Lightning Returns What in the world is Square thinking!?!?!

[Polarcrest]

I am on day 2 of playing FF13: Lightning Returns. I am a huge fan boy of the FF series. I rarely say I don't like something they have done or I at very least see some good in what they have done. I personally HATED 12 but it had some interesting end game stuff to do. So far, FF13: LR is a complete pile of crap.

I haven't found anything I like about this game. The story is flaky at best, it is preachy as hell, and is over pathetic. I see people say that the combat is good. I don't get that...the combat is horrid. For starters...YOU ARE ALONE!!! Never before have you been alone in an FF game the entire game. Besides dirge of cerberus, big success that was. Thing is, I avoid combat as much as possible. COMBAT IS A BAD THING! What kind of RPG actually punishes you for fighting monsters? If you don't know what I mean let me explain. You don't get exp or cp like the other FF13 games. You get some gil and maybe an item...but what you do get is hit and your hp doesn't restore at the end of battle. Now here is the thing...you can only have 6 items on you....wtf? You can only have 6 items...and your best restore item the "potion" only heals about 2,000hp.

So here is the issue with battles...let's say you have a long dungeon ahead of you and there is a big bad boss at the end. You are going to need those potions. If you don't avoid combat you will end up using all of them by the time you get to the boss. So basically since the monsters don't give you anything...just run around them. That is actually the best thing to do. The only other reason you should fight monsters is to get items for the abusive amount of mmorpg type fetch quests that you are given.

So yea...you are timed in this game. Everything is based on time. You need to get into this building? Come back at midnight...but it's 1am...well then get waiting...but if I don't complete this game in time it's game over and I have to restart....sucks to be you.

You will do a lot of running. Let me say this again...YOU WILL DO A LOT OF RUNNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As in, about 80% of your time in this game is spent running around! I am not kidding either. Every single quest whether it's main or side is a fetch quest. It all makes you run so far. The maps and dungeons are so large....and are mostly just open space and you have to run it over and over.

The dresses and weapons thing is actually slightly cool. But most of them aren't iconic and honestly I have no clue what I should do to optimize my build.

This game is BY FAR the worst installment in the FF series. I liked FF13 and loved FF13-2. I don't know what they were thinking with this one. It is not fun. Not even slightly. The story is not there. The voice acting from the general npcs is just horrible and annoying. The maps are stupidly large and you have to run sooooo much. Fighting monsters actually punishes you. You never feel like you are improving. You only ever get one character to play with.

Quests both main and side are mostly fetch quests that don't give crap for guidance. EXAMPLE: "There are 13 clocks in this freakishly large town. Go and check them all to see if they are on time"...you don't get map markers. Good luck. OR, you get a quest...actually complete it..then you can't find the npc who gave it to you.

Do not buy this game. I regret it. I am so beyond upset right now. I look forward to each new FF. I love them. I love the stories, the character development both mechanics and story. I love everything about FF but this game is by far the worst one they have ever done. I want to finish it but I don't know if I can. I am in a dungeon now and it pains me to traverse it.

My rating for this game is 1/10. It is not worth buying or even playing.

On a side note: Square has been falling over the years. If you look at the quality of FF12+ compared to FF10 and lower it's not even close. They are not doing a good job. The FF titles are taking abusively long to come out and when they do, they aren't what they should be. FF14 was so bad it had to be erased and remade. I hope, I really do, that Square gets the heads out of their asses and starts making a quality product. I am looking forward to FF15. I have been looking forward to it since 2007 when I first heard of it. I will get it and play it but I do say this. 7 years is a VERY long time to be waiting for a game. I understand that square has a lot of projects but if you are going to take 7 years to dev and release a game it better be high quality. I personally think they should just focus and start looking at what kind of "crap" they are putting out. They need to really look at the reviews people are giving they games. They need to look and see what the players are asking for.

We don't want new mechanics. We don't care about flashy graphics. What we want is a wonderful cast of characters, good music, a fun leveling system, end game content that takes our characters to crazy levels to take on crazy powerful monsters but the number one thing we want is a good story. Give us a story that we will talk about forever. Stop looking to the future and look to the past. What we want is exactly what you already have made. Give us the FF4 and FF6 and 7,8,9,10. We want those stories. Go ahead and do traditional style turn based combat..it's what we want.

