Lightning Returns is.. pretty good?!

[Xeogred]

My only fear is that I think Lightning is hands down one of the worst characters I have ever seen. I like her voice actor (Liara from Mass Effect I think), but it's all in the writing/dialogue here... I wanted to barf everytime she popped up in XIII-2. Fang, Noel, or even Snow (if he wasn't attached to Hope in XIII which utterly ruined him), would have been better leads.

Just hoping this game makes her more human. Either way still looks fun.

I've grown to like the composers behind this trilogy too. LR's OST is already all over youtube and it's pretty damn good, as was XIII-2's.

[Valkyrie-Favor]

@Soap
Not that many jRPGs feature characters in underwear, but for those that do...you've definitely got a point.

@Xeogred
Yeah, FFXIII has one of the greatest game soundtracks around. Square being rich enough to get it performed by a real orchestra made it even better.

[CavZee]

I really don't know what to think of this game yet. FFXIII was probably the most disappointing game I've ever played but I feel alot of that is due to the fact that my standards are really high for Final Fantasy and Square in general. I picked up XIII-2 for super cheap the other day so I'll try it out at some point and go from there.

[MrEco]

I can't quite put my finger on why but I'm one of those backwards people that really liked XIII, and yet I wasn't too fond of XIII-2. XIII-2 wasn't bad in any way, but I couldn't get invested at all in the characters or story. And I thought that replacing the third member of your party with collectible animals felt like a gimmicky step backwards.


Lightning Returns looks amazing from everything I've seen so far. And thanks to this thread I learned that there is a demo, which I'm downloading now.

[MrPopo]

So after playing the demo, it looks like they're dipping in the X-2 well again. The costume system is your equipment, which means this is the first Final Fantasy where your gear actually shows up on your character. You get to mix and match the three gear slots to get the best stats you can, and then you get to pick your attacks (minus any ones that are locked on to your gear), so you can set yourself up well for upcoming fights. And the way the ATB gauge works you are encouraged to rapidly shift between your costume sets.

[isiolia]

I can't quite put my finger on why but I'm one of those backwards people that really liked XIII, and yet I wasn't too fond of XIII-2. XIII-2 wasn't bad in any way, but I couldn't get invested at all in the characters or story. And I thought that replacing the third member of your party with collectible animals felt like a gimmicky step backwards.

I dunno, I'm currently playing XIII-2 and to me it feels like the limited cast has helped keep things focused, both in terms of story, and leveling (since you can just use whatever pets to complement how you want to level Serah and Noel).

The costume system is your equipment, which means this is the first Final Fantasy where your gear actually shows up on your character.

First offline one to do it perhaps.

[MrEco]

Okay, so I played the demo. I love the combat system. I'll still always prefer the old ATB/turn based method from the classic final fantasy games but this one is really fun and actually quite imaginative.

Didn't know Lightning Returns was going to be open world. My excitement just wen't through the roof.


Also, anyone else think it was a bit weird that after defeating the demo boss the game warns you that the demo will end at 6AM in-game time but then you walk down a hallway, watch a cutscene, and the demo is over anyway? lol

[MrPopo]

The costume system is your equipment, which means this is the first Final Fantasy where your gear actually shows up on your character.

First offline one to do it perhaps.

There were no online Final Fantasy games. For some reason Square decided to skip 11 when they numbered the series.

Also, anyone else think it was a bit weird that after defeating the demo boss the game warns you that the demo will end at 6AM in-game time but then you walk down a hallway, watch a cutscene, and the demo is over anyway? lol

I think the idea was you would turn around and explore a bit and try to refight that boss until you got five stars and could send your scores to the internet, and in that case you only had so much time.

[Xeogred]

If anything I do hope they can keep this battle system around in the future somehow. It definitely seems like an improvement over the first two to me. Similar, but a lot more control is back in your hands.

[MrPopo]

If anything I do hope they can keep this battle system around in the future somehow. It definitely seems like an improvement over the first two to me. Similar, but a lot more control is back in your hands.

I feel like this battle system is best suited for a single character, not a party. With the other XIII battle systems your switching between paradigms was based around accomplishing a particular goal, so the autopilot was fine. With this it feels like you switch between to keep a combo chain going, so having other party members on autopilot and suddenly switching their job would probably mess up what you're trying to accomplish.