Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

released on Nov 21, 2013

As Lightning, it is your mission to save souls so they may be brought to a new world. However, with only thirteen days remaining, not everyone can be saved. Armed with all-new weapons, player customization and battle abilities, you are in a race against time to fully understand your destiny. It all ends here.


Released on

Genres

RPG


More Info on IGDB


Reviews View More

One of two Final Fantasy games that I just can't get in to, this and 8 I have attempted and put down/never gone back to...

tries a lot of neat ideas but sadly doesn't pull any off very well

I am very glad that the final game in this trilogy was the best, Lightning Returns is not as big as the other two games, but the writing and questing system was really amazing. The ATB Battle System was the most fun with the Overclock mechanic.

The music is amazing as always, the story and characters were well written, Lightning is a true example on how to write a good strong female protagonist.

+Improved Battle System
+Beautiful Music
+Nice Explorable Areas
+Lightning is Best Girl
+Nice Open-Zone world
+Challenging Bosses for NG+ or NG+++
+PC port did not need fixing like previous two games

-Majora's Mask type of gameplay, in-game clock is always running and you can only stop time with Chronostasis Ability, which requires Energy Points. You can extend days left by doing Main Quests + Side Quests

-Normal Mode is almost like hard mode for first time players, just play on Easy mode to enjoy the game

-Encounter rate gets annoying sometimes

Conclusion: If you're a Square Enix/Final Fantasy Fan, and you completed most of the good games, then you might want to play this Trilogy. While it isn't as good as FF7 or FFX, it is enjoyable when you try your best to understand the story.



This is where the ATB system was at it's peak. A wonderful concept for a game, dragged down by some puzzling quest design.

The last gasp of the XIII series, Lightning Returns presents great "new" ideas and confounding resolutions.

Look man, I'm just as surprised as you are.

One, because of my near year-long gamer sabbatical which...long story. And for once, I'll save you from it.

Two, because Lightning Returns is actually a good game. A genuinely fun game.

And I can't believe I'm saying that.

It seems the gang finally settled upon the obvious--that XIII's formula was trite and not worth expanding upon in what would have been an incredibly tired third game. I mean, the mechanics of XIII were already tired three hours into their own runtime. So, instead...

Now for something completely different.

XIII? Fuck that shit. We're now Majora's Mask meets Shenmue.

I shit you not. I couldn't believe it either. We've fucking given up. And thank god they finally decided to be the bigger man. The world is a better place for that.

Given new space to breathe, the team managed to create a lot of fun and interesting ideas in a short time span on a far lower budget. Lightning has now been embraced as the One-True-God (somehow both in gameplay AND narrative). All focus is given towards developing her gameplay systems and it usually works out for the best. Players are able to switch between three customizable classes--with fully customizable loadouts--to create their own creative playstyles that feel fast, reactive, and engaging. The simple addition of something like blocking, dodging, and moving around the battlefield in real-time is astounding in itself considering the team it came from. Everything in combat feels streamlined and intimate--there's very little on the table, so there's really no bloat to speak of...for once.

More than that, the Majora's Mask-esque "X DAYS TO SAVE THE WORLD" system actually interweaves with gameplay in very good ways. Dying doesn't make you return to a save point--it just causes you to lose time, etc. A lot of the systems--from the quest design, to the narrative presentation, to the general gameplay systems--actually feel in fucking harmony here. I can't believe it. I can't believe every time I saw an design choice and said "hey that's actually a good idea what the fuck." We even get to explore actual dungeons again!! Like fucking designed dungeons with puzzles and mechanics!! What the hell????

They managed to create a pretty fun game loop of finding small stupid side quests to do (in a small, but well-designed world) and then actually going out and doing them. I'd be lying if the game was making you perform any traditional EPIC JRPG tasks but...fuck it man its fun and goofy. What more could you want? All I know is that on my first few days of play (during some sick leave) I was genuinely hooked on the game. I used hardcore time management skills and planned my quest navigations to optimize everything. It was actually fun and made me use my damn head for once!

