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178-666: Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 . It was released in 2011 in Japan and 2012 in North America and PAL regions , and was ported to Windows in 2014. XIII-2 is a direct sequel to the 2009 role-playing game Final Fantasy XIII and part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis subseries. It includes modified features from

356-429: A third-person perspective to interact with people, objects, and enemies throughout the game. The player can also turn the camera around the characters, providing a 360° view. XIII-2 has a world rendered to scale relative to the characters; instead of a caricature of the character roaming around miniature terrain, as found in the earlier Final Fantasy games, every area is represented proportionally. The player navigates

534-417: A battle while in the middle of a fight. Three characters are used in combat—the two main characters and a monster. Monsters must be captured from battles before they can be used, and there are around 150 different monster types available to be collected. Captured monsters act just like the main characters, but can also perform a "feral link" attack that increases the chance of capturing another monster. Either of

712-450: A big open world , and let you do whatever you like [which makes it] difficult to tell a compelling story." Hironobu Sakaguchi noted that "users like to categorise" WRPGs as "a sort of different style, born from first person shooters." In recent years, some have also criticized WRPGs for becoming less RPG-like, instead with further emphasis on action. Christian Nutt of GameSpy states that, in contrast to JRPGs, WRPGs' greater control over

890-760: A collective name for the teams in charge of the Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy , Dissidia Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts series. Many of the key personnel from Final Fantasy XIII remained in their roles: Motomu Toriyama was director, Yoshinori Kitase producer, Tetsuya Nomura character designer and Isamu Kamikokuryo art director. The game was officially announced at the Square Enix 1st Production Department Premier in Tokyo in January 2011, and released on December 15

1068-409: A finite number of points to the attributes of their choice. Gaining experience will also unlock new magic spells for characters that use magic. Some role-playing games also give the player specific skill points , which can be used to unlock a new skill or improve an existing one. This may sometimes be implemented as a skill tree. As with the technology trees seen in strategy video games , learning

1246-549: A gamemaster. Exploring the world is an important aspect of many RPGs. Players will walk through, talking to non-player characters , picking up objects, and avoiding traps. Some games such as NetHack , Diablo , and the FATE series randomize the structure of individual levels, increasing the game's variety and replay value. Role-playing games where players complete quests by exploring randomly generated dungeons and which include permadeath are called roguelikes , named after

1424-449: A greater degree in the early 1990s. As console RPGs became more heavily story-based than their computer counterparts, one of the major differences that emerged during this time was in the portrayal of the characters. Console RPGs often featured intricately related characters who had distinctive personalities and traits, with players assuming the roles of people who cared about each other, fell in love or even had families. Romance in particular

1602-647: A hold as they had in the West due to their cost; there was little market for Western-developed games and there were a few Japanese-developed games for personal computers during this time such as The Black Onyx (1984) which followed the Wizardry / Ultima format. With the release of the low-cost Famicom console (called the Nintendo Entertainment System overseas), a new opportunity arose to bring role-playing games to Japan. Dragon Quest (1986)

1780-815: A large number of Western indie games are modelled after JRPGs, especially those of the 16-bit era , partly due to the RPG Maker game development tools . Another oft-cited difference is the prominence or absence of kawaisa , or "cuteness", in Japanese culture, and different approaches with respect to character aesthetics. WRPGs tend to maintain a serious and gritty tone, whereas JRPG protagonists tend to be designed with an emphasis on aesthetic beauty, and even male characters are often young, androgynous , shōnen or bishōnen in appearance. JRPGs often have cute characters, juxtaposed with more mature themes and situations; and many modern JRPGs feature characters designed in

1958-503: A literary novel called "The Bestiary" (Dial, 2007) that describes a lonely young man's efforts to track down the world's most complete bestiary. John Henry Fleming's Fearsome Creatures of Florida (Pocol Press, 2009) borrows from the medieval bestiary tradition to impart moral lessons about the environment. Caspar Henderson 's The Book of Barely Imagined Beings ( Granta 2012, University of Chicago Press 2013), subtitled "A 21st Century Bestiary", explores how humans imagine animals in

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2136-641: A little box doesn't mean it belongs there." Nick Doerr of Joystiq criticizes the claim that JRPGs are "too linear", pointing out that non-linear JRPGs are not uncommon—for instance, the Romancing SaGa series. Likewise, Rowan Kaiser of Joystiq points out that linear WRPGs were common in the 1990s, and argues that many of the often mentioned differences between Eastern and Western games are stereotypes that are generally "not true" and "never was", pointing to classic examples like Lands of Lore and Betrayal at Krondor that were more narrative-focused than

2314-423: A major challenge in order to progress to the next area, and this structure can be compared to the boss characters at the end of levels in action games . The player typically must complete a linear sequence of certain quests in order to reach the end of the game's story. Many RPGs also often allow the player to seek out optional side-quests and character interactions. Quests of this sort can be found by talking to

2492-459: A mixed class, such as a fighter who can cast simple spells. Characters will also have a range of physical attributes such as dexterity and strength, which affect a player's performance in combat. Mental attributes such as intelligence may affect a player's ability to perform and learn spells, while social attributes such as charisma may limit the player's choices while conversing with non-player characters. These attribute systems often strongly resemble

2670-419: A non-player character, and there may be no penalty for abandoning or ignoring these quests other than a missed opportunity or reward. Players can find loot (such as clothing, weapons, and armor) throughout the game world and collect it. Players can trade items for currency and better equipment. Trade takes place while interacting with certain friendly non-player characters, such as shopkeepers, and often uses

2848-466: A number of user-configurable settings. Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel and Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura offered players the option to play in either turn-based or RTwP mode via a configuration setting. The latter also offered a "fast turn-based" mode, though all three of the game's modes were criticized for being poorly balanced and oversimplified. Early Ultima games featured timed turns: they were strictly turn-based, but if

3026-688: A paradox on Cocoon, they meet and help Alyssa, an Academy member and survivor of the Purge , a massacre by the Sanctum at the beginning of Final Fantasy XIII . Traveling to the ruined city of Paddra in 10 AF, they find Hope leading the Academy, with Alyssa as his assistant. They also find a recording of prophecies made by one of the seeresses of Paddra, who are believed to have died out centuries prior: one fragmented prophecy shows Lightning in Valhalla. Paddra

3204-442: A particular action will increase. Many role-playing games allow players to play as an evil character. Although robbing and murdering indiscriminately may make it easier to get money, there are usually consequences in that other characters will become uncooperative or even hostile towards the player. Thus, these games allow players to make moral choices, but force players to live with the consequences of their actions. Games often let

3382-483: A particular skill in the tree will unlock more powerful skills deeper in the tree. Three different systems of rewarding the player characters for solving the tasks in the game can be set apart: the experience system (also known as the "level-based" system), the training system (also known as the "skill-based" system) and the skill-point system (also known as "level-free" system) Older games often separated combat into its own mode of gameplay, distinct from exploring

3560-581: A positive-feedback cycle that is central to most role-playing games: The player grows in power, allowing them to overcome more difficult challenges, and gain even more power. This is part of the appeal of the genre, where players experience growing from an ordinary person into a superhero with amazing powers. Whereas other games give the player these powers immediately, the player in a role-playing game will choose their powers and skills as they gain experience. Role-playing games usually measure progress by counting experience points and character levels. Experience

3738-402: A result, Japanese-style role-playing games are held in disdain by some Western gamers, leading to the term "JRPG" being held in the pejorative. Some observers have also speculated that JRPGs are stagnating or declining in both quality and popularity, including remarks by BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk and writing director Daniel Erickson that JRPGs are stagnating—and that Final Fantasy XIII

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3916-520: A return from Final Fantasy XIII in an altered form. The system consists of constellation-style representations of the character's weapons and tamed monsters, made up of small and large crystal nodes, which can be accessed from the start of the game. There is one Crystarium system available for each monster and Paradigm role. Crystogen points gained in battle can be used to expand the Crystarium, unlocking bonuses to health, magic, or strength, or provide

4094-482: A sequel to Final Fantasy XIII-2 as early as December 2011, when Square Enix registered the Final Fantasy XIII-3 web domain. At the time, the company stated that it was simply a precaution and did not mean there was such a game. After the game was released with a "To be continued" ending, Square Enix said that the ending was chosen to prompt players to explore the alternative endings and remain ready for

