Article: Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII announced
Following on from a few weeks of rumours and speculation, Square Enix has announced Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII which as you may suspect from the title, stars none other than Lightning in a whole new quest.
From what little we know, it sounds as though Lightning will be something of a lone wolf in this game, and it will be the final installment in her story. Players will have a lot more control to shape Lightning the way they want, in terms of appearance, fighting and movement style.
This particular episode will take place several hundreds of years after what happened in FFXIII-2. The game is set in a world called Novus Partus, a Latin name which can be very roughly translated to "New Birth". It consists of four islands, all interlinked with a monorail system.
A very intriguing gameplay element that has been made known is the Doomsday Countdown. The world of Novus Partus is destined to come to a screeching halt after 13 days (Final Fantasy THIRTEEN... see what they did there?) and presumably Lightning's role is to stop this. However, unlike the previous Final Fantasy games where you could merrily tootle about the world, racing chocobos and snowboarding while that big ol' Meteor hung lazily in the sky, the Doomsday Countdown means that the end is coming, whether you're done with all the mini games or not.
The countdown is shown in the form of a rather large and glaring clock in the corner of the screen, always reminding you of what is to come and making you feel guilty. Worse yet, actions players take such as riding the monorail takes time and will see judgment day draw ever nearer.
The clock also plays a part in the battle, with certain time-based attacks and skills draining the counter in exchange for dealing high levels of damage. Interestingly, if you die during a battle you can rewind your mistake... at the cost of precious time, of course!
The game is scheduled to be released in 2013. You can find the site for it somewhere around here.
Yoshinori Kitase talks about crystals in a rather fetching office.
So, what do we think? Are we bored of Lightning and the Fabula Nova Crystallis saga? Do the gameplay elements excite you, particularly the Majora's Mask-esque Doomsday Counter? Does the an open world game see a shift for Square-Enix? Will you be getting it?
09-02-2012, 08:12 AM
Del Murder
Ok, so there were two versions of this thread and I accidentally deleted the one with all the comments (or maybe Super Delete did it...that bastard :shifty:). So sorry to everyone who commented. Just post again saying exactly what you said before and we should be all good.
I think I said something like 'here we go again!' followed by a few paragraphs reminiscing about the 'good ol days'.
09-02-2012, 08:13 AM
krissy
Quote:
first day purchase mothersmurfers
09-02-2012, 08:09 PM
Raistlin
Damn you, Super Delete! :argh:
I posted something about how the concept sounded pretty cool.
09-03-2012, 12:40 PM
Silent Warrior
At first glance, of course it sounds interesting. However, I'll hold off on passing judgement until I see something more concrete, closer to the finished product. Creative visions are all well and good, but they have to be delivered, too.
09-03-2012, 10:23 PM
Sefie1999AD
Hopefully this title will finally close the storyline and feature Lightning as a playable character. Neither of those happened with Final Fantasy XIII-2.
09-04-2012, 03:29 AM
Jiro
What did I say before? Something about being excited! I'm actually looking forward to this game, it's a neat concept.
Though this forum has been a lot more sensible than the typical 'OMG FFXIII SUCKS, GO DIE SE' stuff I've seen since this was announced. I almost enjoy seeing these FFXIII sequels etc just for the hilarious outrage online.
09-04-2012, 04:28 PM
Skyblade
If there's a doomsday counter, is there going to be an Ocarina we can play the Song of Time on to rewind it?
Sorry, but I'm not a big fan of games that limit how many sidequests and such I can do. I love being a completionist.
09-04-2012, 05:04 PM
Jessweeee♪
Lightning is one of my favorite characters ever so yay.
09-04-2012, 09:25 PM
Depression Moon
WTF another XIII game, yet Versus XIII still isn't out, no release date for it still, and we don't know much of jack trout about it!
09-04-2012, 11:41 PM
krissy
i reckon this is going to be a multiple-playthrough thing, with paths opening up based on how you played the last run or something
09-04-2012, 11:44 PM
J.D
so what's this thing I keep hearing about the game being facebook compatible?
So your characters are going to have a facebook themselves or what?
Sounds so weird :D
09-04-2012, 11:46 PM
krissy
use your friends as monsters in-battle!
"Honey, did you just make me a behemoth in your FF13-3 game?"
"Oh it must've been automatic sweetheart..."
09-04-2012, 11:57 PM
Raistlin
Quote:
Originally Posted by J.D
so what's this thing I keep hearing about the game being facebook compatible?
So your characters are going to have a facebook themselves or what?
Sounds so weird :D
It could be awesome, though it's been done before. In Suikoden IV, all the characters had a LiveJournal.