But beyond gameplay...even the narrative has taken...some improvements. This mainly stems from the fact that Lightning Returns story is so damn insane that its hard not to revel in how stupid it is. Lighting is fucking Jesus Christ. We're going around towns where everyone is talking about how much they love praying to God! People are like a thousand years old for no fucking reason. Etc. etc. The game lives for its own dumb narrative--and the fast, upbeat, and what-the-fuck tone of it all makes it really work.

There really is something special about seeing Lighting and Hope (who have more or less been accepted by this game as the only good characters in XIII worth using meaningfully) work as an odd 'odd guy / straight man' routine. Its genuinely funny to see Lightning take on the most 'what the fuck' quests from strangers and talk things over with Hope in his new "we played Arkham Asylum and thought Oracle was cool" form. Every other quest I was getting a good giggle at how fucking stupid everything was. But, for once, it almost felt like the dev team was in on the joke. It works on a similar level to Yakuza-esque gags, albeit not nearly as punchy. Still, I can make Lightning wear a cowboy hat the entire time so...that's a massive win in my book.

Of course, the great things couldn't stay forever. The game really starts to drag in its final few hours. And the combat systems do sort of shallow up by then too. I think they could have used some additional systems or levels to really make the final portion of the game have any developments of note. Instead, you can't help but feel its spinning its own wheels. And, of course, the story has to actually conclude more-or-less all of XIII as a narrative...so we have to spend a lot of time on droll cutscenes that might as well amount to melodramatic nonsense making you ask "who the fuck caaaaaaaaaaaaaaares?" every few minutes.

That might sound unfair but...hell, the writers of XIII couldn't keep their own story straight. Every fucking game has been in a wildly different environment/context where nothing has really maintained consistency beyond the fact that our marketable characters appear. And even then, their personalities can be wildly different from their original XIII forms. The plots barely make sense but that clearly never mattered to anyone involved. Remember when XIII actually had a FF-like plotline about a band of characters forming an actual party and going on an adventure? Fuck that feels like forever ago.
Now we're left with Lightning-Jesus and her detective pal Angel-Hope solving mysteries for GOD in a world entirely unrelated to everything else where everyone can't die and the party members of XIII has all been reduced to barely-present side characters. All while a lady that looks like a tiktok star torments you from the distance.

Seriously, the re-use of characters but putting them in such wildly different continuities and re-adapting their character traits so hard they give you whiplash is...well it feels like kids role-playing on the playground at school. Sure, it's the same kids every day, but they'll go from trying to be Star Wars characters to WWII commandos to Lord of the Rings guys every fucking lunch break. It undercuts any chance the narrative has to actually be effective and reduces everything to "Kingdom Hearts bullshit."

Still, remember, I enjoyed most of my runtime. So you might as well. Just be sure to skip a few of those cutscenes in the final hours.

In general, Lightning Returns is a fun, wacky, and memorable adventure that I would recommend to anyone looking for a goofy good time. I could have used some more gameplay developments and less narrative nonsense to clean up its final third but...overall its still a very fun experience worth your time. I'm going to remember a lot of fun areas, characters, quests, puzzles, and designs that genuinely had me with a smile on my face for a good majority of the game's runtime. They just needed to either put a few more interesting things in...or cut the game down a bit. Oh, and make that final boss less fucking bullshit.

Lightning Returns also serves as a nice reminder that teams working on a small budget with little time can put out far more interesting ideas than massive triple-A games that take ages and trillions to produce. Its crazy for me to imagine...but Lightning Returns might be the last bright spot in Final Fantasy's history (no I'm not counting the MMO you can't make me). Especially now that any game with a roman numeral slapped on it needs to have a 20 year development time, be made with quintuple-A graphics in Unreal, not be an actual RPG...and have gameplay systems that would have bored Super Famicom players.

So, you know what, Lightning Returns? Cheers to you. You're perhaps the final interesting gasp of breath for this series. And a very characteristic way to close the book on years and years of Watanabe/Toriyama madness. In 2014 I might have disliked you...but in 2024 I just wish we could have more of you in this world.