I'd suggest Toriyama but I don't think he has one.
Lightning voted best character in Dengeki's otaku-driven poll
- Thread starter Ganon Dragmire
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I'd suggest Toriyama but I don't think he has one.
Zomba13
Member
CrimsonCrescendo
Banned
It works for me because the XIII characters are obviously supposed to be an Anime/Realistic hybrid. But I get it: She's not exactly anime style, but she's too... "perfect" for a realistic character. She's CG through and through in those shots without any attempt to cover it up. That works for some people, and it doesn't for others.
CrimsonCrescendo
Banned
She's picked up on your scent. She likes what she smells. She now sees you. She likes what she sees. She's now hunting you. Don't show fear... it turns her on.
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Is Lightning hated outside GAF?
If I went to some Square Enix fan forum would it be like "oh she's obviously crap and a Dengeki poll that votes her in is obviously a tragedy".
Do the casual FF players hate her?
If I went to some Square Enix fan forum would it be like "oh she's obviously crap and a Dengeki poll that votes her in is obviously a tragedy".
Do the casual FF players hate her?
Complexgod
Member
Lightning is the hero NeoGaf deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So we'll hunt her, because she can take it. Because she's not a hero. she's a single guardian, a watchful protector.
They're probably indifferent to her. "Eh."
CrimsonCrescendo
Banned
Depends on where you look, though I don't think you'll ever find a consensus. The answer is probably somewhere inbetween. She's not universally loved, she's not universally hated. Some sites swing one way or the other and she's definitely divisive among "hardcore" fans, but for the "casual"... I honestly don't think they give it too much thought.
Well, that's probably an approximation to asking what the overall perception toward FFXIII is.
The answer to the latter seems to be that most people find it somewhere in the range from okay to decent, it has a very small group of zealous defenders, and it has an unusually large hatedom fueled by disappointment (thanks largely to screwed up expectations with FFXIII itself, then exacerbated temendously by Squeenix's overall catastrophic development problems this gen resulting in the two lower-budget sequels).
Naturally, most of the "it's okay to decent" people don't care enough to talk when things heat up, so on forums like NeoGAF, you sometimes get... well, the predictable results.
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
I have a few friends who don't care for her. When I was an undergraduate a few years ago, when FF13 was going to be released, a few of my female friends were a bit appalled by her weight yet really liked her clothing and design. Heck, I liked her clothing and design. My game-playing peers didn't care much for her when they'd played the game, opting instead for Fang and Sazh. Mind you, these people play games recreationally (like, FIFA, CoD, AC, whatever) and don't post on message boards at all.
A few years ago when Final Fantasy XIII-2 was released, a few of my classmates and peers at school were interested in it. By contrast, I didn't hear anything about them getting Lightning Returns at all. It simply didn't seem to have the same appeal that the previous two titles did.
I have a friend who was a huge FFXIII fan. He loved FF13 (even got me to platinum it with him), and loved FF13-2. Didn't care much for Lightning's 'character', but he liked the character interactions and mythology a lot. He didn't want to get Lightning Returns because the demo didn't appeal to him, and the game's structure didn't appeal to him, even if he wanted a resolution to what happened in FF13-2. I think that's the point that some people on both sides of the argument are missing: the FF13 trilogy isn't all about Lightning to some people. The trilogy is a lot of different things to different people. If it's my case, for example, I'd like more info about Fang, Vanille, Sazh, and Noel _ battle system. If it's in someone else's case, they'd want to talk more about the battle system or the game's structure. Or someone else might just care about all the females. Or someone else might just care about one male character. Or someone else would care about the mythology behind the series in application. It isn't just about her.
