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

Zafir

Member
Wow next friday? Seriously? Same day as Toukiden and Danganronpa? How did I not realise it was the same day?

Pretty much confirms I probably won't play this much.
 

Storm360

Member
Should I play and finish XIII and XIII-2 first?


Is there any benefit to having completed save files? I have XIII and XIII-2 on 360, but can get PS3 versions if there is any reason to
 

RPGCrazied

Member
Just wondered, but does the full game start like the demo? Just wondering if anything is before that.

No recap of XIII-2 or anything?
 

Caffeine

Member
Should I play and finish XIII and XIII-2 first?


Is there any benefit to having completed save files? I have XIII and XIII-2 on 360, but can get PS3 versions if there is any reason to

you get lightnings costume from 13 and 13-2 if u have save files from those games and no they dont have to be completed.
 
What I meant was: If I avoid the demo, am I still able to get Siegfried any other way?
Oh I see. I don't think so as it is not going to be available as a DLC. It is completely free.

You may not know this but if you have saves for Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2, you will unlock two additional costumes.
 

zroid

Banned
Gotta be honest, I've been feeling a bit intrigued by this game lately. I don't really expect it to be any good, but it sounds like it might be just weird enough to capture my interest and get me to buy it.

...that said, I expect a bomba so I'm gonna wait till it's inevitably $20 in a couple months
 

Holmes

Member
Does anyone know how long it takes for Digital River shipments to get to Toronto? Just want to know when I should be expecting my CE.
 

Nohar

Member
Oh? I wasn't expecting this OT until saturday. Great work Kagari!

Not expecting much from the story, but at least the gameplay seems entertaining. I hope that my order will be delivered the 14th (it's released 02/14 in Europe).
 

Pollux

Member
I own XIII...loved FF X, XII, and what played of XIV. Should I pop in XIII and try to play through the trilogy?
 
After the demo part ends you get some silly monologue.

Ugh. I know I have mentioned this in an older thread, but I really do wish the game had started with Lightning
coming out of crystal
, meeting up with Hope, and finding out her mission and what was going on in the world. It would at least feel like it was connected to the previous game. When you start LR, everything feels so bizarre. There are characters you recognize, but only in their appearance (their personalities are wildly different). It would have been better (imo) to slowly introduce these elements than to throw you into the middle of things. They made this mistake with XIII, too.
 
Ugh. I know I have mentioned this in an older thread, but I really do wish the game had started with Lightning
coming out of crystal
, meeting up with Hope, and finding out her mission and what was going on in the world. It would at least feel like it was connected to the previous game. When you start LR, everything feels so bizarre. There are characters you recognize, but only in their appearance (their personalities are wildly different). It would have been better (imo) to slowly introduce these elements than to throw you into the middle of things. They made this mistake with XIII, too.

I believe they do that so you can start in the action already. The first XIII days, in XIII, has few moments where the any of the main cast fights anything. The cast got their powers later on.

Every XIII game seems to do this though.
 
Xbox got some LR stuff

Bf059v1CUAA-82t.jpg
 

Kagari

Crystal Bearer
Ugh. I know I have mentioned this in an older thread, but I really do wish the game had started with Lightning
coming out of crystal
, meeting up with Hope, and finding out her mission and what was going on in the world. It would at least feel like it was connected to the previous game. When you start LR, everything feels so bizarre. There are characters you recognize, but only in their appearance (their personalities are wildly different). It would have been better (imo) to slowly introduce these elements than to throw you into the middle of things. They made this mistake with XIII, too.

Toriyama isn't a very good director.
 
D

Deleted member 20920

Unconfirmed Member
Ugh. I know I have mentioned this in an older thread, but I really do wish the game had started with Lightning
coming out of crystal
, meeting up with Hope, and finding out her mission and what was going on in the world. It would at least feel like it was connected to the previous game. When you start LR, everything feels so bizarre. There are characters you recognize, but only in their appearance (their personalities are wildly different). It would have been better (imo) to slowly introduce these elements than to throw you into the middle of things. They made this mistake with XIII, too.

I'm ok with stories starting in media res but Toriyama just doesn't do it well. The 3rd Birthday is another great example of his great writing.

Anyways, not bothering with the English release since I've played through (but not fully done everything yet) the Chinese release already. Shall repurchase when the price gets low. Too many good games coming out in the mean time. I shall bravely default from LR (
no product placement intended :p
)
 
I'm in the (seemingly) minority in that I enjoyed FFXIII, thought the gameplay and story were fine, and thought it wrapped up rather well.

