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LTTP: Lightning Returns: Terminal Fantasy Xiii - trash, but *my* trash (Full spoilers for those who care)

• Thread starter Lozange
• Get-go date Nov 30, 2019

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• #1

I like bad games sometimes.

...This probably isn't the best starting judgement to sell someone on why my enjoyment of Lightning Returns is valid, let me start again.

Lightning Returns is a JRPG that exists, that theoretically is supposed to be the big finale to the final fantasy XIII trilogy. The game is in fact this, but really only for a few hours full. We'll get into why this is after, but what ends up happening is that characters non named Vanille or Serah (who both become developed indirectly through other characters) or Lightning or Promise (who are nowadays throughout the game), each go a dedicated arc, that generally involves echoing their arcs from the by two games, before the plot abandons them until the end of the game, when the concluding CG cutscenes cover a lot of ground in about five minutes to wrap things up vaguely properly.
If you're entering Lightning Returns hoping for in depth character studies or something, I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed. Lightning is the closest the game gets to having a proper character report, and... it's a scrap messy? In an anime sort of way. By the end of the game I was just almost on board with information technology, but I wouldn't go to a friend "WOW, Lightning. What a grapheme".

So story. Not a total trainwreck, simply it'due south not why you play the game, even if information technology'southward enjoyable in an anime sort of style. Why do you play the game? Well the music is probably the to the lowest degree controversial reason number one. It's very good! I love the Ark theme? Information technology's very pretty and memorable due to it playing during the rare periods where the clock isn't slowly ticking down to your impending doom.

...Oh, speaking of, reason two. Lightning Returns has a clocking ticking downward to your impending doom. And the game commits to the thought? Ofttimes in these sorts of games, "common sense" and "game pattern" will implement a fourth dimension loop, or some style of maintaining your progress to a reasonable caste even if the clock hits nix. Majora's Mask let's you return to the dawn of the first mean solar day at virtually any time, whilst keeping all your items, for instance. Lightning Returns however? Not so friendly.

The game gives you the ability Chronostasis, which allows you to freeze time for a fleck. The problem? you need EP to bandage it (And various other useful abilities, similar Curaga), which you can just get from either
A) at the beginning of every in game twenty-four hours, when your EP bar is refilled.
B) from (VERY RARE IN MY EXPERIENCE) ethers and other specific healing items.
or C) chirapsia enemies.

Some people like grinding enemies all the time and thus can spam Chronostasis whenever they want. If you're like me however and don't like grinding and are also bad at videogames, what other options are there?
Well you can become a limited amount of actress time by doing master story content. And also side quests to an extent.
And if you completely fail in that location's new game plus, which puts you back at (almost) the VERY Get-go of the game.
...
...
That'southward it!

This is a scrap unfair. There'south an unreasonable amount of penalty for taking your time in this game, especially since even earlier the terminate, the game gets harder the longer you lot take to do things. And if you do well at the game early, the rest of the game is going to exist easier despite you proving that y'all're a more skilled player who probably needs the claiming.
And yet I dear it. At its worst, adept game design is homogeneous. Once you lot find a style of doing something right, in that location's less incentive to practise something weirdly. "If information technology ain't broke, don't set up it", later all. The fourth dimension system in Lightning Returns? A fundamentally flawed idea. Just it hits on something great: Time is *literally* your enemy in this game, and yous accept to fight tooth and nail to avert a disastrous outcome for both the world, and you the actor. Gameplay and Narrative synchronise to create a sense of harmony! Would this take happened if the time system was more forgiving, or if information technology wasn't present at all? I don't think it would have, or if information technology did it wouldn't resemble what Lightning Returns has in actuality.

This sort of design permeates Lightning Returns. The main quest is ninety% nonlinear! Bad matter: The story is therefore kind of shit because there'south no real progression across individual quest-lines. Good thing: You tin can choose what lodge to tackle things, and fifty-fifty get elsewhere when y'all're having a hard time. It's similar Megaman! But information technology's a JRPG.

Side Quests get a lot of emphasis in Lightning Returns, and information technology's expected y'all do them. Bad affair: They evidently ran out of Side Quest ideas (...and unique models) at some point, because things go repetitive quickly. Good thing: Things also go WEIRD chop-chop. There'due south a quest about a robot who's trying to reunite with his friends which I swear could have been ripped straight out of Nier Automata. And besides a lot of side quests are run by generic NPCs in goofy hats? That'south hilarious. I'm very down for this.

