I went ahead and I did it
The urge to go ahead and finish the XIII trilogy after beating XIII-2 won out, and I can finally say I cleared this off the ultimate list of FF games.
Lightning Returns is an interesting one. It’s a slow burn kind of game; it took me a bit to really lock in with it, but once I did, I got into a nice flow state with it. It’s also a game that simultaneously could work very well by itself, but also feels like it’s essential to be the act 2 of XIII-2. It’s weird. Not bad! But weird.
I think this is where LR shines the brightest.
Combat is. ALMOST like its predecessors. Rather than it being menu selection, you’re pressing buttons like an action game; and rather than swapping paradigms, you’re swapping between 3 “schemata”, which are basically customizable job types that are also a dress-up minigame. You also still have an ATB system… kinda. Rather than a bar that fills up and executes all of the commands you put into it, it’s more like an action meter. You can do so much in each schemata before you run out and you gotta wait for it to refill. On paper it sounds entirely different, but with the ATB filling and the schemata switching, I still felt that echo of paradigm switching (especially since I essentially gave myself a commando, ravager, saboteur setup), and the ATB in practice still felt like the ATB of classic. It’s different for sure, but still has enough connection to not feel like it’s a complete jump away from its prequels. Also, you have these points called “EP” that you get from day start or killing enemies which you can use for things like full cure or esuna, but the big thing I used it for was “Overclock” which slows down time for your enemies while speeding it up for you. It gives you a unique ATB bar that I essentially used to keep up my assault when needed. Very fun once I had enough EP to not worry about using it all up.
Where XIII was a straightforward, classic RPG story that had some side quests, and XIII-2 was more side quest heavy but still sectioned, LR feels like it’s ENTIRELY made of side quests, in a way. Even the main story is split up into quests that sometimes require you to do side quests (which was weird if you gotta do them why are they side), plus it had a board of collection quests that you could turn into. If you just looked at XIII, you’d be like “what the fuck happened”, but going through the trilogy, I can feel the natural progression. As someone who enjoyed the XIII-2 style quests (plus I’m MMO brained so quests are ingrained in my DNA anyways) I quite enjoyed this style of game organization. It allows you to move back and forth between the areas and their stories, which mixes really well with:
Time management. The big deal about this game that I think MOST people look at and think “oh no”. I also thought “oh no” at first. There’s not exactly a Majora’s Mask style time reset or anything (which I gotta talk more on this topic later) and you don’t really have time to sit and rest unless you’re in a menu, meaning every single step counts, but it does give you a temporary time stop ability, that uses the same resource as your big combat abilities. I was really unsure of it at first, I didn’t know how to handle it, but once I really got the hang of things, I realized that I didn’t need to time stop nearly as much as I did, and I was able to strike a good balance. Like I said, I found the flow state of managing quests, travel, teleportation, and still leaving myself with enough for combat buffs. As time passes, different enemies come out, different NPCs appear and disappear, different stores open and close, it makes you think about where you have to be, when you have to be where, and you have to think about your travel time. There’s a quest I have to do but they don’t appear until 14:00, so I’m gonna sit here and kill guys until like 13:00 where I’m then gonna take the train over there. It was scary and weird at first, but it’s a system that I think is improved with knowledge of just how much is in the game.
One last thing I wanted to talk about, is Undertale. This game has a fucking Undertale genocide mechanic (I know Undertale came after but hush shush). There are actually limited enemies in the game (save for a couple), and you can actually completely extinct a species by killing all of them. When you’ve killed all but one, that one becomes a Last One, which is a hyperpowered hot pink version of that enemy that drops better loot. This also interacts with time management well because as the days go by, enemies drop better abilities for you to use, BUT, you also have to make sure you’re giving yourself enough time to do shit AND kill all of everything. This is cool! It’s also grindy, which does kinda suck. Having to kill 30 reavers (behemoths) gets mindless after a bit, which CAN be enjoyed, but can also be ugggghhhhhhh. I think I felt both of those emotions. This is at its worst in the final dungeon where there’s 3 new monster types that can be killed off, meaning if you wanna kill all of em for the quest that makes you kill all of em, you HAVE to last second grind. Stinks when I just wanna finish the story.
Together, Lightning Returns offers an experience that’s actually quite fun, but I think you REALLY HAVE to have the knowledge to make the most of it. It gives me the vibes of something that would be better on subsequent playthroughs, where you really know just how much is in this space.
The story this time about is weird. After the world Fucking Explodes in XIII-2, and Lightning turns herself into crystal to have Serah live forever in her memories, she’s woken up (numbers) years later by God Himself, who said “hey shit’s boutta explode in a few days can you go save a bunch of souls so I can put them in a new world I have your best friend here (he’s a kid again don’t worry about it) and I’ll give you your sister back” and then Lightning goes “ok (unfeelingly)” and does it. Rather than a single focused story, it’s split up into 5 main quests you can move back and forth between, all centered around a character from previous games. You got Noel, Snow, Fang, Yeul/Caius/Odin, and Sazh. Between these, and the many side quests, the game is very character based rather than narrative based, I feel, which I certainly don’t have a problem with. Characters, I’m coming to realize, are my absolute favorite part of any media and the most important thing to me ever (which I think is why I end up making 20 hour long character sections (coming soon)). As you help people and your friends, you realize God is A Bitch And A Liar, so you go to Kill Him. This culminates in an ending that is 1. INCREDIBLY CHEESY, 2. A nice little celebration of the entire XIII trilogy, and 3. A little stupid. It’s nice. It’s not the greatest in the series or even the trilogy, but it’s nice. Again, it feels like it’s the second half to XIII-2, wrapping up everything that that game set up, which stinks a little cause it means it can’t hold on its own well, but is nice when you’re doing it in sequence.
