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What's the consensus on Lightning from Final Fantasy 13?

Best Final Fantasy character, She also the the hottest.

Incorrect. The hottest is Ifrit.
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He's actually on fire.
 
I love her design. I love all the designs of 13.

Just have never played it because I keep hearing it's apparently a linear bore.
 
I really like the XIII cast, and found Lightning an enjoyable, but underdeveloped character in the original game (Ali Hillis, so good!). XIII-2's Lightning becomes a detached, suddenly plot relevant character because of reasons. XIII-3 turns her into a blank doll due to creepy-ass plot reasons so that the player can put her in out-of-character dressup, which is one of the creepiest, most insidious things I've seen done to a female character in a game. (X-2 was pretty wacked in that regard, but still not this bad.) There is no logical continuity where XIII!Lightning would wear and act out some of the insanely stupid costumes that you can make her wear in XIII-3, especially on top of the emphasis of her being a blank doll doing a god's bidding. (Projecting much, Toriyama?) The only saving grace of it all is that the dub made more of an effort to keep Lightning's original personality, and that she was still a bit of a snarker. Thanks, localisation team!

To be honest, even though Vanille annoyed me beyond belief, XIII (also as a series) would have been a stronger game if they'd kept Vanille as the protagonist as intended. Lightning is sort of the protagonist of a series that she was never the protagonist of plot relevance wise. Bizarre.
 
She is probably going to be a special boss in KH3 so that tells you something. Get ready for Blinded By Light by Yoko Shimomura.
 
I love her design. I love all the designs of 13.

Just have never played it because I keep hearing it's apparently a linear bore.

For all I diss XIII, it actually had pretty decent character designs in Lightning and Fang.

Snow was garbage shit that Nomura had recycled from Seifer at least three times before.
 
I really love her design in XIII, not so much in XIII-2 and LR.

I thought she had a nice character arc in XIII, but did some foolish things in XIII-2 that she did, to SE's credit, get called out in LR.

All in all, a perfectly solid FF character. The hate she gets has just gotten so ridiculous at this point.
 
I just beat 13-2 and I'm not really looking forward to Lightning Returns. I loved 13-2 because Serah and Noel were such a breath of fresh air. The thought of playing as Lightning, alone, for an entire game...

What's the general consensus on Lightning? Am I alone in disliking her? Do people love the female Cloud?
You are not alone. I don't get it. But I'm guessing it's a cultural thing over in Japan.
 
All in all, a perfectly solid FF character. The hate she gets has just gotten so ridiculous at this point.

'Fucking Lightning' is basically shorthand for someone saying 'Fucking FF13 and its sequels killing a series I loved since childhood, thanks SE'.

She gets hate by association with 13 and everything it represents, I'm not sure I've ever seen much vitriol directed at her as a character specifically (beyond being boring, which she is, or exploited in 13-3, which she was).
 
kttcoliwhew


I'm a fan.
Can't say I disagree with the evidence provided. I always found her interesting, even in Ff13, her personality wasn't the best, but I took that as how her character felt at the time given her sister was stolen and all. In fact I enjoyed most of the cast of the Ff13 series of games, more so than people on the boards seem to anyway!

FFXIII: Didn't really like her.

FFXIII-2: Kinda liked her, mostly because she wasn't there.

LR: FFXIII: Liked her.
Probably sums my thoughts up as well.
 
A creepy developer's pet project that somehow has mainstream approval while being otherwise completely ignored or utterly hated by most others.
Also definitely not a female Cloud. That comparison just doesn't work if you're looking at FF7's original silly Cloud.
 
I like her design but the character is really uninteresting (well 13's lore is kind of weird).

Played 13 and liked it, and thought 13-2 had some problems, made some paradigms useless and the battle system was shit. However Noel and Serah were a lot more likeable than lightning and co.
 
Lightnings okay but wasn't my favorite character in the series as Sazh takes that title. But I did like her revelation in LR and pretty much why she was always an asshole.
 
I like her design but the character is really uninteresting (well 13's lore is kind of weird).

Played 13 and liked it, and thought 13-2 had some problems, made some paradigms useless and the battle system was shit. However Noel and Serah were a lot more likeable than lightning and co.

I thought XIII-2 improved the battle system. My only complaint with it was the removal of the Haste spell.

On the topic of her designs, FFXIII and FFXIII-2 has fantastic designs for her. LR: FFXIII's was terrible, but that is a moot point since you can dress her up. Most of the time I was dressed as Cloud, Yuna, or Aerith. Spent a good chunk of time in that terrible looking hunter costume with the Artemis Arrow.
 
I liked 13 and Lightning herself, but found 13-2 so be much better overall. I still haven't played the end of the trilogy though I wish to do so some day
 
She is pretty terrible in Lightning Returns mainly because nothing happened and they kind of ruined her personality with all the terrible costumes and such.

Yes, she had a personality in the first two games, mainly in the first, and yes people tend to ignore her character arc and how much she developed as a character.

