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[Crimson Crashing]

A Storm Gathers

FINAL FANTASY XIII TEAM TO PRESENT NEW DIRECTION FOR THE SAGA OF KEY CHARACTER, LIGHTNING

The "Lightning Saga" that started with the release of FINAL FANTASY XIII, has achieved a cumulative shipment of over 9.6 million units; and in May 2012 FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 was brought to conclusion with the add-on content entitled "Lightning's Story: Requiem of the Goddess".

Key members of the FINAL FANTASY XIII development team including the Producer, Director and Art Director, are in preparations to present new information about the direction of Lightning's story. This presentation will take place at an event in Tokyo to celebrate FINAL FANTASY 25th Anniversary, on 1st September 2012.

Square Enix is going "teaser-crazy."
Discuss rumors, speculations, and annoyances.

[Valor]

I am ridiculously excited. I adore Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2. While they are definitely less liked among Final Fantasy purists, I do think they are pretty good games overall.

I'm more than ready for more Lightning.

[Blade]

They need to fucking end her lame ass saga. Bitches be trippin yo

[Lexaeus]

Lightning is a good character, but why is she worth 3 games and Zidane not even worth a second? Not to mention Noctis and future characters of the FF series. I want to see them. I know Lightning, let's move on.

[Dion]

^This. I don't know how much I can agree with this.

[Valor]

Lightning is a good character, but why is she worth 3 games and Zidane not even worth a second? Not to mention Noctis and future characters of the FF series. I want to see them. I know Lightning, let's move on.

Zidane's story is told in the course of one game. Lightning's apparently needs three. No whining allowed. Noctis will arrive when he's damn well ready.

In the mean time:

FUCK YEAH MORE LIGHTNING





13 days and 13 nights to save the world.

FUCK YEAH FINAL FANTASY MAJORA'S MASK FTW.

Toriyama said Lightning will make her comeback, returning as a stronger character than she was in the first two games, FF XIII and FF XIII-2. Lightning is going to face her final battle, so he asked the character designer to convey the power in her eyes.

The game will offer players a lot of ways to customize their version of Lightning. Her outfits will be about more than just aesthetics. They affect her abilities.

Character control will be more dynamic. She'll be able to hang off ledges, pull herself up, jump, duck behind corners. You'll be able to move her around in battle, a first, they said, for the series.

The game world is composed off four islands and touches on three themes: gothic, mechanical and fantasy. When the game begins, the world is 13 days away from the end. She has 13 days and 13 nights to save humanity. The game runs on a doomsday clock.

The game runs on a time-of-day system, with a monorail that moves through it on schedule. The monorail runs on a schedule, like everything else—you can get stuck in one region waiting for the monorail to take you to another island.

The game will be out for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in 2013.

Brace yourselves.

[Dexel Hydagara]

> "Her outfits will be about more than just aesthetics. They affect her abilities."

Yes. Yes. YES. DO WANT.

Also, goddamn CC, I swear that sig of yours should come with a warning. I never had a seizure and I feel one comin' on anyways.

[Valor]

Dress up game like FFX-2 only with Light-san? Hell yesss :D

But seriously, super excited for this. I wonder if she's gonna be the only playable character? It seems like it but... what happened to Noel then?

[Secret Igshar]

I really don't care that it's Lightning, I'm just glad for more Final Fantasy to play. When it comes right down to it, being brutally honest, is it any different having Lightning (the new face of SE) headlining the new game, rather than going back to the classics of Cloud or Zidane?

Yes. It is different. Because Lightning is the now. Less bitching, more excitement. Sheesh. You people can never be satisfied with what you get. :<


Anyways, this game looks to be amazing. I want it sobad. D:

[Crimson Crashing]

Also, there is a leak of a "Final Fantasy XIII/XIII-2 Dual Pack" that will be available September 13th.

It will include both games – the Ultimate Hits edition of the first game – and eight post cards. If this pack isn’t announced for North America, both games have “Traditional Chinese or English, and voice acting in the original Japanese.”

