Lightning Returns Review Thread

I'll pick it up on the cheap. Not gonna be there day 1 this time.

Battle system is still the best thing about it from what I played of the demo.
antitrop said:
The franchise deserves better.
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So much this. I need to see more gameplay of FF15 instead of action scenes and designer clothes.
 
I was sold on the game based on the gameplay alone. However, by now, I expect Lightning and any FFXIII-related story to be mediocre at best. I'll still give it a shot but only by renting at first.
 
TheFLYINGManga_Ka said:
Why can't it just be simple, you know. A Final Fantasy story about a father wanting to save a son or daughter without focusing so much on the magic or supernatural side. Something simple like that. Like Brothers. It's gotten a lot of nominations during awards. JRPG developers can learn a lot from Brothers.
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Everything that is known so far about FF XV, it has a pretty simple premise. Nomura has said so, too. Noctis' kingdom has the last crystal in the world, other countries want that crystal, one country steals said crystal, Noctis and crew try to get it back.
 
the_sun_king said:
Everything that is know so far about FF XV, it has a pretty simple premise. Nomura has said so, too. Noctis' kingdom has the last crystal in the world, other countries want that crystal, one country steals said crystal.
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Its not the premise, its the amount of spectical they feel they need to throw in. 15 sounds like a simple story from afar, but its still a game with a gigantic monsters monster and machines laying seige to a futuristic city with a super teens soldiers wrecking shit.
 
Gamer @ Heart said:
Its not the premise, its the amount of spectical they feel they need to throw in. 15 sounds like a simple story from afar, but its still a game with a gigantic monsters monster and machines laying seige to a futuristic city with a super teens soldiers wrecking shit.
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It's Final Fantasy, spectacle is a given.
 
the_sun_king said:
Everything that is know so far about FF XV, it has a pretty simple premise. Nomura has said so, too. Noctis' kingdom has the last crystal in the world, other countries want that crystal, one country steals said crystal, Noctis and crew try to get it back.
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But with characters with crazy godlike powers that can dodge bullets and run up buildings with large swords, like Advent Children and Crisis Core.

Still kind of ridiculous.
 
The only silver lining to this is that to they can now finally move on to other FF titles. But then I hear rumors that FFXV will be getting the same multi-sequel treatment.

Has SE really learned nothing from this debacle?
 
As Nirolak mentioned we're looking at a relatively low score compared to other FF games.

It'll be interesting to note how this game pans out in regards to scores from smaller outlets and possibly being blacklisted for giving the game a shit score lol.
 
Its either the English translation story is fucked up or they (reviewers) don't know enough of the story to understand it.

I played through the Japanese version months ago, I think it's brilliant, and it's amazing how they could clean up the mess from the first 2 games and still deliver a good story.
 
EightBitNate said:
Those scores aren't bad
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It's important to realize that review scores aren't static - they're relative, particularly relative to the mainstream status of a game and the size of its budget. A publication may describe a score of 7 as "good", and in many cases they'll mean it. An indie game with a score of 7 can be "good"...but Lightning Returns? It's the publication's backhanded way of saying "don't bother". It's annoying and confusing at times but that's what the number grading system has become.
 
zoobzone said:
Its either the English translation story is fucked up or they (reviewers) don't know enough of the story to understand it.

I played through the Japanese version months ago, I think it's brilliant, and it's amazing how they could clean up the mess from the first 2 games and still deliver a good story.
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It's probably the latter. Understanding the storyline of 13 and 13-2 is not hard but if you choose not to, the game is not for you.
 
Deified Data said:
It's important to realize that review scores aren't static - they're relative, particularly relative to the mainstream status of a game and the size of its budget. A publication may describe a score of 7 as "good", and in many cases they'll mean it. An indie game with a score of 7 can be "good"...but Lightning Returns? It's the publication's backhanded way of saying "don't bother". It's annoying and confusing at times but that's what the number grading system has become.
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The reason is simple - a AAA game will have top-tier graphics/audio and spectacular cutscenes that will provide at least a modicum of 'entertainment' for players. Indie games - for the most part - don't tend to have that level of polish to give it the 'well okay there's at least SOMETHING here' points. But a game with a AAA budget has AAA expectations. A 7 is decent for a game with a $15,000 budget. For a game that spent that much on the opening cutscene...
 
kayos90 said:
Might want to not address someone like that unless you want to be juniored yourself or possibly be banned.
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Dude regurgitates opinions of games he hasn't even played himself lol. That's just terrible. I haven't played FFXIV for example but I don't go around badmouthing it based on what other says. ;) I did however check out FF13 and the sequel... it's sad what Square has become. I really hope FFXV doesn't go down the same path, it'd be nice to have a fresh take on Final Fantasy.
 
Mmm yeah that's about what I was expecting to be honest. I guess I'll wait for this to get cheap like I did with XIII-2.
 
