Final Fantasy XIII-2 for PlayStation 3 Reviews by Gamers

I originally had high hopes because the pre-release demo demonstrated the effort Square put in to fixing most of the complaints players had about FF XIII, particularly it's linearity. Unfortunately, the final product gets almost nothing else right and even manages to create a new flaw from its branching maps.

First, the few good parts. The game is surprisingly non-linear, featuring a large number of maps with significant branching and an impressively wide variety of levels to time-travel to. The already good battle system has been improved to allow both characters access to all roles and now includes a Pokemon-esque monster collection game to fill the third battle slot.

And now the negatives. FF XIII-2 may well have the single worst level design of any game I have ever played. It's not particularly bad for the first episode and a half, but it rapidly goes downhill after that. The second episode requires you to travel through an unmarked, barely visible side path in a level that the game not only implies, but directly says is a dead end. I wasted three hours figuring out where to go because the game specifically told me to leave the correct level. That is by far the worst example of Square's level design failure, but there are many more cases of either unclear paths or aggravatingly high encounter rates.

For its part, the story is an irredeemable mess. No plot event is ever explained with more detail than "TIME PARADOX", an explanation that is taken to truly absurd extents. The characters and plot events themselves are largely forgettable, both because they don't make any sense and because they simply aren't interesting.

The game earns a 5 because of the (mostly) very well-done graphics and complete lack of bugs. Still, I do not recommend this game unless you are truly desperate for a JRPG. Even then, there are almost certainly better options. FF XIII-2 is easily the worst Final Fantasy game and among the worst RPGs I've ever played.