Final Fantasy XIII-3 Lightning Returns - Experiences and Thoughts

[Sephiroth]

Lightning returns and finishes the trilogy (if it is) with a bang!

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/3551/gscq.jpg

Now that I have the third part of the story of Lightning of the Fabula Nova Crystallis and spend the first day with it I want to share my first impressions.

- Sexy Workout Edition (ex-SOLDIER/1st Class-SOLDIER Cloud Strife uniform) for the Pre-Order: an incredibly stylish uniform that comes with the victory fanfare of Final Fantasy VII together with its rest, so Cloud's Buster Sword and the SOLDIER Bangle (Cloud's Gauntlet) to equip; it is not the most efficient uniform to fight with all the time (at least for the beginning) but is incredibly strong and comes with with "Knockout" Support (new version of the "Break" mode), with this uniform you really see how much Light actually looks like Cloud

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/9614/vki7.png

- Outer World Support: Several features with Outer World characters that run around as well for Facebook and Twitter support as well as purchasing items from other people (if they use the option) as well as stuff like Lightning's Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2 costumes with the data on your console
- Large World - the World itself is not large, unfortunately, however the areas are enourmous. You have Luxerio, Yusnaan, the Wildlands/Wilderness and the Dead Dunes, maybe more later, it is unfortunate not to have more but they really are big and after all we have seen much of Cocoon and Pulse in the first two parts so as a Compilation we get to know much of Final Fantasy XIII's world, it reminds me of Crisis Core but with more freedom and variety, it could be a bit more linear but I am okay with it, compared to the first one this way is better because here I can do the story when I want and have sidequests, a large area and spawning enemies so a big thumbs up from me.
- Sidequests - right after the prologue you start in Luxerion and can do sidequests during the main quests, it is not as linear as Final Fantasy XIII-1 but a good mix would have been cool, still when it comes to sidequests this one is the one with the best mixture of what to do; the freedom of Final Fantasy XIII-2 when it comes to main quest-sidequest plus the variety of sidequests of Final Fantasy XIII-3 would have been perfect; you also collect soulparts or something like that for the tree Ygrassil by completing quests, only Chocolina's give no souls
many quests must be done to extend Ygdrassil's life for the canon ending but you can decide which and when to do them, as long as they are already available, of course
- the Break System is replaced by the Knockout System which is hard; normal enemies can be knocked out by a timed attack when they attack, stronger enemies are more tricky since every enemy has its own requirements, Bosses get harder the more days you wait
- Chapters return as days and you have a time limit of 13 days; you can partially freeze time as in the menues or with the GP Ability "Chronostasis" and you can make it go faster in steps of hours in certain shops for Gil, the famous 13 days are the maximum time limit and can only be reached by extending Ygrassil's life
- GP are special abilities; using them varies on your difficulty setting, you start with 5 and get more through the story and quests; you can also refresh them with battles, Ether, et cetera
- Shops as the mentioned one, Equipment Stores, Item Stores and Level Up Stores exist, as well as restaurants with food which are there to restore your HP (basically: an INN; just that you decide howm much you heal depending on how many Gil you spend, you always have three options)
- Lightning does not fight alone all the time. She gets assistance in some areas. One of them is her Chocobo, the other one I won't spoil. Maybe there are even more, I don't know yet.
- The Soundtrack, Characters, World and Story as far as I know them amaze me

I am not done yet but so far I love it and I think it is the best part of the trilogy.

If you have questions, feel free to ask me.


Greased Lightning (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK63eUyk-iM)

[Karifean]

That is certainly good to hear. I'll definitely be looking forward to it now. I do have a few questions.

You mentioned the GP Ability "Chronostasis". What is a GP Ability? With the days being "chapters", does it work just like in Final Fantasy X-2, where certain quests are only available after/before/during certain chapters? It sure sounds like there's quite a lot to explore which I very much appreciate.

Oh, and what do you mean by "Autoworld"?

[Sephiroth]

That is certainly good to hear. I'll definitely be looking forward to it now. I do have a few questions.

You mentioned the GP Ability "Chronostasis". What is a GP Ability? With the days being "chapters", does it work just like in Final Fantasy X-2, where certain quests are only available after/before/during certain chapters? It sure sounds like there's quite a lot to explore which I very much appreciate.

Oh, and what do you mean by "Autoworld"?

