Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII - Review

Lightning Returns is a jumble of mechanics and story elements that don't mesh into a meaningful whole.

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[Nanijoe]

Just to touch up on why many people here are wondering why a time limit is a bad thing. If you are new or old to the series, the Final Fantasy series is well-known for exploration, grinding your characters while progressing through the story at your own pace and essentially making your characters as badass as they possibly can be. This game however, contradicts all of those things. FFXIII-3 gives us a nice big world to explore with side-quests, but as the reviewer said, you're pressed for time and when you get nothing in return for exploration, but time-loss it essentially makes people just shoot straight through the main story line instead and ignore a lot of the content we are given. Now, this may not seem like a big deal for some, but it is.

For those that are playing this for the very first time, they will most likely be unable to thoroughly enjoy this game their first time through as they'll be blowing through the game just to beat it in time, feeling more panic than enjoyment. What this essentially does is force the player to play through the game a second or third time, hopefully gaining a better grasp of the game so they can plow through the story while being able to explore and do the side quests. "What's wrong with that?" Some people may ask, well quite frankly, a lot of people don't want to playthrough the whole game again after the initial panicked experience or just don't want to in general. In fact, a lot of gamers like to do everything their first time around, but a lot of people can't as they're unfamiliar with the game so would need more time to explore every nook and cranny, which normally wasn't bad at all in other FF games, but in this title the time limit punishes you for that now. 

Finally, as for the score the reviewer gave. I'd say it deserves 5/10 as well. 5/10 means mediocre for Gamespot's rating system, not bad or terrible, but it didn't exactly make them or me go wow either so I'd say the word "mediocre" fits it perfectly. 

[MichaelnMaximo]

Lightning is blank? No more blank than Squall or Cloud.
Audio - Hope - Would you prefer him talk through the battle? I get that he never shuts up, but is that really a complaint? Navi never shuts up either.
Time Table - Strict? Really? Beat the entire game, all 5 main quests 45ish side quests, and 30-40 Canvas quests with 3 days left over. Had to escape a lot at well. Not strict at all.
Quests - hold up, quests overlap? What? You would rather have quests tell you exactly where they start, what to do, and how to do it?
Blocking - Any ability used by enemies have a big blue box telling you it's coming. Doesn't take a brain surgeon to know how to read. The timing however, is picky.

[omegasoldier]

Funny how there are compkaints about Lightning being a "blank slate" and emotionless, and yet Master Chief is hailed as one of gaming's best characters and he hardly ever says anything! Even on occasuon when he speaks it's cheap one-liners. emotionless characters suck:fact, but don't go around playing favorites.

[TheMaestro]

I find it hard to take these reviews seriously when most of these major gaming websites praised the first XIII game like it was a godsend. 

So only NOW you realize that the XIII's series characters and plot is sub par and nonsensical? FFXIII was a 50 hours movie where you walked a straight corridor the entire way yet it's a 8.5 "Great" but a game with improved combat, an actual explorable world a la old school FF is considered a 5.0, "mediocre". What a joke.

[ArcDite]

I know people will hate on me for this but, the FF13 story arc were the games that got me into Final Fantasy even to go back an get old games on my PS2/1 I agree that the earlier games are much better, however FF13 will always be the game that got me into the series.

[Pencilfox]

but the time stops when u talk to someone in game ... and the time also stops when u are with hope

[ResistanceForever]

the reviewer called lightning a great character in the original ff13 review, but now calls her a blank one.

[matt]

Oh Final Fantasy.. Whatever happened to you?

[T]

Bring back turn-based combat with 3 dudes and all will be fine.

[shinkuphantom]

I don't take ANY, and I mean ANY Game Reviews seriously. I come to see what they give as a score, and I'm bloody shocked that they gave FFXIII:LR a 5.
It's a fantastic game, and if these reviewers knew anything about Lightning's past, they'd know the reason for her lack of emotions.The story is actually really nice and easy to follow, and I enjoy it so much. The soundtrack is just... Woah. Like, I cannot get my head around how, yet again, the soundtrack is just so good and emotional, while bringing back some mixed up, and pure versions from previous FXIII games. The combat system is fantastic, great for newcomers, and fans of earlier FFXIII games (like myself). It's a great experience, and I'd give it a 8.5+. Like I've seen in the comments below, 5 is way too harsh, I agree with them. I also see a lot of hate towards Lightning Returns, and I'm just ignoring them. If I enjoy a game, I'll stick to my opinion of it. I've always been a fan of the FFXIII series, and continue to stand by it.

[NewYears]

I get pissed when there is one little timed mission in any game..and you are telling me this entire game is timed? WOW.

[Jnawzrd]

This is the first FF game that I've played and then I liked too much the series. I don't agree with comments that favors previous ones, every FF is unique.

[Dknightxs]

this game is good! buy it. dont listen to the shmucks!

[rocketeer]

the timed gameplay element is pretty much the worst thing you could put in a jrpg or any rpg in general

[Lluminal]

As a casual gamer, I just don't like that kind of pressure when I'm playing. Give me time to level, discover and check out all the nooks and crannies.
SquareEnix needs to reboot or something. I've loved (Squaresoft) games since Final Fantasy, but this is such a departure from what I'm used to.
Guess I'll be waiting still. Hell, even another HD remake would be OK-ish.

Replies turned off. Too many children trying to troll.

[TowelTroi]

This review pointed out everything I absolutely love and don’t like about this game, including how disruptive Hope can be to the experience.  He wants you to hurry up (bleep-bleep; “Lightning…“), but insist on talking!  Should you miss pieces of his conversation, you miss a possible clue or some direction.  Meanwhile, the clock ticks.  While I understand LR:FFXIII increases time as you complete quest (which I love doing even without), and you can pause time, the fact is that I don’t care to manage it at all.  There's enough to already manage!  I just want to be turned loose to scrap and find my own way in my bedecked outfit.  Not be sold short by each decision.  I don’t get it.  Numerous quest, expansive battle, multiple costumes/adornments, massive lands ripe for picking; information overload and pressure to NOT explore them till your heart’s content. I'm almost tempted to start over because I feel like I've already missed something valuable.  To me, the game is not that realized to include a time feature.

[pennypeach]

Time limit? God damn, SquareEnix...how many bad decisions can you make? If XV doesn't have a PROPER leveling system, I'm done with this series!

[CaptainMisanthropy]

Don't really see how the time limit is a bad thing. Sure, it is a departure from the norm but I actually think it is quite interesting.

From what I have heard so far the game is set up in a way where you are meant to fail just to come back stronger in the next attempt.

Will be picking this up, once i get round to finally finishing the second game, which i bought on launch and have played for like 2 hours. ^^

Might be worth doing a marathon of all 3, tho going back to the ultra linear first game does not sound like much fun. This is probably the weirdest trilogy i have seen, not sure what the Square devs were thinking here.

[CryWolfFilms]

I can't believe they made three of these games. Unbelievable.

[Seifer_PT]

Now, you see, I've been trying to get into the XIII series because of Lightning. I like her a lot. I played the demo and guess what? I liked the gameplay too. I really did. But the time thing, god damn it. I understand what they were going for. I saw their presentations at game conventions, but I hate time limits. I want to be able to stare into the environments and the characters for as long as I feel like it.

A solution to please everybody would be to put out a patch with the option to remove the time limit. I think they should do that. I mean, they made all those DLC endings for FFXIII-2. A patch for a time limit option should be no problem, am I right? Come on, Square.