XIII trilogy is underrated...

While LR isn't perfect, I do think it gets some undeserved hate from people who were turned off by the previous games. Which also turns off even more people who haven't played but see those videos, comments, and reviews. So it's refreshing to see a XIII video that is positive The trilogy may not be popular in the west, but I've heard that it, and Lightning herself, are very popular in Japan. (Which explains why we got a trilogy in the first place. That _is_ Square's main demographic) I think LR and the previous entries are a "try it and see for yourself" type of game.

I played and beat all 3 games and it’s sad how underrated the trilogy is. All 3 were very different and very enjoyable in different ways.

This game I pre-ordered and finished in one week (in real life) on Ps3 and it was awesome. I'm playing it now in PC and I'm maxing stats. I love how they finished the story of this trilogy. Yeah maybe it does not have a good graphic or something else is missing, but it's worth a play. Specially for the Ending which made me cry the first time I finished it, counting that I played all 3 games and enjoy them.

Started my first playthrough last week. I had a feeling I was missing out. I was too right. Downloaded Cloud and Yuna DLC and I’ve put in 25 hours already. Just killed the last behemoth in the wildlands I didn’t realize having that much fun slaying them would result in their extinction.

I really love final fantasy 13 series , the story sure makes is pretty confusing but throughout playing the game and getting to know the characters (especially in post game content) I started to warm up to all of them. perhaps it's because of the fact that not many rpgs i know of have a series of before and after and see the characters in different settings and stories. finally combat! i think that combat in these games always felt unique and i loved them! battles always had an arcade battle vibe or theme to it, especially the star ranking system! the music is AMAZING! whoever did the music for ffxiii-2 and LR ffxiii needs to make more for other games. but on the topic of LR ffxiii i think i loved how we all got to know lightning on a personal level, hearing her thoughts, seeing what she does, the game tries to tell everyone that she's got no feelings at all yet what she does is very kind. she definitely want something from helping people and so she does whatever it takes no matter how silly it is while also keeping her personality in check. she can be a little pouty but i enjoyed it a lot! i wanna find more stories where a character seeming to not care or have no feelings has the task of helping people out while that character not be a silent protag. this game is a sweet treat and i enjoyed it so much!🥰

I think this is my favorite game of all time.

Still one of my favorites in the series. I remember playing each one when they came out on PS3 (2010, 2012, 2014) and how those were the tough days of loving these games as players like me are being eaten out alive by classic FF fanboys for expressing such. It's great to see that the trilogy is finally getting some appreciation after so many years.

Actually a good game

If you’re playing Ff13 and Ff13-2 it’s essential to play Lightning Returns but that’s if you’re a sucker for the storyline the game alone is a really great game to play in 2022 going into 2023 I still play this trilogy it’s an amazing trilogy that’s underrated compared to other Final Fantasy games

man, this video is great, really. Thanks very much! Wish you success with channel

The trilogy as a series is massively undervalued. From soundtrack/presentation alone I get stunned from the audacity of SE everytime I boot up either three of the XIII games. Lightning Returns is straight up a GOOD GAME. Fun gameplay and battle mechanics that you can switch up on the fly and change the entire way you enjoy the game. The time mechanic is actually fun to manage. It just makes you want to optimize the game for all its 60 bucks worth on your first playthrough. There will never be another game that does ng+ as well as Lightning Returns. The reward for switching your setup and trying new schemes is unmatched and I wish I could reset my brain to start the series all over again.

I've had this in my backlog for years, after watching this I will definitely have to give it a go 🖒

13 was my first Final Fantasy after the PS1 era of 7, 8, and 9. And I honestly adore the entire trilogy. I even have the light novels. While they did get optimized for the Xbox One X, I hope they eventually give us a full remaster for PS5 and Xbox Series S/X. I would buy it in a heartbeat. Considering that 10 got two remasters, it's past time 13 got its turn.

Many shared sentiments. My fondest memory of this game, of which there were many, was getting my ass beat by the strongest version of the Final Boss on Hard Mode. So good. Only beat it once, and I've always wanted to do it again some day.

