Yeah, but I found him and Lightning to be dull because of it.
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What's the consensus on Lightning from Final Fantasy 13?
- Thread starter Lights and Waves
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Yeah, but I found him and Lightning to be dull because of it.
mcz117chief
Member
I love her, she is still my number 1 Final Fantasy character followed closely by Kain Highwind, Cecil Harvey, Caius Ballad and Rydia.
I can only speak for my personal opinion, but I'd put Lightning somewhere between indifference and dislike on the scale how I feel about her as a character.
If I had to sum up my issues, I'd say they are twofold:
1. She's a style over substance character. Aesthetically in XIII she was great, but lacked any real character. She had an arc, but it was so poorly executed that it was barely noticeable and she still remained largely unfriendly and unemotional after apparently changing.
2. Having read a lot of what Toriyama was saying about Lightning in interviews during the Final Fantasy XIII saga, it's easy to see a motive there.
*Lightning starts off in the first game as a stoic but unimportant soldier and by the end is being praised as a saviour.
*Lightning starts as a character in a traditional party of several to being the only playable character in the final entry
*The ending of the series -
- reads like a wet dream from Toriyama
Basically, she was an uninteresting and poorly-executed character fueled by a crazed man's creepy obsession with a fictional character that took a well-loved series and drove it face first into the ground. Any other redeemable characters from the three XIII entries had their characters assassinated in Lightning Returns and the entire thing was a trainwreck with a decent battle system.
If I had to sum up my issues, I'd say they are twofold:
1. She's a style over substance character. Aesthetically in XIII she was great, but lacked any real character. She had an arc, but it was so poorly executed that it was barely noticeable and she still remained largely unfriendly and unemotional after apparently changing.
2. Having read a lot of what Toriyama was saying about Lightning in interviews during the Final Fantasy XIII saga, it's easy to see a motive there.
*Lightning starts off in the first game as a stoic but unimportant soldier and by the end is being praised as a saviour.
*Lightning starts as a character in a traditional party of several to being the only playable character in the final entry
*The ending of the series -
Lightning being brought to the "real world"
Basically, she was an uninteresting and poorly-executed character fueled by a crazed man's creepy obsession with a fictional character that took a well-loved series and drove it face first into the ground. Any other redeemable characters from the three XIII entries had their characters assassinated in Lightning Returns and the entire thing was a trainwreck with a decent battle system.
mcz117chief
Member
What do you mean? Nobody died in Lightning Returns. That is the whole point of the game, to save everyone.
Character assassination. Not literal death. Most every character that appears in the game varies dramatically in how they acted in previous entries and in most instances it's in a more negative than positive nature.
mcz117chief
Member
And all the changes are very well explained. Especially since the world is about to end you can't expect everyone to act like they are having the time of their lives.
...I think that's pretty reasonable story-wise considering 500 years have gone by.
Every character change/evolution is pretty well explained.
TatteredHat
Member
Bland, can't remember much of her at all aside from her being sort of disgruntled at regular intervals.
CosmicGroinPull
Member
I remember Lightning's armpits and legs more than anything noteworthy about her character. She's one of my favorite character designs too..... *sigh* such squandered potential....
In contrast, I can't clearly remember how supporting characters like The Boss and Eva looked, but their voices and words still echo faintly in my head if I try to recall them.
In contrast, I can't clearly remember how supporting characters like The Boss and Eva looked, but their voices and words still echo faintly in my head if I try to recall them.
Septimus Prime
Member
I like that she rebuilds her ATB very quickly in XIII if you go for the right ultimate weapon. She's also pretty good at every role, except her HP is kind of low.
She's the best COM and arguably the best RAV in XIII-2, so that's nice.
I didn't play Lightning Returns.
She's the best COM and arguably the best RAV in XIII-2, so that's nice.
I didn't play Lightning Returns.
Ganon Dragmire
Member
I think I can sum up my feelings for her by quoting myself from years ago:
And just as important, her games are fun.
A soldier cursed
A Goddess reborn
A Savior to us all
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A leader of heroes
An inspiration to a world
The Fantasy is Eternal, and so is she.
And just as important, her games are fun.
The changes were pretty well-explained, yes, but basically, I just didn't like a lot of the now side-characters as much in Lightning Returns as I did in previous games and I'm sure a lot of people feel the same way.
