Final Fantasy XIII-2: Difference between revisions

'''This article assumes you have played ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'' and will have unmarked spoilers from that game.'''

 

 

Three years after the end of ''Final Fantasy XIII'', the residents of Cocoon are attempting to rebuild their lives following the loss of the Cocoon fal'Cie. Lightning is missing, assumed to have [[Heroic Sacrifice|sacrificed herself]] in order to stop Cocoon from falling and killing everyone inside. Only one person believes otherwise: Serah Farron, who swears that her sister emerged alive but disappeared into thin air a moment later.

 

 

** During battle, you'll be asked to input commands via the Cinematic Action system, which allows you to do things like climb on enemies, and other cinematic stuff. Mostly, they do superficial stuff, like buffing the party, staggering the boss or just to take it down in a flashy way. Doing the last on will get you an adornment for each boss; doing them all will get you an achievement.

** Monster allies' [[Limit Break|Feral Links]] require the input of commands in order to increase the synchronization, which increases the chance of obtaining the monster killed by the Feral Link. Makes you wonder why support Feral Links even have synchronization...

* [[An Adventurer Is You]]: The same roles make a return from the original game; [[Attack! Attack! Attack!|Commando]], [[Elemental Powers|Ravager]], [[Stone Wall|Sentinel]], [[Status Buff|Synergist]], [[Standard Status Effects|Saboteur]] & [[White Mage|Medic]].

* [[After Combat Recovery]]: Your characters are healed after every battle, which is carried over from the first game.

* [[All There in the Manual]]:

** The Datacore system returns, although the main storyline is easier to grasp than 13. Every ending (except the secret ending scene) also grants a fragment that acts as a datacore, expanding on the information granted therein, as well as many fragments dropped from bosses and certain story events, including some surprising ones. For example, the Graviton cores {{spoiler|are actually a temporal [[Message in a Bottle]] from Snow to Serah.}}

* [[Alternate Universe]]: Yaschas Massif and Academia have alternate dimensions that appear as a result of solving paradoxes in other locations, and they are marked with an X in the year name. (Ex. 01X AF) You can still go back to the original version of the area, though.

** {{spoiler|Caius' stated goal is to find a way to prevent Yeul from her fate of dying and reincarnating every few years, something she has done for ''millennia,'' with him standing by her side the entire time. His solution is to directly cause a [[Time Crash]] and ''destroy time'', thus cutting off the source of her shortened lifespan.}}

** Noel believes in this. {{spoiler|His track record isn't very good though.}}

** {{spoiler|Caius, Yeul, and Serah}} are all ''walking'' examples of this trope because of Etro.

** At least three endings involve this trope. For the record, they are {{spoiler|the normal ending with Lightning, the Oerba Paradox Ending, and Augusta Tower 200AF.}}

* [[And Your Reward Is Clothes]]: Well, you aren't rewarded with clothes, but you can get them as downloadable content. The various monster adornments could also count as this in some cases. Most of these are earned by things such as Live Trigger Rewards, Cinematic Action Bonuses, or throwing Mog in obscure areas.

* [[Anyone Can Die]]: [[Up to Eleven|To where it becomes]] extremely dark.

** Noel's backstory is that absolutely everyone can, ''and has'', died. He was the last human ever to be born, and so he's jumping around the timeline trying to prevent his backstory from happening.

** Although the number thirteen doesn't appear as often as in the previous game, the Thirteenth Ark appears towards the end of the game. This means that it's now also an [[A Worldwide Punomenon|Ark Number]].

** Snow also says he's going to explore the "13 different ages" in one of the paradox endings.

** After completing the Fragment quests in Augusta Tower 200AF, you are awarded with the key to floor 13.

** In the original ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'', a five-star battle rating for a standard battle was 13,000. In ''Final Fantasy XIII-2'', it's 15,000 (13,000 + 2,000 - ''13-2''.)

** Long Gui is back. It can step on you.

* [[Audible Sharpness]]: Swinging your sword on the map screen results in a distinctive "sharp sword" sound.

* [[A Worldwide Punomenon]]: {{spoiler|[[Final Fantasy X|Jet]] [[Final Fantasy XII|Bahamut]]. You can practically make parallels between both cases for this game.}}

** {{spoiler|Even better, [[Final Fantasy IX|Garnet]] [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Bahamut]] and [[Final Fantasy VII|Amber]] [[Visual Pun|Bahamut]].}}

** Noel has come back in time to prevent this from happening.

** Most of the Paradox Endings lead to this.

* [[The Beast Master]]: Serah and Lightning have the ability to tame monsters and have them fight with them. Of course, some monsters cannot be tamed.

