I'm not an expert on the Final Fantasy fanbase or anything, but do people like Lightning? I know FF13 is very controversial game, but is Lightning herself cool character or is she kind of hated on as well?
I think in regards to Final Fantasy XIII, no one really hated Lightning. But Square was definitely trying to push her in regards to the sequels and when they were really pushing her was when she became rather divisive among players.
Cause you know, why should this character I don't care about get attention compared to the characters I do like And like, Square was
really trying to push her, not just from the sequels focusing on her, as well as Duodecim Dissidia giving her a bit more of a main role in the 012 part and her having a big side quest in FFXIV, but last time I checked:
-She was part of a car commercial. Or some sort of vehicle commercial.
-She was part of an advertisement for a perfume.
-She had something where she was dressed very fancy, I don't know whether it was an advertisement for a dress or something else.
-She was supposedly the one that Square wanted to put in Playstation All-Stars compared to Cloud. That aside, she was in a Playstation commercial where she was in a bar with other Playstation characters compared to other FF characters.
Like she was being pushed with alot of gaming and non-gaming commercials and advertisements. Nowadays, she's not really everywhere and I haven't really seen people hate on Lightning as much, so I assume with her not appearing as much, people have mellowed out a bit regarding her.
FFXIII is still rather controversial due to the gameplay and the pacing, but by what I've heard, the sequels were actually decent gameplay-wise and were more open compared to the original game. Story-wise, not so much. And I think that's the main thing I hear is that the games get better gameplay-wise per sequel while the story just becomes more convoluted.
That said, I don't get why Final Fantasy XIII got slammed for being straightforward hallways when Final Fantasy X was very much just straightforward until the end of the game when you got the airship.