Time Limit?

[Enchanted]

So I played the previous games on console awhile back but never played Lighting Returns. I see that it's on sale now so I plan to finally complete Lightnings story however I hear this talk about having a time limit of 14 days? I like to take my time and rushing through doesn't sound appealing to me. Before I buy can someone please explain what that's about and if it's worth the purchase if I thought previous games were alright.

[KarmaTheAlligator]

There is a time limit, but you also get an ability to stop the clock for a while, and the time limit is pretty generous (and time doesn't flow during combat, which is half the game). The game will do its best to try and hurry you up via a certain NPC, but you can ignore him most of the time.

I recommend playing on Easy for your first playthrough, as the aforementioned ability will be easier to spam if you want to.

[Enchanted]

I see, it's reassuring to know I don't have to rush through battles and I had planned on playing it on easy anyway since my mouse and keyboard skills suck after years gaming with a controller. Thank you!

[KarmaTheAlligator]

Originally posted by EnchantedHeart:

I see, it's reassuring to know I don't have to rush through battles and I had planned on playing it on easy anyway since my mouse and keyboard skills suck after years gaming with a controller. Thank you!

Why use mouse and keyboard if you're used to a controller? Controller is the preferred way to play console ports 99% of the time. If it's because you don't have one, I suggest getting one ASAP.

[Enchanted]

I do have one but I feel like I might as well just get it on console if I were to play it with a controller. I want to get used to mouse and keyboard controls. But if I am having trouble with it I’ll use a controller.

[Serafie1999AD]

Note that Lightning Returns doesn't support mouse at all. To move the camera, you need to use a keyboard. This makes it extremely uncomfortable to play the game without a controller.

[Enchanted]

Originally posted by Serafie1999AD:

Note that Lightning Returns doesn't support mouse at all. To move the camera, you need to use a keyboard. This makes it extremely uncomfortable to play the game without a controller.

Oh...I was not aware of this. Guess I’ll use a controller then. Thanks for the heads up.

[13LACK ORDER]

14 days is more than enough to finish all quest main and side. you'll likely will finish all main quest on day 8 or 9 even less if you rushed it. and by day 11 or 12 you'll run out things to do except kill monster to extinction

[Kool Shade]

Just know that first play through unless you're following a very detailed walkthrough may be hard to get the 14th day, and even when you do everything for the 14th day you can still miss it at one point in the game, if you miss talking to someone.

The game is fun or was for me, but it can be troublesome to know just what to do at times. ( Or it was for me)

I personally had to look up quit a few missions to get back on track a lot of times.

[Holy Fool Sehrael]

A fact that I don't see mentioned most of the time is, that your character gets stats via completing quests, meaning that even if time's up and you didn't do all the things, you can start a ng+ while keeping those stats and stuff... honestly it's easier with a guide, I'm not good at explaining lol

However regarding time, I've gotten myself a cheat engine table for the game that includes freezing the resource you need to cast the timestop nonstop (Heh.) and it also has a "time mod" that let's you select which time of the day it is from 6am to... 6am, I guess. I wouldn't recommend the Freeze Time option with it though and I wouldn't use the cheat table until you're 'sent up' the first time. Sure as hell allows you to take any time you need to get comfortable with the game. But as the others said, time is relatively generous.

[kopiC]

1. Time stops whenever you open a menu, in combat, in focused conversation, in 'base camp' (I won't reveal for spoiler). You can take all the time, anytime, to plan your route, setup your character.

2. (Negative) Storytelling is insanely poor, makes no sense. Completely disappointing narrative presentation. Be very sure you can tolerate covering up poor storytelling with nonsense. (World setting is great, but you won't experience any of it in game)

3. (Negative) Like all JRPG, game is very grindy & repetitive: earning money, farming for random loot drops, paying for skill upgrades.
A positive change is character mainly power-up thru quest completion, not xp farming. Still need for farming gil and loot can't be ignored.

4. Asset flip: (to me) 80% of content are recycled. New story characters all given generic unidentifiable NPC treatment (FF13-2 still try adding new characters, LR:FF13 has NONE. Same goes for monsters!!!). Story covers up by claiming everyone is in stasis-like condition, where there is no aging for 500 years. BUT when returning characters still wearing FF13 garb, there is no way to justify clothing that lasted 500 years!

If you're ran out of JRPG, this game is okay for killing time. Just be aware, poor story will leave you uninspired and confused.

[Enchanted]

Originally posted by kopiC:

1. Time stops whenever you open a menu, in combat, in focused conversation, in 'base camp' (I won't reveal for spoiler). You can take all the time, anytime, to plan your route, setup your character.

2. (Negative) Storytelling is insanely poor, makes no sense. Completely disappointing narrative presentation. Be very sure you can tolerate covering up poor storytelling with nonsense. (World setting is great, but you won't experience any of it in game)

3. (Negative) Like all JRPG, game is very grindy & repetitive: earning money, farming for random loot drops, paying for skill upgrades.
A positive change is character mainly power-up thru quest completion, not xp farming. Still need for farming gil and loot can't be ignored.

4. Asset flip: (to me) 80% of content are recycled. New story characters all given generic unidentifiable NPC treatment (FF13-2 still try adding new characters, LR:FF13 has NONE. Same goes for monsters!!!). Story covers up by claiming everyone is in stasis-like condition, where there is no aging for 500 years. BUT when returning characters still wearing FF13 garb, there is no way to justify clothing that lasted 500 years!

