Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII's Debut Trailer Will Leave You Disappointed [Update]

I feel sad about Final Fantasy decline from the top of the jrpg ladder. First one that got me on the series was FFX and is still my favorite. Played FF XIII, got to the air ship before i said screw this. Usually I atleast get to the last boss before I do that. May all jrpg get a tip from this dieing franchise, pretty graphics only make a fourth of a great game

Almost makes you wish square would just quit.

I really don't know how people can say FF is in decline. Everyone seems to like FFX, FFXII was great... it was pretty much just FFXIII that was disappointing, and that was only because the game was on rails for the first twenty hours. Once you hit Gran Pulse it's all good--lotta fun fights in the latter part of the game.

Frankly, I've played most FFs for the open world aspect. I'm pretty sure I put 40 hours into all the side quests in XII before I finally got around to punching the final boss in the face. By that point it was like, "Wait, who are you? You want to destroy the world? Listen, I just spent like two weeks there as an explorer/cartographer/adventurer/archaeologist/collector/sup​erhero and let me tell you, it is freaking awes--oh, you're dead."

I agree 100% I really need this SE hate explained to me, at this point I almost feel like something is wrong with me for still enjoying these games. XII is my favorite in the series, and I thought the story in XIII-2 was amazing(the end more so). Also ARR looks to completely make up for giving us FFXIV alpha version.

Video unavailable for me, what was so bad about it anyways?

FFX wasn't great, it was good, not great. FFX-2 had the best battle system in any FF game, but was severely hampered by a terrible story, and reused environments. FFXI used to be a good game (if you're into that sort of thing) but has devolved into a grinding lootfest. FFXII was just awful. They took a bunch of uninteresting characters and threw them into a boring story, and piled on all of the worst parts of FFXI to make what I used to think was the worst FF game ever.

That opinion changed when I played FFXIII, or as I like to call it, FF, the corridor. Not only was the game so painfully linear that you could literally not get lost at any point during the game, but they so oversimplified the battle system to the point that you could play the game with one hand.

Also, the video is unavailable.

wow you are incredibly cynical. X, as a matter of fact, was great. I played that game for the first time when it was 10 years old and I loved the absolute **** out of it. As for XII, boring characters and a boring story are all a matter of opinion, it may have ruined the game for you, but plenty of poeple would love what was happening in that world. And, like most people, you've been looking at XIII the wrong way. It's a story driven game. The director said so himself, and as someone who played XIII for the story, I can tell you that it is by no means a bad game, I actually loved it. I'll admit the combat did feel too simplistic at times, but I still thoroughly enoyed it. If I had to guess, i'd say you aren't a FF fan at all, just some guy who happened to play the recent ones because they were new at the time. You didn't say otherwise either.

No one should reply to you. They should just refer you here:

Key words: "Colossal" and "Failure"

Links don't post. It's a Kotaku article about SE bringing in a new director to un**** FFXIV over two years after the initial release.

Yeah, they messed up bad with FFXIV. However the new director Yoshi-P was brought in just months after the inital release, and has been with the game for 2 years. They spent the last year of that rebuilding the game from the engine up, maps, etc.(first year was spent making orignal XIV playable)

They even had an event in XIV recently where a lesser moon crashed into the planet before they shut the servers down to get ready for relaunch, you probably saw the trailer or whatever released too it was featured on GR I think.

You're right. Should have double checked when he got put in the lead for it. Either way, the game itself won't be "fixed" until three years after it was released. That's a disaster.

You two never played the spin offs then or the MMO. X2 was basicly a soft porn game. Dirge of cerberus was just plainly bad. I did like crisis core though, shame on you who hated it. I also forgot about versus which is in development hell, my prediction is it's gonna be the next Duke Nukem

Not sure if this was directed at me, if so yes I have played crisis core it was the reason I got a PSP and it was bad ass. Also I have played FFXI since it launched in NA 2003 I think? I was just online leveling my SAM this afternoon. lol Unless you meant XIV which is relaunching as a real game in the next year.

