Lighting Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

[Eleven]

Woah woah woah... I seriously think there's nothing wrong with the trailer, except the cheesy lines and cliches that is expected of the series.

 

 

Haven't read up on this game and what's happening so the trailer has some good stuff for me. Noel is there, I assume we'll see the others as well. Snow and Lightning fighting! And who was that girl that looks like Serah? Hmmm..

 

 

Anyway... yeah. I guess it's true if you lower your expectations you won't be disappointed. But honestly, I believe this would be in the same vein as XIII and XIII-2 with regards to the dialogue and voice acting. Sure I cringed sometimes while Serah was delivering her lines in XIII-2, but overall I think it was a fun game.

 

Edit: tapatalk sucks where are my paragraphs?

Edited June 6, 2013 by eleven

[Strangelove]

I dont see anything worse than anything else from the first 2 games. Its just crap dialogue. I think the voiceacting has always been pretty good in these games.

 

Anyways, it sucks that it got delayed to next year when the Japanese version comes out in November. Im not sure I will ever fully grasp that. Cant Japanese companies record english voice overs and translate all the text at the same time as the Japanese stuff? It cant be fucking rocket science.

Also, I kind of really like FF13-2. I think its one of the best FF games and one of the funnest rpgs. Its just goddamn fun and the story is ridiculous enough to amuse me.

[TCP]

I don't remember the XIII and XIII-2 writing being THAT bad. Maybe I'm just grumpy because I haven't had breakfast yet. Either way, it never bothered me in the first two games, so this game probably shouldn't either. Sucks that Noel is back, I hated that guy and his poofy pants (otherwise found XIII-2 to be a great game). 

Yeah the 3 month delay between Japan and NA is weird, I wonder if they're just worried about the game being lost in the west during new console launches, but feel the Final Fantasy brand is strong enough in Japan? Ideally, this game should be coming out this summer. 

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

Hmm, did FF13 and 13-2 have a simultaneous release? Is that what they do these days compared to the 6+ months of old?

[Thursday Next]

I don't remember the XIII and XIII-2 writing being THAT bad. Maybe I'm just grumpy because I haven't had breakfast yet. Either way, it never bothered me in the first two games, so this game probably shouldn't either. Sucks that Noel is back, I hated that guy and his poofy pants (otherwise found XIII-2 to be a great game). 

Yeah the 3 month delay between Japan and NA is weird, I wonder if they're just worried about the game being lost in the west during new console launches, but feel the Final Fantasy brand is strong enough in Japan? Ideally, this game should be coming out this summer. 

 

"Poofy" as in they balloon out, or "poofy" as in they make him look homosexual?

 

I'm not too fussed if the writing etc is terrible, provided the combat, gear and levelling systems are good I'm happy. I like that they are getting progressively more open worldy.

[TCP]

His pants poof out. Poofy can mean homosexual? 

[deanb]

In the UK "poof/poofter" is a derogatory term for homosexuals.

[TCP]

Crazy!

 

Anyways, Thursday Next, if the Vancouver Canucks logo didn't tip you off, I'm not British, so your British insults aren't something I'd be saying, you daft pillock!

[MetalCaveman]

 

 

The trailer itself, I like how it looks, first FF game I played was FF XIII and I actually enjoyed it, so I'm looking forward to this. \m/  \m/

[Saturnine Tenshi]

That dialogue.

 

That dialogue.

[Mal]

I'll just assume it was just poor mixing...

[FMW]

Had you played previous installments, you would not be making that assumption

[TCP]

Sorry if I was too rough on Thursday Next. I don't know what those words mean!!

 

EDIT: Ooops I accidentally originally posted that in the Thrones thread. I was so confused. I remembered typing it, but it wasn't here so I thought I imagined it. Turns out I'm just stupid.

Edited June 8, 2013 by The Cowboy Poet

[Thursday Next]

Haha, no offence taken. Wasn't sure if the term had the same double meaning in the US of Canada as it does here.

[deanb]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avjOglJu-Y4

 

Un gameplay video.

 

It seems like it plays like a cross between FFXV controls, and X-2's dressgrid system.

[Saturnine Tenshi]

Only Japanese Jesus can control the weather. No mere human would be capable of such a feat. The dress system does look nice, though.

[Thursday Next]

Oh dear. Clumsy, clumsy dialogue. But the combat looks fluid and I love the dress sphere system from X-2. Still excited for this one.

[Eleven]

Anyone played this yet? How exactly does the time limit work? I'm afraid of wandering around and fucking things up because I ran out of time...

[MetalCaveman]

 

You start the game with 6 days before the end of the world, though by completing quests (main quests give you more time though there are also side quests and the canvas of prayers stuff) you can extend this by 7 days.

For exploring, you can use EP to freeze time, you'll still be able to talk to people, complete quests, all that stuff, just the clock will stop moving for a while, you can also use EP for other skills during battle, but it's main use IMO is to freeze time allowing you to explore, complete quests and do other stuff without worrying about wasting a day, EP is acquired by defeating enemies.

[Eleven]

Thanks. I'm on the first day and i'm finding it hard to keep up with the time limit. I've used chronostasis, and I want to refill my EP bar but there are no enemies. Hmm.

