WK plays Lightning Returns

[Wolf Kanno]

It's time...



So far, this has been a weird game. If XIII-2 was SE trying o make people like XIII by taking ideas from Chrono Trigger and putting a X-2 spin on things, then Lightning Returns is taking ideas from Majora's Mask and putting a Valkyrie Profile spin on it. I am not terribly far into the game. Still knee deep in the first mission involving the cult. Since it is so early, I won't be really doing a Pro/Con thing yet for this post.

I will say that I find a lot of the writing in the game o be cringy and I'm kind of annoyed with the whole "I don't have feelings" nonsense. Especially since Lightning has conveyed a wider range of feelings within the first twenty minutes of the game than she has for the two previous games combined. It wouldn't bother me so much if Light and Hope didn't keep bringing it up every few minutes with their dialogue. The combat system is also very clunky. Being an Action RPG system that is still very much tethered to XIII's brand of ATB. I haven't found a good flow for it yet. The customization sounds interesting, but we'll get there when we get there. The rule where only completing missions garners stat increases is some serious SaGa level nonsense, but I'm here for it.

So we'll see if LR can hold my attention long enough to finish the XIII trilogy proper.

[Fynn]

Yay it’s time for the only legitimately good game of the disaster trilogy!

[Wolf Kanno]

Yay it’s time for the only legitimately good game of the disaster trilogy!

I feel this statement may be getting a little ahead of itself.

LR is weird. Kind of feel like I hit a roadblock with one of the main quests, but looking at a few tips elsewhere, it seems my issue is that I need to be playing this game a bit more like Soulsborne/Metroidvania style outing and I should be exploring everything before really trying to complete the main quests since it feels like the bosses are scaled for mid-game.

Also, if blocking is so damn important to the game's main combat system, I don't understand why it just wasn't given a dedicated button? It's also annoying how garments have slots pre-filled with no consistency. It's just annoying because I'm having to switch around skills on all my outfits to maintain a consistency to make switching less of a headache. Combat has really been the major downgrade from XIII-2.

The writing is also atrocious, and I have a bad feeling I am going to be saying this in almost every post. People think Kojima is bad at subtext, obviously haven' played this game. If I have to listen to Lightning give one more angry tirade about being an unfeeling toy of god, I'm going to scream. Even the NPC dialogue is awful because it feels like everyone is just saying variations of the same damn thing. I've never skipped through so much dialogue and cutscenes before in a game, and I will remind people, I play MGS. I'm used to wordy and repetitive dialogue that makes no sense.

[Fynn]

Nope, I will die on this hill. I had fun with LR. Granted, it was a thing I played right after the first two without any other game, so it might just be Toriyama Stockholm Syndrome, but I still have fond memories of pretty much this game only. XIII bored me out of my skull, XIII-2 left me bewildered I’m not a good way at all, while with LR I just basked in the weirdness.

[Wolf Kanno]

So I pretty much did everything in the staring town and reached he Noel fight, where he proceeded to wipe the floor with me due to my bad blocking skills (I prefer to dodge if allowed) and me doing chip damage to him despite hitting him with Deprotect and Deshell. I even acquired a shiny new weapon I earned from one of the Etro cultist just before the fight that has better stats than anything I currently own. Looking online for some tips, I learned I should probably just walk away and explore the other regions and do some missions to raise my stats before really tackling the big story missions final bosses. So I went back to Snow's home turf and did a few quests before heading of to the Wildlands to discover where I'm assuming Sazh is holding up along with possibly Caius.

Pros:

• After two games lacking real cities, it is nice to finally explore some real locations that feel like people live there. The Gothic vibe of Luxerion is pretty neat, while the Carnival vibe of Snow's location is pretty cool as well.
• I did enjoy the Gourmet/Sleezy's restaurant quest.
• After his awful redesign in XIII-2, I love that Snow finally has a decent outfit for a change. It might be my favorite one in the trilogy for him.