NoLoveForFailWheelDrive said:
Dude regurgitates opinions of games he hasn't even played himself lol. That's just terrible. I haven't played FFXIV for example but I don't go around badmouthing it based on what other says. ;) I did however check out FF13 and the sequel... it's sad what Square has become. I really hope FFXV doesn't go down the same path, it'd be nice to have a fresh take on Final Fantasy.
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I'm not judging the actual sentiment behind your post. I'm saying referring to a user as a junior is derogatory and often times a bannable offense.
 
Wow, I just realized something sad ='(. It took 4 painful years of waiting for FF13 to come out (2006-2010) and 4 even more painful years of waiting for the series to finally finish (2010-2014). Oh Noctis, where art thou'?
 
zoobzone said:
Its either the English translation story is fucked up or they (reviewers) don't know enough of the story to understand it.

I played through the Japanese version months ago, I think it's brilliant, and it's amazing how they could clean up the mess from the first 2 games and still deliver a good story.
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Someone explain to me why it's only these two options? *rhetorical question*

This is some extreme levels of narrow-mindedness.
 
I can't really understand why would anyone play a Toriyama game for the story, there's no chance of it being good.

But this saga has been all about the gameplay and I know I'm gonna enjoy LR as much as the other two if not more.
 
I'm getting the feeling SE pulled another Dirge of Cerberus too. I don't see why they love Lightning so much. Bring back Basch!

FFXIII had one good thing and that was setting the mood for its environments. Every piece of environmental art was well done, but it was just a linear mess. One time through and that was about all I cared about. Even the hidden bosses were more interesting to hear about than actually go fight. Nothing beats FF12's hunts.
 
Fdkn said:
I can't really understand why would anyone play a Toriyama game for the story, there's no chance of it being good.

But this saga has been all about the gameplay and I know I'm gonna enjoy LR as much as the other two if not more.
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I would go so far as to say that the gameplay isn't really all that outstanding. It's a macromanagement pseudo-turn-based combat system that doesn't really do anything besides, "switch formation from A to B to A to B" at best. It's really not deep, nor is it something meaningful.
 
I still think this game would have gotten low scores, no matter how good it was. Like how FFXIII got high scores, reviewers are clearly swayed by hype.
 
IGN's Review said:
But despite great battles, they're arguably less important than they've ever been in the series. You don't earn XP and level up through combat, only by completing quests. These range from story-based encounters with classic characters, to countless boring fetch-quests that make me feel like I was stuck in the opening hours of an MMO. If a quest's goal wasn’t combat-related, I found myself avoiding combat, the thing I enjoyed most about Lightning Returns, in favor of making a beeline for the goal that would level me up faster.
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This paragraph is probably what disappoints me most, and IGN's not the only one who has qualms about it. I admittedly haven't played the demo yet (busy and pre-occupied with other games). I'll first say I'm no longer interested in the characters, villains, or narrative, so I honestly don't care too much where those go from here. From the initial reveal, the most interesting part of the game to me was the seemingly prevalent variety of customization options available to the player, hopefully leading to a fair amount of control over how I can approach battles - something the original FFXIII didn't really have for a large portion of the game. However, hearing how typical encounters are being handled is disheartening, and now I'm not sure if this game has much for me to look forward to. Maybe there's a couple nifty boss encounters or something.

Obviously I won't judge the game until I play it, but what I'm reading is disappointing.
 
Kintaro said:
Who?
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I mean that in way how SE broke away and made this spin off. That and how it's getting slightly above average or decent scores. I might get it. I'm just not impressed by the FN series.

They wish Gackt was back. I have no idea. He was sure there for the FFVII continuation fan fest.
 
kayos90 said:
I would go so far as to say that the gameplay isn't really all that outstanding. It's a macromanagement pseudo-turn-based combat system that doesn't really do anything besides, "switch formation from A to B to A to B" at best. It's really not deep, nor is it something meaningful.
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I find it fun and certainly XIII has more challenge than any other entry of the saga. They dropped the ball with XIII-2 a bit with the lack of hard mode but I just capped myself to maintain it interesting so it was fun too.
 
Shinta said:
The irony of this post is staggering, considering the reactions we're seeing in a LR review thread and the game gets released tomorrow.
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Some of us aren't impressed. I bought 7,8,9,10,12, and 13 around launch dates and on midnight launches and personally I could care less about the game. I'm interested in learning more, but no way would I want to spend $60 on an entry into a series that has missed the premise of what FF is since XIII launched. I have XIII-2 on the back burner because frankly it just didn't look good. I cared for this series back on PS2 and probably will skip every entry until 15 comes out. I mean when you've been with a series (like buying CE and Strategy books) for so long you care about these types of things.

It may seem ignorant, but hopefully LR is decent enough for $20 purchase sometime down the road. Heck, the wait for 15 feels better.

If anyone can tell me if this is better than FFXII I'd take a chance, but I highly doubt it. On dialogue, plot, characters, and battle system (outside gambits). I will listen to those who like it. I'm not that kind of jerk.
 
Anyone who's read Kagari's import review would have seen this coming

It isn't just the story, (FFXIII-2 got by on its shit story) the game itself is a stinker
 
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