4272-442: A side-scrolling view. Most notably since Ultima Underworld (1992), role-playing games started implementing true three-dimensional (3D) graphics, where players typically navigate the game world from a first or third-person perspective. However, an isometric or aerial top-down perspective is common in party-based RPGs, in order to give the player a clear view of their entire party and their surroundings. Role-playing games require

4450-494: A single paragraph) spread across 13 booklets, while the second contains 50,000 paragraphs spread across 14 booklets. Most of the games from this era are turn-based, although Dungeon Master and its imitators have real-time combat. Other classic titles from this era include The Bard's Tale (1985), Wasteland (1988), the start of the Might and Magic (1986–2014) series and the continuing Ultima (1981–1999) series. Later, in

4628-409: A smaller set of possible actions, since computers can't engage in imaginative acting comparable to a skilled human gamemaster. In exchange, the typical role-playing video game may have storyline branches, user interfaces, and stylized cutscenes and gameplay to offer a more direct storytelling mechanism. Characterization of non-player characters in video games is often handled using a dialog tree . Saying

4806-475: A sound director for several Square Enix games and served as an arranger for XIII . The game's director, Motomu Toriyama, wanted the game's soundtrack to have more variety than that of the music in XIII , as well as feature more styles. As a result, the game had three composers rather than just Hamauzu. Toriyama also wished for the music to have "a more edgy sound" and more vocal pieces, so that it would sound "unlike

4984-415: A specialized trading screen. Purchased items go into the player's inventory. Some games turn inventory management into a logistical challenge by limiting the size of the player's inventory, thus forcing the player to decide what they must carry at the time. This can be done by limiting the maximum weight that a player can carry, by employing a system of arranging items in a virtual space, or by simply limiting

5162-463: A spell, as ammunition is consumed by a gun, most games offer players a finite amount of mana which can be spent on any spell. Mana is restored by resting or by consuming potions. Characters can also gain other non-magical skills, which stay with the character for as long as the character lives. Role-playing games may have the player focus only on a single character throughout the game; the character may be joined by computer-controlled allies outside of

5340-600: A time of rapid environmental change. In July 2014, Jonathan Scott wrote The Blessed Book of Beasts , Eastern Christian Publications, featuring 101 animals from the various translations of the Bible, in keeping with the tradition of the bestiary found in the writings of the Saints, including Saint John Chrysostom . In today's world there is a discipline called cryptozoology which is the study of unknown species. This discipline can be linked to medieval bestiaries because in many cases

5518-407: A very different game from its predecessor" and that "it's easy to lose yourself in changing and redoing areas you've previously finished". Assistant editor Norihiro Fujiwara added that "the setting and presentation is fantastic, and the issues people brought up with the first game—its linearity, its lack of meaty gameplay—are a thing of the past. You're sucked into the game right from the beginning, and

Final Fantasy XIII-2 - Misplaced Pages Continue

5696-458: A young girl who works as an assistant to Hope. The game opens in 3 AF, as the Pulse town Serah lives in is attacked by monsters. A stranger named Noel appears to help fight the monsters and claims to be a time traveler from 700 AF. He arrived in her time via Valhalla, where he claims to have met Lightning as she guarded the throne of the weakened Etro. As part of Lightning's transfer to Valhalla, she

5874-487: Is fair to say that bestiaries and their contents gave fuel to the context behind the animals, whether real or myth, and their meanings. In modern times, artists such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Saul Steinberg have produced their own bestiaries. Jorge Luis Borges wrote a contemporary bestiary of sorts, the Book of Imaginary Beings , which collects imaginary beasts from bestiaries and fiction. Nicholas Christopher wrote

6052-423: Is fully restored after each fight. As the player travels through an area, monsters can randomly appear . For a limited time after monsters appear, the player may attack them to gain a combat bonus; after this window expires, the monsters attack the player to begin a regular battle. When the battle begins, the screen transitions from the regular map to a separate battle screen. The player has the option of restarting

6230-496: Is largely predefined for the sake of telling a specific story, many role-playing games make use of a character creation screen. This allows players to choose their character's sex, their race or species, and their character class. Although many of these traits are cosmetic, there are functional aspects as well. Character classes will have different abilities and strengths. Common classes include fighters, spellcasters, thieves with stealth abilities, and clerics with healing abilities, or

6408-505: Is multiplied by the chain percentage before it is applied to the enemy. Different attacks have different effects; some raise the chain by a larger amount while others give the player longer before the Chain Gauge resets to 100 percent. When the chain counter reaches a preset amount, different for each enemy, the enemy becomes Staggered. In this mode, the enemy has lowered defense and is easily interrupted, and some may even be launched into

6586-492: Is not even really an RPG; criticisms regarding seemingly nebulous justifications by some Japanese designers for newly changed (or, alternately, newly un-changed) features of recent titles; calls among some gaming journalists to "fix" JRPGs' problems; as well as claims that some recent titles such as Front Mission Evolved are beginning to attempt—and failing to—imitate Western titles. In an article for PSM3 , Brittany Vincent of RPGFan.com felt that "developers have mired

6764-492: Is notable for introducing automapping and in-game scrolls providing hints and background information. They also released Pool of Radiance in 1988, the first of several " Gold Box " CRPGs based on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules . These games feature a first-person display for movement, combined with an overhead tactical display for combat. One common feature of RPGs from this era, which Matt Barton calls

6942-621: Is often rooted in speculative fiction (i.e. fantasy or science fiction ), which allows players to do things they cannot do in real life and helps players suspend their disbelief about the rapid character growth. To a lesser extent, settings closer to the present day or near future are possible. The story often provides much of the entertainment in the game. Because these games have strong storylines, they can often make effective use of recorded dialog and voiceover narration. Players of these games tend to appreciate long cutscenes more than players of faster action games . While most games advance

7120-487: Is shrouded by an eclipse, which Noel says is not supposed to happen for several centuries. While Serah and Noel resolve the paradox causing the eclipse, they encounter Caius Ballad, a man Noel knows from 700 AF who opposes their mission, and Yeul, who looks identical to a girl of the same name Noel knew in the future. After resolving the paradox, an alternative timeline appears in which there was never an eclipse. The repaired prophecy shows Caius in Valhalla fighting Lightning and

7298-465: Is the only way that the player can control the AI characters during a fight. The player can choose only from specific sets of paradigms that the player has set up before the battle. Monsters have only one role; different ones are used when the player switches paradigms. The player selects up to three monsters they wish to use in paradigms outside of battle. The Crystarium is a leveling and growth system, making

Final Fantasy XIII-2 - Misplaced Pages Continue

7476-406: Is usually divided so that each game location is an opportunity to reveal a new chapter in the story. Pen-and-paper role-playing games typically involve a player called the gamemaster (or GM for short) who can dynamically create the story, setting, and rules, and react to a player's choices. In role-playing video games, the computer performs the function of the gamemaster. This offers the player

7654-451: Is usually earned by defeating enemies in combat, with some games offering experience for completing certain quests or conversations. Experience becomes a form of score , and accumulating a certain amount of experience will cause the character's level to go up. This is called "levelling up", and gives the player an opportunity to raise their character(s)'s attributes. Many RPGs allow players to choose how to improve their character, by allocating

7832-650: The Etymologiae ) and Saint Ambrose expanded the religious message with reference to passages from the Bible and the Septuagint . They and other authors freely expanded or modified pre-existing models, constantly refining the moral content without interest or access to much more detail regarding the factual content. Nevertheless, the often fanciful accounts of these beasts were widely read and generally believed to be true. A few observations found in bestiaries, such as

8010-584: The Dungeons & Dragons ruleset. Some role-playing games make use of magical powers , or equivalents such as psychic powers or advanced technology. These abilities are confined to specific characters such as mages, spellcasters, or magic-users. In games where the player controls multiple characters, these magic-users usually complement the physical strength of other classes. Magic can be used to attack, defend, or temporarily change an enemy or ally's attributes. While some games allow players to gradually consume

