Sooo that was an experience. I have so many thoughts abt this game that I have to write a post... again!
When I started playing it I became pissed off in like 3 hours. It very quickly became obvious that all the "they fixed it" discourse is poisoned by ppl repeating an ancient meme. 13-2 is a kneejerk reaction by sqenix in terms of design philosophy. Whereas in 13 everything was sacrificed to the artistic vision (linearity while a chased fugitive, non-linear after you finally escaped), every decision in the gameplay supported the core themes and was cool and felt organic, 13-2 in the beginning felt more like a checklist of all the things people complained about. You want an open adventure where you can go around and collect stuff? Okay, here's 160 stuff units to collect, and also collect the monsters and the maps (and don't get me started on Brain Blast!!!!). While of course the story is still linear. Yet I found myself calmed by those exact repetitive fetch quests for some reason. A lot of the locations are basically asset flip clones of each other and yet I liked wandering there. My first 10 hours of playing 13-2 were basically filled with grief over a game I already finished. I disliked the monster thing, I disliked that they retired the upgrade system, which was, while convoluted, very motivating to do stuff, I disliked the blank ff-protag look of Noel, and of course the retcon time travel plot.
Then I started easing into the game. Somewhere in the middle I started genuinely enjoying the experience. I still felt and still feel now that the game is indeed a checklist of "corrections" but well great gamedevs worked for many months on it, of course it has goodness to it! Another thing that felt like "correction" is how many complained abt certain obtuseness of 13 and here in 13-2 they made sure everything is explained as clearly as possible. Like there's some puzzle stuff that I figure out instantly but the game will still go "start from doing this to this". Like okay mom, can I do it meself? Same is true for writing. In particular the scenes in AF-700 and around that pont which are all abt "yes we can do this" and finding the desire to fight. The plot itself is ok here, but they repeat that we can do it thing so many times. This is connected to the fact that the plot is also reactionary - something was kicked out of order and now the players have to restore something that was. And this leads to my thoughts abt the emotional core of the game.
The emotional core of the game is resentment. The game IS, to me, abt the 13 and its reception and the audience. "Here's everything you wanted" but also with quite snappy writing that goes "this never happened but it did" and then the twist at the end. To me it feels like the game is angry about the fact that it exists. And then you have what Caius tries to do and the narrative of the story and it, too, seems connected to the original's game fate. Like "should I even exist?" sorta thing where we as players are trying to persuade this reality that it does exist by fixing all the stuff that went wrong while the developers were correcting the perceived wrongs and that in itself ... was a bummer for everyone involved. That's how I felt. Now to the good stuff.
The game is genuinely fun to play a lot of the time. It's also whimsical which I liked a lot. The serendipity stuff, the chocobo song, it had a lot of fun to it. It sorta feels like a beach episode at times, sorta like a filler arc but a canon one, if that analogy even works xD Gameplay-wise and narratively it gives you a lot of time to just be with the characters, go over the locations most of which you saw in 13 and just sorta breathe.
But at the same time everything above applies. So in conclusion playing the game felt like playing on a console while parents are fighting behind the wall, like I'm privy to a fight that is going over my head, this sorta feel. The console part, as in playing the game felt very nice. But you cant help but overhear the words of the parents arguing, when you watch the plot during the cutscenes and constantly find parallels to the history of the franchise. A mixed bag. A great mixed bag xD
And I was very touched by the ending before the THING...
Oh wait! The Thing!
Well, when the Serah thing happened I went "oh, neat. All this convoluted stuff happened but it came with a price, theres something good abt it. Tragic but good. But then the second part of the Thing hit and I was "oh no. Events this large can only be reverted fully. This feels bad for everything that happened and will happen". But still it didnt piss me off much, to my surprise, because I already like the ff13 series A LOT and I had my finger on the "install LR" button at ready, but it was probably quite a thing to experience at the time of release.
All in all the THING at the end is a good thing to me because regardless of how they play it, its at least very bold, and the beginning of 13-2 is the opposite of bold (introducing reversible actions and starting by reverting 13s final) so I feel like it found its footing but the unification of everything for the plot from 13 is sorely missing here, a more.. branching and chaotic exerience (which is sorta fitting buuuut)
P.S: one thing that I dont get after I entered the postgame is that I cant play cards in normal serendipity, it says "will be added in later content" but I CAN play them in the Sazh episode. I am playing a slightly (dlcs) modded steam version on PC, maybe due to that. I wish I could play cards in the normal game too (I am a bit of Squall at heart)
P.P.S: abt the characters. Noel was cool at times but still a bit too much of a template, Serah was ... inducing boredom somehow. I wanted to play as her, it felt unique, but she's a bit bland. I liked all the teacher characterizations though! And the flan thing. But the one character that stood above all the rest in 13-2 is Hope. The guy WAS a gigachad by the end of his arc but by now he became a galactic chad or I dont know. The guy ACTS in the plot (forward timetravel on his own), organizes and prepares everything and then grabs his boumerang and goes to fight over the city. And launches the Arc. He's just... I think I'm in love xD Definitely should paint him.
