• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Lightning Returns: FFXIII screenshots and extended Jump Festa trailer

Status
Not open for further replies.

I'm an expert

Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
Lookin at Zell, Squall, and Seifer brings back so many good thoughts..
 

Lain

Member
iRQybgSwgsZB9.png

Doesn't look 14 years better at least. It's more like barely a generation jump.

Barely a generation jump, compared to a screen of a PS1 game (is that even a real PS1 screen, or is it an emulated screen?), so making it barely a PS2 game?
If you say so.
 

I'm an expert

Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
In a time when Square Enix characters were designed by the sane.

Laguna is probably my fav FF char of all time. =(

I actually did like the cast of 13 though, at least Fang..Fang was really good. I'd have taken a Fang Returns game.
 

Fuu

Formerly Alaluef (not Aladuf)
I enjoy Lightning's Sitcom so much that I wish there was a way to play the entire game with a laughtrack like that.
 
Lol, that's a stupid comparison. If you want to compare them both, compare them with a screen that's in the resolution of LR, not that kind of a tiny pic that hides all the hideousness of the PS1 game and all the detail of LR.

One is emulated, the other one is afrom a compressed video. But the resolution doesn't hide all the hideousness of PSX (you can clearly see it) and it doesn't hide detail of LR because it's simply not there. The thing is that is arguable that FF8 looks better at first glance in that picture. Colour pallete, post processing and lighting in LR is laughable.
 

Perfo

Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest

"Motomu Toriyama's 1st fan" would be even better!

Ah, now I know you're kidding around.

Not that much lol. It's really the truth saying that LR and XIV are the only games I'm really looking forward to in 2013. The rest of my (small) play list is made of fillers inbetween this two key-essential-titles for my life as a gamer.
 

Perfo

Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
After 13-2, they (dev team) said chaos got into the world and that means flow of time has stopped and people don't age as a result, that's why previous characters are present here now. but then several hundred years have passed? I don't understand what's happening, does time flow or doesn't?

It's quite confusing I must admit. In Caius' words time simply doesn't flow like "it should" in Valhalla, but he never mentioned time stopping completely. More like going in circles or randomly. Infact Lightning herself can influence the flow of time in Lightning Returns. The reason why no one dies is not because of the lack of a proper flow of the time, perhaps more because the balance of the two worlds is broken up and is like after-world and living-world are fused together, thus making everyone alive and dead at the same time, in a word now immortal.
 

Stark

Banned
Talking about whether time has stopped or not, right? About the several hundred years, I just think that's a statement to set apart the two games. That it has just been a while.

In the specifics, I think a better way to look at this is, time may not exist, but that doesn't mean all movement has stopped. The sun hasn't stopped moving as that is more scientific in nature (or as I interpret). Days will pass and such and it is more used as an indication rather than moved by it. In that sense, yes 13 nights can pass by count. And it is the end of time, yeah, aging and such.
 

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
"Motomu Toriyama's 1st fan" would be even better!

Not that much lol. It's really the truth saying that LR and XIV are the only games I'm really looking forward to in 2013. The rest of my (small) play list is made of fillers inbetween this two key-essential-titles for my life as a gamer.
Oh, no; it's the other stuff you said. It sounded a lot like how I call Takeshi Iizuka (the head of Sonic Team and the lead designer of Shadow the Hedgehog, NiGHTS, NiGHTS Journey into Dreams, Sonic Adventure, etc.) "Lord Iizuka-sama" jokingly. I thought you were joking.

See, I think you're joking with the first half of this post. But now, all I have to say is...
z7ffD.gif


screenshot2011-01-17achu1p.png


Seriously though, I've gotta know about your rationalization behind embracing Toriyama's storytelling. I have a friend who loves his game design and storytelling ideas and I like hearing his reasoning behind that. I've gotta know whether or not all Toriyama fans feel the same way.

Man, you need to play more games. Throw caution to the wind, maybe you'll find something else you like. Sticking to just one company doesn't allow for much diversity. I'm surprised you're not really looking towards the likes of Ni no Kuni or Xillia (actually not necessarily this one since you didn't like Vesperia since you thought it had archaic gameplay mechanics/likely wasn't cinematic enough/in media res enough for your tastes (er, this isn't a dig, but basically based on your history I don't know if you'll like it as much because the pacing at the beginning after the in media res stuff in Xillia is kinda slow)).
 
