Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII - The Saviors Choice - Gamescom 2013 - HD
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (ライトニング リターンズ ファイナルファンタジーXIII Raitoningu Ritānzu: Fainaru Fantajī Sātīn?) is an upcoming console action role-playing video game to be developed by Square Enix 1st Production Department and published by Square Enix. It is scheduled to release on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2013. It is part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis series. The game will serve as a sequel to Final Fantasy XIII-2, concluding the story arc that began in Final Fantasy XIII. The concept for the game design is "world driven", meaning that the world will always be moving and have events happening in various locations at certain times of day, regardless of if the player is in the same location as the world to witness the event or not. Motomu Toriyama, the director, has promised that the game will be "the most complete and polished in the Final Fantasy series".
Lightning will be the only playable character with Hope Estheim giving guidance and advice to her over cellphone. The game will involve her battle to save the world from destruction, set against the awakening of the ancient god Bhunivelze. Players will also have the ability to customize her costume. According to Yuji Abe, the game design director, Lightning will have well over 20 costumes for the player to customize in the game. It has also been revealed, by character designer Tetsuya Nomura, that Snow Villiers will be in the game with a new outfit, though nothing more is known at this time.
The battle system in Lightning Returns is similar in principle to that in XIII and XIII-2; there will be an ATB-based system. However, as Lightning is the only playable character, it has been adapted to give the player more control: instead of selecting menu commands and queuing them, the player can select abilities mapped to specific buttons on the controller. Lightning will be able to move around freely in battles, but the battles will not be seamless. Instead, they will again take place on a separate battle field.
Over the 13-day span of the game, certain actions Lightning takes will influence the flow of time. She will be able to gain or lose time, depending on what she does; saving one person could roll back the clock, while saving another person could move it forward. Time is a fundamental theme of Lightning Returns; clocks will be shown everywhere to illustrate the importance and progression of time in the overworld.
In a recent interview, Motomu Toriyama stated that there are varying routes through the game and that it will not be possible to see all the event scenes in one playthrough, therefore encouraging multiple playthroughs. The real-time length of day, split into morning, afternoon, evening and night, has yet to be officially confirmed, but Dengeki PlayStation has revealed that the game can be extended beyond the 13 day limit, though how this can be done has been kept secret.
Following the events of Final Fantasy XIII-2, Gran Pulse and the realm of Valhalla have merged due to the chaos released after Etro's death. The result is Novus Partus, a series of islands floating in the Sea of Chaos, with "Bhunivelze", the new Cocoon, hovering in the sky. However, due to the world being infected by chaos, everybody has stopped aging, with the citizens of the metropolis Luxerion forming a closed religious community where those who disbelieve are cast out. Five hundred years after the canon ending of XIII-2, Lightning awakens from her crystal sleep, as in thirteen days, the world will be destroyed for good. The god Bhunivelze gifts her with the powers and garb of the 'liberator', the god's servant, to perform her new mission of saving the world. Along the way, Lightning reunites with her former allies, including Hope Estheim and Snow Villiers, and fights against factions who violently oppose her mission.