The release of Square-Enix’s Lightning Returns is nearly upon on. The release of the public demo gives a lot of insight on what to expect come full product. The enjoyment the game brings to you really depends on how you previously perceived the Lighting storyline and maybe even Final Fantasy as a whole.

Which fell first? The Lightning or the Snow?

One of the first things you realize when you play Lightning Returns is that it looks like any other Final Fantasy game, and seeing as how I’ve never really played a Final Fantasy game (unless Kingdom Hearts counts), I suppose that says something for new players. I liked that Lighting Returns was easy to pick up and play from the get go, the attack, guard, and spell commands were simple enough to follow so that even the lowest level of rookie Final Fantasy players could play it right away. Another thing I really dug was the game’s animation, the Crystal Tools engine does beautiful work, hopefully Square will be more keen to use it for future titles, citing bugs don’t cause issues with development of course.

Lightning traversing through a town.

Here’s where the bad comes in, first of all if the demo is anything to go by, then expect a lot of story, which means there’s going to be a lot of cut scenes. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing in and of itself, but if it slows down gameplay even at all it could be a problem for some gamers. Another thing that was quickly noticed was that the game comes off as being incredibly easy. Obviously it’s just an alpha/beta demo, but even so I’ve played plenty of demos that provided some form of challenge.

Lightning looking badass.

While Lighting Returns seems like a decent game, it does look like it might have a few issues, or at the very least some annoyances for gamers. Reports from players who’ve imported the game from Japan have been experiencing some of these problems, rather or not they fix these in the localized US version remains to be seen, but if you’re a fan of the Lightning storyline or Final Fantasy all together then you may enjoy this one. Expect our full review of Lightning Returns soon.