Lightning Returns Video Shows Open Areas, Dragons For 11 Minutes

[IanDavis]

Lightning Returns Video Shows Open Areas, Dragons For 11 Minutes

Watch Lightning fight monsters, talk in Japanese, and walk in open fields of majestic freedom.

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Lets just get this out of the way: Final Fantasy XIII is not the most beloved game in the franchise. Complaints ranged from its linear nature to its confusing plot. FFXIII-2 didn't do much to sway critical opinion, but Square Enix wants to turn that around with Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, a title that itself should be turned around. While the developer has been [a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/127347-Square-Enix-Gives-Behind-the-Scenes-of-Lightning-Returns]showing off[/a] [a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/128097-Lightning-Returns-Final-Fantasy-Intro-Showcases-Lightnings-Return]all[/a] [a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/119461-Lightning-Returns-in-a-Shorter-More-Action-Oriented-Final-Fantasy]the changes[/a] and upgrades it's making, nothing beats just seeing it in action for yourself. Thankfully, Japanese news site 4Gamer has grabbed 11 minutes of footage showing Lightning running about and hacking cute monsters to bits.

The entire video is in Japanese, so anglophones will be insulated from spoilers. Past the opening montage, the video is a series of fairly lengthy gameplay clips. While it shows the inventory and combat system, it also shows Lightning running around in open fields. That taste of heady freedom could be a sign that Square Enix is allowing players to escape FFXIII's dreaded corridor of doom, or it could just be a trick. Either way, hope is a precious thing (but not that [a href=http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Hope_Estheim]Hope[/a]).

Lightning Returns strikes again on February 11 on the Xbox 360 and PS3, but it hits Japan tomorrow.

Source: [a href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4Uo5jRugDo]4Gamer[/a]

Permalink

 

[Reed Spacer]

A FFXIII game where you actually get to do what you want instead of being led around by the nose?

SACRELIGE!!!

 

[Colt47]

Yeah, this game seems like a really bad idea given that people were complaining about railroading and linear corridors. Right now it sounds like the dooms day clock is of the kind that has a game over if we don't beat the game in X time. The closest game I can think of that has something similar is Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter and that worked because the player controls the clock. The only other two games I've played with dooms day clocks are Majoras Mask and Ephemeral Fantasia: Both of which just reset to a start point after the time elapses.

 

[RikuoAmero]

Sorry Squeenix, not interested. This is the third game in a series and I never finished the first game, meaning I don't know what the fuck is going on or why I should care. I know there was some bullshit about alien gods and strange tasks that the main cast had to do but were never told exactly what...

 

[KingdomFantasyXIII]

Sorry Squeenix, not interested. This is the third game in a series and I never finished the first game, meaning I don't know what the fuck is going on or why I should care. I know there was some bullshit about alien gods and strange tasks that the main cast had to do but were never told exactly what...

Then you clearly missed the whole Cid Raines explanation, because all of that was explained:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jwlERKMObE

 

[Candidus]

Not interested. My death-spiraling opinion of the series since FF IX aside, I don't buy JRPGs anymore unless they're dual-audio.

The open areas look nice. I'm sure this'll be a lot better than Final Hallway XIII and Who-The-Fuck-Are-These-Kids XIII-2.

But I'm not slogging through another game accompanied by the soul-destroying awfulness of staple American anime voice actors and actresses. They're actually disgusting. Dreadful. The worst or second worst aspect of every FF since and including FF X. So, no thanks.

 

[Candidus]

Snip

I just can't agree. I wisely avoided Persona 3, but then bought Persona 4 and never managed to finish it, mainly because I loathed the voice actors. Even "loathed" is too light a word.

I think they were absolute *garbage*. Completely unbearable. They made it embarrassing to play the game. They're not even fit for kids television.

But that's just like, my opinion man.

Spoiler

C'mon let's laugh it off like Tidus and Yuna.

HA-HA-HA-HA-HA.

Edit: Actually okay, Sahz is alright. Lightning, not at all, but Sahz was the `one` bright spot of XIII's voice crew... But you don't trade a brilliant local cast for one decent sidekick and a whole heap of shitters.

 

[RikuoAmero]

Sorry Squeenix, not interested. This is the third game in a series and I never finished the first game, meaning I don't know what the fuck is going on or why I should care. I know there was some bullshit about alien gods and strange tasks that the main cast had to do but were never told exactly what...

Then you clearly missed the whole Cid Raines explanation, because all of that was explained:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jwlERKMObE

Yeah I did. I got as far as the do-absolutely-nothing theme park place with Afro Man and Pink Hair, got stuck on Afro's summon and gave up in disgust. A while back, I downloaded a play through and watched it (all of it)...still didn't get it. Possibly because the fact I was watching a play through meant I couldn't check the data log, which to me is ridiculous because it means that the homework is actually necessary.

 

[RikuoAmero]

Snip

I just can't agree. I wisely avoided Persona 3, but then bought Persona 4 and never managed to finish it, mainly because I loathed the voice actors. Even "loathed" is too light a word.

I think they were absolute *garbage*. Completely unbearable. They made it embarrassing to play the game. They're not even fit for kids television.

But that's just like, my opinion man.

Spoiler

C'mon let's laugh it off like Tidus and Yuna.

HA-HA-HA-HA-HA.