It's quite confusing I must admit. In Caius' words time simply doesn't flow like "it should" in Valhalla, but he never mentioned time stopping completely. More like going in circles or randomly. Infact Lightning herself can influence the flow of time in Lightning Returns. The reason why no one dies is not because of the lack of a proper flow of the time, perhaps more because the balance of the two worlds is broken up and is like after-world and living-world are fused together, thus making everyone alive and dead at the same time, in a word now immortal.

Talking about whether time has stopped or not, right? About the several hundred years, I just think that's a statement to set apart the two games. That it has just been a while.

In the specifics, I think a better way to look at this is, time may not exist, but that doesn't mean all movement has stopped. The sun hasn't stopped moving as that is more scientific in nature (or as I interpret). Days will pass and such and it is more used as an indication rather than moved by it. In that sense, yes 13 nights can pass by count. And it is the end of time, yeah, aging and such.

BUt Lightning was frozen in crystal when chaos was unleashed and it was shown in the FF13-2 dlc that she unfroze "later".

It was also show that the unleashing of chaos didn't kill some characters ( since we got hope last message as a fragment later ).
It might be more accurate to see the world as " the flow of time doesn't exist after those 13 days " after all you can't have "no time" but still have night/day cycles..
 

Stark

Banned
BUt Lightning was frozen in crystal when chaos was unleashed and it was shown in the FF13-2 dlc that she unfroze "later".

It was also show that the unleashing of chaos didn't kill some characters ( since we got hope last message as a fragment later ).
It might be more accurate to see the world as " the flow of time doesn't exist after those 13 days " after all you can't have "no time" but still have night/day cycles..

Well, aren't day/night cycles, for example the sun and moon used more as a marker by people of what time it is? So motion is still possible in general? Not too well versed in this topic though from a scientific point. If I'm reading what you're saying right, haha.

Though what you say is also possible...
 

Toth

Member
What intrigues me is that although people are 'immortal', they still can die apparently as murders appear to be happening in this world. I liken it to a limbo of sorts: people are stuck in this odd purgatory, unable to 'move' on, however this may be in the FF 13 universe. I would not be shocked if people keep living the same 13 days over and over again.
 

Toth

Member
BTW Has it been posted yet there are 2 time gauges behind the main one that fill up when inactive? I guess this is what they mean when they said there are party members. Switch styles when AP is used up and use that new style while the old one recharges.
 
What intrigues me is that although people are 'immortal', they still can die apparently as murders appear to be happening in this world. I liken it to a limbo of sorts: people are stuck in this odd purgatory, unable to 'move' on, however this may be in the FF 13 universe. I would not be shocked if people keep living the same 13 days over and over again.

so like majora mask ? with more time ?

Well, aren't day/night cycles, for example the sun and moon used more as a marker by people of what time it is? So motion is still possible in general? Not too well versed in this topic though from a scientific point. If I'm reading what you're saying right, haha.

Though what you say is also possible...

i'm basing my opinion on what we know of the dying world ..so motion might be possible ..

The ground texture here looks sad.

Also, it's not exactly as bad, but honestly the first thing the water texture reminded me of here is is water from Crash Bandicoot 3 on PSfreaking1.
i played that part and really this screenshot doesn't do justice to the place ..i didn't care about the ground texture ..like at all . i guess that's what a cohesive environment does ..and motion .i don't see a game this gen that doesn't have low rez texture in a situation like this
 

Stark

Banned
i'm basing my opinion on what we know of the dying world ..so motion might be possible ..

i played that part and really this screenshot doesn't do justice to the place ..i didn't care about the ground texture ..like at all . i guess that's what a cohesive environment does ..and motion .i don't see a game this gen that doesn't have low rez texture in a situation like this

Hm that's true though, what you say.

Yeah, I didn't notice it either, lol.
 

Perfo

Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
Seriously though, I've gotta know about your rationalization behind embracing Toriyama's storytelling. I have a friend who loves his game design and storytelling ideas and I like hearing his reasoning behind that. I've gotta know whether or not all Toriyama fans feel the same way.

I think there are two Toriyama actually, the one restricted by budget and time (XIII-2) and the one more free to do what he really wants (XIII). The first game is one of my favorites Final Fantasy in the series and I found both the gameplay and story quite consistent, solid and engaging (while partly revolutionary too). FFXIII-2 on the other hand, was literally full of ideas for both story and gameplay, but most of the time it failed in the execution of those both.

Man, you need to play more games. Throw caution to the wind, maybe you'll find something else you like. Sticking to just one company doesn't allow for much diversity.

I still play alot of games, of course not many compared to my youth. I simply know already what I like and what I don't so it's easy to invest directly on safe-buyings. Final Fantasy is one of these.

