Lightning Returns: With a Whimper

[Aulayna]

lrwhimper.jpg

Lightning, oooh why? Why you look so sad? Tears are in your eyes. Come on come to me now. Don't be ashamed to cry. However, unfortunately m'dear, it seems like Japanese fans aren't willing to stand by you anymore.

The pink haired heroine as has long been toted by Square Enix as one of their favourite characters. It seems, though, that the love affair may have ended. Lightning Returns: FINAL FANTASY XIII launched to an incredibly low amount of sales in Japan this week. Just 277,082 physical copies were sold. To put that into perspective, that's just under 50% lower than FINAL FANTASY XIII-2's 524,217 week one sales. FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 itself was also a significant drop form the 1,501,964 copies that the original FINAL FANTASY XIII sold.

These are probably not the type of figures that Square Enix are hoping for. It's worth nothing that this is exceptionally gloomy as all of these figures are just for sales of the physical copy of the PlayStation 3 version and don't include XBOX 360 sales (which has a very low market share in Japan), or, digital downloads. The XBOX 360 version didn't even sell well enough to rank in the Japanese charts.

Considering the lack of hype on these shores for this title, I can't say I'm surprised. I wonder if Square Enix will engage in far more aggressive marketing strategies ahead of the North American and European launchers. However with the next-gen consoles here, I suspect sales on this side of the globe will be fairly low too.

So, this was far from a fitting swansong for Lightning. Love her or hate her, she's been a staple of the franchise for the best part of nearly 10 years now. It'll be interesting to see what lessons Square Enix take from this.

[Source: ?LIGHTNING RETURNS?27?7000?????????? 3D??????10?????????????????????????????? - 4Gamer.net ]

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

This is disheartening. But nevertheless I'm looking forward to playing this. I really feel like Square put a lot in to this game. Just like when XIV came out, they took the criticism seriously and made an awesome game with a realm reborn. Even though XIII had criticism, I loved it, and they still produced an excellent sequel in my opinion. Can't wait to play this one.

[Del Murder]

I hope this is a wake-up call to STOP MAKING LIGHTNING GAMES.

[noxious.sunshine]

Lawl they already decided this would be the last one. XD

[Elskidor]

Now it's time to make THUNDER games, with Lightning's long lost and forgotten twin sister of purple hair and an even more bad attitude.

[Shorty]

I hope this is a wake-up call to STOP MAKING LIGHTNING GAMES.

Yep.

Wait, has she really been a staple for ten years? Absolutely time to move on.

[Sephiroth]

I don't mind making Lightning titles stop as long as making titles with her in the story does not stop, so basically Final Fantasy XIII can continue for me. Like all Final Fantasys.

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

I don't mind making Lightning titles stop as long as making titles with her in the story does not stop, so basically Final Fantasy XIII can continue for me. Like all Final Fantasys.

You mean like more Dissidia games? I'm on board with that.

[Sephiroth]

I don't mind making Lightning titles stop as long as making titles with her in the story does not stop, so basically Final Fantasy XIII can continue for me. Like all Final Fantasys.

You mean like more Dissidia games? I'm on board with that.

That would not be the story but a non-canon crossover like Kingdom Hearts that has some "canon-like" elements in it (like the Warrior of Light walking to Cornelia at the end of Dissidia to show the beginning of Final Fantasy - "And so their journey begins" but without the three other characters). I am talking about Final Fantasy XIII itself. It just does not need to be called "Sexy Workout with Lightning" or anything. Not that I mind though, I like the Sexy Workout Edition that Final Fantasy XIII-3 is.

[Freya]

Honestly I didn't think the XIII story merited so many sequels. The story line just seems very all over the place Throwing all these ideas together on a wall and saying it's ART! I'm so over lightning but i'm going ot get the game regardless cause i'm interested in the combat.

[Venom65437]

STUNNING!

[Mahad]

And so it ends. Guess fans grew tired of this one real quick. I liked 13 fine enough, but I never really played 13-2. May be they'll do better with 15.

[Sephiroth]

I'm interested:

Would people be interested in more of this world and their characters if old features like the old battle system (FF-IX or X) the Overworld map, exactly the same kind of random battles and all that reappeared?

[Loony BoB]

I don't think it was the battle system that made people dislike the game, I think it was more along the lines of poor story and lack of fun minigames in the initial game that doomed the sequels. FFXIII-2 was generally liked by the majority that played it and got much better reviews than the first game.

As for the sales, it's not a surprise, surely? I mean, did anyone actually expect the third game in the series to do better than the second? I think after the second dropped from 1.5m to 500,000 then the third one would be expected to drop down to about 250,000. Maybe that's just me.

[Sephiroth]

I can't see how "poor story" is something that can be generally taken as reason. Both 1 and 2 have a story that focusses heavily on the emotions of the main characters and the impact of their actions (L'Cie, Noel, Caius, Yeul, et cetera). I would have been disappointed if the story ended with Serah in that dead-like state, yes but since the story continues I am okay with it - yet I don't know how it ends.

The first and second one actually should have had for me what I mentioned, then there would have been nothing to complain, except a variety of sidequests like you mentioned, I forgot that and a team that you can control.