I can't think any other game that has had such a huge divide in opinion when it comes to the Final Fantasy XIII and its subsequent sequels. Mario Sunshine and Resident Evil 5 don't seem to even come close. One gamer saying its a underrated gem and another saying its the equivalent to dog droppings. Just to share those who are reading this an insight into my thoughts on the games and if this review is worth your time. I loved XIII. i consider it a throwback to VII and X which both had very linear, story-driven beginnings that later opened up into a big map in the game, focused on a small group of characters, and was centered on fighting against destiny and authority figures. I loved the inventive ATB battle system and got attached to most of the characters and their epic journey, 10/10 to me and one of my favorite RPGs of last gen. XIII-2 felt like a knee-jerk reaction from the decisive reaction it got from fans and critics and made the game open-ended at the beginning with being able to select different worlds in a Super Mario World-ish map and introduced a monster collecting mechanic but amiss the interesting new mechanics and additions, I felt the story got way too convoluted when XIII had a much more focused story, 7.5/10 to me. Here's my breakdown of Lightning Returns and my 45 hour session with it.
Story 7/10
I personally think XIII was perfectly fine as a standalone title and XIII-2 was an awkward attempt to prolong the story so I was very worried how Lightning Returns was going to make any sort of competent story with now majorly convoluted story. The good news it LR mostly wipes the slate clean and gives you a simple set up, if you don't try to over think it: The world has been thrown off balance by the events of the last game and is so bad that God (with a unnecessarily hard to spell name) has decided to start anew and has chosen Lightning as his savior to save the souls of as many people as she can, including her old friend, to bring into the new world he's making and she only has 13 days to complete the task. No knowledge of L'Cie, Time travel. Eidolons or Etro is needed to play the game and the game sticks to its clean slate approach, for the most part. Lightning, as the entire XIII trilogy, is a divisive character for many with some seeing her as a monotone, boring character and the idea of her as the only character you control and will be going through the game would be torture to them. Personally, I think Ali Hallis does a astounding job of inserting humanity and personality into a strong, stoic character that other less talented VAs would end up as what Light's detractors say. She does a great job narrating this often confusing story and makes many lines that ought to be dry as funny, sarcastic quips from Lightning. Ali has shown this wonderful job of adding those small details into a stoic charter like she did with Dr. Liara T'Soni from the Mass Effect triliogy, another character who first comes off as too reserved and stoic but grows on you. The story dips up and down in quality from the different main stories, each of which is centered on a main character from the past games, I'd say spoiler but all these characters have been prominently shown in the trailers so up to you if you want to go in blind or not. Some doing a good job of book ending some charters problems in the past games like Snow and Noel while others felt rushed and not much thought put into it, with Yeul/Caius, doing their best to make the story incomprehensible, and most saddening Sazh, a character that has been the universal beacon for the XIII games that everyone has loved and enjoyed, getting such a lame plotline, I thought it was a joke at first and unfortunately WAS a unfunny one. I'm happy once the main missions where finished and things kicked into the climax, the story improved and really showed some shining moments for Liightning's character and we get some of the best moments of the character that she is much more then the stoic warrioress she lets on to be. The ending becomes a nice nod to Persona, and runs back with the theme that was introduced in XIII, rejecting authority , the most powerful one at that, and emphasizing on the necessity for humanity to fight and live for themselves, needing only friendship, not gods. Its a wee bit anti-religious but that's nothing new to those who have played Final Fantasy games or many other JRPGs series like Persona and that's either a plus or minus to you from your personal tastes. It's overall a bit sketchy, and outright stumbling at times, but overall it could have been much worse and ends up being a competent story, which is too bad for a Final Fantasy game which are known for 10/10 stories but thankfully this game has a lot of leverage to lean on for its serviceable plot.
Graphics 8/10
Animation is varied in most scenes and rarely uses repeated animations outside of NPC conversations. It's inconsistent though, oddly for Square who are known for very polished graphics. Some areas like the Wildlands and Luxerion are beautifully detailed and has wonderful art direction that stands out from typical JRPG fare. The quality dips though during NPC moments where it seems it was rushed and some character designs look lazy and almost PS2 era of detail. Very stark when looking at the wonderfully, detailed and animated Lightning. Animation in battles are sublime though and everything looks wonderful from the hit detection, spell effects and attacking motions and the CGI cutscenes are what you'd expect from SE, top of the line along with Halo and Mass Effect.