A GP Ability is a Special Ability. You start with 5 GP (maybe they get more later) and before the days start you can spend them for your items from Hope. GP can be refreshed by fighting monsters and the Abilities you get and can use in and outside of battles (depending on which Ability it is) are for example "Curaga", Escape for 0 GP but its costs you 1 hour of Light's world, Arise for 3 GP (also possible with less but it restores less HP then you can even use it once for 0 GP if it is the only time in your battle), the mentioned Chronostasis, Overclock which is something like a "Slow Time"-Mode for battles to give you more time for awesome moves and such things. And you can teleport with Telepo for 3 GP to not need to use the train all the time. The train costs 100 Gil and one hour and the teleport is Goku's Instant Transmission. Disappear, appear, done. On Light's clock no time that has passed is shown and you only need some GP (of course it is all about not wasting them) and an unlocked Teleport Point. GP Cost and other things vary depending on your difficulty.

The days, story and quest progress do unlock other quests, yes. But I do not know how much they influence it. Not yet. Basically it is like it is often in Final Fantasy: "Do this and unlock the next quest".

I cannot tell you too much about that Outer World option for now. Basically you decide if you want to use it, then you can see a bunch of characters for possible features later, I think. As said, I have not use them yet, just talked to them. They are some NPCs like "LRFFXIII ..." and also I think characters that have the names of users that were online, at least they sound very random. Some of it was explained already but I didn't read all of it yet. However I used its options for Light's two costumes.

[Del Murder]

Thanks for posting your thoughts! It sounds pretty interesting.

[Del Murder]

I'm reading that the launch didn't go as well as expected in Japan. Only about 275,000 copies sold in the first week, which is half of what FFXIII-2 did (which, in turn, was a third of what FFXIII-1 did).

[Sephiroth]

The week isn't over yet. It still is Thursday in Japan and let's see what future Light brings. Pun intended.

[Freya]

How's the costume changing/abilities with the costumes? How does that work? I'm curious since they focused so much on it with the press prior to the release.

[Sephiroth]

How's the costume changing/abilities with the costumes? How does that work? I'm curious since they focused so much on it with the press prior to the release.

The equipment menue is your costume menue and your Paradigm shift is now the costume shift. Basically it is like changing jobs in FFX-2, just that all your costumes have equipment, while YRP don't change accessories and all your costumes have their own abilities - that you decide for your buttons, so abilities like "Guard", magic and attacks. Costumes always existed in Final Fantasy. They always appeared in Job classes or partially visible in Final Fantasy X and XII as equipment on your characters but now you can actually see more since Lightning really can completeley wear what you want (while some abilities are still bound to a costume) and you need to change it in the battle all the time because each costume has its own ATB bar and you need to combine the skills to be successful - at least in longer battles.

I will post more pictures later or tomorrow.

EDIT:

I updated the first post.

Pictures can be shown if you want.

Oh yeah, I forgot:

Easter Eggs such as Final Fantasy and Clash on the Big Bridge are played by musicians in Yusnaan.

[Sephiroth]

Yesterday I met Mog in the Moogle Forest.

A Moogle Forest.

Lightning gets a fan club in Yusnaan that sings the victory fanfare sometimes when she wins in the Coliseum and Lightning's cat costume has the newest interpretation of the classic Final Fantasy victory fanfare.

You must help your chocobo to get well, he then can jump/fly better again and the Chocobo theme will be "complete" then.

I love this Final Fantasy. I love Final Fantasy.

EDIT:

I am at the final boss now.

Final Fantasy axiom:

The final boss is a god-like entity.

[Sephiroth]

So,

I have beaten the final boss.

For me, this is the best Final Fantasy ending ever.


Lightning defeats the final boss, Bhunivelze. To kill him, the heroes come back and help her. Serah, Mog, Noel, Snow, Sazh, Hope, Fang and Vanille. They all use their Summons, attack the Fal'Cie/God of Light and kill him, so he is crystallized. Right before that, he had destroyed the world. Where they killed him, Caius awaits them. He brings Noel to save Yeul and take her with him. Caius stays where he is - and, once evil and causing the state of the world, became a good guy and dies as a hero this way by not coming back, but helping Noel to save Yeul at last. However, Caius and the other Yeuls ascend to something new.
A new world is born. The characters, in the outer dimension fly together with the "lifestream" to it to finally begin their new and normal life there. After the credits Lightning is seen in normal clothes on the new world, leaving a train, while the camera shows the landscape and after all she is able to live a normal life with this happy ending.

