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

Toth

Member
I'm afraid to say, you're letting your emotions about the creators of this game get to your perception of the story. It's not real world. The creators probably chose Earth not because "Wee, Lightning is now in France brb tickets" but because "What's an easy to understand image of a world that's as un-fantastic and humanistic as possible? Well, Earth." There were JRPGs in the past that used this story device. Retcons... eh. I wouldn't say the original game's writing was waterproof either.

You are very much right here Frumix. That's the interpretation they were going for.
 
just beat
caius, he wasn't too hard.. but i'm stuck on dead dunes boss


btw, should i beat all side quests before beating the dead dunes boss? or can you do main quests and then do the side quests? when is the point of no return?
 

zeopower6

Member
However, With LR, I am expecting some goofy shit, and will just enjoy the game for what it's worth. I don't really go into video games expecting novel quality story and characters. I got rid of that expectation a long time ago.

I honestly played this game knowing that w/e happened in the end was going to be kind of batshit goofy weirdness and that's exactly what they delivered. I mean you could probably close off the series with any of the endings they presented us with so far... but the finale for this game is probably the least depressing.

just beat
caius, he wasn't too hard.. but i'm stuck on dead dunes boss


btw, should i beat all side quests before beating the dead dunes boss? or can you do main quests and then do the side quests? when is the point of no return?

Point of no return as far as I recall is the day before the 'last day'.
 

HTupolev

Member
And honestly, don't a lot of games have those kinds of shitty graphics if you look close enough?
Yeah. If you want to make bad transparency objects look bad, you want to frame them to put the scale in perspective.

You can get shots like that in most "graphically impressive" titles, even if you restrict yourself to the non-skyboxes.
 

Jolkien

Member
Just platinumed the game, gameplay was fun, story wasn't really good. One thing I think Square knocked out of the park in this game
is the final boss aesthetic, he looked REALLY great in my opinion.
 

MilkBeard

Member
Just platinumed the game, gameplay was fun, story wasn't really good. One thing I think Square knocked out of the park in this game
is the final boss aesthetic, he looked REALLY great in my opinion.

That's good, I feel like the final bosses in Final Fantasy have been disappointing since the Playstation days. You just know that they are going to have multiple forms, span wings or just look like a large god-like monstrosity. I'm sure I'm describing Lightning Returns' final boss to a T, but having good design would help change up this tired cliche.
 
I honestly played this game knowing that w/e happened in the end was going to be kind of batshit goofy weirdness and that's exactly what they delivered. I mean you could probably close off the series with any of the endings they presented us with so far... but the finale for this game is probably the least depressing.



Point of no return as far as I recall is the day before the 'last day'.

ok, i'm going to finish dead dunes first.. or should i do side quests first?
sigh, i'm gonna be pissed if i didnt do enough side quests by the end..
and is it just side quests, or canvas of prayers too?
 

zeopower6

Member
ok, i'm going to finish dead dunes first.. or should i do side quests first?
sigh, i'm gonna be pissed if i didnt do enough side quests by the end..
and is it just side quests, or canvas of prayers too?

Side quests are separate from Canvas quests. It's pretty easy to do them all if you just do a few from each area per day. In fact you don't even need to do ALL of them :|

That's good, I feel like the final bosses in Final Fantasy have been disappointing since the Playstation days. You just know that they are going to have multiple forms, span wings or just look like a large god-like monstrosity. I'm sure I'm describing Lightning Returns' final boss to a T, but having good design would help change up this tired cliche.

I think it's there for a reason though... when was the last FF without a boss that didn't have 3-4 forms and had some sort of God-like presence? It's just something that's part of the franchise like 'crystals' are. You can probably bet that we'll get a similarish boss for XV, haha.

Maybe they can switch it up in a sidegame. :/
 

MilkBeard

Member
ok, i'm going to finish dead dunes first.. or should i do side quests first?
sigh, i'm gonna be pissed if i didnt do enough side quests by the end..
and is it just side quests, or canvas of prayers too?

Just finish Dead Dunes so you have that extra day to do what you want before the end. And I don't think the canvas of prayers counts towards opening the extra dungeon, if that is what you're after.
 
Aside from the
lack of other characters in the epilogue
, it is far from the worst. That's still tied with FF12's non-ending and FF7's ending, pre-compilation (when we had no idea what happened).

Besides, aren't they going
to be continuing on the characters in some novellas or something?
.

No, they cancelled it due to the author's failing health. And even if it was released, it was going to be an interquel between XIII-2 and LR. LR's epilogue was the end.
 
