Final Fantasy XIII-2

I don't think they are, to the same extent as XIII. Seeing as you only play as Serah and Noel for the beginning, and the somewhat more open environments you see, I'm sure it'll be better. And there are towns!

Yup! I was happy to see a mini map with green dots(NPCs) if I can recall correctly. And with structures shown on the map as if you were to look at it from a top view.

EDIT: Just saw the E3 trailer. It looks freaking bad ass!

Gameplay videos!






Looks great, can't wait for more info. :)

EDIT:

Lightnings dead? I can sense raging going on.

I don't think she's dead. She looks like shes in a COMPLETELY different time period.

It's the "get out of jail free" alternate reality/world story.

Don't tell me something cheesy is going to happen such as Lightning all of a sudden falls into a warp hole and finds herself 1000 years in the future. At least the new guy is good though. A good replacement for silly old Snow.

Not really. She wandered off (in Episode i, which was released only in Japan) and accidentally crossed into the invisible world.



Watch that for a better understanding. That's what the entirety of the FF13 series (13, 13-2, versus 13, 13 Agito, etc) is supposed to be based off of.

Not sure if those are cities or if it's just NPCs on a linear map.

"omg! a branching path!"

Seriously though, from what I've seen, this is what I can tell:
It's only the demo, but the presence of a "town" is already a great improvement in the game. You can't imagine how satisfying it is to have the choice to go in any direction you want right off the bat.
I noticed the function to disable auto battle. It's cool they've considered this, but it still doesn't feel okay. I mean, you just need to feel a bit lazy and you find yourself enabling the autobattle again.
What would be great in 13-2 is a wider possibility of customization of gear for your characters. I think I'll be re-dissapointed but oh well.

This is epic... if true...

Some scans from Game Informer:

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/1849/ffxii2gameinformer12.jpg
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/3723/ffxiii2gameinformer3.jpg
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/9549/ffxiii2gameinformer4.jpg
http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/9679/ffxiii2gameinformer5.jpg
http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/8893/ffxiii2gameinformer6.jpg

http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/06/14/ffxiii_2_bits_from_dengeki/

Interview, and it seems like Noel is the main character now. Which is... stupid, at best.

Quad your avatar is very mesmerizing

And I revive thee, with this!



Interesting trailer, kinda... there was a semi-fail around 60 seconds in.
Music is nice. More gameplay stuff we've seen.

Purple guy at the end... no idea what he's doing, but I think he's evil.

EDIT: http://na.square-enix.com/ffxiii-2/#/story

Lol, Snow's missing.

At least Hope is there and the Shota route is still there lol.

13 as a game was too liniar and the normals batlles lasted too long, I don't mind epic battles now and then, but every battle required 50 paradigm shifts, it was too much. They need to make it so yuo can level up quick and use tactics against hard monsters not every monster!!!
im still undecided if i like the idea of a sequel.

The weapon that Serah is wielding is bad ass! I'm getting this whether it changed or not. Just wanna finish up the story but the video wasn't that bad. But it looks like there is a lot more action with the button pressing that leads to the cinematic. Definitely looking forward to it.

More detail on... time travel?

http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/09/06/ffxiii_2_time_travel_system/

Blah, while it does sound very non-linear... I don't really think it's a good thing. It just means there'll be less overall areas to explore.

I'm actually looking forward to this Final Fantasy.