Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII Spoiler Thread

[Kuja9001]

Something odd has occurred to me, I strongly dislike this game.

I'll post my reasons soon.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

I look forward to reading this.

 

[trash panda]

I'm looking forward to a good read as well.

Too many fetch quests that don't leave me feeling gratified. For example, there is a quest in which a girl wants more adornments in order to find her style, and you have to run around buying and picking up adornments for this chick you really don’t care about. There’s also a mission where you have to check every clock around town to make sure it’s still ticking…blegh.

I also don't like opening up the map through the menu every few minutes since some of the areas are large and I lose my sense of direction every once in a blue. I understand that chronostasis doesn't necessarily need to be used, but I’ve been spamming it since I like to explore every nook and cranny and it gets repetitive and annoying.

I tried to like it, and I'm still chugging away a few hours every once in a while but...turning on my console and playing the game has become a chore. I certainly don't rush home to play this in the afternoons like I did with previous FF games.

I can't leave out the fact that I loathe some most of the outfits...

I guess it's just not for everyone. :|

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Too many fetch quests that don't leave me feeling gratified. For example, there is a quest in which a girl wants more adornments in order to find her style, and you have to run around buying and picking up adornments for this chick you really don’t care about.

Clearly a priority as the world counts down to doomsday.

 

[Kuja9001]

1. The open world

"becomes very difficult to tell a compelling story when you’re given that much freedom".

I agree with that quote when it comes to Lightning Returns and to a degree XIII-2.

Unlike XIII & XIII-2, LR does not feel consistent when it comes to the plot, all the “character arcs” might as well be self contained stories, there's no flow. There’s no mention of other characters at all during the arcs, Light could’ve asked questions during the Caius arc “like why did yeul trap Snow in the coliseum” or at least bring up Noel. It makes the whole world driven thing & whole end of the world bullshit fall flat on its face.

With XIII-2, it had some consistent moments like when we had to stop the flans, I liked that Serah & Noel acknowledged & remembered that Snow needed help.

If it were up to me the entire trilogy would be linear just so it would have an overall consistent plot.

According to Fragment Entries from XIII-2 like the following

Fang's Crown

Fang's Echo
I meant to apologize when we met, but I never did. So, Serah, this is my chance. Everything was my fault. You were made into a l'Cie because I messed up. Sure, I helped you out a little, but that doesn't make things right. Vanille and I, we'll repay our debts by keeping Cocoon in the sky.

It's not so bad. I have Vanille here with me, after all. Don't you worry about us, you just get yourself to Lightning. That Caius guy she's fighting? We've heard his name before. He's bad news—a real monster. So hurry along, and help your sister out. You're the one she needs to see more than anyone in this world!

It seems that they heard of him. The dead dunes would've been the perfect place to talk more about Fang & Vanille's past, Lights & Fang's opinions about Caius, talk about important plot points of the previous titles from their POV but nope we get pointless info about the gods that we already knew.

2. The plot

What plot? this game suffers from the same thing KH3D suffers from, the really juicy bits are saved for the last 1 hour or so of the game. I read that the different FNC games focused on different perspectives, XIII series focused on the "Gods" and Type-0 series focused on the "Human side". LR did a terrible job instead of giving us important info on things like Mwynn or why Pulse/Lindzei left Gran Pulse, we get savior nonsense. Here's how I would've done it.

I'd keep the end of the world feel, keep the part where Hope, Noel, & Snow teamed up, and where Hope gets kidnapped however the following would be changed.

You'd have to do the "character arcs" in a certain order if you want the best ending. Everything would flow nicely too like if you completed the "Sazh arc" first you'd see him at the Dead Dune helping Fang and he'd show up in battle to help as well or Fang would be talking about him & Daijh.

Yusnaan- A few things would be changed. Chaos is supposed to be reality warping stuff, we've seen what it does to people. Before the start of the game, I'd have Snow do some OOC type things, I would have him actually attack Noel & almost kill him due to him being a death seeker & Noel not protecting Serah. He'd realize what he's done, retreat back to Yusnaan after apologizing, and everything goes like it does in the game.