Yay. Beat another boss. This game sucks so much. I can hardly contain slowly forming homicidal impulses as I'm shoveling the bad story and gameplay down. I'm almost there. Almost at the end, and then I can finally feel the sweet release of sending this garbage back to Gamefly.
 

rataven

Member
Nocturne would have made a better default costume than the Assassin's Creed robe/trenchcoat leather goofiness we got instead.

Yeah, now that I think about it it had some Bayonetta vibes in it I would say.

THAT'S what it is! I kept trying to pinpoint what some of these designs reminded me of, and you're right, it's totally Bayonetta. You can see it in some of the environments and enemy designs. Even Lumina has little flourishes to her costume that looked like they were swiped off Bayo.
 

MilkBeard

Member
I think it's there for a reason though... when was the last FF without a boss that didn't have 3-4 forms and had some sort of God-like presence? It's just something that's part of the franchise like 'crystals' are. You can probably bet that we'll get a similarish boss for XV, haha.

Maybe they can switch it up in a sidegame. :/
That's true. I think I just got fatigued with that because a lot of other JRPGs do it as well. But I think another thing is that I'm looking for a story that would draw me in again to make me care about that kind of a boss. It was cool when Kefka and Sephiroth did it, because I really liked them as antagonists. But we will see. Lightning Returns is a game where that kind of boss is very fitting, the game is building it up to be that way.
 

zeopower6

Member
That's true. I think I just got fatigued with that because a lot of other JRPGs do it as well. But I think another thing is that I'm looking for a story that would draw me in again to make me care about that kind of a boss. It was cool when Kefka and Sephiroth did it, because I really liked them as antagonists. But we will see. Lightning Returns is a game where that kind of boss is very fitting, the game is building it up to be that way.

Yeah... I think they just need to start from a fresh set of characters or something. Maybe we'll get more likable antagonists in XV or XVI compared to say Orphan or the boss in this game? Though I thought Caius was a pretty good 'final' boss... probably the best one of the XIII series.
 

Adaren

Member
Yeah, now that I think about it it had some Bayonetta vibes in it I would say.

The cutscenes with Lightning and Noel reminded me a lot of Bayonetta and Jeanne, for some reason. Something about the dialogue mixed with intermittent overly stylish action.
 

MilkBeard

Member
If there's anything that this game proves, it's that having a bit more action-oriented gameplay works well with Final Fantasy if it is done in a style that still keeps in mind the tactical nature of a turn based battle system. I'm actually really looking forward to see how XV will implement action and strategy.
 

zeopower6

Member
If there's anything that this game proves, it's that having a bit more action-oriented gameplay works well with Final Fantasy if it is done in a style that still keeps in mind the tactical nature of a turn based battle system. I'm actually really looking forward to see how XV will implement action and strategy.

I really liked the battle system but the ability to use one or two more schema in battle would have made it perrrrfeeeecttt.
 

MilkBeard

Member
I really liked the battle system but the ability to use one or two more schema in battle would have made it perrrrfeeeecttt.

Yeah, if only for the fact that you get so many of them, it's a shame to not be able to make a fourth usable costume in battle just to see what you can come up with. There are extra slots but I don't really bother putting them together until I really need to change to something else for a boss. Having one more would have been perfect. Although, I wonder if it would have made managing them during battle a bit more of a chore.
 

zeopower6

Member
Yeah, if only for the fact that you get so many of them, it's a shame to not be able to make a fourth usable costume in battle just to see what you can come up with. Having one more would have been perfect. Although, I wonder if it would have made managing them during battle a bit more of a chore.

I felt like they were trying to merge the system from XIII-2 with three characters into one with Lightning Returns (basically like the Requiem of the Goddess DLC but with less options)...

I'd have really liked things to pan out like the Requiem DLC rather than what we got here since I ran out of ATB too often, aghhh.
 

MilkBeard

Member
I felt like they were trying to merge the system from XIII-2 with three characters into one with Lightning Returns (basically like the Requiem of the Goddess DLC but with less options)...

I'd have really liked things to pan out like the Requiem DLC rather than what we got here since I ran out of ATB too often, aghhh.