Cons:

• Again, if blocking is going to be such a major mechanic for the game, why couldn't we just give it a default button and let every schemata use it?
• I'm really not loving the combat system. I'm not sure if I just need to practice more, or figure out a better load out, but combat just feels clunky and slow to me. The fact I don't get much reward from fighting also gives me less incentive to fight. So combat just feels like a complete chore so far in this game.
• Oh god, I've found two quests that involve me coming back every day at the same time. I can already tell they will likely play it to the wire. Neither sounds interesting either.
• The worst part of these "real time" games is just trying to figure out how to kill time efficiently between mission objectives, and like Majora's Mask, I feel like it's going o be a while before I get the time down correctly.
• Some of these quests are just... ugh. Like I appreciate that the game is not going full edge lord here and making everything grim dark, but the humor also feels really awkward and weird. Maybe it's just not my type of humor?
• I think my biggest issue with the story so far, is that I'm following two characters I never cared for in the previous games. Like yes, XIII-2 did a lot to make Hope more likable, but he's sill not compelling for me, and I also think it was dumb to de-age him here. But I honestly feel Hope and Lightning are more interesting characters when they are not interacting with each other. I dreaded their chapters together in the original XIII. So coming back to that dynamic isn't selling this game very well for me. I also find their non-Mission support conversations to be atrocious and this game is beating its concepts over the players head harder than even Kingdom Hearts.
• I'm having a difficult time getting into this game. I spent a whole day just playing through, and I walked away from the experience being mostly frustrated and bored. Granted, I feel part of the issue here is me. I just don't care about XIII and its setting. Like I was okay to call it quits after XIII-2 and my overall mood with this game is simply "let's get this over with" so that's likely feeding into my sour mood while I play. It's hard to stay focused on something when you don't really care about the outcome. I don't have anything to feel invested in.

[Del Murder]

LR is one of the few mainline FF games I have not played. It is probably just that and XIV if you only count the true sequels. Maybe I will try it someday if WK ends up liking it.

[Wolf Kanno]

I am not going to mince words. I really don't like this game. I guess I'm waiting for i to click for me, but so far it's just been a pain in the ass due to it's design.

The firs major issue hurting it for me is that I really just don't care about the characters or the problems. If this game had been an original concept, I could probably dig into the mysteries better, but after two whole games of dealing with Lightning and Hope, I'm just bored. I kind of wish we had pulled a XIII-2 and moved towards different protagonists, because to paraphrase Shulk, "I'm not feeling it" The only way this could be worse is if Vanille somehow managed to become the third active member, and I have seen her wandering around.

The combat is also just not fun. The game is trying too hard to marry turn-based RPG battle mechanics with Action-RPG mechanics and I say this all the time, you're never going to find a happy medium because they both require different criteria o feel good. So it's just aggravating and reminding me of Crisis Core's nonsense, and even then, I dare say VII:CC did it better despite the bulltrout in that game. I honestly hate it more than XIII's battle system at the moment.

The gameplay structure would sound neat if I felt like I was making progress, but I don't. I'm not sure if it's the timer aspect, the fact the main missions are surprisingly difficult towards the end, or the fact that I really really really didn't want to screw around for 20+ hours doing silly fetch quests with every personality hire in XIII's universe. Okay, it is definitely the third aspect that is screwing me over the most. I'm just tired of this setting and wish to move on, and his game is going to make me wallow in it until I either give up or suck it up and do what it wants me to.

For now, I'm going to keep trying, but this might be the one entry I give up on.

[Del Murder]

Well that settles it for me.

[Wolf Kanno]

Yeah, I think I'm going to just take a break from his and move on. I find this game frustrating and insufferable, and I probably should have done what I did after FFXIII and just play something else for a while. I'll come back, but I'm probably going to just use a guide, because I don't have the patience to figure it out on my own since I have little incentive to finish this outside of OCD.

I'll probably finish Breath of Fire III or restart Suikoden II.