Metal Snake Reviews:Lightning Returns Final Fantasy XIII

[Dio Brando 5,810]

WARNING

 

Read this before you go any further into the review:

 

 

1When I say something "doesn't make sense" I'm not comparing it to real life at all,I'm talking in terms of the game's mythology

 

2this review is my personal detailed opinion about the game,it's not a fact you should follow at all,if you like the game,good for you,enjoy it and act like this review never existed,this is just my personal opinion,I don't want to offend anyone with it and I'm not attacking anyone with it,this is just a reflection of my experience during the hours I've spent in this game

 

3there might be some spoilers in this review,some minor,some major,so read at your own risk

 

 

with that out of the way,let's go on with the review shall we.......hoo boy

 

 

 

I was one of the few people that actually liked the story of the two previous XIII games and their mythology and thought they had some potential despite me hating the first XIII for it's awful map design

 

I'm one of those people who loved XIII-2 especially the Pokemon-esque mechanic where you catch monsters and use them in your party,I really enjoyed the post-game content including the puzzle mini games and the 10 optional paradox endings

 

So it goes without saying that I would look forward to what's gonna happen after the end of XIII-2

 

Then at the 25th anniversary of the Final Fantasy franchise in 2012,Lightning Returns Final Fantasy XIII was announced,much to my surprise I wasn't hyped for LRFFXIII as I was with XIII-2,the trailers Square Enix showcased for the game since it's announcement up until it's release didn't do a good job to convince me to be hyped especially since the trailers barely showcased anything at all in the story unlike XIII-2 which had a 6 minutes trailer hyping the story in a way that got me hooked,LRFFXIII's trailers didn't do that,and with those creepy and uncomfortable Inside The Square trailers of Toriyama and his goons lavishing Lightning with praise in the most uncomfortable way possible,then the game came out,I decided to pick it up because I played the first two games and I needed to see how the story conclude and how the gameplay fairs compared to the first two,and boy Am I such a stupid ignorant dipshit for falling into this.

 

The amount of frustration,disbelief,boredom and facepalming I had with this game is horrifying,never before a game since Sonic 06 pissed me off so much and bored me to no end.

 

Believe me,I tried my best to like this game and give it a chance,but it kept hitting me with things that pissed me off so much especially as someone who defends XIII-2 to death

 

Not only Lightning Returns is the worst Final Fantasy game I've ever played(in terms of both main games and spin-offs),but it's also the second worst game I've ever played in my entire life(right after Sonic 06).The amount of bullshit this game assaulted me with is unbelievable,I couldn't believe how low the series can get....uhhh let me start with the story before I lose what remained of my sanity shall we?

 

 

 

Almost 500 years after Caius Ballad(the only good character in this entire trilogy besides Sazh) destroyed the entire timeline and Valhalla collapsed on Pulse and Lightning fell in her Crystal sleep,has passed.

 

The God of Light Bhunivelze(who's refered to as just "God" in this game) decided that he'll destroy what remained of the dying world of pulse(now referred to as Nova Chrysallia) in 13 days and choose Lightning to be "The Savior" that guides the survivors's souls to the new world that he's creating.

 

Sure the premise of the story sounds simple at first,but oh my god the more you progress through the story,it stops making any sense of what's going on at all.And believe me I read the Datalog of XIII and XIII-2 for hours and I understand those two's stories,and I still wasn't able to comprehend 95% of what's going on, the story almost completely disregard everything and every issue that happened in the previous two games and it even dances on it as if it didn't matter or didn't happen

 

And the ending...oh my freakin God the ending,without spoiling too much,this ending as a complete cope out half-assed poorly written ending to the trilogy,it makes absolutely no sense and it's laughing at everything that happened before it(How Did Hope's mom came back to life is beyond me)

 

Moving to the characters themselves,Lightning(unlike the previous two games)is absolutely unrelatable,she has the personality of a brick wall and she barely shows any kind of emotion even at critical moments like the fight with Snow at Yusnaan,she barely had even any facial expression to express her emotions towards Snow,And before you tell me,I know that Bhunivelze took away her emotions so she can focus on her mission as the savior,but regardless of making her lack of emotion a plot point,that doesn't make a good character that the audience can relate to and care about,the only moments I liked in this story is making Sazh happy,and my favorite moment of the game where Caius refused to let Lightning save his soul,it's like he wants to get out of this game and basically said to Lightning: (screw you bitch I'm gonna find a better game that respects me),that moment for some reason was so satisfying and it just increased my love for Caius even more since I really liked him in XIII-2,it's like he's reading my mind and doing exactly what I wanted him to do to troll Lightning,this game made me hate Lightning so freakin much after she used to be one of my favorite female leads in gaming,this game made her my most hated FF protagonists,even Squall,despite being emo,is more relatable and actually have some good moments in FFVIII despite that I hate 8,not as much as this game though.

