Development Update - Lightning Returns: FFXIII

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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.

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Part of the world that will play such a vital part in Lightning Returns.

The world will run to its schedule though, with NPCs going about their business during the day and retreating to their homes of an evening. Lightning will have to work around this or find herself trapped and out of time. It seems like the kind of game where it might be easy to shoot yourself in the foot, but that's all part of the experience. There's a whole bunch of cutscenes and exposition in Lightning Returns, and not all of it can be viewed in the one play through, giving every player their own experience based on their individual actions.

Toriyama gave us a traditional Japanese game as an analogy: it's just like a Daruma otoshi toy. Each section of the world in Lightning Returns is like a block, and you have to hit them out in order without causing everything to collapse. Confusing, I know! Fortunately, Toriyama said he will reveal more at the Game Developer's Conference, except that it isn't until March 2013. We'll be lapping up any further details between now and then though!

[Sources: Kotaku, siliconera]

Didn't we already report on this? Or is SE just giving out the same details in different interviews?

Some details overlap, but this is also some new info.

In any event, everything is still way too vauge for me to care about this game. Hopefully we'll get some more info early next year.

if you pick up a flower in area 4, the world blows up in area 6 the next time you travel there
if you do not pick up the flower, area 8 gets destroyed
area 6 had that great new weapon
but area 8 had that useful new armor summon
but i mean it's fine because picking either of those up means 2 days pass and you've got no time to complete the 11 day journey to area 13 where the real secret ending occurs

ba-bam

hire me squeenix

Hmm...13 days, and a day is only two hours? Sounds...short. But interesting none the less.

It's going to feel strange playing a Final Fantasy game where you're always being pressed for time rather than being able to carelessly wander around in the end game for fifty to a hundred hours.

I'm going to assume replayability will be a huge factor here, if a day is two hours, then

2 X 13 = 26 hours.

Eh, seems short-ish, and that doesn't leave much room for sidequests. I can only hope completing side-quests allow you to gain time. I wonder how you lose time? The day and night mechanic seems great though!

Oh man, i'll feel bad for ever putting this one down then. "OMG GUYS ONLY 6 DAYS LEFT. I HAVE TO SAVE THE WORLD"

As I said, the plotline isn't a static straight line. There are a lot of different possibilities, so playing the game multiple times is going to be a necessity to experience everything! Also please note that Toriyama hasn't confirmed the length of each day yet! Those are just his current estimates. It'll definitely be something to share once the information is confirmed.