Square Enix announces Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13

By: Muhammad Qasim Hassan

  |   September 4th, 2012   |  

Uncategorized

Square Enix had been teasing the fans of the of the Final Fantasy franchise with a good news that awaited them at the 25^th Anniversary Event in Tokyo Japan.

Keeping true to their word, the publisher did manage to overwhelm the fans with some pretty exciting announcement. As it turns out, the much-loved main protagonist from Final Fantasy XIII Lightning is all set to make her return in the latest and concluding chapter in the series, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.

The game is still in development and both the game’s producer Yoshinori Kitase and director Motomu Toriyama are looking to ensure that the fans get exactly what they desire. In a bid to get the fans involved, they announced a Facebook and Twitter account for the game, where the Final Fantasy enthusiast can give their valuable feedback on the previous titles and what they expect of the upcoming title, which the design team will take into consideration while working on the game’s development.

The final chapter in the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy will once again find Lightning taking on the role of the main protagonist as she sets out on a daunting mission to save the world from complete destruction, which is scheduled to happen in 13 days. The time left for doomsday will be constantly reminded to the player through a large clock in the corner of the screen that will continue to tick as the adventure continues. Every action taken by the player, which includes reviving from death or travelling from one place to another through the monorail, will result in the clock ticking faster and the end of days getting nearer.

Players will find themselves resuming the story hundreds of years after the Final Fantasy XIII-2 in a world called Novus Partus. The world will comprise of four islands linked through a monorail. An art work of the world has already been revealed and it definitely seems to be in line with the guiding pillars for the art direction that the development team had told IGN, i.e. “gothic, mechanical and fantasy.”

Square Enix has decided to retain the paradigm system for battles, though not without making a few tweaks. Players will be given relatively more control over the actions during battles unlike any previous Final Fantasy game.

One of the main issues that fans found in the original Final Fantasy XIII game was that the gameplay was pretty linear, with the players having very little freedom to roam about. Square Enix heard the complaints and have fixed that in the latest game, allowing the players to explore the expansive world at will.

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII is expected to release for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in 2013.