This weeks issue of Famitsu has unveiled much in terms of the development and gameplay surrounding Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, the latest game announced by Square Enix and the concluding tale to Lightnings story.
The game is still in development and is only at 30% completion, which given the systems they are promoting for the game I would not be expecting a finalized release date any time soon. As stated in the announcement, the game will be the final surrounding series main character Lightning, and will have a happy ending with very little deviation. If the game ends before fulfilling the goals you are more than likely going to achieve a Game Over. In terms of the game world, one day in-game equals approximately an hour or two in the real world, so given time is not altered at all during your playthrough you would be looking at 13-26 hours of gameplay not factoring in everything else.
The storyline continues on from the last, where the characters in the game are not dead but in a state of immortality where they do not age. However it still seems possible for them to be murdered or killed through other means (and will play some role in the storyline). Hope is set to return as a supporting character to Lightning – although there doesn’t seem to be any word if Noel or any other characters from Final Fantasy XIII-2 will have prominent roles.
The gameplay is more similar to an ATB system, but with Lightning as the sole party member it would be interesting to see how they can shake things up (As for both games prior the battle system relied on correctly selected jobs through Paradigm Shifts). Instead of selecting skills from a list, it is reported that you will assign abilities to different buttons alongside having more free reign in moving throughout the battlefield.
The world is composed of two natural terrain continents and two urban continents as has been briefly shown in already released artwork. You should also be hard pressed to avoid knowing how long you have remaining with many clocks being present around the city. Through the completion of quests and defeat of enemies you will be able to increase the amount of time you have to work with – while certain quests (Assumingly with a bigger reward attached) can give you less time to work with.
Expect to see more information for this game revealed in the near future,
[Source: Game Nyarth, Translation Thanks: Gematsu]
