XIII-2 redeems part one

Final Fantasy XIII wasn’t the most well received game, so when a sequel was announced, a huge collective sigh was let out by fans everywhere. XIII-2 is a hard game to classify. For every mistake it fixes from XIII, it screws up something minor in the process.

Unlike the first game, which took 20 or so hours for you to finally feel like you had gotten out of an extended tutorial, XIII-2 gives you access to all the combat mechanics an hour in. The battle system was the only positive in XIII, so gaining access so early in the sequel is wonderful.

The plot in XIII-2 is more focused and gets to the point faster this time — 25 hours to beat the game compared to XIII’s 30 to 40 — and stars only two lead characters as they time travel around to prevent a terrible future. The plot is enjoyable enough until the ending, which feels like the developers are flipping their collective middle finger at you.

Despite these problems, the music is fantastic. It might sound strange initially for a background track to feature vocals, but the lyrics and singing actually add to the beauty and tension of certain areas and fights. Every song in the game elicits some sort of emotion, something other Final Fantasy games don’t manage.