(Final Fantasy XIII-3) Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII Announced, 2013 Release
At the recent Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Celebration, Square Enix confirmed that Final Fantasy XIII is indeed going to continue in 2013. However, unlike speculation suggested it being Final Fantasy XIII-3, this new entry is going to be entitled Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII and set for both PS3 and Xbox 360, the biggest change to the regular series formula is that its going the solo route, and the title character Lightning is going to be the only playable character.
Clearly with the huge change of the removal of the party system, a new battle system is going to be utilized to give fans a new feel for the character and the game over all. Square Enix has revealed that it will actually be more of an action RPG than previous titles including the XIII title. While details are slim on what this game will play like, many fans are now speculating that this could indeed be more akin to Kingdom Hearts, and some rumors even suggest that this new games battle system could actually be part of a trial run on the long awaited Final Fantasy Versus XIII and how well fans respond to this battle system (considering it was long ago announced, and even confirmed on trailers, that its battle system was indeed based on Kingdom Hearts than a traditional turn based system).
What has been announced was that one of the biggest changes to this game is one of its key features, a time-travel (or more specifically, a time loop) system whose announcement and description sounded like something like a cross between The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask and the film Groundhog Day. With giving the player to play the games 13 days several times over, in order to get the desired result. The game itself will actually feature a large countdown clock on the corner of the screen to show players how much time they have left, and some actions can speed up or slow down the clock.
Square Enix has opened an official Facebook page for the game as well as its own website.
You can watch the different segments of the announcement presentation subtitled in English below:
Motomu Toriyama (Director):
Yuji Abe (Game Design Director):
Isamu Kamikokuryo (Art Director):
A message from Yoshinori Kitase (Producer):
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII is slated for release sometime in 2013.
