History VideoGame / FinalFantasyXIII2

* TimeyWimeyBall: The plot runs on it. The characters use the term "paradox" as shorthand for mysterious temporal anomalies like people and objects vanishing from one time period and appearing in another, it's not always fully clear how or why paradoxes occur, and while events in one time period can effect the state of things in another, it's not always clear how, as decades or centuries may pass between time periods. Additionally, it is directly stated both in the datalogs and in dialogue that changing the future can change the past; once something occurs in the future, the past is rewritten to lead up to that future happening.

* WorldOfPun: [[spoiler:[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX Jet]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII Bahamut]]. You can make parallels between both cases for this game.]] There's also [[spoiler:Even better, [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX Garnet Bahamut]] and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Amber]] [[VisualPun Bahamut]].]]

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSKzBZIlgy8 Amodar's Feral Link]] is a [[StreetFighter Shungokusatsu]] in all but name: this is made even obvious by its QTE command, which is SGS' command in a 4 button layout.

* AnyoneCanDie: [[UpToEleven 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.

* SceneryGorn[=/=]SceneryPorn : Academia, The Vile Peaks, Sunleth Waterscape, Valhalla... [[UpToEleven they really went crazy on the visuals]].

* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: Played with after completing the Bresha Ruins sub-story. Noel and Serah get all philosophical about how humans caused the paradox and Mog proclaims that humans are the foulest of all evils [[RantInducingSlight because who else would]] [[FelonyMisdemeanor give them with a voucher for a year's supply of toilet paper as a reward for their hard work?]]

* AdultFear: Sazh loses Dajh while time traveling during his downloadable episode. He is more than a little worried.

* DreamWorld:

** The same roles make a return from the original game - [[AttackAttackAttack Commando]], [[ElementalPowers Ravager]], [[StoneWall Sentinel]], [[StatusBuff Synergist]], [[StandardStatusEffects Saboteur]] & [[WhiteMage Medic]]. The two main characters start with the first three and can learn the rest as a bonus whenever their crystarium expands. Captured monsters have a fixed role, though you can have up to three of them in your party switching out as needed.

** It's eventually revealed that Serah has the power to [[{{Seer}} see into the future]] just like Yeul. Also, like Yeul, [[spoiler:[[{{YourDaysAreNumbered}} this power drastically decreases her lifespan]].]]

'''All spoilers for Final Fantasy XIII are unmarked and all character tropes go on the proper [[Characters/FinalFantasyXIII character page]].'''

* InstantAwesomeJustAddDragons: Bahamut, I'm looking at you. And the faeryl, which indirectly caused the events of Sunleth Waterscape 300AF to happen.

* FiveRaces: 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.

** 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' [[LimitBreak Feral Links]] require the input of commands in order to increase the synchronization, which increases the damage the chance of obtaining the monster killed by the Feral Link. Support Feral Links on the other hand don't have any commands.

** Hope. From the whiny and weak kid in the first game to [[spoiler:the de facto '''leader of the world''']] in this one. He saves Serah and Noel multiple times.

* RandomNumberGod: There is a sidequest in Oerba which involves rotating clock-like hands (called a "Temporal Rift"). Usually, it's very straightforward since the game leads you through them, the first few of these quests are not randomized, and each decision is not under a time limit despite having only one chance. The final Fragment is just ridiculous: it ends with thirteen randomized movements ''and'' you still have that one chance or you restart the entire thing from scratch. [[http://www.njohnston.ca/2012/02/counting-and-solving-final-fantasy-xiii-2s-clock-puzzles/ There is a solver and explanation for this]], but it helps to have some knowledge of statistics.
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Fang and Vanille are 1021 and 1019.

** 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, Archylte Steppe being a major offender.
** Unique monster crystals that can only be gotten by throwing Mog at specific spots used to be this in the sense that if you picked the wrong Crystarium upgrades for them or infused another monster with them (which was the only way to pass on the useful Pack Mentality skill), you couldn't get another one, but thanks to Snow's {{DLC}}, all versions of Valfodr have 2 of the unique monsters as their drop items and thus you can get as many extras as you want.

* RandomEncounters: Unlike the previous game, which had PreexistingEncounters, here the monsters mostly[[JustifiedTrope simply pop straight out of rifts in space and time to attack you with almost no warning]]. You can still run away from them beforehand, though, and in fact it's easier to avoid encounters entirely if you wish. Just know what you're doing, otherwise the Moogle Clock will run out and you'll have to deal with the encounter with the ''Retry option locked''.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar:
** A close look at Serah's black modesty shorts shows that they fit her REALLY well.
** Some of the quiz questions in Academia 4XX demonstrate Square-Enix's newfound love of {{Double Entendre}}s (see also VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV)
--->Q: What act performed by the comedian Fl-Fl-Flan got him booted off of every TV station?
--->A: Wanna touch my Shaolong Gui?
--->Q: Which model is popular among collectors?
--->A: 1/1 scale Serah Farron

* TheHeroDies: [[spoiler: Serah]] dies at the end.