** Caius has an army of monsters to fight for him in the opening cutscene, but he never makes use of this power again other than that...

** In order to unlock the gate in the Archylte Steppe to reach the Vile Peaks, you'll have to defeat three Gigantaurs (one at a time, not all at once), which are very powerful the first time you visit the location.

** Long Gui is one if you decide to abandon all common sense and fight it instead of scaring it off with thunder like you're supposed to.

* [[Beware the Nice Ones]]: Serah is very nice and gentle, but if you don't do your homework, cause mischief, or doom humanity, you will be in for quite the scolding!

** Which is also the case in one of the optional mission areas.

{{quote|Meanie Miss Farron! Meanie Miss Farron!"}}

* [[BFS]]: Caius' sword is about as big as he is. He can still swing it pretty fast.

** Hope when you first meet him.

** Snow has one in one of the [[Multiple Endings|Paradox Endings]]: {{spoiler|In Academia 4XX AF, Snow arrives with the "time police" to arrest Alyssa for conspiring with Caius. After informing Hope that he will be assassinated in three days, he invites Serah to come with him on his journey to defeat all the different Caiuses spread across the timeline. Serah happily agrees, and the two set off on their own adventure.}}

{{quote|'''Gilgamesh''':"I've been waiting in this Coliseum for so very long now! I was starting to worry that you'd never download this part of the game, and I'd be stuck in digital limbo!" ''(cue confused expression from Serah and Noel)''}}

* [[Break Meter]]: The same mechanic as the first game makes a return.

** An Undying Cie'th was [[Bait and Switch Boss|killed by a Tonberry]] in XIII. The same one shows up in XIII-2 as a boss in Episode 4.

** The ''mirror''. It played no role, and was practically there as a prop. That same mirror is a [[Unusual Euphemism|euphemism]] for {{spoiler|a parallel dream world where all desires could come true.}} It was further evidence that everything was bleeding into each other, and where you got your first artefact.

* [[Bridal Carry]]: Caius to Yeul during the opening credits, which was also a [[Final Fantasy VII|familiar sight]] to some players.

** {{spoiler|You can choose to kill Caius or he kills himself on your sword, stabbing his heart. Which was also the heart of the Goddess of Time. Which causes [[Time Crash|time itself to collapse]] and the world to end. Which was the villain's objective all along.}}

* [[Broken Bridge]]: The time gates themselves serve this purpose, only opening up the next area once you've advanced the plot enough to uncover the various Artefacts. There are also numerous other examples in the form of barricades, fallen rubble, time distortions, and so on. There's even two Broken Bridges that are almost literally broken bridges - they're bridges phased out of spacetime that you can't cross until you get Mog's improved search ability.

* [[Butt Monkey]]: Mog. There are parts of the game where advancing the plot involves picking the little guy up and tossing him.

* [[Capital City]]: Academia

* [[Cartography Sidequest]]: An NPC will reward you for filling in most area maps 100%. [[Last Lousy Point|Doing so is sometimes difficult.]]

** Gogmagog and its palette swap, which are described as charms and seals placed upon it.

** The giant monster you ride in the Sunleth Waterscape has chains on its head for some reason.

* [[Collection Sidequest]]: The Fragments, of which there are 160. [[Last Lousy Point|Some are easier to get than others, naturally]].

** Some of the fragments are actually rewards from collection sidequests, like having fully explored every map or having defeated every monsters.

** The various roles are color coded, so you can tell at a glance which character or mon has which. They even color the nodes in the Crystarium when you level up the role.

** Several of the time labyrinth puzzles use color coding to make the gameplay more obvious. Clock puzzles color code the numbers so you can tell at a glance which number is which. Crystal constellation puzzles color code nodes that can be linked. And falling platform puzzles have red and white platforms to tell you which can be crossed once and which twice.

* [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard]]: You fight Caius multiple times throughout the game. Notably, you fight him once in Oerba 200 AF, again in the Void Beyond ({{spoiler|without Noel}}), and again in {{spoiler|the Dying World}} (this time {{spoiler|without Serah or a monster companion}}). Now, in order to get three of the Paradox Endings, you need to fight him again with the Paradox Scope fragment skill active. With the Paradox Scope active, Caius suddenly gets more health, the ability to apply ''health regeneration'' on himself, and his attacks are quick, relentless, and very powerful, leaving very little room for his victim to do much at all until he stops. And the worst part of all? ''You need to fight him twice in the same battle in all instances''. It's [[Nintendo Hard]] taken [[Up to Eleven]].

