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Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII |OT| Toriyama's Bizarre Adventure

Nohar

Member
Hmmm, can you gain the same stat boosts if you complete the same quests in a NG+, or the game considers that you already won those bonuses and then they don't increase your stats again? Is there a cap for stats?
 

Zafir

Member
Hmmm, can you gain the same stat boosts if you complete the same quests in a NG+, or the game considers that you already won those bonuses and then they don't increase your stats again? Is there a cap for stats?
I'm pretty sure it still gives the same stats, just you may not get the same items from it as some items you can't have two of.
 

MilkBeard

Member
Hmmm, can you gain the same stat boosts if you complete the same quests in a NG+, or the game considers that you already won those bonuses and then they don't increase your stats again? Is there a cap for stats?

I guess we'll find out, won't we? I wonder if anyone has tried to play a little bit in NG+ yet.
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
I'm enjoying it so far but that timer is ruining it for me
The graphics are good imo but they seem like there are hardware restraints which make it look bad, ie this would look stunning if it was higher resolution textures.
 

clem84

Gold Member
Has anyone else ordered this game and FFX HD CE? I just wanted to know if Digital River plans on shipping both games separately as they release, or if they will wait for both games to be out to ship them. Anyone know?
 
I love how dissimilar a lot of the viewpoints in this thread are to the almost universal hate being piled onto this game from the rest of GAF and the internet in general.

It's a shame that I'm sure a lot of people will never give this game a chance because of brand association, group-thinking, and bad review scores. I think there is genuinely a lot to like about this game.
 

Zafir

Member
Has anyone else ordered this game and FFX HD CE? I just wanted to know if Digital River plans on shipping both games separately as they release, or if they will wait for both games to be out to ship them. Anyone know?
From what others have said in the Lightning Returns CE/Drakengard 3 CE threads, they seem to be waiting till all items are available in your order and then shipping them together.
 
Has anyone else ordered this game and FFX HD CE? I just wanted to know if Digital River plans on shipping both games separately as they release, or if they will wait for both games to be out to ship them. Anyone know?

I haven't ordered both but I read a comment on the Drakengard 3 CE thread that mentioned they will only ship when both items are in stock.

So basically you're gonna have to wait till FF X/X-2 HD releases to get both your items. At least that's what DR apparently informed to this fella.

That's really stingy on their part, so people wanna take advantage of free shipping over 100 bucks and the least they could do is inform people beforehand so in case they want one game sooner than the other, they can decide.
 

MilkBeard

Member
I love how dissimilar a lot of the viewpoints in this thread are to the almost universal hate being piled onto this game from the rest of GAF and the internet in general.

It's a shame that I'm sure a lot of people will never give this game a chance because of brand association, group-thinking, and bad review scores. I think there is genuinely a lot to like about this game.

I agree. There are, however, some things about the game that might genuinely put some people off. But I think there are a lot of people on the internet that parrot Final Fantasy XIII negativity, and continue to do so with this game without playing it.

Honestly, I was surprised with this game. I've had a blast. I'm just going to be a little bit disappointed because it feels like the game is a little bit short for a Final Fantasy. But really, that's a good thing at the same time, because I want to keep playing main story quests. And FF XV can't come soon enough. ;)
 

Perfo

Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
I have one question: once you finish the game and beat the last boss, can you resume and finish doing quests remaining?
 

Carbonox

Member
I just got to Yusnaan. Oh my what a lovely looking place.

I love how dissimilar a lot of the viewpoints in this thread are to the almost universal hate being piled onto this game from the rest of GAF and the internet in general.

It's a shame that I'm sure a lot of people will never give this game a chance because of brand association, group-thinking, and bad review scores. I think there is genuinely a lot to like about this game.

Up until this month I ruled out ever getting this game cos I thought it looked and sounded garbage (and I enjoyed FFXIII and XIII-2). :lol

But then I thought that despite the reviews and import feedback, I'll get it anyway to finish up the XIII storyline and I've been pleasantly surprised by it. I've enjoyed every minute so far.

Not often I'm looking forward to ANOTHER quest where I'm fetching some random shite just so I can raise Lightning's stats. :p
 

Zafir

Member
I'm actually kind of surprised I'm liking it really. Though that's more down to the fact I disliked XIII-2 more than anything.
 

