Not satisfied with the critical or commercial reception given to Final Fantasy XIII, Square Enix has announced that they are hard at work on Final Fantasy XIII-2, a very rare Final Fantasy sequel to a hardly spectacular game.
Set for release once again on the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360, Square Enix only slightly acknowledged the problems with the first game, but still vowed to improve, saying:
Square Enix has traditionally been very wary of taking any of their Final Fantasy titles and making direct sequels to them. Though they have been prone to making offshoots, like Dirge of Cerberus or Dissidia, the developer only once before made a true continuation of a Final Fantasy story with Final Fantasy X-2.
Hopefully, like X-2, XIII-2 will implement an entirely new storyline along with a refined battle system. There were enjoyable elements contained within Final Fantasy XIII, but having to spend some 25 hours trudging through one of the longest tutorial areas ever really put a damper on an otherwise up to par game.
The most interesting part of all of this news is the fact that Square Enix still has a ton of games already on their plate, some of which are even Final Fantasy XIII related. Adding the sequel to the mix means that Square Enix has Final Fantasy XIII-2, Final Fantasy Type-0, and Final Fantasy Versus XIII all set for release. It’s rather interesting to note that after they scratched one of their three Final Fantasy XIII titles off the list, they added a new one instead of focusing on the other two.
With so many XIII related games already in the pipeline, and Final Fantasy XIV yet to make its appearance on the PlayStation 3, it might disappoint fans to figure that Final Fantasy XV could be some five years away. On the bright side, there is a ton of Final Fantasy content in development, which should make the majority of fans very happy.
Are you interested in Final Fantasy XIII-2? Do you think that this particular game deserves a sequel while more beloved Final Fantasy titles remain singular entities?
