Murray
New Member
The FF 13 series has included FF 13 which was a game about political unrest and these religious entities that would chose humans to imbue with powers to perform some sort of task. The end of the game took place when these two worlds that you learn about through the game collided into each other...while not literally, the people of these worlds were forced to deal with each other. The new gods and the old gods pushed to recognize each other.
FF 13 - 2 was about the sister of one of the main characters and a boy from the future. While the game left its political talk to the side, instead it was this very intimate journey of these two characters trying to achieve a goal for different reasons. This game was special because it forced you to take these two into the darkness of an unknown future. Every time you did something, different things would happen in the future that would cause you to have to do yet again something else.
Lightning Returns takes place 500 years after the end of FF 13 - 2. The world has some what paused and is dying. People can no longer age because of your actions in FF 13 - 2, and no new humans can be born. There are 12 days before the end of the world. Lightning has been tasked by god to go out into the world and save as many souls as she can before the end. In order to do this you do basic RPG tasks but there's also a lot of really cool story telling and you learn about the time that has taken place. Then suddenly the entire FF 13 series clicks as time goes through this game.
Graphics - This game is beautiful. You will not see the 360 or PS 3 produce something more beautiful. Sadly this game appeared as XB One and PS 4 have entered the stage so many might miss it, but the details in this game is amazing. From Lightning's hair blowing in the wind to the various levels that you go through. The environment is stunning, the effects are beautiful, the characters are real, the emotion and love put into this game is palatable.
Mechanics - This game walks away from its previous entries by pushing Lightning to fight on her own, but don't despair, she is a bad a**. The god that Lightning has made a deal with has given her the power she needs to fight and fight well. Its such a different fighting system that it takes you awhile to understand how to use it best. There's also a system where Lightning changes jobs (by changing clothes mid battle...I know, but trust me it works) while she fights. One second you're a power hungry mage, the next a defense fortified tank, and the next a ridiculous Moogle mage with mediguard to get your health back. You no longer level up from fighting, instead you gain points that allows you to use some very important powers. These powers are so important that the game is not beatable without them in my humble opinion. You can maybe squeeze by without using the powers, but they are essential to getting a 100% completion and standing up to the boss battles.
You gain stats by completing quests and saving souls. This game is literally walking from one short story to the next while working on completing these larger sequences that are beautiful, dark, sad, and terribly inspiring at times to where you find yourself lost in the cut scenes taking place and rooting for Lightning to complete her almost impossible battle.
Music - I have to mention that the sound track in this game and all the FF 13 series is just amazing. I would suggest any game lover to look these sound tracks up. There is some beautiful music. That's all I can say about that.
Story/Narrative - I want to so badly say that you can play this game without playing the rest of FF 13 series. However, that might not be the case. I think that if you did you would be lost in some places. You'd lose focus on what the motivation of some people are. You woudln't understand why Snow is the way he is. You wouldn't completely grasp Noel's hatred for himself and what he did in FF 13 - 2. With that said, this game puts FF 13 into brilliant perspective. The entire time that you've fought as Lightning and her friends, then Sera and Noel and back to Lightning the world has been mysterious. There has always been someone holding back cards or motivations that run much deeper than the surface. Then this game just tosses all the cards on the table.
You discover that the entire world isn't what you thought it was and all of a sudden there are so many connections to dialogs, events, quests and characters in the past two games that it all just makes for this holy wow moment. I wish I could spoil it but I can't, its something you have to learn for yourself. The stories in these games are incredibly driven by politics, religion, and relationships and all these things have collided into a beautiful tapestry.
So, what's bad about this game? This game went in at a marketing fail point. There's a "costume system" but its not just an excuse to change how Lightning looks or provide fan service, this thing is an amazing system to play with. Its truly fun and I promise you'll enjoy it as an Action RPGer. The second is that the mechanic of time is very complicated. You have a lot going on and there's not a lot of time to figure it out. RPG players don't want to be rushed, but somehow it works, and it works really well.
This game doesn't have a lot of bad. I could mention things like its annoying to be pushed back to the Ark at 6 a.m. every morning, but I really can't at the same time because the point of it is to create a constraint on what you're doing and force you to return to a hub. Since I get it, I don't hate it. I could say that there's not a lot of secret bosses like other FF games, but that's not really a reviewable point and there's more than what was available without purchasing DLC in FF 13 - 2 so they actualy added more.
