[02/07] Lightning gets the Cloud Strife look, Hope is a kid again, Toriyama strikes back

[Linnaete]

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Hey guys, do you remember that prospective FFX Yuna outfit for Lightning? You know, the conservative one with the long blue dress that Yuna had before FFX-2? It's now another Final Fantasy character's turn to surrender their clothes to the Goddess.

If you have enjoyed the Lightning trilogy thus far, and would like to pre-order Lightning Returns, but is lacking the reason and motivation to do so, Uncle Square-Enix is here to tempt the money out of your wal - uhh, I mean, give you a hand with that. Pre-order Lightning Returns, and you receive a snazzy new(?) look for Lightning. Fans may recognise this look as the Cloud Strife look. Yes, the Buster Sword has gone from Angeal, to Zack, to Cloud, to Lightning. The circle is now complete. And it's also the best costume she currently has so far, by virtue of the fact that her other costumes look like self-parodies.

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Official sources state:

When you preorder LIGHTNING RETURNS: FINAL FANTASY XIII, you will receive the exclusive Cloud Strife SOLDIER 1st Class DLC — straight from Final Fantasy VII — for free! So you’ll get the SOLDIER 1st Class Uniform, Buster Sword, and Soldier Band… but not Cloud’s blocky hands.

We’ve put together a short gameplay trailer that shows off the DLC set and how it helps Lightning get to level 99 quicker.


Did you catch the last bit? The victory fanfare comes with the Cloud Strife SOLDIER 1st Class DLC pack when you pre-order, as well!

Europe bonuses:

PRE-ORDER BONUS PACK:

Limited edition Steelbook including downloadable content token - giving access to the iconic gear of Cloud Strife from FINAL FANTASY VII, including the legendary Buster Sword and Soldier’s Band! Cloud's famous victory pose and fanfare have also been faithfully recreated!

The downloadable content will be available to use for those who receive the Pre-Order Bonus Pack, on launch of the LIGHTNING RETURNS: FINAL FANTASY XIII game. Specific abilities that come with the Cloud outfit and weapon will be announced at a later time.

LIGHTNING SAMURAI SET:

Themed around the renowned samurai warriors, each garb in this three-set collection offers unique looks and abilities. Includes “Shogun”, “Sohei Savior” and “Flower of Battle” items. Defeat your enemies with the honour of the samurai!

The samurai garb will look like this:

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Additionally, Hope Estheim is definitely back, and will personally appear in the game, guiding Lightning on her Valkyrie Profile-knockoff journey from the comfort of his timeless Ark (Thirteenth Ark?). Unlike the prodigious adult of Academy fame in FFXIII-2 who was able to build time capsules and Proto Fal'Cies, this Hope is a kid again, and looks exactly the same as he did during his Operation NORA adventures in FFXIII.

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Apparently, Kid!Hope's Ark is at the core of New Cocoon (wasn't it named Bhunivelze?) where time has also ceased - which would not explain his sudden rejuvenation whatsoever, but this is Toriyama's story, not an actual writer's - and Lightning will be able to physically visit the Ark to have small talk with Kid!Hope, or restock on items before diving back into the midst of the impending apocalypse.

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Please be excited.

NeoGAF, Nova Crystallis, Siliconera

 

[Gabe]

I appreciated the passive-aggressive tone of the entire news update. It's like my mind is trying desperately to see through the unpolished graphics and totally whacked story to find quality, but it's not happening. The Cloud Strife costume truly shows that Toriyama truly wanted to try to do EVERYTHING with Lightning. At least his dreams are coming true, I guess.

 

[Exoskeleton]

Cool now I'm just just waiting for the Squall Leonhart costume. It'd probably fit her better anyways. I'm curious as to how the origin of kid Hope will be explained but all these costumes seem a bit unnecessary to me. I doubt I'd want to play dress up with Lightning while saving the world. >_>

 

[Shaissa]

Ahh Final Fantasy Dress up 2: Dressing up Lighting...

At least Final Fantasy Dress up had 3 girls to dress up... (X-2)

Seriously though, are costumes the only thing this game can talk about now?

TALK ABOUT THE ACTUAL GAME!!!

Sheesh.. "look more costumes...."

Also, seriously... Hope is a kid again... talk about a big FAIL!!!

 

[Steve-O]

Hope confirmed for growing backwards in age

 

[Rey]

This was so unexpected! (sarcasm)

Lightning wearing Cloud's outfit as a pre order bonus? Haha no thank you, Square Enix. This looks pretty bad. Yuna and Cloud now? How many more FF character outfits is Lightning going to get? I mean.. with 80 costumes it is certainly a possibility that there will be more.

Haha.... oh my god this is just ridiculous on a huge scale. Samurai garbs? Wat! How many things does Square Enix want Lightning to be?!

Ahahahahha it was expected. Hope Estheim losing his look might take some time to get used to. He was an adult in FF XIII-2 and now he has suddenly become like his FF XIII self. If time has stopped flowing, how is it even possible for Hope to move back? At least Square Enix worked hard on making a new outfit for him. Recycling? No problem!