I didn't play the DLC so I'm not sure what that was like. But I liked the ATB guage limitation, because it really forced me to figure out how to manage my time and attacks. That, and having that limitation gives more more strategy. For example, the outfit that has Artemis' Arrows starts low, so you have to wait for it to build up. But I have another outfit that has really fast ATB recovery, so I could time them just right to swtich between all of them.
 

zeopower6

Member
I didn't play the DLC so I'm not sure what that was like. But I liked the ATB guage limitation, because it really forced me to figure out how to manage my time and attacks. That, and having that limitation gives more more strategy. For example, the outfit that has Artemis' Arrows starts low, so you have to wait for it to build up. But I have another outfit that has really fast ATB recovery, so I could time them just right to swtich between all of them.

The DLC was similar to the XIII battle system but with different outfits (like Lightning Returns) with different 'paradigms'.
 

Yoshichan

And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
Can anyone link me the original trailer reveal thread for this game?
 
There's no way you can tell me that LR's ending is better than FFVII's end. That is LOL worthy.

I thought FFVII had a fucking stupid ending-- at least its execution. Jury's still out on LR as I haven't finished it yet, but if it's worse than VII's ending, it's a true abomination.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
I'm gonna take the bait and say I thought FFVIII's ending was terrible. But then again it was a culmination of the biggest deus ex machina in the history of everything.
 

Kuja9001

Banned
I officially hate 85%% of the Eng version. They screwed the plot up worse than it already was, changed character motivations. :(

The Good

Hope's
evil voice
Caius
Sazh
Fang
The Lore
Vanille
Snow's before & after battle cutscene
Lumina
The music
Bhuni's design
The battle system

The bad

Everything else
 
I officially hate 85%% of the Eng version. They screwed the plot up worse than it already was, changed character motivations. :(

The Good

Hope's
evil voice
Caius
Sazh
Fang
The Lore
Vanille
Snow's before & after battle cutscene
Lumina
The music
Bhuni's design
The battle system

The bad

Everything else

What was so different in the Japanese version?
 

Yoshichan

And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
Whatever happened to stacking debuffs:

SZS9A.png


And the clearly superior way of showing the stagger meter:

RGuPj.png
 

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
This game is easily going down as the biggest surprise of the year for me. I expected more crappy FFXIII, tried a bit of it, then fell in love with it. It's so awesome to be surprised by a game like that. A battle change and some ability to move around and the infrequency of cutscenes makes all the difference in the world.

The story is still dumb as hell, but some parts of it aren't too shit.
 
My time at the Wildlands continue

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If anyone wants this(X360 only) pm me
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Bg4rs8RCcAEUU6q.jpg

Finally healed Odinson
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Bg5BIpuCMAEGBb7.jpg

Arrived at Etro's place
Bg5FwizCMAA9L6H.jpg

Bg5GYkFCEAAJaqJ.jpg

Bg5GyrnCEAA-DE9.jpg

Lumina isn't the only girl
that causes shit.
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The path to the boss is long and difficult
Bg5Qpw6CIAA7Of_.jpg

Bg5Rd4BCQAA4S7c.jpg
 

Shinta

Banned
This game is easily going down as the biggest surprise of the year for me. I expected more crappy FFXIII, tried a bit of it, then fell in love with it. It's so awesome to be surprised by a game like that. A battle change and some ability to move around and the infrequency of cutscenes makes all the difference in the world.

The story is still dumb as hell, but some parts of it aren't too shit.

The platforming doesn't get enough praise either. It seems like a small thing, but the ease with which you can move around, dash, jump, and even climb on edges is actually really great. Moving around the environments has never been more fun in a FF game.

The chase in the
warren before you fight Noel
has light platforming that actually turns out to be pretty fun.

I'm really loving the game too, more than I expected. I didn't think there was any way I would like it more than the original XIII, but it might be my favorite of the 3. It does so much, so well, that most JRPGs don't even try. I think it really will go down as a cult favorite, like The Last Remnant and NieR.

Can't wait to see what they go for with X-3 and XV now. The more original, the better.
 
No spoilers plz, but is it ever explained why
Lumina looks exactly like Serah
? I'm assuming that
Serah just went into asshole-mode like everyone else seems to have.
 

Yoshichan

And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
Screenshots are better than Squares' own PR grabs...
 

Yoshichan

And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
No spoilers plz, but is it ever explained why
Lumina looks exactly like Serah
? I'm assuming that
Serah just went into asshole-mode like everyone else seems to have.
Explained.
 

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
The platforming doesn't get enough praise either. It seems like a small thing, but the ease with which you can move around, dash, jump, and even climb on edges is actually really great. Moving around the environments has never been more fun in a FF game.

The chase in the
warren before you fight Noel
has light platforming that actually turns out to be pretty fun.

