Grave Gamer News & Views — lightning returns

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (PS3/X360 - 2013) For those...



Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (PS3/X360 - 2013)

For those of you eagle-eyed amongst us, you’ll immediately notice in these screens something irregular for a game bearing the Final Fantasy moniker: you fight alone.  Upending the party system standard, which sees you control a group of characters in battle, Lightning Returns sees you guiding the gorgeous and stoic namesake lead during a fight, and rarely anyone else.

“This time, it’s just Lightning,” says the game’s producer, Yoshinori Kitase.  “So it seems like the number of characters you control has decreased, but it still feels like you’re fighting with a multi-character party."  Utilizing a "Style System,” players will be allowed to switch between several different arrangements of armors, appearance, and abilities during a battle.  These Styles, in true Create-A-Class form, can be customized and tweaked before you throw Lightning into an encounter.

Managing your Style may sound like a concern reserved for handheld dress-up games, but in Lightning Returns, it’ll be the difference between looking good while felling your enemies and looking good while you’re crushed to death by a ten-foot monster.

Watch the first trailer right here.


Square Enix Announces Lightning Returns for 2013 The Final...



Square Enix Announces Lightning Returns for 2013

The Final Fantasy XIII saga is coming to a close next year and Lightning is back as your sole character in this third and final entry.  Set hundreds of years after the events of XIII-2, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII pits our titular heroine in the middle of a new world called Novus Partus – a locale said to contrast against the previous two installments’ gloss and sheen, opting for a more mechanical, gothic backdrop.

Following the darker shift in atmosphere, Lightning races against an in-game clock counting down to the end of the world – a mere thirteen days after you begin the adventure.  Gameplay makes use of this Majora’s Mask staple in such instances as being able to barter a re-do of a failed battle for a chunk of your precious time.  Similarly, more powerful attacks can be traded for shaved time.  Also markedly changed is the combat system, now retooled with a heavier emphasis on controlling Lightning in real-time.  Not only will players be tasked with managing Lightning’s movement and attacks, but blocking has been added to her skill set, forcing players to perfect their timing and keep a keener eye on enemies.

Despite its high points (and its signature, unparallelled visuals), the XIII branch of the Final Fantasy vine has found ways to disappoint the ten-year-old kid inside of me that first discovered these spectacular worlds back in the PS1 days.  Yet these early, broad ideas stemming forth have reignited my interest.  This “XIII-3” may not be out to satisfy the level-grinding me from my formative RPGin’ years, but it doesn’t have to.  It’s playing to its own strengths, and what I’m hearing sounds pretty damn intriguing for a Final Fantasy game.

While Lightning Returns just began life at the beginning of August, Square still projects a 2013 release for the game on both the PS3 and Xbox 360.