This has got to be one of the most boring games I’ve ever played. The only good thing about it was I was able to beat the story in under 20 hours and it wasn’t bloated with RPG crap like the previous few games. Combat is so clunky and the parrying window is frustrating to the point actively only played stealth the whole game. The parkour is slow and clunky as usual. I’m just really disappointed in what people thought would be a “return to form”. Maybe it’s a better game for those that had the patience to beat Valhalla, but on its own this game’s story is such a chore to get through that I was feeling sleepy…

I really want to love this game more, but the plot related problems with it started in 13-2. On its own, there’s cool stuff especially with the character Lumina, but it’s hard not to judge it in the context of the whole series. Gameplay wise, it is generally a fun game with very challenging boss fights, and I could recommend it to anyone who isn’t as particular about writing consistency and doesn’t mind the challenge of a time limit. One good thing I can say, is Lighting was truly the “savior” for the following FF games; the 13 saga walked so 14-16 could RUN.

The Good: The world is new and more interesting to explore than the prior 2, many side quests are charming, engaging, and aren’t extremely boring fetch quests, and the combat is generally engaging even though different. Lumina’s character was a highlight, as the whole time you’re questioning her true intentions and you get a good although obvious payoff from her revelation by the end. The tone of the game is dark, gritty and edgy, and there’s a sense of overall despair and urgency in the world. I’ve always loved the visual aesthetics of this series. Runs pretty much perfectly on the Steam Deck.

The not so good: The new combat was a little jarring at first and not as forgiving, especially when enemies were inconsistent in difficulty and staggering isn’t as clear. I much preferred the Paradigm System. The time limit to beat the game (or else, game over/New Game+) was a big source of stress and anxiety for me going into this, because I’m not someone that enjoys replaying most games. While a lot of people say it’s not a big deal, I was CONSTANTLY thinking about it, and it was making me not enjoy my experience until I decided to follow a walkthrough. The time limit wouldn’t have been nearly as bad, had finding side quests to earn EXP not been so tedious. Some side quests are only available between certain times of the day, and the game doesn’t make it obvious which ones those are/no map markers to help with that. As a result, I found myself wasting a ton of time running around, trying to find these side quests in the world, and then realizing some of these side quests require you to go to another area of the map at a much later time, or in an entirely different map where traveling to them consumes an hour of time. I wasn’t advancing my main quests fast enough, and you need to finish a set of main quests in order to gain an extra day to your time limit. It was just constant stress figuring out how to tackle these side quests efficiently, and a walkthrough made this issue disappear. You have to beat quests/side quests to gain EXP, fighting enemies don’t give you EXP. Fighting enemies do however give you a means to “stop time”, so I stopped time pretty much every second I could. Another issue with this time limit mechanic is the openness in what order to complete your main quests. There’s no right or wrong order, there is an optimal order to make sure your boss fights aren’t harder than they need to be and to make context of certain cutscenes make more sense. Because of this openness, all your cutscenes before a day starts are intentionally vague/don’t really move the plot forward because the game doesn’t adjust these scenes according to what main quests you’ve completed. As a result, the whole vibe of the game felt weirdly empty. The OG cast felt more like side characters, shells of their former selves. Snow and especially Sazh had no real impact into the events of this game, they were just existing in this world with their own problems. None of them seemed to learn from their past/grow as a person after 500 years. 13 had so much character development and interesting interactions that drove the plot, while this feels totally opposite of that.

///SPOILERS///

The biggest issue though has to be the plot/lore, and that issue started with 13-2. To recap: 13 started with some interesting lore about the fal’Cie and their desire to open Etro’s Gate (by destroying Cocoon) in order to awaken their Makers (Pulse and Lindzei), who would then awaken God (Bhunivelze), but they don’t exist in the story of 13-2, because the death of the fal’Cie Orphan killed all Cocoon fal’Cie in 13. Lindzei essentially fails his task to find the metaphysical gate as all his fal’Cie dies. Pulse’s task was to find a physical gate, but he takes a backseat by now for some reason, and no Pulse fal’Cie continue this search. At the end of 13-2, the Chaos that flooded in from killing Etro’s heart opened the gate, and presumably caused Lindzei to wake up Bhunivelze. Now, all of that god lore isn’t made clear in the game, this is information I had to dig online for a few hours, and I find that to be pretty bad storytelling. Because of this lack of info threading these games together, we jump into a sequel that on the surface, seems to have NO relation to any of the events that occurred in 13, and only shares the same world and characters. Instead of fal’Cie opening Etro’s Gate, this plot is given new motivations: 13-2 introduces Caius, who on his own, is a great character, but has completely different reasons to open Etro’s Gate. This results in 13-2 feeling like a spinoff. Caius wants to open it to save Yuel from her cycles of rebirth by bringing about the end of the flow of time. (These cycles were made worse after Etro got involved with saving the party at the end of 13). While Caius/Yuel existed long before the events of 13/War of Transgression, they are only now being fully introduced in 13-2.

