Square Enix brought a revised demo of Final Fantasy XIII-2 to Tokyo Game Show. While it took place in the same map, Bresha Ruins, as the E3 build and didn’t have the Historia Crux system working, there were new monsters to play with. Serah, Noel, and an interchangeable monster make a party of three. The monster in your group depends on the Paradigm Shift you select. Pick Cerberus-X to make a chocobo show up and peck rival monsters to death as feathers fly all over the screen.
Monsters, like party members, follow a pattern of attack, but you can control one special attack. Press square to trigger a feral link, which you can activate by completing a chain of button presses Remember Auron’s overdrive from Final Fantasy X? It’s similar to that. The Chocobo’s feral link was Kweh, is a hyper chocobo kick move.. Cait Sith was another new monster friend and it acts as a healer.
This Final Fantasy XIII-2 demo had one more new feature — moogle treasure hunting side quests. If you want to take on an optional mission you need to find a captain with a "…" thought bubble over his head. Talk to him and he will ask you to find two capsules. These can’t be seen by Noel’s eyes, but Mog can make invisible objects appear. Serah’s moogle friend (and weapon) stands next to hidden treasure when he finds it and you can make it materialize by pressing R1. Yeah, it’s a fetch quest, but it’s optional and perhaps simple missions may break up gameplay.
Noel hints Lightning can control monsters too. "Lighting has monsters fighting with her in battle," the Cocoon newbie says to Serah when she learns how to tame monsters. Most of Serah’s friends believe Lightning is dead, but Noel say he knows her.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 comes out in Japan on December 15. Square Enix have the North American launch slated for January 31, 2012 and a European release on February 3, 2012.
