Short answers, pulled from the story.
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII was released on the 21st of November 2013 in Japan and in February 2014 in North America and PAL regions. A Windows PC version via Steam followed in December 2015, and a cloud-streaming release for iOS and Android launched on the 17th of February 2016 in Japan.
The in-game timer begins at seven days and can be extended up to thirteen days by completing story missions and depositing Eradia into the tree Yggdrasil each morning at 6 A.M. game-time. One in-game day equals one real-time hour on Normal and Hard modes, and two to three hours on Easy mode. The timer pauses during cutscenes, conversations, and battles.
Square Enix developed and published the game, with developer tri-Ace assisting with graphics, the same arrangement as on Final Fantasy XIII-2. The main scenario was written by Daisuke Watanabe, and the game was directed by Motomu Toriyama.
The game sold just over 277,000 units in its first week in Japan and reached approximately 800,000 copies worldwide by May 2014. A further 376,000 copies of the Windows PC version were sold by April 2018 according to Steam Spy. Series brand manager Shinji Hashimoto confirmed the game met Square Enix's sales expectations.
Famitsu magazine gave the game 37 out of 40, with individual scores of 10, 10, 9, and 8. Metacritic recorded 69 out of 100 for the Xbox 360 version and 66 out of 100 for the PlayStation 3 version. Critics praised the battle system but gave mixed reviews to the story, time limit, and quest design.
Game design director Yuji Abe conceived the time limit after reading about the Doomsday Clock. The 2011 film In Time provided additional inspiration for the story's pacing around a fixed deadline.