Earlier this week, Gamasutra published a scathing criticism of Final Fantasy XIII-2 penned by our colleague (and occasional Retronauts podcast guest) Christian Nutt. Though contextualized through an extended comparison to Red Letter Media's popular video critiques of the Star Wars prequel films, his commentary touched upon many of the same points and concerns I addressed in my own review of the game. Where our opinions differ, I think, is in our ultimate conclusion of XIII-2's merits (or lack thereof); I found the game flawed but a welcome step in correcting the series' course after two widely lambasted entries, while Christian feels it represents a deep, systemic rot at Square Enix's internal development studio.

I'm not too surprised by this turn of events. Christian and I rarely see eye-to-eye on most matters. So while I agree with his assessment of the underlying issues affecting FFXIII and XIII-2, my outlook on the company's future isn't nearly as dire as his. (I also disagree with many of Christian's assertions about FFXIII, such as the claim that lead protagonist Lightning lacked a demonstrable character arc, but that's neither here nor there.) From having spoken to FFXIII-2 director Motomu Toriyama and producer Yoshinori Kitase several times over the past couple of years, I get the impression that they're sincerely concerned about the series' direction and want to keep Final Fantasy relevant. From what I know of Square Enix's corporate culture, I also suspect that they're hobbled by the conservative nature of Japanese business, which can be slow to change when processes and standards that worked for years suddenly become ineffectual.

Rather than simply rebut Gamasutra's editorial, I'd rather examine a few thoughts that Toriyama and scenario director Daisuke Watanabe provided in an email interview conducted after I completed the game. I was left with my own complaints about XIII-2, most of which were explicated in my review, and hoped that I could find a little more clarity through an interview. Their responses offer interesting insight into the game, both through what the creators said and what they didn't say.

FFXIII-2's biggest shortcoming is, without question, its narrative. Not just in terms of story, but the manner in which the entire tale is presented. FFXIII featured a fairly strong cast of protagonists that fit together well enough to drive the plot. From the start, the game made clear the fact that Lightning, Sazh, and Snow were propelled by a common drive to rescue their loved ones from a living death, and their mission became bound to that of the other party members by virtue of a curse placed upon them by their world's "gods." The bizarre cosmology of that world was presented clearly, and the tension between the dual realms of Pulse and Cocoon along with their amoral, suicidal gods provided an acceptable background for the story. Though the tale often stumbled, especially in its ham-handed presentation, it worked well enough.

XIII-2's story doesn't work. While time-travel provides the primary hook for the narrative, the wherefores of its rules for jumping through the timeline and how events in different eras affect one another never make much sense. In fact, when I specifically asked Watanabe what the rules for the game's time-travel mechanics were, the totality of his response was, "This is more like a characteristic rather than a 'rule,' but, 'If you change the future, you change the past.'" To me, this suggests that the lack of clarity of in the game itself comes from a poorly considered story -- one in which the complexities of time-travel were never properly thought through. Even seemingly obvious details, like the way Hope and his assistant Alyssa pop up across the centuries at various stages in their careers but always appear to be 21 years old, undermine the bedrock of the game's premise.

Toriyama even concedes the shadow other time-travel works cast over XIII-2's development. "The subject matter of time travel has a treasure vault of masterpieces not limited to RPGs," he writes. "We were bracing ourselves to be compared to every possible piece of work. When we were building a comfortable time travel system for a high-end console -- for example contemplating what method would be the most appropriate to express moving through time with fancy visuals -- we continuously kept Chrono Trigger in the back of our mind and aimed to better the quality of the game."

You'd be hard-pressed to claim that FFXIII-2 offers any real improvements on Chrono Trigger, though. In that game, the party's ability to leap through time was well-defined, and the rules of causality played heavily into the story. Most of Chrono Trigger's side quests revolved around setting future wrongs right by journeying into the past; you could always be certain that by teaching someone the value of kindness or sowing forests in years gone by, the world of the future would become a better place. The results of your actions in FFXIII-2, on the other hand, feel haphazard. Sometimes your actions change the timeline (even in reverse, a phenomenon whose nature is never properly explained), but more often than not they simply create a better alternate reality to which major characters are shunted while minor NPCs continue to wander around beneath a cloud of doom and unhappiness. It seems the only way to enjoy a happy future in XIII-2 is to have been lucky enough to have been born with a unique character model.

The flaws of FFXIII-2's time-travel rules become even more obvious when the game directly mimics Chrono Trigger. The gameplay constraints of the older game were explained in an arbitrary but acceptable fashion by the omniscient narrator in the End of Time (a place outside of the normal flow of time), and they made sense in that context. When the party's time-travel adventures went awry, the reason for those errors was always self-evident. Not so in FFXIII-2; although it obeys similar rules to Chrono Trigger (up to and including the existence of an isolated fragment of reality in which time-travelers gone astray wash up), those laws are explained as needed by the party members themselves rather than an outside observer -- yet how mundane protagonists Serah and Noel (whose journey through time we see in its entirety from the moment it's foisted upon them) suddenly know the intricacies of temporal mechanics is never touched upon. Perhaps this is a small detail, but it demonstrates a lack of the essential consideration required to elevate the best time-travel tales to classic status. The nebulous rules by which the story operates diminish any tension that could have been instilled by its cliché-spouting villain; without definite stakes, the plot lacks a clear sense of urgency.
Chances are, you've arrived here in one of two ways. Either you read Jeremy's Final Fantasy XIII-2 text review and wanted to see him say those things out loud. Or, you're coming in fresh and want some opinions on the game in general.

Either way, leave that tarp on your ant farm because we've got you covered. Check out Jeremy and Marty picking the game apart above, and let us know what you think below!