Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII
Producer: Square-Enix
Release Date: February 11, 2014
Platform: Xbox 360, PS3
Rating: Teen
Genre: Role-Playing Game
Finally Over
Written by Jesse Seilhan
Another year, another Final Fantasy XIII game. There was a time in Square-Enix’s history that each new FF game was considered an event, a singular moment in gaming that helped define that generation. But, like other stoic franchises such as Resident Evil and Mario, a need for money and a lack of originality have become commonplace and we now find ourselves with the third game in this modern trilogy. The first two titles came out to some controversial fanfare, as the first stripped out mostly everything fans loved about the series. The second added a few of those in, while also going full bore with time travel and an even more insane story. Cut to Lightning Returns and we now have a whole new set of systems, a time requirement, and a singular character for players to use. Yes, there are chocobos and crystals and weird clothes, but this is no Final Fantasy.
The story is as insane as any Final Fantasy game. You are taking up the reigns as Lightning, a character that “died” in this first game and has since become a bit of a harbinger of doom for God. Yes, that God. God has realized that the world is screwed and a new world is going to be created in its place. Anyone that wants on board has to go through Lightning, so your quests, both of the side and main variety, are built around you saving people’s souls to get them over to this new world. God is going to destroy the world in six days, so you better hurry up. It’s not just a suggestion, as there is a clock counting down to the end of the world ever present under your map. Everyday at 6am, you are transported back to The Ark, a place to reconvene with Hope (a character from the first, but luckily nowhere near as annoying) to see how well you did that day. If you worked hard enough and saved enough souls, you might extend the Rapture by a few days or even a whole week. The whole thing is kind of insane, heavy handed, and really doesn’t make sense in the continuity of the trilogy, made even worse by the fact that Lightning is a flat and somewhat boring character to be stuck with for 40+ hours.
The best thing the XIII saga ever did was come up with a badass combat system. You battle enemies that have some sort of weak point, be it regular physical attacks or magic. Once the flaw is discovered, it must be used over and over until the enemy is “staggered,” leaving them defenseless to the majority of your offense. Finding these weaknesses, exploiting them, and repeating is as enjoyable as any battle system made in years. It’s the crux of this saga and only gets better with Lightning Returns, as you now have the ability to change job classes on the fly. This allows players to put together a string of attacks that follow one discipline, say black magic, and then instantly switch to a bruiser and dole out physical punishment without missing a beat.
I really enjoyed my time with this game, as it puts together a lot of the ideas the first FFXIII tried to accomplish. It’s probably the best RPG I’ve played on a console in years, delivering a combat system and level of variety in its quests that is quite engaging. However, it pains me to see Sqaure-Enix sticking with this somewhat boring character for three full games instead of iterating on the good parts of the first game and delivering a new experience. The insane story with God, the Rapture, murder mysteries, and wacky characters that feel mostly soulless are all keeping people from getting back on board with such a remarkable franchise. They have already shown off what the next generation of Final Fantasy has in store (with FFVX coming to next-gen only), and it looks to be a vast improvement over this generation’s stumbling trilogy.