yeah Lightning Returns is really a whole new game, doesnt feel like the previous ones. Square deliberately anted to make this game as different as possible so it wont feel like a rehash and will feel fresh and attract people who perhaps didnt like the style of the first two games very much.
I completed the demo yesterday and its really really interesting. Yes I can confirm there is no healing magic, you heal up with items only. To make it even more difficult, every item takes a slot in your item menu (so if you have 5 X-potions they will take up 5 slots, not one slot) and you have only a limited amount of slots (6 in the demo) though I am more than sure that the amount of slots can be increased with accesories and such. Also unlike in the previous games, Lightning is not healed after battle.
Lightning can now jump at any time by pressing the O button and if you attack an enemy (with R1) before they attack you, the enemy will start the battle with less HP (in most cases 25 % less HP). She can also climb ladders and jump on platforms, giving it a very action adventure feel.
Customizing the schematas is a lot of fun. the costumes available in the demo are Black Mage, Red Mage, Dark Muse (magical warrior), Equilibrium (warrior), Dragoon and Heartstealer (the Locke-inspired costume, Thief and making Lightning very quick and agile. Sort of a Tidus/Zidane mash up).
I chose Equilibrium, Dragoon and Black Mage for my setup. Every outfit has around 5-6 parts that can be customized and you can create up to 3 different custom versions for each outfit.
There is also a great emphasis on social media in the game. You can take screenshots at any time and manipulate the camera to your liking before you take the shot, then you can upload it at facebook and twitter. You can also upload messages and even items. people who have posted messages and uploaded items do appear as NPCs in the game (with their name in blue) and you can buy the item from them and see their messages by interacting with them. After you beat a boss you can upload a screenshot of your battle ranking and high score as well.
There is a boss in the demo, a dragon called Zaltys. After you beat him the demo will either end when your ingame clock reaches 6 AM or when you go through the final door.
The new battle system is fun but definitely takes some getting used to. At first I tried to handle it like the paradigm system but that doesnt really work. You have to constantly switch between the schematas (after every 2 or 3 attacks would be most efficient), you have to pay attention to your HP gauge, the ATB gauge and the enemies attacks (to react soon enough by blocking, evading or countering). You also have to analyze enemies and find their weak spots and hitting them at their weak spots will greatly increase your chance of staggering the enemy. You can also use an ability called Overclock which is activated by pressing R2. once activated time slows down for a limited amount of time and you can unleash many attacks without the enemy doing anything before time has almost stopped for him. Its similar to what you could do in some of the God of War games. This is of course most efficient after staggering an enemy but overclock also consumes rare and valuable EP.
Gameplay is enormously fast and dynamic and if you dont pay attention you can easily loose control of the fight. It took me a while until I got decent at the right timing of switching schematas and using the different locked abilities because you have to do it so fast. generally it seems that Triangle and O unleash the most powerful attacks, with X being quicker and lighter attacks and square being a defensive action like guarding or evading (depending on the schemata). It will be quite challenging to fully master this new system to be able to take on some of the really big opponents (And the trailer at the end of the demo really showed some of those bigger opponents)
The trailer at the end of the demo also briefly showed Lightning in the Cloud costume and after she won a fight she was imitating Clouds victory pose and you could actually hear the original victory fanfare sound from FF VII ! that was awesome
the game looks really really awesome. magic animations and effects are WAY bigger then in the previous games and really spectacular. animations are really great too. Lightnings fighting style is also much more agile and badass. The demo shows some CG cinematics of Lightning and Snow battling each other as well as a group of emerging monsters and it looks as awesome as the action in Advent Children. Really epic stuff. definitely on par with the cinematics in XIII.
As for the FF XIII mythology:
No what I am about to tell you now wont spoiler any events of the games. the mythology of FF XIII (The Fabula Nova Crystalis mythology) instead forms the background of the FF XIII universe, its events taking place hundreds of years before the events of the games. Its a bit like the Jenova/Cetra stuff in VII actually.
