FFXIII: Lightning Returns

I did a google search and a guy had a similar problem, but it did eventually appear in the Rewards Barter shop.

I had to overclock a couple of times to beat it...you get 4 EP for killing it though, so dont be afraid to overclock.

Use Ice spells when its using Wrecking Ball to stagger it!

Also, when you defeat an enemy and a crystal (like XIII-2 monster crystal) appears, it's dropped an ability. Just something I've noticed :)

http://www.gametrailers.com/reviews/l06w3t/lightning-returns--final-fantasy-xiii-review

Over scored.

Anyone know how to get the RDM Chapeau? D:

Been using RDM since I got it, but it hasn't felt right without my hat and that thing is no where to be found!

A 6.0 for a main series FF game? Square, what have you done!

My god, even X-2 was banking 9s and 9.5s even if part of that was coming off years of immediately equating Final Fantasy with perfection.

Cannot tell if you're being serious or sarcastic, Sparthos.

Then again, I can't tell if people detest FFXIII (and its pointless sub-franchise) because they detest FFXIII (and its pointless sub-franchise) or because it is the cool thing to detest FFXIII (and its pointless sub-franchise). I do know that I read a random article about video games that lied straight to our face (Aliens: Colonial Marines being one of the top examples, to give an idea) and, in spite of not having a single Final Fantasy game in it, nonetheless used a screenshot of Snow from FFXIII (and its pointless sub-franchise) as the teaser image.

(Parentheses.)

FFXI-2 Yuna

Garb: Sphere Hunter
-Max ATB 0
-Default ATB 70%
-Crashing Waves Lv.*(Rapid attacks that can launch enemies in the air)
--ATB Cost 15
--Phy. Atk. x2.00
--Stag. Power E
--Stag. Time C

Weapon: Brotherhood
-STR 330
-MAG 100

Shield: Guardian's Protector
-HP 1500
-ATB Speed 0
-Guard 0
-STR 200
-Blitz Ace(Guarding for 10 seconds grants Brave/Faith for a short time)





Tomb Raider

Garb: Tomb Raider
-Max ATB 0
-Default ATB 100%
-Fatak Sweep Lv.3(Attacks in the direction you point and deals physical DMG)
--ATB Cost 16
--Phy. Atk. x1.45
--Stag. Power D
--Stag. Time A

Weapon: Survivor's Axe
-STR 300
-MAG 150
-Sole Survivor(Increases DMG when HP is under 50%)
-Survival Instinct(Greatly increases DMG when HP is under 15%)

Shield: Riot Shield
-HP 0
-ATB Speed 0
-Guard 150
-Critical Barrier(Reduces DMG taken under 50%)
-Critical Barrier+(Greatly reduces DMG taken under 15%)

I would say that assessment in the video is pretty spot on. Lightning really does kill it for me, and while there are a few characters and whatnot I care about I just can't get into, or maybe follow the story.

Right from the get go two of my least favorite characters are in the game. I only was able to tolerate Hope in FFXIII-2 because he was slightly cooler (aka less of a ***) as an adult.

The whole premise of "God said to do this thing" really boggles my mind too. Wasn't half the story behind FFXIII that there was some sort of God-like being telling people what to do and turning them to crystals if they didn't do it? What the hell makes Lightning think that listening to "God" will work out so well? Because his warm light touched her skin?

Also, does anyone know when this game is taking place? Lightning slept for 500 years... 500 years from which point in time exactly? 500 years from the "end of Serah's journey", or 500 years from the "end of time" where she was sat down to sleep?

They messed up the story, tried to add a bad time management requirement mechanic, and the graphics look kinda sub-par by compare to the other 2(though I still think they are good overall) which in the end drags down the game a bit where otherwise it would be awesome.

The reason the game should get a much higher score really is the gameplay, which was for the most part a massive fix over what came from the other 2 with their 'Auto-Attack' which basically allowed you to hit A and win the game in a lot of cases. But the fact they messed up the other parts drags it down considerably, especially when you are looking at a franchise which has essentially built itself on not only good gameplay, but amazing stories which this really seems to lack.

My personal issues with the game I think are the lack of fast travel methods that don't feel to limited(Teleport is cool, till you run out of EP and fight a Behemoth who rips your face off leaving you without a Curaga/Arise) and the whole 'quests are the only way to raise your stats' thing, which really annoys me...

That is a rough approximation, yes. But the party (and thereby the player) do exactly what the Fal'Cie demand of them in spite of knowing both what it is and why it's a bad idea. Like, super bad idea. It's called "Ragnarok" for a reason. So basically doing stupid ***at the behest of some deity-like entity is sort of the theme of FFXIII.

(and its pointless sub-franchise)

I'd go into detail about god, but I don't wanna say anything without ruining the plot.
As for when the game takes place, it's 500 years after the chaos was unleashed on the world at the end of ff13-2 I believe, so yeah when serah dies.

I really tried to enjoy XIII but it was just such a huge step back when it came to the battle system and almost no exploration, which is a very big part of Final Fantasy. Characters were either depressing or so joyful it didn't fit the situation. Music was pretty terrible too, imo. It's a decent RPG but it's not Final Fantasy to me, unlike previous entries. I liked X-2 more than this and all the Tactics Advance games were far more enjoyable.

