Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

DarkKnightCessi posted...

Smashwarlocks posted...

Lightnings better than Zidane. Its not saying alot.

Lightning's better than Zidane to you? Really?

For me Zidane is the worst character in the series. He made IX worse for being the main character.

DemonPathRevya posted...

This is rather a long winded topic TC XD. Lightning being a good written character or bad written character is always subjective. In my honest opinion she isn't better than the protagonists before her, but she isn't completely flat either so hatred for her should be reasonable and backed up with facts. I am in no way a Lightning fan or hater btw, just stating what I believe to be fact. I think her response to most situations are pretty silly and her sour attitude is hardly specified. Her back story doesn't makes her interesting and her goals aren't clear cut enough to be interesting either, in my opinion. Her appearance is okay though and unlike Tidus in FFX, I think she does kind of fit in her own world (leave it to Nomura to give characters a bunch of unnecessary belts and zippers though) Her biggest flaw, again in my opinion, is the fact that she is considered to be a solider for the front lines while wearing a skirt and hot pants I find to be a little unbelievable. Her development is her BIGGEST flaw in my opinion! Her growth was basicly a copy and paste of Ashe's from Final Fantasy XII, the only difference is I think Ashe's was done 100 times better.

She isn't exactly the pinnacle of a great character to me :^/

I'd have to disagree about Ashe... I think both characters had a lot of good things going for them, the biggest issue with both games is that, after the game's all said and done, I'm still starving for more character development, with 13 doing a slightly better job. People can complain about 10 being linear as well, and not liking the characters as much, but I think 10 succeeds at doing the greatest job of fleshing out every one of its characters with personality and background, and you don't have to search far to find it. Every time the team stops in a town or takes a break, you can not only talk to your team members but they'll have an actual conversation with Tidus revolving around a memory they had, or talking about the area they're in.

Previous games do this successfully as well, just not with everyone in their cast. One scene I love to compare with more recent final fantasies is the scene in the Black Mage Village in Final Fantasy 9 with Zidane and Dagger at the inn, where he brings up his past to her and they talk about Vivi. I would love to pick out scenes from 12 and 13 that had this same kind of intimate conversation between characters but unfortunately I cant. In both those games, we never break past that wall of intimacy that lets us really see into those characters, as a result we feel cold and distant to them, even when they can have great designs.

Ashe's issue was that almost none of her development is verbalized, she doesn't talk with any other of your characters, the closest being her one-time heart to heart with Vaan, and other short and small instances of her brushing against the topic and quickly walking away. Vaan could have been a great protagonist if they showed his development with Ashe in giving her someone to talk to, much like Zidane was for Dagger. Lightning on the other hand Suffers from not letting us into her shell, something that I think made Squall a great character. Both aren't social and don't openly verbalize their emotions, but in 8 we get to pierce into his thoughts and understand how he's feeling. Doing that for Lightning would've done a lot of good I think.

At the end of the day, I feel like I know Dagger and Vivi, or like I've met Yuna and Rikku, but I can't say the same from the casts of 12 and 13. The most I can say is how I can relate to Hope's family issues, and while I think he's possibly the most well developed character in 13, I don't really feel like I know him like I would Tifa, Barret, and Quistis.