Lightning Could Appear in Future Final Fantasy's

[KingdomFantasyXIII]

Don't count on it.

Most people still remember both Cloud and Tidus, and those characters were first introduced in 1997 and 2001 respectively. Lightning is constantly being held up as "the female Cloud", so she's very likely to be immortalized in much the same vein as those two were.

I very much doubt that. She'll probably be remembered in the same vein as Squall; an annoying protagonist who SE tried to prop up as the next big thing only for the character to burn out a few years later. And if XIII-3' sales are any indication, apparently Lightning just isn't as big of a selling point as Toriyama wants to believe. It's pretty much over for her time in the spotlight

I don't think so. Zack Fair is the number one FF male character in Japan, and his game Crisis Core sold NOWHERE near as much as FF7 did (2.57 million in one year). Hell, Cloud Strife is the number 2 male FF character in the franchise and his face doesn't sell products equally as much as FF7. Sales don't equal popularity. Besides, we still have yet to see the yearly sales of Lightning Returns. Initial sales don't really mean anything other than "oh look some people got hyped for a product".

From what I have seen in actual character polls in Japan, Lightning ranks up highly in the top 3 spot. Remember how phone games are huge in Japan? Well, this could help you understand:
http://www.siliconera.com/2014/01/06/final-fantasy-airborne-brigade-players-vote-yuna-popular-heroine/

As you can see, Yuna has over 48,449 votes while Lighting has 26,860 and Tifa has 25,623. Despite what a couple 10-200 people on the internet say, the votes of people in real life kind of count more and even outweigh that of the internet.

 

[Stg]

The fact this idiot is the same hack who utterly butchered the Parasite Eve franchise, and is one of the key members on the "Final Fantasy Quality Assurance Team" (I'm sure his standards are VERY high...), only fills my fangirl heart with rage and loathing.[/QUOTE]

I love you for this sentence. Parasite Eve was my favorite series on the PSX and I cannot count the number of times I played through PE2 only to find the 3rd Birthday a laughable and massive disappointment. At that time, I didn't know who was responsible, but over the years I did some research and it's greatly disheartening to know that this is the same guy.

 

[james.sponge]

The fact this idiot is the same hack who utterly butchered the Parasite Eve franchise, and is one of the key members on the "Final Fantasy Quality Assurance Team" (I'm sure his standards are VERY high...), only fills my fangirl heart with rage and loathing.

Well people who made SquareSoft great in its prime jumped the ship when Enix bought the company didn't they? It's not surprising SE never capitalized on success and cult following of games like Parasite Eve, Xenogears or Vagrant Story, they were blinded by FF cash cow ready to be exploited.

I wouldn't be surprised if PE returned as FPS

Parasite Eve was my favorite series on the PSX and I cannot count the number of times I played through PE2 only to find the 3rd Birthday a laughable and massive disappointment. At that time, I didn't know who was responsible, but over the years I did some research and it's greatly disheartening to know that this is the same guy.

PE games on PSX were so good, that replayability rate

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.

Thanks for that, had no idea humanity can be that dumb. On a serious note let's think about it for a moment gaming press is so easily manipulated these days I wouldn't be surprised if they decided Prophet from Crysis is the most iconic character in the history of video games.

As for the people I would blame marketing, as FF games became more and more expensive they had to be pushed in the media to meet sales expectations it's not surprising characters from newer games are more recognizable than more compelling characters from previous instalments. Who will remember characters like Locke and Setzer when Cloud was the one to sell cellphones.

 

[Spartan448]

The whole FF13 series had ONE good character. ONE. And it WASN'T LIGHTNING.

Honestly, I'm on the verge of loosing all faith in Square at this point.

 

[busterkeatonrules]

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

You called it.

"She refuses to dress up as Lightning, I accidentally called her Lightning a few times. We both have made mistakes."
-Toriyama, on why his relationship with his girlfriend is failing.

Seriously, there will never be another decent Final Fantasy as long as this guy is in charge of it.

 

[rosac]

Hmm. She isn't very memorable, although this could depend on when you joined the series. For me personally, Zack Strife, Cloud, Cecil (Final fantasy 4) and tidus are the main protagonists I'll remember. I'm really wanting to try FFXIII when I get a cut price PS3 though (waiting for the post ps-4 drop still), just to see if it's really as bad as people say!

CAPTCHA: Sacred Cow

Alrigggghty then

 

[seditary]

I'm not surprised Lightning is winning polls.

Until the HD FFX/X2 release, the only mainline Final Fantasy games in the past 10 years were 12 and the 13 titles.

 

[SlightlyEvil]

I'll just put it this way: It's never a good sign if the main debate among fans of your still-running series is whether it peaked 20 years ago or 17 years ago.

 

[Kopikatsu]

It's like people have completely forgotten that FF4 was the first trilogy of the FF series. (4, Interlude, After Years)

 

[Sateru]

I'm rather dismayed that they feel inclined to force feed us the damn woman. There is no real redeeming quality about her. I stopped playing FFXIV partly because of other issues, but I absolutely refuse to go back onto it because of the fact that they keep pushing her onto us. I really wish they would just give up on her and move onto another universe, another collection of characters, and let us all forget the travesty that was FFXIII

 

[Lunar Templar]

and with people like this in Square it makes me wonder how Bravely Default managed to turn out to be good instead of the boring, uninteresting train wreck that was FF13 and its necessary sequels.

