Lightning Could Appear in Future Final Fantasy's

[moggett88]

I think it would be cool if protagonists from several FF games were found in some kind of hall of destiny...kinda like in Eternal Darkness, where you get taken to the room to pick up the Tome, and all the previous owners had a statue located there.

 

[Charli]

Wait, Lightning is popular? I only played through a few hours of XIII and found her annoying and all I hear from other people is that she's not a good character at all. Plus aren't the XIII selling badly?

Apparently she is popular in Japan. Me? I have no fucks for this character. Zero. I still have exactly one fuck for Sonic the Hedgehog over this mess of a bland, boring, pink, nonentity of a character. DO YOU SEE HOW DIRE. I Have a fuck for a blue rat in red shoes who's repeatedly fucked up games, but at least he has a personality! A terrible one, but he possesses one!

And I actually can't convey my emotions well enough through words when I'm this irritated with an old franchise I loved so let my favorite protagonist of the FF series convey my emotions for me, because I can only draw when I'm this annoyed.

Spoiler: Drawinz

 

[Colt47]

Final Fantasy XIII has gone from being a terrible game, to becoming a series that is the video game equivalent of the Resident Evil live action films? I was expecting them to try and salvage what assets they could from that catastrophe to use elsewhere, which is exactly what the company did by reusing many of the enemy models in Final Fantasy XIV ARR. Technically they even salvaged clothing articles via the Lightning seasonal event. If the team didn't decide to split Lightning into Fang and Lightning things probably wouldn't be so bad.

 

[Mangue Surfer]

Let me combo break this thread.
I like Lightning too

 

[blizzaradragon]

Also, who are these people that are asking for more FFXIII and more Lightning. Final Fantasy XIII sold >1,000,000 units, Final Fantasy XIII-2 sold 524,000 copies and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII sold 277,000 units in their respective first weeks in Japan. Each game sold half of the previous title, even people in Japan seem to be sick of this crap. Let 13 and Lightning die already, God.

I'm sorry, that was uncharacteristically mean of me. It's just been a while since I played a decent game from my favourite JRPG franchise and well, ever since I started playing JRPGs, I felt that Yoshinori Kitase and Motomu Toriyama were just hacks who were lucky enough to be allowed to make games, over talented people like Hiroyuki Ito, Hiroshi Minagawa, Tetsuya Nomura and Takashi Tokita.

What ever happened to Takashi Tokita?

While I can agree that Lightning is getting old now(and that's coming from someone with XIII in their top 5 Final Fantasy games), one thing people need to remember: Square Enix's main audience absolutely adores her and the XIII saga in general. Pretty much take the love you'll see Western gamers throw at the feet of VII, double it, and you have Japan's love of XIII. It's kind of like how the West was pretty receptive to XII but Japan wasn't keen on it. I remember seeing some character and game polls about a month or so back on some gaming forums for Japan's favorites, and Lightning and XIII both won handily. I'll see if I can dig them up again and link them here.

These two statements seems rather contrary; could either of you post a link to some chart or newsite as a source?

Captcha: leave britney alone.

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Ok, the internet is officially self-aware. And I for one welcome our new AI overlords.

I can't find the newer one I saw, but I managed to dig up the results from a similar poll from about a year ago done by Square Enix Japan for favorite female character. Lightning won this one as well. These results are also on the Square Enix Japan Facebook page, but it's entirely in Japanese so I'm just trusting the translations.
http://www.destructoid.com/guess-the-fan-favorite-female-final-fantasy-character-242654.phtml

She's also been in the running for a few other popularity polls, as shown on her Wikipedia page. Though surprisingly she's been popular in some North America polls too, such as being 3rd in female RPG characters in a Pax Prime 2013 poll. Just search poll on this page and you'll see the paragraph with all the results.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_(Final_Fantasy)

Also of note, the XIII saga has received rave reviews from Famitsu, the most popular video game magazine in Japan. XIII got a 39/40, while XIII-2 is one of only 22 games to receive a perfect 40/40. The weakest was Lightning Returns, which got a still very respectable 37/40.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famitsu#Perfect_scores
http://www.novacrystallis.com/2013/11/famitsu-weighs-in-on-lightning-returns-final-fantasy-xiii-gives-it-a-3740/

 

[Folksoul]

Toriama... seriously... just get a love pillow dude...

I'm a fan of this trilogy and the wolverine publicity is obnoxious. For f*ck sake she wasn't even the protagonist in the game she debuted in. That would be Vanille and Fang.(Australian lesbian terrorists FTW!) Or its sequel, Serah and Noel...

