Tomopop Review: Final Fantasy XIII Play Arts Kai Vol. 2

6:00 PM on 05.24.2010   |   Rio McCarthy

When I first saw who was in the second series of Final Fantasy XIII figures I instantly got excited. Two of my favorite characters made it into the same set! Sazh Katzroy and Oerba Yun Fang both made their way into this set, and they're also joined by Hope Estheim. Now if only I could get a Cid Raines figure I would be set in my Final Fantasy XIII fandom world.

I had a lot of fun taking photos with this group, so hit the jump to see the rest of my colorful review!

We start off with the classic Square Enix boxes we know and love, or at least I do. There's a full window so you can see the figure you're getting and you get the nice images on the back showing the figure you've purchased as well as the others in the same set.

Here they lie in their plastic homes, which as you can see they fit in very well. The only small issue here was Fang's rolling ankle, which you can see on the left side of the image. Her ankles/top of her feet were pretty loose so it took some care to get her posed in some of the future shots you'll see.

One of the main things I've come to expect and love from Square Enix's toy lines is their attention to detail. It makes me so happy that you can always assume that everyone's costumes will look like they do in game, and that they'll look like they just popped right out of your screen.

The backs of the figures continue to be just as detailed, finishing out the backsides to the outfits. Fang wins me over in this one, but then again she has one of my favorite outfits in the entire game. These figures are also pretty huge with Hope being the shortest of the bunch at 8 inches tall, Fang taking up the middle at around 8.5 inches tall and Sazh being the big guy of he group at around 9.25 inches tall.

Fang was my favorite to photograph out of the group, as she just has a certain look about her that makes her a friend to the camera. As you can see at the knees, these figures are incredibly poseable all around, including at the feet where you can turn the toes end of the feet to create even more poses than your normal figure.

Hope is one of my most disliked characters in the game, but that didn't stop him from being a great subject for my photos. I love the detail in his scarf, and everything down to the gloves looks fantastic. His hair has a few snags in the molding here and there, but nothing terrible by any means.

Sazh is one of my favorite characters in the game, but sadly one of my favorite parts about him is nowhere to be found. Everything about the figure looks fantastic, but the baby chocobo that lives in his afro is non-existant. That in no way subtracts from the figure, as it looks good on it's own, but it would have been a nice added bonus of cuteness.

Sazh also got the short end of the stick when it comes to cool looking weapons, but that's no fault of the figure, it's just what happens when you use pistols as your weapon. The details on the pistols do look fantastic though, they're just not quite as bright and lively as Fang's staff or Hope's boomerang.

In the previous photo you might have noticed that there was a small hole in the handle of each of the guns. That helps him to be able to hold on to them with absolutely no problems. The handling is quite good on them, and his hands actually fit around them well and look like how a real person would hold them.

Fang is the winner for having my favorite weapon, but then again pretty much all of her weapons are awesome. The Bladed Lance is one of my favorite of her spears, so I was glad it was the one that was included with her figure.

It doesn't split into three bending parts like the one in the game, but that's fully understandable considering what a pain in butt it would have been to try and make. Besides that, it would have been a pain to pose without it falling apart constantly as well. I very much like the way it looks and she holds it quite well even without having to have hole and peg system.

Hope holds his boomerang the same way that Sazh held his guns, and does so quite well. All of the figures did a fantastic job with holding their weapons, and are much improved from some that I'd had some issues with in the past.

The details, again, are fantastic and I love the faded paint job on the boomerang. It actually folds up so that you can do several different poses other than what I've shown here. I just happened to like how he looked holding it up like he was ready for battle.

If you haven't noticed yet after all my gushing, Fang ended up being my favorite of the three - which is actually funny since Sazh was who I was most excited about. All three figures are fantastic though, but if you have to choose just one I would suggest Fang as your winner. You can pick up all three of the figures for $39.99 each from the Square Enix Shop. Now, for the future sets... I'm totally praying to the toy gods that I get a figure of Cid Raines in the future. Please Square Enix? Pretty please?!