* [[The Computer Is Your Friend]]:

** {{spoiler|Future humanity is secretly ruled by an AI.}}

** {{spoiler|The Paradox Ending at Augusta Tower has the supercomputer kidnap Serah, Noel, and Mog, brainwash them, and turn them into weapons.}}

** Lightning's new sword doesn't look too bad either. They gave it a more medieval fantasy look to match her new armor.

** Serah's weapon is actually Mog, who can also find objects that are lost in Paradoxes. {{spoiler|Even when Serah loses Mog (kinda), her weapon turns translucent.}} It also switches between a bow and a sword depending on the distance in combat.

** Serah is this in comparison to Noel. Early in the game, she has better stats than him, but Noel begins to outpace her later in the game.

* [[Cursed with Awesome]]: The Heart of Chaos. {{spoiler|It allows the user to have power of chaos itself and [[Immortality]]. Caius has it as a gift from Etro herself as being the sole Guardian of Yeul, and only the person who kills him can take it. This concept quickly makes a left turn into [[Deconstruction]] when Caius is later known to have [[Death Seeker]] tendencies after living for an ''extremely'' long time and witnessing Yeul die countless times.}}

** In this game, spells are ordered in the battle menu by power level (so first all the normal spells, then the '-a's, then the '-ga's) as opposed to the original XIII's ordering by element. (Fire, Fira, Firaga, etc.) For those who played the first game a lot, this can take some getting used to.

** On a similar note, many enemies from the first game return, but most of their weaknesses have been changed.

* [[Darkest Hour]] --> [[Hope Spot]]: {{spoiler|The ending, dear God. Serah is dead, Lightning becomes crystallized, Vanille and Fang are still in crystal stasis, and Snow is somewhere outside of the timeline. Meanwhile, Noel and Hope are smack dab in the middle of a [[Time Crash]]. Oh, and Etro? Noel inadvertently killed her.}}

* [[Decoy Protagonist]]: Most of the advertising suggests that Lightning is the central hero of the game, even though the true main character is her sister Serah.

* [[Degraded Boss]]: Some monsters have moved up or down between ''XIII'' and ''XIII-2''.

** Malebranche is basically Attacus from ''XIII'', and while Attacus was considered a boss in ''XIII'', Malebranche is a regular enemy here. Same goes for Tonberries, though they're a rare encounter.

* [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything]]: If you decide to go to Augusta Tower 200AF after going to its 300AF counterpart to get a keycard, Noel will remark that you already have the key.

{{quote|'''Noel:''' ''If the key we need is something that is in a different time period, don't we already have it?''}}

* [[Dialog During Gameplay]]: Few NPCs in the game are actually able to be talked to; the rest of the NPCs can be heard by walking by them.

* [[Died in Your Arms Tonight]]: {{spoiler|Yeul to Caius and Noel multiple times; Serah to Noel in the ending.}}

** The Behemoths you're told to avoid in Yaschas Massif 010 AF. It is possible to beat one as long as you have a Saboteur and a Medic, and its recruit rate is decent enough to make capturing it on your first visit a possibility.

** A lot of the monsters labeled with "Early Peaker" have a low max level and pretty high stats compared to other choices. However, most of them lose out in the long run.

** One of the Fragment Skills will reduce the price of items.

** Played for [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|funny]] when Serah, Noel, and Mog receive the "reward" for solving Bresha Ruins' paradox: {{spoiler|a 10-year supply of toilet paper}}. [[Crazy Prepared|And you get to keep it in your inventory]]!

* [[Earn Your Happy Ending]]: Despite there being multiple endings, this game has more "[[It's a Wonderful Failure]]" endings than any other [[Square Enix]] game. Compare this to its predecessor, which had one [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]] after another {{spoiler|globally retconned out in this game.}} And there is only ''one'' perfectly happy ending, which is ''not canon''.

* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: Gogmagog and the Undying Cie'th Raspatil.

* [[Empathic Environment]]: Bresha Ruins 005 AF starts out sunny. After Atlas begins his rampage across the ruins, it begins to rain. After defeating Atlas and stopping his rampage, the area becomes sunny again. [[Comically Missing the Point|Apparently, the environment cannot make up its mind]].

