Lightning Returns is.. pretty good?!

[Gamerforlife]

http://kotaku.com/lightning-returns-final-fantasy-xiii-the-kotaku-revie-1520558520

Kotaku sez not to play this one. I posted this because it's the first review I've come across reading my RSS feeds

"Positives: Brilliant Combat system, most fun I've had in an RPG menu in ages

Negatives: I don't like Lightning.

Should you play?: NO"



... seriously?

Almost the entire article is about the story and Lightning. Only in the very end does he touch on the actual gameplay, of which he had no complaints, other than side quests being a bit dull. Praise the combat gameplay, priase the out of combat gameplay, but dish it a "Don't Play" because of the story. Not even the entire story, jut Lightning.

To be fair, at least the reviewer lets you know their stance right off the bat, by basically opening with, "Oh great, another game with Lightning in it, I already don't like it"

Do people still pay attention to game reviews anymore? Okay, that's a rhetorical question that I already know the answer to, but while I do sometimes read reviews that are right on the money, over the past couple years I've found reviews to be all over the place when it comes to games and I really can't put much stock in them anymore. Some reviews don't seem to know what they're talking about. Some reviewers blatantly lie and others just show clear biases. This isn't always true, but it happens enough times that I can't really count on game reviews anymore. I thought Contrast was a fun game and it got shit on by reviewers. At some point players just have to learn to watch youtube videos, play demos and talk to trusted friends to make their gaming decisions. And with something like Lightning Returns - the third game in the FF XIII line, we should probably already have a pretty good idea what kind of game we're getting without needing a reviewer to tell us. I fully expect crap story, fun gameplay, and am pretty much okay with that.

Anyway, picked up a standard copy today (I got the collector's edition already but kind of don't want to open it). People hate on Gamestop a lot but I meet nice people there. The clerk was a Final Fantasy fan who bought the game himself and was looking forward to playing it. We chatted a bit and it was nice to actually talk to someone who wasn't ragging on the series given all the vocal internet hate it gets these days. And it's not like he was a blindly, loyal fanboy either, we both agreed that the story would probably suck, but were both pumped about combat, as well as the usually good graphics and music these games have. FF games always make me appreciate my big, HD tv more than 90% of the stuff I play

[MrPopo]

So apparently Square has a free Japanese voice pack available on the PSN for Lightning Returns. It's a 4.7 GB download, so I probably won't get to experience it until tomorrow, but I hope this is something that catches on in the industry if they aren't going to leave dual audio on the disk for whatever reason.

[Gamerforlife]

So apparently Square has a free Japanese voice pack available on the PSN for Lightning Returns. It's a 4.7 GB download, so I probably won't get to experience it until tomorrow, but I hope this is something that catches on in the industry if they aren't going to leave dual audio on the disk for whatever reason.

Inferior 360 port that's not on a blu ray disc?

[isiolia]

Inferior 360 port that's not on a blu ray disc?

More like a bonus for purchasing it while it's new. It's free for a couple weeks, then it's $4. They're doing a similar thing with Drakengard 3, only it's free if you preorder. As that game is PS3 exclusive, I doubt it's a platform thing so much as it's a money thing.

[Gamerforlife]

I always had this idea in my head of making an rpg where you could only level up through side quests. I have not started playing this, but I've already heard from different sources that you only increase stats by doing quests, not battles. That sounds kind of cool.

I've always liked the idea of earning experience points i.e. not just running around an area slaying the same enemies for an hour. In real life, people improve through experiences. There's no grinding to get smarter or wiser in real life

[MrPopo]

Deus Ex uses that model; skill points are only awarded for things such as completing objectives, discovering secrets, and other high-level activities, rather than being able to pop someone in the head.

[Gamerforlife]

I really need to play Deux Ex

I finished the demo for the bonus garbs. I gotta say, pretty shitty demo. Hasn't made me any less enthused for the game, but if a demo is supposed to excite you for a game, this one does a pretty poor job

[Sload Soap]

Most Bioware games give you experience for completing side quests and missions I believe. And possibly Xenoblade Chronicles? Been a while since I played it. Unless you mean exclusively leveling up through questing, I'd say a fair few wRPG and MMO's fit the mold.

On topic, that kotaku review is lame, but some other reviews have brought up the issue I was most worried about, which is if the time limit would restrict questing. The fact Hope pulls you out every day at 6am seems possibly too strict. Although, perhaps it would add a Majora's Mask style of tension. I'm torn on it and looking forward to peoples feedback in this (or other) threads.

[Pulsar_t]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNh0qjt8MWc

Thanks to this video, I needn't ever bother with another FF again. Such bile!!

[Gamerforlife]

Most Bioware games give you experience for completing side quests and missions I believe. And possibly Xenoblade Chronicles? Been a while since I played it. Unless you mean exclusively leveling up through questing, I'd say a fair few wRPG and MMO's fit the mold.

On topic, that kotaku review is lame, but some other reviews have brought up the issue I was most worried about, which is if the time limit would restrict questing. The fact Hope pulls you out every day at 6am seems possibly too strict. Although, perhaps it would add a Majora's Mask style of tension. I'm torn on it and looking forward to peoples feedback in this (or other) threads.

As someone who typically plays Final Fantasy games with faqs, the time limit won't be much of an issue for me as I'll know what to do and when. However, I don't really like the idea of time limits in games, so I understand this being a turn off for people. Knowing there is a New Game Plus takes some of the sting off of it though. I think that's the reason why they implemented the time limit. It's like FF X-2, they intend players to do multiple playthroughs.

I've played a little bit of the game and I like the story so far, but I seem to always go through this process with the FF XIII games. The story starts out strong, then gradually gets worse and worse the farther you get into the game. So we'll see how this one goes, but the actual reason that "Lightning Returns" is actually pretty interesting in my opinion. One of the few things I liked about FF XIII-2's story was the way it ended, and this game builds off of that well. For what it's worth, I found nothing about Lightning so far to be annoying, since I know people tend to have very polarizing views on her. I actually prefer her serious demeanor to her bubbly sister, and I hope to god I don't have to deal with an annoying moogle sidekick in this game like the last one.

Just to add to what I said before about how you level in this game, it's nice to not have to fiddle with it for a change. Your stat bonuses are fixed, so you don't have to waste lots of time figuring out how to properly distribute points. There are so many games that make you spend hours deciding how best to level a character, and I kind of like not having to worry about it for a change. If you wanted the maximum stat boosts for your characters in FF XIII-2, you pretty much had to follow a guide and spend your points EXACTLY as it indicated. It was kind of annoying.

It's good to play Final Fantasy again. I have a real comfort zone with this series and never really tire of it. It's the series that introduced me to rpgs, so I always have a certain affinity for it. One controversial aspect of the game, a lot of people say to play it on easy. Apparently, Square even went so far as to tell some game reviewers that they should do their first playthrough on easy and I saw an interview with some guy from Square saying this is how they want players to do their first playthrough. I usually never play games on easy, my ego won't allow it, but I'm making an exception as I'm hearing from a lot of sources that the difficulty tweaking is a bit off. So it sounds like easy is really normal, normal is actually hard, and hard is really very hard.