Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn Gets Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII Crossover, Fans Rage

It was already known that Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII will have a costume themed on the gear of the Miqo’te race from Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and FFXIV Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida promised that he’d think about a way to “return the favor”. Today, during a special stage event at Japan Expo in Paris he did just that, announcing that the upcoming MMORPG will include a special questline that will star Lightning herself.

The funny part is that this caused an half-riot between the fans on the official forums.

[Mr_Nuts]

Urgh...really, they are trying to shoehorn Lightning in ANOTHER GAME. For f*** sake Square Enix, the majority of us don't like Lightning. One of the many reasons most people are buying FF14 is to escape the horrible taste FF13 left in peoples mouths.

They need to scrap this, they shouldn't link the games they should be separate. It's like Square Enix are trying to force us to like her.

[nick309]

Lighthing is freaking sexy, whats not to like , ff 13 was amazing....

[Lovable]

I agree nick

[DragonKnight]

"Lighthing is freaking sexy."

Not.

"whats not to like , ff 13 was amazing."

Do you have a lifetime?

[BiggCMan]

@Dragon, so people who like FF13 are too young to have played the older games and see how much "better" they were? Wtf.

I'm really sick of FF13 haters. If the 13 series was so shitty, it wouldn't have good sales OR reviews, of which it has both.

[Mr_Nuts]

@BiggCMan

It had good reviews/sales because it was the first next gen FF game and people were expecting something amazing...however that didn't come to pass

It's not like articles around the web pick on FF13 for no reason, most articles/people can obviously state the massive faults with FF13. You can see this in the sales/reviews of FF13-2.

Hell I could give you one good reason which would link onto smaller reasons why FF13 is crap....it's anything but a FF game

[Reibooi]

I liked Lightning and one thing I thought was true was that most people liked her even if they hated XIII and wished she was in a better game and that she has kinda become the thing to rage on since SE won't like the XIII franchise die.

[Dagobert]

Nick, the reason you find Lightning sexy and FFXIII amazing is because:

A. You find Cloud very sexy because Lightning uses the same model as cloud. All they did was make the hair pink and longer, and add breast. They didn't remove the penis in the model since cloud wasn't modeled with a penis anyways.

B. You find the worst FF game to be amazing. The FF game that literally had the worst storyline in any FF game. I mean even FFVII with it's shitty storyline was far better than XIII. Hell Chocobo Racing had a better storyline than XIII.

[JoySticksFTW]

There, I said it.

But most FF fans are sick of Lightning, because FFXIII was such a disappointment and SE still shoves her down our throats.

And please dont talk sales, when FF used to sell like crazy. But each Lightning game sells less than the last. The first one did ok because it caught gamers off-guard due to its name and pedigree.

Glad some of you like FFXIII, but that doesn't mean the rest of us do not have legitimate gripes with the game.

[DragonKnight]

@JoySticksFTW: I like Snow's look because it's very reminiscent of FFVIII's badass supreme, Seifer (if Snow had Seifer's attitude, he'd have been a better character in my opinion), and I think Snow has the absolute best character theme ever made in the series, which is saying a lot because there are some truly great character themes. In my opinion, Snow's theme is up there with Shadow from FFVI, Cyan from FFVI, and Auron from FFVIII.

The one thing I miss the most about the older FF games is the extremely memorable music. FFX was the last FF game with any memorable music, but even it was outclassed by older FF games. The song stuck in my head right now is..

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

I have no idea why, but it is. Lol.

[360ICE]

"Do you have a lifetime?" was well said. It's not even semantically correct.

[chadwarden]

The more lightning, the better

[SugarSoSweet]

Lightning is not sexy Lightning is just a prudish tomboy and FF13 sucks

[ThanatosDMC]

Too young and too stupid to consider that trash of a final fantasy game a Final Fantasy game or JRPG for that matter.

This review pretty much sums up FF13 perfectly: http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[SegaSaturn669]

ff13: Mash X until the battle is over and run from point A to point B, repeat.

[Pope_Kaz_Hirai_II]

Lighthing is freaking sexy, whats not to like , ff 13 was amazing....

Wow not sure if serious.

[Aery]

Lighting looks like a young boy with nice feature ... Nevermind, anyone have their own taste :)

[Abriael]

1: The game already has fanservice from every single FF game ever created. It only makes sense to have XIII too.

2: No they won't scrap it. May as well live with it.

