#it's like tlou 2 or the jodie whittaker seasons of doctor who all over again where there's a real conversation to be had

[mrmallard]

Man on one hand FF13 really is that bad, as much as I love how it looks the levelling system and gameplay is kind of broken on a foundational level, but on the other hand so much 13 hate was predicated on being as much of a hateful cunt as possible about Lightning and looking back I feel like a lot of it was steeped in bullshit double standards and abject misogyny.

Like I used to post in a Final Fantasy thread and whenever Lightning came up, one specific person would deadass go "Lightning was a horrible person who abused everyone, and the game would be better if she died halfway through and nobody cared". Every time she came up.

I remember people saying they bastardised SOLDIER to make her more reminiscent of Cloud, they bastardised the scorpion fight from FF7 and made the fight borderline unloseable to hype her up because she's a bland Mary Sue who needs character shilling, she's just a retread of Cloud and Squall etc. And while I'm critical of FF13, I've always been bugged by the character hate (including for Hope) and I feel like a lot of it comes from this cultural well of like Nostalgia Critic-esque dickhead internet criticism that people seemingly couldn't communicate at all without dipping into.

Like, Lightning starts the game off being incredibly blunt, punching her sister's fiance and encouraging someone to enact revenge. Not even a quarter of the way through the game, she has a change of heart and she begins to open up more, and she subsequently tries her best to dissuade that character from enacting revenge. So much of the hate stems from the start of her character arc while ignoring how she improves as a person, and that only fuels the whole "shitty Mary Sue Cloud Squall rehash" internet criticism thing where a bunch of dickheads have to try and one-up each other's criticisms by being even more of a fuckface than the last guy.

Now, that's not to say that criticism of Lightning is solely done through that lens, nor is it to say that there's nothing else to criticize about her. What I'm saying is that there's a lot of loud dumbass complaints that defined FF13 for years that stems from a really toxic, shitty place and - in hindsight - it feels like on top of the toxic influence within the online sphere of game criticism of the time, a lot of that shit feels like it's rooted in misogyny.

It's always bothered me, and going back to the game today, it's kind of hard to sit through the opening without remembering the absolute chuddery of FF13 criticism back in the day. The game is very flawed, and I understand that character writing and personal enjoyment is subjective, but there's a difference between articulate and meaningful criticism and getting blindingly mad because they made Lightning do a bunch of badass flips in the opening cutscene and ignoring her entire character arc to call her an entitled bitch, y'know.

#final fantasy 13 #final fantasy #lightning farron #as a postscript - yeah the opening scorpion boss fight was a load of shit. glitz and polish that was all bark no bite #and while some of that can be chalked up to the fight being s tutorial I also think it's mired with a lot of flaws that the later game has #it would have been a cakewalk with any other character. part of that is by design but it's also kind of getting things off on the wrong foot #at least imo #and that's a broader criticism of the game and how streamlined the combat system is #where you're pushing a single button to win. and I fo remember the formations #but then there's another issue where it feels like there's an objectively correct formation to use for bosses #where if you deviate you just lose and if you get the right combination of classes - again you just press a single button to win #or like go through the exact same motions in a rhythm. I don't like that #so like yeah the combat and enemy stuff and all that - I'm critical of that #I don't think calling lightning a mary sue because her and sazh beat it as the tutorial monster is a reasonable criticism #i think it's a broader issue with the game and that reading completely misses what's actually wrong with the game #it's intellectually lazy and a total copout #it's like tlou 2 or the jodie whittaker seasons of doctor who all over again where there's a real conversation to be had #and actual reasonable criticisms to be made #but the criticism of the thing is so toxic and hostile and in such bad faith that having that conversation is next to impossible #because 'this is an aspect of the thing I'm critical of' exists in the same space where some wanker is screaming about lesbians and wokism