As promised in the title, Lightning does indeed return as the protagonist in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, and so do plenty of familiar mechanics and characters from the first two titles. 

Combat still utilizes the ATB system from Final Fantasy XIII, although like XIII-2 it makes a few slight changes to the formula which seem to streamline things for the better. Staggering enemies is still integral to the combat system, as Staggered enemies will take much greater damage. But the feedback that the game gives you during battle should make it much more intuitive to Stagger an enemy. This is thanks in large part to the Stagger Wave. This new UI element gives you real-time feedback as to how close the enemy is to being Staggered, and how your various attacks are doing at Staggering enemies.

A bigger change is that players can now switch between different attack loadouts during battle on the fly. This seemed kind of like switching up Paradigms in the first two titles in that it allows Lightning to specialize herself as the situation demands. This function is mapped to the bumpers to allow for quicker changing than ever before, and ther e are no animations or cutscenes associated with switching loadouts. This is perhaps to compensate for Lightning flying solo in this game; during my demo at least, she was not accompanied by any party members.

Aside from these minor changes, it was pretty much business as usual during my demo. The game's graphics were a treat as always. Outside of battle, mild platforming segments dotted the environments, and scoring pre-emptive strikes on enemies from the overworld can give Lightning a big advantage in battle.

Fans of Final Fantasy XIII should be excited about Lightning Returns, as it continues many of the mechanics of those last two titles and makes a few minor iterations on them to boot. But if this generation's Final Fantasy haven't been your cup of tea, you likely won't find anything here that will change your mind.