** It's usually bright and sunny in New Bodhum. The two exceptions are during the intro, when monsters are attacking the town, and in the year 700 AF, when all humans have perished.

* '''{{spoiler|[[The Ending Changes Everything]]}}'''

* [[Eternal English]]: One of the [[All There in the Manual|datalogs]] [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] this by noting that the human language has not changed in over a thousand years, although curiously enough, Cocoon and Pulse use different alphabets. The datalog [[Hand Wave|speculates]] that the reason for the unchanging language is because language was something that the fal'Cie gave humanity.

* [[Expy]]:

** Atlas looks like (and has the same model of) a miniature [[Final Fantasy XIII|Titan]].

** Noel himself is basically a [[Gender Swap|gender-swapped]] [[Final Fantasy XIII|Fang]], [[Lampshade Hanging|which is lampshaded]] in a conversation between Snow, Serah, and Noel. Others feel Noel is [[Kingdom Hearts|Sora's lost twin brother]]. [[Final Fantasy X|Or the lost child of Yuna and Tidus]].

* [[Failure Knight]]: Caius and Noel to Yeul, which justifies Noel's [[The Dulcinea Effect|protectiveness]] of Serah. {{spoiler|Caius succeeds in reviving Yeul while Noel fails to protect Serah.}}

* [[Fan Service]]: One of the members of the game's production team actually [[Word of God|stated outright]] that Mog's presence in the game was intended as a form of fanservice, though this is one instance where it doesn't have anything to do with sex. Of course, one might begin to believe that it's actually intended as a form of a [[Fan Disservice]] after about the fifth time of hearing Mog say "I'll be helping in spirit, so good luck, kupo!" after failing at one of the Temporal Rift puzzles.

* [[Fashions Never Change]]: With one or two exceptions, fashion changes very little over the centuries you travel; Academia and military uniforms not at all.

* [[Fastball Special]]:

** Snow to Noel when fighting the giant flan.

** Noel throws Serah's sword (i.e. Mog) at the Proto Fal'cie Adam during a Cinematic Action sequence. [[Butt Monkey|Mog gets paralyzed from electrical shock for a few seconds afterwards]].

** Lightning gains one to replace her rose motif in the first game.

* [[Final Boss Preview]]: Caius is the first and last opponent fought in the game. Partially subverted since it's {{spoiler|Bahamut is the first and last boss fought}}, but the trope counts since {{spoiler|Bahamut is the Eidolon of Caius and Jet Bahamut is the [[One-Winged Angel]] form of Caius.}}

** You also fight Caius in Oerba once.

** Switching the view of the Historia Crux will allow you to see the panorama images for each era.

* [[Five Races]]: Although the first game consciously avoided using this trope to be unique, it returns in full usage in this game, with The Academy functioning as High Men (a society of thinkers who live in isolated enclaves, ruled by an near-immortal man with vast knowledge of the world), the Steppe Hunters being Stouts, and Mog and Chocolina being representative of Cutes. Fal'Cie retain their status as Fairies, and add Yeul to their ranks.

** Valhalla has a few surrounding the periphery. Most of them are destroyed in the battle with Caius.

** The 13th Ark

My destiny may change your fate

The pain my heart feels is my strength }}

** Similarly, the tenth Analect from ''FFXIII'' titled "The Menace Beyond", along with the "Mirror of Atropos" fragment from ''FFXIII-2'', suggest that {{spoiler|a final battle is due to take place in the Thirteenth Ark, which appears late in the game but is conspicuously irrelevant to the plot aside from giving Hope the idea to use Graviton Cores.}}

* [[For Doom the Bell Tolls]]: {{spoiler|In scenes where Lightning is snatched from time and again at the canon ending.}}

* [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]]: [[Averted Trope|Averted]] when it comes to fighting Caius. There are a total of five fights against him in the story. In each fight, he cast reraise on himself and the the first four battles end after it revives him. The next cutscene typically involves him standing up and kicking your ass. [[New Game+|The Paradox Scope]] lets you continue fighting him after Reraise activates and Caius proceeds to use the same strength he demonstrated in cutscenes. Beating Caius in these fights results in a [[Nonstandard Game Over|paradox ending.]]

* [[Gameplay Grading]]: Like the last game, your battles are ranked from one to five stars. This is important since not only do higher ranks increase item drops and the Feral Link gauge, but some achievements/trophies are only awarded for get five stars on certain boss battles.