I'm surprised you're not really looking towards the likes of Ni no Kuni or Xillia (actually not necessarily this one since you didn't like Vesperia since you thought it had archaic gameplay mechanics/likely wasn't cinematic enough/in media res enough for your tastes (er, this isn't a dig, but basically based on your history I don't know if you'll like it as much because the pacing at the beginning after the in media res stuff in Xillia is kinda slow)).

I'm actually going to buy and play Ni No Kuni, even if I found the DEMO pretty un-inspired and boring (like every L5 game not tied to S-E). I like Studio Ghibli's art and Hisaishi's music, so that's why I'm going to give it a chance. Still, what I'm really and solely hyped about are just two titles, and both are the same I just mentioned: ARR and LR. I'd be hyped too for Bravely Default and Type-0 if they were coming but... better staying cautious.

As for Tales of... it doesn't click with me, nothing about it clicks with me. They have a catchy art-style, but that's all there is. Not interested in the one million action battles those games force on you, nor in the super-fillered-long-shonen-stories they try to tell. In one word? Boring games.
 
Perfo ... what is ARR ?

-----
anyway seeing screenshots of ff13 & ff13-2 got me thinking that all of those who dismiss this game graphic based on the first set of screenshots should wait untill we see more of it ..
 

I'm an expert

Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
The ground textures were pretty bad in FFXIII to me as well.
FFXIII-English_Fang_Battle.jpg

Only gafers could have a giant explosion of bubbles and light in front of a spear wielding anime chick and be looking at..the ground. Why would any game company waste time/resources on recycled ground textures?

ARR = A Realm Reborn.
 

I'm an expert

Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
Both FF XIII and FF XIII-2 are really good looking games. Bad textures can be found in almost every game.

They really are. Like insanely good looking. I'm honestly shocked every time I boot up 13, I seem to forget it.
 

Midou

Member
I still play alot of games, of course not many compared to my youth. I simply know already what I like and what I don't so it's easy to invest directly on safe-buyings. Final Fantasy is one of these.

I remember when this used to be true for me. I'm actually fairly surprised anyone can still cling to SE so much in its current state. At least ARR looks much improved, but FFXIV 1.0 was catastrophic. Almost big rigs bad at launch.

I would like to say Atlus is the only company I have that much faith in anymore, but they have not released much this gen..
 

Mario007

Member
I remember when this used to be true for me. I'm actually fairly surprised anyone can still cling to SE so much in its current state. At least ARR looks much improved, but FFXIV 1.0 was catastrophic. Almost big rigs bad at launch.

I would like to say Atlus is the only company I have that much faith in anymore, but they have not released much this gen..
To be fair the only bad game SE has release was FFXIV. FFXIII is controversial sure, but even if we include that it'd be only 2 games. I look at SE games on other platforms than just consoles and they had an amazing output over there.

The only reason why I'm pissed off at SE at the moment is the lack of Type-0, FFXHD and BDFF while LR exists.
 

I'm an expert

Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
I remember when this used to be true for me. I'm actually fairly surprised anyone can still cling to SE so much in its current state. At least ARR looks much improved, but FFXIV 1.0 was catastrophic. Almost big rigs bad at launch.

I would like to say Atlus is the only company I have that much faith in anymore, but they have not released much this gen..

Is there an alternative for the style of fantasy rpg that an FF represents? There are plenty of rpg alternatives, and if you go to handheld you'll never have to search again, but what company puts out games like these? If you enjoy this style of game, I don't see why you wouldn't be a fan of SE. Even nowadays. And if you're not, the quality of other games SE puts out, especially for handhelds, is easily top tier.

And Atlus was never a fantasy rpg company..so I dunno what you want from them. Capcom, Konami, Bamco..maybe. Good luck on getting a console Suikoden though, or seeing a Breath of Fire revival. If you're into Tales though, Bamco's got you covered.
 

Midou

Member
And Atlus was never a fantasy rpg company..so I dunno what you want from them. Capcom, Konami, Bamco..maybe. Good luck on getting a console Suikoden though, or seeing a Breath of Fire revival. If you're into Tales though, Bamco's got you covered.

Tales is basically only franchise I feel is mostly consistent with last-gen.

To be perfectly fair though, so far this gen has played out a lot like last, so I am kind of giving SE too much credit I guess:

PS2/(PS3/360):
FFX/(FFXIII) - hated it
FFX-2/(FFXIII-2) - enjoyed it more but still hated it
FFXI/FFXIV online - I guess at least XI launched better, but was still best after a few years.
FFXII/(FFXV and/or Versus?) - Revived my faith in Square Enix, loved it.

