Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

Has anyone heard of the new part of Final Fantasy XIII, which is "Lightning Returns?" I myself am rather into Final Fantasy, and this new installment of it is rather awesome, though rather tragic in this one, though a lot of the Final Fantasy series is rather tragic.

Lightning Returns involves a whole new setting, story, and gameplay. Nova Crysalia is very different from Gran Pulse, the previous setting for the XIII games.

In Lightning Returns, the player only controls Lightning and not a full party, but it introduces a brand new battle system. The action-RPG battle system, named the Style-Change Active Time Battle system, could be considered a mixture of the Paradigm system found in the previous games and Final Fantasy X-2's Dressphere system. Lightning has access to several different and customizable outfits each with their own set of abilities and commands. Each outfit has its own ATB gauge and is consumable, requiring Lightning to switch outfits to let it replenish. In a way, it reminds me of the Mask System used in Legend of Zelda, Majora's Mask. Battles are more interactable now too, as a result, so that Lightning can move around the battlefield in a limited matter. However, as health is no longer replenished after a battle unlike the previous two XIII games, guarding and evading becomes a necessity as well as using items correctly, so it's more intense.


The storyline in this one is rather intense and apocalyptic too. After the events of XIII-2, Lightning has awakened from her centuries of dormancy within crystal stasis in the infected world of Nova Crysalia, a timeless world doomed to end due to a mysterious substance of Chaos causing the world to decay. Lightning is tasked by the god-like deity, Bhunivelze, to become the new savior to save the grief-ridden souls of humanity and direct them to a new world that is being created before this world ends, and is also promised the revival of her deceased sister Serah should she succeed. Although Lightning begrudges the deity for using Serah as a bargaining chip, Lightning takes up the role, having thirteen days to save humanity from Armageddon and guide them to a new world.

Although Lightning is only playable character, the rest of XIII and XIII-2's casts return as well, though as NPC's. Hope acts as Lightning's guide through the infected world while the rest of the cast is scattered, some of which Lightning has to fight due to the fact that the Chaos has made them more grief-ridden and turned them evil. Lumina, who bears a strange similar appearance to Serah, also appears several times throughout Lightning's quest, viewing her and the world as a plaything and helping or intervening constantly with Lightning's tasks just for enjoyment. The world is also split upon hearing Lightning's return, some worshipping Lightning while others believe Lightning is trying to spirit them to their deaths. Snow also appears as a new king in the land, who is also overcome with despair over Serah's death, but also plays an important role.


So what are your thoughts and opinions on Final Fantasy XIII-3: Lightning Returns?

Story is unnecessarily convoluted, main character has absolutely no personality and is completely unrelatable, Final Fantasy takes itself far too seriously these days.

BUT, Japs have no taste in stories or characters, they just want the same old regurgitated shit, with the same old incomprehensible story and brooding protagonists who look like they are competing in some fashion contest. And since the Japs care only about the Japs, there will just be endless amount of the same shit over and over again.

And just like how people would still pay for the steaming pile of atrocious shit that is CB, people will continue to buy them Final Fantasy's, and the franchise will just live on.

When's 15

When's 6 remake

Clown Jesus will rise again.

I wouldn't want a remake at this point. Instead of getting a nice game with plenty of characters, we would get a short game with plenty of movies.

Game is still shit because main character is shit and plot is shit.

Final Hallway 13: Part 3

reVelske wrote:

Story is unnecessarily convoluted, main character has absolutely no personality and is completely unrelatable, Final Fantasy takes itself far too seriously these days.

BUT, Japs have no taste in stories or characters, they just want the same old regurgitated shit, with the same old incomprehensible story and brooding protagonists who look like they are competing in some fashion contest. And since the Japs care only about the Japs, there will just be endless amount of the same shit over and over again.