8188-543: The Nintendo DS have had more original and experimental Japanese RPGs released in recent years. Western RPGs have also received criticism in recent years. They remain less popular in Japan, where, until recently, Western games in general had a negative reputation. In Japan, where the vast majority of early console role-playing video games originate, Western RPGs remain largely unknown. The developer Motomu Toriyama criticized Western RPGs, stating that they "dump you in

8366-725: The Queen Mary Psalter ( British Library Ms. Royal 2B, vii) and the Isabella Psalter (State Library, Munich ), contain full Bestiary cycles. The bestiary in the Queen Mary Psalter is found in the "marginal" decorations that occupy about the bottom quarter of the page, and are unusually extensive and coherent in this work. In fact the bestiary has been expanded beyond the source in the Norman bestiary of Guillaume le Clerc to ninety animals. Some are placed in

8544-664: The Sharp X1 computer in 1983 and later ported to the MSX in 1984, the NES in 1985 and the Sharp X68000 as New Bokosuka Wars . The game laid the foundations for the tactical role-playing game genre, or "simulation RPG" genre as it is known in Japan. It was also an early example of a real-time , action role-playing game . In 1986, Chunsoft created the NES title Dragon Quest (called Dragon Warrior in North America until

8722-504: The Ultima series, employed duplicates of the miniatures combat system traditionally used in the early role-playing games . Representations of the player characters and monsters would move around an arena modeled after the surrounding terrain, attacking any enemies that are sufficiently close. Earlier role-playing video games used a two-dimensional top-down view or tile-based first-person view. Early action-based role-playing games often used

8900-405: The artificial intelligence and scripted behavior of computer-controlled non-player characters . The premise of many role-playing games tasks the player with saving the world, or whichever level of society is threatened. There are often twists and turns as the story progresses, such as the surprise appearance of estranged relatives, or enemies who become friends or vice versa. The game world

9078-500: The eighth game ), which drew inspiration from computer RPGs Ultima and Wizardry and is regarded as the template for future Japanese role-playing video games released since then. Also in 1986 The Legend of Zelda was released for the NES , while not generally considered an RPG itself did inspire many aspects of future action-RPGs. In 1987, the genre came into its own with the release of several highly influential console RPGs distinguishing themselves from computer RPGs, including

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9256-460: The migration of birds, were discounted by the natural philosophers of later centuries, only to be rediscovered in the modern scientific era. Medieval bestiaries are remarkably similar in sequence of the animals of which they treat. Bestiaries were particularly popular in England and France around the 12th century and were mainly compilations of earlier texts. The Aberdeen Bestiary is one of

9434-560: The world on foot or by chocobo , large flightless birds that appear regularly in the Final Fantasy series. The game world is divided into multiple regions and time periods. The player can visit a region in multiple time periods and multiple regions at the same time period. For example, the region of Oerba can be reached in the years 200 and 400 AF, while the Sunleth Waterscape and Augusta Tower regions can be visited in

9612-436: The " Golden Age " of computer RPGs, is the use of numbered "paragraphs" printed in the manual or adjunct booklets, containing the game's lengthier texts; the player can be directed to read a certain paragraph, instead of being shown the text on screen. The ultimate exemplar of this approach is Sir-Tech 's Star Saga trilogy (of which only two games were released); the first game contains 888 "textlets" (usually much longer than

9790-463: The "visual and audio design is marvellous", and Kevin VanOrd of GameSpot praised the graphics as beautiful and visually diverse. Jeremy Parish of 1UP.com disagreed, however, saying that the art "represents a step back from the splendor of Final Fantasy XIII ". The music received mixed reviews; Parish said that the music was great, applauding the unique styles, but Simon Parkin of Eurogamer felt that

9968-416: The 1980 video game Rogue . The game's story is often mapped onto exploration, where each chapter of the story is mapped onto a different location. RPGs usually allow players to return to previously visited locations. Usually, there is nothing left to do there, although some locations change throughout the story and offer the player new things to do in response. Players must acquire enough power to overcome

10146-422: The 1990s, and became known for being more heavily story and character-based, American computer RPGs began to face criticism for having characters devoid of personality or background, due to representing avatars which the player uses to interact with the world, in contrast to Japanese console RPGs which depicted characters with distinctive personalities. American computer RPGs were thus criticized for lacking "more of

10324-450: The Academy, and Snow Villiers ( Troy Baker / Daisuke Ono ), Serah's fiancé, who set off to find Lightning for Serah. The other main characters from the previous game appear in cameo roles. New characters include Caius Ballad ( Liam O'Brien /Hiroshi Shirokuma), the game's primary antagonist; Paddra Nsu-Yeul ( Amber Hood / Mariya Ise ), a seeress possessing the all-seeing Eyes of Etro; and Alyssa Zaidelle ( Kim Mai Guest / Yōko Hikasa ),

10502-452: The Chain Gauge; Medic, a White Mage -type role which can heal the party; Saboteur, which can weaken enemies; Synergist, which can strengthen allies; and Sentinel, which has protective abilities. The two main characters can initially assume three roles, but they can learn others at the player's choosing as the game progresses. The player can select which roles the controlled character and the AI characters use while outside or during battle, which

10680-520: The Goddess", which shows Lightning's struggle against Caius and explains how she became crystallized in the main story's ending. During its first week of release in Japan, Final Fantasy XIII-2 sold 524,000 copies, and the PlayStation 3 version was the highest-selling game for the system. The Xbox 360 version only reached 48th. Although high, initial sales were notably lower than what they were for

10858-476: The Historia Crux, as well as at key moments in the plot. The player may also manually save at any time. Instead of accessing stores at save points like in XIII , the player can purchase items from a character named Chocolina, who is found throughout the game. An in-game data log provides a bestiary and incidental information about the world of XIII-2 . When talking to characters, the game sometimes begins

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11036-466: The Historia Crux. Much of the game takes place on Gran Pulse and inside Cocoon. Other locations include the Void Beyond, a limbo between time periods, and Valhalla, the capital of the goddess Etro. This place is a realm at the end of time where Etro keeps a dark energy called Chaos from escaping and destroying the timeline. As opposed to the previous game, Lightning ( Ali Hillis / Maaya Sakamoto ),

11214-585: The Live Trigger system, in which the player chooses their response from several options; these dialogue options are generally not repeatable. The game also occasionally features temporal rifts, in which the player must complete a puzzle to close the rift and continue the game. Combat is almost identical to the previous game's version of the series' Active Time Battle (ATB) system, called the Command Synergy Battle system. Under this system,

11392-451: The PCs enter these locations or perform certain actions. Combat options typically involve positioning characters, selecting which enemy to attack, and exercising special skills such as casting spells. In a classical turn-based system, only one character may act at a time; all other characters remain still, with a few exceptions that may involve the use of special abilities. The order in which

11570-625: The Ravager and Menzoberranzan , transferred the AD&;D license to several different developers, and eventually gave it to BioWare , who used it in Baldur's Gate (1998) and several later games. By the 2000s, 3D engines had become dominant. The earliest RPG on a console was Dragonstomper on the Atari 2600 in 1982. Another early RPG on a console was Bokosuka Wars , originally released for

11748-606: The Renaissance was Johannes de Cuba 's Gart der Gesundheit which describes 122 birds and which was printed in 1485. The contents of medieval bestiaries were often obtained and created from combining older textual sources and accounts of animals, such as the Physiologus . Medieval bestiaries contained detailed descriptions and illustrations of species native to Western Europe, exotic animals and what in modern times are considered to be imaginary animals. Descriptions of

11926-544: The United Kingdom, Final Fantasy XIII-2 was the best-selling game of February 2012. By January 2013, XIII-2 had sold 3.1 million copies worldwide. Approximately 400,000 further copies were registered on Steam by 2017, according to Steam Spy . Final Fantasy XIII-2 received very favorable reviews from Japanese reviewers, getting perfect scores from the Japanese magazines Famitsu and Dengeki PlayStation . Famitsu editor Ranbu Yoshida said that "it feels like

12104-589: The ability to pause the game and issue orders to all characters under his/her control; when the game is unpaused, all characters follow the orders they were given. This "real-time with pause" system ( RTwP ) has been particularly popular in games designed by BioWare . The most famous RTwP engine is the Infinity Engine . Other names for "real-time with pause" include "active pause" and "semi real-time". Tactical RPG maker Apeiron named their system Smart Pause Mode (SPM) because it would automatically pause based on