...Y'all go the idea. Only let's talk virtually The Incident. What's The Incident? Something that happened to me towards the stop of my playthrough, where several systems conspired against me along with the internet itself, so that the game had it out for me and withal I had a blast.

Some quick setup: Lightning Returns ultimately, when you do all the main quests and some side quests, has a time limit of 13 days until the stop game. Simply if you do a LOT of sidequests, you tin unlock a secret 14th day, which game acknowledges as a special feat you didn't have to do. There'southward some bonus content associated with that extra twenty-four hour period, and then I wanted to go for information technology. I finished upwards my primary quests around day 11, looked online, saw that I needed to complete 40 sidequests to unlock day 14, leisurely did what I needed to with copious usage of the inn (which lets you skip alee, to do things that require you to exist effectually at specific times). I finished quest 40, saved my game, and used the inn to go to the terminate of the day.

I didn't unlock day 14. I reloaded my save. I rechecked my completed sidequest number. It was in fact twoscore.

I had five in game hours to figure out what exactly needed doing and do it. And no EP.

To make a long story curt, after some furious googling with no consistent results, I spent a lot of time planning my route to complete every bit many quests equally possible in the span of what fourth dimension I had, and barely fabricated it. Both in terms of time and in terms of quests I had available: All quests I left uncompleted, I would have needed the ability to advance time frontwards to encounter someone during the day. (One quest I didn't realise this was the instance until I had otherwise completed it and went to the NPC to turn it in. Ane curse later, I reloaded my save.)
Over again, it's non exactly fair. To this day I'm still non sure what exactly the requirement is for the 14th day beyond "Exercise more than sidequests". But I had a lot of fun running around, non knowing if it was even possible to unlock the 14th day in my then electric current land. Information technology was tense! It was honestly kind of hilarious whenever I went "SURELY THIS IS ENOUGH" and then information technology wasn't. (I also shared my frustrations to anyone who would listen because who wouldn't - that was fun too).

And so yeah, Lightning Returns. Good game? Questionably. But super memorable and fun game? For me personally, yes. I loved my time with information technology, and I acknowledge that non everyone will feel the same way. But I'm glad I played and finished information technology. It'southward flawed, but in a really interesting way, and you tin't say that for many games.

P.South. Too the battle organisation is good or any, and you lot can dress Lightning in a tuxedo and have a bunch of women recall you're super hot. That's cool.
P.P.Southward. I played on PC? Plainly PS3 has performance issues. Performance problems are rarely a fun interesting flaw. Play on PC.

Final edited: Nov thirty, 2019

• #2

Glad you enjoyed it! I've been thinking well-nigh replaying it on PC recently, and your post might exist the matter that makes me actually go for it.

I was kind of in a similar boat when I played Lightning Returns around it's release: I went into information technology expecting it to be a trainwreck (the title of the game is practically self-parody), and information technology was a trainwreck, but in a way that I actually enjoyed. The boxing system was awesome, the music was awesome, the customization was crawly, the side-quests were absurd and hilarious (and therefore awesome?), the plot was a hot anime mess (but with enough flashiness and great music to be awesome in a trashy sort of way). The time mechanic is the sort of matter that would commonly stress me out to no end, but I used Chronoatasis a lot and ended upwardly finishing every side-quest with ample days to spare. Still, the mere beingness of the clock meant that I planned my routes and made sure to keep rails of what objectives I needed to complete, which became a bit of a mini-game in itself.

And the catastrophe. Oh my god. Information technology's the hottest of messes, but I admittedly love it. It's epic, it'due south stupid, and information technology simply makes me happy.

Overall, the game definitely exceeded my expectations, and I actually consider information technology ane of my favorite surprises from last gen. It might be the roughest of the FFXIII trilogy, just y'all can also tell that the developers were having a lot of fun making it and kind of let their ideas run wild. That passion is really visible in the final product, and it makes the game all the more than lovable for me.

P.Southward. I played it in 360, which I think was supposed to have a marginally better frame charge per unit than the PS3, simply when the fish enemies in the desert did their accuse attack the frame rate would plummet to literally 2-3 FPS for the entire time that the sand particles were on screen. So yep, definite operation bug, just it was such an absurd corporeality of lag caused by such an unassuming enemy that I kind of establish it endearing in a weird mode, lol.

Last edited: November 30, 2019

• #3

A rose has many meanings: passion, love and beauty.

Unfortunately LR has none of these things or otherwise it could be pretty good.

