Combat is handled using the same real-time system as before, and you still don’t issue specific orders to your characters. Selecting ’paradigms’ instead sets up broad policies for them to follow, and your party follows them in fairly intelligent ways. This is both good and bad, as it makes most random encounters far too simple; you just pick either a full-attack paradigm, or one with two attackers and a medic or sentinel (a MMO-style ’tank’ who attracts and absorbs damage) while tapping ’A’ for auto-battle over and over. On the other hand, it’s much more interesting in boss battles since you have to pick new paradigms in response to their attacks and ensure your characters try a variety of tactics. Doing so lets them learn more about the enemies they fight, which in turn makes them automatically pick smarter actions.
By now, you have likely noticed this review paid a great deal of attention was paid to Serah and Noel but has not discussed other characters. This is because the vast majority of the cast beside those two are actually just supporting characters that do not accompany you and aren’t able to be added to your party. Instead, the third party slot generally goes to generic monsters. Many of the foes you meet while exploring can be defeated and recruited, then improved over time. This is a really nice game mechanic, since it gives you a reward for visiting time periods you’ve already dealt with; you can pick up new monsters, then pick your favorite from a pretty large pool of choices. They obey the same paradigm system Noel and Serah do, and you’re sure to find a few you really enjoy having accompany them. The obvious downside is that when one third of your party consists of random monsters you’ve tamed, this limits the options for storytelling that an extra person would have offered.
Monsters aren’t the only reason to go exploring. Many locations are set up to explicitly reward creative use of time travel, and a few areas offer activities that are different from the normal flow of going from quest to the next for a mix of rewards and story progression. While you will still get yanked around from time to time, this is a much more open and permissive game than its predecessor. For the most part, this is good. Going off the main track to find hidden items and obtain better monsters is fun, and easily one of the best things FFXIII-2 has. On the other hand, a few of these events do fall into being the worst kinds of fetch quests and will try your patience, but there is more good than bad here.