[Valor]

New monsters from Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.

Hints of the combat system when looking at the red dragon?

[Dion]

The described battle system makes me interested. TBH I'm not all too interested in the Lightning saga anymore, but I'd like to see where this is going. The monsters look cool, too O:

Anyone know if Lightning Returns will the be the subtitle of the game? Or if it's just a promo phrase.

[Sodomize-it Soro]

[The Dream]

I really love the outift they gave her. It really fits her well in my opinion and it makes her look pretty badass. I have to admit though it's a change from the "light" kinda of clothing she had in previous games so it also gives her a new kind of image. She still looks serious but a bit more rebellious. That's my opinion though >_>

I wonder what other outfits they've got for her.

[Secret Igshar]

Um.

1. Boob spheres (because boobs need to be held in their own self-contained sacks otherwise the armor doesn't fit properly sheesh don't people know anything about anatomy)
2. Crotch shots
3. Is that a half-cape!?
4. Dat shield arm

:| Very unhappy with this direction of costuming on Lightning. I much prefer both of her previous outfits. It looks to me like they're just continuing down the "sexualize Lightning" road, even further than they (sort of) took it with her armor in XIII-2 (which I still stand by 100000% because it's GORGEOUS) and then went like fifty steps too far in trying to make it "visually interesting" by slapping random crap together and hoping it sticks.

Those chains down her arms, really? That MASSIVE BULKY CRAP on her left arm. The keyblade-esque weapon she's wielding. Those. Pauldrons. The split cape and the split skirt just look stupid, rather than looking epic, especially with those POCKETS on the skirt. Like. What.

And it fails all my basic armor tests.

Vital areas covered? Nope. (both her sides are bare skin)
Realistic chest? Nope. (boob spheres, as said before)
Does it at least look like it would defend her? Nope. (it looks to be made of leather or some other material. The only metal appears to be on her arms and legs)

Oh that brings me to my last point I'll make about this before shutting up and letting you all yell at me and call me out for nitpicking.

Freaking knee-high metallic boots. That's armor, SE. It's not a fashion statement. If you're gonna make your character wear ARMORED BOOTS their legs better damn well be armored or it looks like this does: half-assed. It's like they decided to make it half-sexy and half-armor. And it just ended up being all-stupid.

There are very VERY few things I like about the design. I like the collar and the pointed shoulders, though I don't think EITHER OF THOSE TWO THINGS belong with the rest of this design. Ugh. UGH.


This game is supposed to have costume changes, right? I sure as hell hope so.

[Valor]

Um.

1. Boob spheres (because boobs need to be held in their own self-contained sacks otherwise the armor doesn't fit properly sheesh don't people know anything about anatomy)

These don't bother me very much. Boob armor is always weird but my mind gives it a pass because it's light armor/leather, which is slightly more form fitting (but I mean two boob spheres I just don't even)

2. Crotch shots

I'm sorry what

3. Is that a half-cape!?

as opposed to her half cape from XIII? o.O

4. Dat shield arm

ya, pretty kl.

Those chains down her arms, really?

I don't see them as chains. More like segmented armor, which is still kind of silly but w/e

That MASSIVE BULKY CRAP on her left arm.

The shield/pauldron?

The keyblade-esque weapon she's wielding.

p sure that's the logo of Lightning Returns overlapping the regular sword. Note the outer glow (professional graphic designers use it)

This game is supposed to have costume changes, right? I sure as hell hope so.

Yeah, there are ~20 or so costume changes.

Okay, serious mode about Light's base outfit:

It fits into the world she's being thrust into. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but Lightning's whole character arc, especially where the world is when Lightning Returns starts up makes a bit of sense. There's a sense of Neo-Gothic art style to good section of the game, and this outfit kind of fits along that theme. It's pretty ridiculous, yeah, but the black leather set up kind of makes sense for the darker themed game. I think that the design is still way too overworked and suffers from like TOO MUCH SHIT going on at once.

