Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

[Cthulhu]

Correction: Modern graphics can be nice, but definitely not up to par with pre-rendered CGI. Constant framerates in action scenes are, imho, still kinda important.

Plus graphics peoples love making awesome renders that need a farm to create,

 

[Fangu]

XIII-2 had waaaaaay too few pre-rendered moments. (Just the opening scenes and the end, eh?) XIII had lots of them, and all of them were incredibly beautiful. I'm not sure you can do scenes like FMV's from XIII in real time just yet.

I mean, this. And this. And lets not forget this! Okay just one more, short and sweet but one of my faves. Nothing in XIII-2 comes even close to this. Just outstanding amazing clips, they need to make more like this. They just have to.

 

[Cthulhu]

Well, technology isn't standing still; there's tech demos for next-gen consoles (and PC, off course) that look pretty neat. Not pre-rendered CGI neat yet, but neat. I mean, there's last year's

Spoiler: Unreal 3 engine tech demo

, rendered in real-time, etc. But here and there you can still see h4x to make it look goodish without losing on frame rate, which isn't needed in CGI. If that makes any sense.

 

[Tennyo]

Correction: Modern graphics can be nice, but definitely not up to par with pre-rendered CGI. Constant framerates in action scenes are, imho, still kinda important.

Plus graphics peoples love making awesome renders that need a farm to create,

I really don't feel like any of that is as important as you imply.

At least, I don't really give that much of a rip.

 

[Lex]

OMG That return to Cocoon FMV is one of the greatest things I've ever seen, I fall in love with it every time <3

OK just one more time:

Cutscenes didn't look as good as this in XIII-2, and they won't look as good as this in the new game. This is why we got XIII-2 on time with no delays, less than two years after it was first announced - they had almost no CGI cutscenes. If memory serves, it's pretty much just the opening and the ending, with a flashback that was hacked to bits and strewn about in between. XIII had amazingly detailed, beautiful pre-rendered cutscenes in almost every chapter.

The game was still pretty, don't get me wrong, but it didn't look nearly as polished. And if they stick to the same plans for Lightning Returns, you can expect it to be about the same graphically.

Having said that, I'm with Tennyo's sentiment. It's getting to the point where pre-rendered cutscenes are almost completely unnecessary, which is an awesome thing. I remember the first time playing FFVII imagining what it would be like if the game was graphically the same as it's CGI cutscenes and being all "omg that is the future of gaming". Of course, those were actually really poor in detail etc but not at the time .

I do still think they'll have a lengthy CGI ending for this game though. Or at least, I hope they do. I've never seen anything quite so graphically beautiful as the ending to the original XIII.

 

[Tennyo]

I mean, I like CGI cutscenes as much as the next person. They are pretty. But to be honest, they are not that necessary anymore, and I have no problem if a game does not contain them these days.

It made sense during the last console generation, but games have gotten to the point where it's no longer a make or break scenario.

 

[Splintered]

CGI is pixel porn and I enjoy them. A game doesn't need them though, unless they are specifically a certain type of series like an rts or something.

I like my final fantasies with gracious pixel porn though, call it greedy indulgence. And there are certain things that normal cutscenes can't do, I'm pretty sure that the crystalization of lake bresha or the storm on eden would be difficult to recreate in general. Oh also

The game is currently 30% complete
This will be Lightning&#8217;s last game and will end with a happy ending. The game has just one ending.
The first FFXIII was story driven, meaning that the story pulled the player along. FFXIII-2 was player driven, meaning players selected the story. Lightning Returns is World Driven, meaning players have to consider how they interact with the changing world.
The game&#8217;s in-game time works out to one day being the equivalent of one to two hours of real time. There will be increases and decreases in time.
The game is meant to be played and cleared multiple times. The volume is not such that it will take many tens of hours to clear once.
People from XIII-2 haven&#8217;t died. Because of the effects of the chaos (I&#8217;m not sure if this is the proper English word), people have stopped aging and don&#8217;t get old.
The Novus world has four continents, two natural and two city-type.
Depending on your actions, the remaining life of the world could decrease, and the game could end before the 13 day limit.
There are some times when helping someone will decrease the life of the world.
Defeating some enemies and clearing some quests will increase the life of the world.
Lightning is all by herself in battle, allowing you to concentrate more than when you had to control a party.
Lightning has become a considerably more refined person.
You can freely move around during battle. Some elements of the battle system are timing-based.
The battle system is close to action. There&#8217;s an ATB gauge.
During battle, you don&#8217;t select menu commands. Instead, you select abilities which have been assigned to buttons.
Hope will give guidance to Lightning via wireless com.
The city has clocks everywhere showing the constant progression of time.

