Kinda surprised how good the game turned out to be. Gotta say, a lot of the criticisms leveled at the game could only really have been made if you didn't actually play most of it, but just assumed it would go a certain way I also really enjoyed how much of the game opened up for a hard mode playthrough, giving you new abilities, better synthesis items, upgrading your existing items and letting you forge your weapons into better ones Plot was predictably not the strongest, but I will stand by that Lightning is fairly unique protagonist to play by. Much like Kingdom Hearts 2, the whole "have no emotions" thing is glossed over so they can have more dramatic cutscenes, though. The characters feel like Kingdom Hearts versions of themselves though, prattling on about the darkness, with only their most basic or extreme characteristics on display, plus literally every returning character goes through the exact same arc they went through in the first game. So its very Kingdom Heartsesque. The world itself is pretty cool, also. I love the details, especially the super bleak ones, like finding the skeletal remains of the Pulse Fal'cie in the desert. Also, there are only a little over 30 enemy types in thie game, and what's cool abpout this is that they all have their own VERY distinct strategy that you gradually learn, and then put to the test in hard mode (also I think Lightning commits more genocide than pretty much any video game character to date) So yeah, no, Lightning Returns, solid game
I got the limited/special/whatever edition when it first came out and played a few hours of it. I recently just got back to it, probably much to Jayn's chagrin for hogging the TV for hours, and have been finding it wasn't quite as frustrating or annoying as I had originally thought it was, though I'm probably about 1/3 through the game by now and am finding that the battle system could have been better, or, moreover, the way you acquire attacks. Or perhaps leveling. The whole game feels like a balancing act, where you have to be constantly shifting gears (like paradigms in intense battles through the first two games herk herk) to barely keep on top of being able to stand a chance against enemies. Or maybe I'm just in a higher level area without knowing it? The game is "open world" but that doesn't mean the parts of the world you can go to won't kick your ass without hesitation. Either way, I'm going to finish the game and stick it out to the end, but as of right now, I'm still pretty disappointed with the heavy decline the 13 series has gone through. Tell me it gets better, and tell me I won't always be struggling to have a respectable moveset.
the trick early on is that there are certain enemies that are just plain too tough to bother with at first, but become manageable when you power up. Are you playing on Normal or Easy though? Because Easy is what I recommend for the first playthrough. In terms of a moveset, you're largely going to have to deal with what you get until later on when you can start synthesizing abilities more and beating tough enemies that give you better abilities. But come Hard Mode this gets cranked up a lot and you get a lot of freedom, because nearly every enemy gets three new item drops, often including powerful new moves. So you get a pretty nice move pool eventually. Oh, and I dunno how much you know about the later parts of the game, but try to have 40 side quests done before the final day Also, I'd assume you do this already, but you can buy the notes on every enemy, which gives you the strategy each one needs to be beaten easily. The rest is just experimentation, really
I'm much farther into the game, actually I've "beaten it" already. Rather I got past day 7 and found that the bosses were now unbeatable. That whole stat boost thing really sneaks up on you. I had been working on leveling up with side quests and whatnot before taking them on, as I was playing on normal, not knowing that I'd have to spend the next several days doing the same if I took too long. As for movesets, I did finally start getting better moves and whatnot, I've found that synthesis isn't really all that necessary, as I was getting level 4 (+bonus) moves sometime past day 9 (I made it to 11 with only two main quests done). I had more than 40 side quests, so I should be able to handle that again, especially since I now have a good grasp on the mechanics of the game. Artemis' Arrows is OP and I love it. As of now I'm not hating squeenix as much as I did witht his game, at least as far as the quality of it. I suppose I let the reviews get to me, but I should have known, as the reviews for XIII were bad as well. Though that beginning shot of Snow's palace in all of its PS2 quality glory was a bit of a kick to the shins. Spoiler I'm also torn on the story, because the whole Serah/Snow thing was a big part of why I liked XIII, but now this whole thing seems more like a cruel tragedy, with Serah dying and Snow basically giving up on life and wanting to die/changing as a person... I didn't finish Snow's main quest, so I don't know if things turned out differently after the battle with him, but the fact that he basically turned into a cieth and went all dark and brooding, nuh uh, not for me, give me back my reckless hopeful Snow plz. I'm going to see if I can't tackle the rest of the trophies this time around. Also suggesting this be moved to video game thread?
