Nintendo Insider writes:
It is a rags to riches story that awaits you in Nintendo Pocket Football Club, although not in the traditional sense. As a novice manager with dreams of leading a team to dizzying success, this isn’t the kind of ground that we normally find the Kyoto-based outfit treading.
Digitally Downloaded writes: "I thought we'd take one last look at the year that was. Specifically, games that came and went in 2014 with barely a ripple. Oh sure, these games were released, reviewed, and some people bought them, but as the year wore on these games were all but forgotten. People stopped talking about them on social media, there were no "looking back" articles, and they rarely featured in the end of year awards nominations."
Why do I see a picture of lightning returns? Was that a game I should be sad about missing? Cuz I'm pretty sure all of the ff13 games really sucked.
Although Lightning Returns is pretty bad, it's the FFXIII game I most liked (or hated the least). They tried to make things right in FFXIII-2, but while some things got better, other things got even worse (specially the plot). So it's like in LR they just said "screw it, this plot is unsalvageable, we won't be able to make it compare to other games in the series, so let's go crazy and complete this trilogy one way or another".
In the end, most of the things were still pretty terrible, mainly the plot and the characters (Lightning got even more boring with the "I don't have feelings anymore"). But some other things were so unusual for a Final Fantasy game that I ended up kinda liking them. And the battle system was what it should've been since the beginning: if you can't make good AI, it's better to let us fight alone. It's the only FFXIII game I played more than once, because the post-game was fun this time.
I wouldn't consider Lightning Returns "overlooked".
The reason why it didn't sell as much is because people played the first 2 games. They knew why they were skipping it.
I can see why FFXIII has so much hate. It's because many gamers want to play Final Fantasy XV instead and while they are taking their sweet arse time developing the game it felt in a way to many gamers including myself that FFXV was being shoved aside for more FFXIII sequels. While Lightning Returns does have great gameplay its release was overlooked cause many gamers just stopped caring about anything relating to FFXIII. Personally I felt that FFXIII should have ended with the first game cause the ending was a happy one and by adding in her being like a demi god didn't help the trilogy any further, plus sad to say FFXIII-2 was outsold in Japan by Tales of Xillia.
FFXIII overall had 2 sequels TOO many.
Now that's sad when a Tales title outsells a FF game barely anybody wants to play. Besides I feel that Tales of Xillia & Tales of Xillia 2 have a better character cast in general. While the FFXIII cast grows overall the sad truth is very few of the characters seem somewhat memorable. At least with Tales of Xillia many of the characters in the game were more likable.
FFXIII was a dissapointment and way overhyped beyond comparison. I know it was because I played the game for 82 hours and when I beat it I felt unsatisfied.
My comment down below was supposed to be a response to this. In short, yes, Xillia was greatly superior to FFXIII, although I still want to try XIII-2 and Lightning Returns.
Lightning Returns embodies just about everything wrong with the XIII saga. It's a prime example of how JRPGs, namely Square Enix's, crumble under pressure to reinvent themselves and innovate for the sake of innovating.
It's so full of random moving parts that it's never sure what it wants to be beyond a Lightning cosplay simulator and a bare bones role-playing, sandbox game. I'm simply glad it's done.
I would hope that Sunset Overdrive, Bayonetta 2, DK: Tropical Freeze, and Shovel Knight got the attention they deserved, but it seems they did to an extent.
If any game deserves a treat for all the crap it got, it's AC Unity. Yes, I'm that guy. Glitches and scandal aside, it does the most to perfect the series combat and parkour mechanics in the past few years and the environmental detail is simply stunning.
Patches have inked out most of the biggest problems, and yes, Arno's story is rather uninspiring, but I'm rather fond of what AC Unity saw in itself.
This was supposed to be a reply to an earlier comment, but I'm not sure it worked...
I haven't played Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Lightning Returns yet, but I'm going to at least give them a try in the hopes that I like them better than XIII.
I hated FFXIII's cast. As far as I'm concerned, it would have been hard for Tales of Xillia to NOT beat it in terms of characters.
And not just the party members, but the villains, too! Tales of Xillia had a great villain (that's an understatement, he was my favorite part of the game), while Final Fantasy XIII had one of the least memorable villains I've seen. I didn't love him, I didn't hate him, I didn't feel *anything* for him, and I think that's the worst reaction an audience can have to a character.
But I still hold out hope I'll like XIII-2 more.
they are both worse my friend. FFXIII at least tried to be a FF game with the great music and graphics but the other 2 are just some campy trash.
lightning returns was one of my fav games this year , i liked it even more than dark souls 2 , and im a huge souls fan ...
Adam from Awesome Games writes: 'No one gave Akiba Aces a chance. And honestly, who in their right mind would? After all, this was a team of hapless no hopers; a rag tag bunch of below average players, struggling to stay relevant in the fast-moving world of professional football. Fan support was dwindling, the dried-out pitch was barely fit for purpose, and the notion of top division football was an unobtainable, almost cruel dream.
Yes, Akiba Aces needed a miracle. And remarkably, they got one.'
Episode 3 in a series of games podcasts produced by Blasteroid.co.uk. This week: Dead Nation, The Playstation VITA, Nintendo Pocket Football and DOTA 2.