I'm contrary to you, I quite enjoyed the voice acting in Persona 3 and 4.

 

[Candidus]

So what exactly qualifies as "good" voice acting?

In general, I find JP voice actors to be more professional, more talented and less obviously self-conscious than their mainly US counterparts. Voice acting as a process seems to be taken much more seriously for non-live-action media over there than it is by most studios here, and it really shows in the products. Their talents frankly *embarrass* what passes for ours (little Tidus aside).

If I have a western bar for quality, it's probably a handful of VAs from Baldur's Gate 2. Irenicus, Jaheira... If you're not going to spend that kind of money and attach that kind of talent then you might as well save the cost of even doing EN audio as far as I'm concerned, because you're not going to reach the same standard otherwise.

If you can find it, go watch the scene where Jaheira finds Khalid in Irenicus's dungeon.

It's a standard that just doesn't exist anywhere between FFX and FFXIII-2. Not a single performance comes close.

And if that's a natural consequence of script-squeezing to make do with existing lip synching, all the more reason not to bother with EN voices. And there's definitely no excuse on blu-ray for not including JP audio as an option!

I want AAA+ from at least half of the EN cast (FFXIII's count: zero... maybe Sahz), or I want the JP audio, where I'll probably get AAA+ from at least half the cast. EDIT: Lightning's JP voice actress is exactly fifty-one times better than her EN.

 

[Bug MuIdoon]

Why are they making this? Who asked for it?

This is one game I won't be buying, sorry SE. I have literally no idea why you're making this game apart from for the cash. You made a god-awful game in FFXIII, just admit it and move on. Stop trying to fix it, you're just digging a deeper hole for yourselves. I'm willing to put money on that the lush open-area shown in the video is the only one in the game. Just as they did with XIII and XIII-2. The rest will be linear corridors and lifeless towns (which I bet at least 40% are from the previous games "cough Oerba cough"). I see the combat looks as boringly easy as past iterations too, just with X-2's class/clothes change idea thrown in.
Yes, the character customization looks good, I'll admit, but I wonder if most of the creativity has been sunk in to that and has been left out elsewhere.


Also on the subject of VA's that you folks are on about. I don't think any of the VA's have been inherently bad, it's just the fact that the majority of the characters are so boringly fuckin' dull. At least give the VA's something to work with!

 

[bluegate]

And if that's a natural consequence of script-squeezing to make do with existing lip synching, all the more reason not to bother with EN voices. And there's definitely no excuse on blu-ray for not including JP audio as an option!

If only Microsoft weren't a bunch of dicks, then that might just be possible, however ...
[link]http://www.edge-online.com/news/microsoft-demands-simultaneous-multiplatform-releases/[/link]

Aside from deciding to use old dvd technology in their X360, they also reserve themselves the right to refuse games on their system that have other or better features on other systems. Sure, a blu-ray could easily hold both language tracks, those whimsy little 6Gb dvds? Not so much.

 

[RandV80]

I'm almost interested, though I don't like the idea of the doomsday clock, but someone please tell me that you can do something about that huge minimap that seems to be creeping closer and closer to the center of the screen. One of the biggest pet peeves of mine in these games because like how can't help but read the subtitles on a TV/movie even if the audio is in you're native language when games throw a big ass minimap on the screen my eyes just can't help but keep focusing up there and missing all the pretty pictures on screen. I hated this in FFXII, and it was a godsend in Xenoblade that I could simply turn it off.

The one here seems extra awful because not only is it damn big but it can't even keep itself in the corner in the screen. So hopefully that's just a user setting.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

I'd love this game, and pre-order the hell out of it if it didn't come with a time limit to get things done in. I hate timed missions, and by extension, timed games.
I gotta be able to stop, and faff about. Or at least be guarenteed enough time to faff about while running the clock, and I don't get the feeling I'll get that here.

I mean, clock aside, the game sounds great! I've kept up on details as much as I could.

 

[AdamG3691]

Sorry Squeenix, not interested. This is the third game in a series and I never finished the first game, meaning I don't know what the fuck is going on or why I should care. I know there was some bullshit about alien gods and strange tasks that the main cast had to do but were never told exactly what...

summed up very badly:

13: alien gods tell party to do stuff, stuff seems to be "stop giant monster from destroying the world", it ends up that they misunderstood and the stuff to do was actually "turn into a giant monster to destroy the world". then the party decide to screw that and kill the god that was powering all of the other gods, and therefore destroy the world (good jub destroying the gravity god guys), then they all turn into statues to stop the world from falling from the sky and colliding with a bigger world.

13-2: lightning somehow got booted out of reality and is now the goddess of time and death, her sister travels through time to find her, but ends up screwing up time so badly that she destroys the heart of the previous god of death, causing Chaos to flood the afterlife, but thankfully, as long as nobody dies and causes the gates to the afterlife to open, reality as a whole is safe. she then dies (WELL DONE SERAH, YOU HAD ONE JOB!), chaos spills out of the afterlife and destroys reality.

lightning returns: chaos is destroying reality, lightning returns from vacation in Eorzea (no really, that's what she did between games, she was on holiday in FF XIV) and needs to stop the chaos from destroying everything, so she decides to actually USE the fact that she's the goddess of time now and pulls a majora's mask to try and make everything better... or worse, the player fucking things up seems to be a major theme in 13...