Final Fantasy XIII Lightning Saga

[MegasonicZX]

I thought it was pretty funny in some instances actually.

[AlphaRuby]

I thought it was pretty funny in some instances actually.

That girl who kept falling over, and that guy getting fed up of it lol. It's like Square Enix took the mickey out of themselves.

[Wraith]

Worth it for the 8 bit remix of Blinded By Light

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

 

13 days 'til I get my hands on this game. <3 Can't come soon enough.

[Junko]

13 days 'til I get my hands on this game. <3 Can't come soon enough.

Still need to finish XIII-2, urgh.

[JaidynReiman]

Yeul is actually first mentioned in XIII. I didn't even catch that until I heard about Yeul for XIII-2 and started playing XIII and I noticed that she wrote (well, probably Paddra Nsu-Yeul did specifically; naturally XIII-2 brought up the notion that there are numerous Yeul's throughout history) quite a bit of the ancient texts you can find. Once again it probably wasn't foresight, they likely only established a name and decided to delve more into her in the sequel rather than have it planned out right from the start.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

For those who like to listen to the 8-bit track that is used in the retro trailer <3

 

[pppp]

So here's the director's cut of the behind the scenes docummentary:

 

 

 

 

Wow, check out that Sazh segment at 9:58.

 

"I wish Sazh was my dad. Me too."

 

Wow, if i was the father of any of these 2 i would be feeling extremely sad right now. Apparently their father is not cool enough for them

[AlphaRuby]

 

Guess Lightning is a big Tomb Raider fan...

[KrazyBean]

 

Guess Lightning is a big Tomb Raider fan...

 

Eh...I don't really have a strong opinion for or against this. It fits better than the Mass Effect and Assassin's Creed crossover costumes XIII-2 had at least, but it's still out of place.

 

I know you're against the clock Lightning, but unlike Lara Croft with the crazy predicament she was in, you can take a bath.

[AlphaRuby]

Eh...I don't really have a strong opinion for or against this. It fits better than the Mass Effect and Assassin's Creed crossover costumes XIII-2 had at least, but it's still random at the same time.

 

I know you're against the clock Lightning, but unlike Lara Croft with the crazy predicament she was in, you can take a bath.

I was wishing for a Tomb Raider/Final Fantasy crossover, and now...

[pppp]

So we have this review and it's a negative one, it's an import review, but this site's import review of Ni no Kuni ended up counting towards Metacritic, so this one might also count:

 

http://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2014/01/09/lightning-returns-final-fantasy-xiii-review-ps3-import/

 

Positives:

 

• CG cinemas look sharp.
• The tension in some battles is off the charts.
• Outfit variety.
• Soundtrack mixes old and new.
• Interesting battle system.
• Great environments and townz.
• Customization had a lot of potential, was interesting for a short time.
• Takes risks.

 

Negatives:

 

• A thin amount of real content desperately stretched in order to appear longer.
• Poor pacing.
• Story still a garbled mess.
• Nonsensical, ridiculous ending.
• Characters and objects look horrible up close.
• Pop-in and frame rate drops.
• Difficulty modes not organized properly at all.
• Feels sloppy, rushed, and thrown-together.
• So much potential completely fumbled.

 

4/10

 

 

Will this be the norm or will most reviews end up positive? We shall see

[AlphaRuby]

Wait, if Lightning Returns has a Tomb Raider costume, does that mean Lightning's gonna get brutally killed and impaled and fall off stuff constantly?

[pppp]

So even though i started this game friday, only now did i complete the first main quest. Why so long? Well I'll get to that. Here are my initial impressions below.

 

Story:

 

Sigh, you know it's really hard to care at this point. I'm doing my best to give it a fair chance, but damn is it horrible. The plot so far can be summed up like this: Someone from the previous 2 games is living in regret because they've lost everything, Lumina spouts exposition that spells the plot out for me like I'm an idiot before disappearing and i beat that someone senseless till he/she decides to just join Light in her godly mission.

 

My main problem is that this plot is mostly just nostalgia for the previous 2 games, the game doesn't have its own characters and story. Unless you love the characters in this trilogy this will be an emotional dud for you, and even then it's so badly written that not even that might help.