I have one explanation for this: Chaos has made Hope younger. Wait a minute! I thought chaos stops the characters from aging! This one is just going to be some stupid plot hole for sure.

Spoiler

Hope has a clone

 

[Razberry Knight]

Say what you will about Cloud, Squall or Tidus or even Vaan. But at least they still hold dignity by being themselves. Lightning intentionally rips off of these characters. Yuna costume, cloud costume, standoff-ish attitude except laying it on way too thick. Now with flashy yet crappy outfits.

 

[Thief of Hearts Joker]

Damn FFVII Favoritism, if Lightning gets a costume from a different FF it should DAMN WELL BE A Squall Outfit, she wields a Gunblade not a bigass sword, I know she'll have shooting animations and I will sit there and say magic bullets.

Ok... Ok.... Rage aside, UI'm assuming she gets a XP boost from the gear, probably a 5-15% boost >.>

regardless, I won't be pre ordering, I'll probably buy it once it drops in price cause I'd be more interested in XIV atm lol

And Hope just Ages randomly anymore, first game hes a kid, 2nd he grows up and looks badass for a change, and this time its kid mode XD dooood make up your minnnd

 

[Sheechiibii]

I am very confused about Hope ageing backwards. I mean, I just don't understand how that can make sense. I mean...what the heck?! How does he even know Lightning was gone if he's still 14? What happened to his older self? Did he die? Is he still around? Are there two Hopes? This. Makes. No. Sense.

As for the costume, uhh, give me a break. I initially was intrigued by this game, but they are managing to make me less interested every time I see something new about it. I don't care about Lightnings costumes, and this thing with Hope's age just seems daft, even weirder than everyone randomly wanting to kill Lightning. At least that can be explained.

 

[Tyler Breeze]

You've gotta be fucking kidding me. Meh... Yeah.... This is what we all want to hear about! Who cares about storyline details, and all that stuff? Why not just look at more Lightning! This time, dressed up as everybody's favorite hero, Cloud!

Fuck you, Square Enix.

 

[Linnaete]

The Cloud costume doesn't really bother me. I'm not sure why it should, given that Lightning was originally conceived to be a pink-haired female Cloud anyway, though executed in a way that makes her closer to Squall than Cloud. If they were going to give her a Yuna costume, and a lineup of at least 80 costumes, a Cloud one was going to be inevitable. It's just a shame that this can't be her default costume. Stuffing her in a costume plucked from an older game with a large following for the purposes of nostalgia and an extra few Day 1 sales is still better than stuffing her in something that looks like the designer drew on paper at first for a laugh.

It's Hope being a kid again that bothers me. Actually, no. It shouldn't bother me. I've played through FFXIII. I'm playing through FFXIII-2. I have seen a paradise of dreadful storytelling, so this latest extraction from Toriyama's black hole of a mind shouldn't really do anything for me. As suggested, someone - like some God or whatever - could be masquerading as Kid!Hope to passively screw Lightning over in some way. Otherwise, fuck it. I don't care what explanation is pulled out to explain this, unless they feel content to contort a bit more of Norse mythology beyond recognition to make this fit in somehow with the fact that time is moot and therefore no one can age. They've already thrown furniture out of the window. Why settle for sense and consistency here?

It's also hilarious how Lightning has an entire mansion full of costumes at her instant disposal (no bikini yet, Square?), but they could not afford/be bothered to spend the effort to produce a new look for Hope or for Noel. Guess they just don't matter then. Priorities have to go somewhere!

Additionally, the more I see Norse references (even though the FFXIII universe is barely even Norse, just taking very basic ideas and names from the Norse), with Yggdrasil for instance, the more I wonder whether Tri-Ace is also working on this game in some capacity behind the scenes. It will probably be the closest we will get to Valkyrie Profile 3. Lightning the warrior goddess is working for Goddess Etro to liberate souls trapped in time, whereas the Valkyrie warrior goddesses work for Odin to guide brave souls from the mortal realm into Valhalla. Valkyrie Profile has as a primary villain Lezard Valeth causing chaos in the time-space continuum, while Lightning faces Chaos seeping into the realm and causing time-space distortions. Both games involve mapping commands onto the face buttons, and both games allow you to target limbs/specific areas of the body, breaking them off in combat.

Ahahahahha it was expected. Hope Estheim losing his look might take some time to get used to. He was an adult in FF XIII-2 and now he has suddenly become like his FF XIII self. If time has stopped flowing, how is it even possible for Hope to move back?

...uhh

EDIT: fucking sarcasm

 

[Rapture]

.

So this is their inadvertent way of showing that Lightning truly was just a ripoff of Cloud...now she has the costume to prove it!

The heavy emphasis on costumes and dlc I think is just going to show where their interests lie, and they won't be with the story of this game. It'll be by focusing on ridiculous costume dlc in another ploy to amass more c notes in addition to the unworthy $60 something price tag.

