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.
Is there a chance the track could bend? Not on your life, my Moogle friend!
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.
Checkerboard City. No word yet if you can travel in time using that phone booth.
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?
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