** The same roles make a return from the original game - Commando, [[ElementalPowers Ravager]], [[StoneWall Sentinel]], [[StatusBuff Synergist]], [[StandardStatusEffects Saboteur]] & [[WhiteMage Medic]]. The two main characters start with the first three and can learn the rest as a bonus whenever their crystarium expands. Captured monsters have a fixed role, though you can have up to three of them in your party switching out as needed.

* AIIsACrapshoot: [[spoiler:The A.I. of Augusta Tower did not like the idea of the Academy limiting its power, so it killed off the Academy higher-ups and took control of the tower and Academia. Its self-defense system for Academia City involves turning the citizens into Cie'th and sending them in droves to attack intruders. Its madness would later form into Academia 400AF, a BadFuture where said AI controls the entire city. Hello, [[Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey HAL Expy.]]]]

** 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 MessageInABottle from Snow to Serah.]]
** In a more meta sense, the final datacore granted from the final bonus fight of Final Fantasy 13, [[http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Datalog/Analects#XIII._Fabula_Nova_Crystallis "Fabula Nova Crystallis"]], can be interpreted as spelling out 13-2's plot in a very general sense.

* AndIMustScream:
** [[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.]]

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: A number of minor features from the original have been changed/removed for ease of use. Characters striking a pose in- battle whenever you shift paradigms still happens, but it's instantaneous instead of a few seconds. The weapon upgrade system is largely eliminated, and those that still use it (DLC weapons mainly) have it vastly simplified. The amount of CP needed to upgrade the various Roles is reduced considerably, with general CP intake increased. You can switch party leaders between Noel and Serah at any time and if one dies, you'll automatically switch to the other. The rate at which the ATB charges is also increased, meaning faster combat overall. You earn gil directly from enemies, instead of only occasionally receiving sellable items from them as in the original.

** In the original ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'', 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''.)

--> Meanie Miss Farron! Meanie Miss Farron!"

%%* BitchInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler:Alyssa]]

* BonusBoss: XIII-2 has MANY BONUS BOSSES compared to XIII. The Long Gui returns, and despite only having a quarter of the HP it had in XIII, it's still extremely tough to put down. Yomi is a weaker (but still formidable) version of Vercingetorix. And finally, there's Raspatil, a horrifyingly powerful Undying Cie'th that's probably the hardest fight in the vanilla game.
** The DLC Coliseum battles are all nasty even at maximum level, so this makes up for the normal game being pretty easy. One of the hardest ones is Jihl, the one person everyone who played XIII wanted to kill and now can't because of her summoning tricks and Sadistic Surge, and Gilgamesh, who has almost 10 million HP, can heal himself for 1 million after stagger and once he reaches half HP, he goes into enhance power mode, complete with auto-haste and attacks that even a Sentinel can struggle to keep up with.
*** The most notorious fighters in the Coliseum however, are Snow and Valfodr. First off, before you can fight Valfodr, you have to fight Snow, who has 10 million HP and if you don't provoke him into attacking someone else and he continues to attack the same character for a set amount of time, he will use a TotalPartyKill attack that you cannot survive even if you use Sentinels. And his attacks are BRUTAL. He is relentless and extremely strong, even at Max level. He can even use the WOUNDING SPELL on you to reduce your max HP. Once you defeat him, you fight Valfodr. He has five forms, progressively getting harder. While Level 1 and Level 15 aren't too much to be concerned about, at Level 45, he summons monsters that constantly heal him and gains a powerful axe attack. At Level 70, he summons Chichu - the ever famous best commando in the game - and gains a group attack that can kill even a triple Sentinel party (Reprieve won't save you either). And while he doesn't summon anything at level 99, his attacks are even more powerful, and he's much quicker.

* BookEnds: The tutorial and final boss fights are against Caius and his Eidolon in Valhalla. This goes even further in the Lightning DLC where you fight Caius again, in the REAL FINAL BOSS BATTLE, so it still works.

** The tutorial battle and the Lightning DLC(which is more or less THE REAL FINAL BOSS) battle have you playing as Lightning alone.

* BossRush: [[spoiler:The ending consists of multiple fights against Caius, in different forms. In order, Chaos Bahamut (that one you saw in the opening fight), Caius himself three times in a row [[FourIsDeath plus a fakeout]], and the Bahamut Trio as the FinalBoss. Jet Bahamut, Caius' OneWingedAngel form, has over 1 million HP, and the end total for all of these combined is around 2 million. Oh, and the other two Bahamuts prevent Jet from taking any damage or being targeted, and Jet can, upon completion of a countdown, kill any character not in Sentinel form.]]
* BraggingRightsReward: The Odinblade and Odinbolt don't achieve their full potential until you've acquired every fragment, at which point they receive a large jump in damage output, but then there's nothing to use them on...

* ContinuityNod: Near the beginning of the [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII last game]], when the heroes are turned into l'Cie, a short DeliberatelyMonochrome cinematic shown Ragnarok atop Cocoon. In this game, it's explained that the same cinematic is part of a ''much longer'' prophecy: [[spoiler:It shows Cocoon falling, with the crystal support being shattered and crashing down into Pulse.]]

* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: 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''.