I thought the story in XIII-2 was retarded and it really shit all over the events of XIII but really enjoyed the combat.

I'll pick up LR but the demo didn't really capture me. I'm debating about whether I should pony up for the CE of this game or not. Besides the possible DR headaches, I don't know if I'll enjoy this enough to warrant spending the extra money. I have zero interest in the watch but I wouldn't mind having the art book. I guess I need to decide soon.
 
I'm ok with stories starting in media res but Toriyama just doesn't do it well. The 3rd Birthday is another great example of his great writing.

I'm fine with stories starting in media res, but only if they are handled well (in this case, I don't think they are). Most of my favorite games have had slower starts, though. Like building up to some event that sets off the adventure.

Anyways, not bothering with the English release since I've played through (but not fully done everything yet) the Chinese release already. Shall repurchase when the price gets low. Too many good games coming out in the mean time. I shall bravely default from LR (
no product placement intended :p
)

lol, nicely done. :p

---

Let's hope LR has a scene like this! Right, guys? Guys? :(

I did think that scene was amusing, though.. in a really stupid way, of course. I did like how XIII-2 had a lot of lighthearted moments and didn't take itself too seriously. Like all of the funny live triggers (throwing Mog at the Proto Falcie, etc).
 
Toriyama isn't a very good director.

Yet people in SE think he's this 'legendary' director (their words not mine). Yet he's openly admitted that they had no sense of direction for FFXIII for years. The thing is it's the directors job to give the team a sense of direction when they don't have one and he failed at that.

And time and time again he's failed to weave any sort of decent exposition in the XIII games and always manages to take something promising to only completely destroy it. This man should not be leading the talented artists and programmers at SE. He's wasting the company and fans time and money.

Kitase doesn't make for a very good producer either. But that's a whole 'nother arguement.
 
All their top men suck to some major degree.

I wouldn't say that. Everyone has a flaw. It's human nature. But that's why we have other people to be able to help circumvent these flaws. Unfortunately when a company gives too much power to a few, it damages the checks and balances that creative endeavors need. I just feel Kitase is better suited to being a designer/director and Toriyama is better suited to be regulated to any lesser role than director. He has no directorial ability like Sakaguchi said all those years ago.

I am willing to admit that even Nomura has a flaw in that he gets too wrapped up in his own work and that his perfectionist ways can stall production. It's a good problem to have if kept in check.

Everyone has an outward flaw even if it's not readily apparent.

requiem of the goddess is a fantastic ending :p

RotG had a bulls*** ending. It was made to take your money and give you two cutscenes and say "Hey here's how we are able to set up the next game because we didn't know where we were going with the XIII-2 ending when we shipped the game".
 
I've been saying all along the reason why these developers are struggling is because they're trying to make a movie and attempting to come up with the story themselves.

Western developers hire actual writers and creators, like comic books, where a artist, editor, and writer work together. I think Japanese RPG developers try to do it like manga, which is write, draw, create. and edit themselves.

Which explains why FFXIII has been a mess as far as story and storytelling goes. Gameplay-wise, they have something there like the battle system, etc. But because they're trying to be so cinematic, they can't help make it more linear since it's easier to do than make a actual game!

Matsuno was never a good story writer but he's a master with making a good game, which is why FFXII and his tactics games are RPG treasures.

SE needs more game designers not wannabe filmmakers! And this includes Nomura! Sorry Nomura fans, but he's kind of like this as well.
 

Dark_castle

Junior Member
I wouldn't say that. Everyone has a flaw. It's human nature. But that's why we have other people to be able to help circumvent these flaws. Unfortunately when a company gives too much power to a few, it damages the checks and balances that creative endeavors need. I just feel Kitase is better suited to being a designer/director and Toriyama is better suited to be regulated to any lesser role than director. He has no directorial ability like Sakaguchi said all those years ago.

I am willing to admit that even Nomura has a flaw in that he gets too wrapped up in his own work and that his perfectionist ways can stall production. It's a good problem to have if kept in check.

Everyone has an outward flaw even if it's not readily apparent.

Completely agree. Depending on how things turn out, I'd take Nomura's snail progress (which is really a result of himself and Versus XIII team pulled out to work on other games and the unprecedented disaster in XIV 1.0) towards one epic game than Toriyama's sloppy, unambitious efforts and zero focused vision for the game's development any day of the week.
 

