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Your Final Fantasy XIII-2 party consists of Serah, Noel, and a monster. Chocobos and Flanbaneros act just like characters. You can dress them up with sunglasses and acquire new abilities with the Crystarium system. Famitsu explains, each monster has their own Crystarium grid with skills to purchase with CP.
Players will train dozens of monsters and after awhile that Cait Sith you leveled up may become a benchwarmer. Final Fantasy XIII-2 has a system that lets one monster inherit the abilities of another. You can pass down four kinds of abilities: command abilities, auto abilities (like stat bonuses), special abilities, and resistances (presumably elemental and status guards). If the inheriting monster has the same role, say commando for example, they will learn the same command and auto abilities. Monsters that have a different role will gain new abilities. Of course, there’s a cost to this system. Transferring abilities require players to sacrifice a monster from their team.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 comes out in Japan on December 15.
