It was revealed earlier this week that the much anticipated game, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII would be made available for digital download. The game's director Motomu Toriyama confirmed it during an interview with Final Fantasy Network.

You may be wondering why this is even newsworthy - most games are made available to download, right? Well actually they aren't - and the other titles in the Final Fantasy XIII series are currently unavailable to be downloaded. ...

A report on Square Portal released on 26th January reveals several new details about the soundtrack for the highly anticipated game.

Masashi Hamauzu will be composing a new theme for Lightning. Hamauzu will also be composing a theme for one of the four worlds in Nova Chrysalia. Other composers who have been named are Mitsuto Suzuki and Naoshi Mizuta. There is a fourth composer who is yet to be named in reports - one wonders if Nobuo Uematsu could make a shocking return to Final Fantasy?

The music heard in the game will also depend on the time of day; "Final Fantasy XIII: Lightning Returns" uses a day and night system - afterall the game is relying heavily on the concept of time. It is a brand new feature for a Final Fantasy game and perhaps it will be something Square Enix continues to use in future titles.

[Source: New ] ...

Eyes on Final Fantasy had the opportunity to be invited to a Square Enix event regarding Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. In the first entry of our visit we detailed the demo and the trailer we saw. Not only that but we had the impressions from a skeptic reported on as well. In this entry, we'll be discussing the presentation as well as the exclusive Q&A with Lightning Returns Producer Yoshinori Kitase and Director Motomu Toriyama.

After showing us the trailer we were greeted with a presentation by Kitase on how they feel about Lightning Returns. A vivid world with rich history full of drama and intrigue, the Nova Crystallis series was made to be a bit different than other Final Fantasy games. Being painted as a strong and powerful female, Lightning is key to every entry. They wanted to showcase this in the newest title, which was part of the reason she was chosen as the only playable character.

Many people are curious with how Lightning Returns works with the creative vision from the players themselves. The vision of how they personally felt the series should go. Player feedback was extremely prevalent in the first two entries, and ...

Eyes on Final Fantasy had a unique opportunity to once again be invited by Square Enix, thanks to community manager Robert Peeler, to preview another entry in the Nova Crystallis saga. Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII was shown to us in all its shining glory. We spoke with Producer Yoshinori Kitase and Director Motuma Toriyama for an in-depth look at this upcoming game.

In the first entry in a few series of articles about our visit, we’ll be discussing the trailer and the hands-off demo we witnessed. Combined with Toriyama and Kitase’s commentary, we had a first hand glimpse at the game and its new style.


Although the trailer was leaked early, we saw the full HD version of it with details from Kitase and Toriyama. We found out that the graphics in the video are not polished as you may be able to tell. They were more focused on the gameplay than on the graphics at the moment. Hoping to have the gameplay polished first, they wanted to show the major differences of the game for the fans.

Apparently more excited than Del Murder, I started to scribble notes like crazy. They gave us our own small note books and this Editor actually ran out of paper after using the front and back of the small notebook. Even during the ...

New details regarding Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII have emerged from the latest edition of VJump.

The big story is an all new character going by the name of Lumina. Her appearance is quite similar to a gothic lolita Serah. The character shows up from time to time and the article describes her as both a helper and a hinderance to Lightning and that she seems more than happy to toy with Lightning as a result. Not much more is known about her at this point in time though.

The magazine also went on to provide some details about the "Wear" system which involves the costumes Lightning can equip. Lightning can have up to three of these costumes equipped at once and change them in real time during the course of the Battle. Each costume has it's own ATB bar that continues to charge during the course of the battle so it seems like a very effective way of condensing XIII's staple Paradigm Shift system into a single character gameflow.

If you noticed a couple of outfits in the Jump Festa trailer than you may be wondering what ...

The first English screenshots have been released, showing off the divine city of Luxerion, a staunchly religious city with a bad case of impending doom. While still images might not be the most exciting thing just after the release of the first Lightning Returns trailer, there's still new places shown and at the very least the environments - and Lightning herself - are beautiful.