 

[BeeGeenie]

It's like people have completely forgotten that FF4 was the first trilogy of the FF series. (4, Interlude, After Years)

Those "sequels" came out almost 20 years after the original, so it's not the first. Heck, FF7 had more spin-offs released in 2 years than FF4 had in 2 decades. Not that it matters, I think the bigger issue is that some stories are worth expanding, and others (FFXIII) need to die in a fire.

 

[KingdomFantasyXIII]

It's like people have completely forgotten that FF4 was the first trilogy of the FF series. (4, Interlude, After Years)

Those "sequels" came out almost 20 years after the original, so it's not the first. Heck, FF7 had more spin-offs released in 2 years than FF4 had in 2 decades. Not that it matters, I think the bigger issue is that some stories are worth expanding, and others (FFXIII) need to die in a fire.

Or how about instead not expand on any FF number title at all? FF10-2 didn't help, FF7 compilations didn't help, FF13 sequels did help, FF4 After years didn't help.

The real problem is that the company is expanding their games instead of moving onwards. The number titles are not the problem, the sequels are.

 

[Nihlus2]

If she shows up in Final Fantasy 15, I'd probably self-implode.

You DO realize that FF"XV" is actually a part of the FFXIII fanta nova crysabullshit?
It's why I have TERRRIBAD suspicions about it... You don't just take from that shitfest of a "franchise".... that was so bad that one of the unfinished games got axed... change the name of said unfinished title... and then expect something different from XIII do you?
Cause I sure don't.

If FFXV has nothing to do with FFXIII... as in, they gutted the entire thing and remade the entire world and story from scratch...
Then it will be in the same vein as all the other FFs: each numbered FF is separate and different.
But given how "lol lightning is totes gonna be in other FFs"...
I'm betting that this was a trollspoiler for FFXV...
Cause FFXV is formerly a part of FFXIII.

Nobura (Director of FFXV) did however state in an interview that they officially scrapped all connections and ties to XIII completely and made it unrelated (Therein lies the whole Versus XIII into XV). So no, it is (fortunately!) unrelated to XIII in any way. They are doing their own thing, and it is made by a director who has some incredible reputation and previous work under his belt? so I am sceptical, yet optimistic about FFXV.

The worst thing that could possibly happen is that Toriyama starts creeping around the FFXV development department and goes "So? Lightning huh? Wouldn't it be nice if she was a character in your game? !"

 

[Nihlus2]

I find it absolutely hilarious that people are whining about this and don't understand what he means. Square already said that single number titled games will not have characters from other universes visit FF games. This explains why Cloud and Squall were never in XIII-2 or LR. They stated that it would confuse the fans and would in turn make no sense. They only said creatures like Gilgamesh, Omega Weapon, Ultros, etc. They could make a reference to her like how Zidane referenced Cloud and Sephiroth in FF9 or they might do skins of her costume to female characters, but they won't plop her into other games.

He's talking about such games as Tactics, Dissidia, Theaterythem, Kingdom Hearts, MMO guest appearances etc. Where it appropriate to see said character.

Well, sure, that was how it used to be; but you underestimate the power of Toriyama:

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Lightning_Strikes

"Lightning Strikes", an event in FFXIV, in which Lightning appears in this world as a major quest giver and plot character, given her own personal event.

Fortunately it did not stick around, but if we are talking about that extend of "guest appearances", then I am very, very worried.

 

[V4Viewtiful]

Dear gawd, she just won't leave! D:<

 

[V4Viewtiful]

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.

Don't count on it.

Most people still remember both Cloud and Tidus, and those characters were first introduced in 1997 and 2001 respectively. Lightning is constantly being held up as "the female Cloud", so she's very likely to be immortalized in much the same vein as those two were.

Well those characters did have crappy characterisation. Tidus was annoying, he's only upside was his concept, like how he was never mentioned on purpose and other little nodes.
Cloud is very hard to define, for me but he did have a nice bit of character development when his past was revealed but then nothing I can readily remember.


How come nothing (little) FF6 did never got this amount of love? It's one of the more solid gaes in the series, or is that why? Don't mess with a good thing.

 

[mysecondlife]

Final Fantasy Beach Volleyball or something right?

 

[Darkbladex96]

I don't think people understand what cameos are. I would like to remind people that Vaan and Penelo

I don't understand that choice. Gabranth is popular, Fran and Balthier = Popular. Vaan and Penelo? Meh... It's also why I wonder why Vaan is in Dissidia and not say, Fran and Ashe(Ashe is the one who gets the canon ultima weapon type thing in the story so she's obviously important, she's also a much better character than Lightning). Luckily though the story of 12 was never really about either of them, they were in the main characters party, but not the main characters. Ashe, Balthier, Fran, and arguably Basch, were "Main Characters".

 

[Ravage]

Though if the stuff like this that goes around is anything to go by:

http://www.p4rgaming.com/motomu-toriyama-frustrated-by-girlfriend-refusing-to-dress-up-as-lightning-for-the-third-time/

Then maybe there is some delusion going on.

That... that is just so silly it borders on parody. Hireing prostitutes... just to get them to dress as Lightning? Accidentally calling his girlfriend Lightning? "Seven out of ten is a wonderful score for this game because seven is Lightning's favorite number."

Either there is a lot of delusion or The Onion is branching out.

I'm sure it's a satire site after looking at the other articles they published.

Back to the main topic, Lightning is a terrible character from start to finish. I loved FF as a child and to see it like this today breaks my heart, haha.