Music/Sound 10/10
Along with Sazh, the next most respected aspect of the XIII trilogy has been its amazing music and LR doesn't deviate from the amazing streak Masashi Hamauzu has been on, along with Mitsuto Suzuki and Noashi Mizuta adding in modern, electronic flavor to the soundtrack. Hamauzu brings his stelar bag of tricks, with lush, sweeping orchestral pieces that oozes with emotion and flair with Humanity's Tale, Song of the Savior ~Grand Finale~, and Luxerion showcasing his utter mastery of orchestral compositionm with some of the best symphonic pieces I've heard since Joe Hisaishi's goosbump inducing work on Ni No Kuni. What really stands out though is how much Suzuki and Mitzuta have grown as composers and take on so much of the grunt work on the soundtrack and are comparable to Hamauzu's work, something I didn't think when they where brought in on XIII-2. The Wildlands, The Savior, Yusnaan Palace and Dead Dunes really cements Mitzuta as the thinking man's composer, deftly combining symphonic and electronic elements together and really makes this soundtrack his own next to the other two. As much as I've loved the battle systems and art design, the music throughout the XIII trilogy has ended up being my favorite part of the games and will go down as some of the best work music last gen next to Ni No Kuni, Halo series and Journey imo.
Gameplay 10/10
And now the meat of the game and I'm glad to report this is the best its been in the series. I thin the developers must have been playing some Dark Souls after XIII-2 because the difficulty has spiked up considerably and there is almost hand holding this time, The game flings you out and expects you to manage your health, money, and time off the bat and most the quests will expect you to do some research and speaking to NPCs to complete it. This is a wonderful response to the linear nature of the series and I appreciate Square put out such a hardcore game for a mainstream series like this, trusting Western gamers to handle, though it definitely has caused some whining, especially in the time management. I've seen 1 and 2 star reviews based solely on how hard the time management is and quite honestly, that's complete garbage. I've been a life long gamer so I might not be speaking for everyone but I kick my butt handed to me from Dark Souls and Super Meat Boy so definitely no the best and I was able to complete all the main missions and complete 50 side quests and STILL HAD 6 DAYS LEFT!! It simply takes the most basic of time management, fighting monsters for EP (basically tech points), using chronostasis (stopping time) and completing main mission s and you'll be perfectly fine with time to spare. With that cleared up, you'll also be happy to know this is one of the most fluent, elegant, fun experimentation of the ATB battle system I've ever played. Mixing X-2, Chrono Cross, Kingdom Hearts and even Paper Mario, you'll have a set-up of 3 schemata (jobs) to switch in battle where you'll have a ATB bar to use up with each attack or magic spell will take a amount of points of your bar until its near zero and you switch to another to use while the other will slowly regain ATB points while its on standby. It practically becomes an action game with how much hinges on your timing to use spells, block attacks and switch to new jobs on the fly. Its a wonderful take on ATB system that focuses a lot of action game reflexes but still have the strategy and management from a classic RPG.
Overall: While the story leaves much to be desired, there's a challenging RPG here to sink your teeth into with a masterfully crafted battle system with beautifully polished open worlds to explore. It'll push you and demand good strategy in your fighting and customizing your classes while being lenient enough for you to explore the 4 big worlds even with a time clock to keep some pressure on you. 8.5/10
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Customer reviews
It's actually pretty addictive I'm having alot fun playing this game
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Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 8, 2014
Platform For Display: PlayStation 3Verified Purchase
3.5 stars. A fine game and great conclusion to the Final Fantasy XIII saga, but not without its flaws.
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 22, 2014Platform For Display: PlayStation 3Verified Purchase
Top reviews from other countries
Amazon Customer
I don't know how they handled the product
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 6, 2015Platform For Display: PlayStation 3Verified Purchase
Rainer Põldmaa
Four Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 8, 2016Platform For Display: PlayStation 3Verified Purchase
Gustavo Ferreira
Bom jogo
Reviewed in Brazil 🇧🇷 on February 11, 2021Platform For Display: PlayStation 3Verified Purchase
Juan
Excelente
Reviewed in Mexico 🇲🇽 on April 23, 2017Platform For Display: PlayStation 3Verified Purchase
Excelente
Reviewed in Mexico 🇲🇽 on April 23, 2017
Llegó antes de lo pedido, en excelentes condiciones, actualmente lo estoy jugándo para sacar el trofeo platino y me ha dado unas 30 horas por lo mientras, aún no termino la historia principal, los escenarios ahora son mucho más grandes que las dos entregas anteriores y el sistema de combate también cambió, tiene bastantes cosas para hacer. Con este título completo la colección de las 3 entregas del final fantasy xiii.
Reviewed in Mexico 🇲🇽 on April 23, 2017
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Antonio Perez Correa
Lightning Regresa.
Reviewed in Mexico 🇲🇽 on May 27, 2017Platform For Display: PlayStation 3Verified Purchase