I'm really loving the game too, more than I expected. I didn't think there was any way I would like it more than the original XIII, but it might be my favorite of the 3. It does so much, so well, that most JRPGs don't even try. I think it really will go down as a cult favorite, like The Last Remnant and NieR.

Can't wait to see what they go for with X-3 and XV now. The more original, the better.

Ha. And I hate FFXIII, yet am loving this. Isn't it ironic?

Dontcha think?
 

Shinta

Banned
Ha. And I hate FFXIII, yet am loving this. Isn't it ironic?

Dontcha think?

It's just honestly fun. I think most people into RPGs would like this if they can get past the harshness of the time mechanic. I haven't played a game quite like this honestly.

And it's challenging, not just in battles, but in time management.
 

Kuja9001

Banned
What was so different in the Japanese version?

The Eng ver omitted some very important stuff.

Cut/deleted the entire explanation as to why Hope is young again.

Bhunivelze is more creepy because he literally has Hope's
voice
. He has an entirely different
voice
in the Eng voice.

They screwed up parts of Noel's dialogue.

Lightning is more of an asshole towards people in the Eng ver. She calls Snow "little brother" or something but its changed to "you want me to be your sister."

What motivations changed?

I shouldn't have said motivations. Should've just said they messed up certain characters.
 

MilkBeard

Member
The DLC was similar to the XIII battle system but with different outfits (like Lightning Returns) with different 'paradigms'.

That sounds cool. I'm gonna have to check it out. I think XIII's battle system originally was very good, the only downside I felt were that the battles felt very grindy in length. XIII-2 made them much quicker paced, but yet took out some of the challenge and tactical nature that existed before.
 

zeopower6

Member
The Eng ver omitted some very important stuff.

Cut/deleted the entire explanation as to why Hope is young again.

Bhunivelze is more creepy because he literally has Hope's
voice
. He has an entirely different
voice
in the Eng voice.

They screwed up parts of Noel's dialogue.

Lightning is more of an asshole towards people in the Eng ver. She calls Snow "little brother" or something but its changed to "you want me to be your sister."

What was the explanation?

No spoilers plz, but is it ever explained why
Lumina looks exactly like Serah
? I'm assuming that
Serah just went into asshole-mode like everyone else seems to have.

It is explained. However, it's sort of loosely done iirc.
 

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
It's just honestly fun. I think most people into RPGs would like this if they can get past the harshness of the time mechanic. I haven't played a game quite like this honestly.

And it's challenging, not just in battles, but in time management.

Yeah, if they cut the time management out, it would rate much higher. That's a pet peeve of mine though. I work under constant deadlines all day long, so operating under one in a game isn't relaxing for me.

Honestly, the parts of the game shouldn't be entertaining to me. It's got only one character. The story is terrible. The visuals are super dark and muddy. It's FFXIII related.

But I like the music, the exploration, the side questing, the movement, the VA is good, if sometimes silly, the world is fun to poke around in and the battle system is great fun. I like being able to customize everything about the battle system too and being able to change colors and outfits...well, that's always been a guilty pleasure of mine. I like making characters in games like Elder Scrolls almost as much as playing the game. Finding new swords, shields and silly hats in this is very entertaining.

But overall, it sort of nails that FF feel I've been missing for a long time, that I can't really describe. I think the fewer amount of cutscenes helps with that.
 

MilkBeard

Member
The platforming doesn't get enough praise either. It seems like a small thing, but the ease with which you can move around, dash, jump, and even climb on edges is actually really great. Moving around the environments has never been more fun in a FF game.

The chase in the
warren before you fight Noel
has light platforming that actually turns out to be pretty fun.

I'm really loving the game too, more than I expected. I didn't think there was any way I would like it more than the original XIII, but it might be my favorite of the 3. It does so much, so well, that most JRPGs don't even try. I think it really will go down as a cult favorite, like The Last Remnant and NieR.

Can't wait to see what they go for with X-3 and XV now. The more original, the better.
Yeah, in my previous comment I focused on how Final Fantasy seems to work well with an action battle system, but I also feel that the light action elements on the map also help make the game feel fresh. I hope they keep some of this for XV in a sense that you aren't just walking on straight roads, but you can climb things and jump, and even slash your weapon outside of battle if you want to.
 

HeelPower

Member
I'm gonna take the bait and say I thought FFVIII's ending was terrible. But then again it was a culmination of the biggest deus ex machina in the history of everything.

FFVIII had a great , heart warming ending with some truly memorable CGI moments.

Incomparable to LR.
 
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