Square Enix is delivering its promise to give players fresh sets of downloadable content (DLC) for Final Fantasy XIII-2 every month. Later in March, the game’s core protagonists, Serah Farron and Noel Kreiss, received crossover nods to wear Mass Effect inspired armor and  later this week, Final Fantasy XIII-2′s time-traveling pair will again receive fresh wardrobe courtesy of Assassin’s Creed.

Earlier this April, Prada shown its support to make Final Fantasy XIII-2 even more fashionably-appealing to fans of not only the series, but crossovers as well. In fact, Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the first Final Fantasy game in the series to experiment with wardrobes from a recognized international fashion label.

Sadly, the Assassin’s Creed DLC package is only available for Japanese players; no updates regarding a Western syndication. Furthermore, this DLC will feature Ezio Auditore’s hood from Assassin Creed Revelations, which will be proudly worn by Noel Kreiss. Check out the screenshots below regarding this hot DLC!

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Final Fantasy XIII-2 is unique in a sense that it eliminated the traditional concept of immersing players into choosing party members to create a team with during random overworld and dungeon battles. Final Fantasy XIII-2 cleared the slate in party customization; Serah and Noel are the only two human characters that players get to control throughout, plus captured monsters that are equivalently useful only when they are equipped with the right statistics and abilities.

The thrill of meeting party members in previous Final Fantasy games made the franchise endure a lot of competition in the role-playing department and for good reasons, those previous characters had charm, depth, intriguing narratives, and parameters that drew breath into customization. They filled the holes in the storyline gap. Weapon and armor upgrades come in from time to time. The party is the supporting cast that knocks some sense into the hero whenever the script tells him to discharge inappropriate emotions during a time of dire (romantic) conflict.

Final Fantasy IX’s supporting cast represents the idea of a solid party, which by the way made this OST memorable and worth listening to.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 has shuffled the deck, giving players a whole new experience in party customization. Here’s just some of the reasons why training monsters succeeds in refreshing the franchise’s gameplay mechanics, and why it fails in nurturing party customization.

The Strengths

1. Improved customization - Final Fantasy XIII lacks the freedom in customization, whereas Western role-playing games like the Elder Scrolls and Fallout series triumph progressively. The growth route is governed by pre-determined skills and improvements geared in making a particular character strong in the physical and spell casting departments. Imprisoned, Final Fantasy X actually took a bold stand and helped shake the leveling system through a Sphere Grid, which Final Fantasy XII surpassed via the Licensing Board system.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 does not have the deepest character customization available at stock, but it does have a rebellious system wherein players will spend more time upgrading a monster’s abilities than experiment what Noel and Serah offer to the table. Collecting monsters is the stepping stone to Final Fantasy XIII-2′s non-stop grind journey. The experimentation stage, however, is open for players to explore in creating a triumvirate composed of Serah, Noel, and an overpowered creatures that suffers from a heavy dose of battle spoil upgrades.

2. Leveling become even more longer - This is purely dedicated for players who like to grind and scavenge materials important for character growth. Collecting monsters in Final Fantasy XIII-2 is like playing a different game. It’s not a theme park or zoo simulator, but the game excels in stretching the leveling road a bit further with no detours or fork roads. Final Fantasy XIII-2 wants you to pick the perfect combination, thereof making each monster a different breed for special combat purpose.

The Flaw

1. No more meeting party members halfway throughout the game - I missed how Amarant surprisingly arrived in Madain Sari to settle an old score with Zidane. I felt depressed when I wasn’t able to recruit Vincent Valentine because of the vault puzzle. In a narrative standpoint, customizing a party in Final Fantasy XIII-2 feels very different. Personality is absent. Monsters do not bring the same merriment and conversational cuts that make the adventure worthwhile.

Additionally, meeting party members have been left off in Final Fantasy XIII-2. Plainly, it’s just Serah and Noel unraveling the mysteries of Lightning’s disappearance and the occasional appearance of Final Fantasy XIII’s original cast such as Hope appearing in story segments does not empower the overall experience.

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Earlier known to the gaming public as Final Fantasy Agito XIII, Final Fantasy Type-o was originally released in Japan last October 13, 2011 and it’s quite unsure whether the “PlayStation Portable” exclusive would reach North American shores. Localization has become one of the game’s weak points. The playable demo released last year, August 13, 2011, was only available in Japanese and it was clear that Type-0 had become hopelessly unavailable to North American and European regions wherein Final Fantasy still role-playing cult status despite the the ongoing devaluation of Final Fantasy XIV.