Luxerion- Instead of Noel trying to kill Light because of a vision from an oracle drive, they're supposed to be useless remember. I'd have Lindzei brand him & show him the vision that way. It would also explain why he's capable of fending off Light's blows.

Wildlands- Keep the Sazh stuff & he'd have a truckload of screen time. During the finale, he'd be one of the major reasons as to why Vanille decides to not go through with the soul song. Saving Yeul & Caius would be possible

3. The Music

Too much of it is recycled.

Continued in my next post

 

[Storm XIII]

"Too much of it is recycled."

dont think its a valid complain, since the game have more than 5 hours of new tracks.

 

[Kuja9001]

Continued

The finale

Everything would play out the same except Sazh & Daijh would be in Noel's place and would be present to encourage Vanille not to go through with her plan.

When you end up here

Spoiler

Instead of fighting Bhunivelze right away, he would knock her off the platforms into space then summon Pulse & Lindzei first as a trial you have to overcome. They would be two separate battles after defeating them, their bodies float around in space & the platform is remade, you go up to Bhunivelze. After a brief talk, Bhunivelze teleports Light to a recreation of Palumpolum, and you'd have to do battle with Hope.

After defeating Hope, everything goes like the does in the game except Bhunivelze isn't wounded instead Light drops him into the Chaos.

Will edit & add more later

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

I could go into a lot of things about the story that are failings, but one thing that bugs the hell out of me is that we never really find out where the name "Bhunivelze" came from for the Ark. The name probably wouldn't be common knowledge, perhaps even among fal'Cie. The Datalog doesn't clarify whether Bhuni was already influencing Hope before Etro's death at the end of XIII-2 either, but it does suggest the possibility.

On a personal note, it bugs me even more that Hope is technically in this game about as much as Sazh. What horseshit, Toriyama -- you really were threatened by him as competition for Light, weren't you?

 

[Selphie Tilmitt]

I strongly love this game

Except I haven't played it for a while even though I bought the Aerith/Cloud/Yuna/Samurai stuff I didn't have yet when it came out nor got the Duelist set from the Outer World rewards service yet because I haven't touched the game aside from getting the Aerith/Cloud/etc stuff from the down load section in game then saving, because Tales of Symphonia Chronicles came out and I'd never played ToS1 and ToS2 before Playing ToS1 now though I do have Aerith/Cloud/Yuna tag team set to look forward to when I get back to playing LR I've really enjoyed playing the game just I'd already beat it in JP version but hadn't played ToSC at all before.

@ Howl I think you can access the map without having to enter the main menu by pressing Square or something, at least I think I remember someone saying there was another way to do it when someone mentioned having to go into the main menu before

Also I like Candice and Tomasso In JP version I already had enough accessories for Candice already do I didn't need to go find any and in EN version even though I did things in a different order so I didn't have enough when I got to her I didn't mind having to get more since I like the small world she and Tomasso have going on

 

[Fangu]

re: sountrack, I just felt like posting my favourite (exclusive) track from this game.

Unexpected perhaps, but every time it came on I just wanted to stand still and listen. A very good saxophone player indeed.

Oh, and

On a personal note, it bugs me even more that Hope is technically in this game about as much as Sazh. What horseshit, Toriyama -- you really were threatened by him as competition for Light, weren't you?

Did you really think so? I found Hope (puppet or not) to be very present in this game - the banter between him and Lightning was one of my favourite things about the game.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Well, it was for me too, until the eleventh hour declaration of "That Hope was a fake" left it all emotionally bankrupt. That just didn't and doesn't sit well with me.

 

[Kuja9001]

Hope wasn't fake, that's another thing "localization" screwed up.

 

[Lex]

@Tres: See I didn't really see it that way? Like you know from the beginning that something isn't right with Hope, but it is still Hope even if some of the stuff he says isn't right. Yes, Bhuni is in there but I think we see a bit of the real Hope when he's talking to Lightning sometimes, even if he is a puppet.

And I actually really liked that plot point too. Because out of all of them Hope is maybe the only one that wouldn't arouse suspicion in Lightning right away.

