I didn't really care for Lightning Returns. The cameos were cool but the plot was predictable and the ending was corny to me.
Do they really only give u 48 hours to beat the game?WRPGs usually offer actual freedom. something like Skyrim gives you so many options that could be considered freedom. a JRPG usually has very limited options. what people call freedom is mostly running from room to room in towns looking for chests or repetitive fighting of monsters over and over again looking for rare drops.
i guess i didn't have as many issues with XIII because i play JRPGs for the main quest and that's about it. when playing Fallout or a game like that i'll do side quest because they actually feel fleshed out and relevant.
As for the plot of the other games
XIII-2 spoilers
i'm kinda fuzzy on XIII-2 but i remember there was a chick that could see the future. I don't know why but Etro gave her tribe a single member with the "eyes of Etro" that would let them see the future at the expense of shortening their life span. then the chick dies she's reincarnated and Etro made this guy Caius her semi-immortal guardian and he got sick of watching her die over and over again so he ended up fooling Serah and Noel into killing him. his life was linked to Etro's and when he died she died she gave him her heart and he couldn't kill himself. Etro in this alternate realm (the unseen world) prevents chaos (some type of negative energy substance) from crossing over to the normal world and when Caius is "killed" Etro dies and the gates open and chaos spills over into the regular world. Time ceases to exist and the chick stops dying. Serah also has these "eyes of Etro" and when the gates open she gets hit with an overwhelming vision that eats up all her remaining lifespan and she drops dead.
before Caius is killed he was fighting Lightning who was seemed to be Etro's chosen successor and Lightning realizes if she kills Caius what will happen so she stops fighting him and falls into despair over the fact that if he dies the gates will open and Serah will die. Lightning plops down on Etro's throne and goes into voluntary Crystal stasis just accepting her inevitable L and hoping she wakes up in better days.
moderate Lightning Returns Spoilers
In Lightning Returns i guess (haven't played it obviously) the main God (Bhunivelze) that kills his mother wakes Lightning up at the end of days when chaos is about to destroy the normal world and gives her the task of gathering human souls as a savior (to guide them over to a new world?) at some point Lightning realizes Bhunivelze is up to some foul shyt and turns on him. all i know is Bhunivelze is the final boss of the game.
I will say this, Lightning Returns was definitely the hardest RPG for me to play. Now I didn't fukk with RPGs in the 90s so I'm sure there are some from back then that were harder, but a couple of bosses in LR got on my fukking nerves. Caius was hard as shyt, beat him on pure luck. The last hit a landed on him did dumb damage for some reason. If that wouldn't have happened he would have definitely killed with his next hit and I don't think I would have been able to get that close again. The final boss was stupid hard too. I had to restart from a certain point and do more so I would be strong of enough to beat him. Thank god for someone suggesting that I use the equilibrium+ garb because I probably would have never figured that garb would work. Stats on that garb weren't shyt, but you needed that extra stagger boost. LR was first game in a while that I really had to try hard.
Yeah get ready for Caius. Do everything you can to get stronger. That nikka does not play. Get that soldier of peace garb because you're gonna need that Artemis' Arrow skill. That was the move I hit him with to end that fight.first time i faced noel he beat the shyt outta me. couldnt believe he was that difficult. im on day 6 and i finally beat him but part of the problem was i didnt know you have to actually time your blocks and not just hold it down like i been doiing. the battle system and customization in this game is piff, but it only really shines during boss fights
i beat the dead dunes boss pretty easily. im about to go fight snow and i dont think hell be too hard, but i heard caius is a bytch. by the wayat them bringing caius bakc in this game, such a cheap thing to do, caius' story ended perfectly in xiii-2