• #5

i accept this weird, kind of difficult to justify hidden desire to play through Xiii-two and 3. I just... I only have to know, homo. I wish I could play them with a 4x speedup or something.

• #6

I enjoyed 13 and xiii-2 enough but couldn't get into LR. I remember beingness at some signal in the game and couldn't become out of the surface area until a gate or door opened up the adjacent day (something like that) and then I just turned the game off and never played it over again. Maybe I should give it another get.

• #7

I will never empathise why Square decided to triple downwards on FFXIII last gen.

• #viii

I played LR with cheat engine to exist able to stop the timer whenever I desire and have my time to explore and practice everything in the game and it made me Love the game, the sidequests are great and the gameplay is one of the best in whatever jrpgs.

LR's final boss is the all-time concluding boss of the serial imo. Incredible finale fight.

i have this weird, kind of difficult to justify hidden want to play through XIII-2 and three. I but... I just have to know, man. I wish I could play them with a 4x speedup or something.

Xiii-2 is literally one of my favorite FF, incredibly underrated by critics imo and Caius is my favorite last fantasy vilain. (along with Emet Selch now)

If yous read reviews they pretty much all say that it's better than FF XIII, but.. it has a lower metacritic score? Shit makes no sense. The game is great. Play it.

• #ix

Glad yous enjoyed it! I've been thinking about replaying it on PC recently, and your post might exist the matter that makes me actually get for it.

I was kind of in a similar boat when I played Lightning Returns around information technology's release: I went into information technology expecting information technology to be a trainwreck (the title of the game is practically self-parody), and it was a trainwreck, merely in a style that I really enjoyed. The battle system was crawly, the music was awesome, the customization was awesome, the side-quests were absurd and hilarious (and therefore awesome?), the plot was a hot anime mess (but with enough flashiness and smashing music to be awesome in a trashy sort of way). The fourth dimension mechanic is the sort of matter that would normally stress me out to no terminate, simply I used Chronoatasis a lot and ended up finishing every side-quest with ample days to spare. Still, the mere existence of the clock meant that I planned my routes and made sure to proceed track of what objectives I needed to consummate, which became a bit of a mini-game in itself.

And the ending. Oh my god. It's the hottest of messes, only I absolutely dearest it. It'south ballsy, it'southward stupid, and information technology simply makes me happy.

Overall, the game definitely exceeded my expectations, and I really consider it i of my favorite surprises from final gen. Information technology might exist the roughest of the FFXIII trilogy, simply y'all can also tell that the developers were having a lot of fun making information technology and kind of let their ideas run wild. That passion is really visible in the final product, and it makes the game all the more lovable for me.

Yeah pretty much. Information technology's a very lovable game, despite uh, everything.

This is my favourite meme, thank y'all for blessing this thread with it.

• #x

Was thinking of peradventure replaying this. Are there any recommendations on forcing some grade of AA on this game? Downsampling works for me at the moment.

• #11

This game's battle organisation is really one of my favorites in the series. I don't know if that's weird or not but whatsoever.

• #12

This game's battle arrangement is really ane of my favorites in the series. I don't know if that'south weird or not just whatever.

Aforementioned. Would love some other game with it. I enjoyed the boxing organisation in this waaaay more than any other game in the series, all the way from NES-PS4

• #xiii

This game's battle organization is actually one of my favorites in the series. I don't know if that'southward weird or not but whatever.

Not weird at all! The boxing organization is awesome. It supports creativity and crazy builds while too having a lot of room for skill in the actual battles.

• #14

This game'southward boxing system is actually ane of my favorites in the series. I don't know if that's weird or not merely whatever.

This is a weird comparison, but it actually reminds me a lot of the strengths of the Pokémon boxing system in some ways? Only (effectively) having twelve moves to work with in each fight actually forces y'all to engage with what exactly each power does, and I love that whilst you can level up skills, burn is non necessarily worse than firaga depending on the circumstances. Rather than "large damage numbers make the enemies become boom" (although there is a bit of that), lightning returns demands that you lot really try and sympathise what you lot're doing.

• #fifteen

I find the Concluding Fantasy Xiii story too disruptive hence my disdain for the sub-series.

• #16

I thought the first two areas were a lot of fun, but the last two were a bit of a drag.

I adored the game though. Information technology gets bonus points for allowing me to put glasses on the MC (same reason Hearts of Rock is the all-time expansions for The Witcher 3). Also the kazoo version of Battle on the Big Span.

i accept this weird, kind of hard to justify hidden desire to play through Thirteen-2 and 3. I just... I just have to know, man. I wish I could play them with a 4x speedup or something.

