Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII Announced

Square Enix has announced Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. Set to arrive in 2013, Lightning Returns will incorporate “a brand-new story, world, characters and an enhanced gameplay system,” according to Square Enix. The game will feature Lightning as a solo playable character and allow her to freely roam a new world.

Other details regarding Lightning Returns are limited. We do know that the main story takes place hundreds of years after Final Fantasy XIII-2, set in a world called Novus Partus — which is composed of four islands connected by monorail. The development team told IGN that three of the guiding pillars for the art direction in Lightning Returns are “gothic, mechanical and fantasy.”