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Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII DEMO - OUT NOW* -

T

toythatkills

Member
kayos90 said:
Cool. I guess I'll try out the demo and see how it plays. I'm sure it'll be better than XIII-2's combat system. I don't think you can get any worse than that.
Click to expand...

XIII-2 was an improvement on XIII, still shit, but an improvement. LR is not so much. It's kind of nonsense. There are gauges everywhere and the one thing that could use a gauge (stagger) doesn't have one, and instead has this vague pattern on the enemy's HP gauge which flies around the screen erratically as the camera goes wild and is impossible to keep track of. The whole thing is a mess, really, it's irritatingly difficult to work out what the hell is going on. These battle systems get more and more cinematic and less and less usable as a result.

I did not find much to get excited about. You can basically have a party of three Lightnings and switch between them, with each having their own ATB gauge. So you use one of them up, switch to the next, use it up, switch to the next, use it up, then go back to the first one which has recharged by then. I'm sure there's some strategy in there somewhere but I couldn't see it behind all the flashy lights and it worked perfectly adequately.

Limited item slots for potions suggest that the battle system will be too easy if it lets you cure properly, suggesting the balance is as fucked as it has been since XIII. "Here's a valid strategy for winning a battle but FUCK YOU we're going to arbitrarily kill you after half an hour because reasons." That kind of thing.

Jumping adds little to the field.

Menus are dumb. Both analogue sticks move a picture of Lightning around instead of actually, you know, selecting menu items. The reason you pressed the menu button, yeah?
 
M

MadLukas

Banned
Final Fantasy XIII-2 ist 67% off , i bought it for 6,59€. Must finish all those DLC to prepare for Lightning Returns.

And it is the most promising JRPG for me, none of those mentioned in this thread seem as cool as the conclusion of my favourite Final Fantasy.
 
Perfo

Perfo

Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
DiscoJon said:
Uh, the FFX remaster comes out in a couple months.
Click to expand...

FFX, the most promising jRPG of 2001!

toythatkills said:
XIII-2 was an improvement on XIII, still shit, but an improvement. LR is not so much. It's kind of nonsense. There are gauges everywhere and the one thing that could use a gauge (stagger) doesn't have one, and instead has this vague pattern on the enemy's HP gauge which flies around the screen erratically as the camera goes wild and is impossible to keep track of. The whole thing is a mess, really, it's irritatingly difficult to work out what the hell is going on. These battle systems get more and more cinematic and less and less usable as a result.

I did not find much to get excited about. You can basically have a party of three Lightnings and switch between them, with each having their own ATB gauge. So you use one of them up, switch to the next, use it up, switch to the next, use it up, then go back to the first one which has recharged by then. I'm sure there's some strategy in there somewhere but I couldn't see it behind all the flashy lights and it worked perfectly adequately.

Limited item slots for potions suggest that the battle system will be too easy if it lets you cure properly, suggesting the balance is as fucked as it has been since XIII. "Here's a valid strategy for winning a battle but FUCK YOU we're going to arbitrarily kill you after half an hour because reasons." That kind of thing.

Jumping adds little to the field.

Menus are dumb. Both analogue sticks move a picture of Lightning around instead of actually, you know, selecting menu items. The reason you pressed the menu button, yeah?
Click to expand...

I don't know if your impressions just come from the limited demo, but the BS is probably the only element I didn't hear anything bad about from importers.

MadLukas said:
Final Fantasy XIII-2 ist 67% off , i bought it for 6,59€. Must finish all those DLC to prepare for Lightning Returns.
Click to expand...

Colosseum DLCs and Requiem of the Goddess are worth, but you can skip other scenario DLCs imho.
 
M

Milennia

Member
Ill download it now.. Even though i should probably wait for the psn release.
My hype levels are 0 so lets see how this end up.
 
F

FHIZ

Member
Oh boy, after months and months of costume reveals, I finally get to try out this fashion simulator for myself!
 
I

InternHertz

Member
I don't know about the Yuna costume (got it from FFX/X-2 HD but after I already finished LRFF13) but at least the Cloud costume is OP for a lot of the game.
If Yuna's is as good as that one, it could be a preorder-there-to-win situation :p
 
SilverArrow20XX

SilverArrow20XX

Walks in the Light of the Crystal
Oh great, I just canceled my Amazon pre-order from back in June yesterday because I caved and bought the collector's edition a month ago. Paying 90 bucks and wrestling with their terrible site should get be all the costumes...bastards. Oh well. The Yuna outfit kinda sucks anyway.

I usually don't play demos, but I need that Siegfried outfit. I NEED it.
 
Perfo

Perfo

Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
Kagari said:
Why? Those games have been improving in quality with each entry.
Click to expand...

Then if they're so good why they're never considered when we're talking of best games in the genre? I mean sure, even Klonoa is good. But then you have Super Mario at the other side of the door. Niche games for niche audience, right? I really can't see something so extravagant like this series competing for the best in the genre. It'll never happen. The "only" competitor I can see it's Tales of Xillia 2, and a possible winner if we really want to include it might be Dark Souls 2. The list ends here.
 
BibiMaghoo

BibiMaghoo

Member
I really want to try this out, but only for continuity reasons. I didn't like 13, and 13-2 was an abomination to the franchise in a way that 13 didn't even manage, and that is saying something.

Is there actually any hope at all, that this game will be better than both?
 
G

Ganon Dragmire

Member
Yoshichan said:
Fucking amazing demo thread, Perfo! You are awesome :3

I however, don't know if I should be playing this or not... I don't wanna spoil it, but at the same time, is there enough combat in the demo for me to practice timings and shit?
Click to expand...