Out with the old, in with the new.

According to 1 UP’s PSP and PS Vita 2012 handheld season opener, Final Fantasy Type-0 would soon reach a much-awaited North American release, this time, for the PS Vita. The site is confident that Final Fantasy Type-o would reach North American gaming shelves based on their overall assessment over the game, which reads:

“Formerly known as Final Fantasy Agito XIII, Type 0 is easily the most ambitious PSP title ever published; the Japanese release came on two UMDs and featured insane loading times if you didn’t install the game. No worries, though. We have it on good authority that Square Enix will be bringing the game to the U.S. as a Vita release, which should relieve some of the game’s technical issues and work around the fact that the PSP market is moribund in the west. Even on PSP, it looks great, with fast-paced mechanics descended from Crisis Core and The 3rd Birthday but considerably deeper. Type 0 centers around cooperative play and RPG-derived action with a team of magic academy students out to turn the tide of a losing war with the use of spells, weapons, and summons.”

Final Fantasy Type-0 for the PS Vita is a hand-in-glove fit. PS Vita is a powerful handheld console and as one of the most atmospheric Final Fantasy games available today, Type-0 would flourish under a new touch and point interface. Playing the demo of Final Fantasy Type-0 felt like navigating through Final Fantasy Crisis Core’s mechanics, reducing the game into a tedious hack and slash adventure.

Final Fantasy Type-0 would really look good for the PS Vita, and the costly two UMDs for the game would be avoided.

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Monsters in Final Fantasy are considered vital – they serve as the game’s sacrificial lamb for a character’s growth. When Final Fantasy XIII-2 was announced, players were given preview of a new combat mechanic where beasts can actually become members of Noel and Serah’s investigative team as they search for the whereabouts of the latter’s sister, Lightning. Unlike in other Final Fantasy games, enlisting the help of creatures to aid in battle is impossible, although “Confuse” can sometimes inflict the element of betrayal inside the battlefield, unswerving fealty never really exists among the ranks of Final Fantasy’s eccentric hybrid of monsters.

Party customization in Final Fantasy XIII-2 is somewhat limited but at the same time, extraordinary beyond its predecessors. Limited because players only get to control Noel and Serah throughout the adventure, and this particular setup can impede characterization. Are we going to receive a shortage of customization for Final Fantasy XIII-2? Depends on how you look at it and along the road, Final Fantasy XIII-2 sounds like a depressing game diffused of the vigor and camaraderie established in other Final Fantasy titles.

Although technically Final Fantasy XIII-2 is built on extrapolating the relationship between Serah and Noel, players will not suffer too much Noelism or Serahism given this drawback of getting to play two primary characters in an expanded sequel that promises to unveil the mysteries of Lightning’s disappearing act. Serah and Noel will be provided with backup from the monsters that the player had slain during the course of their adventure. This may not sound new to you, but our Japanese friends whom are already Final Fantasy XIII-2 are sharing some of the basics of collecting and taming monsters.

How to Catch a Monster?

Players don’t need Pokeballs or bait to capture a monster. Slain beasts transform into crystals and are afterwards stacked to the player’s backpack of defeated souls or something like that. Interestingly, players have now full-control in creating a party based on a captured monster’s strengths, opening up new combat layers that can either make a boss battle a walk in the park or a swim with the sharks.

How to Strengthen a Monster?

Monsters don’t level up nor do they have the capacity to change multiple Paradigms in battle making them somehow one-dimensional. To help address this disadvantage, players can upgrade a monster’s Paradigm to the fullest, making them worthwhile allies capable of becoming mighty powerhouses or destructive spellcasters on their own right. Additionally, monsters gain bonuses from items dropped by untamed monsters, which can be invested on opening a beast’s Paradigm nodes.

Anything Else I Need to Know?

Oh yeah, players can also suit up their monsters with fancy clothing and unnecessary headgear to make them even more frightening. Accessories range from parasols to ridiculous party hats. Very frightening, indeed.

Recently, Famitsu has given Final Fantasy XIII-2 an impressive perfect score of 40/40 and the game continues to generate ground-breaking sales records in its production birthplace of Japan. Final Fantasy XIII-2 is set to be released on January 31, 2o12 in North America and we could only cross our fingers that the game, despite the adoption of new content, will not destroy its reputation given that Western fans of Final Fantasy have become antagonistic to what the game is trying to prove.