Besides me being happy for Hope, I'm kind of really happy to see it have a happy conclusion.

Because a good chunk of the games have seemed really enjoying ripping out my feels and stomping on them.

Lightning has become a considerably more refined person.

*squints* I hope you aren't taking Lightning even more out of character that XIII-2. She was so... not herself.

 

[ForceStealer]

Yeah, as we've discussed elsewhere on the forums, I like prerendered cutscenes. They can really highlight a moment of importance and show you something in a unique way. Yes, they can be abused but so can everything.
That said, any trailers after a teaser should not be all-prerendered because that's stupid. It should have gameplay in a trailer.

 

[Tennyo]

How much you want to bet it won't.

 

[Fangu]

So apparantly the Sept 4 update was the event videos, only with English subtitles.

The new details Splintered posted are cool though.

Hope will give guidance to Lightning via wireless com.

Hope is the new Mog

It suits him!! A lot more than mr. Amazing Science Man anyway. Thinking about it now, many of XIII-2's characters were kinda slightly out of character. Lightning and Snow. Serah too (that stuff in Lightning's DLC annoyed the shit out of me.) It seems like they were changed slightly to fit into the story, or to allow certain shipping. It's an interesting thought that Snow would leave Serah to go be a hero, but I still can't see it. In XIII he was all about Serah and his extended family.

Oi ranting here! I just hope they stick more to the original this time.

 

[Alex Strife]

Wa? So you mean they got the Spanish subtitles before the English ones?

I already read through the whole thing just a few hours after it happened


Also:

Lightning has become a refined person? So basically "We put a different personality on your Lightning, forget about the original FFXIII Lightning" ? I hope not.

And people not aging seems a bit lame. I mean, sure, a plausible explanation, but that means this game may be set hundreds of years in the future, which will make it feel too detached from the original, since many things can have happened in the meantime.

 

[Shakarian]

Hope!!

Sorry, had to.

 

[Fangu]

Wa? So you mean they got the Spanish subtitles before the English ones?

I already read through the whole thing just a few hours after it happened

There were unofficial English subs almost right away, however these are the official subtitles. Were the Spanish ones official? If so, then yes you did

Lightning has become a refined person? So basically "We put a different personality on your Lightning, forget about the original FFXIII Lightning" ? I hope not.

Yeah I'm dreading this a little. I hope it means more refined as in she's gone from a solider to a Commander, sort of - that she's come to terms with her issues and can now be a wiser, calmer and self confident warrior. I just hope they don't lose her 'core' in all of this, like all of that 'I leave my life in the hands of God' stuff in XIII-2. Lightning has always been practical and about doing stuff; finding a solution. I would have expected a little 'fine Etro, I will do your will but you will have to do something for me first' You can be refined and true to principles at the same time. Hopefully...

Also I want to see more humor and light spiritness. In certain scenes in XIII Lightning shows her cheeky side, which I love. The marching-forward-with-attitude-in-a-short-skirt-beating-up-people was part of what made her sexy. In XIII-2 you couldn't even imagine her kissing someone, she was too... divine, or whatever. It's like they took away her humanity.

So yes please make her hawt again

 

[Alex Strife]

Look at the date

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=d2Z7eUEsNOU

Finally us Spaniards are treated to something cool! Well there was a sneaky Italian sentence somewhere. But yep.


And yes please! I agree with your point on Lightning, Fangu!

 

[Lex]

The English subbed Youtube videos from the Japanese event were there on the official SE YouTube channel immediately after the event. The videos I posted in the 25th Anniversary event thread (and that Fangu, you quoted in the first post of this one) are the videos from the official SE YouTube channel.

Which means yesterday's "update" was actually just linking to what was already posted on September 1st. LOL, SE. You funny ppl.

EDIT: No Fang or any other character in battle. Sadfeisu.

 

[AvecAloes]

EDIT: No Fang or any other character in battle. Sadfeisu.

Sadfeisu indeed. After only having two human party members (and the same two throughout the whole game, on top of that) in XIII-2, I was really hoping that the cast of playable characters would open up again. Guess I'll just have to replay XIII Or, if I really want a mess of characters to choose from, VI

 

[Lex]

My thinking exactly. The titles have literally gone 3, 2, 1 in terms of playable characters in battle. I remember them saying initially Lightning was supposed to be the only controllable character in XIII and they added the rest later. Who knows, maybe they'll have sections with other characters included.

Also, I don't hate Hope at all but:

Hope will give guidance to Lightning via wireless com.

WHY do they insist on giving Hope a huge role!?