12282-408: The air, preventing them from attacking and stopping their ATB gauges from replenishing. The Paradigm system allows the player to program six different roles, which the characters can assume to perform certain formations in battle in response to specific conditions. The roles consist of Commando, which uses non-elemental attacks to stabilize the Chain Gauge; Ravager, which uses elemental attacks to fill

12460-437: The ambitious scope of Final Fantasy VII raised the possibilities for the genre, with its dozens of minigames and much higher production values. The latter includes innovations such as the use of 3D characters on pre-rendered backgrounds, battles viewed from multiple different angles rather than a single angle, and for the first time full-motion CGI video seamlessly blended into the gameplay, effectively integrated throughout

12638-532: The animals included the physical characteristics associated with the creature, although these were often physiologically incorrect, along with the Christian morals that the animal represented. The description was then often accompanied by an artistic illustration of the animal as described in the bestiary. For example, in one bestiary the eagle is depicted in an illustration and is said to be the “king of birds.” Bestiaries were organized in different ways based upon

12816-513: The author explains how fables and bestiaries are closely linked to one another as “each chapter of a bestiary, each fable in a collection, has a text and has a meaning. This lack of separation has often been associated with the assumption that people during this time believed in what the modern period classifies as nonexistent or " imaginary creatures ". However, this assumption is currently under debate, with various explanations being offered. Some scholars, such as Pamela Gravestock , have written on

12994-458: The bar early to perform whatever actions have been charged. The player may also select an autobattle command, which fills the ATB slots with actions chosen automatically. Actions the characters can perform include close-range melee attacks, ranged magical attacks, and other magical actions that evoke healing or shielding abilities. Actions cannot be performed outside of combat, and the characters' health

13172-586: The best known of over 50 manuscript bestiaries surviving today. Much influence comes from the Renaissance era and the general Middle Ages, as well as modern times. The Renaissance has been said to have started around the 14th century in Italy. Bestiaries influenced early heraldry in the Middle Ages, giving ideas for charges and also for the artistic form. Bestiaries continue to give inspiration to coats of arms created in our time. Two illuminated Psalters ,

13350-480: The casino minigame area. Environments were made more explorable and the artists were given more freedom to include their own ideas in the game's locations, in order to rectify the shortcomings of the more artificial seeming settings in Final Fantasy XIII . The developers viewed the changes from XIII to be improvements to the game, rather than simply removing aspects of that game that players disliked. For

13528-544: The category," pointing to Chrono Trigger (which he also worked on) and the Mana games. He further noted that there have been "other games similar to the style of Chrono Trigger ," but that "it's probably because the games weren't localised and didn't reach the Western audience." Xeno series director Tetsuya Takahashi , in reference to Xenoblade Chronicles , stated that "I don't know when exactly people started using

13706-448: The character at an effectiveness determined by that character's numeric attributes. Often these attributes increase each time a character gains a level , and a character's level goes up each time the player accumulates a certain amount of experience. Role-playing video games also typically attempt to offer more complex and dynamic character interaction than what is found in other video game genres. This usually involves additional focus on

13884-643: The characters act is usually dependent on their attributes, such as speed or agility. This system rewards strategic planning more than quickness. It also points to the fact that realism in games is a means to the end of immersion in the game world, not an end in itself. A turn-based system makes it possible, for example, to run within range of an opponent and kill them before they get a chance to act, or duck out from behind hard cover, fire, and retreat back without an opponent being able to fire, which are of course both impossibilities. However, tactical possibilities have been created by this unreality that did not exist before;

14062-434: The characters with new abilities and slots for battle accessories. For the monsters, the bonuses are unlocked with items dropped by defeated enemies. The story of Final Fantasy XIII-2 follows on from that of Final Fantasy XIII , but as is typical for the series, it is unrelated to all other previous Final Fantasy games. In XIII , one of the fal'Cie—a god-like race—transformed a team of six people into l'Cie (servants of

14240-460: The characters within a tile-based graphics system . Dragon Quest was highly successful in Japan, leading to further entries in the series and other titles such as Final Fantasy that followed the same simplifications made in RPGs for Dragon Quest . Because of these differences, the role-playing genre began to be classified into two fairly distinct styles: computer RPG and console RPG . By

14418-461: The church can be during this time. Much of what is covered in the article talks about how the dragon that is mentioned in some of the bestiaries shows a glimpse of the religious significance in many of these tales. These bestiaries held much content in terms of religious significance. In almost every animal there is some way to connect it to a lesson from the church or a familiar religious story. With animals holding significance since ancient times, it

14596-476: The coming DLC levels. However, after the release of what was stated to be the final piece of DLC, officials at Square Enix announced that they would be releasing future Final Fantasy XIII -related content. In late August 2012, a teaser site was unveiled in preparation for the Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Event, titled "A Storm Gathers", promising a "new direction for the saga of key character Lightning". A sequel, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII , serves as

14774-522: The correct morals they should display. All of the animals presented in the bestiaries show some sort of lesson or meaning when presented. Much of the symbolism shown of animals. Much of what is proposed by the bestiaries mentions much of paganism because of the religious significance and time period of the medieval ages. One of the main 'animals' mentioned in some of the bestiaries is dragons, which hold much significance in terms of religion and meaning. The unnatural part of dragon's history shows how important

14952-408: The development and customization of playable characters has come at the expense of plot and gameplay, resulting in what he felt was generic dialogue, lack of character development within the narrative and weaker battle systems. He also states that WRPGs tend to focus more on the underlying rules governing the battle system rather than on the experience itself. Tom Battey of Edge Magazine noted that

15130-414: The eagle. With animals being a part of religion before bestiaries and their lessons came out, they were influenced by past observations of meaning as well as older civilizations and their interpretations. As most of the students who read these bestiaries were monks and clerics, it is not impossible to say that there is a major religious significance within them. The bestiary was used to educate young men on

15308-520: The earliest role-playing video games on a microcomputer was Dungeon n Dragons , written by Peter Trefonas and published by CLOAD (1980). This early game, published for a TRS-80 Model 1, is just 16K long and includes a limited word parser command line, character generation, a store to purchase equipment, combat, traps to solve, and a dungeon to explore. Other contemporaneous CRPGs (Computer Role Playing Games) were Temple of Apshai , Odyssey: The Compleat Apventure and Akalabeth: World of Doom ,

15486-437: The early 2000s, the distinction between platforms became less pronounced as the same games appeared on both console and computer, but stylistic differences between Western role-playing games (WRPGs) and Japanese role-playing games (JRPGs) remained, rooted in the earlier distinctions. Though sharing fundamental premises, WRPGs tend to feature darker graphics, older characters, and a greater focus on roaming freedom, realism, and

15664-514: The end of XIII . Owing to the collapse of Cocoon's government (the Sanctum), most of Cocoon's inhabitants have moved down to Gran Pulse, and some have learned magical abilities. Over the course of the game, a scientific body called the Academy becomes a new technocratic government. While much of the story takes place in the year 3 AF, the story of XIII-2 jumps between different time periods, and even parallel versions of different places, accessed via

15842-586: The ending to the story of the main Final Fantasy XIII character, Lightning. It was released in 2013 in Japan and 2014 in the West. Role-playing video game A role-playing video game , role-playing game ( RPG ) or computer role-playing game ( CRPG ) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (or several party members) immersed in some well-defined world, usually involving some form of character development by way of recording statistics. Many role-playing video games have origins in tabletop role-playing games and use much of

16020-402: The fal'Cie with magical powers and a 'Focus'—an assigned task to be completed within a time limit). The fal'Cie hoped these l'Cie would initiate the end of the world, Gran Pulse, by crashing the floating and inhabited sphere Cocoon into it. At the finale of the game, two of the l'Cie transformed into a crystal pillar to support Cocoon, preventing the catastrophe. XIII-2 begins three years after