** The soundtrack. Examples: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBZvtVpynXA LIMIT BREAK], [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGZzR5Zmlpo Colliding Worlds], and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZc-pzCKgjE Groovy Chocobo]. The first two are a few of several tracks vocalized for the game, somewhat like ''[[Persona 3]]''.

** The game too, to an extent. Basically, ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'' and ''[[Chrono Trigger]]''/''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'' hopped in a hot-pink convertible together and got in a hit-and-run accident with ''[[Pokémon]]'' and a ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' game.

* [[Genre Shift]]: ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'' had [[Lighter and Softer]] music with vibrant strings layered onto a common style most often associated with past Final Fantasy titles, [[Soundtrack Dissonance|which contrasts]] the "[[Earn Your Happy Ending|brighter future]]" theme akin to ''[[Final Fantasy X]]''. This game is the exact opposite: [[Darker and Edgier]] soundtrack with strong emphasis on individual instruments optionally layered with a subtle rap-like voice-over, which contrasts the apparent theme of [[The Power of Friendship|how relying on others is extremely helpful]].

** A close look at Serah's black modesty shorts shows that they fit her REALLY well.

{{quote|Q: What act performed by the comedian Fl-Fl-Flan got him booted off of every TV station?

A: Wanna touch my Shaolong Gui?

* [[Ghost Town]]: Oerba is still this, even after hundreds of years. The game gives it a [[Hand Wave]] by explaining that Hope ordered the place to be preserved in honor of Vanille and Fang. Plus, the area is ''continuously'' under Paradox Effects, so going there is very dangerous for anyone other than Serah, Noel, Mog, and maybe Chocolina.

* [[The Gods Must Be Lazy]]: [[Averted Trope|Etro]].Etro is a very kind goddess. She unfortunately does not know her own limits. {{spoiler|The happy ending in ''XIII'' was caused by an intervention. The Heart of Chaos and the Eyes of Etro were both gifts from her. She indirectly caused the majority of bad events to happen.}}

** One fragment is obtained as a reward for having defeated every single enemy in the game at least once.

* [[Gory Discretion Shot]]: When {{spoiler|Noel is [[Impaled with Extreme Prejudice]] by [[Big Bad|Caius]]}}.

* [[Grandfather Paradox]]: {{spoiler|Who caused the AI humanity creates to turn against them and finish the Artificial Fal'cie? The Artificial Fal'cie, of course. Must have been inspired by [[Final Fantasy VIII|Ultimecia]].}}

* [[Guest Star Party Member]]: Snow joins your group as a non-playable character in Sunleth Waterscape 300 AF.

** You most likely can't find all 160 Fragments without consulting a walkthrough at least once. The worst ones are either Fragments related to Paradox Endings, which already have their own [[Guide Dang It]] moments, or the ones that are hidden on the map, and require searching everywhere and checking every nook and cranny to find.

*** Nearly every artefact in Academia 4XX AF. Obtaining most of them involve answering a number of inane (and even some luck-based) questions ''in a row'', tracking down Captain Cryptic with infrequent and vague clues from pedestrians, and ''filling the entire bestiary'', which is itself a huge [[Guide Dang It]], especially monsters like {{spoiler|Tezcatlipoca, a unique Woodwraith who spawns only in a single spot in Academia 500 AF, on the northeast platform close to the final boss fight. If you already fought Xolotl and Miquiztli at that spot instead, you have to ''reset the entire area'' and go all the way over there again.}}

* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: {{spoiler|Lightning being crystallized during the ending is supposed to be her protecting Serah's will after she died. Some elements of [[Despair Event Horizon]] also come into play, as Lightning [[You Can't Fight Fate|realized what Caius did]].}}

** {{spoiler|Serah realizes towards the end of the game that trying to fight fate to save the future will shorten her lifespan and may kill her. She decides to continue fighting, and does indeed die from the visions.}}

* [[How We Got Here]]: You are shown in the opening sequence in which Lightning is fighting against Caius in the city called Valhalla. {{spoiler|The ending sequence has Valhalla being remade on Gran Pulse as per the death of Etro, with Chaos spreading across the land. Serah dies, Caius narrates, and Lightning is shown as a [[Taken for Granite|crystal]]. "A future I could not protect," indeed.}}

* [[Hub Level]]: The Historia Crux serves as a menu-screen version of this. Each node on the map marks a different era and location. To unlock other nodes, you must activate time gates within those locations.

