Lightning Returns : Final Fantasy XIII - Review

Lightning final chapter is finally here after a total of four years!

Small Spoilers (nothing about the ending), read at your own risk!
It has been a total of four years with Final Fantasy XIII and its sequels...now it's time to say good-bye to Lightning and her friends with this ending worth it if you enjoyed this saga as much as I did.
Before I start, let me say I have played almost every Final Fantasy ever done and I've enjoyed this thirteen episode more than any other. My notes to the two previous installments after the update I made for every game I reviewed are: Final Fantasy XIII (9.6/10) and Final Fantasy XIII-2 (9.3/10).

Set after 500 years after the events of FFXIII-2, Lightning is awaken by God himself and asks her to complete the last mission, she must save every soul she can in the planet in order to destroy the world and put all the people in a new world. You only have 13 days until the end of the world and you must save every one you can before that final conflict.
That's the initial plot but every character we know from the series is appearing one last time and they need to be helped and saved, each one of them has their own story (Example: Noel has been punishing himself for everything that happened in the last game or Sazh is trying to save his son one more time). This is a nice touch as you can end their character-stories one by one.

Lightning has lots of outfits in Lightning Returns,
she can wear from classy dresses to sexy

In this game, you control the savior also known as Lightning. That's the only character you are going to use and that's a big THANK YOU from me to Square-Enix. Once you start the game you'll see the biggest difference from other Final Fantasies and that's freedom: from the first minute you start the game (at Luxerion once you resolve a case of murder) you can go wherever you want to and do the missions you want to in the order you prefer to. Not only the freedom but the exploration which is huge, you have four different places to go, two cities and two landscapes (dessert and wildlife) and they are very, very huge with lots of stuff to see and do as you will see how many sub quests the game has aside the main story. You'll be spending a lot of time doing stuff aside the main missions and exploring, that's a huge step forward from the other entries and a start to see how the series is going to.

The fighting system has been upgraded, let's say its a mix between the one from XIII and Kingdom Hearts, you can only use Lightning but she has almost 80 different grabs to change and lots of swords and shields so you can custom in the way you want to have different roles during the fights. Those fights are real-time, very fast and really hard, possibly the hardest from the FFXIII Saga (and I must say I'm very good at fighting, never lost a fight from the previous games, never!). You can change those grabs (similar to Paradigm Shift) with a single button and keep fighting as each grab has its own ATB bar.

Fights are still the best from this series and even better
in Lightning Returns being even faster and harder!

The gameplay is better, the fights are more entertaining than ever but what about graphics and sound? Well, that's the low point as the graphics haven't been improved since the last game and are still worse than the original Final Fantasy XIII, that's a shame because I really wanted to see Lightning and her ending story in better graphics or, at least, like the original. Everything can't be done but the good point is the sound and music; the voices are great done, Lightning is amazing as the rest of the group like in the two previous games but the music here is even better than the XIII-2. I am enjoying the soundtrack from this game like I did with the first game, I'm sometimes just walking around to hear the amazing music, it fits with the scenes, fights and atmosphere of the game.

But the bad point of this game is the story, while the first one had a great story with lots of new things and a new universe with its beliefs to see and the second game was good with the time travel and Lightning's fate of trying to save Vanille and Fang. This third and last game is just OK, it's not the worst ever but I expected to have a great and amazing ending which I could think of it during weeks but it wasn't...don't get me wrong, it's a good way to end this trilogy but they could have done it better still I'm going to miss Final Fantasy XIII's universe and, especially, Lightning which I hope I can see her again soon...

· GRAPHICS (9) - Good graphics but not like all the other games are coming out this ending generation, they are at the same level as XIII-2 but still not as good as the original game. Lightning's face and grabs are great plus the landscapes are amazing to see especially the ones from Yusnaan and Wildlands.

· SOUND (10) - I cannot say anything wrong about this, the voices are great performances and the soundtrack has come back to its roots having great songs that fits perfectly with the game!

· GAMEPLAY (9.8) - Freedom from the first minute, I love these kind of games, and the fights are very enjoyable thanks to the new system of grabs and how fast they are! Exploring, freedom and fights are the best from the game. The Clock of Doom that counts down how many time you have left is not a good welcome but you get used to it after you have played your first 10 hours...

· STORY (9) - Huge letdown about this part, I really expected something different but it's not that bad...you'll cry at the end of the game as you'll see Lightning and her friends for the last time. Nice way to end all the characters stories one by one doing the main missions.

9.5 / 10

"Lightning's final adventure is a nice way to end this trilogy fixing all the problems from the previous games and a nice way to see all your favorite characters once again before the real ending. I'm really going to miss Lightning a lot..."

:: My Top 15 Videogames ::

1. Final Fantasy XIII Trilogy (9.6)

2. Skyrim (9.6)

3. Bioshock Infinite (9.5)
4. Tomb Raider (9.5)
5. Arkham Asylum / Arkham City (9.4)

6. Portal 2 (9.4)

7. Final Fantasy VII (9.4)

8. Dishonored (9.3)
9. Assassin's Creed II / IV: Black Flag (9.3)

10. Mass Effect Trilogy (9.2)

11. Bioshock (9.1)

12. Final Fantasy X (9.1)

13. Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time / Wind Waker (9.1)
14. Rayman Legends (9.0)

15. Alan Wake (9.0)

Hope to see you again in another game!