 

[Splintered]

Yeah it was real Hope, he just wasn't fully himself. Not a fake, but a piece of him missing, like Lightning but with more constraints.

I like this game, it's a pretty good addition to the XIII franchise and I had fun.

But keep in mind that, a pretty good addition for a trilogy I invested in, isn't exactly what I hope for the finale of the ending.

What plot?

This is kind of my problem too. There's not enough meat on the bones. It's not impossible to make a open world plot, but imo, it makes it more difficult. And it's Toriyama, while I love the story he's never been able to make the writing tight enough. And by not tight enough I mean I could drive the entire army of pulse through its plot holes.

What made up for it was the characters and their relationships, and for the rest of us that were keeping up with the mythology- we liked seeing it unfold. But the story bits were regulated only to Vanille's and Fang's story (still center of the plot I see), and if you didn't like the characters before, you wouldn't care.

Not enough of everybody. AND WHAT THEY DID TO SAZH. SO MUCH ANGER.


For an open world story, you need to progress the story in individual segments that don't necessarily affect each other but build towards the end. Neither Snow nor Noel really did that. Caius kind of did, but it was really Fang's that built towards the last day. Sazh's was a joke.

3. The Music

Too much of it is recycled.

Disagree. Masa made a similar comment, and I felt somewhat the same way, but it also made me sit and listen to the whole ost.

The music is definitely there, but it's not as noticeable. But not because it's worse or less there, but because it's mostly atmospheric. And a lot of the music in this game switches around. Music that changes depending on the night and day, music that switches after you stagger a certain enemy, etc.

It's not that there's not enough music, they are using it in a lot more different ways. I want more of that. More dynamic use of music. Approved.

Did you really think so? I found Hope (puppet or not) to be very present in this game - the banter between him and Lightning was one of my favourite things about the game.

Agreed. Hope was ever present in the game. Their banter was really fun and did a lot to humanize them both.

In fact a little ever present. Why, oh why, do you have to constantly remind me that it's almost time for the Ark. Stop I know, without cronostasis these are like a minute a part and you even get a music queue right before it.

he finale

Everything would play out the same except Sazh & Daijh would be in Noel's place and would be present to encourage Vanille not to go through with her plan.

SAZH saZh SazH why???????????

Also, her coming back with Serah was shit. Seriously, these girls moved heaven and fucking earth for each other. One died and the other turned herself into a statue just to preserve her soul.

This is suppose to be heart of series.

GIVE US SOMETHING MORE.

Give me a moment just to them. Make it a revelation. Make her break down. Just do something.

IMO, the sidequests were boring but not because there was not enough thought into them. The opposite, there's too much thought about them. So much reading, each of them either try to say something about Lightning, or get her to explore, or to make an interesting story, or to expand the world.

But they are sooo dull.

You know what would be nice? Loyalty mission type deals for Snow and the like. Instead of giving us another fetch quest, give us another mission, even small, for the characters that we are suppose to love. Bring them out more.

 

[Kuja9001]

What are your thoughts about this?

http://www.usgamer.net/articles/final-fantasys-producer-asks-what-makes-or-breaks-a-localization

 

[Fangu]

Ooooo good discussion.

I'm just gonna copy pasta an excellent comment by user rickcook98 from the discussion:

I think mostly it's a question of subtlety. The localization of FFXIII was good - it translated the essence of scenes and for the most part wasn't just flat and boring. But it was very heavy on explanation and exposition, so that each character's motivations and thoughts were telegraphed and spoken outright. It made scenes like Lightning and Hope traveling together just painful to sit through as they exposited upon each other instead of growing naturally in their development. Sazh's character arc when he's traveling with Vanille - what should have been powerful and evocative - is cheapened when we're robbed of just experiencing his pain and loss and are instead subjected to a lot of talking.

This is endemic to a lot of Japanese media, and to American media as well. It assumes the audience can't figure out this simple, obvious stuff on their own. They aren't trusted to come to the right conclusion, so all the good character and story development are shoved down our throats instead of developing naturally. It's like watching a show made for young kids versus a show made for teenagers, or adults. Especially as regards Final Fantasy, the core audience isn't the preteen/teenager anymore outside of Japan. The gamers that make up the core fanbase all grew up with the franchise, and they have matured while the franchise continues to stagnate. More recent attempts (FFXII) to tell a more mature, complex story were met with limited success for a variety of reasons, but I think Square Enix took the wrong lesson from its less-than-blockbuster reception: gamers wanted simple fantasy, not high fantasy. I think the inverse is true: we want more complex themes, less explanation.