Thank you for listening.

 

[The Prior]

Thank you! I'm glad I'm not the only one who absolutely despises this game! I'm not the biggest fan of FF, as in I haven't played them all, just FF 9, 10, 13, 13-2 and this. But I loved every other one. People didn't seem to like 13-2 but i thought the combat in that was some of the most fun game play I've ever had in a FF game, especially with the monster hunting. Lightning Returns is an abomination, an embarrassment of a game. I didn't even know you only played as one character through the whole game until i started to play it, and realised it was based around this retarded Schemata system.

I agree with every point you've made and made an account just to post this. I've played nearly 2 hours of it and I've had enough. I can't believe how bad of a game it is I really can't, compared to 13-2 and my all time favorite 9. I have my doubts for FF 15 but we shall see...

 

[Sullivan0930]

Lightning is one of my all time favorite characters and i can barely get myself to keep playing. the game is nothing but boring unrelated side quests. find my ball, find my ball, check the clocks, find my journal, etc. The world is ending and I'm playing as a errand boy. thinking of just youtubing the ending cutscenes and calling it a day.

 

[Ty Hope]

I've beaten every one of the 5 main quests within two days of "game time" which gave me 13 free days leftover. It is a game that takes getting used to. Give it a chance, there is a lot of depth and is VERY well put together. As for potions, etc. First, learn how to do a perfect guard. It's not hard. Second, you can use the heal skill (kearuga in Japanese) that uses two GP. If anything the game gives you TOO much time. It's not supposed to be a traditional RPG. Hence the name not being FF13-3. Get used to it for a week and then pass a judgement.

Such a shame people don't have patience and automatically call a game crap after a day or two.

It is a game that grows on you the more you play. I can safely say I hated it at first as well. In fact, I hated it for about 4 days. And then it just got better and better. Now I'm on my 7th time playing through. It is a FANTASTIC game that I sincerely hope people give more of a chance than 2 hours (like one poster above). Anyway, moving on. I love the game.



Mod edit: posts merged

 

[Zeroxys]

Im currently on day 3 & i LOVE the game. everything about the game makes it very interesting & its a good challenge. You can fully customize Lightning which is GREAT, the skills you can find off monsters, and as for saying that fightning monster punishes you? u must not be playing right because fightning monsters gets you EP. EP=More time to play=More things to do. You are clearly either doing somehting wrong or not playing it right. this game is turning out to be better than 13 and 13-2, and i LOVE 13-2 alot. LR is challenging, the story is great, and the relationships between Lightning & her fellow "allies" are great. I Love listening to her and hope talk to eachother as well as Lumina attempting to corrupt Lightning. its such a great game.

 

[Ty Hope]

Im currently on day 3 & i LOVE the game. everything about the game makes it very interesting & its a good challenge. You can fully customize Lightning which is GREAT, the skills you can find off monsters, and as for saying that fightning monster punishes you? u must not be playing right because fightning monsters gets you EP. EP=More time to play=More things to do. You are clearly either doing somehting wrong or not playing it right. this game is turning out to be better than 13 and 13-2, and i LOVE 13-2 alot. LR is challenging, the story is great, and the relationships between Lightning & her fellow "allies" are great. I Love listening to her and hope talk to eachother as well as Lumina attempting to corrupt Lightning. its such a great game.

I'm glad you like it too! For those who insist they hate the game, I COMPLETELY understand, but hope that everyone gives it enough of a chance to grow on them. It is that type of game: in the beginning, you're like "what the hell is this!!??" But after a week or so, you find yourself oddly hooked. Trust me on this, I was ROYALLY PISSED when I played the first few days. Finding the hidden numbers in town for example, pissed me off.

Now, fast forward 4 months later and its one of my favorite games EVER. Yes, it is that good. I've beaten it 6 times going on seven, and can't wait to start the 8th round.

For those interested, when you beat the game, you can start from the beginning while KEEPING all your items and stats. You also gain the ability to upgrade and customize weapons. Hard mode (which you can unlock) is extremely difficult, but a good challenge!

