Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII strikes this fall worldwide
By
Jonathan Toyad, Associate Editor
Upcoming sequel to Final Fantasy XIII-2 coming out for Xbox 360 and PS3.
Square Enix has unveiled the release window of the Final Fantasy XIII-2 sequel, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.
The upcoming role-playing game will be out this fall for the PS3 and Xbox 360 and will be released worldwide. The final chapter in the FFXIII saga puts players in the shoes of protagonist Lightning as she slows down the impending end of the world that will happen after 13 days and helps out the immortals in the city of Luxerion.
The game will feature a New Game Plus system and encourages multiple playthroughs, as players are not expected to uncover everything in a single run. The game's combat will mimic a traditional action game, but will feature the implementation of the series' active time battle system and paradigm shifts.
For more information, check out GameSpot's previous coverage on the title.
By
Jonathan Toyad, Associate Editor
Born and raised from a jungle-laden village in Sarawak, Malaysia, Jonathan Toyad has been playing games since the early 90s. He favors fighting games, RPGs, and rhythm titles above every other genre, and occasionally spaces out like Pavlov's dog to video game music on his iPod.
287 comments
Is it nearly over yet? *looks from behind hands*
Please SE, for the love of christ, go old school with the next one. The FFXIII series should never have had a numeral, it should have been called FF: Cocoon or something else.
Has any one else noticed that lightning returns looks looks like the trailer we had for versus 13? Perhaps they decided to integrate it into the XIII series. I wouldn't hold my breath for Versus.
2 Like next we'll have a FFXIII prequel because they do everything they can to delay FFX HD and Versus... the only games we want from them...
2 Like This was not wanted nor needed. Why keep tracking further and further away from the Final Fantasy franchise. People are not asking and each iteration of FF so far keeps having lower and lower reviews, I do not know for sales, however I could hardly imagine them being so high either. What is wrong with the Japanese market, Resident Evil, Final Fantasy, Silent Hill, and much more. It does not appeal to my logic. What is with XIII?? I bought the two first ones, and liked them, that's it, liked. They were barely memorable. This looks more tedious than fun, it really feels inappropriate and shallow. Lightning, Luxembe aaa thingy ?? Where is the honour in video game making? Ae they proud? XIII and XIII-2 could fall into the "we tried" category, but goes into the WTF, unrelated, uninteresting, useless and uncalled for. This is not even an answer to the ending of XIII-2??? And just look at the development time, it is almost a joke, this is not just rushed, I bet the new game plus is more of an excuse to put tons of random stuff more than organizing them correctly.
It sounds tedious, unappealing and plainly uncalled for. It just does not appeal to me and Im the guy who ordered XIII and XIII-2 both in english and Japanese, i'm a big fan but this is a letdown. Just Why?
the problem is that a lot of the big japanese companies are trying to make their games more 'western.' they lose their charm when they try to do that. go back to making good games and people will buy it.
@Run_2_the_Hills @sacoura That is only partly for the last two centuries has seen hundreds of Japanese games entirely western, namely resident evil and Parasite eve are good examples of east meeting west and working splendidly. Final Fantasy for its own right has never been overly Japanese'ish, just think of 1 through 6 to think that they could have been made by pretty much any country, since the setting is medieval. However I understand your point, certain companies try to rival the big marketed AAA games. RPG are no more the huge worlds they used to be. Now Skyrim and the like rule the RPG universe and the JRPG has gotten array in order to survive.
My problem arrise from the fact that Square has many franchises that people love and instead of putting time on a real AAA FF, they put a smaller team to work on this. This FF could be good, I try not to prejudge it, however probably not as good as to focus with another team on something bigger that would excite the fans.
Square told at the PS4 announcement, to be excited for E3 FF wise. Saddly, I only expect FF lightning, ff6 for iOS, FF14 a real reborn and maybe some hd remake announcements like rumoured for FFX. I do not expect FFVSXIII or any of the likes, which is a shame, a game people actually are waiting for.
Great for SE to make the FF game noone wants full of features FF fans hate. Someone remember when FF games were actually good a not dumbed down button mashers for the simpleton market? PRE- XIII of course
@edinko Agreed on that. No one wants this game we WANT Versus 13. By now Square probably realizes that their only hope of making bank is Versus 13.