I’ve lived with this cast for 3 games now, and LR is, for the most part, a nice bow on everyone’s stories/a cool way to take all their characters.
The game’s just a nice tale ender for everyone (except for like, maybe I could have used an extra moment or two with real Serah). It serves as a good celebration of the trilogy, bringing everyone back in some form. Hell, even Cid came back, even if he was just a bunch of souls in a Cid costume.
I should have mentioned this sooner, but whatever. The world that the game takes place in, Nova Chrysalia, is SUCH a cool concept???? Like, with the gameplay being what it is, if they just separated the story/characters, the world being super unique could absolutely make this game stand on its own. It’s the remains of the normal world mashed together with the realm of death. Since the realm of death is also related to time, and it’s broken, people Don’t Age. Also, since the goddess of death, who deals with reincarnation, is dead, people can’t be born. This world is the perfect stagnation that makes the setting of finite time until the end work. It makes systems like the Last Ones work. It’s just super cool. It’s split up into 4 zones, each having a sort of unique mechanic. You got Luxerion, the holy city and the capital, with a really cool gothic and checkerboard aesthetic spread around; you got Yusnaan, the city of “we’re gonna party til we die (think Eulmore from XIV)”, that completely changes vibes at night, as well as having a cool coliseum, and a bunch of for flavor restaurants; there’s the Wildlands, that serves as that kind of Archylte Steppe-like big area, and is the only place with a chocobo for you to ride; and then finally the Dead Dunes, a big desert with a ruin underneath it. They’re all very unique feeling, and I don’t feel bored, especially moving between all of them. I think the Dead Dunes are my favorite zone, simply because you get to slide down the sand and it’s really really fun. Yusnaan is probably second.
I think the one gripe I have is that the game needs to sell you a little more on the fact that everyone has been exactly the same for like 500 years. I don’t know why, but it just feels like it needs a little more fuel in that department to fully immerse me in it. Maybe some more stagnation or apathetic feelings. There was a quest with a girl selling her tears that I think did this right, give me more of that. Also, uh, with this all said:
Hi yeah let’s make a game about the end of the world. We’re gonna give it a time limit. We’re gonna split the world into 4 sections. The game is mainly going to be focused on side quests where you help the people of the world reach their final wishes, and some of them will be based on time of day. Not to mention, in the final dungeon, we’re going to let the player either go straight to the final boss, OR they can do 4 mini trials that give them a super powered upgrade right before the final boss.
I could put some of these separately as a coincidence but I’m gonna be real that final dungeon solidified something to me: something’s off. There HAS to be inspiration here lmao (none of this affected my enjoyment it’s just really really funny)
As usual, the music is fucking phenomenal. It’s beautiful, it rocks, it’s terrifying, it’s amazing. Lightning Returns might have one of the Best final boss themes in the entire series and nobody knows cause it’s the weird last entry in a trilogy people hated.
I have. One flaw though. I don’t… really like how previous battle themes were used as normal battle themes, cause it feels like it takes away the impact. I was walking through the Wildlands at night, when I ran into a Dryad, and suddenly Desperate Struggle starts playing. I think “oh fuck I just ran into a mini boss” and I thought I was right when this dude started doing massive damage and summoned a bunch of clones. Then I ran into a slug and the same song played. I’m not sad to hear those songs because the XIII trilogy does not miss at a single point, but it makes me sad when they all have the same meaning. I’m also really upset since Worlds Collide doesn’t ever get to get to the good part since all the Hoplites are dead before it gets going
XIII’s sauce remains. The game still looks good, and they solved that weird facial expression thing that XIII-2 had. I love the consistent checkerboard aesthetic that the Chaos has, spread throughout the game. Also, that fucking final boss battle? Holy shit. Beautiful. How the floor turns into Bhunivelze’s fucking robe??????? That’s so cool. The final prerendered cutscene was absolutely peak.
just gonna sleep in the inn for a bit now to get to
Lightning Returns is a game in a weird place. I definitely do not think it deserves the reviews it got; I think that is a result of a time mechanic people didn’t really give time (lol), as well as being the 3rd entry in a trilogy where people Did Not care for its first entry, but it really doesn’t deserve to be one of the lowest rated FF games.
It could honestly work as its own game. You remove all the actual FF bits, and you have a wonderful standalone action JRPG. But in the same vein, it really Only works as a finale to the XIII series. The story, the characters, and even the evolution of gameplay, it only works/it’s at its strongest when you’ve played the previous games. It wraps up bits from XIII-2 in a way that it feels like it was MADE for doing that.
When I started the game, I wasn’t vibing with it. You need to give it time. You need to understand it, and know what it offers and how it works to really appreciate it, it’s not going to be instant. Although, towards the end of my playthrough, it was getting a little grindy cause I really frontloaded my experience, not really knowing how much content I had, and in how much space. Especially with the NG+ feature, I imagine this game goes hard on your 2nd-on playthroughs. I’d love to see a speedrun or a fully optimized playthrough, that’s GOTTA be sick.
7/10. A bit of an awkward experience in places, but in the end a fun, unique experience that also serves as a nice ending to an overhated trilogy. It’s also Majora’s Mask. Bhunivelze’s Savior.