 

[.Mosh]

In my opinion there is no way in hell a game can be rated 1/10 if it has to be rated like that it has to be completely unplayable to the extent in which you can't progress in the game or events are glitched and it breaks the game. The graphics have taken a knock but its not that bad (Couple muddy textures etc but meh) Can anyone here make a better game? If so go ahead and I look forward to playing it.

Back to the topic, I am only on day 3, I think the game is really good. The battle system is the best one out of this trilogy, the story at the moment is ok and nothing special. The map size is really big and surprising The quests even though they are quite repetitive keeps me going as I suffer from OCD and like to finish everything haha. I can't wait to beat it and go straight onto hard mode to rock out some challenge

 

[FFturn-based80]

What I don't understand is that Square didn't even need to make sequels to FFXIII since XIII ended. Even after the credits they didn't show us that Lightning was erased from history or whatever. At least with X-2 they had ended X with a cliffhanger of sorts, but XIII didn't. I understand the whole we want more money from a quickly made game, but I just don't see how they had the whole XIII series planned ahead of time. If they had we would have seen them set up XIII-2 at the end of XIII, but they didn't. My head is jut spinning from everything Square is doing to Final Fantasy. It's like what Capcom is doing to Resident Evil and destroying a once proud franchise.

 

[Ty Hope]

What I don't understand is that Square didn't even need to make sequels to FFXIII since XIII ended. Even after the credits they didn't show us that Lightning was erased from history or whatever. At least with X-2 they had ended X with a cliffhanger of sorts, but XIII didn't. I understand the whole we want more money from a quickly made game, but I just don't see how they had the whole XIII series planned ahead of time. If they had we would have seen them set up XIII-2 at the end of XIII, but they didn't. My head is jut spinning from everything Square is doing to Final Fantasy. It's like what Capcom is doing to Resident Evil and destroying a once proud franchise.

I believe 13-2 was made because there was a TON of leftover, unused material from when 13 was in development. They decided not to have it go to waste, and made 13-2. I for one am glad they did. LOVE the 13 series.

In my opinion there is no way in hell a game can be rated 1/10 if it has to be rated like that it has to be completely unplayable to the extent in which you can't progress in the game or events are glitched and it breaks the game. The graphics have taken a knock but its not that bad (Couple muddy textures etc but meh) Can anyone here make a better game? If so go ahead and I look forward to playing it.

Back to the topic, I am only on day 3, I think the game is really good. The battle system is the best one out of this trilogy, the story at the moment is ok and nothing special. The map size is really big and surprising The quests even though they are quite repetitive keeps me going as I suffer from OCD and like to finish everything haha. I can't wait to beat it and go straight onto hard mode to rock out some challenge

You're going to have a great time with the final boss (and secret bosses) on hard mode. EXTREMELY challenging. Took me quite a bit of powering up until I could take them out. Well worth it though! As for beating all the quests on your first run. I won't tell you which ones (unless you want me too), but there are a few that CAN'T be beat on your first run through the game. Just a heads-up! You don't need to beat all of the side quests to get the extra ending though. Just a lot of them. Forget the exact number.

 

[.Mosh]

You're going to have a great time with the final boss (and secret bosses) on hard mode. EXTREMELY challenging. Took me quite a bit of powering up until I could take them out. Well worth it though! As for beating all the quests on your first run. I won't tell you which ones (unless you want me too), but there are a few that CAN'T be beat on your first run through the game. Just a heads-up! You don't need to beat all of the side quests to get the extra ending though. Just a lot of them. Forget the exact number.

Ahh I see I have done most of whats available, I tend to do them in bulk where I finish 3 at a time in one part of the day and 2 in the next part. I am hoping to churn in another 4-5 hours tonight as I am only 10 hours in at the moment. Like I said I can see the games flaws but here is what baffles me and this is to reviewers. A reviewer who gives this a 5/10 and then gives COD a 8/10 is complete bullshit. LR:FFXIII at least tried to do something different and not be the same game since 2006.

 

[Ty Hope]

Ahh I see I have done most of whats available, I tend to do them in bulk where I finish 3 at a time in one part of the day and 2 in the next part. I am hoping to churn in another 4-5 hours tonight as I am only 10 hours in at the moment. Like I said I can see the games flaws but here is what baffles me and this is to reviewers. A reviewer who gives this a 5/10 and then gives COD a 8/10 is complete bullshit. LR:FFXIII at least tried to do something different and not be the same game since 2006.

