Cid's FFXIII-2 Q&A booth

C i d

C i d

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Since I have beaten FFXIII-2 (Japanese version) a few weeks ago, might as well create a thread to answer questions about the game. You can ask anything about the game EXCEPT spoilers. NO questions on the story, ending and character fates. You can however ask something like 'Is the story good?' 'What do you think about this character?', etc. If you really want to discuss spoilers, simply go to the official spoilers thread, or PM me.

Examples of questions you can ask:
-What is blood damage and how does it work, in detail?
-How many areas are there in the game?
-Can you describe the nature of the maps? Is it linear or more open?
-Are there really towns?
-What are the quests like?
-How long is the game?
the list is not exhaustive

(You can also ask for tips, strategies, etc when you are stuck in the game, once the game is released worldwide. Or this could be merged with the official XIII-2 help booth when it's made in the future)
 
ultimadream said:
Hi, thanks for taking the time to answer such questions.

I want to know one about the enviroments:
I played the Demo (Which starts at Episode II), I noticed they had plenty of NCP's and the area was more spread out. But I felt there was nothing to do within these locations, no houses or buildings to explore. Is it like this through out the game?

Is it true that you have to heal HP and Wounds seperately?

Is there any other way to upgrade the Accessory point limit of the character other than the level up bonus.

Is there any weapon upgrading at all within the game, like in XII when you upgrade it with components or are they jsut like items you find, win or buy?

Playing the demo, I noticed you can press a shoulder button for Mog to scan the enviroment for hidden treasure, did you find this tedious trhough out the game - I know I did through out the demo?

That's about it :P
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That demo area has at least one sheltered area to enter. The one with some computers. I think it feels like you are not exploring a separate building/house because there are no loading screens at all. Later on in other towns, there will be some houses or shelters you can enter, but it feels seamless as you don't have to wait to enter it unlike all the previous FFs. There are however still invisible walls that prevent you from entering houses, such as some huts that can't be entered in New Bodhum.

I think that you will still feel that there is nothing to do because:
1.) no loading screens that give an illusion of 'entering'
2.) no other merchants other than chocolina
3.) NPCs walk around this time, so there is no real specific place to find an NPC.

I guess this is a bad thing for you, but to me, I prefer these kinds of towns with seamless transitions. Though of course I wished I could enter more houses and buy stuff from civilians other than chocolina. Anyway, that bresha ruins town is one of the smallest town in the game. There is one city even larger than XII's rabanastre.

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Yes there are 'current HP' potions and 'wound potions' (not the real names as I haven't played the english version).

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There's no other way that I know of. The only way is by levelling through the crystarium as you said. I personally think it makes the game more challenging since this time you can grind as much as you want. Having limited accessories balance out this, in a way.

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There are no more weapon upgrading/levelling up. You either buy, get or find them. But there are some weapons in the shop that require components before you can buy them. It's like FFVIII's method of buying weapons. Of course, the other weapons only require money.

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I found that scanning mog tool fun. it not only detects treasure chests, but also paradox'ed humans and objects that appear as shadows. I personally feel it adds an illusion of exploration and satisfaction. But of course, opinions differ. It didn't annoy me significantly because it's not a frequent thing, and lots of these are optional or not hidden in a very complex way.
 
Oh yes I feel like playing it again, but in English. Partly because of the language barrier I experienced, and I also wanted to see the different dialogues from choosing different options in live trigger. I would also like to play the game slowly and build up the character's crystariums differently. Not to mention the different rosters of monster allies too. And to be honest, I don't mind rewatching some scenes as they are really good IMO.

It's really unlike XIII. I can't even imagine the thought of replaying XIII as it will be an exact same playthrough literally. But in XIII-2, there are variations both in building your team and the dialogues.

Your stats, monster allies and inventory will be carried over for new game+. The new game+ is really convenient because you can replay separate segments instead of having to replay the entire game. I haven't really experimented with this time reversal/new game+ tool, but I'm pretty sure it works like that.

don't worry, you can ask more questions if you have. =)
 
ultimadream said:
One more thing I guess, about the monsters, Lets say I keep my Cait Sith early on in the game and progress through the game with it, later I might find a new monster I want... I know you can take a monster and merge it into another. How does that work? does the previous monsters abilities go into the new on, or does the monster just gain all the CP the previous monster had?