The universe of XIII consists of two different realms - the mortal world and the Unseen World (basically the afterlife), called Valhalla. Hundreds of years ago the God Bhunivelze (referred to as "God" in LR and the main antagonist of the game as well) killed his mother, the goddess Mwynn who created the worlds (the characters sometimes refer to her when they say "By the goddess"). Mwynn vanished into Valhalla and subsequently Bhunivelze believed that mortality was a curse left behind by his mother on his world and so in order to find the gate to Valhalla he created two divine beings named Pulse and Etro. Pulse terraformed the mortal world (into the world known as "Grand Pulse") in order to reveal the location of the gate to Valhalla.
Bhunivelze discarded Etro, who had been created in the image of his mother and hadnt been given any powers and instead created the third divine being known as Lindzei, who is charged with the protection of Bhunivelze. Bhunivelze then enters a long sleep, protected by Lindzei until they would find the gate to Valhalla. Pulse and Lindzei carry on their mission to form the mortal world and find the gate and they create the first Fal Cie to aid them.
Meanwhile Etro, who is without powers or purpose and has been ignored and neglected falls into despair and kills herself in a final desperate attempt to get her creators attention. After dying she enters Valhalla, where she finds Bhunivelzes mother Mwynn. Mwynn is being consumed by a powerful dark energy known as Chaos, which is killing her. (In FF XIII-2 it is shown that Valhalla is surrounded by an ocean of Chaos) before she dies she embues Etro with divine power and the purpose to maintain the balance between the mortal world and Valhalla, making sure that none of the other Gods will ever find the Unseen Realm.
Etro uses her power to control the Chaos and to keep it at bay while on the mortal world Lindzei uses Etros mortal blood to create the race of humans (to serve and worship the Gods and to use them for their purpose to find the gate to Valhalla). Knowing that humans are mortal thanks to her once mortal blood and will inevitably die, she (Etro) instills a small part of chaos in every human, giving them something precious that even the Gods dont have - a soul-spirit, so they can be individual beings.
Civilization on Gran Pulse flourishes over the centuries. Etro turns Valhalla into the realm of the dead and guides the souls of deceased humans into Valhalla to be at peace. As a result Etro is subsequently worshipped as the Goddess of Death, while the people of Pulse either worship or fear the other two deities. After centuries Pulse and Lindzei eventually leave the Fal Cie in charge and leave the world (knowing there is no way to enter Valhalla as long as Etro rules it) until Bhunivelze wakes up again and Etro will be defeated (This plays a very important part in the stories of XIII-2 and LR). The "Maker" that Barthendelus refers to in FF XIII (the one he wants to summon back) is most likely Pulse.
The Fal Cie eventually use manipulation and fear to keep the humans in line and divide the human race , building Cocoon and make the inhabitants of Cocoon believe that Pulse is tainted and cursed and full of evil and only by following and believing into the Cocoon Fal Cie, they can be protected from the evils of Pulse. While on Pulse the people believe that Cocoon is the evil that threatens their way of life. Around this time Fal Cie start using humans as L´Cie and eventually during a war between Pulse and Cocoon (The War of Transgression), which leaves most of Pulse in ruins and devastated, the woman known as Fang transforms into Ragnarok to smash Cocoon (as had been planned by Barthendelus who instigated the entire war so Ragnarok would come about and destroy Cocoon, summoning back Pulse and/or Lindzei). But since Fang failed and Cocoon was only severely damaged but not destroyed, the Fal Cie put her and Vanille into crystal sleep but brought them both back hundreds of years later to use them to trigger the events that would eventually result in Serah and Dajh becoming Lcie and subsequently in Lightning, Snow, Hope and Sazh becoming Lcie as well to accomplish the task that Barthendelus had intended Fang to complete hundreds of years earlier - the destruction of Cocoon.
And so the Final Fantasy XIII saga begins.
Personally I really love this mythology. It greatly reminds me on the mythology of FF VII in a way and how the knowledge of that mythology incredibly deepens and intensifies the experience of the story, when you see all those connections and mythological threads coming together with the story. people complained about the story of FF XIII as not being deep enough but thats only cause these people never really bothered to get into the whole mythology of it. In fact I think this is one of the best FF stories ever done.