It seems too late for this gen to do the final step, but we'll see.

These days I'm more into sci-fi, so I guess that's why Atlus is my #1. They have also had stories of complexity and originality Square Enix could not dream of back on NES and SNES even. I still play and love tons of of fantasy RPGs though, it's too bad nothing this gen SE made compares to Xenoblade.
 

I'm an expert

Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
Tales is basically only franchise I feel is mostly consistent with last-gen.

To be perfectly fair though, so far this gen has played out a lot like last, so I am kind of giving SE too much credit I guess:

PS2/(PS3/360):
FFX/(FFXIII) - hated it
FFX-2/(FFXIII-2) - enjoyed it more but still hated it
FFXI/FFXIV online - I guess at least XI launched better, but was still best after a few years.
FFXII/(FFXV and/or Versus?) - Revived my faith in Square Enix, loved it.

It seems too late for this gen to do the final step, but we'll see.

These days I'm more into sci-fi, so I guess that's why Atlus is my #1. They have also had stories of complexity and originality Square Enix could not dream of back on NES and SNES even. I still play and love tons of of fantasy RPGs though, it's too bad nothing this gen SE made compares to Xenoblade.

I think you're just thinking of them as an FF machine.. they make way more games, and way better games as well. If you want scifi though, Atlus has you covered. I'm gonna stay away from the Xenoblade train though..
 

Midou

Member
I think you're just thinking of them as an FF machine.. they make way more games

Please list all these games they make that aren't FFs. Would such a list not be made up mostly of GREE and social phone games?

The Last Remnant and The World Ends With You were the only other relevant titles they made this gen, and I really enjoyed them, but clearly that was not the direction they went in.

Even Four Heroes of Light and Bravely Default are made with with other developers, both of which are FFs though, even if Bravely doesn't put it in the title. Same deal with Theatrhythm, but at least SE had some involvement with the previous two.

Dragon Quest is of course fully outsourced.

Otherwise I guess there is also Kingdom Hearts.

FF is still like 90% of their development. Especially considering that most of SE is working on FFXIV at this time.

Hell even XIII-2 had tri-ace as co-developer.
 

I'm an expert

Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
Please list all these games they make that aren't FFs. Would such a list not be made up mostly of GREE and social phone games?

The Last Remnant and The World Ends With You were the only other relevant titles they made this gen, and I really enjoyed them, but clearly that was not the direction they went in.

Even Four Heroes of Light and Bravely Default are made with with other developers, both of which are FFs though, even if Bravely doesn't put it in the title. Same deal with Theatrhythm, but at least SE had some involvement with the previous two.

Dragon Quest is of course fully outsourced.

Otherwise I guess there is also Kingdom Hearts.

FF is still like 90% of their development. Especially considering that most of SE is working on FFXIV at this time.

Hell even XIII-2 had tri-ace as co-developer.

I get what you're saying, but I just don't see SE as Squaresoft anymore. Haven't for like 10 years lol. Nier, Just Cause 2, Dragon Quest..I still consider these Square games, even if you can't attach a name like Toriyama or Kitase to it. Don't forget Tactics Ogre though.. >.>; (also Dissidia and Theatr are really good)
 

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
It's too bad nothing this gen SE made compares to Persona 4.

Fixed that for you.

But still, I enjoyed a number of SE games (FFXIII, FFXIII-2, the PSP games).
 

demidar

Member
Fixed that for you.

But still, I enjoyed a number of SE games (FFXIII, FFXIII-2, the PSP games).

I just reached the last last dungeon in P4, all that Scooby Doo stuff before that was so awesome I hope it makes it into P5. I mean, it was kind of an info dump but all the clues were there beforehand sown throughout the game and you had to actually put the clues together (or at least have something niggling at you) to get on the right path.
 

Midou

Member
I get what you're saying, but I just don't see SE as Squaresoft anymore. Haven't for like 10 years lol. Nier, Just Cause 2, Dragon Quest..I still consider these Square games, even if you can't attach a name like Toriyama or Kitase to it. Don't forget Tactics Ogre though.. >.>; (also Dissidia and Theatr are really good)

Giving development credit to a publisher who essentially only funds a particular game is silly and disingenuous.