I have approximately the same problems with the final fantasy series. I play these games for the story, the character development, the plot, and the drama. The gaming part of it is to keep me entertained so I don't have to spend 30 hours reading block text like the usual visual novels. However, other than improvement on graphic quality, recent final fantasy games has pretty much failed in every single other aspect. I wouldn't really give too much of a damn that a main char has died just cause I have no attachment to the characters whatsoever. IMO they're just surviving and selling on the brand name more than anything else at this point.

On the other hand, I do enjoy work like 仙剑奇侠传4, 古剑奇谭, 古剑奇谭2, cause to me they have flawless or close to flawless execution in terms of story plot, character development, MUSIC (gosh I love some of the pieces in there), and sometimes even philosophical value. If you understand Chinese and haven't tried them out yet, please go try them out.

I was really exited when I got a FF game for the first time 'cause people said the games were really good. I got XIII. Never buying any again.

If I feel like JPRG, I'd just go back for another trip through Phantasy Star IV or Final Fantasy VI (or even Grandia II) at this point in time, at least those games had characters that are genuinely likeable and story that don't resemble some fever dream nonsense. I have zero hope for the genre going forward, seeing how completely stagnant it is.

I'm still waiting for a Final Fantasy IX port to PC, but admittedly I've been waiting for that since my high school days, this is gonna be a looooooong wait. FF9 was IMHO the last FF title that really felt like a FF. 12 was FF enough but I'm not the biggest fan of Ivalice.

9 was the last numbered FF that I found to be an actual FF, yeah. It's one of my favourite too.

As for 12, my only issue was that at the beginning it seems like something out of star wars. Kinda.
Fighters shooting each others and big ships housing them, and then everyone seems to live in a non futuristic era despite the futuristic ships over their heads. And the ships weren't the good old airships.

Personally, I really like it. I still find the characters likeable, and the more complex and serious story is what makes it not so lighthearted. Plus, the battle system in this one is rather fun too.

I dunno about you guys, but I still find it good, and I still am rather fond of Final Fantasy. So there.

Final Science Fiction.
The story was so bad and they forced it so much down people's throats, that Versus didn't fit anymore and they had to change it to 15.

I will wait for the day that airships, castles and pretty dresses return.

I liked both the fantasy looking and the more futuristic FFs. I never liked the looks of XIII (I never played it either l0l). What really killed the games for me was when i heard, that SE would no longer translate the subtitles from japanese. Idk what they did with the american version, but when I played FFX I found the spoken lines really cheesy at times. Lost all interest when I read that XIII's ending was DLC. Come on.


Duurr! MegaTen! HURRRRRRRRR! BetTEr gaME OF tHE cOUNtry! tri-Ace bosS!   

I started at XIII like a scrub, man that was a long ride for nothing.

How is final fantasy 13 selling more parts when it's so much more awful compared to the other final fantasy games...

I want a FFV or FFVI remake for the 3DS or something rather than ANOTHER terrible final fantasy 13. FFV is my favorite... ;_;

Akhenderson wrote:

How is final fantasy 13 selling more parts when it's so much more awful compared to the other final fantasy games...

As stated, japs are retarded. Reason why their gaming market is saturated with regurgitated shit containing zero innovation.

reVelske wrote:

Akhenderson wrote:

How is final fantasy 13 selling more parts when it's so much more awful compared to the other final fantasy games...

As stated, japs are retarded. Reason why their gaming market is saturated with regurgitated shit containing zero innovation.

<- is half japanese
... thanks for the very unneeded insult...
but you do have a point where they keep releasing the same god damn thing over and over again. Kind of the reason why I stopped playing the Mario games as well.

This isn't unique to japan.

You seen the american movie market? sequels and derivatives out the ass, original films get shafted repeatedly because nobody wants to take a chance on something new, they'd rather see a sequel/remake to something, or a movie about a toy/comic book/cartoon/etc from the 80s or 90s.

japan is retarded? PEOPLE are retarded.