I completed the demo yesterday and its really really interesting. Yes I can confirm there is no healing magic, you heal up with items only. To make it even more difficult, every item takes a slot in your item menu (so if you have 5 X-potions they will take up 5 slots, not one slot) and you have only a limited amount of slots (6 in the demo) though I am more than sure that the amount of slots can be increased with accesories and such. Also unlike in the previous games, Lightning is not healed after battle.
Lightning can now jump at any time by pressing the O button and if you attack an enemy (with R1) before they attack you, the enemy will start the battle with less HP (in most cases 25 % less HP). She can also climb ladders and jump on platforms, giving it a very action adventure feel.
Customizing the schematas is a lot of fun. the costumes available in the demo are Black Mage, Red Mage, Dark Muse (magical warrior), Equilibrium (warrior), Dragoon and Heartstealer (the Locke-inspired costume, Thief and making Lightning very quick and agile. Sort of a Tidus/Zidane mash up).
I chose Equilibrium, Dragoon and Black Mage for my setup. Every outfit has around 5-6 parts that can be customized and you can create up to 3 different custom versions for each outfit.
There is also a great emphasis on social media in the game. You can take screenshots at any time and manipulate the camera to your liking before you take the shot, then you can upload it at facebook and twitter. You can also upload messages and even items. people who have posted messages and uploaded items do appear as NPCs in the game (with their name in blue) and you can buy the item from them and see their messages by interacting with them. After you beat a boss you can upload a screenshot of your battle ranking and high score as well.
There is a boss in the demo, a dragon called Zaltys. After you beat him the demo will either end when your ingame clock reaches 6 AM or when you go through the final door.
The new battle system is fun but definitely takes some getting used to. At first I tried to handle it like the paradigm system but that doesnt really work. You have to constantly switch between the schematas (after every 2 or 3 attacks would be most efficient), you have to pay attention to your HP gauge, the ATB gauge and the enemies attacks (to react soon enough by blocking, evading or countering). You also have to analyze enemies and find their weak spots and hitting them at their weak spots will greatly increase your chance of staggering the enemy. You can also use an ability called Overclock which is activated by pressing R2. once activated time slows down for a limited amount of time and you can unleash many attacks without the enemy doing anything before time has almost stopped for him. Its similar to what you could do in some of the God of War games. This is of course most efficient after staggering an enemy but overclock also consumes rare and valuable EP.
Gameplay is enormously fast and dynamic and if you dont pay attention you can easily loose control of the fight. It took me a while until I got decent at the right timing of switching schematas and using the different locked abilities because you have to do it so fast. generally it seems that Triangle and O unleash the most powerful attacks, with X being quicker and lighter attacks and square being a defensive action like guarding or evading (depending on the schemata). It will be quite challenging to fully master this new system to be able to take on some of the really big opponents (And the trailer at the end of the demo really showed some of those bigger opponents)
The trailer at the end of the demo also briefly showed Lightning in the Cloud costume and after she won a fight she was imitating Clouds victory pose and you could actually hear the original victory fanfare sound from FF VII ! that was awesome
the game looks really really awesome. magic animations and effects are WAY bigger then in the previous games and really spectacular. animations are really great too. Lightnings fighting style is also much more agile and badass. The demo shows some CG cinematics of Lightning and Snow battling each other as well as a group of emerging monsters and it looks as awesome as the action in Advent Children. Really epic stuff. definitely on par with the cinematics in XIII.
As for the FF XIII mythology:
No what I am about to tell you now wont spoiler any events of the games. the mythology of FF XIII (The Fabula Nova Crystalis mythology) instead forms the background of the FF XIII universe, its events taking place hundreds of years before the events of the games. Its a bit like the Jenova/Cetra stuff in VII actually.