This was a special game and I'm glad to find a review that treats it so positively. I never played FF13, my interest in FF was at a low point after 12, and that game came out when there were a LOT of good games on the market. But my college roommate played it, so I watched a lot of it. I was impressed by the visuals - this was the first real entry on a new gen of consoles after all! And I loved the music. Fast forward a few years, I started working and lived on my own, missing some of the fun times I had in college with my roommates, and one day after work, I went to Walmart and saw they had FF13-2 on a huge discount. I bought it, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It felt like enjoying a treat that I denied myself for a long time. I was looking forward for the third entry in the series, especially as I also played Dissidia on the PSP and Lightning absolutely kicked ass in that game. Bought Lightning Returns on release along with the strategy guide. It may not have been the perfect game, but it was a satisfying end to the series. (I loved setting up the battle party using Lightning's default outfits from all 3 games, truly an Army of One!)

That beard joke cracked me up. Well played.

Great video! I'm starting my first playthrough this week on ps3. I really liked and finished the first 2 games but never played this one. I tried gamepass for pc version but the controls wouldn't work so I'm excited to finally play this.

I finished the trilogy last year & its the best thing I've ever did the games worth it 1000%

Most ppl hated this game so I was quite surprised to see many comments about liking/loving the game. It makes me happy. This game is my first official FF game. I remember me and my friend used to watch my friend's older brother play the FF when we were kids. When I played this game, I was expecting the old school gameplay style and this LR style actually suits me since I like simple mechanics. All in all, I like this game. I wished to purchase the JP voice pack in my first playthrough but it was expensive for me/not worth buying imo. Lmao Edit: Ohh and the music! I suuuper love the music! Especially The Glittering City of Yusnaan. I love it

Finally beat it just two days ago after starting a new game . Was 13 when I got it . I’m 18 now 😂😂 took me years to finally understand the game and kick butt . Definitely recommend if you happened to like final fantasy 12- / or final fantasy in general. Little sad that I beat it honestly . It took me about 38 hours to beat and that’s completing as many side quests and canvas of prayers quests :) 💓

You just immerse yourself into this and forget reality. I replayed it so so much. And the final boss battle, my god, the hype.

I really enjoyed this game personally. It was a fun one time play through. I dunno if it was good enough to play again, but I did enjoy it.

The issue with extinction is once the mind are gone, there’s no way to use them to replenish EP. The reavers in the wildlands were great for two easy EP. Once they are done, you’re relying on little mobs with fractional EP. So You even have to strategically kill mobs in order to keep the game going (and stopping with chronostasis) and not run out of time. It’s pretty interesting mechanics.

Well time to play this game and finish my final fantasy 13 journey. My final fantasy

My first platinum game and my favorite ff13

Final Fantasy 13 is my favorite of the franchise, I have played through about 4 times. I really need to play this.

I didn't know counterblow did that. Time to replay this game.

This is the first final fantasy i've ever played,i just cleared customs the other day ,the combat system is designed to be interesting,i like the art style of this game,i didn't make it to the end two years ago,i sold the game disc ,i bought another copy of the game last month,this gameplay of this game is a bit difficult but worth trying.

great video

Without watching the video, I will say YES. The best of the trilogy!

In my opinion, I actually pushed to figure out tough normal enemy fights. The longer you fight them, the more you start to understand that every enemy pretty much has a set pattern of how they fight and you can use these to exploit enemies to pretty much fight the way you want. You also get very strong weapons very early. Defeating tough normal enemies generally gives you +2 EP which is two choronostatis right there. Sometimes you need to do more than just endlessly chain together attacks, sometimes you need to stick to defense. This is especially true on the Caius fight or against some tough enemies. Sticking to defense when the enemy is going full nuke on you will eventually push the enemy to take a break and that's when you want to strike them the most. Learning when to strike and when to go on the defense is pretty key in a lot of boss fights, even a 3 second window can grant you a coulpe attack hits to keep the stagger gauge from moving away from where it is.

I played the XIII trilogy in reverse and LR was my first Final Fantasy game I finished so it hold a really special place in my mind. I just love this game, flaws and all. I've always said LR walked so XV could run since the combat system was the first time Square tried fast action combat in a main entry in a successful manner (in my eyes). A detail i adore is that the only way to level up is to save souls/ do quests. Also, NOT an easy game for your first playthrough, specially if you are not used to not have healers like me.

