Final Fantasy XIII-2

Final Fantasy XIII-2

Developers
	Square Enix
	tri-Ace
Publishers
	Square Enix
Engines
	Crystal Tools
Release dates
Windows	December 11, 2014
Reception
Metacritic	75
IGDB	75
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Continuous turn-based
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control, Menu-based
Genres	JRPG
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Fantasy
Series	Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a JRPG developed by Square Enix in collaboration with tri-Ace. It is a direct sequel to Final Fantasy XIII.

The game was originally released in 2011 on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and later ported to PC in 2014.

The PC port features support for high resolution rendering, 60 FPS, higher resolution shadows, better anti-aliasing, and higher quality audio. Additionally, most DLC is included in the base game (details here) and the Japanese voice-over is available worldwide for the first time.
Despite improvements, the port suffers from some issues: alpha channel textures of objects are not considered when shadows are casted, unstable frame rate caused by the aggressive frame pacer (see FF13Fix for a fix), and missing transparency from the rain effect.

General information

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		Only sold in bundle with Final Fantasy XIII.
Publisher website		European store.
Publisher website		North American store.
Green Man Gaming
Humble Store
Microsoft Store		Xbox Game Pass for PC
Steam
Amazon.com (unavailable)
(unavailable)

Version differences

The Microsoft Store version is a different build of the game that features a new launcher and an in-game quit option, added to the party and pause menu screens.

Monetization

Type	Notes
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.

Microtransactions

Type	Notes
No microtransactions	The game has no microtransactions.

DLC and expansion packs

Includes the following DLC from the console versions in the base game:

• Coliseum Battle Opponents: Omega, Lightning & Amodar, Nabaat, Ultros & Typhon, PuPu, Gilgamesh
• Serah's Outfits: Summoner's Garb, Beachwear, White Mage
• Noel's Outfits: Battle Attire, Spacetime Guardian, Black Mage
• Mog's Outfits: A Wondrous Wardrobe
• Sazh's Story Scenario: Heads or Tails?
• Lightning's Story Scenario: Requiem of the Goddess
• Snow's Story Scenario: Perpetual Battlefield

The following DLC are not available on PC out-of-box due to copyright and licensing issues, but can be restored using the Console Content Patch:

• 2 outfits for Serah: N7 Armor (from Mass Effect 3); Style and Steel
• 2 outfits for Noel: N7 Armor (from Mass Effect 3); Assassin's Creed
• All 5 DLC weapons (3 bows for Serah, 2 swords for Noel)
• 5 Japan-exclusive accessories (Delicate Diva's Microphone, Delicate Diva's Headphones, Delicate Goddess's Bangle, Delicate Goddess's Earring, and Stiltzkin's Diary)

Essential improvements

FF13Fix

Fixes frame rate issues on capable machines and offers various features:

• Removes aggressive frame pacer (proper triple buffer implementation).
• Disables constant checks for input devices.
• Uncaps frame rate, also properly utilizes the display's refresh rate.
• Fixes the slowdown when 2D elements are drawn on the HUD.
• Fixes missing text on enemy scans.
• Restores vibration support.
• Works around the screen glitches when using 2560x1440 resolution.

Game data

All in-game configuration is stored in the save game data. The title screen configuration is not preserved between sessions.

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\setup.xml
Microsoft Store
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/292140/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\SquareEnix\FinalFantasyXIII-2\save\
Steam	<Steam-folder>\userdata\<user-id>\292140\remote\
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/292140/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud		Up to 50 save files (886.92 MB) can be synced.
Xbox Cloud

Video

Launcher settings

No graphics options in-game, all video settings must be changed from the launcher. If the launcher has been disabled, it can be started manually from <path-to-game>\FFXiii2Launcher.exe.

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		Set in launcher or see Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See Borderless fullscreen windowed.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Unknown level. Can be improved up to 16x through the GPU control panel.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Up to 8x MSAA. Can't be disabled, 2x MSAA is the minimum setting.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Default on. See Vertical sync (Vsync).
60 FPS		Pre-rendered cutscenes and some menus (e.g. the Equipment menu) are capped at 30 FPS.
120+ FPS		Capped at 60 FPS. Uncapping the frame rate causes facial animation bugs during in-game cutscenes.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Ray tracing (RT)

Windowed

Force windowed mode
Install FF13Fix. Open FF13Fix.ini. Change ForceWindowedMode = false to ForceWindowedMode = true.