 

Here's the laydown for people who don't care about spoilers:

 

Basically, Snow is emo cause he lost Serah. Oh and we finally learned why he turned into a L'Cie again. Apparently there is a Fal'Cie called Cactuar that is a friend of Snow and gave him the gift of magic to help him.....Um.....but i thought all the Fal'Cie were destroyed at the end of the original.,,,,Sigh. Meanwhile Noel saw a prophecy in an Oracle Drive that if he kills Light he will see Yeul again, so he tries to. After getting his ass handed to him, He decides there's no point and decides to allow Light to keep going. After that a Yeul hologram comes out from the Oracle Drive to tell him he did the right thing. Oh and while all this was happening, Lumina keeps appearing before Light, never giving any new information or doing anything interesting, all she does is spell out the emotional context of every event for us, cause these writers think their story is too clever for us, so they just spell it out for us.

 

Gameplay:

 

We've already talked about the battle system, so let me talk about the way this game handles character development: Everytime you finish a quest(Main or Side) you gain stat bonuses, so basically there's no way to grind, which basically means mastering the combat system is essential or you're screwed.

 

My main problem is that this game pretty much has all quests in the game open from the get go, so progress is quite non linear indeed. This sounds great on paper, but the execution is bad.

 

I'll use Majora's Mask as an example to show my point, since this game desperatly wants to be like that.

 

When Majora's Mask starts, only 5 or so side-quests can be done, so it's easy to handle all those in the time we're given. As we get more equipment and masks, more side-quests become doable, and thanks to the song of soaring and song of inverted time, time management is easy to handle, you just need to be smart with how you do things. Combine that with the fact that you can restart the cycle and you get a comfortable experience that doesn't get annoying.

 

In this game however, EVERYTHING is open from the moment you start your first full day of the cycle(By the way it's only 6 days.....i thought it was 13 days, wasn't that what square was telling us?). This means that while you wait for a specific time of the day to continue a main quest, you can do another main quest while you wait, after all, since you're on a timer, you have to make the most out of each day. The problem is that this pretty much makes the story pacing really weird, since you'll be watching cutscenes from both main quests back to back, and makes it hard to be invested.

 

Another problem is that teleporting costs EP(Points that are used to execute special abilities) and since there are very few teleport points in the world, you'll be walking a lot, wasting time. Because of this, getting shit done under a day is more troublesome than it needs to be. The areas in this game are way too big. There are way too many long stairways, too many towers to climb and way too many closed gates that only open if you have a certain item that you have to find somewhere in the city your in, which brings me to the next problem.

 

Finding anything in this game is a nightmare. The game doesn't mark where stuff is on your map and for the most part doesn't even give you a hint(And even when it does, it's so vague that it might as well not exist), so basically i just have to wander around like a moron till i accidentally find it. Combined with the fact that areas are needlessly huge, you will lose so much time just looking for things that you'll feel cheated by the time Hope calls you back to the Ark at the end of the day.

 

Don't get me wrong, there are genuinely great ideas here, even if most of them are taken from Majora's Mask, but they are very poorly implemented.

 

I will say that i do like the way customization works. Every outfit can use every ability and piece of equipment, which means you won't have to deal with the stupid ones, just pick 3 that you like and keep giving them new equipment and abilities.

 

I was supposed to give these impressions sooner, but i had to experiment with the game for a whole day till i got used to how the game is designed. This is not an easy game to get into.

 

 

Music:

 

I will admit, it's kinda growing on me. I'm enjoying the new victory fanfare and the town themes are nice. Oh and guess what - THE FINAL FANTASY THEME IS IN THIS GAME! Where? There's a random musician in the street playing it.......Really?...It's not in the credits or in an awesome opening crawl, it's just randomly in there being played by a NPC? Sigh, i don't get it, do these people hate the theme or what?

 

 

Graphics are horrible and Loading times are obnoxious too.