Ive played since the launch and with the game pass, Im on my 5th rerun

Thank you, finally a good review. Everyone was saying this game sucks or whatever but they always felt like they didn't gave the game a chance. They were complaining of their past games and how this one shouldn't have existed

Love it!

haha the "Wear a Mask Intro" *got* me! My Lightning also wears a mask All the time... Covid influences lol

I remember getting a copy of Game Informer and seeing the page that announced this game. I squealed and scared my mom who was driving. Anyway I played through the entire trilogy. Those three games are what got me into FF.

Amazing first 12 seconds

how do you like to spend the last day after finishing all the side quests defeating all the last ones and the two secret bosses? every year i like to play the 3 games in a row during holidays and each time i spend the last hours of the last day of LR in a different way shooting fireworks in yuusnan chilling in the wild lands riding the white chocobo sliding in the sand of the dead dunes hearing the guy in luxerion singing the new bodhum song

I’ve been playing it because I started 13 days before Pokémon Scarlet and Violet come out, which I’ve been playing everyday until then. I’m REALLY HOPING I can beat this on my first playthrough

Lightning returns is easily my favorite FF game before XV came out. Infinite new game+ is the best and lightning gets so OP! Highly underrated game

This game is so fucking good

This game plays similar to Majora's Mask. Stressful time limit to do a bunch of side quests to boost your stats and collect materials to improve weapons and spells and bosses that serve as checkpoints that increases the time you have left till you're forced to go to the endgame to stop the timer, reset the game but carry over everything you've collected and your stats, or just let the timer reach zero and watch the world end and get a game over screen.

Also note that one of the enemies has like 14000 of them and only appear on like the last 2 hours of the day basically requiring you to do something special to activate a secret to get to the last one of it.

Yes. As if this is even a question or a gosh darn review. The whole trilogy. Yes

Turns out to be a great game once you accept a couple of realities about it, mainly that it's meant, or actually designed to be played several times around. You shouldn't get hung up on the time limit. Also combat is way slower than other games, you need to be more tactical about how to spend the energy with each costume. Either way unlike the other games, this one needs to get some time to be understood.

I just recently played it through too. My ps3 hdd failed and lost all my saves. Enjoyed playing over the trilogy though.

One question... When you first start out in LR and are in luxerion what do you suggest as the best way to do things? Go and get the shalong gui shell and quill pen, then follow the hooded NPCs, or ignore them and just get those items later? Should I also visit each area once on the first day just to get them in a "fast travel" menu from the ark? Apparently using fast travel options uses 6 hours?? This is the only thing that bothers me about an otherwise fantastic game (how to efficiently kill two/three/four birds with one stone). This is especially annoying with time sensitive quests that fail Similarly any quests that involve farming enemies for drops bother me because if the item doesnt drop it's still time wasted Even if you can just give a starting schedule for the first day/two days it will alleivate these OCD annoyances that wverywhere I go is a potential "waste" of time (something as you noted lnce youve completed the game and memorized quests and item locations you can do more efficiently) I know chronostasis exists (which as I remember can be maintained based off enemies you fight but i dont think large enemies are just always roaming everywhere meaning that you are still losing time fighting smaller enemies just at a slower rate than if you did nothing at all) but that doesnt automatically mean the player is choosing the most efficent routes for picking up items / activating quests. Its essentially a feature to give you more errors on a blind playthrough. Knowing that the Warrens only opens at a certain time is easy to remember but happening across items you need later with short detours isn't, or quests that have specific timings across 4 days

underrated game

tha game is definitely worth it, and yes, the only thing that turns off most people is time limit, but then again i was accustomed playing old gen atelier series so it wasnt really a big of a deal, i just learn that you can farm EP through monsters fairly easily with decent equipments, you can also gain EP from purchasing EP bottle in the white room HQ. on my first playthrough i managed to complete all the quests including the side quests on normal difficulty, and EP bottle only needed when you fight certain super optional bosses (special dungeon and a dragon), so its okay to waste them in early game to gain extra time. be mindful that New Game normal difficulty is considered harder than hard difficulty New Game+ because the difference in hard and normal isnt really that much and you can pretty much use the same strat to defeat your enemies. BUT id recommend playing it on normal first and then NG+normal to complete everything, or NG+hard if you want more challenge. cheers.