I'm not sure what this has to do with the games still being enjoyable, most people who disliked XIII never got past the gigantic theatrical story where it actually opened up and played like most other FF titles. (mega-boss, farming items, etc) I agree that was kind of lame but XIII-2 was much better in that regard, it felt pretty huge and had a seriosly powerful story ending to boot.

Never said X was great just my favorite. XII was great didn't get into it but it was still cool

Never said X was great just my favorite. XII was great didn't get into it but it was still cool

Never said X was great just my favorite. XII was great didn't get into it but it was still cool

Video unavailable as of 10:45 pm CST.

Probably saved me 2 minutes of my life I wouldn't get back.

I was happy with X, but man did I love VII-IX. Maybe I was just at the right age where it all just seemed magic and fun.

X-2 was mediocre (you clearly haven't seen any softcore porn lately... far less unclothed breasts in X-2), XI was laughable but still a good try, XII was booooooorrring, and XIII had moments of greatness dragged down by linearity and a lack of customization. I haven't played XIII-2, but I've read reviews and I've heard from friends. Square is killing something beloved by trying to fit into an evolving market. The problem is, they created the goddamn market and can still dictate the direction it goes in. No one ever loved a Final Fantasy game for its riveting combat system... they love it for the story and the hundred+ hours to sink into side quests and mini-games, as well as a rich world to explore.

P.S- I'm with elmoreoocyte... I'm glad the video is unavailable because it would probably just ruin my night.

youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ajSAdgXU1ts
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This looks and sounds very unfinished but i'm still interested to see how they wrap up the story. Kind of sad we only get to use 1 character, I wasn't thrilled about using only 2 in XIII-2.

Is it me or the enviroments look like they were created with an N64-era engine?

By the way I watched it on Youtube, it's unavailable to me here.

No, I thought the same thing looked like some old Sims game when all those NPCs popped in. Not sure why they would show this to anyone. lol

I've lost any kind of great interest since FFIX. People say that's still a "good one", but I remember exactly zero about it. Played through most of XII with the same results. Tried XIII on a whim, and played all the way to the "good" open-world part and immediately lost interest.

I've never understood why people claim they play FF for their stories. Since the great Final Fantasy VI, they've all been huge contrived messes full of bad writing, cheesy melodrama, and characters for which I felt exactly zero empathy. That was okay with the first pair on PS (VII and VIII) because it felt so damn NEW at the time, but as the medium has allowed for more outright exposition and flashiness, the games have suffered.

And yea, so whatever dude up there said that "no one plays Final Fantasy for their combat" or somesuch should reconsider his knowledge of everybody's tastes. I'm pretty sure that's the only reason I've been able to stomach any of the games over the past decade or so.

I specifically mentioned the combat system, which has been a big focus since after FFX was released. Not everyone enjoys the stories, as is the case with all games, but a big reason people played previous FF games is for either the expansive, intricate world and RPG elements, the story itself, or a combination of those. Or visuals. Of course there's probably a small niche of gamers who think the combat system in a particular Final Fantasy game should be the model for combat in all games, but they're the vast minority.

It looks quite bad, but I'm still going to get it. They've definitely brainwashed me. I just hope that with Lightning being on her own they'll at least be a fudge load of sidequests etc.

I used to be a huge fan of the game FF but lately it just doesn't seem to grab my attention like it used to. I really hope something changes and they can get back to what made them so great.

Everyone has heard the saying Don't judge a book by its cover, well this editor at GR did just that. You don't judge a game by it's trailer, any gamer knows that. A game can have a great trailer and yet totally suck while another game can have a bad trailer and be totally awesome. Just because the cover is not gold plated covered with sugar smelling like roses does not mean the book is badtake note of the mister reviewer.

I'm a gamer. I totally judged this **** game by its trailer. Check out the textures, the backgrounds, and the many, many frames of Lightning running by herself without so much as a single NPC nearby. This game should not get released.