Review: Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

The original Final Fantasy XIII was a game that divided fans and critics alike with it’s mostly linear exploration and in some peoples opinions, boring cast of protagonists. This the last chance for the XIII trilogy to redeem itself in the eyes of so many nay-sayers and I’m not sure if it will. While it does most things really well there are some rather important elements of the game that just mar the experience more than help it. A pity because this is a game that could have been so good.

Lumina

Lightning Returns is the sequel to the sequel that nobody wanted. The conclusion to the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy.  We are put into the shoe’s of Lightning one last time as she attempts to save as many people as possible before the world ends. Thirteen days, that’s how long Lightning has to save the world. After the events at the end of XIII-2 the chaos spilled forth and consumed the world. Gone are the places we’ve come to know like Cocoon and Pulse and in their place are the last remaining bastions of humanity. Lightning is The Saviour, tasked with rescuing peoples souls. Light is her usual stoic self here, which in a party like in XIII or offset by Noel and Serah in XIII-2 is OK — but by herself she doesn’t quite carry the story as well.

I think Light is a good character but she needs others around to help carry the story and provide some diversity. Certain characters make a return for this entry such as Hope and Snow which helps but it’s still Lightning by herself for the most part. Of course there are some new additions to the cast like the enigmatic and somewhat zany Lumina. Lumina is a character I really enjoyed but I’ll let you experience her for yourself as I couldn’t do her justice otherwise.  I wouldn’t say the story is weak by any means but Lightning struggles a little bit by herself.

Lightning Returns is a game that tries to change things up a bit from the previous two entries. Gone is the paradigm system of commandos, ravagers and sentinels. Gone too is the three person active party in favour of Lightning by herself and most importantly, LR eschews the linearity of the previous two titles for an almost completely open world. You are free to come and go as you please, which is a nice feeling after the straight lines exploration that was XIII.

Never before has a character had more freedom of movement in a Final Fantasy game. Lightning can sprint, jump, climb ladders, and slide down poles which opens up a whole new level of exploration. There are five main quests to complete in Lightning Returns as well as a multitude of side quests and even smaller quests known as the Canvas of Prayers. There is enough quests to keep you more than busy — as you definitely couldn’t complete them all in a single play through. Players can initiate and have active as many quests as they want however, including all the main storyline quests.

Where the problems with this game start to rear there ugly head are the elements of time. Firstly the game gives you an initial eight days to finish which can be extended to thirteen by completing the five main quest lines. The countdown timer is displayed in the top right of the screen at all times which adds a huge amount of pressure to rush through everything.

You’ll realise as you progress that you actually have plenty of time to complete the main quests and a good few side quests but you never fully relax. I personally never felt the freedom to slow down and really explore the world as I felt any time I wasn’t spending doing quests was wasted time. Which is a pity as Lightning Returns really is a beautiful game with some fantastic and interesting environments to explore if you’re willing to spend your limited time doing it.

The next big issue is that a lot of quests, particularly side quests are time restricted, as are certain areas of the world. It’s not such an issue with main quests but it does create some real frustration with side quests. For example there is an area in the first city, Luxerion, called The Warrens which only opens from 00:00am to 6:00am and so any quests that require access to The Warrens after 6:00am and before 00:00am are totally locked away.

To compound this irritating issue certain quests are only available at a certain time of the day, for instance I initiated a quest at 4:37pm and went to hand it in at 5:17pm but couldn’t because the quest giver was no longer there as the quest was only available from 10:00am to 5:00pm. This meant I had to wait until 10:00am the following day to hand it in, by which time I had moved on to other things and forgotten about it. My biggest problem with this game however comes in the form of levelling. Enemy fights no longer award exp but instead only offer Gil and item drops. Instead you level up by completing side quests.

Completing quests offers static stat upgrade, so there isn’t really any way of choosing what stat is going to get levelled. More difficult quests offer larger stat upgrades at the cost of taking longer to complete. This led to a situation where I treated enemies as a distraction unless I needed to farm them for an item drop to complete a quest, as there was really no other benefit. On top of this, it created a strange balancing act where you’re trying to complete main quests and side quests at the same time to make sure you’re sufficiently levelled up while managing the time restrictions on both and the whole thing just ends up being stressful more than anything.

I honestly had more fun when I just stopped doing side quests until the main quests were done. The main quests offered large enough stat upgrades to progress through the boss battles of the story without too much heartache. By doing this, I managed to complete the main story quests with about four and a half days to spare which I could devote wholly to side quests for levelling. I suppose I should mention the game doesn’t end after you complete the five main quests. You need to have them finished by the end of the thirteen days and this allows you to progress to the Final Day which is the story’s end game.

Now that that’s out of the way let’s talk about what is easily the best part of this game; the combat and schemata customisation. I was worried that with only one person in the party that battles would be boring one dimensional affairs of attacking, healing and attacking again. I’m happy to report that I was completely wrong. You can’t discuss the combat however without discussing what powers it first, the schemata. Lightning can equip up to three schema at a time and the level of customisation here really is astounding.

A schema consists of a garb (read: outfit),  a weapon, shield, two accessories and an adornment (read: fashion accessory). On top of these Lightning can choose from a selection of moves with three customisable slots and one locked slot which is tied to the chosen garb. As if all of this wasn’t enough each garb, weapon, shield and attack can have attributes attached to them. For instance a level 2 fire attack might have a +40 magic attribute or a heavy guard move might have a +150 HP ability. So as you can imagine with over 80 garbs — with a few that are quite obviously just fan service- and a huge number of weapons and attacks that you really can customise Lightning to fight exactly the way you want to.

Now on to the combat, which itself is a departure from the traditional Final Fantasy battle system. I would liken it more to the Tales Of series, if it had Attack Time Battle gauges, rather than Final Fantasy which honestly isn’t a bad thing. Lightning can now move freely around the battlefield and block hits which is a first for the series. Some vestige of the Paradigm system from XIII and XIII-2 remains with Lightning able to switch between garbs instantly with the press of a button, the Stagger system also makes a return.

This allows for some interesting tactics in combat, for instance my Schemata was set up with a heavy magic dealer, a heavy physical damage dealer and a defensive schema with a strong guard ability and massive HP. This allowed me to use magic to Stagger the enemy, then switch to the physical schema to do serious damage while it is staggered and if it was about to attack I could quickly switch to my defensive schema and guard to absorb all the damage. There are many more possible tactics with buffs, de-buffs and all sorts of possible combinations. Another departure I like is that Light can initially only carry five healing items which forces you to ration them carefully and HP no longer recovers after a battle is finished unless you’re playing in easy mode.

All in all I have to say I enjoyed Lightning Returns. There were enough bad elements and design choices to have an impact on the quality of the game but I feel the positives outweighed the negatives in the end. If you are a fan of Final Fantasy and the XIII trilogy then I would absolutely say to give this a shot, just make sure to go into with an open mind and you will enjoy it much more than if you go in expecting a traditional JRPG. I’m glad the series has had it’s conclusion and I’m happy I got to see it through to the end but please Square Enix, no more Lightning, we’ve had enough. We’d like to meet Noctus now.