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In a newspost two months ago, we mentioned a few comments from FFXIII and FFXIII-2 director Motomu Toriyama that sounded an awful lot like a third FFXIII game. Well, at a recent presentation, Toriyama confirmed our suspicions with the announcement of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. That's right, it's FFXIII-3.

You'll notice just from the name that some odd things are going on here. As was a case withthe rebranding for FFXIV A Realm Reborn, the name "Lightning Returns" as well as its very non-FF logo (included in source) seem to be distancing the title from the main Final Fantasy series. While many potential motivations could account for this distancing policy, I find it a bit odd given that the second FFXIII title was simply called FFXIII-2.

Toriyama mentioned a few additional details regarding the game. Player customization of Lightning will play a major role, not merely as aesthetic guise (which seems to be the case for FFXIII-2's variety of outfits) but as a relevant contribution to her gameplay abilities. Could this be something as pronounced as FFX-2's Dress Spheres? Unlikely, but who knows.

In addition to being able to control what Lightning wears, players will have much more control of what Lightning does on area maps: players will be able to interact with the environment via ducking, hanging, jumping, etc, in contrast to the automatic jumping of the original FFXIII. Players will even be able to control Lightning's movement in-battle, something that has been done successfully in several other RPG series but never attempted in a Final Fantasy game. Clearly, the third entry in Lightning's story is straying from traditional territory in more ways than mere nomenclature.

In addition, screenshots were released depicting cities and natural landscapes very much in the art style of the previous two FFXIII titles, as well as concept art for smaller objects and buildings.

Source: Kotaku

Some of those screenshots make it seem almost like a Persona game.

Well, I'm not going to drop any judgement yet but this seems like a pretty rough treatment of the franchise. Even if you compare the first two games with what this one looks like there's almost... no consistent theming or anything that seems to be coming through. It's just a bunch of hyper-fantasy junk spewed onto a disc.

I enjoyed the first XIII, never got around to the second but I didn't hear much positive about it. I kind of wish they would just move on from this universe

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"We're not tools of the government or anyone else. Fighting... fighting was the only thing I was ever good at, but at least I always fought for what I believed in." - Frank Yeager (a.k.a. Grey Fox)

I liked 13 and loved 13-2, so I'm definitely in. I'm intrigued that it seems to be a bit more actiony. If they do it right, it could definitely end up being my favorite title in the trilogy. Color me excited!

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Hey, put the cellphone down for a while
In the night there is something wild
Can you hear it breathing?
And hey, put the laptop down for a while
In the night there is something wild
I feel it, it's leaving me

My one complaint from 13-2 is that it didn't do ENOUGH to separate itself from 13. Towns felt very soulless, and aside from the monster helper, the combat system was still the same: Switch to proper paradigm and press A. Thank the Lord the monster design will change.

That being said, I'm very excited for this came to conclude the story line. It's too bad 13 didn't give that great of a first impression on a lot of people, because this whole story is one of my favorites in the entire series.

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And have you found your joy, in this near dead world of ours?

I do not understand they were doing so much right with FFXIII-2 but now it seems they are going backwards....