Final Fantasy VII and VIII were blockbusters, but they were clear departures from the simplistic stories of the SNES era prior. Final Fantasy X had at its core some pretty bad storytelling and dialogue, but the themes that the characters struggled with were complex. It went from "good vs. evil" in the days of Final Fantasy IV, V, and VI (with a hat tip to some of the characters in VI dealing with some interesting stuff, a clear precursor for things to come), to meditations on existence and belonging, explorations of identity, ethical and moral questions. Going forward from Final Fantasy XII, the trend has been to simplify, to explain, and that's not what we want.

If the stories you tell in Japan require a lot of overt explanation, consider that localizations into English might be better served by altering the screenplay to better match not just the cultural aspects (changing jokes and references), but to reflect the growing maturity and intellect of the core Final Fantasy (and RPG) fan.

I think this is just one aspect to it, but a very important one. I believe the story of XII wasn't what turned the Western audience off XII, it was the lack of story (story vs gameplay) and the battle system (Gambits/Licence Points). Western gamers tend to overall expect a much 'dumber' game than Asians, but that doesn't mean we can't understand the complete complexity if presented in layers. There's a reason I go to Asian/Japanese games. I do so when I want something intelligent, something more profound that takes a while to understand. Sometimes you don't want shit just slapped on the table in front of you, you want to explore, to pause the game to think.

I wish there was an alternate sub for the XIII saga games you could slap on the game while playing the audio in Japanese. If you have the luxury of not having to worry about lip syncing, you have a translation that's a lot more accurate. (In the DVD boxset of my favourite anime's, Arslan Senki, I have several options of choosing audio/sub. Since the anime was released with English subs only at first, then later dubbed, there exists a much more accurate English sub (the first one made) in addition to the sub that is simply the English audio in text. The first time I saw the original sub, it was ridiculous how much clearer the plot came to me.)

 

[Serah Farron]

I beat this a few weeks ago and I got platinum trophy. Now I've got platinum for the XIII series. I feel accomplished.

My thoughts on the game-
I really really rEALLY enjoyed it and loved it. XIII is ofc my favorite, and I love XIII-2 if only for Serah being the main and the fun ass battle system. But LR is just... it blew me away with everything. I LOVE the OST. Second favorite in the series (XIII will always be numba one for me). The battle system is my favorite tbh or one of my favorites in the entire FF series.

I love the outfits. The variety and powers they had. My favorite and default one the entire time was Miqo'te.

I love that NPCs actually commented on your outfits! I loved screen shot sharing (this should be a thing in the future).

I loved the sidequests. Tbh LR for me has the best sidequests in FF series. Mainly for the fact it isn't the same old same old every time. And there's... STORY. Background story. I was so happy about that, I loved hearing more background story on the Farrons, Hope, everyone else. Loved it. More FF's should do what LR did with that >__>

My major gripe is with Noel's character. Him and Serah traveled the world, and LR he completely forgets her and becomes obsessed with Yeul? (that pairing squicks me out so bad stop). Like cmon I get it's been hundreds of years but really?? No mention of Serah to Light? Until like the last day? And he only mentiond her twice then. It's just dumb. I know they made him obsessed with Yeul bc Snow/Serah is canon (I ship snerah/noerah hardcore ok and snow/serah/noel) but that doesn't mean they need to redo his character and make him OOC. It was just cringeworthy, pls stop.