Simplicity is usually pretty key, and her silhouette check kind of is all over the place. The half cape + split skirt thing is weird. It's like she wants to wear a trenchcoat but DEFINITELY DOES NOT want to actually WEAR a trenchcoat.

I'm not too worried because of costume changes. The art direction is going to be a lot different from 13 and 13-2, so the main character SHOULD change to fit that, I think. Since she isn't exactly a Knight of Etro anymore, she's a bit more greaser/rebel, I think.

[Secret Igshar]

These don't bother me very much. Boob armor is always weird but my mind gives it a pass because it's light armor/leather, which is slightly more form fitting (but I mean two boob spheres I just don't even)

It's the doubling of it that irks me, not the presence of a chest bump. The fact that they are shiny as if showing off HEY LOOK SHE STILL HAS BOOBS GUYS just bothers me.

I'm sorry what

Everything about her design just sort of shies away from doing anything at all to cover up her crotch. O-o

as opposed to her half cape from XIII? o.O

On first glance, the split cape appeared to be a full half cape which is just lame. In XIII, she had an over-the-shoulder cape which looked pretty neat combined with the rest of her relatively cohesive design.

The shield/pauldron?

The MASSIVEFUCKINGSHIELD that doesn't need to be so massive. Yeah. It just looks big and bulky and detracts from the otherwise sleek and demure look of the design. I was commenting on the thing as a whole, rather than picking out individual bits to say if they look good or not. It's a smattering of ideas from a bunch of different designs, and the shield is one that I don't think fits ANY design of Lightning. I don't see her being a heavy soldier, and that shield looks REALLY heavy.


Blarg. I get the idea that they're going for something different with it. I do. I also get the gothic setting. I just despise how this design has almost literally NO cohesion. Very few pieces of the outfit seem to go together. The collar+shoulders come from a sleek, regal suit. The chest and crotch pieces come from a dominatrix outfit. The shield and sword come from a heavily armored tanking unit. The long segmented chains on her arms should just be scrapped since they can't possibly be from anything halfway decent. The split skirt is just a jacket split in half. The split cape is just because they didn't want to give her a full cape since that would be lame.

It just REALLY irks me. A gothic Lightning could be really cool. They didn't really hit the mark very well at all. Instead they went all over the place slapping shit together that kind of sort of worked a little bit and then just slapped Lightning's face on the model. I don't know. I just hope this sort of miss-match of various different ideas isn't the norm among her different costumes in the game, because it's really off-putting to me, right now, that this is what they're using to market the game.

[Dion]

I really don't like this new costume. ._.; Is it just me or does she look too goth/punk. It's a huge departure from what I liked so much about Lightning's designs in the first two games...

[Valor]

thank you for that

[The Dream]

(Just to throw this out here)

With the mention of the boob plates I've kinda taken more notice to it. I didn't really bother with that much since they could've made it worse like the whole ugly layered circle design that just makes you visualize everything under her chest plates. With that said I do think they could've just smoothed it out (not have each boob displayed in their own case) instead of showing off each single breast.

Also how on earth does the shield look heavy? It looks like a shell just connected to her armour with a lot of links. Plus it is just the size of her arm. It's like a piece of slim armour with a small resemblance of bulky armour for her arm, except it's a shield and not on her actual arm. Considering what world she's thrown into and the overall design of her outfit it works in my mind.

Crotch shots? I really don't know what you're on about there, it's barely noticeable unless you decided to actually stare at the area there, and even then it's not a big deal. One of her sides is visible and the other one is covered with either cloth or white leather. Even then the skin that is shown is not much. If your were to call that alot then you'd have to see more than just a small triangle of skin of her side.

Honestly her whole gothic look makes her look like a regal yet dark duke. I'm not saying it's better from the past two designs but I still like it because of the environment she's in. And thinking about that environment, things couldn't turned out much worse and things could've ACTUALLY LOOK SEXUALIZED.