* [[Ironic Echo]]: When you first arrive at Academia 400 AF, you are given a [[Scenery Porn|very nice overview]] of the city. If anything, the city is a [[Captain Ersatz]] to ''[[Final Fantasy Versus XIII]]'''s own city, but that's not the main idea. {{spoiler|Proto fal'Cie Adam makes its introduction in this timeline by [[Final Fantasy XIII|arriving in an airship modeled after Etro, complete with a slow-moving tendency and greenish flashing lights]]. It then proceeds to remain above The Academy in the front of the map for rest of time.}}

* [[I Will Find You]]: Serah towards Lightning and, later on, {{spoiler|Snow}}. Noel towards {{spoiler|his}} Yeul, as he believes he will reunite with her in the future.

** Serah waits for Snow to return in New Bodhum at the beginning of the game.

** At the start of the game, Lightning is locked in combat with Caius, and neither of them seem to be able to gain the upper hand over the other. When she sends Noel to go find Serah, the implication is that Lightning will be fighting Caius for ''the entire span of the game''.

* [[Improbable Weapon User]]: Serah uses a MOOGLE as a weapon. Granted, though, it does change into an actual weapon.

** Noel's sword is actually two swords attached to each other that can turn into a spear.

** {{spoiler|1=In Acedemia 400 AF, some of the NPCs transformed into Cie'th are children. Heartrendingly, you can sometimes pass adult female NPCs and hear them begging their children not to leave them, or reassuring them that they're right there.}}

** Yeul isn't exactly an infant, but she never lives to be older than fifteen. And she's constantly reincarnated.

* [[Last Lousy Point|Last Lousy Fragment]]:

** You'll also need to fight Long Gui and Yomi for two Fragments, who are considered by some to be even tougher then the final boss.

** The Travel Guide: Academia fragment requires 100% completion of all Academia maps. Academia 400 has constantly-spawning, mostly inescapable enemies to trip you up. Academia 4XX is by far the most complex map in the game, full of little nooks and crannies that will take hours to explore fully. Academia 500 is a constantly shifting [[Unexpected Gameplay Change|platforming]] level with multiple switches changing which platforms are accessible. Bring a snack and a stress-ball.

** At least one of the Paradox Endings Beneath A Timeless Sky and Heart of Chaos will make you rage. Both of them are fights against a ''really hard'' version of Caius, who can ''and will'' kill you in less than a minute at max stats. The right strategy can make them easier, but you'll probably see a game over at least once.

* [[Lightning Can Do Anything]]: Well, [[Incredibly Lame Pun|she probably can if the writers feel like it]], but here it manifests more accurately by the fact that enemies and event-based item boxes appear in form of a bolt of reddish-purple lightning striking their spawn location.

** This seems to be how the Proto-Fal'cie instantly converts people into Cie'th.

** Serah and Noel both can get their Full ATB Attack (Serah's is Ultima Arrow and Noel's in Meteor Javelin), but they're only useable once per fight.

** The Scourge ability that Commandos can use. It only activates if any enemy is about to recover from Stagger, and does about four times normal damage.

* [[Lost Forever]]: Mostly averted. After obtaining the proper seal, you can lock a time gate and go back to the area as it was when you first arrived. Because of this, few things are truly lost, even the Live Trigger rewards, but at the moment some of the gate seals don't work properly and thus don't return you to the very beginning of that location, Archelyte Steppe being a major offender.

* [[Lotus Eater Machine]]: {{spoiler|Serah and Noel get trapped in separate ones. Vanille and Fang free Serah from hers, and Serah saves Noel from his.}}

** The biggest example is Twilight Odin, who is weak when you first get him. With enough sufficient leveling, he can become an absolute monster. Too bad he's overshadowed by other monsters that attack faster than him, do more damage than he does at equal or lower strength values and don't waste time posing after every 4 attacks.

** The Cait Sith you get as one of your two first Mons can, with time and patience, be one of the best Medics in the game.

* [[Min-Maxing]]: The Crystarium has big nodes that give you a small stat bonus in either HP, ATK, or MAG depending on which role you decide to level up on the big node, which starts adding up if you concentrate on a single stat. As a result, some people opt to have an all-MAG and all-ATK build for Serah and Noel, respectively.

** Similarly, you level up your [[Mons]] with materials that enhance one of the same three stats at each node, or [[Master of None|all three to a slightly lesser degree]].