[Mr_Nuts]

No it dosen't. So your telling me theres a cross over in FF14 A Realm Reborn with FF7, FF8, FF9 etc where Cloud, Squall, Zidine show up and where we get to wear their costumes/weapons.

[Abriael]

@Mr_Nuts: There's Cloud's buster sword, his omnislash, ultima weapon and a ton more.

There's nothing wrong with having a *dimension traveling* character in the FFXIV lore.

As a matter of fact *ALL* the characters that came back from version 1.0 of the game did just that, for five years no less.

[DragonKnight]

@Abriael: The difference between the FFXIII crossover and the other FF games is twofold.

One, the FFXIII crossover has Lighting IN THE DAMN GAME! The majority of FF fans HATE Lightning. She's the most sterile character in a series that featured silent protagonists in the very first game. It makes no sense to put Lightning in FFXIV when she's in 3 FFXIII games. Put someone else in there, like Sazh.

Two, the other FF games are actually good, and people get excited at the homage paid to them, unlike FFXIII where most simply want it to be done and over with.

[Abriael]

@Dragonknight: "The majority of FF fans HATE Lightning."

You should really avoid making the mistake of confusing your own opinion with that of the "majority", you know?

You =/= The Majority.

As for the game not being "good", that's also your opinion, that has nothing to do with the objective quality of the game, or what "the majority" thinks of it.

PS: And while some vocal western "fan" rages, the picture attached to this comment is what Japanese fans do. Freakin adorable :D

PPS: Lol at DragonKnight saying "Japan is definitely the minority". Just lol.

Guess where Final Fantasy games sell the most mate? I'll give you a hint. It's not North America or Europe.

PPPS @DragonKnight: Really? all it takes are eyes? Maybe you actually have a statistically relevant poll I can put my "eyes" on?

Cause if you don't, maybe you should talk for yourself and not for the majority. And yes, you don't.

[dendenmooshi]

As far as design goes, Realm Reborn has derived a lot from other installments to the series. FF6 Magitechs will be in game. The dragoon armor prototype is basically Kain's armor.

This is different though. They're saying that Lightning will have a quest specifically for her. I, for one, don't mind it (she seemed much more natural as a side role in 13-2). Other characters that would be cool in game would be FFT characters (beoulve family and Delita), FF6 characters (sabin n setzer fit the world well).

For me it wouldn't break immersion because the reason I play ff14 is because it's a FF world.

[DragonKnight]

@Abriael: I'm not confusing my opinion with the majority, I haven't even stated my opinion. All it takes are eyes to see the majority do not like Lightning.

**EDIT** Who's talking about sales Abriael? Snookies said Japan likes Lightning, I said they're in the minority there. Where are numbers brought up in that discussion? Just because you want Lightning to be your waifu, is no need to throw all semblance of reasoning out the window.

**EDIT 2** My words don't have to speak for how good FFXIII is or not. Not when you can clearly see how many people hated the game, and how many DIDN'T buy the sequel. Face facts, FFXIII sucks.

[dendenmooshi]

As to the majority hating Lightning statement, that's wrong. People may have hated FF13, they may hate Snow and hope, but I think the majority feel indifference more than hate towards Lightning.

The major criticism of FF13 was it being "too linear" (hated that over usage). That caused the hate towards the installment. Unrelatable characters may have been a problem, but I would blame Hope and Snow for that.

[SO71D]

@Abriael - The only people that love Lightning are the people that have pledged their blind loyalty to Square, in their eyes they can do no wrong.

There are fans that like the games and then there are obsessive fans that love everything Final Fantasy related, including all the cheap merchandise. (They tend to be obsessed with Japan as well.)

[Snookies12]

As I said in the beta forums with people getting angry... They've already said they'd be doing fan service for ALL of their Final Fantasy games. It's only natural to have some from XIII. Don't like it? Then don't worry about it. Do other things. It's not like you're forced to wear Lightning's clothing. It's just an option for other people to put on their characters for fun. Shouldn't have an effect on anyone complaining as it doesn't affect their character in any way.

The main reason her character model is in the game is because it's the newest of the franchise. It's most likely easy to slap in there, whereas they'd have to completely redo older characters to make them fit in with the graphics of XIV ARR. If I had to guess, we might see Noctis in there somewhere as well.

[DragonKnight]

Fan service though.

Fan... service.

I think you see where I'm going.

But anyway, Lightning wasn't necessary for fan service to begin with. There are other characters and other themes they could have used. People are tired of Lightning, that's why the rage happened.

