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This is my first review so, please bear with me. Lightning Returns is the final game of the FFXIII Trilogy. That being said this game is made to give the player closure after playing FFXIII and FXIII-2. The closure this game gives may or may not be enough for some people but you just have to play it to find out if it is enough for you. Now Lightning Returns introduces a new combat system, Instead of the menu combat it is now Realtime Combat. Realtime Combat made the gameplay extremely immersive and alot more fun (In my opinion). Now Lightning gets to use 3 Schemas which the player can customize like this:
-Garb
-Weapon
-Shield
-Accessory 1
-Accessory 2
-Adornment (Optional Wear: Bunny Ears, Tails, Wings, Tattoos etc.)
-Ability 1
-Ability 2
-Ability 3
-Ability 4
(Note that some Garbs have locked abilities where the player cannot put their own ability into the locked slot)
Lightning again uses 3 Main Schemas and switches out between the 3 different schemas the player has put into their Main Schema Slots.
ATB Bars are basically Mana Pools where Lightning uses an ability and that amount of ATB is taken from the ATB Bar. (Note that ATB is NOT shared between your Schemas and will regenerate when not in use.)
Combat Highly Revolves around how well the player can perfectly Block and Attack.
Staggering is the main way to do damage, Staggering has different conditions depending on the enemy and there are many different ways you can stagger a single enemy.
The player may choose whatever goes into the schema and is completely up to the player on which they would like to use. While on the topic of Schemas I would like to address a complaint that some players have about the Schema Setups.
Some players may feel forced to use a certain garb for a locked ability Soldier of Peace with Artemis's Arrow Choosing to use a garb for the reward of easing the play is the PLAYER'S choice and not the games. I personally beat the game using garbs that Lightning wore in the previous games; which are given to the player for free in the Rewards Barter Shop (Only on the PC Port, On console you must have to have a save file from FXIII for 1 and FXIII-2 for another).
One of the aspects of the game are the Time Limit, You are given 6 Days to start but by progressing through the story you are given more. (PROTIP: DO NOT LOOK AT THE ACHIEVEMENTS OR YOU WILL GET SPOILED VERY HARD ;-;) Now roughly 2.5 seconds in Real Life are equivalent to 1 Minute in Lightning Returns clock. So 1 Hour of Lightning Returns time is equivalent to 2 minutes and 30 seconds of Real Life. That being said a Full Day in Lightning Returns is about 1 Real Life Hour. The clock is stopped during cutscenes, fights, and interaction with NPC's. Do not feel rushed, Square Enix knows that the time limit may be stressful and they incoporated abilities to help Lightning get through the quests without running out of time.
Lightning is also given Eradia, which can be found in the bottom left corner indicated by a glowing orange number with orange bars. Eradia has many uses which are given to the player throughout the game. Eradia is lost when using an Eradia Powered ability and is gained by killing enemies. Certain enemies such as, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, will not grant as much Eradia (roughly .02 Eradia gain) than slaying a Zaltys ( 1 Eradia gain). So killing big monsters will grant more Eradia to let Lightning use the Eradia spells.
Now the world is dying and it's all because of the Chaos. Chaos can be seen as a black aura with many tiles. If Lightning chooses to go to this area enemy encounters are alot harder. The enemy is given certain buffs while in the Chaos but if it leaves the chaos it becomes a regular enemy again. Fighting inside chaos may prove a challenge but if Lightning does win a battle inside the Chaos she is rewarded with: Bonus Eradia, Bonus Gil, and a higher chance of good drops.
Unlike the regular experience system in other FInal Fantasy games, Lightning Returns doesn't give you an experience system. Instead Lightning gets stronger through finishing: Main Quests, Side Quests, and Canvas of Prayer Quests (The Board found by Chocolina). While it may annoy some people having to grind quests to get stronger, it is optional. I was so engrossed in the story that after day 7 I slept all the way through the last day to see the ending.
Now we all play Final Fantasy Titles expecting story. Lightning Returns gives us story, some may not like it some may, Personally I enjoyed it. The story may be rushed at times but isn't that how it's suppoused to be? The world ends in 13 days and you can't dally or you fail your mission. The ending is something very special and if you hate Lightning as a character from FXIII and FXIII-2 for her attitude I would say you HAVE to play Lightning Returns. I personally loved Lightning as the main character throughout the series, being cold, violent, and mean made her seem like the biggest ***** alive but if that's the reason you don't want to play Lightning Returns you are doing yourself an injustice. The ending is something VERY SPECIAL while many seem to hate it I loved it (Even though I could barely see the screen through all my tears). It's something unique to say the least, I had always had an emotional connection with Lightning and the character progression of Lightning in this game parody'd (Related too well) to me, May have just caused a more emotional effect (I literally was blind in tears)
Now Square Enix forces you to start with either Normal or Easy, Both do NOT offer the full experience and the player must play again on HARD, which is awarded after completing the game. You basically have to play through the whole game again to get the full experience. May be annoying for some people I found it fun going through the tougher bosses for round 2.
The PC Port of FXIII Lightning Returns, as said in other reviews is undoubtedly the BEST PC PORT for the FXIII Series and is great. I ran FXIII Lightning Returns on 1920 x 1080 60 FPS (Ocassionally dipped down to 40) on a NVIDIA GTX 960M (Comparable to the GTX 750TI for Desktop Users) I5-6300HQ 2.3GHz with 8 GB of RAM
FXIII Gets alot of hate and alot of negative reviews for different reasons and people always have differing opinions. If you did play FXIII and FXIII-2 you MUST play this one. If you want to start with Lightning Returns I would highly oppose it, and URGE you to play through FXIII and FXIII-2 to get the story and get the most from FXIII Lightning Returns.


PROS:
-Realtime Combat System
-Gives Closure
-Replayability (The game gives the option for NG+ I have seen people do 9 Playthroughs)
-Open World (Not Linear like FFXIII)
-SE Gives an ability to FREEZE Clock
-Lightning is Customizeable
-BEST PC PORT for the FXIII Series
-Most entertaining and immersive boss fights (IMO)
-Game Comes with DLC (Except the Aerith and Seigfried Garbs)
-Character Development
-Beautiful Landscape
-No Party Members (If you didn't like the FFXIII Characters will be a pro)
-No EXP system (Lightning gets stronger through finishing Main and Side Quests)


CONS:
-Time Limit (Unless you play like a turtle or lose every fight you will not Time Out)
-Military Time (The Game Clock is in Military Time, Might be difficult to tell time for some people)
-Rushed Story (Makes sense because of the time limit)
-If you don't play on HARD you don't get the full experience.
-No Party Members (Revolves around Lightning, May be a Con for some people)
-No EXP system (Some people liked grinding monsters to lvl, I am not one of those people)
-Difficult Boss Fights (Hard NG+)
-Story might be difficult to understand (Really only in the beginning)

Solid 9/10, My favorite of all the FF games.

(I will finish this review after my completion of NG+ on HARD)