points (acquired by defeating monsters and recovering Fragments) for each level gained.
• There’s a monster collection and training aspect. You can equip up to three monsters at once, each one specialising in a single role. These can then be incorporated into the Paradigm system to create custom party lineups.
• Monsters are levelled up by feeding them special items rather than spending CP. When a monster completes a lap of its own Crystarium, it starts requiring rarer and/or more expensive items to level up further.
• Monsters can be renamed by choosing from a large list of preset names, and adorned with decorative items found throughout the game.
• Content has been withheld for DLC. This is most apparent in the “casino” area, where asking an attendant to explain the card games pops up a window that simply says “reserved for future DLC.”
• The music is very good and features a mix of both brand new tracks and recognisable ones from Final Fantasy XIII.

So there you go. A series of facts about Final Fantasy XIII-2 which may assist you in the decision of whether or not you want to give it a go. For what it’s worth, I’ve been enjoying it more than I thought I would at the bewildering outset, but it’s not the strongest Final Fantasy there’s ever been, not by a long shot. It is significantly better than Final Fantasy XIII in most respects, however, so those who disliked that may wish to give this one another chance.

I’ve got a few days to finish this off, and then a copy of The Last Story is on its way to me. Given that that game is made by many members of the old Final Fantasy team (notably Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu), I am very interested to see what it offers.