[Snookies12]

@DragonKnight - Actually, a lot of people in Japan really love Lightning and are fans of XIII. So yeah, it is actually fan service lol.

As I said before though, ALL Final Fantasy games. It's just some clothes a few weapons and a special mission that have to do with XIII. It's not like that's a big portion of the game or anything like that. It's like 0.01% of the game that involves anything to do with XIII. Again, it's just there for people who like that. You're in no way forced to participate in any of this.

I mean shoot, FFVII fan service includes Omni-slash limit break, the Ultima Weapon which looks to be a boss, materia for weapons, etc. That's much more exposure for that particular title than XIII is getting. I'm happy with any FF related stuff going in personally!

[DragonKnight]

No other FF game has a mission though. That's the thing people are raging about. Too much Lightning. Japan can love her, but they are definitely in the minority there.

[Mr_Nuts]

*** They've already said they'd be doing fan service for ALL of their Final Fantasy games ***

Then why start with this one...untill they announce FF6/7/8/9/10 cross overs then I will take everything they'll say with a pinch of salt.

With Square Enix...trust is a hard thing to come by them

People keep saying oh theres other fan services like limit breaksfrom FF7 or Magiteks from FF6 but not the bloody main character from the game getting their own quest.

Thats like comparing Armour/Weapon DLC to an expansion pack with missions

[NegativeCreepWA]

Mr Nuts, you see the mechs in a lot of the pics lately, those are a cross over from FFVI.

It's just an outfit, I don't see what the big deal is.

[Snookies12]

@Mr_Nuts and DragonKnight - Yes, XIII gets a character/mission, but again... FFVII gets the ULTIMA WEAPON. That's a HUGE addition. We haven't seen everything SE is putting into A Realm Reborn yet, so just wait and see, yeah? I'm sure there are more nods to series' that have yet to be revealed...

[TheOneWhoIsTornApart]

No fanservice in XIV? what about the Magitek Armors from FF6 or the Judges from FF12 or the limit breaks from FF7? I can go on and on about this so hopefully you get the idea that FFXIII fanservice is not a big deal and thers a lot of people who would actually enjoy it so please stop complaining about XIII. All I ever see you do on here is complain.

[iamtehpwn]

I am confused why fans are outraged. The game has a remade dungeon from FF3, Magiteks from FF6, Omnislash and a future Golden Saucer to be added to the game, and lots of other FF nostalgia. It's already been confirmed that FF14 will be dedicated over time to bringing lots of FF nostalgia/cross overs to the game, this includes FF13.

[EXVirtual]

What would your reaction be if she was in Kingdom Hearts 3?

[Mr_Nuts]

I dread to think...actually I don't want to think about it.

[Snookies12]

Actually, I think Noctis would be a better fit for KH3. Considering they're on the same generation of consoles. :]

[JAMurida]

Or maybe people are buying FFXIV because they liked FFXI and/or wanted play a new MMO? I'm pretty sure FFXIII had no bearing on their decision to buy FFXIV ARR, seeing to how it's not even remotely the same game.

[MTEC8]

I bought 13 in the first week. I have been a ff fan for more than a decade, the story and voice overs bugged me enough to stop playing after trying to like it....gave it 10 hours stopped. One of the worst ever. Hoping for a new ff tatics in the near future, loved 7,8 and 10 as well.

[Gamer1982]

Why do people give a crap anyway? Are you being forced to wear it? NO! It's it detrimental to the experience if you don't wear it? NO! So theres no reason to complain. I hate people who just complain because they can. Gamers have turned into right moaners lately and we need to actually stand up for real causes not lightning costumes and anti-ea crap..

[Tdmd]

I don't care (as I don't hate Lightning, just XIII), but I think that the reason Lightning haters are raging is because even if they won't be forced to play the quest, it might result in a LOT of Lightning clones roaming around and as so, they'll be forced to see a character they hate everywhere in a game they want to love. It might be distracting or hurt the imersion for them. Does that makes sense?

[Alexmaru]

I think it's a good think to cross games like this! You get some content from (maybe) your number 1 FF game to another.

Like Lightning get Clouds Soilder outfit in Lightning Returns! Thats great! ;)

Great job Square Enix! ;)

[McGamer]

If you like FF, you like FF. Quit whining for the sake of just to whine.

I am a FF fan and I am definitely not "raging".