Nohar

Member
Hum, is there something to do in order to unlock Last Ones? The bestiary doesn't show how much monsters remains for a specific species, so I'm beginning to wonder if maybe I have to unlock this feature with a quest.
 

george_us

Member
Got a chance to put a couple more hours into this last night I can honestly say I'm having fun with it. Sidequests not even having area of interest indicators (ala some MMO's) still annoys the hell out of me but I'm liking the battle system, the atmosphere, and the soundtrack a lot. The story is total crap so far but not in an annoying in-your-face way like the previous games.
 
So is the game meant to be able to get everything done in one playthrough? Or are you pretty much forced to beat the game and go through new game plusses?

If you can do everything in one playthrough, is it extremely hard or very specific? (something like a persona 3/4 run maxing out everything the first time you play, or to a lesser extent Atelier Totori?) Or is it like Atelier Meruru were you literally can't do stuff until new game +
 
Man, I really dig this game. Been moving along more than I might have due to the snow and staying home. Glad I followed through and got in Day 1 rather than hold off. LR does a lot of things I really like in games, so much so that I can forgive the sometimes sketchy performance.

There is some honestly challenging gameplay in boss battles on a first-run no-guide Normal run. And regular enemies bulk up in strength and aggression in later days, never mind Chaos-boosted variants, and then the Last Ones. So much to fight.

You also get that truly impressive wealth of effective and visual customization, allowing everything from a custom heavily clothed/armored tank Lightning to a scantily clad, entertainingly fast and powerful club swinger. All changes making notable effects in battle and also being fully represented in the active cutscenes.

It tries so much with the open areas, unyielding waves upon waves of area effect explosions and animation, all with that customized Lightning garb. Aside from the singularly unoptimized "Sahagin Slowdown" I'm surprised it holds up as well as it does especially during chaotic boss battles.

I'm up to
Caius
and having to rearrange my schemata to suit. Gotta "run what I brung" as they say, and it was a trek getting here with the need to balance post-battle healing/EP and keep enough around for this battle.

Oh, and yeah, while gameplay/customization is my focus, I am also liking how they close some of the character arcs, especially Snow (
who Lightning openly realizes has toiled hundreds of years holding back Chaos while she...slept...
). There was some good voice-acting there and Lightning did have a chance to show some emotion. With bonus use of her once-annoying propensity to punch him now acting a sign of her unique affection lol.

I almost can't wait for a New Game+/Hard mode run.
 

Paches

Member
So is the game meant to be able to get everything done in one playthrough? Or are you pretty much forced to beat the game and go through new game plusses?

If you can do everything in one playthrough, is it extremely hard or very specific? (something like a persona 3/4 run maxing out everything the first time you play, or to a lesser extent Atelier Totori?) Or is it like Atelier Meruru were you literally can't do stuff until new game +
As far as I know, you don't have access to the upgrade your weapons and armor feature at the forge until NG+
 
So is the game meant to be able to get everything done in one playthrough? Or are you pretty much forced to beat the game and go through new game plusses?

If you can do everything in one playthrough, is it extremely hard or very specific? (something like a persona 3/4 run maxing out everything the first time you play, or to a lesser extent Atelier Totori?) Or is it like Atelier Meruru were you literally can't do stuff until new game +

From what I've played so far - and full disclosure I'm "gaming by numbers" (following a trophy/achievement guide for every move I make.) it seems like it would be nearly impossible for anyone to do everything one their first attempt.

Even with the guide I sometimes narrowly miss or just hit the target time on the guide. I mean I'm playing this like an Atelier game completely. I only play those games with a guide just because at the moment in my life time is short so I don't have time to fumble around. Some people may not find that fun but I honestly have a great time still.

The game itself - kind of let down so far. The fighting is far between and it's a bunch of fetch quests with little game involved. As it stand this is my least favourite game in the trilogy but I'll still platinum it. I'm willing to bet it opens up a bit more in terms of fights and stuff as I go along... or so I hope.

(Day 3.5 ish. - Side note: I never comment on voice acting but I really enjoy
Lumina's
work.)
 

Avallon

Member
Anyone order the CE and still not receive it yet? My shipping information hasn't updated in 4 days and I still haven't gotten my game. It's almost a week late at this point.
 

Reveirg

Member
Hmmm, I might run out of time if I keep doing sidequests so much.
Do I have to save one day for the last dungeon or are there enough battles to chronostasis your way through? Just don't want to reach the time limit when I'm in middle of the last dungeon or so :/

Wondering about this too... Do you have to tackle both the extta dungeon and final dungeon under the time limit?
 