If it's like the Japanese demo, then yes. Once you beat the boss, it pops back so you can fight it again and again without having to restart the demo.
 
H

Holmes

Member
Yuna costume only on Amazon? Damn, I went with the Collector's Edition and I think I want Yuna more than Aerith. Anyone looking to trade? (or even better, give me the Yuna code? :p)
 
D

dramatis

Member
Perfo said:
Then if they're so good why they're never considered when we're talking of best games in the genre? I mean sure, even Klonoa is good. But then you have Super Mario at the other side of the door. Niche games for niche audience, right? I really can't see something so extravagant like this series competing for the best in the genre. It'll never happen. The "only" competitor I can see it's Tales of Xillia 2, and a possible winner if we really want to include it might be Dark Souls 2. The list ends here.
Click to expand...
You're already gimping the list when you say "best RPG of the year" and then dismiss any Japanese only releases. Moreover, you're basing your statement on pretty much a pile of games that you haven't played at all.

If that's the metric you want to go by, then it's guaranteed that P5 will be better than LR.
 
Avallon

Avallon

Member
via Playstation Blog

12017382044_51efcfcb9b_o.jpg

If you haven’t been lucky enough to attend E3, San Diego Comic Con, Penny Arcade Expo, or the other shows that have hosted Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, we have good news. We’re excited to announce that you can get hands-on with it in a playable demo that’s dropping TODAY.

From now on, you don’t have to take our word for it that this game is unlike anything Final Fantasy has ever done before, because it’s finally time for you to see for yourself.
First off, downloading the demo scores you an exclusive piece of DLC that we’re giving to you PlayStation fans — the Utsusemi Samurai garb — that you can use in the main game (it’s not in the demo itself, so don’t panic if you don’t see it). Again, this offer is exclusive to PlayStation owners too, so right off the bat you’re getting something not everybody’s going to get, JUST for downloading it. You can’t tell, but I’m winking at you, especially at all you Final Fantasy XI Ninjas.

So what’s in the demo itself? Of course, you’re playing as Lightning, but you’re now mysteriously tracking down her old friend Snow Villiers in the city of Yusnaan. As Lightning, it’s going to be up to you to fight through the chaos to see what happened.
Click to expand...
12017029205_48d1017b99_n.jpg
12017313783_744b4612b5_n.jpg

And the battle mechanics? No Final Fantasy is without battles, and this demo gives you just a taste of the real-time elements incorporated into both the field and the battle system, and it includes but a fraction of the ways you can customize Lightning.
Your default equipment sets (or Schemas, as they’re called in-game) are The Savior, Dark Muse, and Black Mage, but three battles into the demo you’ll unlock some Final Fantasy series favorites — Dragoon, Red Mage, and Heart Stealer, which may remind you of a certain thei–treasure hunter.

Once in battle, you’ll notice how the battle system has evolved from the traditional paradigm shift party system into strategically using Schema. Each Schema has its own ATB gauge, allowing you to attack relentlessly with commands mapped to corresponding buttons. Then you’ll switch to a new Schema, and all of your attacks change too, allowing you to pummel the enemy with different elements and attacks. Lightning is a one-woman army.
Click to expand...
12017031845_e8d3dac391_z.jpg

12017856846_9e552f4d53_n.jpg
12017032285_5dc81a3b48_n.jpg

Finally, one of the features that the demo shows off is called the “Outerworld,” a way for other players to communicate their progress via social networks like Facebook and Twitter to post their battle scores. While in the demo, this is all you can do with Outerworld. The full game offers much more Outerworld functionality, including buying and selling items your friends may have.

While sharing your game scores with 9,999 of your closest Facebook friends may not appeal to everyone, we’re excited to give you even MORE free stuff. If you can beat the Zaltys monster at the end of the demo and you post your score via Outerworld, you unlock the Siegfried Garb in the full game. Who is Siegfried, you ask? Play Final Fantasy VI, and all will be revealed.

Okay, so we’ve thrown a lot of information at you, so let’s recap, shall we?

  • The demo is available. For free, of course.
  • Just for playing, you get the PS3 exclusive DLC — Utsusemi Samurai garb. Again, for free.
  • Just for posting your score after the final battle, you’ll get more free DLC. As a note, this DLC will never be available aside from doing this.
  • If you’ve forgotten, just for pre-ordering, you unlock Final Fantasy history with Cloud Strife’s SOLDIER 1st Class Uniform.
Another awesome tidbit we wanted to share with you guys is that if you have save data from Final Fantasy XIII and/or Final Fantasy XIII-2, you get up to two more garbs based on Lightning’s outfits from each of those games — both Guardian Corps and Etro’s Guardian garbs.
Click to expand...
 
O

Ogawa-san

Member
I thought FFXIII-2's DLC listing looked bad (for a FF), but by the looks of it XIII-3 will have a dozen pages with all those costumes.

I should just wait until it hits $19 so I can get the inevitable story DLCs without breaking $59.
 
RPGCrazied

RPGCrazied

Member
7

7DollarHagane

Banned
I want to play this but Im pretty sure that it will bomba in price like ff 13 and ff 13-2 did. Should be easy to get it for $30 in the summer.
 
H

Holmes

Member
That PS3 costume is much better than the Siegfried one, to be honest. I wasn't gonna download the demo, but now I might. Does anyone know how big it is?

RPGCrazied said:
Not seeing the demo on PSN. Just avatars and game videos.
Click to expand...
It'll be up later today (maybe!) when the PSN Store updates, but as for when, ask Grace Chen.
 
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