All in all I like her a lot, she looks super cool, IMO one of the best character designs in the history of the franchise and she is a strong female protagonist in a game I enjoyed very much.

So yeah, I think she gets a lot of underserved hate, especially here.
 
I really like Lightning. I've only played XIII so far, but she has a kind of frustrated personality where she feels the need to be responsible and keep her emotions in check (like so many JRPG protagonists). I feel she has subtle ways of expressing her character that a lot of people either don't get or don't appreciate. I also wonder if SE is aware of how people perceive her. The image below would suggest yes.

gaming-lightingreturns-cloud.jpg
 
Lightning is amazing, she's the best protagonist in the Final Fantasy series tied with Squall and Terra.

Her look, her no-nonsense attitude, her general badassery, I mean she's the best new character from last gen (alongside Bayonetta). With Final Floptasy XV being a sausage fest, and Stella being written out leaving that game with NO strong female characters, the public will start to appreciate Lightning more in the coming years <3

I want a Lightning HD trilogy, and SE can use the funds to make FFXIII-4/Lightning Returns 2. Excited for her likely cameo/boss battle in FFVII Remake and you all should be too.

wd5UdGh.gif
 
I played and enjoyed 13, hated 13-2, and didn't try 13-3.

I honestly can't recall a single characteristic of her "character" outside of "kind of pissed off all the time".

For a moment I thought this guy was me, I have the same experience playing this saga and I would say that Lightning has as much personality as a rock.
 
I really like her on XIII, but then Square started treating her like a f*ckin' loli, then it ruined her for me.

lightning_returns_thumb.jpg


Didn't played LR tho. I enjoyed XIII, but didn't finished, and I loved XIII-2.
 
Lightning is amazing, she's the best protagonist in the Final Fantasy series tied with Squall and Terra.

Her look, her no-nonsense attitude, her general badassery, I mean she's the best new character from last gen (alongside Bayonetta). With Final Floptasy XV being a sausage fest, and Stella being written out leaving that game with NO strong female characters, the public will start to appreciate Lightning more in the coming years <3

I want a Lightning HD trilogy, and SE can use the funds to make FFXIII-4/Lightning Returns 2. Excited for her likely cameo/boss battle in FFVII Remake and you all should be too.

wd5UdGh.gif

Ha ha, I won't go this far. But I do really like her character design. Top notch. I liked her in varying degrees in each game of the trilogy. I really appreciate how she gets shit done in XIII as opposed to worrying and naval gazing as with most FF protags. She was flat but bad ass in XIII-2, and amusingly acerbic in LR.
 
I never liked her in 13, but it didn't ruin the game for me my first time through.(can't replay it anymore due to horrific pacing)

Beyond 13, she gets worse, a lot worse. The 13 sequels are an embarrassment in storytelling.
 
Lightning is amazing, she's the best protagonist in the Final Fantasy series tied with Squall and Terra.

Her look, her no-nonsense attitude, her general badassery, I mean she's the best new character from last gen (alongside Bayonetta). With Final Floptasy XV being a sausage fest, and Stella being written out leaving that game with NO strong female characters, the public will start to appreciate Lightning more in the coming years <3

I want a Lightning HD trilogy, and SE can use the funds to make FFXIII-4/Lightning Returns 2. Excited for her likely cameo/boss battle in FFVII Remake and you all should be too.

wd5UdGh.gif

This was an immaculate troll post. I can't even be angry at it.
 
She's at her best in LR, imo. She has a sense of dry sense of humor and is a lot more likable. Didn't care for her in the other games.
 
I like her design and I think her personality could have done well but like the other characters she suffers from FFXIII's absolutely awful script. The dialogue is so bad and it keeps me from really liking any of the characters because I feel like there are so few instances where they actually speak to one another like genuine human beings.
 
Truly is a female Cloud, both horribly written and emotionally devoid characters that are overrated and overused.

Cloud didn't start off that way. Advent Children turned him into a sourpuss.

The Cloud I remember from FF7 was a cross-dressing, marching band crashing, dolphin jumping, snowboarding, play-date going, chocobo racing fun guy to be around.
 
She is pretty terrible in Lightning Returns mainly because nothing happened and they kind of ruined her personality with all the terrible costumes and such.

Yes, she had a personality in the first two games, mainly in the first, and yes people tend to ignore her character arc and how much she developed as a character.

All in all I like her a lot, she looks super cool, IMO one of the best character designs in the history of the franchise and she is a strong female protagonist in a game I enjoyed very much.

So yeah, I think she gets a lot of underserved hate, especially here.


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Cloud didn't start off that way. Advent Children turned him into a sourpuss.

The Cloud I remember from FF7 was a cross-dressing, marching band crashing, dolphin jumping, snowboarding, play-date going, chocobo racing fun guy to be around.

The Cloud people remember and the actual FF7 Cloud are two completely different characters
 
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