 

[Mr.Squishy]

So, I guess you could say that...Lightning strikes again?(I would say twice, but come on, it's been thrice already.)

 

[2xDouble]

I don't think people understand what cameos are. I would like to remind people that Vaan and Penelo, significantly less interesting characters, featured prominently as guest characters in Final Fantasy Tactics A2, and Cloud has "appeared" in pretty much every Final Fantasy since 7, including Tactics and XIII-3. Appearing in a game is not the same as starring in or impacting the game.

This announcement is nothing new, and certainly nothing to get upset or excited about.

 

[Baresark]

She doesn't emote. She has a single expression. She has a monotone voice. The only thing that has ever been exciting about her are her actions and how quick she jumps into a fight or goes flipping and spinning through the air... if you made a goddamn Chocobo do that, they would be exciting for the 3 seconds it was going on. One the same note: A chocobo doesn't emote, it has a single expression and make a single noise.... so they have that in common too.

 

[RJ 17]

More and more I'm beginning to feel that Yahtzee's analysis of SquareEnix is correct: at this point they're just trolling their fanbase because they don't want to make games anymore, but rather movies. As such we get news like this.

Not that it matters to me at all, all I can do is chuckle while shaking my head as I read all these comments. I washed my hands of this franchise a long time ago and have absolutely no intentions of coming back, so it's amusing to me to see current fans getting all pissed off about stuff like this.

Kinda like how any kind of bad news for Blizzard gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside. :3

More to the topic at hand: saying that Lightning is going to be appearing in other FF titles is like Bioware saying that Shepard is going to be appearing in future Bioware games. Or that Darth Revan will be featured in his full Sith Lord Armor in Dragon Age 3.

Wait...now that I think about it, that last one might actually be pretty sweet.

Bioware: put Darth Revan in DA:3.

 

[FancyNick]

You know, it seems you always hear how she's a popular character but if you look at a thread like this the majority of people seem to dislike her. Maybe her character just didn't appeal to western audiences the same way it did in Japan. No idea.

OT: I never liked the character to be honest but maybe that has to do with the fact I hated 13. I hope square stops forcing this character to be in games. She had her chance, let someone else take over. Maybe add some emotion or depth..

 

[james.sponge]

Goddammit...she really is Toriyama's waifu at this stage isn't she?

This is creepy but I guess not as creepy as David Cage's obsession with Ellen Page.

Wait, Lightning is popular? I only played through a few hours of XIII and found her annoying and all I hear from other people is that she's not a good character at all. Plus aren't the XIII selling badly?

Well my guess this whole statement about her being popular comes from SquareEnix's PR department, so yeah definitely a credible source of information.

 

[tehroc]

The only thing I liked about Lightning is she wasn't a whiny androgynous protagonist like almost every other modern JRPG in existence.

 

[MrHide-Patten]

Sorry, but do FF fans really deserve that, a stoic pink haired Jennifer Love Hewitt?

If the third time is not the charm, the Lightning isn't going to strike... bum-dum-tish*

 

[Alpha Maeko]

Square Enix is trying really hard to convince people that Lightning is the shiznet.

They don't understand how memes or legends or even "old school" works. You can't just fabricate these things. It's decided by the fans.

Lighting is cool and all, but she's no legend. I'll never care about a preorder that gives me a "Lightning" skin in future Final Fantasy titles. And yet, somehow, I'm super tempted when I hear Lightning can have a Cloud skin.

It's just not the same, Square. Stop trying so hard.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Lot of folks seem to think that she's not all that popular.

Prepare to be disappointed by humanity once more.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_%28Final_Fantasy%29#Reception

In 2010, she was ranked as the 34th most popular video game character in Japan in a Famitsu poll.

Out of all the Final Fantasy XIII cast, Lightning was voted as the most popular character in a Microsoft poll.

In a VideoGamer.com's listing of the best ten Final Fantasy characters, Lightning was sixth with the writer Yin Poole finding her interesting in the course of the game despite still finding her similar to Cloud.

In 2011, IGN ranked Lightning among the best Final Fantasy characters, saying that she demonstrated that "a delicate balance can exist between strength and tenderness, even in the midst of her incredible acrobatic feats."

In GameZone's list regarding the same subject, Lightning was eighth owing to her visual appearance as well as the character's determination which made her "one of the strongest female leaders of the Final Fantasy series."

