While we didn’t get to spend time playing the next installment in the Final Fantasy franchise, Final Fantasy XIII-2, we still learned quite a bit about this game. Namely, that the director Motomu Toriyama, and the producer Yoshinori Kitase used fan favorite game, Chrono Trigger, as an influence to make this latest installment. And we couldn’t be more excited.
If you didn’t already know, unlike the last sequel to a canonical game in the series, Final Fantasy X-2, this sequel was planned from the start of making Final Fantasy XIII. So that means consumer feedback didn’t influence the story at all, only the gameplay.
Speaking of gameplay, there is a Moogle in your party that can act as a weapon, transform into a Mog clock, which affects enemy encounters in the game, and can also be used for treasure hunting. It should change things up a bit.
And while the ATB gauge and the Paradigm Shifts have remained the same since the last game, you can now emphasize attacks against individual enemies or multiple enemies. That’s cool.
But the coolest thing about the game may be the Historia Crux feature, which allows you to leap through gates throughout the game. This is where the Chrono Trigger comparison comes in.
You’re allowed to leap from world to world, and can even find locked doors where if you jump forward in the game, get a key, and leap back, you can open that door. There’s also an ability called “gate closing” where you can go back to a world you’ve already beaten and explore it again, but with all of your stats, levels and key items in your possession, making for a totally different experience. Kind of like Chrono Trigger’s + feature after you’ve beaten the game. Classic. Expect multiple endings, y’all.
Fans who played the demo, which looked beautiful, by the way, came away looking very impressed. We seriously can’t wait to play it come next year. It looks awesome.
