That’s Hope, director of research at the Academy, and his assistant Alyssa. It appears Noel is showing them how he and Serah can travel through time while they’re visiting Academia.

Monsters are the third party member in Final Fantasy XIII-2 and each creature has their own special attack called a Feral Link. Looks like the Tonberry is up to its old tricks with its lantern and little knife. Chocobos were in the last build of Final Fantasy XIII-2 I got to play and they have a kicking combo. Players will also see the flightless birds in Xanadu. The casino area has slot machines that look like futuristic bikes and chocobo racing where you can win a chocodagger.

Temporal Rifts (aka Labyrinth of Time in Japan) are puzzle-like areas where you have to collect all of the crystals and then reach a goal before time runs out. Players will see these throughout the game within the main story.