Btw this game is so retardedly ridiculous even the reporter Wernher Goff starts laughing at the end. Why make another if the 2 before didn;t do too well, go figure square....
1 Like probably they think it has such mass appeal that the casuals will buy it more than the betrayed original audience. happens all the time today mostly with rpgs. You cannot dumb down a shooter in the same order of magnitude like an rpg.So with rpgs you can immediately see it
1 Like You know i'm so happy they aren't doing an remake to FF6 or FF7 but instead continuing the adventures of the Doushe brigade of FF13. Its like whatever the fans want square does the exact opposite. I'm not a hater but it has been so long since i have purchased an square product because they always release stupid crap. Don't get me wrong dues ex was great but most of the other stuff is questionable at best...... there IOS game library says it all.
@Dustyn-Barlow Square didn't develop Deus Ex. They simply published it meaning they had nothing to do with how good the game was. They just slapped their name on it and make money like EA does nowadays instead actually making hit games.
2 Like Hopefully this is a complete game and no greedy DLCs. When will they release the FFXIII-2 the complete?
o please no more the last one was so bad all of them past 9 have been HORRIBLE yea that includes ten
Finally...it's the last one?i never actually played FF13 cuz i hear it got mixed reactions and i dun know what it is but i dun like lightning's look. look forward to something other than her in the future
yeah great.. so what?... and i ask where the hell is versus XIII? the only final fantasy game I've been wanting to play! since VII VIII and X
New game plus? This is actually something I really enjoy in games. The only issue I have is that I didn't really like FFXIII series much, didn't even bother to play the second one.
I liked:
FF7 (all around, I have very found memories of this one - might be a lot of nostalgia too)
FF8 (I liked it, but I couldn't finish it, I was studying in colleague and working and dating so didn't have the time to invest, so I nether fought the last boss).
FF10 (Tidus and his crew were very human, had profound character progression, and was overall a good game for me, it has my favourite system, the sphere-grid).
FF12 (Really liked the political approach to this one, the judges where cool, but I did not felt connected to the party, save for one character whose name escapes me, the pirate one, couldn't careless about the others, also I really hated the licensing system as it made no sense story wise, it was also a poor game-play choice).
I never had the chance to play anything prior to FF7, so they didn't make my list. FF9 didn't make it because of some absurdities in it, the story was fun but the missables were unforgiving (I am always shooting for that 100% completion save file), having to rush the game in 12 hours to unlock a certain ultimate weapon (thus skipping the other secrets) was a bit unfair. I also tried jumping that rope in the beginning of the game to a 1000, never made it to 200. So that killed it for me.
1 Like @Tzardok wow dude you are missing out if you haven't play 4 or 6. do a favor to yourself play ASAP!
@Dustyn-Barlow @Tzardok 1,4,6,7,8,10,12,13. All phenomenal. Those are all must plays in my opinion.
1 Like Although Xiii was broken (in my oppinion) this game does sound interesting, I'll at least give it a second glance, but seems that some people judge it by it's name alone.
doesn't matter if its remake of FF7 or new FF10 HD or FF versus, whts matter is a new good FF game with a turn base battle system like 7,8,9,10. not like 13 as you only watch character playing by them selfs ?!! and really no action at all even the battle music doent get you in the fighting mood?!!
hope a new FF will come this year or maybe kingdom hears
note: its my opinion so please no hard-felling lol.
1 Like @clouduos I'll agree the battle system was a bit dull... but personally thought the battle music was one of the redeeming features of the game, better than some previous games.
You'll never see a protagonist like Kratos in a final fantasy game, he represents too much masculinity for the developers taste. All their men have to be long haired + rainbow colored and fighting with women. This series has become disgusting after the release of FF12.
glad ni no kuni is coming,this is a true JRPG square should take notes
ni no kuni---->ff13 saga combined nuff said
2 Like Am I really the only older Final Fantasy fan that enjoyed the XIII series? I've been a fan since the VII days and I love the XIII series.
