So we’ve gone from corridors and tattoos to Doctor Who to… this.
Lightning Returns colon Final Fantasy XIII, with that post-colon bit feeling almost completely
superfluous.
We’ve run into the ground the point that, yes, Final Fantasy XIII probably would’ve
been a better game without the Final Fantasy name.
At least, it would’ve been perceived better.
The Bouncer didn’t have to have Final Fantasy on it, Einhänder didn’t, nor did Brave
Fencer Musashi or Drakengard.
XIII-2 tried to dispel some of the issues, by utilizing a much more nonlinear structure
and putting more moogles around for the sake of it.
But apparently, that wasn’t enough.
Apparently, there wasn’t enough open-ended questing, enough exploration, enough purple.
There we go.
In the space of three games, we’ve gone from what many derided as a “Hallway simulator”
to “Hey, here’s a city, save some souls, and watch the clock.”
Now Lightning’s a messianic figure, here to lead the devout from the end of days to
a new paradise.
That’s right, there’s a Final Fantasy where religion is not the default evil.
Maybe.
There’s plenty of twisting and turning, flowery language, and Lightning being aloof,
so you’re still getting plenty of Final Fantasy-like substance, but the mechanics
are completely off.
There’s no party, not even the “two-and-a-Pokémon” configuration of the last title.
There’s a clock, a deadline, and plenty of quests to fill time.
It’s a mission-based Final Fantasy.
And yes, that feels kinda weird.
But, as a veteran of the MMO editions, it’s not the worst way to handle things.
Lightning trudges about the world, a savior among a damned people, with that jackass Hope
as your spotter - and I don’t mean badass Dr. Hope Estheim from XIII-2, no, he’s back
to being the jackass kid from the first game, and no they don’t even know how.
Okay, that’s most of the grating old-XIII stuff out of the way.
What’s left is kind of an RPG, kinda not.
What it is is pretty damn engaging and action-oriented… sometimes.
Lightning Returns finds itself in the same boat as X-2: Some folks are going to dislike
it based entirely on what they know about the characters - or what the characters have
become - and are thus going to miss out on one of the better mechanical evolutions of
the series.
The frantic style-shifting of the two previous 13s returns in a modified form, where instead
of Paradigms to shift, you’ve got three different schemata available during battle.
Each of these is a combination of garb, sword, and shield that increase various parameters
and can be mixed, matched, and recolored to your specifications.
Yes, it’s dress-up.
You get to dress her up with attacks, spells, debuffs, and stat bonuses.
Y’know, like you’ve done in every other RPG ever, except now she’s rocking the “what
if King from Art of Fighting joined the Saints” look.
XIII-3 has a lot going against it, and most of that is prejudice.
The rest is my natural proclivity to picture Daria Morgendorffer’s face on Lightning’s
body every time her delivery gets a little bit too monotonous.
And that’s kinda unfortunate, because the rest of the game is quite appealing - the
rushing around beneath a time limit, the salvation of souls, the combat (mostly the combat) and
the kind of deranged worldbuilding that would create a Zagat-readers’ paradise at the
end of time.
The cast is just familiar enough, but so distorted that the whole thing feels like the new adventure
it tries to be.
I’m no XIII apologist, but I couldn’t tear myself away from it.
There was always one more person to help, one more quest to complete, one more monster
to beat up.
Yes, I realize it’s a cash-in, recycling most of its assets, from music to graphics
to monsters to in-game terminology, playing it all again to tell another chapter of a
story no one really took to the first time and only begrudgingly accepted the second
time because Ultros and Gilgamesh were DLC and that’s almost worth it on its own.
I dunno.
Maybe I kinda wanna go back and play the other two now… wait, what am I saying?
Has this been their plot all along?
I NEED 400CCS OF FINAL FANTASY V, STAT