Let's keep Character Crossovers from other Square-Enix titles out of FFXIV.

[Duelle]

My point is, there are references to previous Final Fantasies that were woven into Eorzea's story pretty well, despite being not-so-subtle. We know it, and we love it. But now that the actual Lightning from FFXIII is coming in, OH NO, it's a terrible terrible thing! SE's a sellout and is ruining the Final Fantasy name!

You don't seem to realize several things. First that XIV's story has put great emphasis on the player character being an exceptional adventurer and being the beacon of hope to saving the world. When you put that next to a character like Lightning/Cloud/Zidane/Ramza, the chances of them stealing the show and making you look like a chump are ridiculously high.

Second, it's no secret that SE is in love with Lightning and has been shoving her down people's throats. Sure, FFXIII was liked the home market (AKA Japan), but there are also people who see Lightning as the closest SE has ever gotten to the quintesential "strong female character that's not strong on her own merits and concept, but because the author/characters tell you how strong she is and is given constant pushes in an attempt to convince you how strong she is". With that in mind, I highly doubt SE would do the right thing and have her placed in a support role (similar to Thancred/Yda&Papalymo/Y'shtola) during this proposed story arc.

Thirdly, the reason crossovers like this are so risky is because they do threaten whatever you attempted to establish prior. This is why Cloud (and later, Balthier) entirely faded into the background when they crossed into FF Tactics; they became minor players in the larger campaign led by Ramza. Cloud was also nowhere near the most powerful character in Tactics (Orlandu, Beowulf and Agrias could easily wipe the floor with him). Again, I don't see the writers putting Lightning in a minor role when this is obviously an attempt to use FFXIV to advertise the third FFXIII game. Their main goal is to make Lightning look good, and it may come at our (characters') expense.

That's where the hesitance comes from. And I would react no different if it were Locke or Faris or Luneth instead of Lightning.

[Denmo]

My fictional character's fictional reputation and ego is being challenged by another fictional character!

gods preserve us

[SkyeWindbinder]

My fictional character's fictional reputation and ego is being challenged by another fictional character!

gods preserve us

Your sarcasm is noted. Then again, I'd think a person playing a lalafell who wanted badly for SE to make more facial hair choices optional for their chosen race would understand. It's not that you would spaz out if you didn't get to wear the beard you wanted, or even if you had to be a lalafell clean-shaven, I'm sure. However, you still would like the option of making your lalafell look exactly how you would wish, wouldn't you? That is a concern for you, despite how minor it may be.

The same can be said for the OP of this thread. I'm sure it wouldn't completely destroy the game for him or anyone else if Lightning stole some of his PC's thunder. Nevertheless, he doesn't want that to happen, and is voicing his concern over it.

[Denmo]

Noted. Glad you catch my drift.

I just disagree that it's worth concern, is all.

[SkyeWindbinder]

Noted. Glad you catch my drift.

I just disagree that it's worth concern, is all.

Well anything a person playing a game like this is concerned about is "worth it". lol

As I said, it doesn't really matter how "minor" the concern is. And the OP has some pretty sound reasons for his concern. granted, it may not be all that bad having Lightning in the game. But concerns over her character overshadowing the main character (you) is pretty valid, if oyu ask me.

[Sanne]

Well it depends on how it is written in the story.
It shouldn't be a main quest, it should be optional for those who like it.

I like different dimensions and world traveling, and to me it seems very believable that something like that could happen in this world.

I loved kingdom hearts, and in that game they had a good balance, imho.
Cloud and Co. were fun to see, but they didn't steal the show of the main-characters.

So I see no reason why Lightning or any other character would steal the show.

It could perfectly fit with the main story, how the past events created some dimensional gate, that opens up once in a while.
It opens up for so many side quests with characters we loved and cared about.

I always wished for this in FFXI, but sadly they never did.

But this is off course just my opinion.

I really hope they will do this. (in a good way)
Sorry people, for my selfish behavior, but I really like this idea.

[Mortechai]

Know that Yoshi has just written a hugely lengthy post on the Beta forums basically saying that you(the OP) are worrying about silly things and that everything is going to be ok. So sit back down, and have faith that the security of the IP is not in jeopardy.

[Keyln]

I am a huge fan of Final Fantasy, and have been since I first played it way back when in 1989, with Final Fantasy as my first Final Fantasy. Since then, I've played, to completion, every major Final Fantasy game that has since come out. I've also played Final Fantasy XIV from when it was released (I even have the collector's edition), and I've seen it change from a boring unplayable mess to what it is today. So, I know Final Fantasy.