[arronax-1]

Just because were fans of the FF-series doesn't mean we can't post comments about it moron. Besides this is a place for posting them. Don't like it, then YOU get the hell out.

[levian]

I actually really like Lightning's design. I hated everything about FF13 and 13-2, but as a character model she looks pretty kickass.

[Lionalliance]

Stop with Lighting already!!

[TheOneWhoIsTornApart]

Stop complaining already.

[DragonKnight]

Why?

[Abriael]

@DragonKnight: because whining about this kind of minutiae is immensely silly.

[DragonKnight]

Didn't realize you doubled as TheOneWhoIsTornApart Abriael.

[helghast102]

Not raging, that's awesome.

[Kyosuke_Sanada]

Well, they both have poked fun at each other so I say why not. I hope this triggers an influx more costumes but from past Squaresoft games that fits the era like Xenogears, Vagrant Story, Chrono Trigger and such.....

[TheOneWhoIsTornApart]

Wow a Xenogears costume set would be amazing. As you can see by my avatar that Im a big fan of the game. Citan and Fei's costumes could work very well in this game since they are traditional Chinese inspired clothing that would look good in a fantasy game.

[Ksar]

FFXIII was awesome. And Lightning is is the favourite female character in Japan and Europe. In this situation, it's completly logic if she's present in FFXIV.
http://www.novacrystallis.c...

And don't be surprised if we see her in Kingdom Hearts 3. Now, you have to control your anger despite your bad taste.

[arronax-1]

Don't you mean YOUR bad taste?

[NihonjinChick]

Don't you just hate opinions?

I mean, that's all that's on this page, opinions.

"I hate Lightning"

"I love Lightning"

It's all just opinions. None of the opinions on this page equal facts.

Square is not putting a gun to your head and forcing you to dress as Lightning and do this questline.

They are just trying to appeal to as many of their fans as possible.

[rhap]

I don't want Lightning in my FF14, wtf. I could live with optional costumes and stuff, but to have her involved in the game depress me. It's not like she's a bad character or anything like that, it's just the memories she brings of the awful time I had trying to enjoy FF13.

Don't do that, SE.

[Abriael]

They already did that.

[KrisButtar]

Give us more Lightning, she was better than anyone else in 13. I'm find with Lightning and have pre-ordered every 13 game. She is not the worst FF character and I agree she is not the best but it could be worst

[Godmars290]

I hate that Square has resorted to its own lore to sell its games. Use it to so blatantly exploit it's fanbase.

What remains of it's fanbase...

[arronax-1]

Exactly. 'All the poorest'- sorry 'All the Bravest' should be a shining example to that!

[Abriael]

Considering that the beta got a million registrations on top of those that were grandfathered from 1.0, "what remains" (IE: The ones that like to play good games instead of whine) seem to be plenty.

[Lionalliance]

And XIII was a good game right?

[Godmars290]

Because the first version of FF14 was a good game and not an overly produced yet lazy effort which depended more on the franchise name?

Why, there wasn't even a need to fix it because the millions of subscribers who left neither left, much less whined about it.

FFS...

[hazelamy]

but that's what they've always done with the FF series Godmars.

Chocobos, Cid, Shiva, Bahamut, other summons, the catuars, Tonberry, Moogles, Biggs and Wedge, weather based character names, and all the other elements they reuse in each new game.

Lightning Returns has Cloud's outfit and buster sword, FF Tactics had cloud and Aeris.

they even made two games featuring characters from all the FF games, available on PSP, called Dissidia, no idea what the title means.

how many characters are there in the FF series named after weather?

[Godmars290]

No. Having recurring elements such as monsters and summons is one thing and minor cameos another. Characters such as Cloud earned their popularity whereas Lightning's was manufactured. Where he made minor cameos in side games, she's been nothing but forced upon the fandom. As originally planned.

If you can't tell the difference, all I'll say further is enjoy. I'm done.

[PokemonMaster]

DEAL WITH IT

[Williamson]

I actually like lightning as a character, would of loved her in psabr

[NihonjinChick]

You are pretty brave to openly admit that you like Lightning on this article. Be prepared to get disagrees and a chance at being marked as a troll by people who complain about optional things that are included in games.

[arronax-1]

Sheesh. Now it feels that Square-Enix is just fucking stubborn and unwilling to believe they've made a huge error with this series and nowadays has this belief that WE are the crazy people for hating it, so they're just going to keep skull-fucking us with this shit until we do.

