Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII review – could have been better

There’s a lot that’s wrong with Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. The finale to the three-part series that has been Final Fantasy XIII, Lightning Returns sees the pink-haired Lightning reawoken as an avatar of the god Bhunivelze. Her task is to save as many souls as possible from the present world so Bhunivelze can end it and start a brand new, populated world.

The catch here is that Lightning has been set to this task with just six days left on the clock. Helping people, or saving souls, rewards you with more time, up to a maximum of thirteen days before doomsday hits. By all rights, this should be a frantic journey of atonement and salvation as Lightning hunts for friends to set things right with, and people to save.

Yet it’s not. Lightning Returns is a sad semblance of a game that could have been. The game is dogged by a timer that counts down much faster than you’d imagine, but instead of lending a sense of urgency and determination to your missions, it only serves as an annoyance. What happened to being allowed to roam and explore the JRPG as you wished, and more importantly, what happened to allowing a player to immerse themselves in a vast world that has been dreamed up for them?

It’s easy to affect the timer, whether positively or negatively, though the combat in Lightning Returns does it no favors. Monsters actively roam the map, and you engage in battles after you trade first blows. It’s easy to take the monsters out at first, but as the fights get tougher, you’ll find yourself getting knocked out pretty easily, especially if you’re not used to the Active Time Battle (ATB) combat style. Fainting in battle allows you to cast the Escape spell, but that eats away at your countdown timer. The solution is, of course, to always make sure you’re at your optimum health, so that even if you do suck at the game, you can at least tank a few wayward blows. But even that gets tough.

Time is money, and fights do no one any favours

Lightning has to source food and drink outside of battle to replenish health, but since the food and beverage outlets in the game close at night, it’s not the most efficient gameplay mechanic to work together with a countdown timer. The good thing is that even if you’re terrible at using anything more than the D-pad and the O button in a fight, the combat in Lightning Returns still feels pretty good.

Fights in the game is fast-paced and intuitive. Each Schemata has its own Active Time Battle (ATB) meter which diminishes with each action in battle. Once the meter on one schemata drains, you can switch to another to keep up the attack while the other replenishes itself. Fights in Lightning Returns are wondrous instances of hacking-and-slashing—and theoretically you could hack an enemy to death before it lands a blow.

Though Lightning Returns involves just one character, the game has been designed so that it still feels like you have a full party. Lightning is capable of equipping up to three different Schemata, or dress spheres, if you will, at a time. These really skimpy costumes are sets of weapons and armor, and can be customized so that each set lends Lightning different abilities, and a different fighting style. They can also be swapped on the fly during battle, making it feel like you have three different characters instead of just one

The only thing that could have been done better with combat is actually rewarding it. In Lightning Returns, you don’t level up. Battles reward you with scrap item drops, and as a result, come across as less than enticing once you figure out they either waste a little time or waste a lot of time when you die. Instead of the traditional post-battle experience and stat gain, Lightning Returns sees its protagonist earning stat boosts and new skills after she completes quests. But at least the combat’s fun. It’s hardly the worst thing about the game.

If I wanted to be preached at, I’d go to church

The worst thing about Lightning Returns is its farce of a plot. The Final Fantasy series has always been known for its storytelling and its cast. Lightning Returns has neither. It is visually impressive, of course (never mind that the Crystal Tools engine is outdated) but its visuals are let down by a plot that makes you furrow your brows in confusion.