But anyway despite all that, I loved the game. I even loved the time thingy? The first day I played sure, I was nervous and scared but like. After I got the hang of it, which didn't take me long, I never had any problems? I loved having the time thingy. It was fun as heck. I loved planning out where I was gonna go, what I was gonna do. Sometimes I didn't even need to lol. Idk it didn't take me long to get use to so I have no problems with it hahaha

All in all I loved the game a lot, definitely one of my favorite games of the new year. I really loved the ending too and secret ending! I hope one day they'll do novellas telling us what everyone is doing (psst give us deets on Snow/Serah wedding plox) or maybe even a movie hahaa. I doubt it though, if anything they'd do novels again but I'm ok with that. Till then I hope they don't forget the characters and continue to put them in games like Dissidia. I'm praying for Snow/Serah in the next Dissidia so they can interact with Lightning.

Omg this got longer than expected but too many feels. My babies, my favorite cast. I cry ;__;

 

[Kuja9001]

On my way from school, I just went on a massive self rant/rage about this game.

 

[Splintered]

Him and Serah traveled the world, and LR he completely forgets her and becomes obsessed with Yeul? (that pairing squicks me out so bad stop).

I liked Noel/Yeul in this game, but I kind of laugh of how intense it was compared to the earlier game. Reading the novels and the info from the ultis made me prepared for it by telling me they were in a relationship so I had a buffer, but it was amazing how single focused he was.

I guess I understand where his story is coming from, it's a deliberate bastardization of his characterization from XIII-2. Basically where Yeul gives him hope of a better future and he clings onto it and fights for it. Except in XIII-2 he was emotionally stable and his dream was a future with everybody in it, here he's so single focused on just one girl he screwed everything else, along with the guilt of ending the world.

Still, he and Serah were like, platonic life mates or something, we only get a brief mention at the end.

All the relationships were passed over unless they dealt directly with Lightning, or Fang/Vanille. Which I still think why ME style loyalty missions with the old cast would be perfect, it expands their character and maybe they could have something to deal with their friendship together. It would have been nice to see Sazh and Vanille mention each other, or Hope or Noel, and definitely Serah and Noel that goes beyond a hand wave.

I'm praying for Snow/Serah in the next Dissidia so they can interact with Lightning.

What baby should I sacrifice to get Caius in the next Dissidia?

 

[Kuja9001]

All the relationships were passed over unless they dealt directly with Lightning, or Fang/Vanille. Which I still think why ME style loyalty missions with the old cast would be perfect, it expands their character and maybe they could have something to deal with their friendship together. It would have been nice to see Sazh and Vanille mention each other, or Hope or Noel, and definitely Serah and Noel that goes beyond a hand wave.


What baby should I sacrifice to get Caius in the next Dissidia?

1. That sparked my oil today which started an intense fire. My man Sazh & Snow were just treated wrong during the ending. The crew is supposed to be a family, in each title everything that happened good or bad, happened as a group & this crappy secret ending lacked that. I feel like I as a fan was alienated.

2. That would've been amazing.

 

[Serah Farron]

I liked Noel/Yeul in this game, but I kind of laugh of how intense it was compared to the earlier game. Reading the novels and the info from the ultis made me prepared for it by telling me they were in a relationship so I had a buffer, but it was amazing how single focused he was.

I couldn't like it, I never liked the pairing and never will. It just squicks me out too bad. I dont have a problem, mostly, with 'age gap' pairings. But that was just too much for me. I know she's ~supposed~ to be 11 or something but it's still not my thing, she looks like shes 8 (body and her face) ew ew ew NOpe. So his obsession with her in LR made it all the more yucky for me. I heard about that in the novels (were they ever fully translated? I read some but couldn't find the rest) but in XIII-2 it just seemed like a family relationship between him, Yeul and Caius to me..eh. But yeah his single focus on her was just totally out there and not believable at all to me cause that's not how he was lol.

I get she like, gave him hope or something, but it just still seems farfetched to me. <__<

All the relationships were passed over unless they dealt directly with Lightning, or Fang/Vanille. Which I still think why ME style loyalty missions with the old cast would be perfect, it expands their character and maybe they could have something to deal with their friendship together. It would have been nice to see Sazh and Vanille mention each other, or Hope or Noel, and definitely Serah and Noel that goes beyond a hand wave.