 

So yeah not enjoying the game so far

[JaidynReiman]

Here's the laydown for people who don't care about spoilers:

 

Oh and we finally learned why he turned into a L'Cie again. Apparently there is a Fal'Cie called Cactuar that is a friend of Snow and gave him the gift of magic to help him.....Um.....but i thought all the Fal'Cie were destroyed at the end of the original.

Snow was revealed to have been turned into a l'Cie by Cactuar in the previous game... somewhere... or is it another one of those things revealed outside the game? Either way its been confirmed long before, but if it wasn't something revealed in-game until now than yeah that's bad.

 

The fal'Cie, though, were known to still be around a bit in XIII-2. Only the Cocoon fal'Cie were destroyed at the end of XIII because they were controlled by Origin. The Pulce fal'Cie were still active, though by Lightning Returns it appears that the only fal'Cie left is Atomos, whom can't even move anymore though he's still active.

[Teoskaven]

Snow was revealed to have been turned into a l'Cie by Cactuar in the previous game... somewhere... or is it another one of those things revealed outside the game? Either way its been confirmed long before, but if it wasn't something revealed in-game until now than yeah that's bad.

 

It was revealed in a Japanese exclusive novel. So yeah, without the Internet we probably woulndn't know about it.

[pppp]

Sighhhh. I'm not even gonna bother explaining again how i feel about stuff being explained outside of the games. That's stupid.

 

One thing though: I was under the impression that all the Fal'Cie were gone after FFXIII. I mean, they constantly talk about how they're gonna take them down. Not to mention how exactly do you become friends with a Fal'Cie? You can't communicate with it after all.......UGH....THIS TRILOGY'S STORY SUCKS! IT JUST SUCKS!........sigh......sorry, it's just that I'm so sick of this trilogy

[Teoskaven]

Technically speaking, only Cocoon fal'Cie and a few restriction of Pulse fal'Cie died after the defeat of Orphan: it's complicated, but basically not all fal'Cies are tied to that little clock.

[JaidynReiman]

Technically speaking, only Cocoon fal'Cie and a few restriction of Pulse fal'Cie died after the defeat of Orphan: it's complicated, but basically not all fal'Cies are tied to that little clock.

I was pretty sure ONLY Cocoon fal'Cie died. In XIII-2 they just don't show off any fal'Cie except Eclipse (which was a paradox and was supposed to come in much later in time), but most Pulse fal'Cie are still active. The transition from Gran Pulse to Nova Chrysalis is what killed most of the falCie (though Pulse and Lindzei are considered fal'Cie as well and they were still around in Lightning Returns; they were the "Makers" of the Pulse and Cocoon fal'Cie, respectively, they just never showed up).

[KrazyBean]

This question has been on my head for a while now. Do you have to finish the ENTIRE game before time runs out OR is it like Majora's Mask were you can reset time but still have your progress saved, but lose your consumables in the process?

 

Also, what happens when time DOES run out?

[JaidynReiman]

This question has been on my head for a while now. Do you have to finish the ENTIRE game before time runs out OR is it like Majora's Mask were you can reset time but still have your progress saved, but lose your consumables in the process?

 

Also, what happens when time DOES run out?

Based on what I've read, its not like Majora's Mask. By default, you've only got seven days left. By doing certain things you extend the length of the world up to a maximum thirteen days.

 

There's no way to "reset the clock," but if time runs out prematurely, you start a New Game + with all your items intact. I'm not sure if you keep levels but I assume so.

[KrazyBean]

According to Metacritic, OXM (Official Xbox Magazine) gave it a 7/10 and it is the first recorded review...but I can't find the actual review.

[pppp]

So I finished the Main Quest of the Wildlands. I have to admit, i actually enjoyed the Wildlands pretty good.

