Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a work in progress

About ten to fifteen hours into Final Fantasy XIII-2, you’ll finally come to Serendipity, the casino dimension (pictured). It features chocobo races, slot machines, and card games. One of the employees tells you more activities will be added later, which is par for the course for this game. New stuff is constantly being folded into Final Fantasy XIII-2.

I can’t make any sense of the chocobo races, in which big slow chickens take far too long to trot around a track. I’m supposed to bet on them. Presumably I should bet on the one I’ve entered into the race. Having accumulated three chocobos over the course of my travels, I proceed to run them into the ground. Each chocobo has so many races in him. They come in last place every time. Short of searching time and space for faster chocobos, I think I’ll stick to the other minigames.

The slot machines are, well, slot machines. I know better than to throw money into those things. Which leaves the card games. Ooh, I like card games! The room of slot machines has card tables on one side, and a hostess offers to explain how the card tables work. Okay, let’s give this a shot. I select the “Learn about the card tables” option.

To be unlocked with future downloadable content.

Now I wouldn’t normally mind if these minigames weren’t all present and accounted for. If there’s one thing I can say after about twenty hours in Final Fantasy XIII-2, it’s that the economy is absurd, pointless, and very likely broken. I don’t really need to race chickens, yank a lever, or play cards to earn FinalBux. But I’m here in Serendipity because one of the characters just told me that he can make me a super paradox-fueled uberweapon if I bring him a Chaos Crystal. And guess what’s at the top of the list of prizes that you can only get by cashing in your casino chips?

I’ll be over here at the slot machine with a bucket of coins.