 

[AvecAloes]

Maybe they feel they have to redeem his character since he spent the whole first game crying
pissing me off
I can't come up with anything nice to say

 

[Fangu]

WHY do they insist on giving Hope a huge role!?

OPU ESTUHEIMUUU KAAWAAAAIII <33

The younger (anyone under 22 is young, no u) fans likes him. I was glad to see him back in XIII-2, at a point almost squeeish (do I get to be 22??), but I was disappointed in his character and story arch. He seemed way too overly grown up, Hope for me in XIII struck me as a more emotional character, being 14 aside. His story didn't not make sense, but they could have done different things with him that would have made more sense to me.

I think having Hope as your guide is a cool idea, and I like that they're bringing him back with Lightning. I think Hope was looking just as much for Light as he was for his mother in XIII-2, her being sort of a sisterly figure to him; more than that too, I think he hero-worshipped her in a way that made it easier for him to be strong. (Of course the awesome part being that him losing his mother made Lightning start to think about why she decided to become Lightning after her parents died; so Hope even helped her. And I think, storywise, their relationship was a classic storytelling way of having a character relate to another character in ways they're having problems expressing themselves to a third character - i.e. Serah. When Lightning lets Hope take the lead, she's doing what she never did with Serah because she thought Serah always needed protection.) I thought it was a shame there was no interaction between them as there was so much of it in XIII.

I'm one of those rare people who didn't think Hope was annoying at all. I appreciated his story arch and I think they did well with it in XIII. He seemed to have found some sort of peace towards the end, same with Lightning. I hope he gets his happy ending as well, but if he's already found Light at the beginning of the game he's like 80% there already IMO.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

Alright so you guys are going to hate me but I have to be honest. I've already posted my thoughts about this on Looo, but I'll summarize them again here.

Serious post: I hate to be 'that guy', but is everyone actually serious about being excited about this? Like, at first I thought the first few posts were in jest, but they're not? FF13 definitely did not seem like the type of entry that needed a third entry, and I never realized that anyone really gave enough of a shit about Lightning to justify SE's fanfare about it, especially with a title like 'LIGHTNING RETURNS'. When I first heard the title, the first thought that immediately popped in my head was 'who gives a shit???' The attitude I'm seeing all across the net about this game is almost universal collective exasperation. Like, I'm really confused here!

I hate to be the one with the dissenting opinion but I have to be honest here. I'm not saying you guys can't enjoy it but I'm really surprised???

I am not hating on the franchise as much as I think it's completely gratuitous to have a 3rd sequel to an overall okay game while their other potential franchises languish and isn't helping SE's overall cause any, but at the same time I am not taking away from those who enjoy it. I am just legitimately surprised. Like, imagine if Danny Glover and Mel Gibson came together for another Lethal Weapon under the tagline 'GRIGGS IS BACK' to like, thunderous fanfare. Wouldn't that be really fucking weird??? Like surreal? Almost hilarious? I disliked FF13 but I thought FF13-2 was actually okay so it's not just me 'hating.'

I am just saying. This is the first I've seen people be excited for this game.

Also as an aside, I certainly don't want to cause trouble or anything but I think a frank, adult discussion of FFXIII, good and bad would be infinitely more interesting than just a bunch of unilateral glomping/praise. It's not like negative/positive opinions can't coexist in the same topic.

Definitely don't want to be a damper but I can't be the only one who feels this way???

 

[Roger]

I'm right there with you. But I would like more Hope, if he's back to beingg young again. is he? I didn't play FF XIII-2.

 

[Lex]

Definitely not. I'm sure there are a ton of people who feel exactly the same way. I just liked XIII and XIII-2 (after much hatred originally for XIII, it took me a while to come round to it).

I dunno what to tell you, I knew there was going to be a sequel to XIII-2 and I'm glad it's finally focussing on Lightning, considering she was supposed to be the main focus in the original. So I'm looking forward to it *shrugs*. I had fun with XIII-2 against all my expectations.

EDIT: Minato, I highly doubt he'll be back to being young. Pretty sure all the characters will be as they are at the end of XIII-2.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

What bothers me the most is that they intentionally didn't wrap up FFXIII-2 all so they pretty much have to make a 3rd one. I mean while the Chrono series, Ivalice, SaGa, hell, even other entries in FF collect dust, they put so much effort into this? I dunno I think SE could do better.

It's like seeing your son bring home a mediocre girlfriend. I mean yeah you're happy for him but like she's like 6/10 at best???

 

[Fangu]

But even if you see your son's girlfriend as just mediocre, he might think she's the best girl in the world. Isn't that what matters?

 

[Cat Rage Room]

No I mean an objective 6/10 as in yeah he likes her but she's leeching him of his money, treats him bad, and doesn't let his mom see their kids.