 

The land is fun to explore, as there's a lot to do in it, there was a side-quest with a pretty decent story and there was decent platforming in the Temple of Chaos. Even the story was actually enjoyable, since it was about Lightning tending to a wounded chocobo that has a kinda nice payoff.......Until i got to the Temple of Chaos that is, where we got back into the actual main plot of the game, particularly why the chaos even exists, which makes the plot reason XIII-2 exists even more forced and contrived than before.....sigh

 

Again, here's the plot for those that don't care about spoilers:

 

So Lightning has a vision of a voice telling her to find the Angel of Valhalla and come to the Temple of Chaos. After talking to the locals, turns out its a white sacred chocobo that chooses its rider. Light finds it being almost killed by a monster. After saving it and bringing it to a doctor, Light takes upon herself to tend to it and feed it since it seems to accept food only from her. After scouring the lands looking for medicine and food, we get a chocobo that we can ride in the wildlands and helps us fight. After reaching the temple thanks to the chocobo's help, we meet Yeul. Turns out every Yeul that died over the years is now a soul that wants to see Caius again and all of those souls are now a dark force destroying time and reality. Yes, the origin of the chaos that retconned the ending of XIII and is now destroying everything is Yeul's love for Caius. Light defeats Caius in battle, however, he apparently can't be saved cause he doesn't want to be saved, since he refuses to die and leave Yeul. Sigh, in XIII-2 they failed to make their love feel real so I can't bring myself to care. Also, so basically everything having to do with the Temple of Chaos was completely pointless, we accomplished nothing. Yeah we learned about the origin of the Chaos, but that information didn't really change anything, it only made the XIII-2 retcon even more obnoxious, it makes it undeniable that XIII-2 was not planned during XIII's development. But to end on a positive note, at the end turns out the Angel of Valhala is a reincarnation of Odin, once again loyal to Light. I'll admit Light's reunion with Odin was a nice way of ending the Wildlands story

 

Oh and Lumina is still useless. She still hasn't done or said anything interesting, you can pretty much replace her with Toriyama constantly explaining why We're supposed to feel sad everytime there's a dramatic scene.

[AlphaRuby]

So I finished the Main Quest of the Wildlands. I have to admit, i actually enjoyed the Wildlands pretty good.

 

The land is fun to explore, as there's a lot to do in it, there was a side-quest with a pretty decent story and there was decent platforming in the Temple of Chaos. Even the story was actually enjoyable, since it was about Lightning tending to a wounded chocobo that has a kinda nice payoff.......Until i got to the Temple of Chaos that is, where we got back into the actual main plot of the game, particularly why the chaos even exists, which makes the plot reason XIII-2 exists even more forced and contrived than before.....sigh

 

Again, here's the plot for those that don't care about spoilers:

 

So Lightning has a vision of a voice telling her to find the Angel of Valhalla and come to the Temple of Chaos. After talking to the locals, turns out its a white sacred chocobo that chooses its rider. Light finds it being almost killed by a monster. After saving it and bringing it to a doctor, Light takes upon herself to tend to it and feed it since it seems to accept food only from her. After scouring the lands looking for medicine and food, we get a chocobo that we can ride in the wildlands and helps us fight. After reaching the temple thanks to the chocobo's help, we meet Yeul. Turns out every Yeul that died over the years is now a soul that wants to see Caius again and all of those souls are now a dark force destroying time and reality. Yes, the origin of the chaos that retconned the ending of XIII and is now destroying everything is Yeul's love for Caius. Light defeats Caius in battle, however, he apparently can't be saved cause he doesn't want to be saved, since he refuses to die and leave Yeul. Sigh, in XIII-2 they failed to make their love feel real so I can't bring myself to care. Also, so basically everything having to do with the Temple of Chaos was completely pointless, we accomplished nothing. Yeah we learned about the origin of the Chaos, but that information didn't really change anything, it only made the XIII-2 retcon even more obnoxious, it makes it undeniable that XIII-2 was not planned during XIII's development. But to end on a positive note, at the end turns out the Angel of Valhala is a reincarnation of Odin, once again loyal to Light. I'll admit Light's reunion with Odin was a nice way of ending the Wildlands story

 

Oh and Lumina is still useless. She still hasn't done or said anything interesting, you can pretty much replace her with Toriyama constantly explaining why We're supposed to feel sad everytime there's a dramatic scene.

If I may ask, how did you get the game so early?

[KrazyBean]

If I may ask, how did you get the game so early?

 

I want to know too. It ain't out in Europe until the 14th. The earliest I can get it is the 13th via pre-ordering it.