Lightning returns and finishes the trilogy (if it is) with a bang!
Now that I have the third part of the story of Lightning of the Fabula Nova Crystallis and spend the first day with it I want to share my first impressions.
- Sexy Workout Edition (ex-SOLDIER/1st Class-SOLDIER Cloud Strife uniform) for the Pre-Order: an incredibly stylish uniform that comes with the victory fanfare of Final Fantasy VII together with its rest, so Cloud's Buster Sword and the SOLDIER Bangle (Cloud's Gauntlet) to equip; it is not the most efficient uniform to fight with all the time (at least for the beginning) but is incredibly strong and comes with with "Knockout" Support (new version of the "Break" mode), with this uniform you really see how much Light actually looks like Cloud
- Outer World Support: Several features with Outer World characters that run around as well for Facebook and Twitter support as well as purchasing items from other people (if they use the option) as well as stuff like Lightning's Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2 costumes with the data on your console
- Large World - the World itself is not large, unfortunately, however the areas are enourmous. You have Luxerio, Yusnaan, the Wildlands/Wilderness and the Dead Dunes, maybe more later, it is unfortunate not to have more but they really are big and after all we have seen much of Cocoon and Pulse in the first two parts so as a Compilation we get to know much of Final Fantasy XIII's world, it reminds me of Crisis Core but with more freedom and variety, it could be a bit more linear but I am okay with it, compared to the first one this way is better because here I can do the story when I want and have sidequests, a large area and spawning enemies so a big thumbs up from me.
- Sidequests - right after the prologue you start in Luxerion and can do sidequests during the main quests, it is not as linear as Final Fantasy XIII-1 but a good mix would have been cool, still when it comes to sidequests this one is the one with the best mixture of what to do; the freedom of Final Fantasy XIII-2 when it comes to main quest-sidequest plus the variety of sidequests of Final Fantasy XIII-3 would have been perfect; you also collect soulparts or something like that for the tree Ygrassil by completing quests, only Chocolina's give no souls
many quests must be done to extend Ygdrassil's life for the canon ending but you can decide which and when to do them, as long as they are already available, of course
- the Break System is replaced by the Knockout System which is hard; normal enemies can be knocked out by a timed attack when they attack, stronger enemies are more tricky since every enemy has its own requirements, Bosses get harder the more days you wait
- Chapters return as days and you have a time limit of 13 days; you can partially freeze time as in the menues or with the GP Ability "Chronostasis" and you can make it go faster in steps of hours in certain shops for Gil, the famous 13 days are the maximum time limit and can only be reached by extending Ygrassil's life
- GP are special abilities; using them varies on your difficulty setting, you start with 5 and get more through the story and quests; you can also refresh them with battles, Ether, et cetera
- Shops as the mentioned one, Equipment Stores, Item Stores and Level Up Stores exist, as well as restaurants with food which are there to restore your HP (basically: an INN; just that you decide howm much you heal depending on how many Gil you spend, you always have three options)
- Lightning does not fight alone all the time. She gets assistance in some areas. One of them is her Chocobo, the other one I won't spoil. Maybe there are even more, I don't know yet.
- The Soundtrack, Characters, World and Story as far as I know them amaze me
I am not done yet but so far I love it and I think it is the best part of the trilogy.
If you have questions, feel free to ask me.
Greased Lightning