Perfo

Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
Nope. You have to start over via NG+. Best to take care of all quests before point of no return.

That's a bit dump, they could've granted a continue and an option to stop the time from flowing so that I could take care of remaining quests. Especially OMEGA and hard stuff like that. Strange eh...
 
Why the hell does this game make u lose an hour for falling in battle! Lost 3 hours ingame time as a behemoth spawned right in front of me just after the early spoiler -
chocobo eater
had used my items already and the ep on normal takes forever to regain :( died then it respawned instantly twice more, each time light got a less hp as it spawned touching her :(

Unsure whether the game is meant to be played in easy mode on first playthrough

Btw got a spare uk code for the samurai (ltd ed guide one)outfit for 360 version anyone want it?
 

MCD

Junior Member
That's a bit dump, they could've granted a continue and an option to stop the time from flowing so that I could take care of remaining quests. Especially OMEGA and hard stuff like that. Strange eh...

I would buy this DLC at a high price.
 

Carbonox

Member
Can anyone sell me on the synthesis feature? I just have no interest in doing anything with it for the spells because the gains are so....insignificant. There is probably a way to get the most out of it but I've yet to see it. Why should I combine 3 Fire spells when I have Firaga instead? Stuff like that...
 
Wondering about this too... Do you have to tackle both the extta dungeon and final dungeon under the time limit?

iirc the clock runs throughout the extra dungeon and you can't use chrono stasis to slow it down. You only get one go per playthrough tho so make it count. Also, the clock stops during the final dungeon so you don't need to worry about time there.
 

Shinta

Banned
Can anyone sell me on the synthesis feature? I just have no interest in doing anything with it for the spells because the gains are so....insignificant. There is probably a way to get the most out of it but I've yet to see it. Why should I combine 3 Fire spells when I have Firaga instead? Stuff like that...

It's definitely not insignificant. The way they list the numbers it might seem that way but the bonuses add up. After you combine doubles, you can strengthen them again with components.

And it's not about 3 fire spells replacing firaga. Eventually you get 3 firagas and level that up too. Firaga takes more ATB to use, so they both have their place depending on the situation.

If nothing else, it cuts down on inventory space because you can farm a lot of doubles of abilities.
 
From what I've played so far - and full disclosure I'm "gaming by numbers" (following a trophy/achievement guide for every move I make.) it seems like it would be nearly impossible for anyone to do everything one their first attempt.

Even with the guide I sometimes narrowly miss or just hit the target time on the guide. I mean I'm playing this like an Atelier game completely. I only play those games with a guide just because at the moment in my life time is short so I don't have time to fumble around. Some people may not find that fun but I honestly have a great time still.

The game itself - kind of let down so far. The fighting is far between and it's a bunch of fetch quests with little game involved. As it stand this is my least favourite game in the trilogy but I'll still platinum it. I'm willing to bet it opens up a bit more in terms of fights and stuff as I go along... or so I hope.

(Day 3.5 ish. - Side note: I never comment on voice acting but I really enjoy
Lumina's
work.)

Thanks you sound almost exactly like me and the way I tend to play games. I'm wondering if this time around it may be a good idea to just not worry and play completely guideless without having to be nervous about time (I'm assuming on a second playthrough you can be more powered up and get through things fast enough to not worry about deadlines if you are following a guide)
 

Carbonox

Member
It's definitely not insignificant. The way they list the numbers it might seem that way but the bonuses add up. After you combine doubles, you can strengthen them again with components.

And it's not about 3 fire spells replacing firaga. Eventually you get 3 firagas and level that up too. Firaga takes more ATB to use, so they both have their place depending on the situation.

If nothing else, it cuts down on inventory space because you can farm a lot of doubles of abilities.

Strengthening with components? How do you do that?

If you have some tips on good synthesizing, definitely share. :p If I can get some wicked gains then I will give it more time of day.
 

Shinta

Banned
Strengthening with components? How do you do that?

It gave me a tutorial on it after I got my first component that lets you do it. I have 16 of them, and they let you strengthen a yellow, 3 arrow ability more. If you continually keep doing it, they max out fully with a star icon. I'm near the end of day 2 still. I only strengthened a couple that I use one additional tier. You need other components to go further.

If you have some tips on good synthesizing, definitely share. :p If I can get some wicked gains then I will give it more time of day.

