Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

[Hisako]

Addendum: it's a strange day indeed when the Blinded By Light remix is the least interesting track in the samples for me, and there are some genuinely interesting compositions even for their ambience!

God, I found XIII-2's soundtrack to be so mediocre. If most of Lightning Returns' soundtrack was like this, I'd say that it'd be a clearly superior album

 

[Splintered]

I didn't mind XIII-2s soundtrack. It wasn't on par with quality with the other FFs but there's one thing to say about it, it wasn't boring. It sounded like they had fun with it even with the genuinely terrible ones (that fucking rap and metal ones).

I like the idea that they don't have one set battle song throughout the game though, different areas get different battle music, not just changing background music. And I like how there was a shift from normal background music to the "aggressive" when monsters popped up. I hope they keep that variety but up the quality.

I don't mind some of those costumes with skirts (after all, she totally rocked a skirt in the OG), but some of those flowery dresses look hilariously un-Lightning like lol

Lightning's OG fit her perfectly so she can work the miniskirt. But some of those are just terrible like

Lightning! LIGHTNING!? r u okay? did you hit your head? did bhuni do this to you but why? did you insult him??

 

[Fangu]

what. the. actual. fuck.

 

[Arianna]

Okay so, are we getting new information at TGS, or no?

 

[Splintered]

Okay so, are we getting new information at TGS, or no?

I hear we are. We didn't get anything from pax because they were working TGS. I think we are getting a new demo, maybe of the wildlands.

 

[Hisako]

I didn't mind XIII-2s soundtrack. It wasn't on par with quality with the other FFs but there's one thing to say about it, it wasn't boring. It sounded like they had fun with it even with the genuinely terrible ones (that fucking rap and metal ones).

I like the idea that they don't have one set battle song throughout the game though, different areas get different battle music, not just changing background music. And I like how there was a shift from normal background music to the "aggressive" when monsters popped up. I hope they keep that variety but up the quality.


Lightning's OG fit her perfectly so she can work the miniskirt. But some of those are just terrible like

Lightning! LIGHTNING!? r u okay? did you hit your head? did bhuni do this to you but why? did you insult him??

My impression of XIII-2's album is that there were a handful of really, really great gems and themes, and for the greater part it was just a couple hours of really ambient, really mediocre stuff (which for me really just served to emphasise how good the actually-good tracks were )

Also jesus that's not even a costume, just a bunch of fabric pieces and a bag pinned together

 

[Mwynn]

Time to share my own favorite outfits from the recent video:

Spoiler

This has always been my favorite from the Samurai set, I just really like her in it.

Another nice armor with a cool bonus of having a huge golden axe as a weapon. Not a fan of the colors, so it will need some good recoloring.

idk about u guys but im soooo wearing this

Another cool armor.

Aaand another one, and what I particularly liked here is the fur.

I think this is pretty nice too, I like the white-colored shoulder pads from her default outfit.

duh

gurl

Only wearing this if we get a mission of saving Hope's soul or something.

Fave

I've always liked the Shadow's Dust, so.

I find this really gorgeous

I think she really looks cool in this, just gotta change the blue scheme to maybe something dark red.

DUH

And yep. I've grown to like this outfit, but I'm still ever so bothered by the white flaps and I remember really liking it better when they were recolored to black.

 

[Fangu]

Sometimes when I see all of those costumes I kinda wish this was all a bad dream and that I would be awoken soon

But then again, it's an entire game dedicated to Lightning and I'll take anything I can get.

/partypooper

 

[Blade]

*Ignores the above partypooper*

If I can get a black version of this outfit (sans glasses maybe) or similar thereof...Lightning is so getting the Selene treatment!

 

[Arianna]

This headpiece is the result of insulting Bhunivelze. It's like the Dunce-cap of the Final Fantasy universe.

The costume is actually pretty cool. It reminds me of a Spanish matador's outfit.

I hear we are. We didn't get anything from pax because they were working TGS. I think we are getting a new demo, maybe of the wildlands.

I also remember something about a new character.

Please be about Bhunivelze and/or Lindzei...

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

There's some really garish shit among these outfits.

 

[Selphie Tilmitt]

TGS stuff has started leaking out -

http://www.novacrystallis.com/2013/...al-fantasy-xiii-tokyo-game-show-2013-trailer/

Sorry for horrible quality

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Thanks for the link.

Red Cactaur spotted ten seconds in. And it looks like we can count on a Caius fight.

 

[Farron]

I really want to be interested in this game but I'm so frighted that my favorite characters are just going to be there just to be killed so Lightning can look strong. Noel, Snow and now Caius.

There is ways for a character to look and be strong without whacking off old and beloved male characters. And no this isn't just a fangirl rant, I really do like these boys for their character and personalities.

Hopefully Lightning just snaps sense into them and in the end everybody is surrounded by friends and family happy and alive. I already feel annoyed with Lightning and her character I don't want the dislike for her to increase because she's liked hugely by the Final Fantasy fanbase for a reason.

 

[Groodon]

New trailer, with a bit of Caius.

 

[Blade]

I honestly doubt that's going to happen. Toriyama isn't anything like "Kill'em'All" Tomino or Hideaki "Gainaxing" Anno in the very least.

If Lightning finds a way to save Caius...I'd be shocked. Since he's the least likely to get saved.

Still, if that trailer is any indication of her powers, they don't call her Lightning for nothing anymore.

 

[Kuja9001]

They're no souls here for you to save, just dead people.

That made/makes me laugh.