The bottom line:

My opinion:

Final Fantasy XIII (the whole story) is the second best Final Fantasy ever made.

[Karifean]

For me, this is the best Final Fantasy ending ever.

That's quite a claim. Now I really want to play this game.

[Sephiroth]

For me, this is the best Final Fantasy ending ever.

That's quite a claim. Now I really want to play this game.

Many people didn't like it but they didn't understand the last part. And it being the best for me is no claim, it is a fact. I didn't say it is the best in general.

It is simply a happy ending like it was announced.

[Skyblade]

For me, this is the best Final Fantasy ending ever.

That's quite a claim. Now I really want to play this game.

Many people didn't like it but they didn't understand the last part. And it being the best for me is no claim, it is a fact. I didn't say it is the best in general.

It is simply a happy ending like it was announced.

Ok, I have to say, I really, really hate this argument (just in general, I am still trying to avoid spoilers, so I'm not actually reading your ending spoilers). But I have to say, the "you just didn't understand it" argument is a completely ridiculous claim 95% of the time I hear it. People said that about Mass Effect III's ending. But I definitely understood that one (more than most of the defenders of it did, in fact), it was just badly written and out of place for the series. The "you just didn't get it" is most frequently used by people who are defending nonsensical or poorly written writing as "deep" or "artistic".

All of your posts and descriptions got me excited (except for the whole "time limit" thing, because that's still a horrible idea in an RPG), but that one line is honestly having me question whether I want to pick this up. I highly doubt it's going to be an ending I don't understand. But I don't want to go through another unsatisfying ending to a long series. FFXIII-2's ending was pathetic enough as it is, I'd rather pass on a repeat.

[Sephiroth]

Dude, people didn't understand it, that's it. I am going to spoil this to make it clear now.

Many people think the characters have died and were reborn with erased memories.

And that did not happen. That was what the villain wanted but the characters simply began a normal live somewhere else, not as puppets without will, their own consciousness or memories. They are them, just somewhere else. Lightning even says, her new journey has begun but the old one is not over yet. They use words like "born" but it is not the same as long as it is still you. Technically even a rebirth would be happy and peaceful but I understand if people don't want that and it is not the same but it did not happen anyway.

People also have a problem with Lightning being the only character who appears after the credits. Seriously - they all live happily ever after. There is nothing wrong with the explanation that it is a happy ending. Would I like to see Snow and Serah marrying? Yes. But I know anyway that they will live a normal life in peace now. That is all, but not bad. It is the same fairytale ending of every other Final Fantasy. Everyone is back and alive. And they all live happily ever after.

And other things people think of as bad are not relevant for me. Those are the aspects. Nova Chysalia was dead anyway and that the new planet is something we know is no problem but actually awesome for me.

It makes me sad to purposely say bad things about Final Fantasy when they just are not right this way. I always mention the disadvantages (plotholes, not too much freedom) but they must actually exist that way and not something people just misunderstand like story aspects.

And the "claim" is not wrong 95% of the time. I am visiting many Final Fantasy forums for years now and so often I see people who do not understand the stories, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy X, et cetera and Final Fantasy XIII does not deserve this. It has nothing to do with depth but with seeing things as they are not. And of course there are some other things to consider since often things can only end with the "we could not save everything but it would have been even worse without our choice" way when it comes to what the characters did. The misunderstanding is only lack of information and wrong conclusion with the context. There is no Mass Effect ending, it is a happy ending, they survive and begin a normal life instead of being reborn as mindless puppets without a will and memories after Nova Chrysalia was destroyed, what Bhunivelze wanted. The End. You rather complain about really questionable things but not about an obvious happy end that was announced as being a happy end one year ago. The reason why people don't think of it as happy end is because they did not understand it. The final boss did not get what he wanted. The heroes won and they had to make sacrifices. Have fun on Final Fantasy VI's planet, a planet without magic and an almost infertile landscape which is by the way because of a hype known as "even better than Final Fantasy VII" by so many fans (I don't hate it, I love it, I just want to make it clear that there the disadvantages are nothing people care about).

Believe me, it is happy. They wanted to make it happy and it became happy, no one made it a way it is not happy, so it is just a misunderstanding of things. It is such an incredible (well, that's down to opinions but when it comes to Final Fantasy elements and feelings and some options thar are just very popular normally, it is and I totally like it because of what it is even if theer are some things like always I would have wanted another way but that is normal as well) Final Fantasy and I totally recommend you getting it.

No hard feelings however.