The world structure is even more open-ended than FFXIII-2's, and combat bears no resemblance whatsoever to the two previous FFXIII titles. And it certainly doesn't hurt that, despite its title, Lightning Returns has basically nothing whatsoever to do with FFXIII from a gameplay perspective.

I suppose it helps that I gave up on trying to make sense of the overarching narrative of the FFXIII saga a few hours into XIII-2.

I realize I've painted a fairly unflattering picture of the game here, but in truth I find myself enjoying Lightning Returns despite itself. At every turn, Lightning Returns features familiar faces who seem to have very little meaningful connection to their previous appearances and no particular reason to be present.

An enigmatic girl who looks like a gothic lolita rendition of Lightning's sister Serah taunts the heroine all along the way (Lightning wonders early on if this apparition is her sister, so she probably isn't). Her mission navigator is Hope, who seems to be at a loss to explain how he's reverted from being the mature man who appeared in XIII-2 to his adolescent self from the original XIII. The story begins in media res with Lightning squaring off against her former comrade Snow Villiers, who has somehow landed a role as the saturnine ruler of a dying city. That same philosophy seems to extend to all of FFXIII's returning cast. One minute you see a dashing, stylish rogue the next, a coquettish nymph. They say clothes make the man, but the instant changes that come over Lightning when she swaps outfits take that concept perhaps a little too literally and make it even harder to pin down the true nature of the character. Don her in warrior garb and she takes a squared-off, masculine stance doff it in favor of mage garments (read: Scant, revealing body wraps that border on BDSM gear) and she relaxes into a slinky feminine contrapposto. Lightning's cipher-like state is even reflected in her costuming: In combat, she can switch instantly between several outfit-based 'Schemata' that enable different skill sets (similar to the Final Fantasy X-2 Dress Sphere system), and her entire body language changes depending on her current choice of apparel. She's effectively a blank slate, lacking any sort of motivation beyond the directive given to her by the latest supreme being to stake a claim on her actions first it was the L'Cie, then it was Etro, now it's a guy called Bhunivelze. Lightning begins the game with practically zero personality of her own, a fact that the dialogue specifically makes note of. which is to say, the mission directives.Д®ven the protagonist is something of a wash. The overarching plotline of the FFXIII saga has gone so far off the rails that the only wise approach to absorbing the story here is just to sit back and let it wash over you as you focus on the particulars. However, since it's being sold as a Final Fantasy title, Lightning Returns eschews Norse mythology in favor of that of the Fabula Nova Crystallis universe - though for all intents and purposes, it doesn't matter. which shouldn't be surprising, since it was co-developed by VP creators tri-Ace (who had previously lent a hand with Final Fantasy XIII-2). So yes, it's basically a Valkyrie Profile sequel. As a game, this amounts to an adventure overshadowed by a ticking clock marking time to the apocalypse, wherein Lightning travels the world completing a variety of core and side quests, fighting monsters in fast-paced action-based combat along the way. She's an ascended warrior woman in the employ of God (or a god, anyway the cosmology of the FFXIII games is an even more jumbled mess than the on-screen stories), and her mission is to reclaim and save souls before Ragnarok arrives - though the impending end of the world is never directly called by that name, either. Lightning does indeed return from her exile in Final Fantasy XIII-2, and she plays the role of a valkyrie here even if it's never explicitly stated as such. On the other hand, you have Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, which doesn't feel like it should be called 'Final Fantasy.' Sure, it carries over characters from FFXIII, and it features the franchise's standardized enemy and spell names, but if Square Enix were more honest the game would be published as 'Valkyrie Profile III.' Bravely Default is a Final Fantasy game (specifically, a direct successor to Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light) that inexplicably has shed the Final Fantasy name. The two games don't really play much alike, but in a lot of ways they're spiritual counterparts. These are strange times indeed for Final Fantasy, and - as Bob Mackey recently noted - the near-simultaneous release of Lightning Returns and Bravely Default proves it.

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