If there's one thing that constant about Final Fantasy is change. Every Final Fantasy game changes, with each and every game changing something, doing something different not seen in previous Final Fantasy games, and this is what XIV is doing. Final Fantasy I started off being nothing than a D&D clone with a Japanese twist added into it, but it was a really well made game. In fact, most of the elements that we would identify being uniquely Final Fantasy actually started in Final Fantasy II. So, there's no set "story" or "lore" to the Final Fantasy universe, other than what the developers of a particular Final Fantasy decide what it is. The best part of this is that there's really no one telling the developers that they're doing something wrong from a lore-perspective.

With that said, I choose to have a position of faith when it comes to the inclusion of other Final Fantasy characters into XIV. My faith stems from two things.

The first is that I've seen how this game has changed from its 1.0 days to what it is now. This game is tons more fun to play, and I enjoy playing it when I get the chance (why can't Beta be up longer...). So, yeah, the changes made in this game have been nothing but good so far.

The second is that Yoshi is both sensitive and considerate of the concerns about putting in Final Fantasy characters into the game. He's already stated that characters are real, and that he won't do anything that would disturb how the different Final Fantasy stories came out. Meaning, we won't see Aeris rising from the grave anytime soon. Sephiroth on the other hand...

So, for those two reasons, I choose to have a position of faith with how things will turn out.

[Fatestorm]

The second is that Yoshi is both sensitive and considerate of the concerns about putting in Final Fantasy characters into the game. He's already stated that characters are real, and that he won't do anything that would disturb how the different Final Fantasy stories came out. Meaning, we won't see Aeris rising from the grave anytime soon. Sephiroth on the other hand...

So, for those two reasons, I choose to have a position of faith with how things will turn out.

I hope you're right with this, but you've put your finger right here on what's worrying to me. Why Sephiroth and not Aeris? There is just no way to know what "We will never introduce characters that would destroy their meaning or story" and "We will not use characters that are already dead or whose role has ended in their title" means concretely. Especially characters "whose role has ended in their title." That's a baffling criterion to me and sounds tailor-made to allow anything to fly with the right sort of justification.

Like, as an example, I'm struggling to understand how the example Yoshi himself gave, Red XIII from Final Fantasy VII, is different from Lightning. Why would he not include him in FFXIV? Not that I want him in the game--quite the opposite--but I'm wondering why Yoshi has disqualified one and not the other. Who's to say that Red XIII's role "has ended in his title?" Does Yoshi just mean games that aren't finished yet (Like Lightning Returns)? I really don't know. But why does Sephiroth keep rising from the grave when he got killed at the end of Final Fantasy VII? I really don't know. (Unless I'm being cynical and say because fanservice.) So again, my point is this:

It looks like Yoshi has given us a safeguard that he will preserve plot and character integrity; but this is nowhere near an objective criterion at all. It's basically him saying "come on... trust me!"--and so it's worth precisely that much.

It's also been part of my argument that these crossovers do, by their very nature, damage the plot and character of the respective works involved; and that to properly preserve the integrity of the story one must either ignore them or look upon them as deuterocanonical. So Yoshi's response that Lightning is the one and only Lightning and not a copy, and that the writing team worked hard on the quest story--all of that is I suppose a good thing for the team implementing all this, but really misses my fundamental worry entirely.

In short you have a hermeneutic of faith for Yoshi and his team based on his track record, and in truth you're right and it deserves to be noted. He's made FFXIV into a great game, I agree, and while it's not up to me I do think it'll succeed. I'm proud of him.

I, however, have a hermeneutic of suspicion with this whole crossover business, with all of it. Laying all my cards on the table, and with the understanding that I can't prove any of this or don't know for a fact that this is the case: I think that Square-Enix decided, at the upper level somewhere, that this sort of crossover was going to happen as part of a more aggressive marketing campaign of Square-Enix products and titles, and that Yoshi got told that this FFXIV crossover was going to happen. Or maybe he agreed, or came up with the idea himself; I've no idea. But what's clear to me is that Yoshi and his team sat down and said "ok... crossovers are happening. What's the least painful way for this to happen with respect to story? How can we make this happen?" rather than the other way around-- that is, the lore team didn't come up with a fantastic story for a Lightning crossover and then go ask Yoshi "hey look at this great idea we came up with, can we please do this, I bet players will love it."

[Yumi_Hibiki]

No matter how well they will write it people that want to hate it will find a way to nit pick it apart.

Personally i am looking forward to people flip flopping on their stances faster than microsoft on their Xbox one80 policies as soon as it involves a character they care about. "Its completely different then when it was Lightning because of "add desperate justification here" ^~^