Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII Review

Many things have been said about the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy over the years: that Final Fantasy XIII is too linear, like a hallway simulator, or the time constraint in Lightning Returns is far too stressful, and so much more. However, after going into the third FFXIII game blind and largely maintaining that playstyle, some of those concerns can safely be put to rest. Yes, there are seven days until the end of the world at the start of the game; the tension bleeds through the screen in the opening hours, no doubt. The trilogy was never one for brevity, preferring, at times, overly convoluted narratives and plot development. Still, there’s a lot to love about Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.

The story is fascinating for many reasons. Beyond the looming end of the world, it explores philosophical quandaries like life after death, the concept of saving souls, and the impact and power of good deeds. If Nier: Replicant felt like Brotherly Love, Lightning Returns would be “Sisterly Love,” as Lightning wants nothing more than to be reunited with Serah, and the same was seen from Serah in Final Fantasy XIII-2. Lightning must overcome a lot of her shortcomings, including being so stoic she’d put Squall to shame.

As a sidenote, the lack of depravity and debauchery from the world’s citizens is surprising. Considering there is a week to go, widespread looting, substance abuse, and blowing life savings might have been expected. Instead, people are, by and large, way more restrained, keen to figure out, in the grand scheme of things, what might seem like minor things, but still deeply important on a personal level.

It is almost odd how there are all these slices of life in the face of impending doom. Narratively, it gives a feeling that is rarely experienced, if ever. It raises the question of whether many people are just in denial and live life as normally as possible as a coping mechanism. Here Lightning is, helping as many people as she can to pass on to the next stage and what they feel is a better life. Perhaps that explains the calmness of most citizens; what is coming might indeed be better.

In the centre of all of this is Hope, who helps to direct Lightning as she runs around the four regions of Nova Chrysalia, aiding as many people as she can, and some familiar friends, while also diving deeper into her own psyche and being confronted with personal truths she preferred to ignore. There is a cult-like group that doesn’t welcome Lightning’s mission. Perhaps out of fear, selfishness, or malice, they resist her efforts and try to lead others astray. Their presence adds tension to the world, showing that even in the face of the apocalypse, human nature can still twist toward conflict or corruption.

Lightning serves as the saviour appointed by God to collect pure souls to send to this higher power and the next stage of existence. She has limited time, and this might stress players. Saving souls can delay the end of the world and add more days, up to seven extra days. This is a game where side quests are essential to success. One complaint is how obtuse some of them can be, or the fact that some are strictly time sensitive. For these reasons, it can be of benefit to look up information online to figure out the schedules and locations of some characters, as reminders, as well as to plan the structure of each day.

The way NPCs’ daily lives are intertwined into the time mechanic is brilliant, if not a bit vexing at times. Some parts of Luxerion or the Wildlands are only open at specific times of the day, so access to important NPCs is limited as well. In other areas of towns, they only show up at certain times, similar to Xenoblade Chronicles, and it wouldn’t be shocking if the developers were inspired by that game. To complete certain tasks, appropriate planning is necessary. This is one of the rare games where sticky notes might be helpful to keep track of the availability of different NPCs. Granted, there are map markers, but those only go so far.

Lightning is granted an important power in her mission to save as many souls as possible, and there are 66 side quests and 83 Canvas of Souls, which are minor versions of the typical side quest, mostly a standard fetch quest or kill X amount of enemies. To aide in tackling so many quests, she can stop time, called Chronostasis. Gripes aside, this lasts such a short time that it’s practically ineffective, but there’s an easy solution: beating enemies restores the EP needed to cast Chronostasis. Fighting a larger one gives the best effects, and nearly unlimited time is possible.

Speaking of enemies, there aren’t many types compared to a typical RPG, but there’s a reason. Killing enough of a specific species, sometimes as few as 30, and often well over 100, can make them go extinct. Not every foe in the game can go extinct, though. If a rare beast is being sought and there is an inundation of more common creatures, beating up a bunch of them will cause them to cease to exist, increasing the odds of rarer monsters showing up.