 

[Mwynn]

^Oh wow, I think that kind of connects to my old theories where the populous of NC are actually the dead people of Valhalla, and the living people are up in the New Cocoon...

idk

Also guys, that trailer is just the short version. A longer one will come out this Sunday.

Some gameplay videos: http://lightning-returns-news.tumbl...longer-gameplay-footage-by-gamespot-with-much
http://lightning-returns-news.tumbl.../new-gameplay-footage-of-the-wildlands-at-tgs

 

[Drax]

They're no souls here for you to save, just dead people.

That made/makes me laugh.

Same. Her voice is too deadpan to take seriously when she says this stuff. It's also cute.

 

[Blade]

Well, when I said "save people" I didn't mean in terms of 'just their souls' (like the game suggests in a kind of you-won-the-battle-not-the-war sort of way).

I mean there's probably a more round-about way of saving them.

That...and I don't mind settling things with a sword. Heh. This is gonna be good.

(And you know if Caius is back, and Noel is there...there's gonna be a throwdown between those two at some point).

And the fact you can slash random things for items is making me think of the Zelda games...

 

[Splintered]

I hope Lightning comes to the revelation that killing people to save their souls is kind of exactly the thing Dysley tried to do in the first game (well, it was to get his god back to make the world better). I just feel the way Lightning is going is the antithesis of the themes the first game came up with, humanity with flaws and mistakes still preserving, not accepting outside power as the truth, letting people decide their own fate and not be forced into it. Lightning's cold facade being really a sign of immaturity and her needing to reject these concepts to become a greater person or leader,

I feel like either the plot is setting up to revisit the old themes by having Lightning realizing she's doing a fools work, or it just completely missed the point of its own game. Guiding them to a "new world" is the most probable ending but I feel that it isn't a happy ending at all. Humanity got their happy ending with their own hard work in XIII-2. And NPCs like the NORA group that were characterized like extended family of Serah and Snow don't even get a mention anymore. That's a shame.

That said, Lightning questioning her own humanity is a step in a good direction, she keeps getting powerups and losing sight of what made her human. And in fact it wasn't being a l'cie that made her strong but being human was. It could come down to her throwing everything that Bhuni and Etros gave her to do it with her own strength, if its a mean to reclaim who she is.

 

[Mwynn]

I'm a bit optimistic on that actually now that it's looking more to me that when Lightning took the job she had no other choice and she willingly took the risks of what it could do to her (she was pretty hopeless at the end of XIII-2). Said risks were announced as Bhuni removing her emotions and that as you said sets up the premise of her being a tool again (and I think this goes for some other characters too like Caius and Noel, whose fates are being driven by Etro and (the following one is still a theory, so just maybe) Mwynn's influences). Add the fact that the devs keep mentioning how there will be a turning point for her character which we'll be introduced to as initially even much colder than before-- so I think all of this likely sets the premise of revisiting the first game's themes only on a grander scale (since it now involves the gods).

I very much agree too on how the coming of a new world doesn't seem like a happy ending. I think this mostly comes from how they always mention it in trailers and I think that's... just too simple. I feel like they keep enforcing that idea to us to maybe surprise us with a plot twist they've set up, which I very much expect because this is FF (even XIII-2 had a big one as we all know). I'm not sure how it could go in other ways though.

On a side note though as regards to the new world, me and my friend were having a small discussion on the many Norse mythology references they made throughout the games. One of them is this:

"In Norse mythology, Ragnarök (UK /ˈræɡnərɜrk/,[2] US /ˈrɑːɡnərɒk/,[3]) is a series of future events, including a great battle foretold to ultimately result in the death of a number of major figures (including the gods Odin, Thor, Týr, Freyr, Heimdallr, and Loki), the occurrence of various natural disasters, and the subsequent submersion of the world in water. Afterward, the world will resurface anew and fertile, the surviving and returning gods will meet, and the world will be repopulated by two human survivors. Ragnarök is an important event in the Norse canon, and has been the subject of scholarly discourse and theory."

Of course SE didn't follow this strictly because some of the parts including Ragnarok has already been used in XIII's ending, but the world being submerged in water as it ends caught our attention. Nova Chrysalia is surrounded by a sea of Chaos and if they did use the above reference then the birth of a new world in LR would have NC submerging in the sea of Chaos, then resurfacing as a new one.

Also, on the topic of the new character they plan to show maybe on the next longer trailer, I think that it's an antagonist. I also hope it's strongly related to Lindzei, or maybe himself because idk I think they should use his potential as a character more.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Maybe the twist will be something like what happened toward the end of "ReBoot" -- letting the System fail (a.k.a. the world end) was the only way to save it by triggering a reboot.

Of course, that will beg the question of who's hitting the Enter key in the Fabula Nova Crystallis mythos.

 

[Blade]

lol to cite an old series like Reboot...

You mentioned the idea of 'slaying the gods'.

Consider this too: based on what I know of L'Cie their abilities make them nigh immortal. Tack on the idea that they can become powerful enough to overthrow Fal'Cie and you got yourself a problem.

This is just speculation (which I rarely like doing), but maybe each of the 'original six' (Lightning, Hope, Vanille, Sazh, Snow, Fang) represent these 'gods' on their own standing.

To 'overthrow' them so to speak. With Lightning playing the roll of 'Loki' perhaps.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

Of course, that will beg the question of who's hitting the Enter key in the Fabula Nova Crystallis mythos.

The series' version Andrew Hussie of course... and The Reader The Player... hopefully it won't do any 4th or 5th Wall Breaking while we're at it.