Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII announced

Square Enix has announced a third and final game in the Final Fantasy XIII series (excepting the still absent Final Fantasy Versus XIII.) As the title might lead you to expect, Lightning Returns will go back to following the adventures of Lightning as she attempts to save the world again. In Lightning Returns, the ever-serious heroine will wake up 300 years after the events of XIII-2, with just thirteen days before the world ends.

Final Fantasy XIII was, well, different. Final Fantasy XIII-2 was different again and so it should come as no surprise that Lightning Returns will be different again, with a huge focus on time - the world will change through morning, noon, afternoon, evening and night - and different things will happen depending on the time of day. Square Enix are using the Doomsday Clock idea to represent how close the world is to extinction - with Lightning capable of moving the clock back by killing enemies and fulfilling objectives. In a nice twist though, she can expend some of the time available to perform special moves in battle and perform 'miracles'.

All in all, while I'm a little tired of FFXIII already, it sounds kind of interesting and I'll be looking forward to learning more as it approaches its 2013 release date. Embedded below is the presentation on Lightning Returns' design, but you can watch all of Square Enix's presentations on the upcoming title in our videos library - the announcement video with Yoshinori Kitase, the concept presentation with Motomu Toriyama, an art and environment presentation with Isamu Kamikokuryo and the aforementioned design presentation with Yuuji Abe. As a sidenote, if you watch the art presentation and the concept presentation back to back you get more proof of my theory that every single Final Fantasy musical composition is better on the Piano.