Borderless fullscreen windowed

Force borderless mode
Install FF13Fix. Open FF13Fix.ini. Change Borderless = false to Borderless = true.

Vertical sync (Vsync)

Force Vsync off
Install FF13Fix. Open FF13Fix.ini. Change PresentationInterval = 1 to PresentationInterval = -1.

Input

Controller layout

Keyboard & mouse layout and remapping

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		Movement and camera orientation keys are not remappable.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus		No cursor. Left click acts as Confirm, right click acts as Cancel.
Mouse Y-axis inversion		X-axis can also be inverted.
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support		Launcher requires mouse input. Keyboard is required to exit the game.
Controller remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion		X-axis can also be inverted.

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts		Manual toggle through the On-screen Button Explanations setting.
Impulse Trigger vibration

Generic/other controllers		Generic DirectInput controllers are supported.
Button prompts

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback		Use FF13Fix.
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound		Only stereo and 6 channels modes function correctly, see Broken surround sound. No in-game option.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Languages are region locked. French, German, Italian and Spanish text is not available in Asia while Traditional Chinese, Japanese and Korean text is only available in Asia. English audio is not available in Asia. A mod which allows for text in any language in any version of the game is available here.

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Traditional Chinese
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Polish				Fan translation, download.
Russian				Fan translation by «FFRTT.ru».
Spanish

Issues fixed

Crashes throughout the game

The game can crash at certain segments due to RAM usage exceeding 2 GB.

Use the 4 GB Patch
Apply the patch to <path-to-game>\alba_data\prog\win\bin\ffxii2img.exe.

Inconsistent frame rate on capable hardware

Use FF13Fix

Rain appears as white lines

The rain has broken transparency effects, making the rain appear as white lines.

Use Leviathan's Tears Mod

Pixelated graphics at 2560x1440 resolution

Use FF13Fix

Launcher doesn't launch

Bypass the launcher and run the program directly

Run <path-to-game>\white_data\prog\win\bin\ffxiiiimg.exe with the desired command line arguments: -Width=1920 and -Height=1080 control the width and height of the display resolution. -Shadow=512 controls the shadow resolution (512, 1024, 2048, 4096, or 8192). -Msaa=4 controls the MSAA value (2, 4, 8, or 16). -FullScreenMode=Force runs in full screen mode. -Fullscreen=window-mode forces windowed mode. -VoiceJPMode runs the game with Japanese audio. Without this the game will default to English audio.

Issues unresolved

Incorrect shadow calculation for models with alpha channel

On the console versions, whatever model shape that the alpha channel has created is taken into account when shadows are casted. In the PC version, the model shape generated by the alpha channel is not considered for shadow calculation and instead the model shape without the alpha channel is taken into account and shadows of that are casted.

Other information

General settings

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9.0c

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	Crystal Tools
Audio	Miles Sound System
Cutscenes	Bink Video

Mods

Console Content Patch

Restores all DLC normally unavailable in-game due to copyright and licensing issues.

This patch has to be installed first before installing any of the mods and patches listed below.

Install patch
Download the patch. Unpack the content of the archive to <path-to-game>\alba_data\. Run the .bat file.

Leviathan's Tears Mod

Fixes broken translucency of the rain effect which is due to Square Enix adding an unnecessary additional alpha texture for the PC port. This mod replaces the texture file entirely with the one from the PlayStation 3 version.

Install mod
Download the mod. Unpack the content of the archive to <path-to-game>\alba_data\. Run the .bat file.

FF XIII-2 HD

Improves the quality of some of the textures and increases the polygon count of the characters models.

Requires 4 GB Patch. FF XIII-2 HD will automatically patch the executable if installed on the Steam version of the game, otherwise manual patching is required.

Better quality audio for pre-rendered cutscenes

Adds higher quality audio from the PlayStation 3 version to the PC version's pre-rendered cutscenes.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP SP2	Vista, 7, 8
Processor (CPU)	2 GHz Dual Core	Intel Core 2 Quad 2.66 GHz AMD Phenom II X4 2.8 GHz
System memory (RAM)	1.5 GB	2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	30 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 8 series ATI Radeon HD 4000 series 256 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible	Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 ATI Radeon HD 5870
Other		XInput controller