16198-543: The form in which it was later popularized was an anonymous 2nd-century Greek volume called the Physiologus , which itself summarized ancient knowledge and wisdom about animals in the writings of classical authors such as Aristotle 's Historia Animalium and various works by Herodotus , Pliny the Elder , Solinus , Aelian and other naturalists. Following the Physiologus , Saint Isidore of Seville (Book XII of

16376-481: The form of downloadable outfits, weapons, accessories, scenarios, recruitable monsters and minigames. Although there had been initial plans to release DLC for Final Fantasy XIII , these ideas did not come to fruition. For Final Fantasy XIII-2 , the team designed and planned for content, including DLC, that would expand on the game since the beginning of its development. Players who own XIII save data can unlock an additional wallpaper (PS3) or gamer picture (Xbox 360) for

16554-483: The game had a much tighter schedule allowing for little pre-production . Kamikokuryo hence used photographs instead of self-drawn pictures to explain his setting ideas to the other staff members. For example, a photograph of ruined buildings in the Cuban capital Havana inspired the look of Valhalla. Character design duties were split up: Nomura designed the faces of the new and returning main characters while their clothing

16732-435: The game world. More recent games tend to maintain a consistent perspective for exploration and combat. Some games, especially earlier video games, generate battles from random encounters ; more modern RPGs are more likely to have persistent wandering monsters that move about the game world independently of the player. Most RPGs also use stationary boss monsters in key positions, and automatically trigger battles with them when

16910-505: The game's predecessor, which sold 1.5 million units in its first week. By the end of the year, the game had sold over 697,000 units, and was the fifth-best selling game of 2011 in Japan. It was just below four handheld video games , making it the highest-selling home console game in Japan that year. In the United States, the game placed as the second-best selling game of February 2012, just below Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 . In

17088-440: The game's story was criticized as weak and confusing. The game was the fifth-best selling game of 2011 in Japan, and sold 3.1 million copies worldwide by January 2013. A sequel, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII , was released in 2013 in Japan and 2014 worldwide. Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a role-playing video game sequel to Final Fantasy XIII . As in the previous game, the player controls their on-screen character through

17266-454: The game, "Yakusoku no Basho" ( 約束の場所 , The Promised Place ) , was released by singer Mai Fukui as a single in 2011, and the English version of the song, sung by Charice Pempengco and included in the non-Japanese versions of the game, was included on her 2012 album Infinity . Reviews of the soundtrack album were positive, with critics praising both the variety of styles and quality of

17444-521: The game. The game was soon ported to the PC and gained much success there, as did several other originally console RPGs, blurring the line between the console and computer platforms. Computer-driven role-playing games had their start in Western markets, with games generally geared to be played on home computers. By 1985, series like Wizardry and Ultima represented the state of the art in role-playing games. In Japan, home computers had yet to take as great

17622-502: The gameplay uninteresting. The story of the game received poor to mixed reviews. Parish felt that it was confusing and inessential to the game, while Juba said that it was "a disaster" which "screws up at almost every turn", overshadowing the game's good points. Parkin felt that the characters were weak and the story was not engaging, and Clements said that the story was insubstantial, which he found particularly disappointing as most Final Fantasy games focused heavily on their story. VanOrd

17800-448: The genre is that characters grow in power and abilities, and characters are typically designed by the player. RPGs rarely challenge a player's physical coordination or reaction time, with the exception of action role-playing games . Role-playing video games typically rely on a highly developed story and setting, which is divided into a number of quests. Players control one or several characters by issuing commands, which are performed by

17978-537: The genre-defining Phantasy Star , released for the Master System . Shigeru Miyamoto 's Zelda II: The Adventure of Link for the Famicom Disk System was one of the earliest action role-playing games , combining the action-adventure game framework of its predecessor The Legend of Zelda with the statistical elements of turn-based RPGs . Most RPGs at this time were turn-based. Faxanadu

18156-479: The heart on Noel's blade, killing the weakened Etro. When the pair return to Academia in 500 AF, where Vanille and Fang have been rescued from the collapsing pillar and the new Cocoon, named "Bhunivelze", has risen, Serah dies in front of Noel and Hope from the shock of the future changing. A black cloud erupts from the sky as the Chaos that Etro was keeping trapped breaks free. Lightning is then shown in crystal stasis on

18334-539: The key features of RPGs were developed in this early period, prior to the release of Ultima III: Exodus , one of the prime influences on both computer and console RPG development. For example, Wizardry features menu-driven combat, Tunnels of Doom features tactical combat on a special "combat screen", and Dungeons of Daggorath features real-time combat which takes place on the main dungeon map. Starting in 1984 with Questron and 50 Mission Crush , SSI produced many series of CRPGs. Their 1985 game Phantasie

18512-520: The label "JRPG" is most commonly used to refer to RPGs "whose presentation mimics the design sensibilities" of anime and manga, that it's "typically the presentation and character archetypes" that signal "this is a JRPG." Modern JRPGs are more likely to feature turn-based battles; while modern WRPGs are more likely to feature real-time combat. In the past, the reverse was often true: real-time action role-playing games were far more common among Japanese console RPGs than Western computer RPGs up until

18690-437: The late 1990s had become more cinematic in style (e.g. Final Fantasy series). At the same time, WRPGs started becoming more novelistic in style (e.g. Planescape: Torment ), but by the late 2000s had also adopted a more cinematic style (e.g. Mass Effect ). One reason given for these differences is that many early Japanese console RPGs can be seen as forms of interactive manga or anime wrapped around Western rule systems at

18868-415: The late 1990s have had a stronger focus on extensive dialog tree systems (e.g. Planescape: Torment ). On the other hand, JRPGs tend to limit players to developing pre-defined player characters , and often do not allow the option to create or choose one's own playable characters or make decisions that alter the plot. In the early 1990s, JRPGs were seen as being much closer to fantasy novels , but by

19046-934: The late 1990s, due to gamepads usually being better suited to real-time action than the keyboard and mouse. Some journalists and video game designers have questioned this cultural classification, arguing that the differences between Eastern and Western games have been exaggerated. In an interview held at the American Electronic Entertainment Expo , Japanese video game developer Tetsuya Nomura (who worked on Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts ) emphasized that RPGs should not be classified by country-of-origin, but rather described simply for what they are: role-playing games. Hironobu Sakaguchi , creator of Final Fantasy and The Last Story , noted that, while "users like to categorise" JRPGs as "turn-based, traditional styles" and WRPGs as "born from first-person shooters ," there "are titles that don't fit

19224-428: The late 1990s, which saw the rise of optical disks in fifth generation consoles. The implications for RPGs were enormous—longer, more involved quests, better audio, and full-motion video . This was first clearly demonstrated in 1997 by the phenomenal success of Final Fantasy VII , which is considered one of the most influential games of all time. With a record-breaking production budget of around $ 45 million,

19402-480: The main character of XIII , only appears as a supporting character and the game's primary narrator. The two main playable characters are Serah Farron ( Laura Bailey / Minako Kotobuki ), Lightning's sister and the second narrator, and Noel Kreiss ( Jason Marsden / Daisuke Kishio ), a young man originally from the distant future. Other characters from the previous game who appear in important roles are Hope Estheim ( Vincent Martella / Yūki Kaji ), who becomes leader of

19580-399: The medieval book of beasts — was among the most popular illuminated texts in northern Europe during the Middle Ages (about 500–1500). Medieval Christians understood every element of the world as a manifestation of God, and bestiaries largely focused on each animal's religious meaning. Much of what is in the bestiary came from the ancient Greeks and their philosophers. The earliest bestiary in

19758-461: The mid-1970s, as an offshoot of early university mainframe text-based RPGs on PDP-10 and Unix -based computers, such as Dungeon , pedit5 and dnd . In 1980 , a very popular dungeon crawler , Rogue , was released. Featuring ASCII graphics where the setting, monsters and items were represented by letters and a deep system of gameplay, it inspired a whole genre of similar clones on mainframe and home computers called " roguelikes ". One of

19936-591: The middle to late 1990s, isometric, sprite-based RPGs became commonplace, with video game publishers Interplay Entertainment and Blizzard North playing a lead role with such titles as the Baldur's Gate , Icewind Dale and the action-RPG Diablo series, as well as the dialogue-heavy Planescape: Torment and cult classics Fallout and Fallout 2 . This era also saw a move toward 3D game engines with such games as Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven and The Elder Scrolls: Arena . TSR , dissatisfied with SSI's later products, such as Dark Sun: Wake of