Siliconera, via Dengeki PlayStation’s cannibalized story, has revealed to the world on how difficult bosses are in Final Fantasy XIII-2. According to the main sources (Square Enix’s Motoru Toriyama and Yusuke Matsui) of the recent gameplay update, bosses of Final Fantasy XIII-2 will pose more of a threat than Final Fantasy XIII’s storyline bosses and Gran Pulse’s population of over-sized breasts.

If players find themselves overwhelmed or unable to progress through the main storyline because of the augmented battle skills of the sequel’s bosses, they can always resort in toning down the game’s difficulty level, setting it to Easy. What’s the point of feeding these bosses with virtual steroids if the players themselves can shrink their danger levels? Additionally, Final Fantasy XIII-2 would become the first entry to the Final Fantasy saga to implement an interchangeable difficulty setting.

The translated English version of the recent Final Fantasy XIII-2 updates can be read here.

Is There Anything Terrifying Than The Neochu?
The Neochu is a mutated, more dangerous version of the normal Ochu. Found atop waiting at Gran Pulse’s open canyon, Neochu is proficient in inflicting almost all known negative status effects to combat participants unprotected with the right accessory. Flanked by the equally hard-hitting Picochus, the Neochu is definitely one of the most difficult sidequest bosses that Lightning and her comrades will face in the forsaken, monster-populated fields of Gran Pulse. Can Final Fantasy XIII-2 outmatch the challenge? Or is this overestimating on Toriyama and Matsui’s part?

Shifting Between Paradigms Is Not an Update

According to the English translation of Dengeki PlayStation’s recent Final Fantasy XIII-2 update: “Players can now switch instantly between Paradigms. This will help out with the pacing during the game’s basic battles, as the focus for these is on speed. For the bosses and tougher rare monsters, however, you’ll need to actively and strategically switch between Paradigms or you won’t win.”

Frantically switching between stored Paradigms is not new at all.

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It’s been awhile since I featured Remorsefulpromises. To those who are unacquainted with Remorsefulpromises, she is a talented and beautiful cosplayer based from the United Kingdom who suits up as one of favorite female Final Fantasy heroines. More recently, Remorsefulpromises sent me a few Deviations containing her latest Serah Farron cosplay attempt and once again, this feisty Deviant succeeded in portraying the Final Fantasy XIII-2 lead character in full detail.

Surrounding herself with flowers, Remorsefulpromises outshines the mild sunshine with her captivating and curious downward stare. Her powerful reanimation of Serah in this exclusive photograph posted on her official Deviant Art page shows how surreal she is in an environment that appropriately captures the emotion connecting Serah’s character.

Remorsefulpromises’s also excelled in copying Serah’s single ponytail strewn sideways, while the white elbow band significantly hides the L’cie mark that she had in Final Fantasy XIII.

Catch Remorsefulpromises on her official Youtube channel as she exposes her love for Final Fantasy with a few clips of her favorite FF moments.

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Naoki Yoshida of Final Fantasy XIV has revealed the Magitek Armor upgrade for the game’s 2.0 upgrade, which will arrive sooner for PC subscribers and a bit later for the PS3. The initial design of the Magitek Armor was suited to a male thaumaturge as illustrated on Siliconera. Additionally, the Final Fantasy XIV Version 2.0 upgrade will feature additional gameplay changes, including:

1. Re-organization of class name titles – Siliconera reports that the conjurer and thaumaturge will revert back to its original class specification known as the Black Mage and White Mage, respectively. Aside from older jobs going back to their classic Final Fantasy roots, Yoshida adds that a new playable class identified as the Dragoon will soon become available in the upcoming 2.0 upheaval. The Dragoon will be allegedly accompanied by a Wyvern, though its size and fighting capabilities are yet to be divulged.

2. Mini-games – Finally, Yoshida will like to see Final Fantasy XIV prosper with interesting mini-games that are reminiscent of the activities inside Final Fantasy VII’s Gold Saucer. Will Final Fantasy XIV get another chance to play some asteroid basketball or fight their way out of a penalty-ridden Battle Arena? Our eyes and ears are on Yoshida as he tries desperately to revive Final Fantasy XIV’s fading glow.