Referring specifically to gamers. I have more understanding for people desiring movies they can happily turn off brain for compared to gamers paying for the same uninspired crap over and over again.

Akhenderson wrote:

... thanks for the very unneeded insult...

Boohoo generalization is a bitch.

Idk if the audience stays the same forever. All the people, who were more into video games than most others around them, I met so far, completely stopped at some point. Especially the guys who were into J-RPGs (I remember a guy saying something like "I'm 17. I adult now!" l0l).

reVelske wrote:

As stated, japs are retarded. Reason why their gaming market is saturated with regurgitated shit containing zero innovation.

That was racist AND stupid, Did the jap do "realistic" FPS 9999? (Take your pick among CoD and clones); did they make f*cking WoW(still going after 10 years)? Going back in time, MW/Tomb Raider got sh*tton of sequels...are said IP coming from japan?

The answer to all of this is NO; PEOPLE have their fair share of stupidity no matter where they come from.On a side note: i'll play whatever i find funny, i don't care of it's genre/popularity or if it's a sequel or not...as long as i like it.

Akhenderson wrote:

<- is half japanese
... thanks for the very unneeded insult...

*pats* np.

Garmraid wrote:

That was racist AND stupid, Did the jap do "realistic" FPS 9999? (Take your pick among CoD and clones); did they make f*cking WoW(still going after 10 years)? Going back in time, MW/Tomb Raider got sh*tton of sequels...are said IP coming from japan?

That is honestly the best comparisons you can make? What about the thriving Indie market? What do japs have to offer there? Fuckzillion of VN/dating sim/H-games, badly drawn shmup of the exact same shit, fucktons of JPRG/SRPG of the exact same thing.

This is not about iteration, but if you somehow want to bring that into the discussion, sure, let's go at it. For 10 Tomb Raiders (most of which nobody's even heard of or played), you have 30+ Castlevanias. For 10 CoDs, you have 20+ Dragon Quests. Do we even need to bring Zeldas, Marios, Megamans and Pokemons into the discussion? Again, this is not even a discussion about iteration, so get your shit straight before coming here to white knight the japs. Fact of the matter is, they have shit taste overall and higher tolerance for garbage, and their game publishers/developers have far shittier business ethics (hi CS), all and all, they don't give a shit.

And learn how to use quote.

reVelske wrote:

Garmraid wrote:

That was racist AND stupid, Did the jap do "realistic" FPS 9999? (Take your pick among CoD and clones); did they make f*cking WoW(still going after 10 years)? Going back in time, MW/Tomb Raider got sh*tton of sequels...are said IP coming from japan?

That is honestly the best comparisons you can make? What about the thriving Indie market? What do japs have to offer there? Fuckzillion of VN/dating sim/H-games, badly drawn shmup of the exact same shit, fucktons of JPRG/SRPG of the exact same thing.

This is not about iteration, but if you somehow want to bring that into the discussion, sure, let's go at it. For 10 Tomb Raiders (most of which nobody's even heard of or played), you have 30+ Castlevanias. For 10 CoDs, you have 20+ Dragon Quests. Do we even need to bring Zeldas, Marios, Megamans and Pokemons into the discussion? Again, this is not even a discussion about iteration, so get your shit straight before coming here to white knight the japs. Fact of the matter is, they have shit taste overall and higher tolerance for garbage, and their game publishers/developers have far shittier business ethics (hi CS), all and all, they don't give a shit.

And learn how to use quote.