One thing I feared as that I would progress and then later regret not training the right monster.
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If the monsters are of the same roles, (e.g. COM and COM), the receiving monster gets the other monster's passive and command abilities. STR and MAG can be improved too. But I think there's a limit to how many command abilities can be inherited. If they are of different roles, only some passive abilities are carried over. Monsters don't use CP. So there's no need to worry about wasting away potential levelling up. As you have probably known, monsters level up via items.

At first I was scared I trained the wrong monster too. But in the end, it doesn't really matter. Simply infuse the weaker monster to the stronger one you just got, especially if they are of the same roles. Many passive abilities are very useful and by levelling up many monsters, you can infuse many passive abilities into one ultimate monster. This ultimate monster will have crazy amounts of passive abilities and dozens of resistances against status effects, damage and elements. I have seen some people getting such strong monsters by fusing multiple times. Anyway it's quite easy to get the training items near the end of the game, taking into account that you also get gil from monsters.

So in other words, there are two main aims of levelling up monsters.
Either:
1.) To make it into one of your three regular fighters.
2.) To make it one of the dozens monsters you can fuse with one of your ultimate three fighters. The higher the levels of these sidekick monsters, the more the abilities learnt, thus the better when it's fused.

It's really about fusing into 3-6 ultimate monsters instead of having hundreds of strong monsters, IMO.
 
Why is Hope 10 years older whilst Serah is 3 years older?

From what I gather, it seems 10 years have passed in the original world we explored in XIII, but 3 years have passed with Serah, wherever she is?

I know I'll find this out in a few weeks, but I'm kinda curious now. :lew:

Working with paradoxes is certainly tricky! :)
 
Lirael said:
Why is Hope 10 years older whilst Serah is 3 years older?

From what I gather, it seems 10 years have passed in the original world we explored in XIII, but 3 years have passed with Serah, wherever she is?

I know I'll find this out in a few weeks, but I'm kinda curious now. :lew:

Working with paradoxes is certainly tricky! :)
Click to expand...

Light spoilers. Not really revealing anything story related, so I think I can write it here:

Nope. XIII-2 starts 3 years after the ending of FFXIII.

As we all know, Serah and Noel time travels to various time periods. Hope is 10 years older because this Hope is the Hope that lives in the time period 10 years after FFXIII-2.
 
How long is the game assuming you do all the quests ?

Presumably all quests aren't combat oriented like they were in FFXIII-1. Correct ?

Any guests characters like Larsa was in FFXII ?
 
Do you get to control Lightning ever?

How many ending's are their?

Are they really different or is it like X-2 where it depends how much of the game you complete?
 
How are the Quests?
You ever had a feeling that the story is uber cliche?
How is the story?
Serah and Noels are the only playable chars? (other than DLC Lightning)
How many hours did you clock finishing the game without doing quests? or Like Angrywolf asked perhaps with all the quests done?
are there save points?

I might have more questions down the road.

Oh yeah does Serah wear a bra? xD
 
ANGRYWOLF
-I finished the main story for about 30 hours, and I only got about 40/160 fragments. The other 120 fragments (mostly sidequest rewards) should therefore take about 50 hours or so? I think you can easily reach 100 hours if you do everything.

-There are quite a few combat oriented ones, and there are many fetch quests, puzzle quests, etc. For example, there's one optional quest where you use Mog to find the lost kids of some flans. So you explore the place looking for these miniflans. There are no fights in the first section, but the quest ends with a boss battle not unlike XII's mandragora gang battle (where all those small mandragoras fight you in Sochen Cave Palace). Another quest requires you to do some clock puzzles. There are also secrets where you throw Mog at some random obscure flower bush and you get this powerful recruitable monster. There's also this side stuff where you help Hope make new weapons for you. To do so, you have to gain coins by playing in the casino and buy the component. The reward is the weapon itself.
I have not really tried many of these quests, but based on playthrough videos I have seen, there are sidequests that stretch quite a bit. Oh and most sidequests also reward Crystarium Points.

-In the main game, only Snow was a guest character. Works like XII because you can't control him at all. I guess that they may add more guests in future DLCs.