Never played it so cant comment, but that would've been awesome for sure. But I still loved the quests anyway but I do agree they could've done more between the characters.

oh I forgot to mention that in terms of favorite areas/favorite sidequests my number one would be Yusnaan. ALL THE LIGHT/SERAH, SNOW/SERAH REFERENCES. LOVED IT. CRIED AT LIGHT'S 'FAVORITE SONG'. DON'T EVEN LOOK AT ME
The rest would be... Wildlands -> Dead Dunes -> Luxerion. I did like Luxerion a lot though, and I finally memorized where everything was. But Dead Dunes surprisingly was awesome (I hate desert areas normally lol).

What baby should I sacrifice to get Caius in the next Dissidia?

kefka/kuja's
SACRIFICE IT IN THE NAME OF CAIUS/SERAH/SNOW
ogm I missed talking about XIII with you splinty.

 

[Celes Chere]

I'm really sad to hear that about Noel. I also dislike Noel/Yeul yuck, but I don't mind if they hinted that relationship or made it canon or w/e. It bothers me that he became OBSESSED according to you and that just seems OOC for him. And he and Serah were really damn close so you'd think he'd mention her a bit more derp. I haven't played LR and I probably won't ever get around to it until it's like, super cheap but I'm really sad about hearing this.

OH WELL NOEL... AT LEAST YOU STILL HAVE DELICIOUS BEEFY ARMS...

 

[Selphie Tilmitt]

... Yeul is 15 and Noel is 17 Noel's Yeul at least. I think Yeuls started off adult (the one Caius originally fought to protect), but got/died younger and younger as the visions/rate of which visions happened increased. I think ranging in ages 14-17 for the latter Yeuls, with Noel's Yeul being 15. She's definitely not 8 though Much like neither Vanille nor Serah are 12 or younger either like I've seen people describe before

Edit - Yep, sources say ranging in age from 14-17, depending on the era.

Somebody once explained to me that from the original Yeul, Caius grew older, while Yeul grew younger though I'm not sure how much there is to that. For the sake of sanity though I'm going to assume the original, Paddra Nsu and Caius were of roughly equivalent ages, since LR seems to suggest at least one of the Yeuls loves Caius and Lightning called Yeul a girl Caius loved, and also for the three bit recap version of the FFXIII series the little Caius has a little love heart over his head which breaks every time Yeul runs up and all falls down

 

[Splintered]

1. That sparked my oil today which started an intense fire. My man Sazh & Snow were just treated wrong during the ending. The crew is supposed to be a family, in each title everything that happened good or bad, happened as a group & this crappy secret ending lacked that. I feel like I as a fan was alienated.

That's a good way to put it, alienated.

I'm not hard on the ending because I hate the XIII trilogy, I'm hard on the game because I am. I feel really badly for people going into the game when they don't like the characters because you can't get attached them unless you already are.

This is as much their story as everybody else. Honestly, when you play an RPG long enough, the characters start to feel like good friends. I wanted to be with these characters longer.

2. That would've been amazing.

There might be a sort of identity crisis if Kain and Caius meet (same va's), but I think he would be a great addition to the villain side.

I know she's ~supposed~ to be 11 or something but it's still not my thing, she looks like shes 8 (body and her face) ew ew ew NOpe. So his obsession with her in LR made it all the more yucky for me. I heard about that in the novels (were they ever fully translated? I read some but couldn't find the rest) but in XIII-2 it just seemed like a family relationship between him, Yeul and Caius to me..eh.

She's fifteen I think? The only way I remember this is because the four characters (Yeul, Noel, Serah, and Snow) are all three years apart for my convenience. Yeah, she looks young though, a lot of the girls did actually. I thought Serah and Vanille were about sixteen tbh.

Most of the novels were finished. Serah's and Snow's are actually pretty interesting. And it explains why the last Yeul was with Noel instead of Caius. I need to get around to finishing them all.

oh I forgot to mention that in terms of favorite areas/favorite sidequests my number one would be Yusnaan.

IMO Yuusan was definitely the liveliest of the cities. And were the ones that really kind of brought out Lightning, and wished we saw her grill behemoth steak in the first game.

CRIED AT LIGHT'S 'FAVORITE SONG'.

