It’s only February 1 in the year 2012 and already we’re talking about potentially the worst video game of the year. It’s a video game by a firm you wouldn’t expect to put out the worst game of the year and it’s from a franchise that has long been the bench mark for video game storytelling. That’s why it’s a shame that I have to write that Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the leading candidate, already, for worst game of the year.
Square Enix has apparently given up on giving a damn about the Final Fantasy franchise. That was evident with XIII-2’s predecessor Final Fantasy XIII. I overlooked Square’s transgressions regarding the first XIII title mainly because I felt that the publisher/developer wanted to go a different direction with the franchise, and that’s ok with me. The battle system was the biggest change for the franchise and that turned a lot of people off but I was still willing to give the game a shot. The story throughout the game was so hard to follow and uninteresting that I stopped caring about what was going on about two hours in.
The game’s main character, while being touted as a badass, was about as insufferable as video game characters come. She’s a solider of some army in some made up land in the midst of a rebellion and she’s taken the side of the rebelling sort. The other characters in your party are about as bad, dialogue wise, all the way down to the out-of-place black guy. It was just a mess and really made me take a close look at where the Final Fantasy franchise is going. Straight down the drain.
This feeling came back all too strong when news regarding the game’s sequel (yep, it has a sequel) Final Fantasy XIII-2 started to get going. As usual for a FF title, it released in Japan long before here stateside, but our Japanese brethren loved it. Then reviews started rolling out for the game here in the US and Europe. It wasn’t pretty.
Gamespot UK gave it a 7.5 out of 10
While you might be thinking to yourself that 7’s and 8’s for a video game certainly doesn’t constitute the “worst game of the year” recognition, when a Final Fantasy title is getting those scores it enters the conversation. Don’t take my word for it though, play the game for yourself, be let down. What do I care?
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