Just attempted to make a short review of the new Final Fantasy. Not a video review this time, just text :3
As you all know, Lightning Returns is the final (at least, that's what we are promised) installation of the Nova Crystallis saga. Therefore, a lot has changed since the last 2 games.
Let's start of with the story. Many reviewers call it crap and on that note.. I would agree. The adventage I have is that I didn't really like the story of XIII and XIII-2 to begin with (time travelling is very hard NOT to fck up), so my hopes storywise weren't that high for LR. Same goes for the characters, though I am one of the few persons that doesn't hate Lightning.
The story begins with Lightning being the savior and trying to rescue Snow's soul, including the people within the palace. But due to a pretty high percentage of Chaos, Lightning has to withdraw because if she dies, it's all over. The world will end in 13 (14 if you complete a certain amount of sidequests) days and it is Lightning's task to rescue as many souls so they can live on in the new world created by Bhunivelze, the god of this story. Many people are afraid because you have to rescue the world within this 13 days. However, that really isn't the biggest problem because of the EP ability Chronostasis, which makes time stand still. It is really usefull, though I overused it and was done with literally everything on the 9th day, resulting in me sleeping till the 13th day. The actual problem with the clock are the time-bases mechanics. At some points, you'll notice that you can only enter certain places or talk to several people in different times. 00:00 AM till 06:00 AM for example. Sometimes that's just brutally interrupting your progress, so that you'll have to go to a different region. Or just wait, but that's a waste of time if you're not using the Chronostasis ability like me.
People also seem to mention the ending very often, which I really didn't have any problem with. Sure, it was the ending of the XIII saga so they could have ended it better, but it was soooo over the top, it was just hilarious too watch.
The biggest change this game gave us is definitely the new combat system. According to Square, it takes some elements from Dark Souls and that is, in my eye, a very good sign. And therefore, I think the combat is pretty good. You have to get used to it first but once you get the hang of it, you'll find it pretty enjoying and challenging too.
You also have to complete side-quests to make the world last longer. They are fun... at first. Later on they'll just turn into MMO quests, where you have to gather certain items or kill a certain amount of monsters. At first, it's fun, but it gets boring easily. Also, you can get rid of monster species by.. killing them all. Sounds hard but it's more time consuming. This was also fun at first, but gets bored later on.
Probably my favourite thing about this game are the allusions/references to other games within the franchise or other Square projects. Garbs are the most obvious reference, where one is a reference to Faris (FF5) and one to Locke (FF6). But these are the most obvious, there are so much more. For example, the slaughterhouse had a poster of the Warrior of Light fighting Chaos (FF1/Dissidia) and my favourite reference, a side-quest where the some alchemist has put the soul of his brother in a living automaton. This is a reference to my favorite anime of all time, Fullmetal Alchemist.
I'm probably forgetting to mention some things but this is my view on the game. I thought it was a good addition to the franchise and a good finale of the XIII saga. Just ignore the story and you'll be fine.