If you're ran out of JRPG, this game is okay for killing time. Just be aware, poor story will leave you uninspired and confused.

Oof. I haven't played it yet but you think I should have bought Final fantasy 10 instead? Both that and Lightning Returns was on sale and I figured since I played 13 and part 2 I'd finish Lightning's story.

[kopiC]

JRPG is vast. Depending a lot on type of person you are.

If you focused on FF series, FFX and FF13 are good buy, especially on sale.
Do note LRFF13 encounter is dangerously close to ARPG, can be problem to Turn-based lovers (stick to easy difficulty). But if you are Souls-like lover, this may match your taste, with Just-In-Time based inputs.

If you more the general JRPG type, there are many others: Tales-of series, Trails-of series, Persona, alternate JRPG by Chunsoft Spike like Zanki Zero, Danganronpa, Ys, Tokyo Xanadu etc.

[KarmaTheAlligator]

Originally posted by kopiC:

4. Asset flip: (to me) 80% of content are recycled. New story characters all given generic unidentifiable NPC treatment (FF13-2 still try adding new characters, LR:FF13 has NONE. Same goes for monsters!!!). Story covers up by claiming everyone is in stasis-like condition, where there is no aging for 500 years. BUT when returning characters still wearing FF13 garb, there is no way to justify clothing that lasted 500 years!

Yeah, Lumina and Bhuni were such a big part of 13-2. Or the Anubys and Set monsters, or the chimera, or the archangeli or... you get my point, I hope. The fact is, there are new characters and monsters, but not a lot.

[Holy Fool Sehrael]

Originally posted by EnchantedHeart:

Originally posted by kopiC:

1. Time stops whenever you open a menu, in combat, in focused conversation, in 'base camp' (I won't reveal for spoiler). You can take all the time, anytime, to plan your route, setup your character.

2. (Negative) Storytelling is insanely poor, makes no sense. Completely disappointing narrative presentation. Be very sure you can tolerate covering up poor storytelling with nonsense. (World setting is great, but you won't experience any of it in game)

3. (Negative) Like all JRPG, game is very grindy & repetitive: earning money, farming for random loot drops, paying for skill upgrades.
A positive change is character mainly power-up thru quest completion, not xp farming. Still need for farming gil and loot can't be ignored.

4. Asset flip: (to me) 80% of content are recycled. New story characters all given generic unidentifiable NPC treatment (FF13-2 still try adding new characters, LR:FF13 has NONE. Same goes for monsters!!!). Story covers up by claiming everyone is in stasis-like condition, where there is no aging for 500 years. BUT when returning characters still wearing FF13 garb, there is no way to justify clothing that lasted 500 years!

If you're ran out of JRPG, this game is okay for killing time. Just be aware, poor story will leave you uninspired and confused.

Oof. I haven't played it yet but you think I should have bought Final fantasy 10 instead? Both that and Lightning Returns was on sale and I figured since I played 13 and part 2 I'd finish Lightning's story.

Let me stop you right there. The thing about posting in a forum about opinions if you should buy it or not or if the game is good or not is, that it's subjective. There's no consensus that is absolute and the closes that comes to it is the amount of positive reviews. If you can get it on sale, get it. The thing about the story/narrative is, that not everyone gets it since it's a bit confusing and requires a bit of thinking outside of the box.

So what I wanna say is, don't base your decision on what others say. Maybe read through the reviews too, especially those that are considered most helpful, and make a decision based on your feeling; If you're feeling like you can spend a good amount of time on it and have fun (Early game indeed is the hardest part, you get stronger and wiser with each playthrough), then buy it. Especially if on sale, you're not loosing much there.

The FFX remake of course is also a good investment. Just go with what you feel like makes most sense to you ^^ I hope that post made sense, I'm often having a hard time putting my thoughts into words.

[Enchanted]

Originally posted by Sehrael:

Let me stop you right there. The thing about posting in a forum about opinions if you should buy it or not or if the game is good or not is, that it's subjective. There's no consensus that is absolute and the closes that comes to it is the amount of positive reviews. If you can get it on sale, get it. The thing about the story/narrative is, that not everyone gets it since it's a bit confusing and requires a bit of thinking outside of the box.

So what I wanna say is, don't base your decision on what others say. Maybe read through the reviews too, especially those that are considered most helpful, and make a decision based on your feeling; If you're feeling like you can spend a good amount of time on it and have fun (Early game indeed is the hardest part, you get stronger and wiser with each playthrough), then buy it. Especially if on sale, you're not loosing much there.

The FFX remake of course is also a good investment. Just go with what you feel like makes most sense to you ^^ I hope that post made sense, I'm often having a hard time putting my thoughts into words.

Nah I get the point you're making. I know a lot of people didn't like Final Fantasy 15 yet I thought it was pretty good. Anyway, I have Lightning Returns on my library but forgive me for being less than eager to play it now that a number of people have told me the story is confusing and meh. A good story is one of the main things I look for in games and I had hoped it would get better seeing it's the finale to Lightnings story. I'll just keep expectations low when I do play it and if it turns out to be good it'll be a nice surprise.