Once you start getting Level 4 moves try fusing them with copies of the same move with the same bonus ability, this has a pretty high chance of synthesizing a rare ability On the bosses, they all have pretty distinct strategies and weaknesses, so trying to learn those might also help. If you have Artmeis' Arrows that should make things easier :P Keeping my lips sealed on the Snow thing, I'll just say I don't really like how it's resolved. The common issue I've found with 13-2 and LR reviews is that they come from a place where they already hated the original, and just kinda ignore the fact that they're pretty different. Trophies are pretty easy this time around, none of the ridiculousness like 13's hold every item, just stuff like finding the rarest item, beating the toughest best, and so on I mean, this COULD go to the gaming section, but if it didn't get much attention in the Spam Zone I can't see it doing much better in Gaming
I'll have to see if I'm still getting level 4 moves or if I have to wait until later in the days. My personal strategy for anything tough is Stagger>Overclock>Artemis' Arrows*3>Army Of One>Overclock>Artemis' Arrows*3>Army Of One>Ether>Rinse>Lather>Repeat. Snow :(. I'm kind of coming to terms with the idea that not everything needs a happy ending. I actually disliked 13-2 more than 13 and I've got a whole rant on that which I'm saving for a video. 13 wasn't so bad, it just took time, I actually got kind of zen taking down adamantoises and whatnot with the groove I got into. One thing I'm not proud of is the fact that I platinumed 13 twice (one for my then girlfriend) and 1k'd it on 360. I reeeeeeeeeally liked 13... My only reason for the suggestion was because it's actually a discussion about the game and not just spam :P
It's a later days thing + difficulty level. After day 9 normal enemies get more difficulty, and after day 7 the chapter 1, 2 and 5 bosses get a difficulty boost, plus the chapter 2 boss gets another difficulty boost on day 10. That'll get you through most things. Poison is as OP as ever, too. Though physical stuff doesn't work on everyone, decent elemenetal coverage is needed too My issue with the Snow thing is that it severely cheapens the events of FF13, though I'm sure people will disagree, so don't get your hopes too high or low 13-2 destroys 13, I just don't mind because they do it to make the game more fun. People act like 13 is bad, and that's really not the case, but it makes you wait too long. You should not be able to get through 8/13 chapters using only auto battle and sometimes switching to a healing paradigm (I'm not sure how anybody could stand platinuming 13 three times... it takes so long) Most of the Spam Zone is discussion, in fact spam isn't actually allowed in the Spam Zone xD
<3 poison You're right, 13-2 and 13-3 destroy 13's story, even so much as retconning the ending in the first 5 minutes. I both like and dislike it at the same time, i liked my 13 ending and would have been happy with it, but 13-2 and 3 seem to push the story into a tragic end versus a happy end, which I feel not a lot of stories get nowadays. It's bittersweet. I didn't mind 13's length so much, 13 was actually the first Final Fantasy game I'd ever really played for more than a few hours, and so my paradigm (pardon the pun) going into them was that these games were known for their story, and story is what 13 gave you a lot of, and the development of all of the characters took time. 13-2 and 3 had character development as a sideline to QUESTS QUESTS QUESTS ARTIFICIAL GAMEPLAY LENGTHENING QUESTS. 13 had REAL gameplay length, so anyone who complains about artificial gameplay lengthening who hates how long 13 is can go suck a side quest. Platting 13 is fun, it's rewarding to see the trophies unlock. Fair enough, all of the important things happen in the spamzone.
The book published shortly after XIII got released shows that XIII-2' s "retcon" was planned from starters. The hints were super cryptic, but back then the wikis had already put two and two together and figured out Etro was the one who released Lightning and the gang from their crystal stasis. They were aiming for that all along. XIII-2 was no retcon, XIII was just deliberately misleading. The creators mentioned in interviews that getting the spotlight away from the mythos to keep it on the characters pretty much at all time was a deliberate move. While movies have been the series' writing and directing main inspiration source ever since FF VI, XIII and its sequels tried to be closer to a serialized TV show. XIII buried its mythos so deep it might as well not have been there at all. XIII-2 was just as deliberately misleading about it. Lightning Returns finally spelled everything out loud, both to the characters and the audience. In short just enjoy the puppet show, the strings won' t be revealed up until the season finale. Not an intrinsically bad approach, but if the cast and its tribulations feel just as cringe worthy to you as they did to me the whole thing falls flat on its head. FF XII sorta did just the opposite, its plot was all about its strings and its characters were just a pretext to unravel them. Not an intrinsically bad approach either, personally I liked it, but for those who snored at its geopolitical intrigue as much as Vaan and Penelo did the whole thing fell flat on its head.
Never mind te ending, the games drain every bit of dignity or gravitas from the original. 13 was a very grounded game, but come Lightning Returns we have Lightning and Snow Dragon Ball Z fighting and pole dancing. The L'cie thing that was so dramatic in the original is completely trivialized when Snow somehow manages to stop becoming a Cie'th for over five hundred years. The number of repeating character arcs is a bit ridiculous, too. Lightning has to learn to cope with her emotions? In every game? Dajh gets in trouble and Sazh gets depressed? It every game? Vanille has to deal with her guilt? In EVERY GAME? There isn't even a trace of nuance left in the characters after the first game, they all became exaggerated caricatures Eh... that's not -true- length, that's just lots of cutscenes and lots of hallways with the same two or three enemy types and maybe a treasure sphere Eh, Lightning Returns had that for sure, I don't think there was any actual character development in that game, but 13-2 develops Noel and Serah so much 13 WISHES it could keep up. The way you could choose different answers at certain points in the story helped give you all kinds of details on their character
So what I'm getting out of this is that Lightning Returns has great gameplay and shite writing? Maybe I'll pick it up when it's $10 like I did XIII-2.