Another friend of mine liked Lightning a lot in FF13, but she didn't bother to get the subsequent sequels because she felt like the games had strayed too far from their original concepts. She was really disappointed by that, and especially upon seeing the LR trailer for the first time, she didn't know what to think. Edit: I forgot to say that she and I exchanged messages and we were saying how it's just interesting that we both thought FF13 empowered women. Women were the catalysts for that game. Fang and Vanille were the catalysts for setting up the story and Vanille narrated it and talked about her inner struggles. Serah was the catalyst for setting the story in motion. Lightning started the game. All three playable females were designed nicely to both of us -- strong yet feminine, and yet when my friend brought up Lightning Returns, she felt a little dismayed by what she saw. I would love to get a message from her (she's living in SK) so she can say how she feels more in-depth because it was kind of interesting.
In my case, it seems like casual fans were a bit split on her too, but again, that's based on anecdotes. The problem is that first impressions stick. If their impression of Lightning in FF13 wasn't positive, or if their impression of the first game in the subseries wasn't positive, they probably weren't likely to go out and get the sequels unless a combination of positive word of mouth and popularity/advertisements changes that.
zeopower6
Member
I know loads of people who looove FF that were/are really interested in Lightning Returns. :/ But I do also know of the people who are like "ew more Lightning" but it's nowhere near as bad as it is on GAF/other boards.
When it just comes to Lightning as a costume or as a piece of art, people are pretty much like "Oh that's pretty gorgeous/beautiful!" in general as opposed to "what the hell why are you Lightning" so I don't think people are as anti-Lightning as one might think based on places like GAF/sales/whatever.
When it just comes to Lightning as a costume or as a piece of art, people are pretty much like "Oh that's pretty gorgeous/beautiful!" in general as opposed to "what the hell why are you Lightning" so I don't think people are as anti-Lightning as one might think based on places like GAF/sales/whatever.
Dragonborn
Member
I personally don't mind her. I'm not fan, but I don't hate her, I'm just indifferent.
A lot of people's draw to Final Fantasy is the fact that up till a certain point it was a new world to explore with each mainline game. This is why the sequels never did well while stuff like ME, AC, etc thrive on a continuous story.
My personal anecdote w.r.t this is that I adored the shit out of FF7 (PC rerelease Steam 100% cheevos) but couldn't bring myself to play any of the other games in that universe. Heck, I had trouble even forcing myself to watch Advent Children.
With X-2 and XIII-2/LR (along with the apparent XV plans) it seems that these are here to stay, for whatever reason, for better or worse. Whether it comes to be accepted or not (which probably hinges on how well XV pulls it off, if it actually goes this route) remains to be seen. I'm suspecting that after the vitriol about 'shoving Lightning down our throats' either the community is going to be somewhat desensitized (and thus more accepting to the idea) or Square is going to be extra-careful on how they approach this. Either way, that probably means that the XIII trilogy is going to be seen by significant fraction of people as the 'lowest point in the series' a wee bit unjustly.
(p.s. for contrast/comparison's sake I liked XIII-2 and LR was really fun from a gameplay standpoint (all three games plat). I didn't 100% X-2 even though I originally planned to. Don't hurt me)
I'm amazed anyone actually cared about character weights.
It seems so...bizarre to put a value on that when they're breaking the laws of physics every 30 seconds. It doesn't matter if you weigh 100 pounds or 400 pounds, you're still flipping around and fighting demons 30000000 times bigger with your fists.
And it doesn't change or add anything to the character, either, since this isn't boxing or wrestling, meaning their abilities and talents are completely unrelated to weight and thus as a categorization it's meaningless, even in a game based around numbers.
It really seems odd that a fictional gaming character's weight would matter at all.
It seems so...bizarre to put a value on that when they're breaking the laws of physics every 30 seconds. It doesn't matter if you weigh 100 pounds or 400 pounds, you're still flipping around and fighting demons 30000000 times bigger with your fists.
And it doesn't change or add anything to the character, either, since this isn't boxing or wrestling, meaning their abilities and talents are completely unrelated to weight and thus as a categorization it's meaningless, even in a game based around numbers.
It really seems odd that a fictional gaming character's weight would matter at all.
Realistic upper body and thin ~cylindrical stick legs.
Can be made to look nice in this game's visual style, sure (though most FFXIII character models are somewhat more realistically proportioned).
