Despite its name, most of Final Fantasy XIII-2: Fragments After takes place before or during the game. I was hoping it would serve as a segue into Lightning Returns, but it doesn’t. This is fully made to explain Final Fantasy XIII-2, and it includes a lot of details that should have made it into the game about the characters’ motivations and situations. However, because of spoiler reasons, it does live up to its name in that the novel should be read after completing the game.
Fragments After has four main stories and several short interludes. The latter are from the perspective of various Yeuls. I thought these did a nice job showing what Caius mentioned in the game, that every Yeul is different, not an unemotional clone of herself. They had their own interests as they grew up in wordless childhoods, even though their ultimate lot in life is the same. But even as each Yeul pays special attention to different details in their visions, two certain individuals keep appearing, and Yeul cannot say anything to them. These are short but surprisingly poignant vignettes.
Anyway, Lightning, Snow, Hope, and Noel star their own stories. Lightning’s explains how she ended up in Valhalla and became Etro’s champion. Snow continues his journey with Cactuar to find Lightning and ends up learning some horrible truths. Hope and Alyssa investigate something strange at Augusta Tower. Finally, before the final battle, Noel tells Serah about his childhood and relationship with Caius.
Out of all of these, you probably aren’t surprised that Lightning’s tale is the most significant. It dives into a lot of information the datalogs or game cutscenes sort-of-but-not-really explained: Etro, Yeul, Mog, the Eidolons…yeah, a whole lot. It’s almost like an Ultimania guide sometimes. The translation also seems to help with explaining all these details. The localizations of Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Lightning Returns made it seem like the heart and soul were one and the same, but the Japanese script (and the English version of Fragments After) makes it clear that they are not.
The other characters’ stories have their own revelations. Maybe my memory of XIII-2 may be a bit rusty, but at least a couple seem like they’re borderline retcons. Noel’s story is interesting in that you see the decay of humanity from a child’s perspective, but a lot of his background you could already gleam from XIII-2. It wasn’t bad, but Snow’s and Hope’s chapters fill in more blanks than Noel’s does.
While I was disappointed that Fragments After doesn’t serve as a Lightning Returns prequel, for me, there was an even bigger let down. While one of the key themes of XIII was fighting against fate, reading Fragments After doesn’t have that same umph. The ones who know that (spoilers) is going to die well before (spoilers) does can’t or won’t say anything. It just feels like a far cry from the “screw fate” mentality at the end of XIII. Plus, Hope’s reading of a certain individual’s diary and Noel’s reminisce are also a bit too casual for the situations they’re in. Well, at least Noel’s attitude could be attributed to trying to relax before a life-or-death battle, but Hope is literally in the middle of a life-or-death battle. Instead, in one of those I-know-that-you-know-that-I-know situations, he gets to have a little silent reading time in the middle of the chaos. Whatever…
With the rise of DLC and worldwide releases, Final Fantasy games don’t have International versions anymore. But Final Fantasy XIII-2: Fragments After is essentially Final Fantasy XIII-2: International in book format. While I abhor the time travel storyline of XIII-2, Fragments After succeeds in patching up many of the game’s confusing plot points.