The battle system in XIII didn't really fit PS3/360, it felt like a big step back from being able to move around like in XII. ATB has no place in Next Gen, keep that for when you make a 3DS or Vita game. While XII technically had ATB, it at least had different attack speeds for different weapons and you could move around the map and use an ability whenever you wanted to (with a small cast timer) and run away when you didn't want to fight.

The new one in XIII-3 looks good though, definitely a step in the right direction.

SE can shrug off and justify bad scores, it's the paltry sales numbers that should wake them up. It's going to be the worst selling game in their history, and one of the biggest, if not the biggest, flop of the year.

Did they even spend a lot on it though? This game was basically thrown out of their office so fast I don't think it had that much work put into it(and the results kinda hint at this too).

I dont think they spent a lot on it, which is a problem in itself. This is their lead brand, I mean, all of their other RPG brands are dead.

I actually found Lightning to be quite likable so far. (Hope can still fall off the Ark for all I care.) It only took 3 games for them to figure out how to give a personality while still keeping her surly demeanor. She has this ***-it-all attitude for the most part, but she gets to be genuinely compassionate and a little silly during some of the side quests.

I also don't agree with the reviewer saying the story was overwrought. It's fairly straightforward but the dialogue does assume some familiarity with the story thus far so perhaps that's why the reviewer came to that conclusion. The battle system really is the saving grace of the game. It's great fun to *** around with schema and try out different strategies. Many of the encounters are no push-overs either.

As far as Lightning's relationship with God, her motivations for working for him are pretty clear from the beginning. It's almost comes off as a reluctant employee-employer dynamic where they're both just working with each other for their own selfish interests.

This is kind of nice to hear, since even though I found 13 pretty unlikable on the whole there were glimmers of interesting ideas there, one of which being "here is a JRPG protagonist who clearly suffers from depression but is still functional, unlike what we've done in the past".

What was their excuse for not delivering the dynamic action sequences from the trailers? You know with Lighting bouncing all about the screen with her gravity thingy?

And no I don't mean the "storyline" excuse of how the device was broken.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

To me, the lore of FF13 is solid, very well thought out, and very interesting.

The story, with all the gameplay cut out, is okay. It's not the best SE is capable of, or should I say Square was capable of, but it certainly isn't horrible.

The gameplay is an insult to the amazing lore these games were given. To the point that it actually disrespects it, and you wouldn't even know about it unless you did your research.

The gameplay wasn't anything special for the first two games. The 3rd game looked a bit exciting in the demo, but I have to reserve my opinion until I try the full version myself, and although I haven't played the 3rd, I doubt it respected the lore of the game anymore than the first two did.

It all comes down to taste in the end though. Scores can give you an insight on what the gaming industry expects a game to be, and calls out it's flaws, but are all opinions.

You can't say, "Lightning is a horrible character, it's a fact!", because there are going to be people who like that type of character, even if you don't agree with why they do, or how they could. Maybe they have bad taste, maybe their taste is just different than yours.

However, I'm personally glad to see the end of 13, not because I hate the games, or that I am disapointed with them and their wasted potential, but it was well over time to move on.

I look forward to what FFXV has to offer, and I hope that the 6-7+ year wait will somehow pay off, even though we are looking at another 3+ games for that one as well.

Maybe FFXV won't be as painful this time around, with a different developer and a different world. Hopefully people can forgive what FF13 has done to the name, whether you like 13 or not, and give FFXV a fresh chance and an honest opinion.

I couldn't disagree more.

You talking about the lore or the story?

The story was awful. It was a short game and the story became fairly irrelevant once you got to the planet. The characters were all forgettable, so much that I have forgotten them, who was the villain again? Who did I even fight against at the end of the game, don't even know.

I won't say the lore isn't rather thorough. I will say that it is completely divorced from the game, especially FFXIII itself. Playing the game without reading through the datalogs, it is very easy to have no clue who or what anything is. Contrast this with Mass Effect which had a similarly huge amount of text-dump datalogs but still engaged the character in the universe through gameplay such that we know what X and Y are and their histories to a limited degree.

I also find the plot, the big one involving the big bad and his motivations, ridiculously stupid. But I can say that about literally every Final Fantasy villain. Someone needs to teach Square-Enix how to write credible villains. At least Kefka wanting to burn the world was a result of him being made into a Magitek Knight and, consequently, completely insane. All the rest seem to want to skull-*** the universe to death since life causes pain.

Ok I didn't realize the difference quoting. Yes I meant the story(of which biggest fault is on the characters who are extremely plain).

But the lore isn't so rich either, it's just the legend of Bhunivelze going QQ about his mom and creating a triad etc. Do you mean something else?

Yeah, I mean, there was some seriously goofy ***going on left and right in 13, most of it was pretty poorly explained, and it was on the whole really, really insistent that I take it seriously.

120 or so hours of my life in the last two games and I still have no goddamn idea what a fal'Cie actually is.

Kuja is very credible to me.

inb4 derail..

Did you skip every cutscene in the entire game?