Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

[Avalanche87]

Hi all.

I'm generally quite late to the party so to speak, sooooo I've just started FFXIII I'm about 4 hours in aaaaaand so far, I'm pretty happy.... totally blown away by the clips! I enjoyed the opening sequence, I'm enjoying how the party has come together and so forth. The lore and stuff is a little tricky to follow so far, but I'm sure it will develop the more time I spend in it all.

I LOOOOOOVE the little chocobo chick in the dude's afro! SO FUNNY!!!

Although, I really don't know what's going on with Vanille's voice... is she almost trying to sound Australian some times?

Everyone bags the hell out of FFXIII, but me, I always try to see the upside in things

Peace

Sorry, I'm a total tool, (super tired), this is FFXIII-3. MY BAD!!!

 

[Gary Caelum]

Lol this thread hasn't been touched for over 2 years.

Anyway, I started Lightning Returns. The last game directly connected to one of the numbered Final Fantasies that I haven't played. After this, the only thing I haven't played is spin-off stuff like Crystal Chronicles, World of Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy Explorers etc.

So far my reaction is pretty much the same as with 13-2. I'm loving the gameplay and world design, but the story seems like a bunch of contrived nonsense. It also feels tonally different yet again. So each game in the trilogy doesn't feel that connected to the others, except through the inclusion of some of the same characters.

 

[ForceStealer]

LR always stuck me as completely divorced from the other games. It's basically a new game with the character models they had lying around. And honestly it likely would have gotten more of the attention/appreciation it deserved if they had just made it a standalone IP.

That said, I greatly enjoyed playing it.

 

[Gary Caelum]

I'm also reading you can basically fail to complete the game if you run out of time. Ok so should I go back to past saves if I mess something up then? Who thought that was a good idea?

 

[Makoeyes987]

Same people who thought Majora's Mask was a great idea

It makes the stakes of the game story and consequence of the end of the universe real.

Its hard to run out of time cause Lightning possesses the ability to stop time but in the event you fail, you keep your experience, keep your items, and restart from Day 1. And redo what you failed. Its like a New Game plus.

And you will need to play the game more than once if you intend to achieve everything. It's very much a game that reveals more with each playthrough. But you gotta be really bad at mismanaging time to Game Over cause Lightning can freeze time and even earn an Extra Day so yeah.

 

[Gary Caelum]

Eugh can someone give me the tldr of how stopping time works?

 

[Makoeyes987]

Lightning possesses an ability called "Chronostasis" which you can use for like 3 EP.

When you use it, you literally freeze time. So the clock stops for awhile and you don't have the time limit going on.

Killing enemies replinishes EP so if you are in a good spot, and kill things like Behemoths that give 3 EP per kill, you can effectively stop the clock while you're in a spot and get shit done without worry.

 

[Gary Caelum]

I had no idea killing enemies replenished EP. Like any enemy?

 

[Makoeyes987]

Every enemy you kill replenishes an amount of EP, yes. Killing enemies in Chaos Infusions grants even more EP.

I found Reavers in the Wildlands the best to grind for EP because they give 2 EP per kill, allowing you a lot of freedom to get shit done in that area.

And I just remembered, Chronostasis costs 1 EP. So yeah, farming enemies is the best way to spam the ability and give you extra time when you need.

Teleportation also helps you cover distances since you don't waste time having to travel manually or take a train.

But do keep in mind that most enemies in the game are finite meaning for instance... There exists only 30 Reavers in the Wildlands and once you slaughter 30 of them, the Last One of that species appears in all its neon pink fury. And then once you kill that...

Then congratulations. You drove a poor monster to total extinction.

 

[Kuja9001]

I started off with medium hopes, character wise annnnd was let down tremendously in the end. The music is A+ tho.

 

[Lex]

I controversially prefer Lightning Returns to XIII-2. I think it's great fun and felt like it was the first game where the characters directly address the greater mythology in believable ways.

The clock thing can feel a little stressful but you can literally do and see absolutely everything - bar the completion of one fairly inconsequential sidequest and unnecessary but fun accessory/ weapon upgrades - in one playthrough. The clock is the one thing I don't really like about it but once you get used to it, and the idea that it's not going to get in the way of your progress, you can focus on the good the game has to offer. Which IMO is substantial.

I really enjoyed Lightning Returns as an ending to the XIII trilogy. Convoluted and unnecessary? Oh for sure, but so was XIII-2. I'd even argue the plot in that game was less cohesive than LR though.

Square Enix are pathologically incapable of making Final Fantasy sequels or spin-offs that feel like they're in any way connected to their source material.

 

[Makoeyes987]

It's really hard for me to choose between LR or XIII-2.

As a game, in terms of challenge... LR wins out. XIII-2 was amazingly fun and stuff but only like 3 bosses in that game made me sweat (Caius in Requiem for the Goddess, Pupu for some fucking reason and.... Gilgamesh). Honestly, no Final Fantasy has pushed me as hard in terms of difficulty with it's final battle and its optional bosses like LR. The depth of gameplay and the command system in LR is extraordinary. It really shines as an action RPG. The game comes at you 100% and it demands you learn it and prepare. I loved it.

LR is wholly focused on concluding Lightning's story and it does so in the most epic and intense way possible. There's no other way a badass like Lightning deserved any less.