I'm talking about something that is entirely subjective, though, I'll admit.
mcz117chief
Member
She is the Jesus of Final Fantasy
The more I think about it, the more it makes sense, so cool.
MrChowderClams
Member
An insperation to a world
Kill them with fire.
Damerman
Member
How is this possible? The combat feels diluted compared to the first?
Brerlappin
Member
The Goddess
Alex_Mexico
Member
I don't mind her. Lightning's fine. It's the horrible mess of a written story in her games that I despised. Especially the sequels because as flawed as XIII was it still was the only game in the trilogy I could understand most of its story.
She's still way better than that stick in the mud Squall, I'll tell you that much.
She's still way better than that stick in the mud Squall, I'll tell you that much.
GhostWriter24
Member
The worst protagonist in the history in the Final Fantasy series. Just my opinion.
Unknown One
Member
FF13 characters are all around terrible except Sazh. Look at all these insecure people, oh my summon pops out to kill me because of it. I have defeated it, I have learned to not be secure! Thank you for trying to kill me!
That's their terrible arc in a nutshell. Lightning had one of the worst one. Worst FF lead character.
That's their terrible arc in a nutshell. Lightning had one of the worst one. Worst FF lead character.
C'mon. Lightning isn't the main character.
That said. I'm reminded of the Simpsons whenever I play Final Fantasy XIII-2:
"One, Poochie needs to be louder, angrier, and have access to a time machine. Two, whenever Poochie's not on screen, all the other characters should be asking "Where's Poochie"?
The entire purpose of the game is to find the now-enigmatic Lightning since she's the key to understanding what's going on. Hell, they even got the time machine bit.
BigBadShamoo
Banned
Lightning's awesome.
I'm about to beat FF13-2 finally! 88 hours in OMFG. I can't believe it took this long lol. I already have FF13-3 and have played some of it really liked the battle system.
Anway FF13 was great. It was the reason I got my PS3 haha. So good.
The FF13 series has just gotten better with each release.
I'm about to beat FF13-2 finally! 88 hours in OMFG. I can't believe it took this long lol. I already have FF13-3 and have played some of it really liked the battle system.
Anway FF13 was great. It was the reason I got my PS3 haha. So good.
The FF13 series has just gotten better with each release.
BigBadShamoo
Banned
This is how I feel, word for word.
Triggerhappytel
Member
Great visual design, but completely bland and unlikeable personality.
I found her boring and that there wasn't anything interesting or compelling about her character or the internal conflicts she faced. We barely ever saw her in any other context than battle or hardship so I could never really care about her struggles or trials.
Seems like she was written as a stoic protagonist and by the end of Lightning Returns they had to make that significant somehow and well yeah it wasn't really my cup of tea.
Gosh why couldn't Sazh have been the main character?
Seems like she was written as a stoic protagonist and by the end of Lightning Returns they had to make that significant somehow and well yeah it wasn't really my cup of tea.
Gosh why couldn't Sazh have been the main character?
- Cloud is WAY better. He has a proper (pretty messed up) background and character arc.
- I'll give you Squall, but Tidus, again, has a proper background and character arc, even if he can be a bit whiny at times. I have the feeling a lot of people dislike Tidus because of his VA though. He's not nearly as bad in Japanese.
- Your last point I wholeheartedly agree with.
BigBadShamoo
Banned
Can't believe people are saying Lightning is a bad character.
Vaan from FF12 is 10000000000000000000000000000000000x worse in every single way lmao. He easily goes down as the worst main character in my books.
Vaan from FF12 is 10000000000000000000000000000000000x worse in every single way lmao. He easily goes down as the worst main character in my books.
Lightning by herself has a decent design that's made for the eyes, and thanks to a lot of things that made her dull and even dislikable imo:
- the whole FF13 trilogy plot is complicated and does not make sense with usual Toriyama nonsense. It doesn't help that in order to understand the overall story you have to read wall of text after wall of text for example in FF13, instead of the game presenting the actual story properly via playing.
- Again the writing doesn't really give much of a personality to her, especially a likable one. To me it's just Toriyama fantasizing about her and thinks she doesn't need one since people already like her, but it's mostly thanks to Nomura's design more than anything else.
- the trilogy's just isn't good including the gameplay aspect imo, and the sales numbesr reflect that with massive drops per installment. Yet for many of us who prefers to seeing versus, we just kept getting the Lightning trilogy instead.