1 Like @MisterWWEfan I am an old gamer, played tons of RPGS throughout the years. While I do enjoy the FF13 series for its grand detailed production values, implementation of new technology at its finest, and really do not mind sequels in a FF numbered game.
But there is no question to many that FF13 has taken a nose dive in storytelling, and has skimped on areas of the game hindering the game as a whole.
For me - FF has always pushed the story telling to epic levels with human fallacy, fears, love, ambition, and hate. Strong emotions brought in the form of game narrative and LETS BE HONEST square has been playing it safe story wise. Avoiding sex, addiction, real religious topics, real goverment problems, foul language and violence, do not get me wrong I do not think a good story has to have any of those things above (take Grandia), but FF13 story telling has been very vanilla as of late. 13-2 was just all over the place, no coherency. And the game over ending - cmon that was such a crappy ploy to force more sells of the next sequel.
I am also noticing that by taking ff13 from 6 main characters, to 2, and now to 1 may save alot of money in production, voice acting, and development time but it also decreases the grand scope. They maybe could have made it more intimate, but that would require an antagonist to appear in all three games.
I know I have written enough, but you cannot explain buyer's remorse in a one sentence text message sound bite, that have become these boards.
1 Like This is called replicating pure s*** just to make a buck, maybe if they throw a couple of sex scenes in there with lightning I might rent it. See those boobies pop out n roll around.
Is it just me or is lightning's armor looking skimpier and skimpier every new game's trailer..?
Would you prefer seeing purple tight skin suit men running around with long purple hair fighting with women like in FF 13-2?
SE can have sequels for this game, but I can't get a FFVII-2!? Come on man!
On a side note the combat looks good for this game, but the armor and swords look too much.. I prefer the simple look...Like FFVII. lol
Of course they brought her back, they didn't want to have to get a new model, female models getting wise as they are to Enix's female-unfriendly rendering practices...Some models have A SEMBLANCE of self respect...I mean this particular chick, SERIOUSLY, she is NOT wearing armor! Everyone knows that armor offers physical protection, and that equates to COVERAGE!!
Meanwhile, Versus 13 remains in limbo. How is it that this game has a solid release date when we only learned of its existence a few months ago, yet Versus 13 has been in development for years with no end in sight?
1 Like I love action RPG game like FF VII: Crisis Core a lot. The story of the game is really immersive and impressive. It's not as dragging as pure RPG. Well deserved game of the year :D
Can we PLEASE just end the FFXIII crap already?!?!?! Make a fucking FFXV already. Something, anything, with better gameplay than XIII. As my friend told me Square made FFXIII linear as hell because the fans complained that FFXII was too wide open. Welp they listened and gave the crap that was FFXIII. I give it credit for the music, the graphics (ONLY THE PS3 Version LOOKED GOOD), and the story was interesting. But the complete and utter removal of so many FF staples was horrible. They shouldn't even bother with the 360. They barely sold any copies for the 360. IMO making it for both consoles waters down the main focus on the PS3. As stated before they only really sold a few copies in the US where the 360 actually sells, but outside of the US its a bomb.
2 Like @Someguy1212 Yeah, I agree with you about ending FFIII already. However, I don't see how FF XIII being on the Xbox made it worse. It would still have been way too linear, whether it was on the Xbox or not. But it sold 500,000 copies on the Xbox. That's a lot of sales.
I've been a HUGE fan of FF series , but i skipped completely FF XIII and any successor... I still get amused how a big company like Square Enix can increasingly ruin a great franchise.
For some weird reason I loved FFXIII-2, so I'll surely be picking up this one at some point.
I understand people's reactions to the sequels, though. We were 'promised' 3 games in the Fabula Nova Crystallis series (XIII, Versus XIII and Type-0), but Type-0 never got released outside of Japan and Versus XIII seems to have been classified on a shelf in the back. Instead we get XIII and 2 barely relevant sequels starring a less than likeable main character.
I hope Lightning Returns is the last one in the series (except for Versus XIII maybe). Enough of these girl power, heroine driven stories (X-2, XIII). These games are too focused on one character and their story development is limited.
Oh yawn. Meanwhile in an alternate universe, Versus XIII was released as Final Fantasy XIII and Lightning and friends never existed and the gaming world was a beautiful place.
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