Moving away from the Paradigm shifts of the first two games in the trilogy, there is the new schema battle system, which, despite Lightning being solo, is an improvement. It takes the old-school ATB meter from retro Final Fantasy games and mixes it with this strategy-action hybrid, which is intriguing. Easy to learn, hard to master.

Lightning has access to a plethora of garbs she can wear, and can bring three into battle, each with their own ATB meter, freely switching between them. It’s almost like having three party members. Each garb has four attacks, some preset, assigned to the four buttons on the right of the controller. These range from basic attacks to magic, to guarding, and beyond, and proper preparation and management of the schema is the only way to succeed. Enemy strengths and weaknesses are just a button press away, too, allowing plans to be made accordingly at all times. This is key, since normally there is a time penalty and EP deduction for running from battle on normal. On easy, no such penalties exist.

Compared to many other games with an easy mode, the one in Lightning Returns is surprisingly still tough at times and is probably more similar to a normal or default mode in most other RPGs with difficulty settings. Normal in this game is actually closer to hard in most other games. This is worth keeping in mind when starting a new game, as difficulty cannot be switched once the game has started.

Where Final Fantasy XIII felt too linear, not just in exploration, but in character build for the majority of the game, Lightning Returns overwhelms with the wealth of customisation options. This isn’t just in the many garbs that can be found and purchased, but the attacks and magic that can be equipped and upgraded via synthesis, as well as weapons, armour, and accessories that can be improved in New Game+. It is highly likely that no two players, at least playing blind, will have the same schema. Avoiding the temptation to look up optimal builds online would almost be practically a crime with so many options available. Simply put, experimentation is a blast.

One downside of Lightning Returns is that there is such a focus on side content, which, it must be stressed, is still mandatory, that the main quests take a back seat. Not just in how many there are (just five main quests), but it feels like they get drowned out by everything else in the game. They are still impactful, especially Chapter 2, which is slightly reminiscent of Persona 5 story and plot-wise, but a few of them can be completed in under an hour in a game that takes over 45 hours! If ever there was an RPG that puts a large emphasis on random NPCs, Lightning Returns is it! Just the same, boss battles are few and far between, but incredibly poignant.

As if that wasn’t already enough, Lightning can also fight in a battle arena in Yusnaan. Some quests require it, but there are also great rewards to be found there, though it’s only open at night.

Graphics are never a make-or-break, but there is, overall, a drop-off in quality compared to FFXIII. However, this can be explained by the fact that part of what made XIII so breathtakingly gorgeous was sacrifices in other areas, mainly its severe linearity, since developers had much smaller areas to focus on. Opening up FFXIII-2 and especially Lightning Returns, with two vast regions and a day/night cycle, required slightly less graphical prowess because resources had to be spread thinner. This was a fantastic trade-off, but other gamers should be aware of this. Plus, the cutscenes are still mind blowing 12 years later.

The Final Fantasy series has always been renowned for top-notch soundtracks, and this remains true in the XIII trilogy. It could be said that Lightning Returns is the best of the three. Beyond the major plot points, there are more subtle connections. For example, tracks from the first two games appear here, either directly or as new renditions. They hit even harder when they bring up memories of key moments tied to the first two games. The voice acting, like the first two games, is superb, to the point where even some of the townspeople are excellent and convincing.

As far as performance on a modern, budget gaming laptop, with the specs listed, it runs almost perfectly. In full-screen mode, the game crashed twice in 47 hours with no issues of slowdown on an Intel Core i5-13450HX, 13th Gen, 2.40 GHz Processor, 16GB RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 graphics card with 6GB GDDR6. Nothing special, but it got the job done, and there was no need to download any of the patches that are sometimes mentioned online. This is probably the best-performing game of the trilogy.

In the end, the criticism of the time system is overblown. The game is generous with the time it gives players (one hour of in-game time is about 2.5 minutes in real life). It can be a little complex managing so many different missions with limited availability of some NPCs, but careful use of Chronostasis should, eventually, limit those concerns. In place of that worry, a certain addictive quality should emerge. Although, as happy as it is to beat Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, and as much as the game is enjoyable, be aware that New Game+ is required to 100% it.