- the whole FF13 trilogy plot is complicated and does not make sense with usual Toriyama nonsense. It doesn't help that in order to understand the overall story you have to read wall of text after wall of text for example in FF13, instead of the game presenting the actual story properly via playing.
- Again the writing doesn't really give much of a personality to her, especially a likable one. To me it's just Toriyama fantasizing about her and thinks she doesn't need one since people already like her, but it's mostly thanks to Nomura's design more than anything else.
- the trilogy's just isn't good including the gameplay aspect imo, and the sales numbesr reflect that with massive drops per installment. Yet for many of us who prefers to seeing versus, we just kept getting the Lightning trilogy instead.
I've only played the first one, but i really liked her. Yeah, she's cold, and mostly emotionless, but that made the times where she did show her feeling that more entertaining and interesting.
She made some really stupid decisions during the whole first game, but again so did everyone else in it.
Her desing was great, i really liked that she wasn't that sexualized (i know that changes in the sequels... oh well), and her fighting style was fun to watch.
The FFXIII cast has way worse characters, some annoying (Hope), obnoxious (Snow) and misguided (Vanille... I still don't know why they thought she should be the narrator).
She made some really stupid decisions during the whole first game, but again so did everyone else in it.
Her desing was great, i really liked that she wasn't that sexualized (i know that changes in the sequels... oh well), and her fighting style was fun to watch.
The FFXIII cast has way worse characters, some annoying (Hope), obnoxious (Snow) and misguided (Vanille... I still don't know why they thought she should be the narrator).
In my (totally layman's) opinion, to the right age group (roughly: teenagers) she is just the right kind of bland, non-fleshed out character to project whatever one wants out of her.
People love her for the same reason I once felt that Yuna was a great character and had a super attractive personality (smh, etc). It's completely possible of course that I'm projecting my own stupidity as a teenager upon people ¯\_(ツ
_/¯
People love her for the same reason I once felt that Yuna was a great character and had a super attractive personality (smh, etc). It's completely possible of course that I'm projecting my own stupidity as a teenager upon people ¯\_(ツ
_/¯uncredited male
Member
She needs to hook up with Sazh.
Alex_Mexico
Member
Pretty much this. Especially that last point.
The Internet has greatly exaggerated Lightning's shortcomings.
Loved her design, her character is ok, i mean i must of liked her a bit if i wanted to see how her story ended across the trilogy right?
Also people exagerate how bad she is. I feel fans hate lightning just for the fact that square was a bit obsessed with her, don't blame lightning! Lol
Also people exagerate how bad she is. I feel fans hate lightning just for the fact that square was a bit obsessed with her, don't blame lightning! Lol
Earthpainting
Member
Over the years I've come to the same conclusion. I think Lightning had the misfortune of becoming the symbol for the continuation of the 13 games, whose reception was mixed from the get-go, and only dropped from there. Her design is cool, but she didn't really grab me much as a character. The only times I seemed to relate to her is when she was frustrated by the things that unfold around her, and the people whining at her ears over things she can't control. At first I blamed Lightning for all the confusion and the nagging and her abrasive responses to it, but over time I've learned that it was FF13's world and auxiliary characters that were to blame. I think you could put Lightning as is in a better game, and it's possible she'd come out a lot a lot more favourable. Lightning Returns is some campy bullshit, but it's the entry where I had the most fun with the character.
Ultimately I don't think she's in the top 3 of my least liked protagonists of the series. I thought Tidus' disrespect and egocentrism rubbed me more the wrong way in the grand scheme of things.
I don't have anything against Lightning, but she doesn't really evolve as a character during the games. I mean, we don't see her grow or change that much. From that point of view, I actually prefer Serah as a protagonist. From a poor scared girl depending on her sister and her fiancée for everything, she becomes a strong woman capable of protecting herself and other people and sacrificing her happiness for a greater goal.
PHOENIXZERO
Member
Perhaps the worst or second worst (I'd put Vaan ahead of her maybe) lead FF character of any of the main FF games (also not counting the online ones) of the last 25 or so years. And then there's the fan service shit that I've grown to despise.
otaku-asia
Member
First reply nails it for me. Didn't really have anything against Lightning though, she never really said much anyway. I actually couldn't stand Snow and Hope, really hated the Japanese VO of Hope.
So, used as Motomu Toriyama's lovepillow...
Time to relive the cringe:
Toriyama Talks about Lightning