[MetalCaveman]

I wouldn't worry too much about it for now.

 

 

You'll open another area in Luxerion that has more monsters for more EP, also, other areas have monsters that give you 4 EP per fight, more than you'll need.

 

[Eleven]

Well that's good to know. I guess I'll just push through.

[Eleven]

Ooh I was the last post here...

 

I got back into this (I'm really juggling a lot of games right now). I found the areas with the mobs that give you more EP, however, it hasn't eliminated the feeling that I have to rush things. In towns, sometimes you just want to stop and look at things, follow people, jump on stuff, try out different costumes and run around (people do comment on whatever you're wearing). But every time I want to do it, I can't because I can't stop feeling I'm wasting precious time.

 

Ok, so they give you mobs that basically refill your EP so you can stop time again and again. It would have been fine if that was the only problem, it's tedious but I can just keep going to certain areas, kill stuff, and have my EP up again. But no, they have to make mobs limited in number, so even if you're doing this, there's still that feeling that you're wasting precious EP by not actively doing quests.

 

I'm enjoying the sidequests, even though they're really just fetch quests more or less, but they all have their own little story. It's a good way to learn about the world and how people now live in it. But the timer really sucks out the enjoyment in this game. At least for me. I've resorted to using a guide (for side quests at least), because I can't waste time wandering around the town searching every corner. I don't like it but it feels like I have no choice if I want to actually complete stuff. Especially when quests are time-gated themselves!

 

Maybe later on in the game I'll understand why people say the timer doesn't matter that much. But that's too late in the game, people like me would have already stopped playing, like I did before. Good thing I actually like the XIII games so I really want to complete this.

Edited December 13, 2015 by Eleven

[Eleven]

So I got bored with the timer and constant Chronostatis / kill big monster for more Chronostatis loop that I decided to see if there were any mods for the PC version to eliminate this. And there it was, CheatEngine, can basically freeze time, or slow it down to real-time (1 in-game minute was about 2 real-time seconds), so I decided to give that a try.

 

50 game hours later...

 

So yeah, it's basically cheating, but man it made the game so much fun for me. I didn't have to worry about the clock constantly, and I can just casually explore the world, get the side quests, and do all kinds of stuff (like how JRPGs are supposed to be!!!). It's cheating, but not by much, as there were only a handful of quests that actively make use of the timer.

 

Having completed the whole game, I still think the timer was a bad idea. They should have just moved the clock based on side quests if they wanted a time to matter (turning in a side quest step or completing it may costs you 6 in-game hours. Maybe you wanna farm a bit before turning it in, or talk to some people first). That's a lot more tolerable!

 

I guess the proper way to play this game is to relax and just go through the day, do what you can and live with it, try again in NG+. But I don't know... I've been conditioned to complete stuff as I see it by all JRPGs that came before it (always watching out for that point of no return). And I guess you're also not meant to complete everything. But whatever.

 

Almost totally confused by the story though. I understood what's currently happening, but the lore didn't make much sense to me, had to look up what the hell stuff was to understand it. There's a lot of things they say here, that you just have to accept, that there's no concrete explanation given, but I don't really mind that. I just wished they articulated stuff a lot more clearly. Because some people on the internet could clearly do better.

 

So yeah, overall, I liked this game. And the series too, I guess.

 

I forgot. One plot point that I found really interesting was:

 

 

 

People stopped aging, and have been living like that for 500 years, while Lightning was basically asleep. Old people stay old, children stay children. People can still die from disease or accidents, but no one is ever born during this time. I don't think they did that plot point justice, people just seem to go about their day, and talk about 500 years as if it was 50 years.

 

Why are kids running around like kids? They're 500 years old! They have to be because no one can give birth, they'd have to have been kids for 500 years! It's too much of a time jump.

 

 

Edited December 21, 2015 by Eleven

[Eleven]

Hey Dean so I saw your post

 

 

So lately I've been playing Lightning Returns and it's sort of quite mixed for me. I'm enjoying playing it for the most part, apart from the whole time issues which I have been tempted to use CheatEngine as suggested by Eleven but tbh I can't figure it out.

 

The cheatengine file you probably downloaded had tons and tons of cheats that you probably don't want to use. I stripped it down back when I was playing it so that it was easier. Here's the file.

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16661885/pxod/LRFF13_daytime_run.zip

 

1. Run Cheat Engine

2. Run Lightning Returns

3. Alt tab to Cheat Engine. Click on the glowing icon on the upper left under the File menu. You can't miss it.

4. This opens up a process list. Search for LRFF13.exe, might have numbers before it, but that's the executable. Click that and click Open.

5. Click on the folder icon (Open a cheat table) beside the glowing icon (it's not glowing anymore). Select the file I linked (unzipped).

6. An "Advanced Options" window pop up, just close it or click OK.

7. Back on the main window, on the bottom, just click the boxes to enable them (it'll then be marked with X). Just keep opening up boxes until you see the cheats for slowing down time. I believe I also left a cheat there for infinite stamina.

 

I think the time slowdowns are bound to shortcut keys (you should be able to see what they are). I forgot how but I was able to bind my stuff to the controller using DS4windows, so I could speed it up and slow it down quickly without having to alt-tab out.

Edited March 23, 2016 by Eleven