[NatureOfLogic]

Lightning is hands down the most milked main character out of the Final Fantasy's. Square Enix might be in love with the Lightning character, but the fanbase is clearly divided on her likeliness. Seriously, I just want them to move on from Lightning. I liked XIII-2 a lot thanks to noel. I just didn't feel any connection with the Lightning character. As soon as Square Enix stop shoving XIII down our throats, I have not doubt that Lightning will most likely become the most forgotten character in Final Fantasy.

[helghast102]

You seem to be forgetting about Cloud.

[Gasian]

Final Fantasy sells more in Japan the North America and Europe. I understand your frustration and pardon me because my English is not very good but Final fantasy is very well known by the Otaku culture in Japan. You can't call Japan a minority when there is a larger fanbase that has May yelled at square as much as you do. I understand fatigue of games like final fantasy 13 not standing in comparison to it predecessor.I understand gaming is decreasing as a culture in my homeland, Japan, because people just like to be more work focus and think less about video games. But what I don't understand is your telling that Japan is in the minority. I have not been there for 5 years but these sales numbers tell different.

-Takashi

p.s. sorry for the bad grammar again and here is the link.
http://www.vgchartz.com/gam...

[Crimson_Ash]

Of all final fantasy characters, why do they want to push her down our throats ?

[GenHero]

but they're not. they're not forcing you to do the XIII quest or wear the clothes it's all optional.

[Crimson_Ash]

Yeah, you're right.

but I mean why her ? of all popular characters.

unless its because of her new game (probably)

[Lionalliance]

It's just the fact that she's in there now.

[Epedemic]

my only complaint as a monk player are those hideous weapons they're giving us. here's hoping to getting Auron's outfit and not Tidus's if that ever comes around.

I played and completed ffxiii. gets way more hate than it deserves imo.

[Blacklash93]

It's just a few optional costumes and an optional (and likely short) questline. It's fanservice, no different than a lot of things in XIV. Once the XIII series ends with LR I doubt this kind of presence she has with SE is going to continue.

I get people don't like XIII or Lightning's milking, but at the end of the day it's just a small cameo. Any drama over this is pointless and petty, but I guess that's just what fandom does.

Maybe the questline will be really good? Then what is there to really complain about? Why can't people be more concerned with that instead of a short cameo?

[Funnymonkey013]

Man they r really over hypering that bitch lighting I can't stand her she really the worst and annoying main ff char. To date I hate how they were trying 2 make a female cloud it does not work at all cloud is cloud that's that plus her being a lone wolf does not work at all as well I'm telling u guys ffx13 2 and 3 r the worst in the series by far lousy chars. Boring and over dramatic story the only thing I can say is good about was the battle system in fact I luved it but the chars and story were god alfull. Anyway can't wait 4 xv that's is what a true ff game should be like.

[CertifiedGamer]

You can tell Square-Enix is desperate to sell FF13-3 when they are making Lightning look like Cloud to try and attract FF7 fans.

[Funnymonkey013]

Irk just leave others popular ff chars. Alone and make them appear in other ff games and not lighting nobody even cars 4 her maybe the females gamers do but not us hardcore ff fans. I'm going to be glad once ffx13 series is done 4ever

[chikane]

How i Feel about more Light

http://stream1.gifsoup.com/...

still only like her in ff 13

[Donnywho]

OMG Square made another move without asking me what I thought. Oh maya Gawd, I'm so mad about everything SquareEnix does. ERMAgerd. I could devote my time to creating my own legendary franchise but I think I'll just keep buying these FF games and crying about them when I'm not playing them.

[Firan]

I'd be more pissed of if they would add a Cloud costume from Advent Children. There's nothing more annoying than AC Cloud fanboys/girls.

[kenshiro100]

I didn't like FF13 too much and didn't buy 2. Just give me FFXV or whatever the hell you're calling it now Square.

[Hozi]

Quit fucking complaining!!! If you don't want this then don't fucking play the mission with Lightning. The End.

P.S.-Ban me from here for cursing if you want Admins.

[Kos-Mos]

Screw the admins, and especially dragonknight. Why the hell does he force his vomit on this topic? Just read his stupid comments about how much he hates FF13. If he were any smart and tried to promote this site, he wouldn`t trash talk games, and especially those he don`t understand. He`s a cod, gow, gears, halo, killzone, unchartered, skyrim, gta, fifa, me type of player and that says it all.
Amen and peace to us intellectual gamers.

Freedom of speech to the wicked and open-minded.