Quote Originally Posted by Aulayna View Post
FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 players will likely remember Caius Ballad, the immortal morally grey villain. Caius will be making an appearance in LR:FFXIII alongside Paddra Nsu-Yeul (mostly commonly referred to as Yeul, the Seeress that Serah and Noel encountered many times on their journey).
Morally grey until the bonus ending, where his character gets completely ruined by the poor writing.

As hinted in earlier trailers, Lightning won't just be re-uniting with most of her former party members - she will infact be doing battlew with them. In the newest screenshots we can see Lightning fighting both Noel and Snow. This is most likely due to the five-hundred year time difference between XIII-2 and LR:XIII. Snow, as always, is looking for Serah - a quest that is currently fruitless as he is now bound by a fal'Cie focus.
Five hundred year difference? Between what part of the games? Technically there's already something like a twelve hundred year difference between some of the various aspects of XIII-2, and the final event takes place well before some of the other events in the story. XIII-2 kind of destroys any idea of "linear time".

And it's made worse when the ending opens the void and opens up chaos, seeming to destroy even the concept of "time".

Sazh, featured in the Gamescom "Savior's Choice" trailer, returns along with his son Dajh who has been asleep for the centuries since the end of XIII-2. Sazh is seeking a way to wake Dajh up and Lightning will come across both of them in a location called the Wildlands.
Are we even going to attempt to address the fact that Sazh is still alive? At least in XIII-2, they made a BS explanation about Hope creating a stasis pod for himself.

Oerba Yun Fan will appear in the Dead Dunes desert leading the Monoculus band of mercernaries on a search to find lost relics of the past. Oerba Dia Vanille will be found in the city of Luxerion, a city of quiet worship - waiting for the end of days.
When did they wake up from the crystal? Or did they? Did the time wiping undo it all?

Hope Estheim returns too, in his younger XIII form - we was given this form back by the god Bhunivelze. He will be assisting Lightning from the Ark - a place outside of the realm of Noval Chrysalia. For the most part he will be sending Lightning on quests to save the souls of humanity in preparation for the end of days.
We have a god giving out gifts, and it chooses to restore Hope's youth rather than save the world being consumed by chaos?

The average playtime is confirmed to be around 20-30 hours. However if you wish to see everything the game has to offer without skipping a single event then the total will be somewhere around 50 hours. Once you've completed the adventure once a New Game+ mode will unlock offering varying difficulty options and allowing you carry over Lightning's costumes, skill sets, abilities and level progress.
I have yet to see a Final Fantasy game in which I can do everything in less than a hundred hours, usually longer.