* [[Mood Dissonance]]: Chocolina, who's always cheery no matter where she is (with a few exceptions. In {{spoiler|Academia 400 AF, she's depressed that everyone's being turned into Cie'th. Right before the finale in Academia 500 AF, she also gets a little downcast when she realizes that if Serah and Noel resolve the final paradox, she may never see them again.}})

* [[Mr. Exposition]]: Mog

* [[Multiple Endings]]: Subverted in that the majority of the multiple endings don't actually affect the gameplay, and there is only one true ending.

* [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast]]

** The first boss is named Gogmagog, a Biblical reference.

* [[Nintendo Hard]]: This game has been attracting attention for its ''insanely'' hard bosses.

* [[No Sidepaths, No Exploration, No Freedom]]: Intentionally and deliberately averted with areas more complex and intertwined than before.

** You can see sidequests you've accepted via the menu.

** When you load your game from the title screen, a brief [["Previously On..."]] will play, reminding you of the story so far.

* [[One-Scene Wonder]]: Played for ''[[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|funny]]''. {{spoiler|The Miniflans in Sunleth Waterscape 400AF are attempting to destroy the crystal pillar, but they need others to help. Eventually, you have to fight them}}, [[Memetic Mutation|while Square-Enix plays inappropriate music]]. {{spoiler|They are defeated and scolded by Serah in mere minutes.}}

* [[Ominous Latin Chanting]]: Caius's Theme

* [[One-Winged Angel]]: Of course, [[Trope Namer|this being]] ''[[Final Fantasy]]'', {{spoiler|Caius can transform himself into a dark dragon called Chaos Bahamut and Jet Bahamut in the final battle.}}

** Special mention for {{spoiler|Jet Bahamut: He brings along Garnet Bahamut and Amber Bahamut, and constantly re-summons them throughout the fight. That's right, the last boss is [[Actually Four Mooks|actually three dragons]].}}

** On a larger scale, many monsters are "family" monsters which reuse very similar or exactly the same models, with new textures. This is actually ''useful'' in some instances, as it's possible to find monsters with the Pack Mentality auto-ability, which makes them stronger if all three monsters in your Paradigm Pack are from the same family.

** Most of the NPCs are palette swaps of each other, with only clothing and hair color changed.

** If one goes to a very tiny spot at AF 400 Academia just before you fight Zenobia, and turn on a turbo fire controller (or mash the X button A LOT), then you can accumulate LOTS of Crystanium points.

** For monster materials, Archlyte Steppe -Year Unknown- just throws them at you.

** If a particularily strong rare monster appears, it does so in form of a small black hole, which causes horizonal static lines to appear on the screen.

** Augusta Tower 300 AF is suffering from malfunctions due to the paradoxes; the screen is covered with hazy lines while you're there.

** In the secret ending, {{spoiler|Caius talks about the player having seen all eight endings.}}

* [[Pop Quiz]]: There is a man named Captain Cryptic who asks Serah questions about the world they live in.

* [["Previously On..."]]: Every time you continue the game, some clips are shown of what happened the last time you played. It seems to be a random collection of clips from previous cutscenes, and sometimes doesn't really help the player remember what happened before.

* [[Red Oni, Blue Oni]]: A menu-based variant. When you initially progress through the game, you have a blue menu. Whenever the "Paradox" Fragment is turned on, the menu will become red.

* [[Replacement Goldfish]]: After Snow leaves to find Lightning, Serah adopts a cat and names it Snow.

** Ironically, this is [[Inverted]] as well in a big way. {{spoiler|Namely, Etro did the inverse, saving the party from ''XIII'' after the fight with Orphan, which causes [[It Got Worse|a few problems.]]}}

* [[The Reveal]]: Turns out, it's the moogle's bobble that allows them to fly. The wings are just for show.

** {{spoiler|The Eyes of Etro drastically shorten the lifespan of those who bear them.}}

** Serah and Noel, alongside a few others.

** Somewhat averted {{spoiler|in Noel's case. Memories relating to his native era aren't impervious, as Serah figures out in a brief narrative moment roundabouts Academia 4XX AF.}}

* [[Shout-Out]]:

** If you have seen ''[[Advent Children]]'', you will immediately recognize Lightning's action when she attempts to break through the meteor by going straight for it. Later on, the camera focuses on a chunk of said meteor and it resembles the ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' logo. Noel repeatedly saying "[[Arc Number|700 years]]" just adds fuel to the fire.