** Especially since in the actual gameplay fight, the Royal Ripeness ''[[GameplayAndStorySegregation absorbs]]'' fire. Yet even in-fight Noel uses fire spells to blast it's face during the cinematic finish, with regular damage indicators and everything.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Compared to its [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII predecessor]], which wasn't exactly cheerful itself. It's like ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' dark. Notable in that a lot of people initially assumed that, like the [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2 last Final Fantasy with a direct sequel]], it would go [[LighterAndSofter the opposite direction]]. They were '''dead''' wrong.

* AnAdventurerIsYou: The same roles make a return from the original game; [[AttackAttackAttack Commando]], [[ElementalPowers Ravager]], [[StoneWall Sentinel]], [[StatusBuff Synergist]], [[StandardStatusEffects Saboteur]] & [[WhiteMage Medic]]. The two main characters start with the first three and can learn the rest as a bonus whenever their crystarium expands. Captured monsters have a fixed role, though you can have three of them in your party switching out as needed.
** Lightning's DLC, Requiem of the Goddess, gives her six roles which roughly correspond to the roles Serah and Noel get. Paladin is the Commando, Knight is the Sentinel, Sorcerer is the Saboteur, and Conjurer is the Synergist. She does not get a role corresponding to the Medic, instead having two roles which act as Ravagers, the Shaman which specializes in physical attacks with elemental properties and the Mage which uses the standard Thunder spells.

* AwesomeButImpractical: The InfinityPlusOneSword for both Serah and Noel is this. The Strength and Magic stats depend on how many Fragments you have, so they can be rather weak when you first get them. By the time you'll power it up to have the highest stats, you'll most likely have almost every Fragment in the game, and there isn't much else to do. It also doesn't have any particularly good skills like other slightly weaker high-end weapons do (such as ATB+1 and ATB+50%) and they have no synth abilities.
** Twilight Odin. Yeah, he has insanely high stats and the full 6 ATB segments, but his attack speed is horribly slow, he doesn't get any decent stat gains until level 80, and it takes over 250 Crystals to max him out. You're better off with Chichu or Tonberry.
* BadFuture:
** Noel has come back in time to prevent this from happening.
** Most of the Paradox Endings lead to this.
** [[spoiler:The normal ending. Serah dying and the entirety of time on Pulse and the "new Cocoon" falling into Chaos isn't a bad future? It gets worse when it's revealed that now people can't have newborns and can no longer die naturally.]]
** But at least for the normal ending, there will still be [[VideoGame/LightningReturnsFinalFantasyXIII another sequel]] in which will fix this to some degree.

** Also causes a bit of FridgeBrilliance: [[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...]]

* SubvertedRhymeEveryOccasion: Found in a Fragment that provides a poem about the sheep of Gran Pulse titled "The Melancholy of the Lambs:"

* WorfEffect: The Shiva Sisters are fighting alongside Lightning during the opening cutscene in Valhalla. In XIII, summoning or neglecting to summon an Eidolon could make or break some of the hardest fights in the game; on two ocassions, starting a fight in Gestalt Mode resulted in a curb-stopm that had the battle over before you could do anything else. Caius gives Nix a FacepalmOfDoom and throws her as Stiria, and Lightning vs. Caius is more-or-less a one-on-one[[labelnote:*]]although Odin and Bahamut appear in their Gestalt Modes in the playable bits, Lightning is doing all the attacking herself[[/labelnote]] for the rest of the prologue.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Ultimately, [[spoiler:BigBad Caius]] is ''not'' looking to rule/destroy the world ([[AGodAmI godhood optional]]). [[spoiler:He's hoping to create a timeless place where Yeul never has to die, which unfortunately will have the side-effect of collapsing every timeline ever. And he succeeds in the end.]]

* FirstEpisodeSpoiler:
** At the beginning of the game, Serah has a brief vision of Cocoon falling to the ground. Later on, Hope, Noel, and Serah watch a cinematic of Cocoon's fall. Finding a way to prevent Cocoon's fall and save Fang and Vanille later becomes the central goal of the Academy. [[spoiler:They are unable to do this, so they make a new Cocoon instead and remove Fang and Vanille's crystals from the pillar when the time comes. Then it goes FromBadToWorse.]]
** Switching the view of the Historia Crux will allow you to see the panorama images for each era.

* {{Cliffhanger}}[=/=]ToBeContinued: [[spoiler:The game ends on a "To Be Continued..." note with Serah and Etro dead, Lightning self-crystallized (according to interviews, this is to save Serah and maintain Etro's presence), and Hope and Noel trapped at ground zero of a successful TimeCrash and Class Z ApocalypseHow moment. It is continued by Lightning's DLC episode, which itself is followed by ''VideoGame/LightningReturnsFinalFantasyXIII'']]

* InfantImmortality: {{Averted}}.
** [[spoiler: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.
** One of the sidequests is from a young boy who was sucked into a temporal distortion and killed, and is unable to move on because he never accomplished anything.

* FetchQuest: Roughly half the sidequests available are you running down an item or two for various [=NPCs=]. This usually involves something that has been sucked into a paradox and sent into another timeline, and therfore said [=NPCs=] simply aren't able to find it because unlike the playable characters, they can't travel through time.