Hironobu Sakaguchi's series may have always been about saving the world, but only in Final Fantasy 13 did that goal come at the expense of helping out the lost child, the neglected wife, the weary worker, the little guy. Towns are back, sprawling areas filled with people straining at their pre-set paths to request your help in finding their lost something-or-other. And the game world reflects this from the first moment.

She has none of the steel composure of her elder sibling, none of that dogged determination that makes Lightning such a difficult character to empathise with. Serah, Lightning's younger sister and heroine of Final Fantasy 13-2 - a rare sequel to a mainline Final Fantasy title - is a primary school teacher in a seaside village. Rarely has a game been so focused as to discard so much of its own heritage. In Final Fantasy 13, both towns and exploration were discarded as extraneous trappings, unnecessary to Lightning's mission or - as it was referred to in the game's terminology - her Focus. The series may reinvent itself with each new entry, but the games have always been tied together by common motifs: crystals, summons, Chocobos, airships, Yoshitaka Amano's Klimt-esque concept art, and that tinkling harp arpeggio. And Lightning's purity of focus saw Square Enix discard many Final Fantasy tropes so she could pursue her goals without distraction. The game presented a journey so focused and linear that its first 25 hours could be mapped out as an unbroken corridor. Final Fantasy 13 reflected the character of its heroine, Lightning: an elite, standoffish soldier who would let nothing come between her and her mission.

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