Starting from the bottom; i already know how to use them ty. Now
1)If you didn't Ever heard of TR you probably lived under a rock; expecially during the time it was out for the 1st time for PC/Saturn/PS1.
2)At least in 30+ CV they made a lot of changes(Fire up CV 1-4,Bloodlines,Rondo Of Blood,Simphony of the night CV64/Lament Of Innocence & Lord Of Shadow 1/2 and say they are the same*and i'm NOT talking about graphic* the only thing they have in common is the castle*not always*& killing Drac; it invented the fuc*ing "Metroidvania" genre BTW),FFI is equal to FFVIII or to FFXIII here? No, they tried to change things as time passed, for me it's sh*t for someone isn't (I even have a friend who consider X2 to be the best FF so w/e) Mario?Pokemon(and i'd add Sonic to the list) have the problem of having saturated the market; so even if there are different ones you'll have to wade trough a marshland of clones before finding'em.
3)You want someone who doesn't give a sh*t? Go talk to EA*BTW dear EA ty for ruining Dungeon Keeper with a sh*tty browser version*
4)Indie are a reality only from some years; before that no one gave a sh*t(no funding,no Steam green light,nothing at all) and i'm sure this will surprise you but there are indie developers in ANY part of the world*yes japan too*
5)And before you try to bring up some sh*t again "Have you played all the stuff you criticize"? I doubt that; and i'm pretty sure you DON'T know every existing japanese SH...so stop this, will you?

tldr:*It's not about "whiteknighting" it's about "stop talking sh*t about stuff you don't know"*

oh, one LAST thing:

Tastes are tastes: something you find fascinating could be sh*t for another guy.(and obviously the same goes for the opposite)

P.S:IF you want to continue PM me as we derailed this thing a lot already, 'cause this will be my last post here.

Garmraid wrote:

If you didn't Ever heard of TR you probably lived under a rock; expecially during the time it was out for the 1st time for PC/Saturn/PS1.

People heard of TR, sure, but in case you didn't read, I said "most of which" ie. most of its franchise, and I'm pretty damn sure most of its games are obscure or plain and simple shit, TR stopped being relevant quite quickly.

Garmraid wrote:

2)At least in 30+ CV they made a lot of changes(Fire up CV 1-4,Bloodlines,Rondo Of Blood,Simphony of the night CV64/Lament Of Innocence & Lord Of Shadow 1/2 and say they are the same*and i'm NOT talking about graphic* the only thing they have in common is the castle*not always*& killing Drac; it invented the fuc*ing "Metroidvania" genre BTW)

Hence why I said this is not about iteration in case you completely skipped over that.

And Bloodlines brought absolutely nothing new to the franchise (despite being a damn solid game of its own), LoS isn't even Castlevania, get that shit out of my face. And I wouldn't call "Made a lot of changes" as much as "add silly once off gimmick", then comes DS CVs that were just recycling center when it comes to assets and mechanics.

Garmraid wrote:

3)You want someone who doesn't give a sh*t? Go talk to EA*BTW dear EA ty for ruining Dungeon Keeper with a sh*tty browser version*

I'd like to say that EA has stopped being the butt of all jokes recently but sure, dungeon keeper was just a major two steps back from whatever recovery they've made. Activision stopped being a joke with Bobby kindly shutting the fuck up. But you know what? They actually piss themselves from time to time from consumer backlash, Jap company honestly couldn't give less shit.

Garmraid wrote:

4)Indie are a reality only from some years; before that no one gave a sh*t(no funding,no Steam green light,nothing at all) and i'm sure this will surprise you but there are indie developers in ANY part of the world*yes japan too*

I did mention Jap indie market didn't I? Are you just reading between the lines?

Garmraid wrote:

5)And before you try to bring up some sh*t again "Have you played all the stuff you criticize"? I doubt that; and i'm pretty sure you DON'T know every existing japanese SH...so stop this, will you?

You know what they say about assumptions.

Garmraid wrote:

]Tastes are tastes: something you find fascinating could be sh*t for another guy.(and obviously the same goes for the opposite)

When their "taste" directly encourages bad and exploitative business practices, there is a god damn problem, and that's when the "taste" is retarded.

Garmraid wrote:

P.S:IF you want to continue PM me as we derailed this thing a lot already, 'cause this will be my last post here.

Thread is dead either way, this is giving it a purpose at least.