Those outfits are all hideous and Cloud's outfit would never be enough to solidify a preorder from me for this game. I will patiently wait until it hits $17 in a year and it's placed in the bargain bins...and on the ps4, since I'll have my console by then and I probably won't be buying any more ps3 games.

...and omg whiny Hope again!!!??? He was so much more appealing in XIII-2 when he wasn't a pmsing prepubescent teenager

Yuck.

 

[AuronX]

Really, Square Enix, I started out positive about this game. Probably more positive than most other people.

Now? I'm just confused

What is this game even supposed to be? It's sure not the continuation of a story about godlike Fal'cie warring with one another via proxy L'cie servants who are not too happy about the way that war is working out for them and decide to do something about it. And it's also sure not about repairing the rip in the time-space continuum that was created as a result of their actions (which was already a stretch, but worked out ok in my book). All I've seen so far is "Dress-up with Lightning". Wait, did I just...yep, I did just say that. :wtf:

Horrors.


...

...

...
Running out of words, here. I will definitely be checking reviews before picking this one up. And even then, I enjoyed XIII-2 enough that I may just call it quits there. Final Fantasy XV is my next interest.

 

[Razberry Knight]

At this point not even the XIII fans can ever say there was actual plot. XIII? Yeah it was questionably about the plot, XIIII-2, didnt eVven seem like a XIII sequel (in which most fans embrace unfortunately) . LR: FFXIII is just trying to throw it all into a bang of glitter and nonsense.

 

[Exoskeleton]

After XIII's storyline and potential got shredded to itty bitty time travelling pieces I don't see how people are surprised at a mini Hope popping up. This series is just one big experiment it seems. Square seems to be testing how far they can go with sequels, storytelling, and gameplay-and it seems to have positive responses seeing as how the next game's going to have sequels as well . I stopped trying to find out what's making sense in XIII a long time ago. xD Maybe there are two Hopes? Like how Lumina looks like a mini/younger Lightning? I try not to think about it too much.


Does anyone even remember Vanille and Fang at this point?

 

[Channizard]

This is a giant middle finger to those who want an VII remake (here's Lightning doing Cloud's victory pose! Good enough?) and to the actual XIII fans who tried to defend Lightning in saying she wasn't a carbon-copy of Cloud. If she were, they would have sold out and given her Tifa or Aerith's costumes to spice it up. But it's not at all coincidental that it's Cloud.

 

[Ohri-Jin]

YOU ...GOTTA ....BE...KIDDING....ME... this is just low. I refused to believe Lightning was intended to be created in Cloud's image,but here they are really pushing it.
This is super cheap. This is low as hell.

anything to get sales aye..


SE you will be disappointed with the sales of Lightning Returns. If you are lucky it will sell more than FFXIII-2.
Tomb Raider which was a great game imo didnt cut it for you well good luck with LR chumps.

Also FFXIV is P2P so hopefully you will get that income/revenue, but dont come whining afterwards just because you made the dumbest mistake to push Versus and KH3 to next gen which made this current gen a massive failure final fantasy wise.

 

[iSmiff]

It actually looks surprisingly good. Shame 13 was so bad it put me off any of the direct sequels

 

[Climhazzard]

I think I would've preferred a swerve kick to the bollocks than seeing that Pink-haired-stoic-wannabe-Cloud Strife gracing that unforgettable attire..

It's clearly their way of pandering to old-school FF gamers who don't give a shit about their Raitoringu love-in. They've already committed sacrilege by releasing 3 XIII games for an entire console generation when they'd been pushing out 3 mainline titles before since FF I.

But to do this.. is just unforgivable. A big "FECK YOU" to those of us who've been wanting a VII remake for at least 8 years now. But it's apparently a-okay to milk the shit outta XIII one after another. God I hate Motomu Toriyama so much these days!

 

[Razberry Knight]

So it's a-okay to keep milking the shit outta VII because you want it, but not XIII because that you don't want? Ffs, these so called "fans", bunch of prepubescent hypocritical bigots.

And nothing worse than the "who've been wanting a VII remake for at least 8 years now" trash. How stupid must you be to want a remake of a 90s game from a modern developer. Especially SE. Do you fucking know how bad would it be? Do you know how would it fail at everything and how hard would you, first of all, whine that THEY RUINED FF7!!!1

Yes, you deserve a big fuck you. Well done Square-Enix.

Vii deserves a remake just as much as an ff8 or 9 remake.

And no, replaying ff7, you can see the true potential for a remake.

But milking a horrible series is different from milking a great one. Theres a reason no one wants a ffx-3. Because ffx-2 sucked. But xiii is pure crap, and worst each game isnt a respectable sequel, these games couldve possibly been a reboot similar to ffxiv rebooting the world into A Realm Reborn.

But this is pure rip-off of rip-off with no true originality whatsoever. So far that they decided to make stupid costumes.

So making an ff7 remake is NOT milking, its giving fans what they been wanting in honor of ff7. No one wanted a ff13 sequel nor a second sequel.