"Ideal"? Ugh I hope not.
I think the sticking point is that it's an opinion from the gender of the controversial character. So I'd say it's a legitimate view point to look at, especially when they can relate.
Gotta have those accurately weighted body pillows.
Snapshot King
Member
I'd tend to agree with you, but Japan has been notoriously terrible about characters weights since forever. Yknow Siegfried in Soul Calibur? Yknow how he weighs 112 pounds? The guy with a 30 pound sword, a full suit of armour and is 6 feet tall weighs less about as much as my sister. It's ridiculous.
CrimsonCrescendo
Banned
No Way, I call bullshit.
*Looks up*
Actually, he's 5'8'' and 154 pounds according to Soul Calibur V. But yeah, before that, his weights were bullshit.
Well the amusing thing was since Schalas comments, a friend of mine did some research, and Lightning's weight isn't actually mentioned anywhere. Only that she's 5'7
HypocrisyGalore
Banned
In my experience no.
Though some Nomura fanboys hate her because they're convinced she's in some competition with Noctis, which is funny when you consider who designed her.
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
100% FFX-2 or else. One of my faaaaves.
It's weird. I mean, going further back into when I was a sophomore/junior in high school (so, like, when FFX-2 was released in North America), surprisingly, a lot of the girls I knew who had a casual interest in video games saw the FFX-2 commercials and thought it was the coolest thing. The marketing there clearly worked, but then you have to take into account the audience that I'm talking about here: 15-16-year-old girls. At the same time, on message boards at the time (ie: this was about the time I had stopped posting on message boards for years until I decided to join GAF), I think people were feeling mixed about FFX-2, too. Some people thought it was a cool idea because they really liked FFX. Some people hated FFX and didn't want to see any more of it. Some people thought the idea of the game was too dumb. And those ideas are still pervasive.
And I'd agree. Outside of Crisis Core (and it's mostly for the music and two characters), I don't think much of the Compilations of Final Fantasy VII either. A lot of people I know thought Advent Children looked cool and that it was a showcase of CG spectacle, but outside of that, it doesn't interest them in FFVII very much unless they already played video games or they remember playing the game back in the late 1990s.
With respect to what you said about SE's possible reaction towards this, I think it's going to be varied. Sometimes I feel like they're stuck between a rock and a hard place, but other times, I feel like they know what they want and they're making games for the majority of people who seem to come up in polls or focus testing or whatever, even if it's by a small amount. And sometimes, they're constrained by cost, what the goal is for the company, what quarterly projections look like, etc. If they have the assets for something, like FF13-2 and LR, they'll do it because it's cheaper and they'll probably turn some sort of profit anyway.
Either way, we've had sequels to FFs for a while. I'm not even talking about FF5's anime. But ever since the early 2000s, we've had the Compilation of FF7, FF4 and its sequel, FFX and its sequel, FFXII and its sequel, etc. It's just the first time that a mainline game just got two sequels instead of one in a short span (DoC and AC notwithstanding). If they want to pursue serialization for Final Fantasy games to come, they really should try to make the endings a little more open like FFXIII-2's than "well, there could be a sequel if they wanted to save x and y". I think it'd be an easier way of easing folks into the suggestion of it, but it would depend on certain factors.
You're right, though. When a new FF comes on the horizon, you're essentially dealing with tabula rasa from a fan reception standpoint. You don't know the world, the characters, or anything else yet. It's a chance to start things fresh and try to figure out what you like or dislike about a game. It's much easier for people to jump in, too, because there isn't this underlying mythos they have to learn or they don't have to learn about what else happened in the previous game or watch digest movies. They can interpret anything the game brings forth to them in any way they want possible.
It isn't even the growth of the internet that's the culprit of profound positivity or negativity online, because that existed on BBSes or Usenet posts. It's always been like this.
People hated FF7 when it came out and still do.
People hated FF8 when it came out and still do.
People hated FF9 when it came out and still do.
And so on and so forth.
