Lightning Returns Worse than XIII-2?

I don't like her default costume. Her costume in XIII-2 was tolerable because she was a guardian, guardians usually dress that way, fair enough. But the appropriate costume in this game was to wear a robe, have long brown hair, and a halo above her head. But I don't like it, it's too clunky and complicated. It was perfect in the first game, nice and simple. If she dressed the way she does now, on the front cover of the first game, it wouldn't have looked as attractive. Just another generic "The chosen one" game who we're all forced to think looks bad-ass.
 
I actually think so.

I mean the second game sucked.

hard.

very hard. like, a sucker.

but this game takes the fucking cake.

I mean, demolishes the cake

to the point where there is no cake and it's just icing.

but more seriously, I thought every thing about the game was cheesy, from the whole savior,

to the whole time,

to her outfits,

to the stupid side-quests/chocolina board bs.

I liked seeing the familiar faces,

but even. I mean come on ffs whats the point? The game is just far beyond its saving :tehe: if ya know what i mean :lew:

I hated it :mokken:

So why did I play it?


Don't ask. :neomon:
 
I might posit an unpopular opinion here and say that I think Lightning Returns is better than XIII or XIII-2. Granted, I don't think that's an achievement, I think both of those games are really quite, quite awful, but I actually had fun with Lightning Returns, unlike its two predecessors.

It's weird, because there's a lot of stuff in Lightning Returns that shouldn't work. The plot is an incoherent mess, Lightning's costume design is bizarre and awful, nothing good ever comes of setting the entire game against a timer, etc. But it kind of worked for me, in a bizarre way. It'll never be in my top ten games, or probably even my top twenty, but if someone said to me 'Yo, we want you to reply Lightning Returns', I wouldn't immediately start trying to think of excuses not to.
 
Gameplay wise it has enough merit for you to "NOT" give a damn about anything story related.

And that's one of the things that actually helps the gameplay. the story drags on in such a pace that you're time is better spent doing missions and making enemies extinct than trying to progress anything story related. the battle system isn't that bad. But with that said, the game isn't really designed to focus on RPG elements. For example: your experience is all about missions, not about defeating monsters. And the missions aren't all battle oriented either. some of these missions get really tedious.

But, its kind of hard to take turns playing a 1-player RPG.

STORYWISE, its a mess, if you actually wanted a good story out of the 13 series, then be in a world of hurt. The major difference between Lightning Returns and XIII / XIII-2 is that the previous were not all about exploration and leisure time. XIII forced you into a corridor and play the game at the pace that you couldn't really shake off up until chapter 10 (which is still not justifiable by any means), XIII-2 opens up its paths and even adds a map, but the time feature was an excuse to not use an overworld map.


Lightning returns actually adds a free roam world. and the story feels really detached from this world, that it doesn't feel like your playing the game for the sake of the story, and just for the sake of getting animals extinct or doing all missions. it adds that completionist drive that the previous FF13 games didn't offer or didn't exploit because they were too linear.





Although more enjoyable to play, i still consider it worst than the previous for the sole fact that it fails as an RPG. XIII and XIII-2 all focused on the main RPG elements. The story is half the battle for what makes a game good. Unfortunately the 13 series always manages to betray its own fans in some scale. the 13 series is mixed between complete haters, complete fans, and most of the people are in between. enjoyed ff13, didn't like ff13-2. and vice versa.

those who enjoyed 13-2 might not enjoy this one as it betrays almost everything it worked. See, if you considered LR better than 13 and 13-2, that already shows alot because 13-2 made a new arc in the 13 series. a bit complicated. so if you enjoyed it, you were expecting LR to follow in the same vain as that. Honestly what disappoints me the most is how it tries to give the cheesiest happy ending it can have.

me...i'm someone who looks for a series that "respects" itself. and i don't see 13 doing that. each game has been designed as an experiment or reaction to critics and fans. For example: I'm not a dynasty warriors fan, however, Dynasty Warriors is a series i respect because they keep adding more without really betraying previous titles.
 
I'll grant it's not a good game, I just think that in the fierce race to the bottom that is the 13 series, which is utterly dire, for which I found the first painfully bad and the second tolerable but not good, it - works. In a strange way. Even though I don't think it really should.

I am annoyed, though, that 13 gets two increasingly incoherent sequels, but 12, which is a rare gem, gets none. But that's how it goes, I suppose.
 
DMurphy said:
I'll grant it's not a good game, I just think that in the fierce race to the bottom that is the 13 series, which is utterly dire, for which I found the first painfully bad and the second tolerable but not good, it - works. In a strange way. Even though I don't think it really should.