Cheat Code Central also listed her as one of the top ten "badass" women of video games for her independence that distances her from previous Final Fantasy heroines.

Lightning also ranked second in AfterEllen's list of the "hottest" video game characters.

In Game Informer's list of top ten heroes of 2010, Lightning was ranked eighth and praised for her as the only protagonist in Final Fantasy XIII who seemed capable of taking on the corrupt government of Cocoon and that her no-nonsense approach to her mission made her the game's standout hero.

In 2013, Lightning was voted the favorite female Final Fantasy character in an official poll by Square Enix, and was also ranked twice in lists by Complex as the 19th greatest Final Fantasy character and the 39th greatest heroine in video game history.

Professional journalists and game developers have also ranked her high among important female video game characters, with her coming third in a list of top female characters in an RPG or JRPG during a panel at PAX Prime 2013.

According to several sites out there, she's considered a great character, super hot, and an important standout among female video game characters....despite, realistically speaking, being absolutely none of those things.

Never underestimate humanity's capacity to drop the bar lower than you thought possible.

Well, the thing is this: she's popular. For now. She's mostly prominent due to being so recent, not because she's a good character. In a few years she'll just fade to the back like her predecessors did, being inevitably being replaced by newer characters. It's probably part of the reason Toriyama is trying to keep her in stuff; the second she doesn't she'll just become irrelevant and vanish into obscurity. Which is the fate of all flavors of the month.

 

[MDSnowman]

You know, if Final Fantasy, as a series, decides to redefine itself by sticking to a single world and running with it I'm not really opposed to it.

What I hate is the world they decided to do it with. The XIII games have been uninspiring crap to me. The characters were annoying. The gameplay was intolerable. The world itself was generic. There was really no redeeming qualities to any of the XIII games as far as I could tell.

So what do they do? They decide to camp out in the world and try to shove it, and their bland boring action girl, down everyone's throats. FF has been dead to me for a good two or three years now, and nothing I'm hearing is making me feel as though I should reevaluate that opinion.

Edit: Sigh... now I just want to play FF6.

 

[duchaked]

reading the article made me think "OH JUST STOP ALREADY" and then reading the comments made me realize...yeah it has been an entire console generation spent on freaking FFXIII and Lightning. c'mon...we don't like FFXIII. we don't like Lightning and the gang. y'all forced THREE games of this on us.

then again I also hear the Japanese are the opposite and actually love her and the series so what do I know lol...

 

[Trishbot]

While I can agree that Lightning is getting old now(and that's coming from someone with XIII in their top 5 Final Fantasy games), one thing people need to remember: Square Enix's main audience absolutely adores her and the XIII saga in general. Pretty much take the love you'll see Western gamers throw at the feet of VII, double it, and you have Japan's love of XIII. It's kind of like how the West was pretty receptive to XII but Japan wasn't keen on it. I remember seeing some character and game polls about a month or so back on some gaming forums for Japan's favorites, and Lightning and XIII both won handily. I'll see if I can dig them up again and link them here.

The "Japanese adore FF13" is a HUGE misconception.

For starters, Lightning Returns, the finale game in the FF13 series, opened to incredibly pitiful sales. FF13 itself sold over 1 million in its first week. FF13-2 sold about 500,000. Lightning Returns sold a paltry 277,000. Every time, their numbers dropped by about HALF. For perspective, the port of the 13-year-old Final Fantasy X outsold Lightning Returns in its opening week. When your expensive, brand new finale to a lengthy saga is beaten by an outdated, turn-based, random battle decade-old port of a PS2 game, your franchise is NOT heading down a good direction. Even the new IP, Bravely Default, sold marginally better, and it didn't have the benefit of being on TWO established consoles. Even friggin' Dirge of Cerberus, an abomination of a game, sold better in its opening week than Lightning Returns did. So, no, Japan's sales numbers show that even Japan is beyond sick of this series.

I know the poll you're thinking off too... and it's not exactly unbiased either. Lightning was #1 on the poll... out of sample of only 500 people... only open to registered members on the Square Enix forum. Considering how heavy a push Square Enix has given Lightning, and how both newcomers have no perspective on the past games (Rydia who? Terra what?), old fans likely already left and didn't care enough to vote, and the most exposed and recent additions always rank higher due to exposure, and it was a problematic poll to begin with. One, once again, not shared by the rest of Japan.

Even if they SAY they liked Lightning, their money went to other games instead. I think that speaks louder than an isolated poll conducted on Lightning's official website.