Shace
-Just imagine that Lightning is Reks from FFXII. In that she's only playable in the brief first part of the game, and then you will never get to control her at all. You will only see her in scenes. yeah I call that false advertising by SE. She's very important to the story, but she's hardly playable.

-There are 10 endings. The true ending is the ending that you WILL get by beating the game normally. The secret ending is obtained when you collect all 160 fragments and watch all other endings. The remaining 8 endings aren't really endings. They are more like bonus scenes featuring 'what if you do this' kind of scenarios. Some are even 'joke endings'.

-So in other words, in order to obtain:
normal/true ending: beat the final boss
secret ending: collect all 160 fragments (something like X-2's 100% completion, but in XIII-2, nothing is really missable as you can revisit or replay every single segment separately)
-The other 8 endings is divided in two distinct categories:
1.) Beat the strong boss: Can only be done after you beat the game normally once. You will be given a special skill that allows you to get these endings after fighting the strong boss in a certain manner. Most of them does not require any long series of paths. Simply replay the specific location and kill the boss in a particular method.
2.) Choose the obviously wrong live trigger response: As far as I know, you can see these endings even before beating the game normally. There are 2-3 live triggers that allow you to see an ending if you choose a really wrong answer. They are usually in a crucial moment in the game.

So the only ending that requires some form of completion percentage is the secret ending.


Ohri-Jin
-About quests, refer to my response to ANGRYWOLF. But if you want to know how I feel about them, I would say I'm quite satisfied as they are quite varied and somewhat creative. However, some fetch quests can be too easy yet really plain and boring. Some are unnecessarily tedious like the clock puzzles. Sometimes they don't tell you where is the object exactly located (i.e. no indication on the minimap). However, I would say fans of sidequests should be alright with the ones in XIII-2 since they are quite similar to old FF quests.

-About the story, I think it's quite cliche, but not the point it annoys me. I would say it feels like a combination of some older FF stories. Unfortunately, it's either the language barrier I am facing, or that some plot aspects are really hard to comprehend.

-I think even though I kinda like the story, others won't. So take this with a pinch of salt. Well as I said, it feels like a combination of the stories of old FF. There are things I don't like, but there's this important story aspect that I really feel is touching and well thought.

-Yeah Serah and Noel only. Plus monsters. Plus Snow as a temporary guest, and Lightning who is only playable briefly in the beginning. The DLC Lightning is likely to play the role of a monster ally instead of a proper character anyway.

-Yeah I said above, it's about 20-40 hours for main story. About 3/4 of XIII. Another 40-60 hours for sidequests and obtaining other endings. probably longer if you plan to build the ultimate monster.

-No save points. You can save anywhere except in scenes. There's auto save whenever you reach important parts in an area, and whenever you exit an area. I don't think you can disable auto-save.

-lol that bra question XD



Don't worry. Keep the questions coming!
 
Overall do you think most players who weren't in love with XIII will enjoy this one?
What's your opinion of Caius? He seems like one of the coolest villains in FF but his outfit is kind of lame.
Did you ever tire of the monster allies? The idea seems cool but I would much rather have Lightning in my battle team instead of monsters at about the halfway point.
 
skeleton_fingers said:
Overall do you think most players who weren't in love with XIII will enjoy this one?
What's your opinion of Caius? He seems like one of the coolest villains in FF but his outfit is kind of lame.
Did you ever tire of the monster allies? The idea seems cool but I would much rather have Lightning in my battle team instead of monsters at about the halfway point.
Click to expand...

-I think most XIII haters won't enjoy the game not because the game itself sucks. But because they have the mindset that anything XIII related is garbage. So yeah, no matter how good XIII-2 is, I believe most people who hate the previous game won't even give it a chance.
Anyway, I wasnt really fond of XIII. I like it, but not 'love' it. I end up liking XIII-2 more than XIII.

-He has a twisted mind I will say. He wants to accomplish something really crazy. He's badass, mysterious and such. However, I think he needs a little bit more confidence and evil material. Overall, I think he's a good villain though.