20114-576: The modern JRPG in unoriginality", citing Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada who stated that "they're strictly catering to a particular audience", the article noting the difference in game sales between Japan and North America before going on to suggest JRPGs may need to "move forward". This criticism has also occurred in the wider media with an advertisement for Fallout: New Vegas ( Obsidian Entertainment ) in Japan openly mocked Japanese RPGs' traditional characteristics in favor of their own title. Nick Doerr of Joystiq noted that Bethesda felt that JRPGs "are all

20292-421: The more fantasy novel approach of Squaresoft console RPGs such as Final Fantasy IV . However in 1994, game designer Sandy Petersen noted that, among computer gamers, there was criticism against cartridge-based console JRPGs being "not role-playing at all" due to popular examples such as Secret of Mana and especially The Legend of Zelda using "direct" arcade-style action combat systems instead of

20470-656: The more "abstract" turn-based battle systems associated with computer RPGs. In response, he pointed out that not all console RPGs are action-based, pointing to Final Fantasy and Lufia . Another early criticism, dating back to the Phantasy Star games in the late 1980s, was the frequent use of defined player characters , in contrast to the Wizardry and Gold Box games where the player's avatars (such as knights, clerics, or thieves) were blank slates. As Japanese console RPGs became increasingly more dominant in

20648-444: The music "suffers from a lack of coherent direction", and tracks often failed to match their scenes. Dale North of Destructoid felt that the soundtrack was "wonderfully varied and lots of fun" and predicted that "traditionalist" fans of Final Fantasy music would not like it as much because of the varied new styles. The gameplay was generally praised as well, with many reviewers noting the improvements in areas they saw as problems in

20826-448: The narrative could be continued in a sequel. Emi Nagashima, also known by her pen name Jun Eishima, had written novellas for Final Fantasy XIII and was consulted early on in development to help come up with the plot for XIII-2 . The narrative was divided into smaller "pieces of drama" similar to a television series rather than one overarching story piece. This was reflected by the game's working title Final Fantasy XIII: Season 2 when

21004-435: The natural world. The significance shown between animals and religion started much before bestiaries came into play.  In many ancient civilizations there are references to animals and their meaning within that specific religion or mythology that we know of today. These civilizations included Egypt and their gods with the faces of animals or Greece which had symbolic animals for their godly beings, an example being Zeus and

21182-459: The number of items that can be held. Most of the actions in an RPG are performed indirectly, with the player selecting an action and the character performing it by their own accord. Success at that action depends on the character's numeric attributes. Role-playing video games often simulate dice-rolling mechanics from non-electronic role-playing games to determine success or failure. As a character's attributes improve, their chances of succeeding at

21360-403: The original game, has disappeared into an unknown world. Her younger sister Serah Farron and Noel Kreiss journey through time in an attempt to find her. Development of Final Fantasy XIII-2 began in early 2010 and lasted about one and a half years. The game was unveiled at the Square Enix 1st Production Department Premier in January 2011. Many of the key designers remained in their roles from

21538-482: The paradox, Noel and Serah travel to an alternative 400 AF Academia. In this world, the pair find Hope and Alyssa again, who had put themselves in stasis. They explain their new plan to mechanically float a new Cocoon to hold humanity, which Serah and Noel help with before heading to 500 AF Academia. They are betrayed by Alyssa (revealed to be a living paradox doomed to disappear in the corrected timeline) and trapped by Caius in dream-worlds. Before being trapped, Serah meets

21716-414: The paradox, which delays the fall of Cocoon until 500 AF, Snow disappears again as an anomaly from another time. The pair then go to the city of Academia on Gran Pulse in 400 AF where they are attacked by the city's AI, which claims they were killed two hundred years previously. Traveling to 200 AF, they discover a paradox whereby a man-made fal'Cie meant to re-levitate Cocoon turned on its creators. Resolving

21894-543: The pieces. Several critics noted Mizuta's work as possibly his finest to date. Reviewers were mixed in their opinions of the arranged album, feeling that several of the pieces were simply inferior versions of the original tracks. Both of the albums and the single sold well enough to place on the Japanese Oricon charts, with the original soundtrack album reaching a peak of #13 and remaining on the charts for eight weeks. The game features downloadable content (DLC) in

22072-432: The pillar supporting Cocoon collapsing. Noel claims that this takes place around 400 AF, devastating the human population as well as the world, creating a future where he is the last human in existence. Serah and Noel move on, while Hope and Alyssa work on finding a way to prevent the pillar's collapse. In 300 AF, the pair find Snow fighting a giant paradox-fueled monster that is dissolving the crystal pillar. After resolving

22250-610: The platform divide between consoles and computers , respectively. Finally, while the first RPGs offered strictly a single player experience, the popularity of multiplayer modes rose sharply during the early to mid-1990s with action role-playing games such as Secret of Mana and Diablo . With the advent of the Internet, multiplayer games have grown to become massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG), including Lineage , Final Fantasy XI , and World of Warcraft . The role-playing video game genre began in

22428-424: The player control an entire party of characters. However, if winning is contingent upon the survival of a single character, then that character effectively becomes the player's avatar . An example of this would be in Baldur's Gate , where if the character created by the player dies, the game ends and a previous save needs to be loaded. Although some single-player role-playing games give the player an avatar that

22606-608: The player determines whether the loss of immersion in the reality of the game is worth the satisfaction gained from the development of the tactic and its successful execution. Fallout has been cited as being a good example of such a system. Real-time combat can import features from action games , creating a hybrid action RPG game genre. But other RPG battle systems such as the Final Fantasy battle systems have imported real-time choices without emphasizing coordination or reflexes. Other systems combine real-time combat with

22784-410: The player may transfer between unlocked regions at any point. When accessing a previously visited region, the player appears in the location of their last visit. Upon acquiring items called seals, the player can revert regions to their previous statuses to play through them again; regions can be unsealed again at any time. Unlike in the predecessor, the game is automatically saved when the player enter

22962-403: The player selects actions from the menus , such as Attack, Abilities, or Item, and queues them up in the ATB bar. Each action requires one or more slots on the ATB bar, which begins the game with three slots and can be increased over the game to six. The ATB bar continually fills with energy over time; the player can wait for the bar to fill up for the enqueued actions to be performed, or may empty

23140-549: The player to change the party's character classes during the course of the game. Another "major innovation was the introduction of day/night cycles; certain items, characters, and quests are only accessible at certain times of day." In 1989, Phantasy Star II for the Genesis established many conventions of the genre, including an epic , dramatic, character-driven storyline dealing with serious themes and subject matter. Console RPGs distinguished themselves from computer RPGs to

23318-896: The player to manage a large amount of information and frequently make use of a windowed interface. For example, spell-casting characters will often have a menu of spells they can use. On the PC, players typically use the mouse to click on icons and menu options, while console games have the player navigate through menus using a game controller. The role-playing video game genre began in the mid-1970s on mainframe computers , inspired by pen-and-paper role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons . Several other sources of inspiration for early role-playing video games also included tabletop wargames , sports simulation games, adventure games such as Colossal Cave Adventure , fantasy writings by authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien , traditional strategy games such as chess , and ancient epic literature dating back to Epic of Gilgamesh which followed

23496-435: The player waited more than a second or so to issue a command, the game would automatically issue a pass command, allowing the monsters to take a turn while the PCs did nothing. There is a further subdivision by the structure of the battle system; in many early games, such as Wizardry , monsters and the party are arrayed into ranks, and can only attack enemies in the front rank with melee weapons. Other games, such as most of

23674-406: The player's control. Other games feature a party that the player can create at the start or gather from non-player characters in the game, coming into partial or full control of the player during the game. Although the characterization of the game's avatar will develop through storytelling, characters may also become more functionally powerful by gaining new skills, weapons, and magic. This creates

23852-461: The players, to be as exciting as the Japanese imports", and lacked the arcade and action-adventure elements commonly found in Japanese console RPGs at the time. In the early 1990s, American computer RPGs also began facing criticism for their plots, where "the party sticks together through thick and thin" and always "act together as a group" rather than as individuals, and where non-player characters are "one-dimensional characters", in comparison to