.Anema

Member
After finished XIII and XIII-2 I can't wait for Lightining Returns, holy shit, XIII saga are really bad games but I loved the story... sooooooo BRING IT ON SQUARE-ENIX!!!!
 

Hedge

Member
Loved XIII but found XIII-2 terrible. Maybe I'll pick this up some day. Are all previous characters in this game?
 

Perfo

Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
Even I can't say/type this with a straight face.

I really liked BD, but the game is in no way a better game than, for example, XIII-2. Different games but both with alot of shortcomings, couldn't rate both of them above 7/10 if you ask me. LR: FFXIII is probably a game around that same type of score, but I always prefer games trying harder to offer something fresh and new than relying on nostalgia and old mechanics like BD obviously did. It's a little over too-hyped, after chapter 4 the game gets from good to terribly bad and that doesn't help the final opinion of mine. It's cute, but completely forgettable.
 

Perfo

Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
After the demo part ends you get some silly monologue.

What's so silly about that? I've found it very touching, helps that I love Gods & Dramas. Plus the visuals when the "light shows up in the darkness" is pretty dramatic and cool, staged perfectly. That's how I see a God calling your name in a Greek story :D

I'm gonna love this game if all the game is told this way. That single scene was way more emotional that everything I've seen in ARR after that cool fmv opening. Toriyama knows how to impress with visuals/cutscene direction.
 

Beth Cyra

Member
Loved XIII but found XIII-2 terrible. Maybe I'll pick this up some day. Are all previous characters in this game?

I'm with ya, I found XIII-2 to be almost pure trash. Noel was good, and they had one or two nice adjustments to the battle system, but overall it was fucking garbage. Never more have I hated a character more then I did Serah.

I will be playing FF XIII-3 only for Fang, if it wasn't for her I would be skipping this thing entirely.
 
Biggest problem I have so far:


LR spoiler (it's not the ending or anything, it's about 50 minutes into the game):

Lightning: "I feel nothing. I'm not even angry about Serah when I should be furious. It seems that "God" took my emotions"


*Five minutes earlier*

Lightning: *Gives monologue where I swear it sounds as if she is gonna start balling at any second*


*Ten minutes earlier*

Lightning: "AND LEAVE AFTER COMING ALL THIS WAY? I KNOW WHAT HE'S GOING THROUGH, DAMNIT!"




I really wish they would stop with the whole "emotionless" bullshit that they started with Etro because obviously they don't know what "emotionless" means.
 

HawthorneKitty

Sgt. 2nd Class in the Creep Battalion, Waifu Wars
I just hate Serah when she's with Snow. He just ruins everything. I cringed in that one paradox end, you know, that one.
 

Beth Cyra

Member
I just hate Serah when she's with Snow. He just ruins everything. I cringed in that one paradox end, you know, that one.

I don't get this.

Snow was dumb, but the man was honest, and he was loyal to Serah, he loved her and went to the end of the world for her, hell he even gave up and cursed himself again to find the one person that she missed the most.

I will never understand how people can honestly call for Serah to cheat on a man who gave any and everything to see her returned and happy.
 
I've been saying all along the reason why these developers are struggling is because they're trying to make a movie and attempting to come up with the story themselves.

Western developers hire actual writers and creators, like comic books, where a artist, editor, and writer work together. I think Japanese RPG developers try to do it like manga, which is write, draw, create. and edit themselves.

Which explains why FFXIII has been a mess as far as story and storytelling goes. Gameplay-wise, they have something there like the battle system, etc. But because they're trying to be so cinematic, they can't help make it more linear since it's easier to do than make a actual game!

Matsuno was never a good story writer but he's a master with making a good game, which is why FFXII and his tactics games are RPG treasures.

SE needs more game designers not wannabe filmmakers! And this includes Nomura! Sorry Nomura fans, but he's kind of like this as well.
Also, Matsuno is in fact an excellent story writer.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
I don't get this.

Snow was dumb, but the man was honest, and he was loyal to Serah, he loved her and went to the end of the world for her, hell he even gave up and cursed himself again to find the one person that she missed the most.

I will never understand how people can honestly call for Serah to cheat on a man who gave any and everything to see her returned and happy.

I agree with all this. I had no problems with the couple. Snow gets way too much of a bad rap.
 
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