Here it is guys, the nitty of it all. This game is an amazing accomplishment. The series started out slow and then produced what I believe to be one of the grandest sequels to a FF game and then this came and on its own merits it rearranged how I believed a FF game could be played and the series as a whole examined.
This game is a 5 out of 5.
FF 13 - 2 was about the sister of one of the main characters and a boy from the future. While the game left its political talk to the side, instead it was this very intimate journey of these two characters trying to achieve a goal for different reasons. This game was special because it forced you to take these two into the darkness of an unknown future. Every time you did something, different things would happen in the future that would cause you to have to do yet again something else.
Lightning Returns takes place 500 years after the end of FF 13 - 2. The world has some what paused and is dying. People can no longer age because of your actions in FF 13 - 2, and no new humans can be born. There are 12 days before the end of the world. Lightning has been tasked by god to go out into the world and save as many souls as she can before the end. In order to do this you do basic RPG tasks but there's also a lot of really cool story telling and you learn about the time that has taken place. Then suddenly the entire FF 13 series clicks as time goes through this game.
Graphics - This game is beautiful. You will not see the 360 or PS 3 produce something more beautiful. Sadly this game appeared as XB One and PS 4 have entered the stage so many might miss it, but the details in this game is amazing. From Lightning's hair blowing in the wind to the various levels that you go through. The environment is stunning, the effects are beautiful, the characters are real, the emotion and love put into this game is palatable.
Mechanics - This game walks away from its previous entries by pushing Lightning to fight on her own, but don't despair, she is a bad a**. The god that Lightning has made a deal with has given her the power she needs to fight and fight well. Its such a different fighting system that it takes you awhile to understand how to use it best. There's also a system where Lightning changes jobs (by changing clothes mid battle...I know, but trust me it works) while she fights. One second you're a power hungry mage, the next a defense fortified tank, and the next a ridiculous Moogle mage with mediguard to get your health back. You no longer level up from fighting, instead you gain points that allows you to use some very important powers. These powers are so important that the game is not beatable without them in my humble opinion. You can maybe squeeze by without using the powers, but they are essential to getting a 100% completion and standing up to the boss battles.
You gain stats by completing quests and saving souls. This game is literally walking from one short story to the next while working on completing these larger sequences that are beautiful, dark, sad, and terribly inspiring at times to where you find yourself lost in the cut scenes taking place and rooting for Lightning to complete her almost impossible battle.
Music - I have to mention that the sound track in this game and all the FF 13 series is just amazing. I would suggest any game lover to look these sound tracks up. There is some beautiful music. That's all I can say about that.
Story/Narrative - I want to so badly say that you can play this game without playing the rest of FF 13 series. However, that might not be the case. I think that if you did you would be lost in some places. You'd lose focus on what the motivation of some people are. You woudln't understand why Snow is the way he is. You wouldn't completely grasp Noel's hatred for himself and what he did in FF 13 - 2. With that said, this game puts FF 13 into brilliant perspective. The entire time that you've fought as Lightning and her friends, then Sera and Noel and back to Lightning the world has been mysterious. There has always been someone holding back cards or motivations that run much deeper than the surface. Then this game just tosses all the cards on the table.
You discover that the entire world isn't what you thought it was and all of a sudden there are so many connections to dialogs, events, quests and characters in the past two games that it all just makes for this holy wow moment. I wish I could spoil it but I can't, its something you have to learn for yourself. The stories in these games are incredibly driven by politics, religion, and relationships and all these things have collided into a beautiful tapestry.
So, what's bad about this game? This game went in at a marketing fail point. There's a "costume system" but its not just an excuse to change how Lightning looks or provide fan service, this thing is an amazing system to play with. Its truly fun and I promise you'll enjoy it as an Action RPGer. The second is that the mechanic of time is very complicated. You have a lot going on and there's not a lot of time to figure it out. RPG players don't want to be rushed, but somehow it works, and it works really well.
This game doesn't have a lot of bad. I could mention things like its annoying to be pushed back to the Ark at 6 a.m. every morning, but I really can't at the same time because the point of it is to create a constraint on what you're doing and force you to return to a hub. Since I get it, I don't hate it. I could say that there's not a lot of secret bosses like other FF games, but that's not really a reviewable point and there's more than what was available without purchasing DLC in FF 13 - 2 so they actualy added more.
Here it is guys, the nitty of it all. This game is an amazing accomplishment. The series started out slow and then produced what I believe to be one of the grandest sequels to a FF game and then this came and on its own merits it rearranged how I believed a FF game could be played and the series as a whole examined.
This game is a 5 out of 5.
