I have been watching a few Lightning Returns reviews, as in IGN, Gamespot, Gametrailers etc. Overall they've been rather negative (which I just expect for a Final Fantasy game now). They all say the story is bad (which I'm not bothered about in the slightest). Some say that the time limit ruins the ability to explore and this is something I've never understood. Surely you need some sort of constraint to make you need to gather as much information as you can, as opposed to just making everything so easily available that you just go everywhere cause you can. It's because of the time limit that the distance between certain points matters a lot more, plus it makes you think of the implications of unusual layouts that most games don't do. I often hear "I like to take my time" but honestly, given new game+ you will learn and "explore" the world in such interesting ways and honestly, who purposefully plays a game slowly? If you want to discover what the world has to offer, surely you'd be trying to gather as much information as possible and consider it's implications on you (the player). Lightning Returns does just that, it's because of the time limit that learning stuff is rewarded. Plus, the new game+ means that you'll be able to explore more and more every time with greater ease. In fact, long-term restraints is the exact opposite of what FF13 did (which everyone complained about).
No EXP from battles is something that I was curious about at the start because I wasn't sure how it would work, but the reviews have been so dismissive. This is something that irritates me, when people complain about the idea of something before considering (or even having a chance to get to know) the context. You don't get EXP but you do get gil, EP recovery and items. Gil is very important because the harder battles require use of many potions if you're not strong enough. Items includes abilities which can be combined to create more powerful versions with the bonus of additional stat growth. EP is great because there are really powerful abilities that consume EP, including chronostasis which freezes game-time temporarily, curaga and arise. Strangely, when you run out of HP, that's when you have access to reviving spells and items. Items are limited to 6 items total (so no more getting 99 potions) and this is great, it means that you need to be more careful with what types of potions you buy (and there's a lot of variety) and increasing the quantity you can hold means less time being used up going to shops.
Whilst a lot of people have been going "No EXP from battles? A time limit? Humbug!" I have been using those mechanics to consider long-term the implications of my actions. All it does is increase the number of variables to make the information you gather usable in different ways. Put it this way, if you have every played and enjoyed any game without traditional EXP, then you have no reason to assume that the lack of that EXP will be a bad thing. I know I'm going off on a bit of a tangent here but I really need to point this out: you simply cannot make an instant judgement on something if in any other circumstance there is something where you don't judge it from the same parameters! Lack of EXP will make the game bad? Did lack of EXP make Super Mario Bros bad? No? Oh that's different because it's a platform game? What about the platform games with EXP? Are those games bad because platform games shouldn't have EXP? Why would a platform game not be made instantly better or worse with EXP but another game would? Oh it's because any game with turn-based mechanics requires EXP? I guess you must hate almost every board game then. Though again, Lightning Returns still functions as an RPG for the reasons I have stated in the first couple paragraphs.
One review actually said that in order to escape from a battle, you need to both exhaust all your reviving items/spells AND run out of HP... this is completely untrue, you can escape a battle at anytime with no hassle at all, only with the cost that a game-hour will be lost. Speaking of which, thats another thing people have been complaining about, the fact that escaping from battle costs a game-hour, but how is this a bad thing? The idea of this game is that you'll play through multiple times getting better each time (carrying stuff over). It's hypocritical to first complain about how battles dont give EXP and then complain that a particular system that is used to reward those who have played a long time with not only higher stats but extra available time (via the lack of need to escape).
Something that the reviews didn't touch on was the how the game handles speed requirements. Similar to 13 and 13-2, you are rewarded for acting fast, but rather than creating a direct link between speed and reward, there is a speed-threshhold that you need to maintain in order to get as much out of the battle as you can. As long as you're faster than the ATB bars then further speed won't help you any further (though sometimes like in 13, the speed requirements can be really fast). The battle system I would say is not as good as 13 but still really good. Where 13 gave you 6 paradigms with options that didnt have a direct use (via the uncertain variables with auto-attack), Lightning Returns has 3 schemata (kinda the same thing) with 4 options that have a more obvious use. What I'm mostly finding less appealing about Lightning Returns is how the stagger works. There is no balance between stagger boosting and preventing stagger recovery. As opposed to a bar that tells you the percentage of stagger there is a vague coloured squiggly line. Stagger itself seems to be rather binary, in that it's only varied between "stagger" and "not stagger" so the act of balancing and the dynamism between each of the characters isn't in this game so much. That being said, the battle system is still great.
Lightning is alone this time around though the different schemata have so much difference that it's like having three characters to switch between. Each schemata has their own abilities, stats, ATBs and HP. Only one of those schemata needs to run out of HP for you to die. So hey, it's kinda like that "one character dies it's game over" thing that everyone loves to complain about, but I guess nobody will complain about it this time because all three schemata are story-wise "the same character". It's amazing how you can prevent complaints by changing the way something is presented without actually changing the mechanic itself. One thing I am loving is how EP and time work together, and it's making me come up with ideas for EP abilities that I may or may not find later in the game. What if there's an EP ability where you can access any shop on the spot without the time needed to travel (like in FF8)? That would be sweet!
I'm really enjoying this game (a lot more than I did with FF13-2), it is strange but Final Fantasy games always change things around. If I had to compare this to any other games, I would have to say Dead Rising, Valkyrie Profile and Breath Of Fire: Dragon Quarter. The metacritic score for this game is currently 66 for PS3 and 69 for XBox 360 (no idea why they'd be different). I have just come to expect this now, and I won't be surprised if it happens again for FF15. An FF game gets released, everybody slams the games and complains, I love them. Though one thing I do find kind of strange is that when the complainers say that they want old-school traditional RPGs, I agree with them, I just think the Final Fantasy series is still doing great regardless of what they have been doing ("regardless" being retroactive, I withhold judgement of future titles).
PS. I use the word "complainers" because I think the word "critics" is often misused. A critic means somebody who is critical which does not mean they're always negative. To be critical means to be thorough in their assessment.
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