YES. A lot of the sidequests just felt like there was too much text, but then suddenly pull out something sweet at the very end. I think this being Lightning's favorite song does more for her character than a dozen repeated "I will get Serah back."

The rest would be... Wildlands -> Dead Dunes -> Luxerion. I did like Luxerion a lot though, and I finally memorized where everything was. But Dead Dunes surprisingly was awesome (I hate desert areas normally lol).

I'm pretty fond of all the areas actually. Luxerion has the best music imo, Fang linked to the jazz piece and it was awesome. It was a great starting area once you get use to it, and some of the quests are interesting (the girl and the phone ringing). Only thing I wished happened was to do more with the Warren, even if they are only accessible sometimes.

Wildlands is pretty interesting and having Odin there was amazing. I think this is the place that really would have benefited from having more variety of monsters because there was just too little difference in such a sprawling space.

For the Dead Dunes, it was surprisingly easy to deal with considering how hueg it is, and the monsters were probably the hardest. I think the teleportation helped a lot, along with Fang. I wish that there was more variety in the ruins, even if it was just the small three temples to get the murals, if each of them were just a little different to look at, especially the Ultima Lair, then it would have been great. The Ultima Lair, the trials, about half of Valhalla's temple, the upper levels of Snow's palace, the dead dunes ruins (although the puzzle of the entire area is kind of interesting)- are all inherently the same.

Sadly, a lot of the dungeons in this game are just the same areas with textures colored a different way, going up a flight of stairs. Been playing Kingdom Hearts HD remix, and just the way how different the way levels are structured.

I think it's a product of time sadly, because as far as design goes, Luxerion and Yuusan are really well designed and atmospheric. It seems kind of stupid to say that being able the jump off the side of stairs or jump onto a roof to get a treasure is anything but superficial additions that don't add anything, but I think it does a do a lot for just feel like a more explorable town, even if it's just an illusion.

ogm I missed talking about XIII with you splinty.

Me too T___T it's so nice to have a good community to talk to about XIII, it's hard as hell to find.

 

[Dana]

I didn't know exactly where to post this, but I was on tumblr and someone had a scanned page from the XIII ultimania and said it was hinting at the possibilty of a romance between Hope and Vanille(which, I've only played the first game so far but seems out of nowhere?). I just wanted to check with you guys here because I trust your translations. Here is the text:

&#24651;&#12398;&#21578;&#30333;&#12417;&#12356;&#12383;&#35328;&#33865;&#12434;&#32862;&#12356;&#12390;&#12532;&#12449;&#12491;&#12521;&#12399;&#19968;&#30636;&#12392;&#12365;&#12417;&#12367;&#12364;&#12289;&#30452;&#24460;&#12395;&#12363;&#12425;&#12363;&#12431;&#12428;&#12390;&#12356;&#12383;&#12392;&#21028;&#26126;&#12377;&#12427;&#12290;&#12418;&#12387;&#12392;&#12418;&#12290;&#12300;&#26368;&#21021;&#12399;&#12454;&#12477;&#12391;&#12418;&#26412;&#24403;&#12398;&#12371;&#12392;&#12395;&#12377;&#12427;&#12363;&#12399;&#33258;&#20998;&#12375;&#12384;&#12356;&#12301; &#12392;&#12356;&#12358;&#35441;&#12364;&#30452;&#21069;&#12395;&#12354;&#12427;&#12398;&#12434;&#32771;&#12360;&#12427;&#12392;&#12289; &#12371;&#12398;&#12453;&#12477;&#12364;&#26412;&#24403;&#12395;&#12532;&#12449;&#12491;&#12521;&#12392;&#12507;&#12540;&#12503;&#12398;&#24651;&#12395;&#30330;&#23637;&#12377;&#12427;&#21487;&#33021;&#24615;&#12434;&#12373;&#12435;&#12391;&#12356;&#12427;&#12424;&#12358;&#12395;&#12418;&#24605;&#12360;&#12390;&#24847;&#21619;&#28145;&#12384;&#12290;

I'm pretty sure it comes from a scene where Hope confesses(?) a crush on Vanille. I don't think I ever saw that when I played. If you guys could translate this for me if you have time I'd appreciate it.