Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

« It's a pity that a lot of players have been so fixated on the perceived gameplay weaknesses of each of the games in this trilogy, because in doing so they've really missed the broader philosophical richness of the story of Lightning and her ragtag crew of allies and antagonists. Ironically, those people will also find Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII the weakest game in the series, when thematically speaking, it's actually the most powerful. »

« Lighting Returns takes to the end of the world with vivacity and conviction, reshaping the way that RPGs can and should be in many great ways. Even if the game engine is well past its prime and the voice acting is weak at times, the overall package is an entanglement of nostalgia and intrigue for fans of Final Fantasy XIII and the RPG genre. »

« It’s the third game in the thirteenth of a series dating back to 1987, yet it’s also one of the most successfully inventive games I’ve ever played. It puts you in control of everything, which is a total inverse of Final Fantasy’s traditional position. »

« The incredibly fun combat system and the sheer amount of customization options make this final entry in the trilogy well worth seeking out. If you’re coming into this with the hopes of seeing the story turn itself around then you’re going to leave disappointed. But if you enjoyed the refinements made in Final Fantasy XIII-2, then I think you’ll find a lot to love about Lightning Returns. »

« Even with its mediocre plot and heavily emphasized fan service aspects, I really enjoyed Lightning Returns. I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve followed the series since the beginning, or because I’m a sucker for the characters and their relationships between one another, but this game made me experience a range of emotions that I haven’t experienced from a game in a long time. »

« Surprising, but not for the reasons you might think. With only thirteen days to go before the end of the world, Lightning has her hands full. This final chapter tries a lot of new ideas, many of which work. Unfortunately, the game is a little messy and tonally all over the place. Fans of the series will be satisfied with the emotional finale. »

« For all its weirdness it actually is a pretty compelling adventure. Excellent combat mechanics and the pairing of an open world with a harsh time limit help the game overcome its technical shortcomings and impenetrable story. »

« Square seems to have taken critiques of the first two games to heart and corrected them. Gone are the oppressively limited environments and the convoluted stories. In their place are a large world, clear story, and the latest refinement of what was already among the most radically inventive combat systems to hit JRPGs in years. »

« Lightning return est le meilleur des FF13 et de loin. L'ambiance est incroyable, l'immersion au top. Franchement quand on se laisse prendre dans l'histoire, c'est un top jeu. »

« FF 13 e FF13-2 são meus Final Fantasy favoritos comparados com os que saíram do PS4 e PS5, Lightning Returns encerra muito bem a Trilogia FF13, joguem. »

« I took a long time to finally get around to playing Lightning Returns. Even though I really enjoyed the previous two entries in the trilogy, the time limit in this installment had always put me off. But that was unfair. Honestly, managing time eventually became surprisingly engaging. Planning how many quests I could complete in a day, returning to quest givers at specific times — all of that made it hard to put the game down at **** combat in Lightning Returns is, in my opinion, definitely the best out of all three games in the XIII series. They moved away from traditional turn-based combat in favor of a more action-strategy style, which I think was a great **** for things I didn’t like, the difficulty balancing was definitely odd. For most of the game, I had no trouble at all, but toward the very end the difficulty suddenly spiked drastically.Story-wise, well, the game had to follow up on what happened in XIII-2, and considering how nonsensical the previous entry was, it actually handled it quite well. »

« Lightning Returns is a strange game, the battle mechanic has promise but the flow of combat feels very sluggish like you're wading through treacle constantly with Lightning slowly plodding about rather than utilizing her speed and jump skills as she does in normal world traversal, thus, the best I can say about the combat is that it's better than XIII and XIII-2, but it's still not great as aside for the aforementioned problems the battle camera gives you a very poor view of things when facing multiple enemies meaning timing your blocks becomes a real annoyance. Being able to customise your combat gear is pretty intuitive and nice as the game goes on you'll end up putting together some pretty awesome sets. In terms of performance there is a fair bit of slowdown where you wouldn't expect there to be any, the game for the most part doesn't look especially good for a PS3 title and the areas you explore are typically narrow and not especially large in scope leaving the performances drops as somewhat of a mystery. Much like the first game particularly the game is rather linear and the side quests you do feel little more than forced busywork that you feel obliged to do in order to earn stat increases for Lightning as there is no classic level up system. The story isn't awful but for a Final Fantasy it can't hold a candle to the likes of 7,8,9, or 10, the time mechanic feels like the did their own spin on Ocarina of Time and unfortunately Lightning still has all the personality of a corpse. It also irritated the hell out of me that Hope just would not shut up often speaking over other dialog that was already difficult enough to hear because there's no way of turning the volume of the in-game music down. You'll probably enjoy the combat of this game but likely not much else as everything about Lightning Returns just screams "serviceable", not "good", and absolutely not "great". The game is clearly trying to be an action RPG and is so close to almost being a good ARPG it hurts, if only Lightning could run and jump in combat like in normal world traversal and the camera in combat was more responsive and followed you around the combat alone could have been good enough to elevate the game to 9/10, but alas, it was not to be. If you want to play a great action RPG go play Ys VIII on the Vita instead. »

« Lightning Returns is a unique experience, but when it clicks you won’t find anything quite like it. The battle system perfectly balances strategy with the thrill of real-time combat, and it’s dynamic world is both somber and beautiful. A very underrated game. »

« It's awesome game, a hidden gem I enjoyed it more than any final fantasy game , except for the time mechanic the game is very good »

« I love this game. It's the root precursor to FFVIIR and FFXVI. The countdown mechanic and world were amazing. So underrated »

« [SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.] »