Yes. A few of my peers were a little more negative about it. We were all 20-21 at that point and worked out at the gym a lot, so those who weren't as well-versed in an anime or video game's concept of a female figure just found it a little odd by comparison.
Recall that these are university-aged women who don't play a lot of video games at all, and are not well-versed in video game/anime archetypes. Of course this is going to look concerning to them. It's just like how they are naturally concerned with models' bodies and actresses' weights.
Edit: Hmm, I guess I should've said "figure". I remember one girl going, "How much does she weigh D:" when we were looking at a video in class once.
They don't play video games all that much. It's not like they'd know that this is "normal".
At the same time, as a woman, I'm a little disappointed that this is "normal".
Snapshot King
Member
I distinctly remember back in Soul Cal 2 he was listed as 112. That number sticks out in my mind more than anything else because I remember laughing about it with my friends. But christ, even 154 is too low. Look at the gear/sword that dude is using!
Dark_castle
Junior Member
Bullshit. People dislike Lightning because she's a poorly written character who doesn't deserve all the attention she's gotten. As a matter of the fact, the only characters that are considered good and deserve some love in the whole XIII trilogy are Sazh, and to a lesser extent, Fang, Noel and Caius.
HypocrisyGalore
Banned
Apparently you know the opinion of every Nomura fanboy and have confirmed that they solely dislike her based on her qualities as a character.
lol
Oh wait.
You just seem to think you can speak on everyone's behalf.
Razgriz-Specter
Member
SE is going to push Lightning into KH3 hard, probably stealing leadership of Squall's group...
Lightning in FFXV...
More Lightning quests in XIV...
Do not want.
Lightning in FFXV...
More Lightning quests in XIV...
Do not want.
Death Penalty
Member
This seems very very true. Thoughtfully well-stated.
For my part, I can't help but be disappointed that this character has won yet another poll. She is not the worst character in Final Fantasy or even the worst in XIII, but she is one of the most flat, one-dimensional characters I have ever had the displeasure of having forced down my throat. Her actions and emotions yo-yo between boringly stoic and serious to soap opera-esque when plot contrivance demands she show emotion for the sake of forced "character development" with absolutely no appropriate build-up or background.
Even given all that, I did not hate her. Then, she was forced upon me over and over and over, with each game and appearance she made a cheaper and more presumptuously greedy effort than the last. With each Lightning game that came instead of the news I was truly hoping for, I grew less and less able to forgive Square Enix for continuing on with her. I was ready to let it go, to forgive a mediocre Final Fantasy- because I didn't think it was awful, just not what I was hoping for. I did not hate Lightning until I had to spend four years looking at her hateful face.
I just want her to be gone so I can look forward to hearing from SE again.
CrimsonCrescendo
Banned
Yeah, Soul Cal 2 say 112. Lol. But hey, he was something like 5'2'' then (even though he didn't look it), lol. Totally justifies it!
Perfo
Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
Well... I guess it's deserved? I mean she's one of the few AAA female leads in a videogame in recent years so it's also easy for her to be more recognizable than other minor characters. I might also add that she's the second most famous character in the series after Cloud so that's quite an achievement in itself. She's famous because the campaign marketing for XIII and her was simply perfect. Then they just went on putting her everywhere as they did for Cloud so of course that turned annoying for someone. It doesn't change the fact that for once a japanese company have been able to create a successfull worldwide "mascot" again after so many years of forgettable characters.
Like it or not, Lightning IS famous.
Like it or not, Lightning IS famous.
Lol, that's a funny picture.
qualitydisc
Member
With Sonic the target audience doesn't know any better. The parents of that audience doesn't either.
Go_Ly_Dow
Member
my finest work
although if I had better PS skills would shop in the GAF website on to the PC screen
Go_Ly_Dow
Member
she is truly #thesaviour
BumblebeeCody
Member
Eh. I can't think of better characters. Maybe Raiden, Elizabeth or Mondo.
Fattony12000
Member
S-stop p-please s-senpai.
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