Story and Image Source: Siliconera

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Prisoners around the world, convicts punished to spend the rest of their lives behind the rotting bars of justice always think of nefarious ways to escape. We’ve seen prison breaks end in bloody fashion, but nothing bloodier that was reported just hours ago. A prisoner in Monmouthshire, Wales took took matters into his own hands by crafting eerily familiar tools of destruction based in the world of Final Fantasy. The convict has reportedly activated his special skill going on a rampage by summoning the blinding light to execute a Blasting Zone, and…

Just kidding!

According to Kotaku, the convict’s replicated set of Final Fantasy Weapons do not pose a threat to the jail’s security since all of them were fake. However, civilians who are unaware of its artificiality may panic at the sight of the convict swinging Squall’s Gunblade while posing for the fanfare. Aside from Cloud’s Buster Sword (those colored orbs were never there in the first place), the convict has also in hand a few swords taken from reference in Bleach.

The prisoner’s Governor, Steve Cross, and his staff were unaware of the weapons’ cultural and iconic status. Cross had no idea that such weapons existed even before the convict surrendered it for security measures. Europe is a military powerhouse, but crossing out Final Fantasy gear out from their war reference is inexcusable.

Image Source: Kotaku

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There are memorable mini-games that made Final Fantasy a unique role-playing experience. In Final Fantasy IX, Zidane assumes the role of a treasure hunter by allowing Choco to search around the land of Gaia for hidden treasure. Backtracking with Final Fantasy VIII, Squall gets a break from all the time-bending action through card battles, which allow players to synthesize useful materials in strengthening their weapon models or acquire useful piece of battle items. Finally, who could ever forget the Gold Saucer and the gambling lifestyle Cloud had to go through to acquire his most powerful Limit Break – Omnislash.

Final Fantasy VII was dark all around, but Gold Saucer’s Chocobo Racing helped minimize gameplay tension; players breed Chocobos and register it to compete in a race track entombed with stunning visual effects. After slowly reducing the roles of Chocobos as overworked treasure diggers, Final Fantasy XIII-2 decides to put these giant birds back inside the race track where they “truly belong.”

Siliconera reveals that Final Fantasy XIII-2, along with the returning Chocobo racing mini-game, will also indulge players into slot gambling wherein they can win coins of up to 50,000. Square remains mum on how would these coins assist the players.

Details for the Chocobo Racing mini-game are:

1. There is no Chocobo breeding involved. Players get to pick a Chocobo upon entering the race format.

2. Chocobos are endowed with different skills. Speed determines how fast the Chocobo is, Stamina tests how the Chocobo will last inside the race track, Skills are useful abilities that can give players unfair advantage over their opponents, and Race Points (RP) computes the statistical penalties that the Chocobo suffered after the last race (huh?).

3. Players are free to command their Chocobos. Chocobos can either run at normal speed or dash at top speed, which the latter can drain a Chocobo’s Boost Gauge if used unwisely. Similar with Final Fantasy VII’s racing mechanics, conserving Stamina during the earlier leg of the race and dashing when nearing the finish line is a simple but effective tactic.

4. Races are comprised of five tiers. Winning a particular rewards the player with a useful item.

Image Source: Siliconera

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Square Enix and DeNa: A recipe for success or a fusion for failure?

Is Final Fantasy losing its single-player magnificence? In Square Enix’s latest attempt to re-invent the Final Fantasy IP, the company has recently joined forces with DeNa to bring into reality a Final Fantasy social gaming platform for mobile users. Later in 2010, Square Enix had the same approach when it released two Facebook games entitled Chocobo’s Tower and  Knights of the Crystals, which both games enjoyed moderate success inside social networking’s indestructible kingdom.

Final Fantasy social will run on DeNa’s Mobage platform, which currently holds an unbelievable total of 30 million subscribers for the original Japan Mobage network alone.

According to Gameindustry.biz, pre-registration for Final Fantasy social is now open for players. Registration, despite the lack of gameplay information and social perks that subscribers will receive, will allow owners of the recently released PSP exclusive, Final Fantasy Type-0, to receive an undisclosed in-game reward.

Honestly, Square Enix should just work in regularizing Final Fantasy XIV‘s failed attempt to enrich the whole Final Fantasy MMO experience because basically, the game has the potential a social interaction titan. Additionally, circulating rumors that Final Fantasy XIV will become available for smart phones is truly enough to give one last chance of invigorating spark to Square Enix’s exhausting experiment to make Final Fantasy fit in the pockets of social gaming.

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