 

Bottomline is,this story is awful and Toriyama failed even the basics of storytelling,it's my most hated story in the franchise(including spin-offs and main games)

 

Oh.....and Odin(Lightning's summon) became a chocobo......don't ask how the mighty Odin became a chocobo,just role with it.

 

 

And now to the Gameplay,and this is where I barely resisted rage quitting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Similar to the moon fall three days in Zelda Majora's Mask

 

LRFFXIII has a time limit system,you only have 13 days before the end of the world and you have to complete the game's main quests which will give the world an extra day each time you complete a main quest,you'll start with seven days and you have to extend the game's days up to the 13th day

 

The doomsday clock,while you'd think it could be as interesting as Majora's Mask's,serves to be more of an annoyance than a game mechanic as this clock right here likes to waste your time and makes you both worried and not worried about it at the same time,I'll get to that in a sec.

 

You see,in LRFFXIII you don't level up by grinding ooh noooo that's such complicated concept for Toriyama's brain to handle.

 

The only way you can level up in this game is by doing sidequests(and the main 5 quests of course) for NPC's around the region of Nova Chrysallia,which 90% of them range from delivering an item to a person,finding a lost person to meet another person,and your typical fetch quests.

Keep in mind that this is your only way to level up Lightning and give her any sort of stat boosts,which makes fighting enemies in random encounters completely and absolutely pointless,the only thing you'll fight random enemies for is for item drops and to fill your EP points(which I'll talk about later) and even then,those item drops aren't even compared to the rewards you get from the quests as most of the garbs you customize your schematas with are either sold in shops or earned from sidequests.

 

And here is where the jarring problems with this stupid leveling up system starting to surface.

 

1Some NPC's can only be found during a specific time in the day and some of them has an invisible time limit that you have to do the quest in otherwise you'll fail the quest,problem is,the game never tells you if you failed a quest or not there is no prompt popping up to tell you if you've failed or not so you're just gonna follow your assumption while the NPC disappears and you'll never know if you've failed or not

 

2 Some sidequests takes a long time to beat and the boost in stats they gave you is so low it's pathetic,some of them only posts your HP by 5 or even less,which means you have to complete a ton of sidequests to even have a decent stat boost that you could've already got by normal grinding

 

3The sidequests are so repetitive and boring to the point of absolute monotony,you'll be running around in circles over and over again and almost all of them feel the same,but you need to do them if you want any,and I mean ANY  chance to beat the final boss

 

Back to the clock,there is an EP ability called Chronostatis which slows down time for at least 5 minutes to give you enough time which is almost essential if you want to complete as many quests as possible in a short amount of time,doing Chronostatis while finishing Main quests will guarantee that you'll have too many extra days to spare even after you finish all five main quests(Sazh isn't optional btw) which makes the whole doomsday clock thing feels unthreatening,at the same time it can be really annoying as it slows down the time for an NPC that you're waiting to pop up for it;s side quest,sure you can sleep in inns to pass time,but you won't know when some of those NPCs will pop up unless you have a guide.

 

 

You think since they're "Side" quests that they'll be mostly optional right?No,these sidequests are your one and only meaning to grind for experience and if you reached the final day with not enough sidequests completed,you're completely and utterly f**ked especially on Normal mode

 

On Normal Mode you can never beat the final boss,period,Hell I finished over 50 sidequests before the final day and I still couldn't beat him despite that I had powerful schemata's,weapons,attacks and buffs and debuffs and second and third tier spells,they even put the New Game+ option right before the door of the final boss knowing that you're most likely didn't finish enough sidequests,and there is no meaning or way to level up on the Final day as even the four trial doors(which are optional) requires a ridiculous amount of grinding to finish them so you'll be forced to do New Game+ on Normal mode and that's exactly what happened to me and many others,you're gonna do all the main quests and so many side quests that I did before aaaaall over again just to do  the task that was so simple and fast to perform in previous games,and guess what?? That wasn't enough as the final form has over MILLION HP and all your attacks only to from 1 to 10 points of damage including both physical attacks and spells,and he takes FOREVER to stagger unless you have EP points for overclock to slow time but most likely you spent most of those EP points on his previous three forms so you'll be totally f**ked,I did New Game+ AGAIN but this time on easy mode because I was so bored,so frustrated and so pissed off from doing the same shit over and over again just because you didn't play on Easy mode.

 

And trust me on your first playthrough you'll beg and pray to be allowed to grind as some bosses takes forever to kill,not because they're hard but because they have so much HP and you do little damage at this point,freakin Noel,the first boss of the game takes 30 minutes to beat on your first battle with him,sure you can use overclock to score a huge combo on him but it doesn't speed up the process that much at this point in the game,and this shit reaches a whole new level if you fought the boss in the Dead Dunes or delayed Snow to be the third one to beat

 

Anyway,you'll return to Hope in Ark everyday at 6 pm to deliver the souls you've collected to the tree Yggdrasil to extend the days you have before the world ends and buy some potions from Hope,speaking of which Hope will talk to Lightning throughout the game delivering plot expositions and sometimes gameplay details...and he NEVER SHUTS UP

 

 

You thought Navi from OoT was annoying hoooo boy wait until you see this

 

Hope has beaten Navi for the title of the most mouthful character I've ever seen

 

He never shut up,I swear to God it's like for most missions he talks to you every minute or sometimes every 30 seconds,and that;s sometimes aside from story exposition in which sometimes he just state the obvious that you've just witnessed

 

and when you still have an hour before going back to the arc,he will remind you to head back to the arc at 6 every ten minutes(game time not real life time)

 

He's so unbelievably annoying ,he talks so much to the point he cuts out mid conversation when a battle start,and he continues the conversation as soon as the battle ends and I was like...WTF?

 

He will never shut up for even a minute.Like seriously after this I now will be grateful to Navi and will never make fun of her again,at least her hint are skippable and you don't have to set through it everytime

 

For the love of Etro I hope they patch the game with an option that specifically SHUT HIM THE F*** UP

 

"Light,you'll be transfered to the arc at 6pm,without question"

 

 

40 seconds later

 

"Light,you must remember to head back to the arc at 6 to prevent the time distortion"

 

another 40 seconds later

 

"Light,as the savior you must know that you should return to the arc at 6 PM"

 

and I was like..............

 

 

YES HOPE I KNOW I SHOULD RETURN TO THE ARC AT 6 PM

 

One of the very very few positive things I can say about this game aside from Caius trolling Lightning in the story,is the battle system,while I prefer XIII-2's system more,this battle system can be really good especially with the customizable schematas.....that is until you realize two facts.

 

1There is barely any enemy variety in the game,aside from few unique one time dungeon enemies like Skeletons,you'll be fighting the same monsters and human soldiers over and over again and you'll repeat the same strategies you used on them over and over again and it can get repetitive especially when you do a side quests that requires a random item drop to deliver,what's that? A behemoth you've just fought in the Dead Dunes and you're fighting a recolor of it here in the Wildlands,there is even way less variety than both XIII and XIII-2

 

2the camera will screw you up big time as it sometimes zooms on one enemy because he did a special attack animation while you were trying to block another enemy around but they camera just decided to have you look at the enemy animation rather than being kept on lightning,and that could lead into many cheap free shots that enemies can score on you because the camera was working in their favor,making  battles with enemy hordes more frustrating than it needs to be

 

There are four locations to travel to in the game (aside from the ultimate lair dungeon at the extra 14th day),The city of Luxerion,Yusnaan,The Wildlands and the dead dunes,sure the world seems to be open but the clock is again serves as a source of annoyance as you can't explore everywhere you want without the clock ticking constantly,and there is no rewind time ability like Majora's Mask's Song of Healing

So the game punishes you for exploring and being experimental just because you strayed away from your boss battles and fetch quests galore of a game,you basically just can't do anything or have fun without the game poking a stick on your back as I said before,some NPCs only appear in a specific time and you can't afford to miss them otherwise the final boss is gonna be either impossible or so tedious to fight,heck other than the sidequests,the game is very barren with barely enough content,unlike XIII-2 which had lots of stuff like the colosseum boss battles,puzzle mini games,the 10 paradox endings challenges,chocobo racing and gambling mini games in Serendipity and a nice variation of sidequests that isn't just delivery,the post game of XIII-2 was a fun time for me,here in LRFFXIII however is the complete opposite,even after finishing the game the only thing you can do is the same fetch quests you've been doing the whole game and that last Ultimate lair dungeon that has a superboss that requires a TON OF sidequests grinding of doing delivery missions and beating the same main bosses for god knows how many times you did that already because you can never grind mosnters for experience,this game takes the normal form of grinding and replace it with even more tedious,more boring,much longer process of grinding that forces you to rebeat the game over and over and over and over again through New Game+

 

And it doesn't help when there are only four main bosses aside from the final boss and the superboss that gives you quest experiencethe four bosses are Noel,Snow,a Monster summoned by The Order,and Caius,you'll fight those four a lot aside from your before final boss NewGame+ and your future attempt of grinding just to beat that Superboss in the Ultimate dungeon,driving you to insanity and sucking all possible amount of fun you can ever have

 

 

As for the graphics,while they look decent enough,somehow they're worse than the previous two games despite being at the end of the Ps3360's life cycles so they should've already mastered the Crystal engine by now,and sometimes the framerate drops massively whenever a lot of spells are casted at the same time or if there is a cutscene with a lot of moving NPC in it 

 

 

The soundtrack is kinda decent,mostly because they reused a lot of music from both XIII and XIII-2,but overall the soundtrack is good enough for Final Fantasy standards but it's mostly meh as the new tracks aren't that memorable except a track called Almighty Bhunivelze

 

 

And here it is,the conclusion of this very very very very very long review,it's probably the longest review I've written in my life ever since my previous work as a reviewer on mexat.com years ago

 

I swear I tried my hardest to like this game,I didn't want to hate it,I never wanted to hate a Final Fantasy game at all as I cherish this franchise,this franchise is part of my life

 

I liked the demo when I first played it and that's why I decided to give this game a shot before losing hope,but the amount of frustration,boredom and anger I suffered with this game surprised me,never before since Sonic 06 that a game pissed me off so much in almost every aspect of it and shunned me down everytime I tried to give it a chance.the only thing that makes this game better than Sonic 06 is the fact that the game at least functions and it's not a glitchy mess like Sonic 06

 

 

It's sad that the only things that I enjoyed in Lightning Returns is Caius trolling Lightning in Etro's Temple,and seeing Sazh smiles again

 

Ooh Caius and Sazh,if you two were in a better game,you guys deserves more

 

 

And that brings me to my score for Lightning Returns Final Fantasy XIII,I know this score will make people angry and they'll accuse me of biasness and trolling,but that's just my personal opinion it's not a fact you don't have to accept it and you can easily ignore it

 

my final verdict for Lightning Returns Final Fantasy XIII is a miserable,lowly,pathetic score of

 

 

2.5 OUT OF 10

 

 

 

 

 

 

Goodbye forever Lightning,may Bhunivelze torture your soul in the endless depths of hades 

 

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb194/superdiddy34/hiiiiii_zpsb3adf9cf.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and now there is one thing left to do....help me Jontron

 

Edited March 6, 2014 by Metal Snake

[HarLea Quinn 26,501]

This has got to be the longest post I've ever read on this site

[Dio Brando 5,810]

This has got to be the longest post I've ever read on this site

Told ya

 

I tried to be as detailed as possible to the point I didn't know when to stop

 

I did all what I can to explain why this game offends me on so many levels especially as a huge fan of Final Fantasy

[Dave 5,715]

This has got to be the longest post I've ever read on this site

 

Give me time.

[Guest Lady Dreana]

Interesting Review on ff13 LR Snake, do you by any chance take requests to review other games?

[HarLea Quinn 26,501]

Told ya

 

I tried to be as detailed as possible to the point I didn't know when to stop

 

I did all what I can to explain why this game offends me on so many levels especially as a huge fan of Final Fantasy

 

Good for you ! Get it off your chest .

 

Give me time.

 

 

Challenge accepted ? LOLOL

[Shana09 5,769]

Give me time.

 

Just use Chronostatis.

 

 

@Topic

 

I couldn't read ahead from the whole Hope-Navi thing since I have to go to sleep...but just to say something about a few points:

 

1) I beat the final boss in 12 minutes, got 5 starts, and got the weapon Double Diety. It was on Normal Mode and on my first playthrough. The final bosses 4th phase may be annoying, but definitely not unbeatable.

 

2) The story was pretty simple IMO. They explained it throughout the game so it made sense for me.

[Sora96 17,256]

Game was good.

 

A 2.5? Lol. I've never seen someone give a game a 2.5. Not gonna waste my time reading a story of you criticizing a game that I like a lot.

 

Square Enix enjoys your money.

 

[Dio Brando 5,810]

Just use Chronostatis.

 

 

@Topic

 

I couldn't read ahead from the whole Hope-Navi thing since I have to go to sleep...but just to say something about a few points:

 

1) I beat the final boss in 12 minutes, got 5 starts, and got the weapon Double Diety. It was on Normal Mode and on my first playthrough. The final bosses 4th phase may be annoying, but definitely not unbeatable.

 

2) The story was pretty simple IMO. They explained it throughout the game so it made sense for me.

1if on easy mode,yeah,but on your first play through on normal mode,there is no way

 

I've completed over 50 sidequests before the final boss and that still wasn't enough

 

Maybe I didn't went to the sidequest that the game wants me to do to get a massive experience boost or a very rare garb,but how should I know when almost every side quest is tasking you with the same stuff over and over and over again

 

2it's simple only if you ignored the first two games,once you start linking what's happening here with what happened before,nothing will make any amount of sense especially the ending and the epilogue after the credits 

 

And let's say the story made sense,that won't make up for the rest of the game

Game was good.

 

A 2.5? Lol. I've never seen someone give a game a 2.5. Not gonna waste my time reading a story of you criticizing a game that I like a lot.

 

Square Enix enjoys your money.

 

I gave Sonic 06 a 1 out of 10 when I was working as a reviewer,

 

So yeah,again it's just an opinion not an official score,you can ignore it 

Edited March 6, 2014 by Metal Snake

[Sora96 17,256]

1if on easy mode,yeah,but on your first play through on normal mode,there is no way

 

I've completed over 50 sidequests before the final boss and that still wasn't enough

 

2it's simple only if you ignored the first two games,once you start linking what's happening here with what happened before,nothing will make any amount of sense especially the ending and the epilogue after the credits 

I gave Sonic 06 a 1 out of 10 when I was working as a reviewer,

 

So yeah,again it's just an opinion not an official score,you can ignore it 

 

Already have. And Square Enix recommend you play on Easy Mode for your first playthrough anyway.

[Tails 6,692]

I agree with a lot of what you said. This game just didn't seem to look all that fun and seeing other reviews of this game makes me glad that I didn't buying it on day 1. This game has so many problems and seems to be the worst out of all three FFXIII games. The battle system looks great but I wish they weren't completely pointless. And you're right the graphics are even more downgraded than it was in XIII-2.

 

This is why Toriyama should not be allowed to even touch a game. Instead of making them better he makes them worse just like he did with The 3rd Birthday and now with the Final Fantasy series. 

Edited March 6, 2014 by Tails

[Dio Brando 5,810]

Interesting Review on ff13 LR Snake, do you by any chance take requests to review other games?

Depends on the game and if I can find it or not.

 

I can review anything within KH,FF,Sonic,Mario,Megaman,Pokemon and other stuff I play

Already have. And Square Enix recommend you play on Easy Mode for your first playthrough anyway.

Why should I play on easy and why should they require you to play on easy before the normal difficulty which is supposed to be the default difficulty of any game?

 

If the game had a normal grinding system like every FF game ever the final boss and most of this game would've never been a problem

 

but the fact that my only method of leveling up is countless backtracking back and forth doing the job of a delivery boy fetch quests rather than actually feeling like a savior.....it takes away all the possible fun the game could've offered

[Queen Tery 4,591]

 

 

Square Enix enjoys your money.

 

 

 

This had to be the cockiest and most unnecessary comment I have ever read.

[Jim 2,990]

As much as I enjoyed this game, I can see that you made some really good points. My biggest gripe with this game was one of yours as well- that you don't level up in the traditional sense. Plus, they could have added a LOT more variety with the side fetch quests. I like to think that this game was worked on by some great writers, coders, and music composers, and began to show a ton of potential, with awesome music, a great battle system, an epic final boss, and some emotional scenes. but then Toriyama came in and tried to smear some of his "no-level-system+SlutningReturnsFinalFanserviceToriyamaFetishXIII+FetchQuestGalore+AndSoMuchMore" diarrhea  onto it. (I guess we disagree on how successful he was in that regard, lol) 

 

But yeah, regarding the storyline, I would give you some retorts in that department, but I'm kinda tired right now. I may comment tomorrow to speak my mind haha.

 

Nice review. I give your review a 2.5...

 

out of 2.7

 

[Reyn 1,755]

I agree with a lot of what you said. This game just didn't seem to look all that fun and seeing other reviews of this game makes me glad that I didn't buying it on day 1. This game has so many problems and seems to be the worst out of all three FFXIII games. The battle system looks great but I wish they weren't completely pointless. And you're right the graphics are even more downgraded than it was in XIII-2.

 

This is why Toriyama should not be allowed to even touch a game. Instead of making them better he makes them worse just like he did with The 3rd Birthday and now with the Final Fantasy series. 

Pfft, you guys say the linearity of the original XIII made the game shit, yet this game is expansive and non linear and has tons of sidequests, and you guys still hate on its gameplay. The FF fanbase is really divided isnt it?

 

 

Depends on the game and if I can find it or not.

 

I can review anything within KH,FF,Sonic,Mario,Megaman,Pokemon and other stuff I play

Why should I play on easy and why should they require you to play on easy before the normal difficulty which is supposed to be the default difficulty of any game?

 

If the game had a normal grinding system like every FF game ever the final boss and most of this game would've never been a problem

 

but the fact that my only method of leveling up is countless backtracking back and forth doing the job of a delivery boy fetch quests rather than actually feeling like a savior.....it takes away all the possible fun the game could've offered

I will admit, im not a huge fan of doing sidequests to level up, or the story(it has the least depthful story of the XIII trilogy, and i was a bit dissapointed, i was expecting it to be on the same level of XIII-2 AT LEAST). I still liked the game tho, the gameplay was fun, and i thought the story was eh. To be honest, with the shit they pulled in XIII-2, they wrote themselves into a corner and they ended up screwing the story over. -_- At least Toriyama made fun battle gameplay at least, and it was non linear, plus the fact that im a huge XIII fan, otherwise, i woulkdnt have liked it as much. 

 

That said, i still like the story's closure. It was still ok, just not on a level an FF game should be. I thought the ending was good(except for the epilogue which had

Lightning in the new world, and i was like WTF, THIS IS RET*RDED.

). 

Edited March 6, 2014 by spiderfreak1011

[TerraRedeemed 255]

Wanting to reply but cant paste my darn texting into the field o.o

[xxClouDxxmoon 901]

Well after this Metal Snake, I think you can just forget about XIII and concentrate on better things, like FFXV

[Dio Brando 5,810]

 

Well after this Metal Snake, I think you can just forget about XIII and concentrate on better things, like FFXV

I'll do,but at the same time I'll try to be careful because there is a potential that they'll screw up XV,especially after I heard that Lightning would appear in other FF games

 

 

Pfft, you guys say the linearity of the original XIII made the game shit, yet this game is expansive and non linear and has tons of sidequests, and you guys still hate on its gameplay. The FF fanbase is really divided isnt it?

 

 

I will admit, im not a huge fan of doing sidequests to level up, or the story(it has the least depthful story of the XIII trilogy, and i was a bit dissapointed, i was expecting it to be on the same level of XIII-2 AT LEAST). I still liked the game tho, the gameplay was fun, and i thought the story was eh. To be honest, with the shit they pulled in XIII-2, they wrote themselves into a corner and they ended up screwing the story over. -_- At least Toriyama made fun battle gameplay at least, and it was non linear, plus the fact that im a huge XIII fan, otherwise, i woulkdnt have liked it as much.

 

That said, i still like the story's closure. It was still ok, just not on a level an FF game should be. I thought the ending was good(except for the epilogue which had

Lightning in the new world, and i was like WTF, THIS IS RET*RDED.

).

I didn't hate XIII because of linearity specifically,it's the fact that you do nothing in those linear hallways except of triggering cutscenes.

 

XIII-2 was semi open and kinda like FFX in terms of structure and I loved XIII-2 regardless of that "To be Continued"

 

Sure LRFFXIII had an open world,but slapping an open world doesn't solve all the problems with the atrocious leveling up system,the repetitive and boring sidequests and the awful beyond belief story that made me pause cutscenes so many times to see how it contradicted so many things that happened in XIII and XIII-2

 

I hated the ending so much both the epilogue and the actual ending....speaking of the epilogue

 

(Spoiler written in white)

 

That new world is Planet Earth

Edited March 6, 2014 by Shana09

[Guest Lady Dreana]

What about Castlevania lords of shadow 2

[Dio Brando 5,810]

 

What about Castlevania lords of shadow 2

meh,I don't like the Lord of Shadows series,but if you want me to play something like Castlevania Symphony of the Night then I'm game ^_^

 

I'm more fan of the classic Castlevania games than the modern ones

 

 

Anyway,for those who're interested

 

my next review will be either Final Fantasy X or Shin Megami Tensei 4....depends on which game I'll finish first

Edited March 6, 2014 by Shana09

[Shana09 5,769]

1if on easy mode,yeah,but on your first play through on normal mode,there is no way

 

I've completed over 50 sidequests before the final boss and that still wasn't enough

 

Maybe I didn't went to the sidequest that the game wants me to do to get a massive experience boost or a very rare garb,but how should I know when almost every side quest is tasking you with the same stuff over and over and over again

 

2it's simple only if you ignored the first two games,once you start linking what's happening here with what happened before,nothing will make any amount of sense especially the ending and the epilogue after the credits 

 

And let's say the story made sense,that won't make up for the rest of the game

 

1) I said I did it on Normal Mode. So it was possible.

2) I completed over 50 sidequests and Canvas of Prayers too. It never bothered me, I've played MMORPGs before with similar quests, in fact I did over 500 or even more quests than in this game.

3) I was a bit confused with what happened between FFXIII-2 and LR:FFXIII since I didn't finish playing it, but I still took two and two together. Also I read the datalogs for more information. I liked the ending and I really liked the epilogue.

4) Well I actually liked the game, but each to their own.

[Sora96 17,256]

I'll do,but at the same time I'll try to be careful because there is a potential that they'll screw up XV,especially after I heard that Lightning would appear in other FF games

 

 

I didn't hate XIII because of linearity specifically,it's the fact that you do nothing in those linear hallways except of triggering cutscenes.

 

XIII-2 was semi open and kinda like FFX in terms of structure and I loved XIII-2 regardless of that "To be Continued"

 

Sure LRFFXIII had an open world,but slapping an open world doesn't solve all the problems with the atrocious leveling up system,the repetitive and boring sidequests and the awful beyond belief story that made me pause cutscenes so many times to see how it contradicted so many things that happened in XIII and XIII-2

 

I hated the ending so much both the epilogue and the actual ending....speaking of the epilogue

 

(Spoiler written in white)

 

That new world is Planet Earth

 

Toriyama has explained XIII's style before. And I love it.

 

And the epilogue did not contain

Planet Earth

only

a world similar to our own, like FINAL FANTASY XV.

.

[Dio Brando 5,810]

1) I said I did it on Normal Mode. So it was possible.

2) I completed over 50 sidequests and Canvas of Prayers too. It never bothered me, I've played MMORPGs before with similar quests, in fact I did over 500 or even more quests than in this game.

3) I was a bit confused with what happened between FFXIII-2 and LR:FFXIII since I didn't finish playing it, but I still took two and two together. Also I read the datalogs for more information. I liked the ending and I really liked the epilogue.

4) Well I actually liked the game, but each to their own.

2Sure this system was used for MMOs but there the sidequests were at least varied,here it's just delivering stuff and finding people over and over and over and over and over again,it sucks all the fun the game could possibly have for me and there is no way to grind when you're before the door of the final boss

 

3I read the datalog of XIII and XIII-2 for hours and understood their stories,here even when I read the datalog nothing made any amount of sense

 

 

Toriyama has explained XIII's style before. And I love it.

 

And the epilogue did not contain

Planet Earth

only

a world similar to our own, like FINAL FANTASY XV.

.

1I already knows XIII's style of storytelling and I said I liked the stories of XIII and XIII-2 but LRFFXIII's story is bullshit

 

(spoilers in white)

 

2And no that's not a world similar to FFXV it looks completely different and it barely resembles what we've seen in the trailers

 

And still there is nothing that confirms that this new world is FFXV in any way shape or form,Lightning said in the ending that her new world will never contain any crystals,gods or Fal'cie for that matter,but FFXV contain all of that and Etro has been mentioned by Stella in the 2011 trailer of XV when it was Versus XIII.

 

Hell in the ending Lightning broke the fourth wall and said it was the world where she said you(us the players) were born in and that the crystal mythos no longer exists,hell the train station Lightning was in literally looks like France and the Landscape around her looks like France.....unless she lives in Lumiose city in the Kalos region lol

 

So how does this world lead to FFXV if Crystals and Fal'cies don't exist?Both FFXV and FF Type-0 still has Fal'cie,L'cie and crystals,hell the main antagonist of FF type-0 is a L'cie himself and all of his soldiers are L'cies

 

 

Also,if you cared that much about my review,why did you say you won't read it?

 

Please if you want to discuss the review with me read the whole thing

[Sora96 17,256]

2Sure this system was used for MMOs but there the sidequests were at least varied,here it's just delivering stuff and finding people over and over and over and over and over again,it sucks all the fun the game could possibly have for me and there is no way to grind when you're before the door of the final boss

 

3I read the datalog of XIII and XIII-2 for hours and understood their stories,here even when I read the datalog nothing made any amount of sense

 

 

1I already knows XIII's style of storytelling and I said I liked the stories of XIII and XIII-2 but LRFFXIII's story is bullshit

 

(spoilers in white)

 

2And no that's not a world similar to FFXV it looks completely different and it barely resembles what we've seen in the trailers

 

And still there is nothing that confirms that this new world is FFXV in any way shape or form,Lightning said in the ending that her new world will never contain any crystals,gods or Fal'cie for that matter,but FFXV contain all of that and Etro has been mentioned by Stella in the 2011 trailer of XV when it was Versus XIII.

 

Hell in the ending Lightning broke the fourth wall and said it was the world where she said you(us the players) were born in and that the crystal mythos no longer exists,hell the train station Lightning was in literally looks like France and the Landscape around her looks like France.....unless she lives in Lumiose city in the Kalos region lol

 

So how does this world lead to FFXV if Crystals and Fal'cies don't exist?Both FFXV and FF Type-0 still has Fal'cie,L'cie and crystals,hell the main antagonist of FF type-0 is a L'cie himself and all of his soldiers are L'cies

 

 

Also,if you cared that much about my review,why did you say you won't read it?

 

Please if you want to discuss the review with me read the whole thing

 

I'm not going to read something that big if it's just going to criticize a game that I like.

 

I didn't say it was similar to FINAL FANTASY XV's. I said it was similar to our own world, like FINAL FANTASY XV's is. So they're both similar to our own Earth

 

"where… well, we can't really go into a lot of detail, but Lightning is seen in a rural town in a world that is quite similar to our own Earth." 

 

"If you approach the game's time limit in a positive manner, I think players will further understand the nuances and appreciate why we chose to implement this system. Even in Japan, what we've noticed is that opinions on the game become more positive after some time since LIGHTNING RETURNS' initial release [after players get used to the nuances]," 

 

- Motomu Toriyama

[Dio Brando 5,810]

I'm not going to read something that big if it's just going to criticize a game that I like.

 

I didn't say it was similar to FINAL FANTASY XV's. I said it was similar to our own world, like FINAL FANTASY XV's is. So they're both similar to our own Earth

 

"where… well, we can't really go into a lot of detail, but Lightning is seen in a rural town in a world that is quite similar to our own Earth." 

 

"If you approach the game's time limit in a positive manner, I think players will further understand the nuances and appreciate why we chose to implement this system. Even in Japan, what we've noticed is that opinions on the game become more positive after some time since LIGHTNING RETURNS' initial release [after players get used to the nuances]," 

 

- Motomu Toriyama

I didn't hate the time limit as I'm a huge fan of Zelda Majora's Mask which implemented this concept much better in 1999-2000.

 

The Time limit concept wasn't bad it's the execution that was stupid.

 

I replayed this game 3 times in New Game+ just to grind for the final boss and it the Time limit was pointless when you abuse Chronostatis,but it's an annoyance when you try to do sidequests which you need to do to level up.And even after my three repeated playthroughs I still got bored and pissed off

 

Look,this review is my personal opinion,you don't have to follow it or like it,but if you gonna discuss it with me you better see what I've said otherwise this argument is just a void(and not the Exdeath fun kind of void)

 

Again I didn't want or even intended to hate this game as I said in the review I liked the demo and that demo convinced me to buy the game,it's just the final product was one of the most boring RPGs I've ever played

Edited March 6, 2014 by Metal Snake