By LR, only Bhunivelze truly remains from the lore, and for some reason, it took him 500 years after Etro’s Gate opened at the end of 13-2 before intervening in LR. Bhun wanted to open Etro’s Gate to find and kill Mwynn (his mom), who he believed cursed “death” upon the visible world (he was only paranoid as she didn’t actually curse the world). I assume he found out to be wrong, realized Mwynn actually died, and saw the Chaos destroying the visible realm he sought to preserve before. I guess it took him 500 years to access the situation and do something about it. The plot in LR is driven by the main quests involving the main cast, and they’re not as strong as the prior games. They’re not bad at its core, but the execution isn’t good. Everyone’s goals in this game are much weaker and feels redundant/recycled and not fully rounded. Caius by the endgame cutscene is somehow able to rid Yuel of her curse/grant her a normal life, without a clear explanation, but my guess is he wasn’t able to until he officially became the god of death. If you don’t look deeper into these games’s lore/plots from online threads/wikis, you’re definitely going to miss out on a majority of what is driving everything. And I’m potentially still misunderstanding some things after hours of reading.

You can say the 13 saga is about humans struggling to exist in this complex world suffering under the varying plots of these gods, and the specific lore/plots of the gods themselves aren’t as important, they’re just catalysts for the choices the characters make, and how these choices impact the world around them. These game simultaneously feel like they’re barely direct sequels and barely spinoffs because of the lack of threading between them in certain areas. Had Caius been subtly introduced earlier, perhaps by being manipulated by a fal’Cie to seek Etro’s Gate in 13, and continuing this goal in 13-2, these games would have felt more threaded together, but his introduction suddenly in 13-2 started this strange tonal shift that never really ends. I feel really mixed, I love the characters and the general plot/lore, but by LR, all of these ideas aren’t carefully well integrated with each other. Underneath all this is a great game, but it’s hard for me to definitively say if I can recommend it. Yes for those who love FF games and plan to finish this series and read deeper into the lore, maybe no to most anyone else who don’t care about reading up on stuff after beating a game.

Technically played on the Steam Deck, which was actually a good experience. A confusing one to gather my thoughts on..by itself, it’s a good game with a unique time travel traversal mechanic and story. The combat is just as fun as the previous game and improved on it. The puzzles and fragment hunting can get pretty annoying but guides fix that issue. I think as a standalone FF game, it would be stronger, but it does feel like an odd filler episode after 13, only because the jump from abandoning the Fal’cie plot/lore and replace it with a time travel story and a new antagonist seemingly out of no where felt jarring. Any connection to previous lore/story in 13 was minimal, to the point it felt like this time travel story could have been in any FF game really. It feels like we aren’t even in the same world of Pulse and Cocoon (beyond visually), mostly abandoning all the main characters from the prior game. It’s not a BAD game by any means, it’s just a weird one that feels really different from the previous game, and not nearly as much focus on characters. It doesn’t feel like a sequel, it feels much more like a spinoff game that takes place in the same world.

Minor lore spoilers: We go from a game where the Fal’cie are desperately trying to open Etro’s gate by destroying Cocoon in order to awaken god, to one where these Fal’cie suddenly lose the motivation to summon their makers/god for no obvious reason (besides maybe losing their control over humans after humans realize they have free will). The person to replace the plot of opening Etro’s Gate to bring about the Chaos and eventual events in LR, now goes to Caius, but his motivations are entirely different and mostly unrelated to any of the lore in the prior game. Etro is the only thing that really ties these two games together loosely, but you have to read about this in data logs and novels, which to me is an indication on the failure of the writers to weave together these games in a more logical way that reveals itself during gameplay. If you have to read content outside of the game to get the full picture, I think that’s a great sign of weakness. Etro is basically the catalyst of all the bad events that take place in both games, but suddenly introducing her seemingly out of no where in 13-2 heightens this disconnect. That being said, the ending was pretty good with an unexpected cliffhanger that had me very intrigued. I liked 13 more for the characters, as their motivations were stronger and more fleshed out, and the overall lore of the Fal’cie/gods. Also, soundtrack is a BANGER as always for this series, probably my favorite game soundtrack ever. Overall, I liked this game, even if it has some strange game design choices and a confusing existence.