Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII is the direct sequel to XIII-2 and the third and final game of the saga. LR was released in November 2013 for Japan, and February 2014 for the rest of the world, on, you guessed it, PS3 and XBox 360. There was a delay for the port to Steam, but as of early 2016, you can find it there too.

The game’s logo.

Lightning Returns in itself is a bit of a conundrum. You don’t necessarily need to play the first title to play XIII-2, but it helps, obviously, as it’s about the same places (with some new) and the same characters (with some new). LR is about the same characters but in an entirely different place. Sure, areas can be reminiscent of earlier ones (Yusnaan reminds me of Nautilus, the Wildlands reminds me of the Steppe, the Dunes is the Steppe) and yet LR is the first time the subseries sees a desert. Several, in fact. Making up for lost time, I guess.

Still, the point is that it would be very easy for someone who only vaguely knows about Lightning to pick up LR and be none the wiser about anything - it doesn’t make a lick of sense without the previous entries, but LR isn’t a sensical game. This isn’t a game overflowing with story, which makes for limited interactions with the rest of the cast and plenty of fetch quests for named yet identical NPCs that sport different accessories so you can actually distinguish one from the next. For what it’s worth, LR’s limited story is rather well done (Snow’s arc, for instance) but Lightning Returns is a game about sidequests whilst you wait for the end of the world - you don’t need much more than “you’re the Savior, now go save some souls” in order to access it. As much as I, and many other people, were here for the resolution, were here for Lightning’s first laments about Serah, this is the polar opposite of the first game and has zero linearity and it’s not going to hold your hand as you explore this new world - and yet the Final Fantasy fanbase still wasn’t happy. XIII’s trilogy just couldn’t win.

That’s not to say that Lightning doesn’t have a lot of thoughts and great inner monologue whilst doing the sidequests, because she’s a less than perfect sidequester. The significance of most of what she thinks and feels would be lost to new players, but, they’re there. They show who she’s really fighting for at the end of all things - humanity, yes, but largely, it’s for Serah.

The changes for Lightning Returns don’t stop there. Lightning is a one woman party so the paradigm system was axed - instead it was tweaked and replaced with schemata, which is what you get when you cross paradigms with dresspheres from X-2. It’s actually a good evolution, as the gameplay feels very natural and I liked it a lot - the gauge remains, but it’s no longer automatic, and skills are now sourced from the garbs Lightning wears. Different garbs have different strengths, and several can be set for in battle shifting, hence dresspheres. The environment also changes from day to night, with the music changing with the passing hours to reflect tone... which is probably my only favourite thing about time passing in LR. Square’s implemented clock feature haunts me to this day. It works on paper, because Lightning has thirteen days to save the world (or six, actually, you have to earn the chance at the other seven), but in practice it’s an anxiety ridden exercise of missing trains, using EP to constantly freeze time, and getting trapped behind a time sensitive door by seconds. It sucks. I had to use a guide to even plot out how to play this blasted game and I definitely wasn’t alone in doing so - so what if I slept through a solid five days at the end because I’d completed everything, at least I did.

Lightning Returns is, you guessed it, also the story of the end of the world. This time it’s the actual end of this universe, because Bhunivelze wants to take all the souls from one world and deposit them in another - for that end, he needs someone to guide them there and to be selective about who gets to go by collecting specific souls. That someone is the Savior, Lightning, because Lightning’s life is awful. In turn, Bhunivelze promises Lightning Serah’s soul in exchange for his task. I’m not even condensing here: that’s it. That’s the plot. There are a lot of old friends whose souls Lightning manages to save (and one person she forgot), which gives some resolution to the messes that the ending of XIII-2 created: and some heartache, of course.

When Lightning inevitably turns against God (because hey, it’s Lightning, that’s what she’s always been about), everyone is there, by her side - and together, they chart a course to a new world.