Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13’s battles attempt to tone down difficulty

The one-woman battle system of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13 is part of Square Enix's effort to make the game's battle system easier, producer Yoshinori Kitase told Siliconera.

In Lightning Returns, players will take control of Lightning alone in a wardrobe-based battle system. According to Kitase, players of previous entries in the Final Fantasy 13 trilogy found fights to be "difficult to understand."

"While I kept the thought process behind the strategy of the battle, I wanted to make it a bit easier to see what the player should be thinking and to have a direct response to that," Kitase said, "and that's how the idea of having one playable character came about."

Kitase also touches on the game's wardrobe-based system, which he says was part of the team's desire to change a character's look when their in-battle roles switched.

"The concept of changing outfits didn't come first," Kitase said. "It naturally found its way there based on the compatibility between how the game mechanics were set up."

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13 launches for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 Feb. 11. For more on how the game's heroine is more vulnerable than ever before, read our interview with game design director Yuji Abe.