Each of the stills comes with a caption, revealing a little more about the nature of the shot as well as elements within the game. From this, we've been able to glean a few tidbits which might interest you! With Lightning as the sole participant in battle, the system has been switched up a bit. No longer is she bound to a single class; instead, commands can be customised to ensure you're always able to handle every situation. Say goodbye to Auto-Battle, too!

There are some more hints on the plot, too. Lightning has been tasked with investigating serial murders happening within the city, probably tied to the strange group wearing hooded robes and meeting in the dead of night. Apparently, someone is also tracking Lightning; is it the group, or some other faction? How this all ties together is a bit of a mystery so far, but I guess that's the point of playing the game!

Clocks play a prominent role, with the passage of time ...

Like a lot of people, I scrambled to try and find a working version of the leaked Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII trailer. After all, the world was supposed to be ending and instead we were getting a sneak peak at Lightning's own adventure with impending doom. And while, at the time of writing, there's still no official trailer, we've watched it enough times now to share some interesting tidbits with you!
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Lightning's outfit in the upcoming Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII has debuted in Shonen Jump. Although not much has been truly revealed about the game, this is our first visual of Lightning and it is a step in the "new" direction. Next up to be revealed will be the http://home.eyesonff.com/content/216...t game trailer. It's certainly quite unlike any of her previous outfits, with a leather bustier, pauldrons, and a cape. It certainly invokes memories of other science fiction franchises such as the Matrix.


So, what do you guys think? Like it? Hate it? Discuss in the forums! Keep in mind, her costume is customizable in the game so it will certainly be interesting on how that develops.

Source: animenewsnetwork ...

A still shot showing producer Yoshinori Kitase checking out the title menu of Lightning Returns has popped up. It's a pretty simple, like the rest of the series: just the title and logo followed by some options. It's exciting to see signs of actual work though. This won't turn out like Versus XIII!
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News about the newest edition of Final Fantasy XIII continues to trickle out. This time, an expected date for a trailer debut. The official Facebook page of Final Fantasy XIII: Lightning Returns released the following image.


The translated announcement that went along with it was "There are only 10 days until 2013 Jump Festa! A Lightning trailer will be exposed. The latest footage will appear that Square Enix Jump Festa Booth." Being the first trailer released for the game, it's unlikely we'll see any gameplay along with it, however we might get some tantalizing clues of what events have unfolded that will set the stage for the second sequel to Final Fantasy XIII. As always, stick with Eyes On Final Fantasy to find out - as we will scour the internet to find this trailer for you upon its release.

[Source: nowgamer] ...

It might not seem like big news, but with the soundtrack of Final Fantasy XIII-2 being touted as one of its best features, having the same team return for Lightning Returns should keep our ears pleased at least.


The return of Masashi Hamauzu, Naoshi Mizuta, and Mitsuto Suzuku was confirmed at the Distant Worlds concert in Chicago on December 7. It was confirmed through a - of all things - poster giveaway. Square Enix is loving these posters!

More information on Lightning Returns will inevitably surface soon, with the game listed in Square Enix's lineup for Jump Fiesta 2013 which will be held December 22-23 this year. Watch this space for updates!

[Source: Nova Crystallis] ...

The Final Fantasy XIII trilogy is set up like this: the first installment is story-driven, the second is player-driven, and the third - Lightning Returns - will be world-driven. It seems a little strange at first, but Motomu Toriyama, the director for Lightning Returns spoke with 4gamer and has given us a little more clarity and some fresh info to boot.

The concept behind the game is that Lightning, our heroine once more, has just 13 days to save the world. From what evil force, we're not sure yet, but with each "day" working out to be something like 1-2 hours real time, it seems like a hasty adventure. Except not so much. Or potentially. Lightning's actions can slow down the impending doom, or actually speed it up. It's going to be the core component; managing your time effectively is the only way to succeed. And what happens if you run out of time? Game over, man, game over.


The world will run to its schedule though, with NPCs going ...