Go ahead and laugh. The only thing FFXIII has on Xenoblade is graphics. Xenoblade has a huge world, towns, likable characters who all play differently, tons of side-quests that while are mostly uninspired, there are many interesting ones too, compared to FFXIII's purely 'kill shit' side-quests. It was a breath of fresh air in a generation where a game like FFXIII was the only mainline non-sequel or online FF title.

Story was pretty original and interesting as well.

Fixed that for you.

Persona 4 is my favorite RPG in a long time, but I was speaking in terms of console generations instead of time.
 

spirity

Member

I thought I was completely done with jrpg as a genre this gen. I don't even like Nintendo.

So it came as the biggest surprise ever that I found myself loving Xenoblade.

You can laugh about that game all you want, but it opened my eyes in a way no other jrpg has since the older FF's.
 

demidar

Member
I thought I was completely done with jrpg as a genre this gen. I don't even like Nintendo.

So it came as the biggest surprise ever that I found myself loving Xenoblade.

You can laugh about that game all you want, but it opened my eyes in a way no other jrpg has since the older FF's.

Seriously. What the fuck is going on here...
 

I'm an expert

Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
Giving development credit to a publisher who essentially only funds a particular game is silly and disingenuous.

It's just as silly to say that games and development teams funded by a company that owns them do not count as that company's games. I'm not giving the creative credit for it, but they all report to the same boss. Either way, we're arguing semantics over nothing.

I'm still waiting for my copy of 13-2. =/
 

Midou

Member
It's just as silly to say that games and development teams funded by a company that owns them do not count as that company's games. I'm not giving the creative credit for it, but they all report to the same boss. Either way, we're arguing semantics over nothing.

I'm still waiting for my copy of 13-2. =/

I'm all about giving credit where credit is due. I would say Square Enix is a great company as a whole, for what they have done with Eidos and their work in general as a publisher. Quite a few awesome games have come from their decisions.

I know publishers have some influence over the development of a game, but history dictates that the influence is commonly negative.

If you want me to be more specific, I would say Square Enix's mainline titles that are internally developed with limited external influence are disappointing.
 

Goli

Member
The full interview has been posted online on Famitsu.com: http://www.famitsu.com/news/201212/29026849.html what we had before were basically the key points as interpreted by the people who leak the magazine and there are some new things...
-Chocolina is in the game to support the player but in a different role than the one she had in FFXIII-2.
-While Lightning's FFXIII-2 outfit was designed by Kamikokuryo, the new one is by Tetsuya Nomura. Toriyama wanted to emphasize the red and white present in Lightning's FFXIII outift, and using that as a base the new one was born.
-In this game, once the game begins the world ends in 13 days, but coinciding with its end is also the birth of a new world. Lightning's task as a "liberator/releaser of souls" is to guide them to the new world.
-Lightning's clothes are the clothes of a soul liberator, and the clothes and task are given by Bhunivelze. That's because while the "crystal myth" involves many gods, out of the ones that are concerned in the "Lightning Saga", Bhunivelze is the only one who hasn't made an appearance.
-The people of Luxerion quietly await the end, however, a bunch of serial murders start happening, these are apparently committed by a group of people who oppose Bhunivelze's creed.
-As previously stated, each of the game's four continents has its own concept associated with it. Luxerion's is "murder", because they wanted it to have a mystery component aimed at slightly more mature audiences.
-While people know the world is coming to end, they don't know only 13 days remain.
-Chocobos are still in and you still can ride them.
-Unlike FFXIII and FFXIII-2 where to stagger an enemy all you had to do was fill up an enemy's chain gauge, this time you have to fulfill a bunch of other conditions besides that.
-This time there are no QTEs.
-New equipment can be bought from the various vendors in the game, or made if you have the right components.
-Apparently "decorations" like the sunglasses Lightning is seen with in the latest trailer are in the game.
-Lightning's growth is tied to completing the quests you get from people in-game. From battles you get components to make new equipment and points to alter the amount of availiable time before the end.

Also, about the game's length I'm not sure what Toriyama is saying here:
鳥山 いまのバージョンだと、なかなかクリアーできないですね。大陸ごとに物語があって、それぞれゲーム内の3、4日間でクリアーできるようにしないといけないんですけれど。
 

Pooya

Member
-Chocolina is in the game to support the player but in a different role than the one she had in FFXIII-2.

She must be her fashion advisor.

-Lightning's clothes are the clothes of a soul liberator, and the clothes and task are given by Bhunivelze. That's because while the "crystal myth" involves many gods, out of the ones that are concerned in the "Lightning Saga", Bhunivelze is the only one who hasn't made an appearance.
:

Perfo was half right then :p
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom