This is my fav game in the whole franchise!! Because it’s a spin-off/sequel, it never gets the attention the original does (nor does XIII-2). I really appreciate that even though these probably won’t get the views the first game’s video got, you still followed through with them. Love, LOVE your videos!!
Boy oh boy, SE could have really used the conclusion of this trilogy to flesh out the legacy characters…including visual design. Why is do all the characters except Snow still wear the same drip?
Yeah agree,why does snow when he is at the lowest point of his life,why does he have drip,it should been the opposite,snow should looked like shit in lightning return because you know depresiion
@@LSK2Kattention to detail is always great. It’s help relate on an emotional scale. It’s ok to highlight these. Again, like you said, it’s a fantasy world. 🧐
Couldn't wait for this one, the trilogy is complete. And now I can show all 3 of these videos to everyone as a masterclass on why you should give the XIII games a chance! I definitely agree with you on the feeling of detachment, that is one strong feeling I felt through the entire experience. But I guess that feeling of detachment was what they were going for since Lightning herself is detached in-lore, just a vessel with no emotion thanks to the meddling of a God. Gameplay-wise I definitely would have preferred if it was a further evolution of XIII-2. It seemed like they were finally getting comfortable with XIII-2 and close to perfecting the system they had been crafting since 09 only to completely through it out the window. This only adds to the feelings of detachment and distance away from the first XIII Game. The music while being mostly reused and remixes, felt like a love letter to the trilogy as a whole. (There are even some FFIII and FFV songs sprinkled in there.) I love all of the original music exclusive to this game, especially the battle themes. The track "Almighty Bhunivelze" is my absolute favorite song of any franchise. It is the perfect final boss theme that incorporates leitmotifs from every final boss before it and symbolizes our journey to get here. This song is on my wedding, funeral, and first Born's playlist. It's sad that many didn't like it due to its abstract nature, but music theory nerds that played through these games would love it I'm sure. As for the characters and story, not much to say there. I'm just glad they didn't straight up unalive Sazh considering their track record with his character. I'll take what I can get in that department. The ending was cheesy but I am glad they got a happy ending as the series could've ended much darker. Speaking of the ending, while this was the last video game of the series there is a novel that covers the cast's new lives after the ending of LR. It's called: Final fantasy XIII: reminiscence Tracer of memories. It's not anything deep or interesting but definitely a good read if you are bored one day and curious about the aftermath of the series. Can't wait for what series you decide to cover next, both X and XV are good choices. I've said it twice and you bet I'll say it a third. Anything you put out, I'm watching 😤 Sidenote: If anyone wanted a bit more info on Lumina some folks have compiled a google sheet of FFXIII trilogy plot holes, it explains the weirdness that went on here with her in the English version of LR. Since I can't link in comments here's summary for those curious about that. It bothered me so much, I had to seek it out. "The original Japanese script for the game apparently made a distinction between "Heart" and "Soul" and the English just calls it a "Soul" for all things not physical. Apparently the way it happened was: after the XIII-2 Lightning DLC, Lightning turns herself into a crystal on the throne of Etro, not to save herself, but to house both Serah's Heart and Soul and protect it from the chaos after she died. That way she wouldn't become another Yuel or worse melt into the chaos like most others do. Bhunivelze pulled Serah's Heart and Soul out of Lightning and in doing so he pulled out Lightning's "Heart" and _not_ soul by accident. This is why the line "Bhunivelze can't see inside hearts" is so important for the Lumina sequences. He only cares about Souls and seems to ignore Hearts completely or cast them away to an unknown place. What Bhunivelze has done is important however since Lumina is a piece of Lightning's "Heart" (if you played the Persona Series, this would be akin to Lightning's Shadow. The Persona 4 kind of Shadow specifically.) Each time we are with Lumina we are actually interacting with the fragment of Lightning's Heart that Bhunivelze can't see, but to make things even more confusing, this fragment had a one mission: to protect Serah's Heart. Since Lightning wasn't crystal anymore she couldn't protect Serah's Heart anymore, so Lumina on took that job. It why we see Serah in Lumina, she is actually there but without her Soul. Bhunivelze already has Hope and Serah's Souls to use as bargaining chips/puppets, the game atleast makes that clear, but he doesn't have their hearts. Once Bhunivelze is defeated, both Heart and Soul are returned to their rightful owners, including Lightning."
Thank you so much!! And yeah I definitely liked the game and wished they would have further progressed the ff13-2 battle system instead of throwing it out. And Almighty Bhunivelze is a wonderful track! As far as the localization goes, the Japanese script makes a lot more sense now that you’ve explained it, thank you so much! And yeah I’m working on ff15 now and it should be out within a couple of weeks or so, so stay tuned!! And thank you again I really appreciate it!!
10:00 As a professional musician and composer I can say that LRFFXIII OST is really good, rich, versatile and well mixed, at least the same quality as FFXIII and FFXIII-2. But in-game, the volume balance between music, sound effects and dialogues is catastrophic. Not being able to tweak those parameters was frustrating to me, I couldn't fully enjoy the music while playing the game.
I just started playing this game a couple of weeks ago. At first, I found the mechanics annoying and didn't think I would finish it. After getting through a few hours of it, it just becomes so much fun. Battles are fun, music is great, lots of customization....
I sincerely hope that Square gives us a full remaster of the entire trilogy. With content that was originally exclusive to the Japan and International releases, like with what they did with the Final Mix versions of Kingdom Hearts (which had scenes and bosses left out of the original US releases).
I was so upset with the new battle system that I put the game up for a year...but one day I realized I HAD to finish the story. After getting a hang of battling it actually became extremely fun and ended up being a great experienced 💯
I had the guide for Lightning Returns, it was an absolute god send and It made me really enjoy the game (I only used it for missions, not fights and learned the fights myself) but I remember getting the Bhunivelze and the guide said that Aeroga was essentially his weakness due to it's insanely good stagger. I did not have Aeroga, I struggled to stagger him. So I went back and got it and all of a sudden the fight was easy.
Personally when I played LR I was still a young kid so I was bias towards it. 10 years later, I understand a lot of its flaws but I still heavily enjoy the game. For me, soundtrack stands out the most. Man when you said songs didn’t stand out it had me confused. But hey, we all perceive differently. For me, The Ark is good, but man the OST is just a banger for me. Snows theme in this game is just chefs kiss. Savior of Souls, Chaos, Dessert lullaby (love the vocals) Ourobos Festival, all of the music for Luxerion, Divine Love, man I could go on. Soundtrack on this game what really struck me the most, as a 13 year old boy, and now as a 23 year old grown man. Not the best FF even IMO, but for me it just scratches an itch no other game has been able to do. I’m going on my 3 play through of the game next. Rambling over. Great video nonetheless
Thank you so much!! And I've re-listened to some of the tracks and there are some really good ones for sure! I just didn't notice them in the game for some reason.
An interesting thought experiment about the ffxiii series, is that if it was released( tech advancements aside) on ps2, this game would be incredibly highly praised. The gaming world changes that occurred at the audience level and attention span level during the ps3 Era was nightmarish and development hell. These games ARE great, and we would NOT have 7 remake without them. If you take all three as 1 epic story ( like lotr) , it's fucking bonkers.
Exactly. People are angry at XIII for being "linear" and "taking too long to give you options", but X did the exact same things and is highly liked. And just like XIII, X had X-2, which gave you the ability to go wherever from the start, eliminating the linearity.
Despite the flaws in the Final Fantasy Xiii franchise it would be my favorite series. If I had the choice to live in the game I would take it with no second thought.
I think you may have misinterpreted the true ending slightly. It isn’t that the game happened in the past, but that Lightning and co. are on a new planet by the end of the game. It took them destroying their current universe to get to “earth” at the end. And since Bhunivelze was already creating another planet they just kind of took over that. The new planet is supposed to represent a world ungoverned by fal’Cie where no gods are around to screw around with humanity. Most FF games use this trope of “god is dead” or “going against the authoritarianism of organized religion” and XIII is the one that leans into the hardest.
I knew basically nothing about XIII and its sequels, i gotta say your videos about each game has made me very interested to try it out. So unfortunate its the only FF not on the ps5 store. Also, i like to think i don't get attracted often to video game characters but really, Lightning and Fang might be some of the exeptions.
Unfortunately they’d are not on ps5 but it’s on Xbox! If you get the chance you should check them out! And yeah lightning and fang are very attractive!
All three games are on Xbox and they are enhanced for the One X and Series consoles with some graphical/frame rate improvements! Best way to play the trilogy!
I recently beat FF13 for the first time in 10ish years and I'm still working on grinding for the 3rd tier weapons.. but watching this video makes me feel like skipping 13-2 and jumping to LR already :') I remember LR causing me adrenaline rushes several times due to battles and the time management. I was surprised to hear you found the final boss really hard, because I have absolutely no memories of it being particularly hard when I played the game as a teen.
For the record, that FFXIII-2 lag has got to be an Xbox emulation issue. I played on PS3, and while there were definitely frame dips, it was never anywhere near single digits. Especially not during cutscenes.
My fave of the bunch is FFXIII2. It has a pretty fun time travel mechanics, great music, but especially the fact that there was a stated price for the visions… and that they actually follow through storywise, no deux ex machina.
Finally, finished the trilogy today. I want to thank you for getting me into it. Ever since I saw your 13 video a couple of months ago, I've been going through the trilogy. Found a new favorite in 13-2 and found so many good damn songs that I'm shocked aren't talked about more. I say the trilogy was overall ok. I just wish certain characters had more love like Sazh for instance. He was done so dirty in this trilogy. Wish Lighting’s return was an evolution of the second game as well. Has a good thing going. Lastly, was how some story elements left me confused or felt odd in some instances. even with that, I'm glad I went through it. Makes me hope another FF game could have the gameplay like 13, but I do like it. Maybe someday will see it.
I bought Lightning Returns for PS3 years ago and didn't have any knowledge about the previous games LOL still loved playing it tho :) watching your vids on ff13 is making me nostalgic maybe I'll go and play the first two
also this wasnt the last crystal tools game lol, the very last one was ff14 1.0 to the point of it being the reason why that game burned down. the engine was NOT made to be scaled up to what an MMO needs, and due to that we got a more stable one with Luminous but then they gutted EVERYTHING that made the game look more modern, even actual animation transitions like your running starting from the side and the character actually slowly moving to the side you are moving.
Inlove all the XIII games. LR had a nice atmosphere to it, being a rogue like game. Enjoyed the premise of only so many days until the end and of course - loved fighting the god at the end. Would love for them to do a similar game one day with whatever upcomming titles they will make.
As for me i really enjoyed the last part. I enjoyed knowing the theories of how the world/humanity was created. So having this as the final twist in the story is a bonus for me.
The mistranslations really kill it for me as much as I like the trilogy. I played the game in both Japanese and English and the story makes much more sense because it wasn't so terribly mistranslated.
FF LR is crazy good. Imo the best of the 3. The combat, the story, the worlds, it truly felt like an adventure to me. And not every game does this for me. I'm sure i am in the minority but that's ok.
just a quick note on the "restarting a 30 hour game" argument: ng+ in this game is in my opinion a great aspect that should be seen as a core component, not as the bonus it tends to be in other games. when going through it again the quests and their relationship to the time mechanic become much more intuitive. I tend to find myself finishing a quest and thinking to myself "i can finish a few sidequests in the wildlands and then be back in yusnaan for the firework quests and this leaves me enough time to go the the locked ghetto in luxerion by train before i get teleported to the ark". To me it's a bit like playing Dark Souls over again, where in your first playthrough you tend to do areas in the "standard order" but on a second playthrough you arrive at firelink and think "i'll run to the valley to get rtsr, then up the lift to darkroot and get myself the halberd, bone back to firelink and beat pinwheel in two hits". i hope my point gets across, you obtain this intuition on how open the world is and what you can do with the information you've accumulated playing it.
LRFFXIII is my favorite game of the franchise i love the customization, the OST and the gameplay is addicting, and unlike the newest games, it has identity we can see Final Fantasy in the gameplay it's not like they made a copy of Devil May Cry like XVI did.
This was actually my favorite of the trilogy as we finally had one game world that was fully explorable, though it is totally crazy and out of sync with the previous two games to the point that I'm surprised that this was the same game director, Toriyama. I've been holding off on replaying any of the FFXIII series because I'm hoping they get a re-release on the latest platforms with some improvements (like New Game+ for XIII and XIII-2).
I played this game first before the 2 previous ones and it was because I really liked it that I wanted to play the others, especially because I wanted to witness the development of Lightning since I loved her in this game, and it is where you know more about her personality. So I really liked the story, especially the ending, which is all so a beautiful anime xDD In retrospect, the retcon to make XIII-2 seemed weirder to me and that story is also more tangled, for example because of nonsensical things like "If you change the future you change the past" lol, on the other hand the ending of XIII was very basic, so I'm glad that they continued the story. In LR they give the characters a well-deserved ending after all they have been through and that is what Lightning expresses when she cries at the end after remembering everything. The gameplay is the one I liked the most in the trilogy, although it seems very easy to me, except for the 2 super bosses and Bhunivelze X, the first time I played on easy but normal Bhunivelze appeared, then I played on normal and X appeared and I almost couldn't beat him xD something I didn't like was that only Fang and Odin helps you in battles, a game where this time if you could play with everyone with this more dynamic gameplay would have been better. Also the constant pressure of time passing does not allow you to enjoy the scenarios much and the quests most of them are not plot-important, but I really enjoyed Lightning's interactions with the npcs. The dialogues don't bother me so much, except for Hope, he does talk too much xDD
Kinda wish they could have reused this battle system for a side game of some sort. (Not necessarily tied to the 13 series) Like on the PS Vita before Sony killed it
Tbh i love ffxiii trilogy and it makes it very good and feel the emotion the area and the soundtrack and character,but i also really surprised that LR,like idk how to say but when playing in LR you can feel it's gameplay is quite better then the previous game too(my opinion),it added lots of stuff too,you can say new maps, soundtrack and more,and yes and also the soundtrack it is not much but most of them are you cool and relax to listen to Plus Snow really yes too,it changes successfully and i think LR snow is the most handsome and cool one hahaha,it was a nice video i love it🥰,keep it up👍 Btw you can also heal up by going restaurant 😋
Hot damn I didn’t realize this was a FFXIII channel! GOOD! The XIII series was actually my entry final fantasy game, so I had no expectations or disappointment in terms of linearity. My first SE game was KH 358/2 days, so I went in backwards starting with the “worst games”. And they’re still good.
play final fantasy tactics - war of the lions then. to me its one of the worst SE games ever created. way too damn hard and punishing with no rewards but a friend of mine loves it to death xD i favor ff tactics advance tho. waaaay better.
Considering that FFXV was meant to be FFXIII Versus - I've always felt that the ending of FFXIII-3 wasn't our Earth but the more modern, low fantasy world of FFXV. That said, FFXIII Lightning Returns is actually one of my favorite FF games. I somehow got it on sale and ended up playing it without playing XIII or XIII-2, so I definitely side-stepped a lot of the complaints from fans of the previous games. But, as someone who went in blind straight into Lightning Returns, it's definitely one of the coolest, most original, and most fun games I've played. I'd love for them to bring back the mid-combat job-switching one day, since it's really fun to hunt jobs and swap between them. If FFXV's weapons types had unique abilities and costumes, I probably would've found the combat a lot more dynamic and exciting.
Back at the time when the game came out i love every minute of it . the story and everything The only ploblem was getting the dlc of garb with First class solider and Arthur Sword Excalibur. In my opinion it worth playing again. I would love to Play Lightning again! Cause I still got a score to settle with the God of Light and Caius.
@@thechance-lore4711 Thank you! I hope they put it on PS5 cause if we think about it it would give us something to do while waiting for Final Fantasy Rebirth.
I just started 13 on my PS3 and ordered a Lightning Returns steelbook cuz ik I'm gonna more than likely enjoy it. I'm just recently getting into Final Fantasy. And I've always seen stuff for Lightning Returns for some reason, so, yea, idk. I can't wait to play and give it a shot.
I was shook when I was so close to getting to the end but I had meandered too much, ran out of time, and sent back to the beginning. I thought it was a bold choice and laughed at myself for not believing them when they gave me a time limit. I ultimately respect the decision and wish more games would mess with your expectations like this, too often you don’t feel like how you play a game will result in significant consequences for you as the player. Also I loved the battle system and outfit based load out as someone that is not super into turn based.
Lightning Returns is my fav 13 game. 13 and 13-2 were good games but they were just good. Lighting Returns also would have been just good had it not been for the fact that it's very unique and so it was extreme fresh when I played it and unqiue games are very rare from the 360/PS3 era and onwards.
Idk i actually loved the ending . It was kinda cool. I think its the biggest twist that non of this was in our world and that the gods and magic of the universe died so now they live in our world apart from it. I think its kinda cool 😂
When i first played the game back in 2013/14 I sucked. I replayed it in 2020 (during the pandemics) and I enjoyed it so much. I did a lot of sidequests, unlocked the final lair and all the main quests, and I still had a lot of time to spend. I remember the fight wasn't that difficult and when I finished it i got the option to replay it but in the hardest difficulty and it was wayyyyy better. Playing the game in the hardest mode made me realize what they were planning the game to be. It's a shame they didn't let the player "start" a new game in hard, but only a new game +. The hard mode allows you to moddify your equipment and stacks some accesories. So, replaying it isn't that "boring". It gave me Majora's mask vibes. However all theses things could be better designed..
Why is it, that the FFXIII games haven't been re-released on PS4 or PS5? That's good money, that they could get, and I wouldn't mind getting another copy of these games to play.
They act like the trilogy doesn't exist but here is to hoping that they are just waiting on the right tome to release a remastered version of the trilogy!
@@thechance-lore4711I'll say it again. It's good money that they could get, and it's not like they have to make, a whole new game here, since these games already look really good. The haters would get another chance, to hate on the games, and the fans would get another chance, to play and love the games, and Square would get money from both sides, which means that we all would win. With the PS3, back when we got these three games, we also got a remaster of FFX and FFX-2. With the PS4 we got FFXV, a port of the FFX remasters, a remaster of FFXII, and a remake of some parts of FFVII. On the PS5 we got (for now) FFXVI, and nothing else, so a re-release of the FFXIII games would fit well here. I don't count FFXIV here, because it's an MMO, and I don't want to remember they are a thing.
That's a really good point!! And yeah they treat FF13 like its the black sheep of the FF family, but so many people have a strong opinion on it one way or another and would be a huge revenue generator if they re-released it on current gen
@@thechance-lore4711 It's good to hear, that we agree that Square could make a lot of money, if they just gave the FFXIII games another chance, and who knows, when they gives up on FFXVI, like they did with FFXV, and they need something else to release, other than yet another part of FFVII-remake, maybe at that point will they see what we do, and give the FFXIII games another chance to make them money. I have my own memories with these games, and while not all of them are happy, I wouldn't give them up for anything, and the fact that I own the guidebooks for all three games, should tell you that I went deep into thoes games, at some point in the past. (I can tell you more about those memories, if you want me to) Found my old safe files of these games on my PS3, and it seems that I beat the story of FFXIII, but haven't done everything there yet. (Need to go and fix that someday) In FFXIII-2 I somehow did everything, not counting the DLC stuff, and I even got the platinum trophy for that game. (No regrets doing that, or not much of it at least) It seems that my safe file of LR-FFXIII, was left unfinished on day 10, So I went back to the game, and got to work, and I have now ended almost all monsters, and just need to clean out the last few, before I go and end God again. (Aeronite is gonna die on NG+, so wish me luck on that)
as someone who has never played a full Final Fantasy yet.. it's been great discovering your channel! Love your script and flow/cadence :) 13 was the first one I ever witnessed at my cousin's house and something about the battle system/linear vibe didn't resonate back then as I was getting into games like Assassin's Creed, GTA, & Call of Duty lol With 16 out now, I'm debating playing 7 Remake, 15, or 13 as my first one... HMMMM thanks for your insight and perspectives!
Thank you so much!! I really appreciate it! And as far as your first, I would recommend 13 if you liked what you saw with your cousin playing it, 10 if you want the traditional experience but modern enough for today’s standard, or honestly 16 of you like the more action style games. I’m playing it now and it’s definitely different but it’s really good
@@thechance-lore4711 thanks so much too! hahaha I'm considering being a madman and just playing Lightning Returns because I think as much as I respect the Turn Based Battle System that's reflective of traditonal Final Fantasy, I am pretty interested in the real-time action pace of LR. And I think Lightning is pretty attractive xD That being said too, I watched your 13 and 13-2 vids and purposefully spoiled myself BUT I didn't watch the spoiler part of your LR video. So I'll come back to that one day I'm sure haha- might just watch a game movie of 13 & 13-2. Play LR, Play 15 into F7 remake and then hopefully after all that, 16 will be on sale? I saw IGN's review and it looks great, glad you're enjoying it too! Stoked for your future content :)
Hahaha you're most welcome!! and Lightning Returns was a lot of fun so I'd recommend it if it looks interesting to you! FF13 and FF13-2 are also very good and I would recommend those as well, BUT if you feel like that wouldn't interest you then looking up a story summary should do the job too! FF15 was also a lot of fun so I'd recommend that as well! And FF7R is also very good! I'm playing FF16 right now and it's so different but a blast at the same time! When it goes on sale I would pick it up as well! I'm going to make a video on that pretty soon hopefully!
I've played all three games in this trilogy and the only one I didn't finish was this one, Lightning Returns. I hated XIII because of its extreme linearity and lack of exploration or side quests. I really enjoyed XIII-2 because it fixed the issues I had with XIII. But then Lightning Returns just didn't do anything for me. I tried it on normal and that was too intense for me. I don't enjoy resource management games, and I really don't enjoy games with a ticking clock, such as this one or Majora's Mask. When I play games, I play them to relax and unwind. But adding a counter to it just adds too much stress to what I want to be a relaxing, entertaining experience. But even playing it on easy, I made it up to the 14th day but just never played the game to completion. That's great if you enjoy this game, it's just not for me.
I played this game years ago and I remember not liking it (which is weird cuz from years of experience I have noticed that hated/divisive games are for some reason my cup of tea, always end up loving them). If I start playing a game and I don't get this hard to explain itch that lets me know I will like a game, I drop it, I get the "itch" within the 1st hour and with FF13 I never got it, even though I kept playing for a couple more hours just to make sure, so I never returned to it. But after like 8 years, I've been feeling like giving it another shot since I didn't get that far initially.
Loved the work! Happy to see some love for this trilogy; seems to be the black sheep lol. I'm still not sure if I prefer the Original 13 or Lighting Returns because they are so different but they hold a place in my heart so I hope people give it chance even now. I'm also pretty shocked the OST didn't stand out for you, I remember nearly running to Spotify when I first booted up the game but the tracks were just so good lol but everyone has different tastes. I was also initially disappointed with the lack of anything for the summons but I rationalized it as a result of Lightning not being a I'cie and using Bhunivelzes power. Lastly, I am pretty salty that Sazh wasn't given more. Don't get wrong, his mission was without a doubt my favorites, but him not joining the gang in the end kinda stung. I understand they wanted Noel to be featured since he is a major protagonist but I don't think he should have been the one to stand beside the group since he is kinda out of place in relation to the other five. Makes more sense for him to have searched for Serah soul but I'll be happy Sazh came at the end at all. If I could add though... My understanding is that Lumina isn't really her subconscious, but rather the physical manifestation/vessel of her 'Heart' that she casted out to remain strong due to her guilt over getting Serah killed. They basically reversed her Character Development back for a bit, and Lumina is suppose to bring her back in that regard. They also pull bit of a uno reverse card because for the entire game it was suggested that Bhunivelze removed her 'heart' to better do her job but it was really Lightning herself trying to cut her flaws away. I believe it's also implied Serah's soul was in Lumina as well which is why she couldn't sense her, because she unintentionally casted her soul out alongside her heart but it's been a while since I've played to be sure. And in regard to the ending, i'm pretty sure that the implications is that the world we see is a brand new world entirely (not necessarily plain earth/our world) untouched/unruled by Gods (or at least Bhunivelze). And considering FF15 was initially Versus 13, the world we see is likely that world until they decided to make 15 it's own thing but that's theory territory lol.
Yeah leaving sazh out was the wrong choice for sure! And I do think overall it’s a really good game! When I listen to the soundtrack on TH-cam it does absolutely stand out! I just didn’t notice it much when playing. And okay cool! I interpreted things one way when I played it but I definitely could have seen it through the wrong lens! Thanks for putting in your interpretation and some of the details that I missed!
I liked a lot the combat in this game, the omega enemies are cool too. But farm Aeronite is boring, farm heavy slash with high attack and atb cost is too. This game with only 1 character would be perfect to get all the summons with Lightning (use them as vehicles also); The game had a LOT of potential that was wasted because it was rushed.
Hi Mate ! Nice review of Lightning Returns: FFXIII !! Yeah - I had the same reaction after i got through LR:FF XIII as it felt pretty weird - especially in terms of the story ! But the positives - This is the first RPG game that made me love Side Quests in a game coz the story in those SQ's were so full off emotion and revelation at the end !! The world is open for us to choose which area and quests we would want to complete first ! Part with Fang & Snow were highlights in the main quest ! Overall this game gets better once you play again, as it leaves a weird impression for some of us like you if you play this game just once !! New Game + on Hard mode is actually fun !! Need to understand which Abilities to chain with which Accessories and Garbs !
Thank you so much!! And yeah I totally agree with all of those points! The side quests were excellent and I did feel like the game increased in quality over time and I might have done myself a disservice by not deciding to playthrough the journey again before beating it. And I probably should try it out in new game + too!
OK ME FINISHED: Lovely video :D FFLR on my first play was very not what I was expecting - but then again I did play all 3 Games back to back as a kid back in 2016ish-2017. After I beat one id immediately buy the next to play n run through. And granted I think I spent the most time in Lightning Returns , just a little over than what I did in XIII 2. The world and Music was one of the first things that hooked me as XIII to me has this Runic/City like Vibrance to most locations but in LR most of the vibrance seemed washed and the story felt like a fever dream. Granted I had NO CLUE what was going on at the end of XIII 2 Cuz child brain. But after Id play through it again, I can see why Square made these decisions. Before I ramble though, I will say in RETROSPECT : The greater Narrative about Fabula Nova Chrysalis, was very cool and it's one of my favorite stories as a concept. My one huge problem with it and I'm pretty sure most people would agree is that FROM THE BEGINNING, The greater story about Bhunivelze , Etro, and the objectives of the Falcies should have been part of the main plot since FF XIII. I know they MENTION it Essspecially Orphan when he's crying about shit but realistically, Orphan should have jus Lore dumped at that time about Etro and why they were trying to kill everyone- to Flood the gates of Valhalla. But it's never discussed and all we get is godly mumbo Jumbo. Then when XIII 2 happens it feels like a retcon- but in theory and retrospect, it makes sense that Etro would need someone to protect her. And throughout all of this at the very end with the Bhunivelze fight, BRO LITERALLY USES PULSE AND uhh.. fuck I forgot the name of the other Falcie, but he uses them at Weapons but if you don't know the LORE cuz it's not ever explicit, shit like that goes over people's head... Basically my point is that I wish the actual Over Arching Plot of the universe was more focussed on the game rather than it being back Stagged and when real stuff happens it just...does? And it should just make sense 😩 so silly Anyway great video- I could go on years talking ab this stuff. Can't wait for you to cover stuff on Drakengard/Nier
PULSE AND LINDZEI AND TAKE INNNNN NONE OF THE MAIN CSST EVER EVEN TALK ABOUT LINDZEI DESPITE BEING SO IMPORTANT.. I think in the Dead Dunes Fang and lightning talk about her but literally for 5 minutes...
Absolutely agree!! So much of this game they just make up a lot of new lore and it feels like they retconned so much and just made this new stuff to focus on! And thank you!! I’m glad you enjoyed!!
This is probabaly the best of the xiii trilogy. Such a perfect pay off and closure to the trilogy. Lightning truly feels like a savior. It's interesting how much the fleshed out the gameplay. The gameplay is the sellout feature of this game. This should have become standard for every Final fantasy game. It's an absolute shame it didn't. Wish the game had more budget so it looked as good as FFXIII or Xiii2 but man lightning truly is my fav Protagonist whose a total stylish badass heroine in this game.
I TRIED SO MANY FF GAMES SO FAR AND I NEVER FOUND A GAME I LIKED UNTIL RECENTLY-FF 7 REMAKE INTEGRAD OR WHAT THE NAME WAS AGAIN IS SO FAR THE ONLY 1 I PLAYED MORE THEN 2HOURS AND I W THIS GAME EVEN GOT TO THE END WITHIN A FEW WEEKS,SADLY IT SEEMS LIKE THIS WAS THE ONLY ONE THAT WAS MADE IN THAT WAY FOR PC...THERE IS ANOTHER ONE THAT WAS RELEASED AFTER FF7 REMAKE INTEGRAD CALLED REBIRTH(SADLY ONLY ON PS5) SO WILL THAT BE RELEASED ON PC SOON? MIGHT NOT BE SAME GAME BUT WHEN I LOOK AT THIS N WILL TRY IT OUT SOON I THOUGHT I COULD ASK THAT AT SAME TIME I LOOK AT VIDEO...STILL LOOKING FOR FF GAME I WILL LIKE AGAIN..LOVE THE STORY N CHARACTERS,BUT GAMEPLAY IS FAR FROM WHAT I LIKE AT ALL SADLY.. THANKS 4 THIS VIDEO
îdk there are no xp in the game anymore and it still shows xp after every fight....feels so stupid and lazy. i just played for 6-8h until i finally was able to beat noel at the end of day 3. and i guess im gonna drop the game right there. i really loved ff13 to death, 13-2 already felt like some stupid fanfiction to me and the fights werent as fun anymore. but lightning returns is just urgh. you fight enemies that feel even harder than dark souls (bc in dark souls you can at least properly train and level up and play "correctly") just to maybe get the ability you need after the 5th fight. now you have to synthetize is like 4 times so make it around 15-20 fights for an ability and all that while not regenerating properly, having to spend your money and time all the time for this shit.....absolutely horrible feeling while playing this. the changed shock mechanics also felt weird. every enemy takes ages even when fought properly. i can farm for hours no problem. but setting it against the clock when you have no idea how the new combat system works felt just awful.....im so tilted right now man xD
Have been playing all the sequel of ff13 for 5-6 years. Still a beautiful master piece. Is my favorite game and it appears even when I cleared the whole game 100% I keep starting over 😂. As such my first ff13 was the last one lmao. Meaning Lightning return.
Waited in a long queue to get this game the day it came out over here in the UK, and honestly, I was personally not disappointed with it overall, despite some gripes here there. While, yes, the ending blew my mind cause I was like, " IS DAT EARTH BRO? " , it still brought tears to me cause I'd been with these set of characters since the beginning. Ending aside, my gripes were that, 1 . Not many bosses. Ultimate Lair aside, and other than Aeronite, you had the Main Quest bosses ( which was 4 in total ) and then the last boss in the whole game, compared to how many that were in FF13? It needed some more unique encounters, even if just from quests, for sure. ( Loved the Coliseum DLC from FF13-2 ) 2 . Summons. Where were they? ( SPOILER ) .................. You turned Odin into a bird that would only fight with you in the Wildlands. Ouch. 3. More customization to the Garbs would have been nice, but overall not a serious gripe, considering there were so many skills in the game you could invest into and Level Up. Speaking of leveling, this game's NG+ doesn't get talked about like it should. NG+ allows Light to level beyond the cap, so you can do it endlessly, to the point you kill everything on Hard Mode in one hit. If you also play it on Hard Mode, the Main Quest bosses all drop unique crafting materials ( 30 each in total ) that would allow you to increase a weapon or shield's level exponentially, to the point you don't need to get the Omega Weapon for God if you're struggling without it. And it's the same for the abilities. Getting some higher than Level 7, and if Infused correctly, can be very strong with passives such as costing less to use when in battle. Overall, I did feel there was something missing from the gameplay side if things, plus there was 0 DLC other than Garbs also, which was a huge bummer. Missed opportunity there to add the Coliseum back, or add an NPC with lots of Boss Quests to take on, and your reward were special abilities, a Garb, weapons, etc. Shame. But story wise? Again, side stuff aside, the main story I felt was a good send off. Lumina was Light's childish side; her innocence, that side to her she had to hide to be strong for Serah. Lightning shouting, " Please don't leave me, I don't want to be alone " was her character arc coming full circle and she then allowed herself to accept those flaws within her with Lumina making her whole once again. ( it was stated that God also removed some of Light's emotions to keep her line, and its hinted that before him doing that, she disconnected from her true self, to keep the memories of Serah safe, and in which that created Lumina, who's only goal was to rejoin back with Lightning, after helping her see she wasn't herself anymore.)
All really good points! I liked the game too! And yeah the story was alright, and I personally didn’t engage with the NG+ so I should probably do that then!
@@thechance-lore4711 You really should, there's even an NPC quest that you can only complete by doing a NG+, go find him at the Lighthouse over in the Dead Dunes. Hint: It's in regards to the Last Ones.
I like Lightning Returns. Its a fun game. But I have some things to say. 1. Despite what most people seem to think Lightning DID go through a character arc in the first game. She starts as being closed off and unwilling to rely on others for help. She puts on a mask of stoicism. By the end of the game she learns of open herself up more to others and show her emotions more. She is more accepting of others and letting them help her. Lightning Returns took her character arc and threw it out the window because they decided to just take away her humanity. 2. The entire game being on a literal clock is absolutely frustrating. I know that it is a part of the story that there are 13 days left but they go so far as to put your gameplay on a clock. Rather than being able to go through the game at your own pace you have to plan an entire playthrough around this clock. You have to know where to go, what to do and when to do it. Certain quests are only available at certain times and I freaking hate it. You can't stop for five minutes you have to constantly be moving or you won't be strong enough to beat the main boss. 3. Stat gains are tied to quests. I could be fine with this. Except they are limited and you have to do multiple playthroughs to keep getting stronger.
Considering that you can complete all 5 main quests on day 2, the clock is really not a hindrance. It's possible to do every single quest, slay every monster and completely clear the canvas of prayers on your very first playthrough. Of course, new players aren't expected to do that. In fact, I'd wager that new players were almost expected to fail the first time through, getting a feel for the game. Then, with the extra stats and experience, they would sweep through it on the second attempt Now, a ticking clock naturally discourages exploration, but the clock doesn't really penalize you. You do lose quest progress, but you retain your rewards.
@@danielbridges3730 I know that the clock does not become an issue after a while. I have played this game enough that I can get all the main quests done and have plenty of time left over. I still think it was a bad design decision overall. You are right, first time players are not expected to know and have to play through the game multiple times before you learn. I would argue that putting your entire game on a clock would discourage some from playing the game. So is it really worth it?
You arent supposed to complete it on your first 13 days, most of the game doesnt really even unlock till you start reseting. every time you compete a quest you get stat upgrades including when you complete them after you reset.
I had the foresight of how this game wanted you to basically play through it multiple times, so I ended up playing on easy, and even then Bhunivelze was pretty stressful. Being reminded of how much I enjoyed this game though, I kinda wanna go back and re-experience this wannabe roguelike the way it was intended.
YES, speaking from last experiencing FFXII... hadn't enjoyed Final Fantasy since subscribing to World of Warcraft for 10 years. Lightning Returns was $14 well spent.
@@thechance-lore4711 the strings added to the soundtrack set it apart for me. The battle theme was also the best. Maybe the remake of (for those who fight) ff7 remake.
Play the trilogy. You will have the complete satisfactory experience. Each one offers different vibes and has its pros and cons, so you will have a fuller experience playing all the three. Don't make ears to those who complain about the clock system in LR. There is an ability that gives you the power of stopping time temporarily, and you can refill it winning fights, so it's not an issue. Even so, every 06:00 AM in the game you will be automatically transported to to The Ark, where time doesn't run untill you decide to return where you had been the last time. So, if you play the trilogy, you will really enjoy XIII series.
My whole issue with FF13-3 Lightning Returns is how the sidequests are silly as hell and makes no sense considering these people are living for hundreds of years. And that Square Enix clearly stopped development before it was done, because you can clearly see a lot of the maps are low-quallity texture, some of them even looks like they are in the beta stages of development. The game has a very deep lighting system with a lot of effects, but the world lacks polish, everywhere outside the cities looks low quality, they could even re-used textures from the first or second game for rocks and such but no. The worst part to me is that if you go back to 2013 or something, when the game was released, the demo/preview of the game they released for everyone to see, is in the most beautiful area of the game, so the game looks as if it'll be super high quallity in textures. It's only after going after that part that you can see the extreme dip in quallity in the textures, and frankly the fact that even today there is no mods to make the game looks better nowadays just hurts me XD
6:56 Not the biggest fan of your analysis about Snow.. but nobody understands his character so whatever I guess you could say he is the perfect example of why people think good guys never win or chivalry isn’t worth it I get what you’re saying that his character is “more likable“ because of his resolve in game but everybody always misreads his character.
@@thechance-lore4711 I would say his hearts always been in the right place but people hate him which is not cool… I just feel like everybody that plays Final Fantasy thinks that the big macho guy look in characters need to be edgy and tormented or else I don’t know I mean absolutely no one likes snow, except for a handful of girls and may be some guys that are him Snow is like the perfect example of every regular guy growing up, except he was an orphan, so he has an excuse to play the hero imo - and just to be clear I am gushing out over the OG snow, not this one, he’s obviously grown by this point, but that’s only because it’s been 500 years and he’s had time to think.. to me, this game just proves how strong he’s been for other people other than himself, he became a hero, and now he doesn’t even think of himself that way💔😭 he really is my favorite Final Fantasy character because he is such a real character… He made mistakes, he regretted them, and he almost offed himself because of it
Final fantasy 13 trilogy is my favorite final fantasy game , i like all the final fantasy games but for me 13 trilogy has something more than others final fantasy maybe it's because the story is on a trilogy , i know there is the final fantasy 7 saga with all these stories about Vincent , turks etc... but i'ts different, on ff13 i follow the same characters since the beginning a new world and the end of this world , and even if there is a good ending, this ending is sad because many people are died and the characters loose their world , a world we watched die with the trilogy . And also lightning is maybe the strongest character in the entire franchise, this character becomes a godess and deafeat a god literally .
I couldn't get over the initial let down of this game. The opening for it was amazing, but after that it was just such a let down for me. The controls were annoying and when I saw that quests had time limits and expired that sent me over the edge lmao.
Cons: This was one of the reasons that we're never getting a proper Valkyrie Profile 3. Pros: This IS Valkyrie Profile 3, for all intents and purposes.
IM AT WORK OMG ME WATCH WHEN I GET HOME OMG
Thank you so much!!! Let me know what you think!!
At this point I’m convinced the developers just really like dressing up Lightning in little outfits like a doll.
Hahaha I agree!!!
This is my fav game in the whole franchise!! Because it’s a spin-off/sequel, it never gets the attention the original does (nor does XIII-2). I really appreciate that even though these probably won’t get the views the first game’s video got, you still followed through with them. Love, LOVE your videos!!
Thank you so much!! And yeah I felt that the I should at least try to do the trilogy just!
13-2 was unusually immature the music was amazing and so was the colour palette
Boy oh boy, SE could have really used the conclusion of this trilogy to flesh out the legacy characters…including visual design. Why is do all the characters except Snow still wear the same drip?
Haha really good point!!
Yeah agree,why does snow when he is at the lowest point of his life,why does he have drip,it should been the opposite,snow should looked like shit in lightning return because you know depresiion
@@Riadurrohman definitely agree!
It's a fantasy game, don't over think it.
@@LSK2Kattention to detail is always great. It’s help relate on an emotional scale. It’s ok to highlight these. Again, like you said, it’s a fantasy world. 🧐
Couldn't wait for this one, the trilogy is complete. And now I can show all 3 of these videos to everyone as a masterclass on why you should give the XIII games a chance!
I definitely agree with you on the feeling of detachment, that is one strong feeling I felt through the entire experience. But I guess that feeling of detachment was what they were going for since Lightning herself is detached in-lore, just a vessel with no emotion thanks to the meddling of a God.
Gameplay-wise I definitely would have preferred if it was a further evolution of XIII-2. It seemed like they were finally getting comfortable with XIII-2 and close to perfecting the system they had been crafting since 09 only to completely through it out the window. This only adds to the feelings of detachment and distance away from the first XIII Game.
The music while being mostly reused and remixes, felt like a love letter to the trilogy as a whole. (There are even some FFIII and FFV songs sprinkled in there.) I love all of the original music exclusive to this game, especially the battle themes. The track "Almighty Bhunivelze" is my absolute favorite song of any franchise. It is the perfect final boss theme that incorporates leitmotifs from every final boss before it and symbolizes our journey to get here. This song is on my wedding, funeral, and first Born's playlist. It's sad that many didn't like it due to its abstract nature, but music theory nerds that played through these games would love it I'm sure.
As for the characters and story, not much to say there. I'm just glad they didn't straight up unalive Sazh considering their track record with his character. I'll take what I can get in that department.
The ending was cheesy but I am glad they got a happy ending as the series could've ended much darker. Speaking of the ending, while this was the last video game of the series there is a novel that covers the cast's new lives after the ending of LR. It's called: Final fantasy XIII: reminiscence Tracer of memories. It's not anything deep or interesting but definitely a good read if you are bored one day and curious about the aftermath of the series.
Can't wait for what series you decide to cover next, both X and XV are good choices. I've said it twice and you bet I'll say it a third. Anything you put out, I'm watching 😤
Sidenote: If anyone wanted a bit more info on Lumina some folks have compiled a google sheet of FFXIII trilogy plot holes, it explains the weirdness that went on here with her in the English version of LR. Since I can't link in comments here's summary for those curious about that. It bothered me so much, I had to seek it out.
"The original Japanese script for the game apparently made a distinction between "Heart" and "Soul" and the English just calls it a "Soul" for all things not physical.
Apparently the way it happened was: after the XIII-2 Lightning DLC, Lightning turns herself into a crystal on the throne of Etro, not to save herself, but to house both Serah's Heart and Soul and protect it from the chaos after she died. That way she wouldn't become another Yuel or worse melt into the chaos like most others do. Bhunivelze pulled Serah's Heart and Soul out of Lightning and in doing so he pulled out Lightning's "Heart" and _not_ soul by accident. This is why the line "Bhunivelze can't see inside hearts" is so important for the Lumina sequences. He only cares about Souls and seems to ignore Hearts completely or cast them away to an unknown place. What Bhunivelze has done is important however since Lumina is a piece of Lightning's "Heart" (if you played the Persona Series, this would be akin to Lightning's Shadow. The Persona 4 kind of Shadow specifically.) Each time we are with Lumina we are actually interacting with the fragment of Lightning's Heart that Bhunivelze can't see, but to make things even more confusing, this fragment had a one mission: to protect Serah's Heart. Since Lightning wasn't crystal anymore she couldn't protect Serah's Heart anymore, so Lumina on took that job. It why we see Serah in Lumina, she is actually there but without her Soul. Bhunivelze already has Hope and Serah's Souls to use as bargaining chips/puppets, the game atleast makes that clear, but he doesn't have their hearts. Once Bhunivelze is defeated, both Heart and Soul are returned to their rightful owners, including Lightning."
Thank you so much!! And yeah I definitely liked the game and wished they would have further progressed the ff13-2 battle system instead of throwing it out. And Almighty Bhunivelze is a wonderful track!
As far as the localization goes, the Japanese script makes a lot more sense now that you’ve explained it, thank you so much!
And yeah I’m working on ff15 now and it should be out within a couple of weeks or so, so stay tuned!!
And thank you again I really appreciate it!!
I could just not get in to 13 and 13-2, couldn't even finish them, but I absolutely loved Returns and played thru many times
That’s fair!
10:00 As a professional musician and composer I can say that LRFFXIII OST is really good, rich, versatile and well mixed, at least the same quality as FFXIII and FFXIII-2.
But in-game, the volume balance between music, sound effects and dialogues is catastrophic. Not being able to tweak those parameters was frustrating to me, I couldn't fully enjoy the music while playing the game.
Okay thanks for the insight!!
The entire XIII trilogy was filled with beautiful songs. Still listen to many of them today
I just started playing this game a couple of weeks ago. At first, I found the mechanics annoying and didn't think I would finish it. After getting through a few hours of it, it just becomes so much fun. Battles are fun, music is great, lots of customization....
Totally agree!!
What a coincidence , I just found your Final Fantasy 13 video an hour ago and am watching the one on 13-2.
Great content, keep up the work!
Thank you so much!! Glad you enjoyed!!
I sincerely hope that Square gives us a full remaster of the entire trilogy. With content that was originally exclusive to the Japan and International releases, like with what they did with the Final Mix versions of Kingdom Hearts (which had scenes and bosses left out of the original US releases).
Totally agree!!
They better. I have them all on ps3 that I got and kept putting them off so long I’m waiting for a trilogy remaster
@@zacatkinson3926you’ll be waiting way too long for that to be a wise decision.
I was so upset with the new battle system that I put the game up for a year...but one day I realized I HAD to finish the story. After getting a hang of battling it actually became extremely fun and ended up being a great experienced 💯
I had the guide for Lightning Returns, it was an absolute god send and It made me really enjoy the game (I only used it for missions, not fights and learned the fights myself) but I remember getting the Bhunivelze and the guide said that Aeroga was essentially his weakness due to it's insanely good stagger. I did not have Aeroga, I struggled to stagger him. So I went back and got it and all of a sudden the fight was easy.
I pretty much did the same!!
Personally when I played LR I was still a young kid so I was bias towards it. 10 years later, I understand a lot of its flaws but I still heavily enjoy the game.
For me, soundtrack stands out the most. Man when you said songs didn’t stand out it had me confused. But hey, we all perceive differently. For me, The Ark is good, but man the OST is just a banger for me. Snows theme in this game is just chefs kiss. Savior of Souls, Chaos, Dessert lullaby (love the vocals) Ourobos Festival, all of the music for Luxerion, Divine Love, man I could go on. Soundtrack on this game what really struck me the most, as a 13 year old boy, and now as a 23 year old grown man.
Not the best FF even IMO, but for me it just scratches an itch no other game has been able to do. I’m going on my 3 play through of the game next. Rambling over. Great video nonetheless
Thank you so much!! And I've re-listened to some of the tracks and there are some really good ones for sure! I just didn't notice them in the game for some reason.
An interesting thought experiment about the ffxiii series, is that if it was released( tech advancements aside) on ps2, this game would be incredibly highly praised. The gaming world changes that occurred at the audience level and attention span level during the ps3 Era was nightmarish and development hell. These games ARE great, and we would NOT have 7 remake without them. If you take all three as 1 epic story ( like lotr) , it's fucking bonkers.
That's a really good point!!
Exactly. People are angry at XIII for being "linear" and "taking too long to give you options", but X did the exact same things and is highly liked. And just like XIII, X had X-2, which gave you the ability to go wherever from the start, eliminating the linearity.
Despite the flaws in the Final Fantasy Xiii franchise it would be my favorite series. If I had the choice to live in the game I would take it with no second thought.
Yeah I love the trilogy as well!! Really cool world and wish we had more of it!!
I think you may have misinterpreted the true ending slightly. It isn’t that the game happened in the past, but that Lightning and co. are on a new planet by the end of the game. It took them destroying their current universe to get to “earth” at the end. And since Bhunivelze was already creating another planet they just kind of took over that.
The new planet is supposed to represent a world ungoverned by fal’Cie where no gods are around to screw around with humanity. Most FF games use this trope of “god is dead” or “going against the authoritarianism of organized religion” and XIII is the one that leans into the hardest.
Okay that's a fair point! Maybe I did take it the wrong way
I knew basically nothing about XIII and its sequels, i gotta say your videos about each game has made me very interested to try it out. So unfortunate its the only FF not on the ps5 store.
Also, i like to think i don't get attracted often to video game characters but really, Lightning and Fang might be some of the exeptions.
Unfortunately they’d are not on ps5 but it’s on Xbox! If you get the chance you should check them out! And yeah lightning and fang are very attractive!
All three games are on Xbox and they are enhanced for the One X and Series consoles with some graphical/frame rate improvements! Best way to play the trilogy!
I recently beat FF13 for the first time in 10ish years and I'm still working on grinding for the 3rd tier weapons.. but watching this video makes me feel like skipping 13-2 and jumping to LR already :') I remember LR causing me adrenaline rushes several times due to battles and the time management. I was surprised to hear you found the final boss really hard, because I have absolutely no memories of it being particularly hard when I played the game as a teen.
I'm glad you love the game! And yeah the final boss for me was super rough!
the first game i've done 100% in the xbox 360 and my favorite FF
I'm glad you love it!
For the record, that FFXIII-2 lag has got to be an Xbox emulation issue. I played on PS3, and while there were definitely frame dips, it was never anywhere near single digits. Especially not during cutscenes.
That’s a good point!
Does it still lag when playing on Series X? It's 60fps
My fave of the bunch is FFXIII2. It has a pretty fun time travel mechanics, great music, but especially the fact that there was a stated price for the visions… and that they actually follow through storywise, no deux ex machina.
FF13-2 is wonderful!!
tfw lightning returns is a retro game, I'm old man.
Same here lol
The best part of LR for me was Caius, Liam O'brien once again gave a fantastic performance with this guy.
Totally agree!!
Finally, finished the trilogy today. I want to thank you for getting me into it. Ever since I saw your 13 video a couple of months ago, I've been going through the trilogy. Found a new favorite in 13-2 and found so many good damn songs that I'm shocked aren't talked about more. I say the trilogy was overall ok. I just wish certain characters had more love like Sazh for instance. He was done so dirty in this trilogy. Wish Lighting’s return was an evolution of the second game as well. Has a good thing going. Lastly, was how some story elements left me confused or felt odd in some instances. even with that, I'm glad I went through it. Makes me hope another FF game could have the gameplay like 13, but I do like it. Maybe someday will see it.
That's awesome!! And thank you for watching! I'm glad my videos got you into the trilogy!! And I hope we get another game like FF13 too in the future!
I bought Lightning Returns for PS3 years ago and didn't have any knowledge about the previous games LOL still loved playing it tho :) watching your vids on ff13 is making me nostalgic maybe I'll go and play the first two
That’s awesome! And you definitely should go back and play the first 2!
also this wasnt the last crystal tools game lol, the very last one was ff14 1.0 to the point of it being the reason why that game burned down.
the engine was NOT made to be scaled up to what an MMO needs, and due to that we got a more stable one with Luminous but then they gutted EVERYTHING that made the game look more modern, even actual animation transitions like your running starting from the side and the character actually slowly moving to the side you are moving.
Oh okay!! Thanks for the correction
Inlove all the XIII games. LR had a nice atmosphere to it, being a rogue like game. Enjoyed the premise of only so many days until the end and of course - loved fighting the god at the end. Would love for them to do a similar game one day with whatever upcomming titles they will make.
It's a good game for sure!
It's the best Final Fantasy since X-2. It was great. And it's a great game in its own right.
It’s a great game!!
As for me i really enjoyed the last part. I enjoyed knowing the theories of how the world/humanity was created. So having this as the final twist in the story is a bonus for me.
That's fair!!
The mistranslations really kill it for me as much as I like the trilogy. I played the game in both Japanese and English and the story makes much more sense because it wasn't so terribly mistranslated.
That's a good point to bring up!!
FF LR is crazy good. Imo the best of the 3. The combat, the story, the worlds, it truly felt like an adventure to me. And not every game does this for me. I'm sure i am in the minority but that's ok.
That’s fair! Some people love this game and I’m glad that you do too!!
I actually like this game even though the story can be confusing and the time mechanic isn't my favorite.
It's a good game!
Thanks for your videos on this trilogy. Really helped me decide to finally play them.
Of course!! Thank you for watching!!
just a quick note on the "restarting a 30 hour game" argument:
ng+ in this game is in my opinion a great aspect that should be seen as a core component, not as the bonus it tends to be in other games.
when going through it again the quests and their relationship to the time mechanic become much more intuitive.
I tend to find myself finishing a quest and thinking to myself "i can finish a few sidequests in the wildlands and then be back in yusnaan for the firework quests and this leaves me enough time to go the the locked ghetto in luxerion by train before i get teleported to the ark".
To me it's a bit like playing Dark Souls over again, where in your first playthrough you tend to do areas in the "standard order" but on a second playthrough you arrive at firelink and think "i'll run to the valley to get rtsr, then up the lift to darkroot and get myself the halberd, bone back to firelink and beat pinwheel in two hits".
i hope my point gets across, you obtain this intuition on how open the world is and what you can do with the information you've accumulated playing it.
These are all good points! And again I didn’t play through it more than once, but maybe my experience with it would have been better if I had!
LRFFXIII is my favorite game of the franchise i love the customization, the OST and the gameplay is addicting, and unlike the newest games, it has identity we can see Final Fantasy in the gameplay it's not like they made a copy of Devil May Cry like XVI did.
Yeah it’s definitely it’s own game and it was a good experience playing through it!!
I think you need to put a bit more effort into the voiceover. It’s very fast and flat/scripty. Good video though.
The combat looks really fun and overall game structure reminded me of Valkyrie Profile. I'll give this one a go when things slow down!
There you go! I hope you enjoy it!
Both games were co-developed by tri-ace
This was actually my favorite of the trilogy as we finally had one game world that was fully explorable, though it is totally crazy and out of sync with the previous two games to the point that I'm surprised that this was the same game director, Toriyama. I've been holding off on replaying any of the FFXIII series because I'm hoping they get a re-release on the latest platforms with some improvements (like New Game+ for XIII and XIII-2).
That’s awesome! It’s a good game for sure! And yeah I hope they release it on new gen consoles too
I played this game first before the 2 previous ones and it was because I really liked it that I wanted to play the others, especially because I wanted to witness the development of Lightning since I loved her in this game, and it is where you know more about her personality. So I really liked the story, especially the ending, which is all so a beautiful anime xDD
In retrospect, the retcon to make XIII-2 seemed weirder to me and that story is also more tangled, for example because of nonsensical things like "If you change the future you change the past" lol, on the other hand the ending of XIII was very basic, so I'm glad that they continued the story. In LR they give the characters a well-deserved ending after all they have been through and that is what Lightning expresses when she cries at the end after remembering everything.
The gameplay is the one I liked the most in the trilogy, although it seems very easy to me, except for the 2 super bosses and Bhunivelze X, the first time I played on easy but normal Bhunivelze appeared, then I played on normal and X appeared and I almost couldn't beat him xD something I didn't like was that only Fang and Odin helps you in battles, a game where this time if you could play with everyone with this more dynamic gameplay would have been better. Also the constant pressure of time passing does not allow you to enjoy the scenarios much and the quests most of them are not plot-important, but I really enjoyed Lightning's interactions with the npcs. The dialogues don't bother me so much, except for Hope, he does talk too much xDD
That’s a very fair take on the game and the series as a whole!
Kinda wish they could have reused this battle system for a side game of some sort. (Not necessarily tied to the 13 series) Like on the PS Vita before Sony killed it
Totally agree!!
Tbh i love ffxiii trilogy and it makes it very good and feel the emotion the area and the soundtrack and character,but i also really surprised that LR,like idk how to say but when playing in LR you can feel it's gameplay is quite better then the previous game too(my opinion),it added lots of stuff too,you can say new maps, soundtrack and more,and yes and also the soundtrack it is not much but most of them are you cool and relax to listen to
Plus Snow really yes too,it changes successfully and i think LR snow is the most handsome and cool one hahaha,it was a nice video i love it🥰,keep it up👍
Btw you can also heal up by going restaurant 😋
Totally fair takes!! And thank you so much!! Glad you enjoyed the video!!!
Hot damn I didn’t realize this was a FFXIII channel! GOOD! The XIII series was actually my entry final fantasy game, so I had no expectations or disappointment in terms of linearity.
My first SE game was KH 358/2 days, so I went in backwards starting with the “worst games”. And they’re still good.
Thank you!! And yeah FFXIII was one of my first FF games and when I finally got past the first section I fell in love with the series!
play final fantasy tactics - war of the lions then. to me its one of the worst SE games ever created. way too damn hard and punishing with no rewards but a friend of mine loves it to death xD i favor ff tactics advance tho. waaaay better.
back when i played this, it took me 45 minutes to stagger the final boss. then 3 minutes to kill him
The final boss was rough for me too!!
It's not the past that Lightning finds but a new universe.
oh okay
太空戰士13的主題曲，我到現在都還在聽
I'm still listening to the theme song of Final Fantasy 13
The game has wonderful music!!
Considering that FFXV was meant to be FFXIII Versus - I've always felt that the ending of FFXIII-3 wasn't our Earth but the more modern, low fantasy world of FFXV.
That said, FFXIII Lightning Returns is actually one of my favorite FF games. I somehow got it on sale and ended up playing it without playing XIII or XIII-2, so I definitely side-stepped a lot of the complaints from fans of the previous games. But, as someone who went in blind straight into Lightning Returns, it's definitely one of the coolest, most original, and most fun games I've played. I'd love for them to bring back the mid-combat job-switching one day, since it's really fun to hunt jobs and swap between them. If FFXV's weapons types had unique abilities and costumes, I probably would've found the combat a lot more dynamic and exciting.
That’s awesome! I’m glad you liked lightning returns!!
Back at the time when the game came out i love every minute of it . the story and everything The only ploblem was getting the dlc of garb with First class solider and Arthur Sword Excalibur. In my opinion it worth playing again. I would love to Play Lightning again! Cause I still got a score to settle with the God of Light and Caius.
It was a great time for sure and I’m glad you like it!!
@@thechance-lore4711 Thank you! I hope they put it on PS5 cause if we think about it it would give us something to do while waiting for Final Fantasy Rebirth.
Amen to that! A ps5 version would be wonderful!
Projared is still too bitter to touch the 13 games. Glad to see some ppl ars still looking back at it.
Thank you!!
I just started 13 on my PS3 and ordered a Lightning Returns steelbook cuz ik I'm gonna more than likely enjoy it. I'm just recently getting into Final Fantasy. And I've always seen stuff for Lightning Returns for some reason, so, yea, idk. I can't wait to play and give it a shot.
That's awesome!! I hope you enjoy it!
@@thechance-lore4711 I'm enjoying 13 so far, it's pretty fun. Gonna take me a bit to get to Lightning Returns, but yea. Overall, 13 isn't bad.
I was shook when I was so close to getting to the end but I had meandered too much, ran out of time, and sent back to the beginning. I thought it was a bold choice and laughed at myself for not believing them when they gave me a time limit. I ultimately respect the decision and wish more games would mess with your expectations like this, too often you don’t feel like how you play a game will result in significant consequences for you as the player. Also I loved the battle system and outfit based load out as someone that is not super into turn based.
Very good point!! And yeah the battle system and garbs are excellent!
Why is square enix so refusing to release it again? Any FF is in store on ps4 and 5 but they block lightning returns with fierce.
Yeah idk, hopefully they come out with a remastered edition
Literally my favorite soundtrack ever.
It is a great soundtrack!!
Its been 10 years ugh. You making me feel old. I just started college then when i got this day 1
Haha I'm in the same boat!
Lightning Returns is my fav 13 game. 13 and 13-2 were good games but they were just good. Lighting Returns also would have been just good had it not been for the fact that it's very unique and so it was extreme fresh when I played it and unqiue games are very rare from the 360/PS3 era and onwards.
That’s a good point! I really like Lightning returns when I played it
Idk i actually loved the ending . It was kinda cool. I think its the biggest twist that non of this was in our world and that the gods and magic of the universe died so now they live in our world apart from it. I think its kinda cool 😂
That's fair!
Ur ff13 videos are goated. Not much people show love for this game and explain it with your amount of depth ❤
Thank you so much!! I'm glad you enjoy my content!!!
When i first played the game back in 2013/14 I sucked. I replayed it in 2020 (during the pandemics) and I enjoyed it so much. I did a lot of sidequests, unlocked the final lair and all the main quests, and I still had a lot of time to spend. I remember the fight wasn't that difficult and when I finished it i got the option to replay it but in the hardest difficulty and it was wayyyyy better.
Playing the game in the hardest mode made me realize what they were planning the game to be. It's a shame they didn't let the player "start" a new game in hard, but only a new game +.
The hard mode allows you to moddify your equipment and stacks some accesories. So, replaying it isn't that "boring". It gave me Majora's mask vibes.
However all theses things could be better designed..
That’s awesome that you came back to it and enjoyed it! And yeah I agree with the new game plus
Why is it, that the FFXIII games haven't been re-released on PS4 or PS5? That's good money, that they could get, and I wouldn't mind getting another copy of these games to play.
They act like the trilogy doesn't exist but here is to hoping that they are just waiting on the right tome to release a remastered version of the trilogy!
@@thechance-lore4711I'll say it again. It's good money that they could get, and it's not like they have to make, a whole new game here, since these games already look really good.
The haters would get another chance, to hate on the games, and the fans would get another chance, to play and love the games, and Square would get money from both sides, which means that we all would win.
With the PS3, back when we got these three games, we also got a remaster of FFX and FFX-2.
With the PS4 we got FFXV, a port of the FFX remasters, a remaster of FFXII, and a remake of some parts of FFVII.
On the PS5 we got (for now) FFXVI, and nothing else, so a re-release of the FFXIII games would fit well here.
I don't count FFXIV here, because it's an MMO, and I don't want to remember they are a thing.
That's a really good point!! And yeah they treat FF13 like its the black sheep of the FF family, but so many people have a strong opinion on it one way or another and would be a huge revenue generator if they re-released it on current gen
@@thechance-lore4711 It's good to hear, that we agree that Square could make a lot of money, if they just gave the FFXIII games another chance, and who knows, when they gives up on FFXVI, like they did with FFXV, and they need something else to release, other than yet another part of FFVII-remake, maybe at that point will they see what we do, and give the FFXIII games another chance to make them money.
I have my own memories with these games, and while not all of them are happy, I wouldn't give them up for anything, and the fact that I own the guidebooks for all three games, should tell you that I went deep into thoes games, at some point in the past. (I can tell you more about those memories, if you want me to)
Found my old safe files of these games on my PS3, and it seems that I beat the story of FFXIII, but haven't done everything there yet. (Need to go and fix that someday)
In FFXIII-2 I somehow did everything, not counting the DLC stuff, and I even got the platinum trophy for that game. (No regrets doing that, or not much of it at least)
It seems that my safe file of LR-FFXIII, was left unfinished on day 10, So I went back to the game, and got to work, and I have now ended almost all monsters, and just need to clean out the last few, before I go and end God again. (Aeronite is gonna die on NG+, so wish me luck on that)
as someone who has never played a full Final Fantasy yet.. it's been great discovering your channel! Love your script and flow/cadence :)
13 was the first one I ever witnessed at my cousin's house and something about the battle system/linear vibe didn't resonate back then as I was getting into games like Assassin's Creed, GTA, & Call of Duty lol
With 16 out now, I'm debating playing 7 Remake, 15, or 13 as my first one... HMMMM
thanks for your insight and perspectives!
Thank you so much!! I really appreciate it! And as far as your first, I would recommend 13 if you liked what you saw with your cousin playing it, 10 if you want the traditional experience but modern enough for today’s standard, or honestly 16 of you like the more action style games. I’m playing it now and it’s definitely different but it’s really good
@@thechance-lore4711 thanks so much too! hahaha I'm considering being a madman and just playing Lightning Returns because I think as much as I respect the Turn Based Battle System that's reflective of traditonal Final Fantasy, I am pretty interested in the real-time action pace of LR. And I think Lightning is pretty attractive xD
That being said too, I watched your 13 and 13-2 vids and purposefully spoiled myself BUT I didn't watch the spoiler part of your LR video. So I'll come back to that one day I'm sure haha- might just watch a game movie of 13 & 13-2. Play LR, Play 15 into F7 remake and then hopefully after all that, 16 will be on sale? I saw IGN's review and it looks great, glad you're enjoying it too! Stoked for your future content :)
hmmm... maybe I will just play the entire trilogy bc I watched the first 4 min of the game movie and it looks sick lol
Hahaha you're most welcome!! and Lightning Returns was a lot of fun so I'd recommend it if it looks interesting to you! FF13 and FF13-2 are also very good and I would recommend those as well, BUT if you feel like that wouldn't interest you then looking up a story summary should do the job too!
FF15 was also a lot of fun so I'd recommend that as well! And FF7R is also very good! I'm playing FF16 right now and it's so different but a blast at the same time! When it goes on sale I would pick it up as well! I'm going to make a video on that pretty soon hopefully!
lol I would recommend playing the whole trilogy! I had a really good time with all three titles
It was an unconventional game, but I enjoyed the battle system. It was fun to get combo attacks for a stagger and high damage
The battle system is very fun!
I've played all three games in this trilogy and the only one I didn't finish was this one, Lightning Returns. I hated XIII because of its extreme linearity and lack of exploration or side quests. I really enjoyed XIII-2 because it fixed the issues I had with XIII. But then Lightning Returns just didn't do anything for me. I tried it on normal and that was too intense for me. I don't enjoy resource management games, and I really don't enjoy games with a ticking clock, such as this one or Majora's Mask. When I play games, I play them to relax and unwind. But adding a counter to it just adds too much stress to what I want to be a relaxing, entertaining experience. But even playing it on easy, I made it up to the 14th day but just never played the game to completion. That's great if you enjoy this game, it's just not for me.
Absolutely fair point! Glad you enjoyed FF13-2 though!
I played this game years ago and I remember not liking it (which is weird cuz from years of experience I have noticed that hated/divisive games are for some reason my cup of tea, always end up loving them).
If I start playing a game and I don't get this hard to explain itch that lets me know I will like a game, I drop it, I get the "itch" within the 1st hour and with FF13 I never got it, even though I kept playing for a couple more hours just to make sure, so I never returned to it. But after like 8 years, I've been feeling like giving it another shot since I didn't get that far initially.
You should give it another shot!!
This series has made me want to buy the 13 trilogy , great videos!
Thank you so much!! Glad you enjoyed the videos and I hope you enjoy the trilogy!!
Loved the work! Happy to see some love for this trilogy; seems to be the black sheep lol. I'm still not sure if I prefer the Original 13 or Lighting Returns because they are so different but they hold a place in my heart so I hope people give it chance even now. I'm also pretty shocked the OST didn't stand out for you, I remember nearly running to Spotify when I first booted up the game but the tracks were just so good lol but everyone has different tastes.
I was also initially disappointed with the lack of anything for the summons but I rationalized it as a result of Lightning not being a I'cie and using Bhunivelzes power.
Lastly, I am pretty salty that Sazh wasn't given more. Don't get wrong, his mission was without a doubt my favorites, but him not joining the gang in the end kinda stung. I understand they wanted Noel to be featured since he is a major protagonist but I don't think he should have been the one to stand beside the group since he is kinda out of place in relation to the other five. Makes more sense for him to have searched for Serah soul but I'll be happy Sazh came at the end at all.
If I could add though...
My understanding is that Lumina isn't really her subconscious, but rather the physical manifestation/vessel of her 'Heart' that she casted out to remain strong due to her guilt over getting Serah killed. They basically reversed her Character Development back for a bit, and Lumina is suppose to bring her back in that regard. They also pull bit of a uno reverse card because for the entire game it was suggested that Bhunivelze removed her 'heart' to better do her job but it was really Lightning herself trying to cut her flaws away. I believe it's also implied Serah's soul was in Lumina as well which is why she couldn't sense her, because she unintentionally casted her soul out alongside her heart but it's been a while since I've played to be sure.
And in regard to the ending, i'm pretty sure that the implications is that the world we see is a brand new world entirely (not necessarily plain earth/our world) untouched/unruled by Gods (or at least Bhunivelze). And considering FF15 was initially Versus 13, the world we see is likely that world until they decided to make 15 it's own thing but that's theory territory lol.
Yeah leaving sazh out was the wrong choice for sure! And I do think overall it’s a really good game! When I listen to the soundtrack on TH-cam it does absolutely stand out! I just didn’t notice it much when playing.
And okay cool! I interpreted things one way when I played it but I definitely could have seen it through the wrong lens! Thanks for putting in your interpretation and some of the details that I missed!
Read the books for what happens after the extra ending cutscene. unorthodox, but good extra content if you like the universe.
Thank you for the info!!
I liked a lot the combat in this game, the omega enemies are cool too. But farm Aeronite is boring, farm heavy slash with high attack and atb cost is too. This game with only 1 character would be perfect to get all the summons with Lightning (use them as vehicles also); The game had a LOT of potential that was wasted because it was rushed.
These are all good points! They definitely should have done something with the summons for this game.
My fav FF ending is this one.
It's a pretty great ending!!
The best game of the three. Very funny and emotional. I think i concluded this about 6 times just grinding.
I’m glad you enjoyed the game!!
Hi Mate ! Nice review of Lightning Returns: FFXIII !! Yeah - I had the same reaction after i got through LR:FF XIII as it felt pretty weird - especially in terms of the story ! But the positives - This is the first RPG game that made me love Side Quests in a game coz the story in those SQ's were so full off emotion and revelation at the end !! The world is open for us to choose which area and quests we would want to complete first ! Part with Fang & Snow were highlights in the main quest ! Overall this game gets better once you play again, as it leaves a weird impression for some of us like you if you play this game just once !! New Game + on Hard mode is actually fun !! Need to understand which Abilities to chain with which Accessories and Garbs !
Thank you so much!! And yeah I totally agree with all of those points! The side quests were excellent and I did feel like the game increased in quality over time and I might have done myself a disservice by not deciding to playthrough the journey again before beating it. And I probably should try it out in new game + too!
Now we need ps5/Xbox series x hd remasters with QOL changes
Amen to that!!
OK ME FINISHED:
Lovely video :D FFLR on my first play was very not what I was expecting - but then again I did play all 3 Games back to back as a kid back in 2016ish-2017. After I beat one id immediately buy the next to play n run through. And granted I think I spent the most time in Lightning Returns , just a little over than what I did in XIII 2.
The world and Music was one of the first things that hooked me as XIII to me has this Runic/City like Vibrance to most locations but in LR most of the vibrance seemed washed and the story felt like a fever dream.
Granted I had NO CLUE what was going on at the end of XIII 2 Cuz child brain. But after Id play through it again, I can see why Square made these decisions.
Before I ramble though, I will say in RETROSPECT : The greater Narrative about Fabula Nova Chrysalis, was very cool and it's one of my favorite stories as a concept. My one huge problem with it and I'm pretty sure most people would agree is that FROM THE BEGINNING, The greater story about Bhunivelze , Etro, and the objectives of the Falcies should have been part of the main plot since FF XIII. I know they MENTION it Essspecially Orphan when he's crying about shit but realistically, Orphan should have jus Lore dumped at that time about Etro and why they were trying to kill everyone- to Flood the gates of Valhalla. But it's never discussed and all we get is godly mumbo Jumbo. Then when XIII 2 happens it feels like a retcon- but in theory and retrospect, it makes sense that Etro would need someone to protect her. And throughout all of this at the very end with the Bhunivelze fight, BRO LITERALLY USES PULSE AND uhh.. fuck I forgot the name of the other Falcie, but he uses them at Weapons but if you don't know the LORE cuz it's not ever explicit, shit like that goes over people's head...
Basically my point is that I wish the actual Over Arching Plot of the universe was more focussed on the game rather than it being back Stagged and when real stuff happens it just...does? And it should just make sense 😩 so silly
Anyway great video- I could go on years talking ab this stuff. Can't wait for you to cover stuff on Drakengard/Nier
PULSE AND LINDZEI AND TAKE INNNNN NONE OF THE MAIN CSST EVER EVEN TALK ABOUT LINDZEI DESPITE BEING SO IMPORTANT.. I think in the Dead Dunes Fang and lightning talk about her but literally for 5 minutes...
Absolutely agree!! So much of this game they just make up a lot of new lore and it feels like they retconned so much and just made this new stuff to focus on!
And thank you!! I’m glad you enjoyed!!
And I would love to do a drakengard/NieR series but first I’m doing ff15 and ff10 and then probably ff16!
This is probabaly the best of the xiii trilogy. Such a perfect pay off and closure to the trilogy.
Lightning truly feels like a savior. It's interesting how much the fleshed out the gameplay. The gameplay is the sellout feature of this game. This should have become standard for every Final fantasy game. It's an absolute shame it didn't. Wish the game had more budget so it looked as good as FFXIII or Xiii2 but man lightning truly is my fav Protagonist whose a total stylish badass heroine in this game.
Lighting is a wonderful protagonist and it’s a great game!!
I TRIED SO MANY FF GAMES SO FAR AND I NEVER FOUND A GAME I LIKED UNTIL RECENTLY-FF 7 REMAKE INTEGRAD OR WHAT THE NAME WAS AGAIN IS SO FAR THE ONLY 1 I PLAYED MORE THEN 2HOURS AND I W THIS GAME EVEN GOT TO THE END WITHIN A FEW WEEKS,SADLY IT SEEMS LIKE THIS WAS THE ONLY ONE THAT WAS MADE IN THAT WAY FOR PC...THERE IS ANOTHER ONE THAT WAS RELEASED AFTER FF7 REMAKE INTEGRAD CALLED REBIRTH(SADLY ONLY ON PS5)
SO WILL THAT BE RELEASED ON PC SOON?
MIGHT NOT BE SAME GAME BUT WHEN I LOOK AT THIS N WILL TRY IT OUT SOON I THOUGHT I COULD ASK THAT AT SAME TIME I LOOK AT VIDEO...STILL LOOKING FOR FF GAME I WILL LIKE AGAIN..LOVE THE STORY N CHARACTERS,BUT GAMEPLAY IS FAR FROM WHAT I LIKE AT ALL SADLY..
THANKS 4 THIS VIDEO
îdk there are no xp in the game anymore and it still shows xp after every fight....feels so stupid and lazy. i just played for 6-8h until i finally was able to beat noel at the end of day 3. and i guess im gonna drop the game right there. i really loved ff13 to death, 13-2 already felt like some stupid fanfiction to me and the fights werent as fun anymore. but lightning returns is just urgh. you fight enemies that feel even harder than dark souls (bc in dark souls you can at least properly train and level up and play "correctly") just to maybe get the ability you need after the 5th fight. now you have to synthetize is like 4 times so make it around 15-20 fights for an ability and all that while not regenerating properly, having to spend your money and time all the time for this shit.....absolutely horrible feeling while playing this. the changed shock mechanics also felt weird. every enemy takes ages even when fought properly. i can farm for hours no problem. but setting it against the clock when you have no idea how the new combat system works felt just awful.....im so tilted right now man xD
haha totally fair takes and my thoughts somewhat echo yours for sure
Have been playing all the sequel of ff13 for 5-6 years. Still a beautiful master piece. Is my favorite game and it appears even when I cleared the whole game 100% I keep starting over 😂. As such my first ff13 was the last one lmao. Meaning Lightning return.
There you go!!
Waited in a long queue to get this game the day it came out over here in the UK, and honestly, I was personally not disappointed with it overall, despite some gripes here there.
While, yes, the ending blew my mind cause I was like, " IS DAT EARTH BRO? " , it still brought tears to me cause I'd been with these set of characters since the beginning.
Ending aside, my gripes were that,
1 . Not many bosses. Ultimate Lair aside, and other than Aeronite, you had the Main Quest bosses ( which was 4 in total ) and then the last boss in the whole game, compared to how many that were in FF13? It needed some more unique encounters, even if just from quests, for sure. ( Loved the Coliseum DLC from FF13-2 )
2 . Summons. Where were they? ( SPOILER ) .................. You turned Odin into a bird that would only fight with you in the Wildlands. Ouch.
3. More customization to the Garbs would have been nice, but overall not a serious gripe, considering there were so many skills in the game you could invest into and Level Up.
Speaking of leveling, this game's NG+ doesn't get talked about like it should. NG+ allows Light to level beyond the cap, so you can do it endlessly, to the point you kill everything on Hard Mode in one hit. If you also play it on Hard Mode, the Main Quest bosses all drop unique crafting materials ( 30 each in total ) that would allow you to increase a weapon or shield's level exponentially, to the point you don't need to get the Omega Weapon for God if you're struggling without it.
And it's the same for the abilities. Getting some higher than Level 7, and if Infused correctly, can be very strong with passives such as costing less to use when in battle.
Overall, I did feel there was something missing from the gameplay side if things, plus there was 0 DLC other than Garbs also, which was a huge bummer.
Missed opportunity there to add the Coliseum back, or add an NPC with lots of Boss Quests to take on, and your reward were special abilities, a Garb, weapons, etc. Shame.
But story wise? Again, side stuff aside, the main story I felt was a good send off. Lumina was Light's childish side; her innocence, that side to her she had to hide to be strong for Serah. Lightning shouting, " Please don't leave me, I don't want to be alone " was her character arc coming full circle and she then allowed herself to accept those flaws within her with Lumina making her whole once again.
( it was stated that God also removed some of Light's emotions to keep her line, and its hinted that before him doing that, she disconnected from her true self, to keep the memories of Serah safe, and in which that created Lumina, who's only goal was to rejoin back with Lightning, after helping her see she wasn't herself anymore.)
All really good points! I liked the game too! And yeah the story was alright, and I personally didn’t engage with the NG+ so I should probably do that then!
@@thechance-lore4711 You really should, there's even an NPC quest that you can only complete by doing a NG+, go find him at the Lighthouse over in the Dead Dunes.
Hint: It's in regards to the Last Ones.
How did you get all the different clothes for Lightning? Like the Viera Ears and such
So some were DLC but most are from vendors in the game. There’s sometimes several in one area that sell different clothes
I like Lightning Returns. Its a fun game. But I have some things to say.
1. Despite what most people seem to think Lightning DID go through a character arc in the first game. She starts as being closed off and unwilling to rely on others for help. She puts on a mask of stoicism. By the end of the game she learns of open herself up more to others and show her emotions more. She is more accepting of others and letting them help her. Lightning Returns took her character arc and threw it out the window because they decided to just take away her humanity.
2. The entire game being on a literal clock is absolutely frustrating. I know that it is a part of the story that there are 13 days left but they go so far as to put your gameplay on a clock. Rather than being able to go through the game at your own pace you have to plan an entire playthrough around this clock. You have to know where to go, what to do and when to do it. Certain quests are only available at certain times and I freaking hate it. You can't stop for five minutes you have to constantly be moving or you won't be strong enough to beat the main boss.
3. Stat gains are tied to quests. I could be fine with this. Except they are limited and you have to do multiple playthroughs to keep getting stronger.
Absolutely agree!! I don’t like how they handled lightning in this game and the way that the questing and leveling system works is rough!
Considering that you can complete all 5 main quests on day 2, the clock is really not a hindrance. It's possible to do every single quest, slay every monster and completely clear the canvas of prayers on your very first playthrough.
Of course, new players aren't expected to do that. In fact, I'd wager that new players were almost expected to fail the first time through, getting a feel for the game. Then, with the extra stats and experience, they would sweep through it on the second attempt
Now, a ticking clock naturally discourages exploration, but the clock doesn't really penalize you. You do lose quest progress, but you retain your rewards.
@@danielbridges3730 I know that the clock does not become an issue after a while. I have played this game enough that I can get all the main quests done and have plenty of time left over. I still think it was a bad design decision overall.
You are right, first time players are not expected to know and have to play through the game multiple times before you learn. I would argue that putting your entire game on a clock would discourage some from playing the game. So is it really worth it?
0:32 what the heck? Is lightning wearing Yuna's outfit from ffx-2? What's the connection with that?
There's no real connection it's just part of the garments of the game lol
You arent supposed to complete it on your first 13 days, most of the game doesnt really even unlock till you start reseting. every time you compete a quest you get stat upgrades including when you complete them after you reset.
Good point! See I didn’t know that and completed it in the first round
FFXIII LR was kinda my introduction why i like Genshin Impact
I had the foresight of how this game wanted you to basically play through it multiple times, so I ended up playing on easy, and even then Bhunivelze was pretty stressful. Being reminded of how much I enjoyed this game though, I kinda wanna go back and re-experience this wannabe roguelike the way it was intended.
Yeah I didn't understand that it was meant to be playthrough multiple times so that was rough on me! lol
Can you change diffulty mid game? Is there any difference to the story or things you can find in different difficulty modes?
YES, speaking from last experiencing FFXII... hadn't enjoyed Final Fantasy since subscribing to World of Warcraft for 10 years. Lightning Returns was $14 well spent.
That's awesome! Glad you enjoyed it!!
13 trilogy is the best in class
I truly loved my time with it!
@@thechance-lore4711 the strings added to the soundtrack set it apart for me. The battle theme was also the best. Maybe the remake of (for those who fight) ff7 remake.
Yeah the music is the best in my opinion for sure!!
I LOVE LIGHTNING RETURNS!!!!!!!!!
It’s a great game!!
Yo last time a made mistake never played 13 but i got 13 X2 with noel and sara ...
Haha well try and get 13 and then play 13-2 and the lightning returns! Lol
@@thechance-lore4711 yh make sense lol ..
This is basically bof v dragon quarter ff edition. I love that game style but it's not for everyone
Very well put!
Always great to see another person critiquing the ff13 series honestly. Love these games
Thank you! And yeah these games are great!
Ehi guys would you advice to play all the trilogy or just stop at the first game?
I'd play the trilogy primarily for FF13-2
Play the trilogy. You will have the complete satisfactory experience. Each one offers different vibes and has its pros and cons, so you will have a fuller experience playing all the three. Don't make ears to those who complain about the clock system in LR. There is an ability that gives you the power of stopping time temporarily, and you can refill it winning fights, so it's not an issue. Even so, every 06:00 AM in the game you will be automatically transported to to The Ark, where time doesn't run untill you decide to return where you had been the last time. So, if you play the trilogy, you will really enjoy XIII series.
My whole issue with FF13-3 Lightning Returns is how the sidequests are silly as hell and makes no sense considering these people are living for hundreds of years.
And that Square Enix clearly stopped development before it was done, because you can clearly see a lot of the maps are low-quallity texture, some of them even looks like they are in the beta stages of development. The game has a very deep lighting system with a lot of effects, but the world lacks polish, everywhere outside the cities looks low quality, they could even re-used textures from the first or second game for rocks and such but no.
The worst part to me is that if you go back to 2013 or something, when the game was released, the demo/preview of the game they released for everyone to see, is in the most beautiful area of the game, so the game looks as if it'll be super high quallity in textures. It's only after going after that part that you can see the extreme dip in quallity in the textures, and frankly the fact that even today there is no mods to make the game looks better nowadays just hurts me XD
Totally fair points and I'd have to agree with most of it!
Kinda wondering how the 13 trilogy would've been if they hadn't changed their mind on Vanille being the main protagonist
Good point!
Fulff dialog is what makes or break an RPG imo. SHOW DONT TELL SHOW DONT TELL YOU LITTLE POS WRITERS!
Fair! lol
thanks👍
Thank you for watching!!
6:56 Not the biggest fan of your analysis about Snow.. but nobody understands his character so whatever
I guess you could say he is the perfect example of why people think good guys never win or chivalry isn’t worth it
I get what you’re saying that his character is “more likable“ because of his resolve in game but everybody always misreads his character.
That’s fair! How would you define him?
@@thechance-lore4711 I would say his hearts always been in the right place but people hate him which is not cool… I just feel like everybody that plays Final Fantasy thinks that the big macho guy look in characters need to be edgy and tormented or else I don’t know I mean absolutely no one likes snow, except for a handful of girls and may be some guys that are him
Snow is like the perfect example of every regular guy growing up, except he was an orphan, so he has an excuse to play the hero imo - and just to be clear I am gushing out over the OG snow, not this one, he’s obviously grown by this point, but that’s only because it’s been 500 years and he’s had time to think.. to me, this game just proves how strong he’s been for other people other than himself, he became a hero, and now he doesn’t even think of himself that way💔😭 he really is my favorite Final Fantasy character because he is such a real character… He made mistakes, he regretted them, and he almost offed himself because of it
Okay that's fair and all very valid points! When you explain it like that I do feel like it shines a different light on the subject
Ligtning returns main villain: that damn clock
Haha amen!!
LR is a masterpiece. but it runs so freaking bad on PS3 like 15-20fps average. imma replay it on PC.
True!
Damn time limit, feels like playing on the edge all time
Very true!
Final fantasy 13 trilogy is my favorite final fantasy game , i like all the final fantasy games but for me 13 trilogy has something more than others final fantasy maybe it's because the story is on a trilogy , i know there is the final fantasy 7 saga with all these
stories about Vincent , turks etc... but i'ts different, on ff13 i follow the same characters since the beginning a new world and the end of this world , and even if there is a good ending, this ending is sad because many people are died and the characters loose their world , a world we watched die with the trilogy . And also lightning is maybe the strongest character in the entire franchise, this character becomes a godess and deafeat a god literally .
Yeah totally agree! I love the Final fantasy trilogy too and it was a great experience!!
I couldn't get over the initial let down of this game. The opening for it was amazing, but after that it was just such a let down for me. The controls were annoying and when I saw that quests had time limits and expired that sent me over the edge lmao.
That's totally a fair point!!
Cons: This was one of the reasons that we're never getting a proper Valkyrie Profile 3.
Pros: This IS Valkyrie Profile 3, for all intents and purposes.
Good point lol