24030-410: The plot when the player defeats an enemy or completes a level, role-playing games often progress the plot based on other important decisions. For example, a player may make the decision to join a guild, thus triggering a progression in the storyline that is usually irreversible. New elements in the story may also be triggered by mere arrival in an area, rather than completing a specific challenge. The plot

24208-437: The precursor to Ultima . Some early microcomputer RPGs (such as Telengard (1982) or Sword of Fargoal ) were based on their mainframe counterparts, while others (such as Ultima or Wizardry , the most successful of the early CRPGs) were loose adaptations of D&D . They also include both first-person displays and overhead views, sometimes in the same game ( Akalabeth , for example, uses both perspectives). Most of

24386-630: The previous game, and developer tri-Ace was hired to help with the game's design, art, and programming. The development team wanted to exceed Final Fantasy XIII in every aspect while making the story's tone more dark and mysterious than the previous game. The game builds upon the Paradigm Shift battle system used in XIII and includes a less linear overall design. Final Fantasy XIII-2 received critical acclaim in Japan and generally positive reviews from Western video game journalists. Though praised for its gameplay, lack of linearity, and graphics,

24564-415: The previous game, including fast-paced combat and a customizable "Paradigm" system to control which abilities are used by the characters, and adds a new system that allows monsters to be captured and used in battle. The game's plot features a heavy time travel element, allowing the player to jump between different times at the same location or different places at the same time. Lightning , the protagonist of

24742-445: The previous game. Parkin praised the game's "smart, engaging mechanics" and the "novel structure" of the gameplay. Joe Juba of Game Informer said that the changes to Final Fantasy XIII ' s battle system made it his favorite Final Fantasy battle system, and that the gameplay was "phenomenal". Ryan Clements of IGN felt that the gameplay was an improvement over XIII ' s, fixing many of its problems. Parish said that XIII-2

24920-486: The problems often cited against JRPGs also often apply to many WRPGs as well as games outside of the RPG genre. BioWare games have been criticized for "lack of innovation, repetitive structure and lack of real choice." WRPGs, such as Bethesda games, have also been criticized for lacking in "narrative strength" or "mechanical intricacy" due to the open-ended, sandbox structure of their games. Bestiary The bestiary —

25098-402: The project was first proposed within the company. Unlike Final Fantasy X-2 , which had a more cheerful and humorous feel than Final Fantasy X , the staff members wanted the overall tone of Final Fantasy XIII-2 to be serious as well as darker and more mysterious than its predecessor. The original scenario had called for Serah to travel alone with Mog. However, Kitase felt that their dialogue

25276-409: The right things to the right non-player characters will elicit useful information for the player, and may even result in other rewards such as items or experience, as well as opening up possible storyline branches. Multiplayer online role-playing games can offer an exception to this contrast by allowing human interaction among multiple players and in some cases enabling a player to perform the role of

25454-488: The same terminology , settings , and game mechanics . Other major similarities with pen-and-paper games include developed story-telling and narrative elements, player character development, complexity, as well as replay value and immersion. The electronic medium removes the necessity for a gamemaster and increases combat resolution speed. RPGs have evolved from simple text-based console-window games into visually rich 3D experiences. Role-playing video games use much of

25632-436: The same basic structure of setting off in various quests in order to accomplish goals. After the success of role-playing video games such as Ultima and Wizardry , which in turn served as the blueprint for Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy , the role-playing genre eventually diverged into two styles, Eastern role-playing games and Western role-playing games , due to cultural differences , though roughly mirroring

25810-428: The same power, and risks death every time she changes the future. Resolving to go on, Serah breaks free of her dream-world and frees Noel from his, in which he is the last living human after his Yeul dies and Caius leaves for Valhalla. After briefly encountering Lightning, the pair fight Caius, first in 500 AF Academia and then in Valhalla. As they defeat him, he claims to have killed Lightning, then impales himself through

25988-492: The same style as those in manga and anime . The stylistic differences are often due to differing target audiences: Western RPGs are usually geared primarily towards teenage to adult males, whereas Japanese RPGs are usually intended for a much larger demographic, including female audiences , who, for example, accounted for nearly a third of Final Fantasy XIII 's playerbase. In 2015, IGN noted in an interview with Xenoblade Chronicles X 's development team that

26166-424: The same terminology, settings and game mechanics as early tabletop role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons . Players control a central game character, or multiple game characters, usually called a party , and attain victory by completing a series of quests or reaching the conclusion of a central storyline. Players explore a game world, while solving puzzles and engaging in combat. A key feature of

26344-534: The same year. The troubled development of Final Fantasy XIII that had been caused by the simultaneous creation of the company-wide engine Crystal Tools gave reason to rethink the production process for high-budget games at Square Enix. For Final Fantasy XIII-2 , the team consulted the European subsidiary Eidos to more closely adapt a Western approach to game development. As a consequence, monthly schedules and project milestones were introduced to better monitor

26522-598: The same" and "too linear", to which he responded that "[f]or the most part, it's true" but noted there are also non-linear JRPGs such as the Romancing SaGa series. Such criticisms have produced responses such as ones by Japanese video game developers , Shinji Mikami and Yuji Horii , to the effect that JRPGs were never as popular in the West to begin with, and that Western reviewers are biased against turn-based systems. Jeff Fleming of Gamasutra also states that Japanese RPGs on home consoles are generally showing signs of staleness, but notes that handheld consoles such as

26700-471: The save file. DLC released after the game contained additional weapons, costumes, and monsters. Post-release downloads also included " Final Fantasy XIII Lost Report", which offers a look back at XIII ' s story through the perspective of non-playable characters from the game, and three downloadable scenarios for other characters: "Perpetual Battlefield", which reveals Snow's fate; "Heads or Tails", which shows how Sazh came to 500 AF Academia; and "Requiem of

26878-476: The sequel. A story link to Final Fantasy Type-0 via the location Valhalla was planned but later discarded. Based on the much darker tone of Final Fantasy XIII-2 compared to its predecessor, Kamikokuryo decided on surrealism as the main theme for the graphics. The works of Salvador Dalí and Giorgio de Chirico were used as visual references and helped Kamikokuryo strike a balance between photorealism and fantasy-like surrealism. Unlike Final Fantasy XIII ,

27056-477: The sources they drew upon. The descriptions could be organized by animal groupings, such as terrestrial and marine creatures, or presented in an alphabetical manner. However, the texts gave no distinction between existing and imaginary animals. Descriptions of creatures such as dragons , unicorns , basilisk , griffin and caladrius were common in such works and found intermingled amongst accounts of bears , boars , deer , lions , and elephants . In one source,

27234-429: The spirit of Yeul, who explains that she is the seeress of Paddra, continually reincarnated throughout history, while Caius is her immortal guardian, gifted with Etro's own heart. Yeul explains that every time the timeline is changed, the resulting shock kills her; Caius has been driven mad by watching her die repeatedly and seeks to end the process by unleashing the Chaos trapped in Valhalla to destroy all time. Serah has

27412-471: The staff and keep to the original vision of the game. Despite its strong sales, Final Fantasy XIII had been criticized on several fronts. Complaints included that the game had been too linear, had not allowed enough interaction with non-player characters , and had not featured enough minigames and puzzles. The developers intended to address these criticisms with the sequel by adding the Historia Crux system, numerous sidequests from non-player characters, and

27590-513: The staff members' progress. Furthermore, unlike its predecessor, XIII-2 was not entirely developed in-house; Japanese studio tri-Ace was contracted to help out with aspects of the game design, art and programming. This was done to keep the number of internal staff members on the game lower. The contributions of external developers were planned and clearly divided beforehand to achieve a more structured team organization. Concept videos and frequent test playing during production helped constantly engage

27768-438: The story's very easy to get into". The game won the "Future Division" award at the 2011 Japan Game Awards and later won an "Award of Excellence" at the 2012 Japan Game Awards. Outside Japan, the game received mostly positive reviews, which primarily focused on the changes in the game from its predecessor. Reviewers generally praised the graphics. The Edge review described the environments as "entirely captivating" and said that