FFXIII-2 is a legitimately great game. After taking 6 years to play through FFXIII, I blew through Xiii-2 in a calendar week. Not bad systems and one of the all-time FF villains. The story is bonkers but that tin make it somewhat enjoyable in its own fashion.

• #17

The main reason I skipped LR is how terrible the story is, and how Lightning became a catch-all protagonist.

I thought FFXIII-1 was a very solid game with a satisfying ending and skilful earth/character arcs, especially for Lightning. FFXIII-two is just fun to play as a game but with unnecessary story complications and abrasive characters.

But with LR, not merely are they rehashing the same story over again, only they're doing it actually poorly too. Hope is just a terrible choice for a narrator/commentator.

And so again, I can't deny how the battle system looks. And how crazy expert the OST is. You could tell the composers had lots of fun making information technology. I'grand in love with this 1 in particular:

• #eighteen

I thought information technology was disappointing just enjoyed the ending which was a great send off for all the characters in the trilogy.

Lightning herself was just really boring later on the first game, definitely non interesting enough to make her the sole playable graphic symbol.

The gameplay I found relatively challenging, I likewise like how brutal the fourth dimension limit actually is, and I liked the idea that as the world was winding downward and everything was dying that you could actually chase a species of monster into extinction and fight a rare "Final One" version that is trying its hardest to avoid dying.

The globe design was also really well put together and the music was keen.

I feel like with a few changes it could have been a vivid game

Concluding edited: December 13, 2019

• #nineteen

i have this weird, kind of hard to justify subconscious desire to play through 13-2 and 3. I just... I but have to know, man. I wish I could play them with a 4x speedup or something.

XIII-two is a very good game.

Lightning Returns kinda...isn't. Also OP, at that place is a DLC costume or something for lightning that makes gaining EP through combat completely footling. I purchased it ASAP, it'southward the merely manner the game is tolerable.

edit: haha, it's this one

you don't have to vesture the entire (completely ridiculous) outfit, just the weapon is sufficient.

• #20

XIII-2 is a very skillful game.

Lightning Returns kinda...isn't. Also OP, at that place is a DLC costume or something for lightning that makes gaining EP through combat completely footling. I purchased it ASAP, it's the only mode the game is tolerable.

For me office of the fun was finding ways to get EP. In one case you lot know what to practice the time limit actually isn't a problem. It's such a pity that they didn't become a bigger upkeep to do more things with the game.

• #21

For me part of the fun was finding ways to get EP. Once y'all know what to exercise the fourth dimension limit really isn't a problem. Information technology's such a pity that they didn't get a bigger budget to do more things with the game.

I'd disagree there. this office of the game wasn't fun and is just bad game pattern. I'm on board with the OP:

This is a bit unfair. At that place'southward an unreasonable corporeality of penalty for taking your time in this game, especially since even before the end, the game gets harder the longer you have to do things. And if you do well at the game early on on, the balance of the game is going to be easier despite y'all proving that you're a more skilled thespian who probably needs the claiming.

That the moogle queen outfit exists appears to be a concession from Square that "ok, yep the EP thing doesn't quite work" and using it takes the game's EP system from "unreasonable" down to "manageable" if you're somewhat decent at combat.

Otherwise, avoid this mess. At that place's actually non much here that justifies the time or try, and anyone expecting a payoff to FFXIII or FFXIII-2 is going to be actually disappointed.

• #22

XIII-two is a very proficient game.

Lightning Returns kinda...isn't. Also OP, at that place is a DLC costume or something for lightning that makes gaining EP through combat completely petty. I purchased information technology ASAP, information technology's the just way the game is tolerable.

edit: haha, it's this one

you don't take to wear the unabridged (completely ridiculous) outfit, just the weapon is sufficient.

See I heard the dlc costumes broke the game then I didn't use them. Take to say, I recommend my decision. :p

• #23

See I heard the dlc costumes bankrupt the game and then I didn't use them. Have to say, I recommend my determination. :p

Nah. The DLC costumes aren't really very good OR worth the effort with the exception of the moogle queen one (imo) since information technology allows EP generation through perfect attacks and guarding.

Y'all'll still be doing a decent amount of fighting, merely it makes the EP thing manageable instead of a frustration. I doubt I would have bothered to finish the game without the mog staff.

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