-I'm actually in love with the monster system. Believe it or not, having 100+ monsters to choose from, and to fuse with one another, is much more fun than having 1 more human character. Having grown a very strong monster by hardwork and strategy also gives a great sense of satisfaction.
Well the thing about how you grow monsters is, things are very customisable. You can choose to have a more HP oriented monster, or a more STR oriented monster, by picking the right combinations of levelling up items. Then you can further mix and match abilities by fusing two monsters. that's why I thought this system is really fun.
But of course, some people won't be fond of it.
 
Question:

Regarding the save anywhere and autosave, are different save files generated? I'd hate to have an autosave overwrite my manual save because I specifically wanted a back-up plan. IE: Approach next area with strat A, if I don't like the result can I reload and try strat B. Does autosave overwrite manual saves, or do I need to create multiple save files as I play to deal with this.
 
HolyDragoon
It will overwrite the current save file you loaded for that play session. But you can save manually and create a new file in the historia crux. Therefore, if you want the game to not overwrite the current file, you have to exit the area and go to the historia crux to create a new file. Looking at the bright side, when you return to any area, you will be placed in the location where you left the last time. So no tedious backtracking here.

Besides, there's nothing that is really missable in the game. You will get an option to replay separate segments. Also, there's no need to fear that you are stuck in a dungeon because you can't fight a strong boss. You can simply leave the area and grind in a more peaceful area, before returning to the exact same spot you left in the other area.

However, one important thing you must remember is, like any other FF game, when you are going to risk buying a lot of items, or playing in the casino, you should create a new file in the historia crux before doing so, to avoid mistakes that can't be redone.

ultimadream
Yes. There's no magic that cures wounds/blood damage. But there's a magic called 'blood' that can inflict blood damage on enemies.

I'm not completely sure, but I think it works like when you level up roles in XIII-1. For example, if you level up RAV in XIII-1, the chain gauge of enemies will increase at a faster rate, and the benefit also spreads to other party members. It should work similarly in XIII-2.
 
One more question:
Can you default the game not to have auto-attack selected like in the original? I considered auto-attack to be more of a "hint" system, or a "help me win" button and thus chose not to use it. The game felt much more like a Final Fantasy title, if you chose not to use auto-attack. I'm hoping to do it again right from the first scene.
 
HolyDragoon said:
One more question:
Can you default the game not to have auto-attack selected like in the original? I considered auto-attack to be more of a "hint" system, or a "help me win" button and thus chose not to use it. The game felt much more like a Final Fantasy title, if you chose not to use auto-attack. I'm hoping to do it again right from the first scene.
Click to expand...

The config is in Japanese, so I'm not too sure about that. But I think it's no longer possible based on my understanding.
 
Alright, that will make me sad. It made manual use of the commands quicker due to not having to drop down another menu.
I'll adapt I guess =)
 
hey cid, i come with your wonderful knowledge of FFXIII-2 XD how grinding, is it easier to do compared to FFXIII, also, is the upgrade weapon system there, or is it just buying/finding weapons

EDIT, oh yh number 3, the demo only had autosave, please tell me their is a way to save apart from autosave, i'm not grinding and then doing a main event just to save :hmph:
 
Stevie said:
hey cid, i come with your wonderful knowledge of FFXIII-2 XD how grinding, is it easier to do compared to FFXIII, also, is the upgrade weapon system there, or is it just buying/finding weapons

EDIT, oh yh number 3, the demo only had autosave, please tell me their is a way to save apart from autosave, i'm not grinding and then doing a main event just to save :hmph:
Click to expand...

grinding is way easier IMO. The fact that you can just walk around in the same spot to have a monster encounter, and the fact that there are great areas for grinding. The weapon upgrade system is no longer present. You simply buy weapons. However, certain weapons require prerequisite components. Kinda like FFVIII's weapon system.

You can simply exit the area. It will auto-save for you. You can also save manually in the historia crux. when you re-enter the area you were in, you will be placed in the exact same spot when you left it.
 
Cid-
Do Noel & Serah have "roles" or are they completely customizable? (Like in 13 Fang was clearly a Com & Sent)?

Questions on the monster training/breeding/combining,
Can you only have 1 monster of a certain species or can you have more than one (like with flan's can you have a water & a thunder one)?

After you merge monster X with Y and now Y has X's passives- can you go get another X?

Did you find that the monsters you get later were always "better" or did you stay with one that you got early in the game?
 
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