There are always going to be haters on things that are different. LR is a game that needs to be given a chance. I have said myself many times that in the beginning I was frustrated and lost. Was extremely upset with the game. And then a strange thing happened; it grew on me. And grew on me some more. And now I absolutely LOVE it!

As the days go on more and more quests will open up. There are quite a few of them all together. Some take 3 or 4 days to complete. Make sure you revisit a lot of places because new quests pop up!

 

[Ty Hope]

And as far as the 1/10 rating goes... lol No, just no. 1/10 is like playing Where's Waldo on the NES. lol

I can understand a 5/10 if going strictly from a first day playing the game perspective. It does take getting used to. After really learning it, it is a solid 8.5 / 10 from me. To each their own though

 

[Linnaete]

From my understanding, this sounds like a game that you absolutely have to grit your teeth at in the beginning to learn the basic mechanics and logistics of doing things, and then sticking with it before you can enjoy it. I think a lot of players have given up on the game before they've been able to fully wrap their heads around the combat and time management, and it's not like there is any sort of great story or an excellent cast of characters to keep the experience buoyant.

But that's what I've heard. Unfortunately, it has caused my initial bit of curious interest in the game to crumble. I simply dread the idea of certain routes/areas/mission objectives being closed off until a certain time of the day because it's just irritating and possibly a waste of time if you've elected to inadvertently head down a side mission dead end in Luxerion instead of say, doing something useful with that time in the desert place. And from my understanding, your stats only develop by doing side missions (many of them menial tasks like finding a child's doll or helping a dude look for his friend who is virtually 20 feet away) rather than combat. Combat nets you points for the Chronostasis thing, which I wager to be the game's equivalent of Majora's Mask's melody to slow time. That's all well and good until certain monster types are extinct and replaced by tougher ones.

I dunno. It's going to be something I need to see for myself. I mean, I do like the idea of being prudent with time, but to incorporate such a prominent a time management element in perhaps the closest thing Final Fantasy has had to an open-world where the onus is on exploration and discovering secrets, was a daft thing to do in the first place. And I do like the idea of treating most fights as their own puzzles. Figure out their move sheets, experiment around with schemata and see what works most effectively. It certainly lends considerable weight on combat as an experience and not just the Auto-Battle nature of previous games. But it is hugely dependent on how Square-Enix has executed this. I have heard great things about how the combat system works, but horror stories about how poorly executed the time aspect is.

Lightning Returns is sounding like the absolute definition of a divisive game.

EDIT: 1/10 is like, Ride to Hell territory. Or even Dungeon Keeper mobile territory. A fair sounding score for this game is probably 6/10.

0/10 would be Custer's Revenge >.>

 

[Xasaba]

I loved FFXIII so much, FFXIII-2 disappointed me a litte, but it was ok. I was very motivated to play this game, at the beginning, I disliked the game, I had to adapt to the new system, everything, combat, exploration, and the limited time. But now, the more I play, the more I like it, I think that they fixed all the lacks that the other games had. I find it very entertaning, I try to do a lot of side quests besides the main story, a lot of exploration, new monster...

I like the new combat system, but I prefered the previous one, even though its a bit revolutionary, and I like the suit/dresses system

The Story so far is good (I haven't completed the game yet) but its by far (for me) not as epic as it was the original one from FFXIII. I'd liked to see a leveling system beating monsters, or more playable characters. But I have not much more complaints.

I'm loving the game, and even though is not the best FF game, I think they made a good work and as it's said on other posts at least they tried to do something new. My heart says a 8/10, but being a bit more objective, I give it a 7/10

 

[Ty Hope]

From my understanding, this sounds like a game that you absolutely have to grit your teeth at in the beginning to learn the basic mechanics and logistics of doing things, and then sticking with it before you can enjoy it. I think a lot of players have given up on the game before they've been able to fully wrap their heads around the combat and time management, and it's not like there is any sort of great story or an excellent cast of characters to keep the experience buoyant.