27946-407: The structure of side quests and some other aspects such as the abundance of chocobos and the more open environment, the team drew inspiration from Rockstar San Diego 's Red Dead Redemption . Toriyama originally envisioned the plot not as a direct sequel to Final Fantasy XIII but instead as taking place 900 years after. However, while creating the backstory for the events in between both eras, it

28124-496: The term 'JRPG,' but if this game makes people rethink the meaning of this term, I'll be satisfied." The writer Jeremy Parish of 1UP.com states that " Xenoblade throws into high relief the sheer artificiality of the gaming community's obsession over the differences between" Western and Japanese RPGs, pointing out that it "does things that don't really fit into either genre. Gamers do love their boundaries and barriers and neat little rules, I know, but just because you cram something into

28302-479: The text to make correspondences with the psalm they are illustrating. Many decide to make their own bestiary with their own observations including knowledge from previous ones. These observations can be made in text form, as well as illustrated out. The Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci also made his own bestiary. A volucrary is a similar collection of the symbols of birds that is sometimes found in conjunction with bestiaries. The most widely known volucrary in

28480-473: The theory that medieval people did not actually think such creatures existed but instead focused on the belief in the importance of the Christian morals these creatures represented, and that the importance of the moral did not change regardless if the animal existed or not. The historian of science David C. Lindberg pointed out that medieval bestiaries were rich in symbolism and allegory, so as to teach moral lessons and entertain, rather than to convey knowledge of

28658-445: The throne of Etro's temple. If the player completes all optional parts of the game, they are shown an additional scene in which Caius is on the throne, declaring that the goddess is gone for good, and that Yeul and he can begin a new life freed from their "curse". Development of Final Fantasy XIII-2 began around March and April 2010 and lasted about one and a half years. It was carried out by Square Enix 's 1st Production Department,

28836-503: The time, in addition to the influence of visual novel adventure games . As a result, Japanese console RPGs differentiated themselves with a stronger focus on scripted narratives and character drama, alongside streamlined gameplay. In recent years, these trends have in turn been adopted by WRPGs, which have begun moving more towards tightly structured narratives, in addition to moving away from "numbers and rules" in favor of streamlined combat systems similar to action games. In addition,

29014-583: The traditional role-playing " offered by Japanese console RPGs, which instead emphasized character interactions. In response, North American computer RPGs began making a comeback towards the end of the 1990s with interactive choice-filled adventures. Several writers have criticized JRPGs as not being "true" RPGs, for heavy usage of scripted cutscenes and dialogue, and a frequent lack of branching outcomes. Japanese RPGs are also sometimes criticized for having relatively simple battle systems in which players are able to win by repetitively mashing buttons. As

29192-466: The two main characters can be selected as the one that the player has direct control over at any point; the other character and the monster are then controlled by the game's artificial intelligence (AI). Each enemy has a meter, called a Chain Gauge, consisting of a percentage that increases from a base level of 100 when the enemy is struck by attacks or spells . The amount of damage performed by an attack

29370-453: The typical Final Fantasy title". The music incorporates a wide variety of styles, from orchestral and electronic to rap, hip-hop, jazz funk, and metal. Since the release of the game, Square Enix has published the 2011 four-disc soundtrack album, Final Fantasy XIII-2 Original Soundtrack , as well as an album of arrangements and alternate versions of tracks from the game, Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack PLUS , in 2012. The theme song for

29548-513: The typical Western-style RPGs of the time. Due to the cultural differences between Western and Japanese variations of role-playing games, both have often been compared and critiqued by those within the video games industry and press. In the late 1980s, when traditional American computer RPGs such as Ultima and Defender of the Crown were ported to consoles, they received mixed reviews from console gamers, as they were "not perceived, by many of

29726-448: The underlying game mechanics (e.g. "rules-based" or "system-based" ); whereas JRPGs tend to feature brighter, anime -like or chibi graphics, younger characters, turn-based or faster-paced action gameplay, and a greater focus on tightly-orchestrated, linear storylines with intricate plots (e.g. "action-based" or "story-based" ). Further, WRPGs are more likely to allow players to create and customize characters from scratch, and since

29904-566: The year 300 AF. Some regions, because of plot points within the game, have alternate versions of themselves; for example, two versions of the Academia region in the same year can be accessed once the plot has made the second version available. Connecting all these regions is the Historia Crux, which the player can access at will. The game's regions are represented as a branching path instead of being accessed linearly. New regions can be unlocked via plot points or by acquiring optional special items and

30082-564: Was "quite girly, almost camp and a bit over the top" and resulted in a tonal shift that was too similar to the one from X to X-2 . Noel was added to the story to counter this. Watanabe considered scriptwriting for the game's two-character party difficult. With the lack of varied personality traits provided by an ensemble cast, he had to ensure that conversations between Serah and Noel would not be repetitive or unrealistic. Unfamiliar concepts and terms in XIII , such as "l'Cie" and "fal'Cie", were deemed too difficult to understand and hence avoided in

30260-446: Was a theme that was common in most console RPGs at the time but absent from most computer RPGs. During the 1990s, console RPGs had become increasingly dominant, exerting a greater influence on computer RPGs than the other way around. Console RPGs had eclipsed computer RPGs for some time, though computer RPGs began making a comeback towards the end of the decade with interactive choice-filled adventures. The next major revolution came in

30438-434: Was an inversion of XIII in that the gameplay took precedence over the story. He described the battle system as "a joy" and said that the game was "never not fun". VanOrd agreed that the combat was fun, though he found it to be too easy. The Edge review, which was harsher on the game than most others, also found it to be too easy, which combined with what they saw as poor subquests and a lack of effort put in some regions made

30616-451: Was another early action RPG for the NES, released as a side-story to the computer action RPG Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu . Square 's Final Fantasy for the NES introduced side-view battles, with the player characters on the right and the enemies on the left, which soon became the norm for numerous console RPGs. In 1988, Dragon Warrior III introduced a character progression system allowing

30794-419: Was composed by Masashi Hamauzu , Naoshi Mizuta , and Mitsuto Suzuki. Keiji Kawamori coordinated the three artists to ensure their styles meshed well. Hamauzu, who was the sole composer for the music of Final Fantasy XIII , wrote roughly a quarter of the game's tracks, as did Suzuki, while Mizuta wrote nearly half. Prior to this game, Mizuta had worked on the music of Final Fantasy XI , and Suzuki had been

30972-448: Was decided to have the game revolve around time traveling. Toriyama expressed his wish to "create a story where [Lightning] ends up [truly] happy one day" as he considered her emotional state at the end of Final Fantasy XIII doubtful. He also wanted to "see [Serah] take an active part" because her crystal stasis over the course of the predecessor's story did not allow for such a role. Lead scenario writer Daisuke Watanabe thought about how

31150-451: Was done by other artists. Kamikokuryo drew the final version of Lightning based on a silhouette sketch and suggestions by Nomura. Yusuke Naora took charge of Serah's, Noel's and Caius' costumes, while Hideo Minaba worked on Yeul, Alyssa and the adult version of Hope in the same capacity. The Moogle Mog was designed by Toshitaka Matsuda after he had received a request for a cute and mascot -like character. The music of Final Fantasy XIII-2

31328-438: Was erased from the fall of Cocoon onwards (making everyone except Serah forget her being with them on Gran Pulse), and paradoxes have erupted throughout time, warping the timeline. Serah joins Noel in a journey to resolve these paradoxes by removing items and monsters that are out of their original time; she in hopes of finding her sister, and he in hopes of changing the bleak future he comes from. While journeying to 5 AF to resolve

31506-407: Was less negative towards the characters and story than most others, but still described the characters as good, but not great. He felt the game focused too much on the less interesting characters of Noel and Serah over Lightning and Caius, and said that the story was "semi-coherent" and missed several emotional notes, particularly in the first half of the game. Hints and rumors began circulating about

31684-541: Was the first such attempt to recreate a role-playing game for a console, and requires several simplifications to fit within the more limited memory and capabilities of the Famicom compared to computers; players in Dragon Quest controlled only a single character, the amount of control over this character limited due to the simplicity of the Famicom controller, and a less-realistic art style was chosen to better visualize

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