Nothing secret or anything. I just combine all my doubles for now. They get stronger, and it's cheap, so I figure why not? It's fun. The crafting system in the original XIII was so much complicated and you didn't see a lot of results for a long time, so I'm enjoying this simpler one.

They can get anything from increased attack modifiers, to stat boosts like +40 STR or MAGIC, or even some ATB cost decreases. I'm sure it will just keep going up.

The true strength of sorcery synthesis I think comes later on when you are stacking auto-abilities. Chaos-infused auto-abilities can only be found on level 5 abilities dropped from monsters in a chaos infusion. Rare auto-abilities can only be synthesized from level 4+ abilities that carry the same auto-ability and overwrites it for the new rare one. Eventually, you can stack multiple rare and chaos-infused auto-abilities, but this takes a long time.
 

Koozek

Member
(Day 3.5 ish. - Side note: I never comment on voice acting but I really enjoy
Lumina's
work.)

Oh, yeah! I have to say, aside from the writing itself I quite like her voice-acting. Didn't expect that, as I really detest that little girl with squeaky voice stuff in JRPGs nowadays^^
 

Perfo

Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
Things I noticed in 6 hrs of gameplay and summing it up:

1) story is easier to follow than XIII-2
2) writing is essentially better than XIII-2
3) datalog is now not-anymore needed to understand the story, every event is detailed ingame through cutscenes and NPCs
4) general graphics are horrible in the cities, while mixed up with some nice artstyle (wildlands, deaddunes) can be decent at times
5) Lightning character's model is very good, NPCs obviously not
6) Lumina's animations are cool as hell
7) customization, synthtizing, battle system all very complex to understand but satysfing - something rather new for the franchise
8) game world is pretty extensive and interesting to explore
9) voice acting is very good, Lightning herself even while trying for story-reason to sound as cold as possible reveals many times through subtle voice acting her emotions. Ali Hillis' best work probably. Her character is also quite more complex than the second game and more deep than her first's one, even if now her character arc is all fucked up and fanfictionized. Because of this I still like her less than the other characters that at least kept their original personality.
 

Carbonox

Member
I find her an interesting character but her mannerisms and quirks are downright irritating. Not just her though - so many girl characters in JRPG's especially have these traits and it's insufferable for me. The giggles, the hand gestures, etc. Ugh.


On an unrelated note, I'm going through some visual garb listings online and there are some fucking awesome looking garbs out there. I'm most partial to epic knight style garbs and oh my at some of the top tier ones. Can't wait to get them if I can.

I've only been using Passion Rouge, Electronica and Nocturne thus far which have made everything pretty easy. Getting a bit bored though of using the same ones but Passion Rouge is too damn good.

I did get a garb called Sacred Knight which looks amazing. Just trying to figure out how to get the most out of it so I can make it one of my 3 main ones. At the moment I'm getting more out of the Nocturne garb which is my primary physical garb.
 
I've already failed one sidequest so yeah I'll be replaying this, but probably not until post-Lords of Shadow 2. But then there's Dark Souls 2 and South Park... ugh too much awesome shit coming out.
 

Carbonox

Member
Things I noticed in 6 hrs of gameplay and summing it up:

1) story is easier to follow than XIII-2
2) writing is essentially better than XIII-2
3) datalog is now not-anymore needed to understand the story, every event is detailed ingame through cutscenes and NPCs
4) general graphics are horrible in the cities, while mixed up with some nice artstyle (wildlands, deaddunes) can be decent at times
5) Lightning character's model is very good, NPCs obviously not
6) Lumina's animations are cool as hell
7) customization, synthtizing, battle system all very complex to understand but satysfing - something rather new for the franchise
8) game world is pretty extensive and interesting to explore
9) voice acting is very good, Lightning herself even while trying for story-reason to sound as cold as possible reveals many times through subtle voice acting her emotions. Ali Hillis' best work probably. Her character is also quite more complex than the second game and more deep than her first's one, even if now her character arc is all fucked up and fanfictionized. Because of this I still like her less than the other characters that at least kept their original personality.

I'm surprised at how easy to follow the story is. I thought it would be convoluted shite but stuff is explained very well. Going to the
Temple of the Goddesses
early (Day 3) has actually revealed off the bat why shit is the way it is in the world. Maybe should have left this part till later for the reveal but I wanted dem -ga spells. Didn't fight the boss though as I'm definitely not strong enough yet. Still, now knowing why the world is fucked up has kinda lifted that heavy load off my shoulders. It's a silly explanation but one that was easy to understand nevertheless.