I am annoyed, though, that 13 gets two increasingly incoherent sequels, but 12, which is a rare gem, gets none. But that's how it goes, I suppose.
Click to expand...

it got a spin off on the DS and one planned for ps3...and i'm glad the one on ps3 never came to fruition.

i still say its not that it "worked" for Lightning returns, is just that they put their priorities in straight onto what mattered most in a game. they put gameplay over story. the story, no matter what you say "works" didn't. the gameplay is what worked (mostly).

IF anyone valued the knowledge offered in 13, and 13-2, you would instantly know this one did not work in terms of story. The character in story didn't even care anymore. Lightning is going through the motions, Hope (which i know why, but isn't enough) barely acts like a person, the rturning cast act as if everything is ok (except for Sahz, Snow and the 13-2 cast)
 
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You know, I never actually said that the story works. I said it was incoherent, I believe, actually. I just said the game works. Truth is, though, I don't think the gameplay is especially good either: It has a ticking clock, just to start, which is usually the death of good gameplay.
 
Lightning Returns, IMO has the most "story" in the trilogy. Now, I know Lightning Returns did not exactly sell the best but hear this anyway. People are and always will be tired of the Lightning Saga, and this was SE's chance to end it without caring about sales. I think that SE wanted to get LR out of the way and focus entirely on Final Fantasy XV.

LR is not a terrible game and dare I say it, is better than the previous two. Lightning Returns tied up all loose ends they left in XIII and XIII-2 but players can leave some things to theory. For instance, nobody knows how Brynhildyr decided to join Noel Kreiss at the end, and nobody knows HOW Hope became a little boy again because nothing is explained other than "God chose me, and all of a sudden I was a little boy again" This quote is just showing Square Enix pulled something out of their arse on this one. Even I do not even understand how Hope is a little boy again but alas, there are other questions.

Anyway, story wise I thought it murdered FF XIII-2 because it explained a lot more things in depth, and I enjoyed Lightning being her own character. Lightning's quests are surprisingly interesting in this game and they provide a bit more lore for FF XIII lovers. Hah, wait did I just say people can love the game? FF XIII is hated last time I checked, but sometimes it is good to have some positive thoughts.

The story was actually very predictable for me because I pretty much knew where all of this was going. Lumina's design confused me at first but when I saw further screenshots of her, I knew what she really was. I believe I had it all figured out by the end of XIII-2, tbh. To me it was obvious that Caius was going to be a sub antagonist and that eventually Bhunivelze would challenge Lightning to deceive her.

I did not appreciate Lightning having so many outfits, but some were unique and had some cool abilities. Some garbs like the samurai ones were just there though. In the beginning of the game, I changed my garb to Lightning's FF XIII-2 costume and sometimes I would switch to her FF XIII costume. Her default is just ugly, imo and does not fit her one bit. It looks like a mess, and they copy and pasted her bottom dress from her FF xiii outfit on it.

Battles were very fun and somewhat difficult. I know the Final boss killed me a few times, and so did Caius and Snow.

But overall I am very happy with how they ended it,
and it is nice to have some closure with the main cast at the end.

It was a good break from FF XIII'S dull combat and XIII-2's monsters.

LR took me about 50 hours to complete and I did not rush one bit. I will say that if players take the time to learn the mechanics such as chronostasis, perfect blocking, and the like, they should have no problem with the time limit and difficulty in this game. Of course, there will always be people who hate the game and just rest until the next day.

-Lastly, LR is better than XIII-2 to me because it felt more alive. FF XIII-2 had an incredibly dull battle system and I did not like that, you can control monsters, because I would appreciate more party members, but the plot forbids that. LR could have used more guests than just the Angel of Valhalla and Fang as well.

I hope that the upcoming novel that was supposed to be cancelled will dwell on the unexplained parts, like
Vanille randomly being able to hear the dead.
 
the way yuo make it sound is like ANY closure would've been satisfying. which i suppose. but story-wise, i dont believe it did a good job at all. think about in terms of structure, and plot elements, and how much it really used from previous games.

although it does reference some-what to 13-2, it does alot more making cop-outs. before LR, theories sounded better to what LR did. but when LR was unvieled, we already knew what type of story we were getting, and how "satisfying" and "respectful" it was. LR was more of an excuse than a reason.



Again....i look at LR not just as an individual game, but how much respect it had from previous. this is why my hate for 13 grows stronger with each passing game, because the series itself chooses to vomit over its predecessor. "remember the good stuff 13 had? me neither. lets call it trash". rather than trying to prove that what was left before was just poorly presented, and what the sequels will have is more.

a world where lightning comes back from her crystal stasis? sounds freaking great. we could've seen Lightning meet an entire new cast of characters, give Lightning an entirely new motivation to live on. but no...we have the same cop outs that actually end up contradictory from previous games.
 
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