But that's what I've heard. Unfortunately, it has caused my initial bit of curious interest in the game to crumble. I simply dread the idea of certain routes/areas/mission objectives being closed off until a certain time of the day because it's just irritating and possibly a waste of time if you've elected to inadvertently head down a side mission dead end in Luxerion instead of say, doing something useful with that time in the desert place. And from my understanding, your stats only develop by doing side missions (many of them menial tasks like finding a child's doll or helping a dude look for his friend who is virtually 20 feet away) rather than combat. Combat nets you points for the Chronostasis thing, which I wager to be the game's equivalent of Majora's Mask's melody to slow time. That's all well and good until certain monster types are extinct and replaced by tougher ones.

I dunno. It's going to be something I need to see for myself. I mean, I do like the idea of being prudent with time, but to incorporate such a prominent a time management element in perhaps the closest thing Final Fantasy has had to an open-world where the onus is on exploration and discovering secrets, was a daft thing to do in the first place. And I do like the idea of treating most fights as their own puzzles. Figure out their move sheets, experiment around with schemata and see what works most effectively. It certainly lends considerable weight on combat as an experience and not just the Auto-Battle nature of previous games. But it is hugely dependent on how Square-Enix has executed this. I have heard great things about how the combat system works, but horror stories about how poorly executed the time aspect is.

Lightning Returns is sounding like the absolute definition of a divisive game.

EDIT: 1/10 is like, Ride to Hell territory. Or even Dungeon Keeper mobile territory. A fair sounding score for this game is probably 6/10.

0/10 would be Custer's Revenge >.>

In a way, killing enemies raises your stats because the items they drop are used at the chocolina (don't know her English name) quest board.

You are correct in that it takes getting used to. Once you learn the maps, the battle system, etc. time management becomes extremely easy. I can almost finish all five of the main story quests on the first day. Been playing for 4 months though.

I really do hope more people stick with it and at least give it a FAIR chance before giving up and calling it crap.

 

[Shaissa]

My first Impression was kinda negative, I almost wanted to put the game down and sell it after playing it a few hours.... Then I got farther into the game and really started learning everything.

I feel like I can see why people hate/will hate this game and I can understand that.

For me now after playing for a week I can say that I really do enjoy this game, the story line is a good one, the gameplay is good, characters are nice (from what I have completed so far.)

The time clock kinda throws me off, cause I am one of those people that wanna take my time and do everything in the game right away. (which with the time clock makes it almost impossible hahaha.)

As far as the battles not leveling you up. I feel like that at first this is a bad thing. I mean what good are battles then right? Well... You get gil and items that you turn in from side quest/main quest and are able to level up with that, which I feel in the end was very unique and well though out.

Now the battle system itself. If you played FFX-2 you will kinda know how this is working... only you get to add more elements to it. 4 moves to use (usually 1 or 2 of them are locked in with whatever dress you have) on top of that, you get to equipped your weapon of choice and add a shield then an accessory. I find that this is very helpful/useful/fun.

Overall I have to give the game a 7.5/10

Ohh..and if you hated the XIII series so far... I wouldn't buy this game

 

[Starships]

As a huge hater of Lightning, this makes me glad, like super happy.

I'm glad her game is awful.


Like others have said though, there's no way that this game is 1/ 10 awful though.

 

[Ty Hope]

I'm curious to see how people like it now that they have played a while? It's no secret around here that I love the game. I fully understand the initial frustration. Just wanted to see if others (like myself) found the game to grow on them.

 

[.Mosh]

I would say I am enjoying it a lot but I completely lost track of time in the game and didnt pay attention to the days that I had left, I believe I was almost at the end but alas I saved it at the end and had to New Game+ which slightly pissed me off. So now I have done Luxarion/Yusnaan main quests and now commencing wildlands main quest and thats within 2 hours of play just skipping cutscenes and dialogue. I also have done a few sidequests while waiting on the mains to be ready. It will make me stronger for around next time so stuff it haha.

 

[Shaissa]

I'm curious to see how people like it now that they have played a while? It's no secret around here that I love the game. I fully understand the initial frustration. Just wanted to see if others (like myself) found the game to grow on them.

I just beat the game, and have to say that overall I did really enjoy it. I am going to do a second run today. I stick with my previous statement that overall I would say that it is a 7.5/10 and if you don't like XIII don't bother with this

Also... HUGE SPOILER about the ending! So if you haven't beat it don't read!

Spoiler

Why is it that XIII series seems to revolve around killing gods?