Initial Thoughts: Lightning Returns

Full Review: Lightning Returns (2014)

It’s really very different from both games in the FFXIII series so far. The paradigm system has gone, the garb/schemata system is in and you have far more control over the battle. The ATB engine has been overhauled completely. The monsters are once again visible in the field, like in XIII, but the pre-emptive strike system of XIII-2 remains. Unfortunately there’s still no sign of a return to the RTB system of XII, with the loading screens still taking up more time than I’d like, but at least with the SOLDIER garb, I get a proper victory fanfare.

Full Review: Lightning Returns (2014)

Wordament (App) Review

Rating:
Release Date:	September 4, 2013 (for Android)

Wordament is a word game from You vs. the Internet and Microsoft Studios, first released for Windows Phone in 2012. The app is now also available on Windows 8, iOS, Android and online. Plus, there are currently 15 languages to choose from, although some are still in beta.

The aim of the game is to make as many words as you can from a 4×4 grid of letters in two minutes – it’s like an electronic version of Boggle. Using the Xbox Live service, you can play against thousands of other players on the same grid, with a score calculated from values to each letter used a like scrabble. The leaderboard is shown at the end of each round with your ranking against other players worldwide and a list of all possible words from the round.

Initial Thoughts: Rhythm Thief (DS)

I really enjoyed this game…to start with. The story was simple but intriguing and the gameplay was relatively easy to understand. It’s obviously a rhythm game, so a sense of rhythm helps and mine’s not too bad. Sometimes it took a couple of goes to work out the timings between cues and actions, but generally, not too difficult.
However, I got stuck about halfway through. After ten attempts at the same level, I’m frustrated but no closer to winning. I can’t work out what I’m doing wrong and I can’t win – even using items that make it easier. Perhaps my timing is not millisecond perfect. It lost priority to Theatrhythm Final Fantasy. Now that’s a good rhythm game!

Final Fantasy XIII-2 (2011) Review

Rating:
EU Release Date:	Feb 3, 2012 (for Xbox 360)
Developer:	Square Enix
Publisher:	Square Enix
Total play time:	55:52:00 (story mode)

After the disappointment that was Final Fantasy XIII, I did not have high hopes for XIII-2, especially given the negative reviews I’ve heard from other fans. While the story in XIII was good, the gameplay was dull: no problem solving, barely any free roam and battles that even the worst tactician could manage. It was a good game, but it wasn’t a Final Fantasy.

So, we join up again with Lightning and watch her battle with some purple-haired guy named Caius who seems to turn into Bahamut. Then we have a go at fighting him too before we meet Noel Kreiss. She sends him to look for Serah. And that’s pretty much all we see of her for the next fifty hours. Aside from the odd encounter with the characters from XIII, the story doesn’t follow on at all. However, this doesn’t mean it’s not a good story – it’s just not a good sequel.

Instead, we’re now following Lightning’s sister Serah and the mysterious Noel, who falls out of the sky and into New Bodhum where they meet three years after the fall of Cocoon (3AF). Even stranger is the fact that apparently, in this world, Lightning is dead – a part of the crystal pillar holding up Cocoon. Only Serah remembers Lightning surviving and she sets out to bring her sister home with Noel’s help. Noel, meanwhile, has demons of his own to contend with in the form of Caius and Yeul. Together, Noel and Serah save the world by jumping through time to a number of familiar (and some unfamiliar) places.