Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII – The Final Journey of Lightning trailer

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII gets a few details and a sweet trailer to show off the further, and apparently final, journey of Lightning.  You can hit the press release below, but what caught my eye is that there is a new approach to combat – direct control.  Check it out:

The battle system in Lightning Returns is similar in principle to that in XIII and XIII-2; there will be an ATB-based system. However, as Lightning is the only playable character, it has been adapted to give the player more control: instead of selecting menu commands and queuing them, the player can select abilities mapped to specific buttons on the controller. Lightning will be able to move around freely in battles, but the battles will not be seamless. Instead, they will again take place on a separate battle field.

This sounds almost like a mix between XIII and Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII.  The trailer will knock your socks off with the CGI awesomeness, but the vast majority of this trailer focuses on gameplay!  How’s that for a rarity?  The game is still TBD, but it is confirmed for 2013 on Xbox 360 and PS3.   I’m a huge Final Fantasy fan, so you can bet that we’ll be keeping a close eye on this title.    In the mean time, enjoy he trailer and these confusingly-small screenshots.