 

[Blade]

Seeing as how I'm playing both games again right now, I can say that both have their high and low points.

FFXIII-2:
---(-)Puzzles were probably the most annoying outside of Paradox Scope fights.
---(-)Capturing certain rare monsters was a pain (especially in Arena). Bestiary could have been spread out more.
---(-)It would have been nice if you could color your equipment.
---(+)Has some of the best exploration maps I've played in an FF game.
---(+)N7 Armor is probably the best way to play this game in some of the futuristic stages.
---(+)Revisiting certain events to refresh your memory is a plus, and I liked how they used the Recap function when loading up the game.
---(-)Requiem made me think other FF games need to have an older school style: we need Shamans, Knights, Paladins, Conjurers, and others... It would be nice if they took certain elements from older FFs and gave them an optional DnD look.

LR:
---(-)Battle mechanics felt limited in too many situations where they could've buffed instead of nerfing outfits, making setups more practical.
---(-)More color options than they gave.
---(-)Hard to pick up where you leave off in these games because there's no way to remind yourself which quests you still need to do or where you're supposed to go.
---(-)Using the Internet to buy Ethers felt like cheating sometimes.
---(-)Too much reliance on RNG for passive skill merging, but also not enough customization for equipment/appearance.
---(-)Stats feel too powerful against common enemies, but not powerful enough against bosses/Last Ones.
---(-)Too many recycled NPCs.
---(+)Lots of exploration at least, and places to relax.
---(+)This game had FOOD.
---(+)Lightning openly expressing herself was refreshing to say the least (bonus points if you knew she voiced Palutena in Kid Icarus Uprising).
---(+)This game actually helped improve FFXV's mechanics if you can believe it, which I am grateful for.
---(+)More fun when you weren't in a hurry to battle.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

The whole Last Ones thing was probably my favorite mechanic of the game. A simple and obvious way to bring synergy to the gameplay and world building, yet a novel route for an FF game to take.

(The clock mechanic was too, but that has a more obvious downside. Also, some would say "Valkyrie Profile" did it better.)

Oddly enough, the closest I think the series had ever come to the Last Ones idea before was with X-2 and its Oversoul status. And before that, with FFVIII's Tonberry King, who comes to stab your ass after you've killed around 20 of his subjects.

 

[ForceStealer]

People really got unduly stressed out over the time thing. I barely used Chronostasis and still had plenty of time to do everything I wanted to do.

 

[Gary Caelum]

Where does it tell you how much time you recapture through the sidequests? I did the thing where you finish a day and then give the souls to the magic viking tree so it grows a new branch, but I don't see where it told me how much that helped me time-wise?

 

[Makoeyes987]

Your main way of recapturing more time is by getting the Eradia from the main quests. However get as much as you can doing side quests too. Because if you do like 50 or so you'll get a 14th day. An extra day before the world ends.

 

[Blade]

Where does it tell you how much time you recapture through the sidequests? I did the thing where you finish a day and then give the souls to the magic viking tree so it grows a new branch, but I don't see where it told me how much that helped me time-wise?

It's actually misleading because there's an event on Day 12 where you crap out a ton of Eradia you collected to generate a 13th day. At one point I thought I didn't have enough Eradia, but it turned out I did anyway, so you can't really rely on their indicators.

Also Ultimania gives ZERO explanation as to where Yggdrasil even came from.

 

[Makoeyes987]

Yggdrasil was awakened by Bhunivelze in preperation for the end of the world. It's his plant that connects to the planet.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

I just figured Bhunivelze made it for receiving the Eradia. I don't think it was implied to exist before all this, was it?

 

[Gary Caelum]

Where did Bhunivelze even come from? I thought that was the name of the artificial Cocoon that Hope made? How did it become a god?

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Bhunivelze is the god who created Pulse, Lindzei, and Etro. Mwynn's child.

 

[Gary Caelum]

Oh crap I completely lost track of the lore. So which of the various gods were the Falcie supposed to be trying to reawaken in the first game?

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

The lesser fal'Cie (this includes Barthandelus) of Cocoon and Gran Pulse were trying to find their respective creators, the fal'Cie gods Pulse and Lindzei.

Believing them to be in the Unseen Realm beyond Etro's Gate, the Gran Pulse fal'Cie were searching for the gate throughout the world while the Cocoon fal'Cie devised their plot to sacrifice a great number of humans at once to get the gate to reveal itself. They were all unwitting pawns, though.

Pulse and Lindzei gave the fal'Cie they created this desire to be reunited with their creators, then departed to search elsewhere in the cosmos for the gate -- as they themselves were created by Bhunivelze in the pursuit of the gate to the Unseen Realm.

In other words, Pulse and Lindzei abandoned the lesser fal'Cie knowing their creations would indirectly continue with the duty assigned to Pulse and Lindzei themselves. So almost all the fal'Cie were ultimately just tools of Bhunivelze. This includes two of the three fal'Cie gods themselves.

The only fal'Cie this isn't true of in the end are Etro (because Bhunivelze discarded her without giving her any powers or duties) and the Cactuar fal'Cie that Snow befriended.

 

[Gary Caelum]

In a game with already impenetrable lore, they really shouldn't have given a god the same name as the planet below. That's typical of how badly they thought things through.

I more or less get it though, thanks!