I have the trilogy on PC thanks to Gamepass and I'm playing thru one and two now. I never really played 3 so I have that one to look forward to.. But I love the first two

🔥🔥🔥

If you are willing to play it but hate this time limit so much like me, there is a trainer that can stop game clock. Playing this way i managed to fully explore the entire game in my time and done 90% of all things in the first 3 or 4 days while surpassing 60 hours of gameplay, notice that some mechanics are completely dependent on the concept of time like the abilities drop by monster changing and getting stronger on how close to the end of the world is, quest that can only be unlocked after day X. By playing with time stoped i got to the end much weaker than most of the people, bc i got most of the enemies extinct in the first days. This managed not to be a problem as i defeated Ereshkigal and last boss with just 2 tries. One thing that i noticed when playing this way is how empty are many of location, thats because the game was made to be replayed in NG+.

Majoras mask did the time mechanic better but Lightning returns is good for what it is and has a great battle system and challenging bosses that require strategy especially the endgame bosses. Very underrated game.

Yeahh... I remember pre-ordering this game when I first came out. I was excited for it until I couldn't beat caius. So I started all over realizing that I was to weak lol. Was finally able to beat the second time after doing lots of side quest

Great video. I laughed my ass off when Lightning shows up to the date, saying she hears they serve a mean steak... in a red dress with a goatee lolol. really explained this thoroughly. I'm currently replaying XIII simply because I have never played any of the sequels, and I want to revisit XIII before getting into the sequels. This game sounds super fun. I love games like Dead Rising, where you're planning around the clock. The pressure makes it more fun, and the outfits are also very similar. This definitely took inspiration from Dead Rising. Look forward to eventually getting to play it. It's incredible how much they had to scale back the graphics to expand the sequels, though. XIII-2 and LR both look like trash compared to FFXIII, but it doesn't matter when they both offer such unique and interesting gameplay loops.

You have one of the best reviews of this game that I've seen. Your review is thorough, without getting boring. Excellent commentary with well thought out structure makes this the best! I'm am downloading this for my permanent archive, it's that good. Thanks for posting this review.

Yes.

I just wish they would put this trilogy on ps now again so I cwn play this on my ps5😭

Do you think square will eventually do a remaster trilogy?

How about just attack ?

Farming those behemoths for EP only to then discover the extinction mechanic. Great weapon tho.

The trilogy is awesome. My rankings in 2023 (played on PC) are slightly different than those I had back on ps3. 13-2 is now my least favourite of the 3 (LR used to be 3rd place). If the time limit wasnt in LR it would easily be #1 because the gameplay is just so satisfying (so is 13s but it doesn't have an imposed time limit). I also think the way 13-2 tried to implement "dress up" was vastly inferior to LR. Live Trigger answers (that can be missed) and QTEs were kind of cringe to me but tolerable. Garbs are such a guilty pleasure lol (like dresspheres). Its great how they coded the changes into the cutscenes FMVs and exploration. Actually wait no...why am I saying guilty. Im openly proud of it lol The only thing that carried over from 13-2 into LR that i dislike is wall hugging to get 100% map completion. For example in FF13-2 in bodhum there are small nooks and crannies that are easily missable unless you wall hug. I never like this feature in videogames. Again though its a minor complaint that is tolerable

Finished this Game last week, played it when i was 15.. Couldnt beat it.. Played it again.years later at 21.. And RAN thru it and accidentally got the Secret Ending 😅😅😅

Huh this was pretty good actuallt

It is

Why wouldn't? I mean why ask it's worth? It's a classic

holisyit the intro 😂

I think it is

I just got this on sale and i had no idea there was a time limit cause i hate games with time limits. I get its not that constrictinf but its still pretty stressful. Plus i hate the combat, perhaps i dont udnerstand it yet but i just run out of ATE so fast

Do you get a system error has occurred? Every time you start the game?

