LIGHTNING RETURNS™: FINAL FANTASY® XIII

gostei

Finally a port that doesn't need 3rd party fixes! Lightning my beloved.

[h1]The ending made it worth it.[/h1] Like the other two games in this trilogy, my opinion kept going up and down. I wasn't going to recommend this until I got to the very ending. It was truly satisfying, and emotionally speaking, it got to me. Look, I'm going to be honest: this piece of work is half-baked. A vast number of design choices here are questionable. [list] [*] The graphics just barely look ok. [*] Character models are UGLY. [*] Audio mixing is ♥♥♥♥ at times. [*] Difficulty scaling is atrocious. [*] The story at first feels like the writers ran out of ideas AGAIN. [*] And yes, mobs will almost always randomly spawn near you again... [/list] The XIII trilogy is a mess and all I really wanted to know is what's the Lightning's story is. [h3]The only spoilers you need to know before picking this up: there's a time limit and Lightning can't die.[/h3] Whereas in XIII-2 you never really got to play as her, now you do and only her. And I appreciate the choice the devs made to insinuate a sense of urgency in the game. It's brave yet it drags the game way too long. Once you've run of out of time, it's game over. Not that you have to worry about that, you get much more time than needed. But you'd always ask yourself, "Is this enough? Will the game get easier now? Will I be ready?" Nope, not always. Maybe on [u]EASY[/u], but [u]NORMAL[/u] it can be brutal. Spare yourself the challenge. I finished playing on normal and yeah no, I wanted the game to be done halfway through. [u]The gameplay[/u]: I like it. To an extent. It's still ATB, but now it pleasantly surprises me how similar it is to [b]EXPEDITION 33[/b]. Only with way less polish. Where in previous XIII games, you can switch between different paradigms and you'd find yourself switching to [u]SENTINAL[/u] to block attacks. This game you do that too with GUARD skills. You can pretty much mitigate all damage depending on your builds or timing. I'd say keep in mind to always have [b]"-ra"[/b] spells ready since they're really consistent in staggering enemies. I wish the spells will switch themselves like auto-selecting in the previous games; you will always, always be switching skills back and forth depending on the enemies you're about to fight. It's not always necessary but I dreaded being in a fights for more than a couple minutes. They are numerous and many outstay their welcome. Overall, while I could endlessly nitpick this game, it really feels like a journey you've partaken with Lightning and the cast across this trilogy. As cheesy as this sounds, pick this game up if you wanna see a happy ending. Just be mindful it's not for everyone.

I don't think I like this game. I wasn't really too excited to play as Lightning again, she always acts distant and uninterested unless it comes to Serah. I know there is an in-game explanation and it might make for some funny moments but still don't like it. Game tries to put her in some sexy costumes while she herself acts like a sexless robot. And the random sliding poles, why? Game feels like a downgrade from other games in many aspects, you get from fighting using 3 characters in original and the cast of 6 XIII to 2 fixed ones + a captured monster in XIII-2 to just Lightning + some occasional characters. There are no summons anymore since XIII-2. There are no roles anymore but you get ability to block or even evade and counter. There is no Crystarium anymore you don't gain experience fighting monsters, the only way to level up your stats is to finish the quests: main, side and prayer and there is a fixed number of those. You still want to fight monsters sometimes to get their abilities, restore EP and if you kill enough of them you get to fight the "Last Ones" - the supercharged version of the monster with unique drops and after defeating them that type of monster won't spawn anymore. It's kind of a cool mechanic but could be executed better, you never know how many monsters you have till the Last One appears no way to expedite it an you might lock yourself from getting some useful items/skills if you eliminate the monsters too early in the game. Also enemy variety in the game is pretty low. The time limit is both too long and too short, you can finish most of the main quests within first 5-6 days if you abuse the Chronostasis and then you end with rest of the 13 days doing the side quests without touching the story until the last day. EP as a resource is only really useful for keeping up the Chronostasis spending it on anything else is usually a waste. Some features are only unlocked in the NewGame+ like the equipment upgrades or the Limit Brakes. Don't know if you can make it to NewGame+ without leveling up or finishing main quests. Graphics don't look that interesting everything is dark and gray, I know it is a dying world but it just looks ugly. And what is up with low poly dogs and cats in the game? Is it some developers joke? The equipment system is fine I guess, You get Garbs that define some fixed skills, passives and the ATB rates and recovery and the Lightnings look, weapons that are responsible for attack and magic stats, shields for defence and 2 types of accessories slots. You also get one slot for a cosmetic item and can change the colors of the garbs so there is some customization but not much. If you like it you like it, for me it's a very mixed bag of some good but mostly bad, it made me write all this so at least I felt something playing it ;)

A perfect ending to the FFXIII story. The artstyle is dark and unique compared to 1/2, which suits the 'end of the world' theme quite well. Main story is short, but u can complete whichever story u like in any order. Gameplay is ok, but I like to have more teammates like 1/2 for more strategies. The time limit seemed intimidating, but like I said the main story is short, so the time is far more than enough.

Lightning my beloved

59/100

holyy ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Não tinha curtido tanto os primeiros jogos da trilogia, principalmente o segundo, mas depois de terminar esse aqui, minha opinião mudou. Trilogia muito bonita, jogão. Fator replay desse é de longe o mais legal.