http://andriasang.com/comz7d/xiii2_sazh/I know, he was the one identifiable human character in the game, possibly the series. He is DLC though...in fact, it sounds like S-E is gearing up to release a fair amount of DLC for the game. If there's one game that has a chance at beating Idolmaster's DLC sales, it's a FF game.
First bits from this week's Dengeki PlayStation have leaked out, as usual a couple of days ahead of the magazine's release. It appears that the magazine has some big news for Final Fantasy XIII-2.
First, a review. The magazine gave the game an S rating. This is from the magazine's letter grade scale, where S is the top (followed by A, B, etc.).
The magazine also usually gives major games the full four person review treatment with each reviewer giving a score out of 100. Numbered scores haven't leaked out for FFXIII-2 yet, but we'll be on the lookout.
But forget about the review scores, here's a hot bit about the game that we're going to treat as a pseudo rumor until we've seen more ("pseudo" because it's probably true, but we want some context). The magazine apparently has an interview or Q&A where they ask if Sazh (whom you'll recall is the guy with the afro and baby Chocobo) won't appear in XIII-2. The reply is that "Final Fantasy XIII-2 will continue after release, so look forward to later."
This seems to suggest that Sazh will be added to the game as post release download content, meaning Square Enix is planning more substantial content than the monsters and costumes that have been announced thus far.
We'll hopefully have closer look at Dengeki's coverage of XIII-2 later in the day, so be sure and check back!
Another article with more details---
http://andriasang.com/comz7j/ffxiii2_dengeki/Dengeki PlayStation has a final pre-release interview with Final Fantasy XIII-2 producer Yoshinori Kitase and director Motomu Toriyama. We already shared a few bits from the interview that suggested that the Sazh character will appear not in the main game but as post release download content. Here are some other bits:
--Toriyama says that the game's various episodes are at most around 3 hours. They're made like this so that busy people can easily play.
--The bonuses for FFXIII owners keep on increasing. Now Toriyama says that if you have FFXIII save data (it doesn't have to be clear data, just save data), you'll get special monster decorations. Additionally, you'll get higher success rates in the game's casino area. The title screen will also have some sort of bonus.
--As previously detailed, you face off against the game's download content bosses in a coliseum area. There will also be small story elements here.
--There's an area of the world that will provide updates about available download content.
--The game has both auto save and save anywhere. Auto Save was apparently included because it's a trend for overseas games. However, it may be a bit hard to figure out where it's saving, so they've included the save anywhere option as well.
--You can make Odin into an ally monster. He first appears as a boss for one of the game's episodes.
--After clearing the game, you'll return to the opening. If you close the Historia Crux gate there, you'll be able to enjoy a "New Game Plus" type experience. You may want to play the game a second time, as there are some items that you'll only get on the second time through, like certain monster decorations that you get based off your Live Trigger conversation choices.
--When you first start the game, Noel and Serah can use Attacker, Blaster and Defender Roles.
As we mentioned earlier, Dengeki gave the game an "S" rating. This was part of one of the magazine's "Buyers Guide" reviews, and was not the full numbered review. As plusses, the review listed the selectable difficulties and the large amount of extra content. As a minus, the review said that the load times for switching areas is a bit long.
New video showing off environments--
yeah, don't trust 1st reviews (or any reviews for that matter.) But monster coliseums, new game plus, autosave, HD towns, no more straight lines, lots and lots of extra crap to do, plus an improved FFXIII battle system = sign me the fuck up. Hopefully it'll blend together as well as it looks, but I'll find out after I lose my $60.
Edit: all story talk is banned.