I would say I loved the entire trilogy (except the battle in XIII-2) The first one was a lot better from what people gave it credit for. Even for today standards the animations of the characters are insane, the quality of effects stand out even above many AAA games of the PS4 generation. I really didn't enjoyed late character progression as a huge fan of FF X character progress system. But overall it was great game with interesting take on the story. Second one had great story, but in my opinion the gameplay was really worse from the first game. I don't know, what they did with the battle to implement it for two characters, just did not work for me. Third one was a hidden jewel for sure. It was a lot lower budget title because they knew it will not sell well, but did they deliver. I loved the costume system, the new edition of the battle was insanely good and dynamic. Many side quests were just fillers, but I can't say there was not and really good of those, the story was just amazing. Except the graphic, I am not sure I can find a lot of negatives in this game, maybe one of the best FF games of all time.

i feel like people cant appreciate this game because they wanted it to be a certain type of way. i personally enjoyed the clock aspect, the solo combat, and the story of lightning killing God basically.

more game reviews pls

I really wanted to finish lightning returns but the time mechanic really turned me off. It’s unfortunate cuz I platinumed both fxiii and xiii-2

It would be awesome if this game would have combat minus the switch to a battle mode and if it had real time combat even if it would have been more Zelda like or hack n slash

If they remaster this trilogy, for PS5. I will burst out crying. Fart Crapmyself And fall on the floor I'll be so excited

If they remove the timer in new game + then this game would be quite good but sadly it didnt. First playthrough should be pressured and 2nd play through should be enjoying the game fully.

I need the 13 trilogy of ps5 somehow plzzz

Can you play without the DLC

So in conclussion it's the majoras mask of Final Fantasy

Is this game really worth playing? I have about 10 hours in, but it's all fetch quests??

2 months, +1k views, but no comments? Lol.

Meow meow choco chow

Bhunivelze's character is really interesting, he's based off the Gnostic Demiurge like a good FF final villain. Gotta love killing god.

I really liked 13. It was the 13-2 that broke it for me. Worse than even 10-2 and that was pretty bad. It spoiled the series for me so never bothered with this one. Edit: thanks. I know I am not missing anything on this one then.

If it weren't for the timer it would be better.

What the hell? They actually reused the whole "dress sphere" concept from FFX-2? 🤦‍♂️

So it's basically Dead Rising 1 a la Final Fantasy.

I finished this game about a week ago, and I will not shy away that this was the worst game that I have ever played. With the exception of the music, I found very little to actually like. But I think my opinion has softened around how to express that. This game is not for someone like me because of the scheduling aspect and not knowing what I was doing, and I can see why some people would like this game. I would have liked a heads up about when I could go to different places (I'd spent 3 days in Luxerion waiting for a prompt) and some other elements rubbed me the wrong way. But this was a very enlightening video from someone that likes it, and maybe when I replay it, my mind will change

I. Fucking. Died. When lightning fucking turned around after that man called her a beautiful angel from heaven and she straight faced WITH A FUCKING BEARD said “Yeah I heard this place serves a mean steak” THE FUCK IS THIS SQUARE 😂😂😂

What's this? A LR review that explains the gameplay and combat well while highlighting strenght and weaknesses without spending 30 minutes poorly summarizing the story? Color me surprised.

If 13 didn't disappoint as much as it did you wouldn't have the FF13 trilogy

I watched another review that was like "this game is ass, but like also kinda not ass at the same time" I think if the game had another year of development it would've been the best entry to most fans. I think a lot of people like ff13 2 the most tho and I can see why, but I heard it's most enjoyable by not doing every possible thing so that you're not crazy over leveled. maybe if the ff13 series got a remaster or something I think that would be cool.

Didn't like this game. I cannot stress how frustrating it was missing certain quests or npcs because I missed the time deadline and it doesn't help that there is a FREAKING TIME LIMIT AND I DON'T HAVE THE LUXURY TO WAIT AROUND!!!

It's funny cuz, I played it on normal the first time, got a few hours in and restarted on easy. But now I'm replaying it on normal, without NG+, and it's actually really easy..... idk what it is.... probably just my brain

garbage game... dont listen to those ppl who say u can skip the side quests. u need to do them to stand a chance agaisnt the final boss. Majorty of the quests are fetch quests like a cheap mmo. one of worst games ive played.

That's gotta be it! A lot of people didn't enjoy this game because it involved a lot of time management! This game is almost a test to see how many people have good time management attributes, those who disliked it clearly don't have. Goes to show why the world is economically in crisis, because the people helping it spin have poor time management 😂