The universe of XIII consists of two different realms - the mortal world and the Unseen World (basically the afterlife), called Valhalla. Hundreds of years ago the God Bhunivelze (referred to as "God" in LR and the main antagonist of the game as well) killed his mother, the goddess Mwynn who created the worlds (the characters sometimes refer to her when they say "By the goddess"). Mwynn vanished into Valhalla and subsequently Bhunivelze believed that mortality was a curse left behind by his mother on his world and so in order to find the gate to Valhalla he created two divine beings named Pulse and Etro. Pulse terraformed the mortal world (into the world known as "Grand Pulse") in order to reveal the location of the gate to Valhalla.
Bhunivelze discarded Etro, who had been created in the image of his mother and hadnt been given any powers and instead created the third divine being known as Lindzei, who is charged with the protection of Bhunivelze. Bhunivelze then enters a long sleep, protected by Lindzei until they would find the gate to Valhalla. Pulse and Lindzei carry on their mission to form the mortal world and find the gate and they create the first Fal Cie to aid them.
Meanwhile Etro, who is without powers or purpose and has been ignored and neglected falls into despair and kills herself in a final desperate attempt to get her creators attention. After dying she enters Valhalla, where she finds Bhunivelzes mother Mwynn. Mwynn is being consumed by a powerful dark energy known as Chaos, which is killing her. (In FF XIII-2 it is shown that Valhalla is surrounded by an ocean of Chaos) before she dies she embues Etro with divine power and the purpose to maintain the balance between the mortal world and Valhalla, making sure that none of the other Gods will ever find the Unseen Realm.
Etro uses her power to control the Chaos and to keep it at bay while on the mortal world Lindzei uses Etros mortal blood to create the race of humans (to serve and worship the Gods and to use them for their purpose to find the gate to Valhalla). Knowing that humans are mortal thanks to her once mortal blood and will inevitably die, she (Etro) instills a small part of chaos in every human, giving them something precious that even the Gods dont have - a soul-spirit, so they can be individual beings.
Civilization on Gran Pulse flourishes over the centuries. Etro turns Valhalla into the realm of the dead and guides the souls of deceased humans into Valhalla to be at peace. As a result Etro is subsequently worshipped as the Goddess of Death, while the people of Pulse either worship or fear the other two deities. After centuries Pulse and Lindzei eventually leave the Fal Cie in charge and leave the world (knowing there is no way to enter Valhalla as long as Etro rules it) until Bhunivelze wakes up again and Etro will be defeated (This plays a very important part in the stories of XIII-2 and LR). The "Maker" that Barthendelus refers to in FF XIII (the one he wants to summon back) is most likely Pulse.
The Fal Cie eventually use manipulation and fear to keep the humans in line and divide the human race , building Cocoon and make the inhabitants of Cocoon believe that Pulse is tainted and cursed and full of evil and only by following and believing into the Cocoon Fal Cie, they can be protected from the evils of Pulse. While on Pulse the people believe that Cocoon is the evil that threatens their way of life. Around this time Fal Cie start using humans as L´Cie and eventually during a war between Pulse and Cocoon (The War of Transgression), which leaves most of Pulse in ruins and devastated, the woman known as Fang transforms into Ragnarok to smash Cocoon (as had been planned by Barthendelus who instigated the entire war so Ragnarok would come about and destroy Cocoon, summoning back Pulse and/or Lindzei). But since Fang failed and Cocoon was only severely damaged but not destroyed, the Fal Cie put her and Vanille into crystal sleep but brought them both back hundreds of years later to use them to trigger the events that would eventually result in Serah and Dajh becoming Lcie and subsequently in Lightning, Snow, Hope and Sazh becoming Lcie as well to accomplish the task that Barthendelus had intended Fang to complete hundreds of years earlier - the destruction of Cocoon.
And so the Final Fantasy XIII saga begins.
Personally I really love this mythology. It greatly reminds me on the mythology of FF VII in a way and how the knowledge of that mythology incredibly deepens and intensifies the experience of the story, when you see all those connections and mythological threads coming together with the story. people complained about the story of FF XIII as not being deep enough but thats only cause these people never really bothered to get into the whole mythology of it. In fact I think this is one of the best FF stories ever done.
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Best action games of all time.