Every time I play a video game, I always over-analyze my first play-through. Should I sell this? Can I keep that? Is there a strategy that makes this easier? What does *that* do? Well now that I’m done with the story line for Final Fantasy 13-2 I thought I would share some of those things I wish I knew before playing. I’ll do my best to keep spoilers out of it.
- The crystarium is different in 13-2. Every role has 99 levels. You can level each as fast as you want, but once the screen tells you that you don’t have any more skills to gain in that role, it means *never*. I over-leveled the COM and RAV roles expecting to unlock more abilities later in the game. Nope, didn’t happen. Looking back I would have leveled up a main role to get all abilities, but not a sphere past the last ability.
Overall I like it a lot more, but it took some getting used to and I definitely made some mistakes.
- Leveling monsters helps a LOT, even if that whole process still doesn’t make a lot of sense. Sometimes it’s better to let the monster be your strength-crazy COM, even if you secretly like to control the COM all the time like I do.
- You can *save* paradigm sets. Up to 3 of them. HOLY CRAP this is awesome! How frustrating was it to change all 6 paradigms just to set up your super-boss battle configurations (3 SENs, SEN-MED-MED, etc) for one battle? Frustrate yourself no longer, just save that paradigm pack into one of 3 slots and you’ll have it available any time. That is a really nice touch.
- When you meet a really really *really* hard boss in the story line, don’t try to grind until you can beat him. Progress through the story line and you’ll likely end up weakening him through other actions later on. Once the game is over, you can go back and reset that Historia Crux gate and take on the more difficult version for an alternate ending (not always the case, but as you play the story you’ll see how this works).
- Their save functionality is the best I’ve ever used for an RPG. You can return to the main timeline virtually any time you like. When you leave a location, it remembers *exactly* where you are.
- Need to deliver 100% completed maps to a person? Leave that timeline standing next to that person. Every time you go back to deliver a new map you’ll already be there, you can talk to them, and you can leave again.
- Realize that you didn’t level up nearly enough to play the current level? Leave where you are, go somewhere easier and level up. When you return to the “hard” level, you’ll be exactly where you left, making the continuation a breeze. Goodbye inconvenience, hello attractiveness.
I’m sure I will have more to add later, but for now these will hopefully whet the appetite for anyone on the fence in getting this game.