In some ways this is my favourite Lightning of the 3 games. Reason primarily being the way she is in many of the Wildlands quests. You see far more humanity in her during this area than I think I have done in the previous games. Some really comical scenes too. Sure the other side of her is the empty shell of a person who cares little for things but at least she acknowledges it, other characters take the piss out of her for it and the game is self-aware.
 
i really want to platinum this, but i'm dreading doing all the quests again.

is it impossible to beat them all on your 1st playthrough? or however many you need to get the ultimate lair or whatever.
 
i really want to platinum this, but i'm dreading doing all the quests again.

Since stats and things you get from quests carry over to NG+, for the trophies related to doing all the quests, couldn't one simply just do the quests on successive playthroughs that were missed before instead of having to do them all again?

You can't even do some quests until other quests are failed, so there's no way to do them all in one go.
 

MCD

Junior Member
Hope: You felt familiar with a chocobo? Maybe you need a friend, Light.

D8c5Hcm.png
 

Caffeine

Gold Member
the only quest related trophies i see.

Complete the Wildlands main story quest.
Complete the Dead Dunes main story quest.
Complete the Yusnaan main story quest.
Complete the Luxerion main story quest.
Complete Sazh's quest.
Complete five quests.
Complete twenty-five quests.
and the 25 canvas of prayers quests.

I don't actually see a trophy for completing all the quests in the game other than this on for completing most.
Complete enough quests to extend the game time to a fourteenth day.
All main quests + 43 side quests im not sure if canvas of prayers quests count for this or not.
 

Zafir

Member
Since stats and things you get from quests carry over to NG+, for the trophies related to doing all the quests, couldn't one simply just do the quests on successive playthroughs that were missed before instead of having to do them all again?

You can't even do some quests until other quests are failed, so there's no way to do them all in one go.

You have to do them twice for the accessory upgrading. You basically have to get 30 head accessorys twice. I mean you could not do quests and get access to the last ones by extinction but that sounds even more tedious.

Alternatively, you could go for all the head accessorys out of the Last Ones I suppose. I'm going to have to check it out in my last days. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have some left over days on this play through, so on those I'll have a look at getting all the "outside" head accessory's.
 
You have to do them twice for the accessory upgrading. You basically have to get 30 head accessorys twice. I mean you could not do quests and get access to the last ones by extinction but that sounds even more tedious.

Not sure what you're talking about to be honest, I have no idea what the last ones are :p
 

Zafir

Member
Not sure what you're talking about to be honest, I have no idea what the last ones are :p
Well, if you kill a type of mob enough, you can make a "Last One" spawn which will have an Omega symbol next to it's name. Effectively the last of its kind. Once you kill it, the type goes extinct.

You can either kill enough mobs, or just face them in the Ultimate Lair on the 14th day.
 

Shinta

Banned
Not sure what you're talking about to be honest, I have no idea what the last ones are :p

I got 3 on day 2

Enemies in the game all have a set number. There's only 60 skeletons in the game, 80 of others, 65,000 of others. When you kill all the enemies in the game of a certain type, they literally go extinct. The very last one is bright pink/purple, and is super strong. They have unique drops and are called The Last One.

The Skeleton Last One drops a pretty nice weapon, unless I'm mistaken, and there's not a ton of skeletons. It might be a good idea to save before fighting them too because none of their drop rates are 100%.

For the ones with thousands, you pretty much wait to face them in the final dungeon.
 
Well, if you kill a type of mob enough, you can make a "Last One" spawn which will have an Omega symbol next to it's name. Effectively the last of its kind. Once you kill it, the type goes extinct.

You can either kill enough mobs, or just face them in the Ultimate Lair on the 14th day.

I got 3 on day 2 \._./

Enemies in the game all have a set number. There's only 60 skeletons in the game, 80 of others, 65,000 of others. When you kill all the enemies in the game of a certain type, they literally go extinct. The very last one is bright pink/purple, and is super strong. They have unique drops and are called The Last One.

Whoa that's kind of cool. How do you unlock the 14th day?
 
Okay thanks... wonder how hard it is to do that. When you unlock the 14th day is there still a timer?

I would love a mode where you don't have a timer. They should have did that, maybe an unlock after meeting some crazy requirements.
 

Zafir

Member
On the contrary, I've read the Ultimate Lair has a strict timer, time still passes through battles, and you can't use chronostasis.
 
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