** The way that Caius holds Yeul and lowers her into the water in the opening cinematic is very reminiscent of Cloud and Aerith.

** {{spoiler|The scene in New Bodhum Year Unknown when Lightning is standing on the pier, shrouded in darkness, and puts her hand out for Serah to join her is very similar to when Riku holds out his hand to Sora in ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]''.}}

** Also causes a bit of [[Fridge Brilliance]]: {{spoiler|Why is it that, even after finalizing the plans for the creation of Bhunivelze, Noel doesn't disappear? If you had been able to truly win, the future that Noel comes from would be erased...}}

* [[Stat Grinding]]: Like the first game, the Crystarium works like this.

** During the opening battle between Lightning and Caius, this happens twice. First traditionally, and then on pieces of metal frozen in place with a gravity spell.

** [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon]] is basically this, complete with [[Unexpected Gameplay Change|an out-of-place platforming segment]].

* [[Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion]]: Found in a Fragment that provides a poem about the sheep of Gran Pulse titled "The Melancholy of the Lambs:"

{{quote|''It's hard to be sheep''

* [[Time Paradox]]: The theme of the game.

* [[Time Travel]]: The Historia Crux system allows the player to travel through gates that lead to different time periods, akin to ''[[Chrono Trigger]]''. It is slightly extended from the CT system, however, in that there are several alternate versions (in some cases up to 4, but a few are just for Paradox Endings) of most time periods.

** Serah is an active participant in the storyline instead of a sort of [[Posthumous Character]].

** Hope. From the whiny and weak kid in the first game to {{spoiler|the de facto '''leader of the world'''}} in this one. And he saves Serah and Noel multiple times.

* [[Total Eclipse of the Plot]]: The eclipse that happens at some point in future history is implied to have darkened the entire continent for years. Perhaps [[Justified]] by it being caused by a fal'Cie rather than a celestial object. This trope also applies to Yaschas Massif 010AF to a lesser extent.

* [[Trailers Always Spoil]]:

** Jhil Nabaat is an available combatant.

* [[Unexpected Gameplay Change]]

* [[Building Swing|Vine Swing]]: In the Sunleth Waterscape.

* [[Variable Mix]]: Most of the area themes have an "[[Speedy Techno Remake|Aggressive Mix]]" that kick in when monsters show up.

** Using the Moogle Throw will have Mog squirm and panic. It's rather cute though. Actually throwing him can have him bounce off obstacles and fall down cliffs. Good thing he seems to be [[Made of Iron]].

*** This is also made more amusing by the fact that whenever you throw him, all NPCs nearby gather around him regardless of whether they're hardened soldiers or little kids when they just express some casual wonderment when he's flying around.

** Infusing monsters with others, which apparently destroys the second monster. Even the monster that's been fighting with you for hours is liable to be sacrificed to a better one the moment it shows up.

* [[Void Between the Worlds]]: The Void Beyond, described as the "area between gates," which Serah and Noel use as rest stops upon their first few visits.

** The weakened Atlas you fight in episode 2. This is the first battle where you'll actually have to switch paradigms and be reasonably leveled to beat.

** Similarly, the full power Atlas hammers home the concept that you are simply not going to be strong enough to pick every path. {{spoiler|Fortunately, later in the game you gain the ability to forcibly rewind time, starting chapters over.}}

* [[What Happened to the Mouse?]]: Several major players in the storyline vanish outright and are never mentioned again. Case in point, no mention of {{spoiler|Alyssa}} after {{spoiler|her betrayal}} outside of a Paradox Ending. This is almost acceptable with her {{spoiler|since her betrayal was apparently due to her discovering that the heroes succeeding in their next adventure would [[Ret-Gone]] her}}, but less understandable when {{spoiler|Snow}} gets the same treatment.

** Noel's fate in the canon ending is left dangling, as {{spoiler|the world is consumed with chaos, we never see what happens to Noel, not even in any of the downloadable content.}}

** Watch the trailers for ''[[Final Fantasy Versus XIII]]'', and then play through this game. [[Mythology Gag|Notice any parallels]]?

* [[Xanatos Gambit]]: {{spoiler|Caius pulls off an amazing one: Either his plans to destroy Time succeed (by killing Etro directly, or by forcing open the Unseen Gate), or the heroes kill him... which would destroy Time as well. Lightning realises the futility of fighting against him under these conditions, and allows herself to be defeated.}}

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Final Fantasy XIII-2]]

[[Category:Video Game]]

[[Category:Final Fantasy]]