Lightning (Final Fantasy XIII)/Dissidia (PSP)

Lightning is one of the new characters introduced in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, representing Final Fantasy XIII. She battles using a variety of swordplay and magic using her three Paradigm roles to change fighting styles during combat. In her EX Mode, Lightning wields the Omega Weapon, and her EX Burst is Odin's Gestalt Mode under the name of "Gestalt Drive."

Attire
Lightning's appearance is identical to her appearance in Final Fantasy XIII. She has light pink hair and pale aqua eyes, and wears a primarily white military uniform, adorned with several belts and buckles, with a red cape. Her weapon of choice is the Blazefire Saber gunblade, which can shift between gun and sword forms.

Lightning's first alternate outfit, named "Midnight Cloak," is based on concept artwork by Yoshitaka Amano. Lightning's cape is dark brown, her hair is white, and her uniform has an overall darker color scheme.

Lightning's second alternate outfit, named "Guardian Corps Uniform," is the uniform of female Guardian Corps soldiers in Final Fantasy XIII. She wears a khaki coat held closed by a black belt and several buckles with blue and gray sleeves, brown leggings, different boots and a black officer's cap.

Lightning's bonus downloadable outfit is based on Aya Brea, the protagonist of The 3rd Birthday, another Square Enix title. The outfit consists of torn blue jeans, different boots, and a sleeveless black shirt that exposes her midriff. The outfit is only available by purchasing said game.

Lightning's manikin version, Fleeting Flash, is pink.

Story
Lightning comes to after finding herself by Cosmos's side. After meeting Jecht and Kain over the Warrior of Light's earlier words, she is advised to see if she is stronger than the Warrior by teaming up. Though Lightning rejects the idea, she and the Warrior team up against the waves of Warriors of Chaos. During the fight, Lightning meets Cloud, who warns her not to underestimate their opponents. Soon after, she meets up with Jecht and Kain over her impression of the Warrior of Light.

Later, after obtaining her dormant crystal with the other Warriors, Lightning leads Laguna, Vaan, and Tifa back to the battlefield where they are ambushed by the manikins. When Kefka arrives with Kuja, Lightning fights the latter while the others scatter to hold off the manikins. Defeating Kuja, Lightning expresses disgust to Kefka for taking his comrade's demise in stride before he hints at the overall nature of the conflict prior to taking his leave. Lightning finds Kain with an injured Bartz, shocked to learn Kain attacked him. After Lightning fights off Kain, Exdeath and Garland appear with the former revealing the extent of Kain's actions. Kain leaves with the unconscious Bartz with Exdeath in pursuit, while Garland takes his leave, deciding to leave Lightning for the manikins while telling her most of her comrades are likely have been wiped out by them already.

Barely escaping with her life, Lightning reveals to Cosmos of what she has been though, while complaining about the mission she gave them. Though she wants to save the world, Lightning believes the quest for the crystals is nothing but a suicide mission. The Warrior of Light agrees before raising his sword on her, as she is shocked to find another traitor. Learning the Warrior and Kain have been working together to ensure their side's victory in the next cycle only serves to further anger Lightning. Laguna, Vaan, and Yuna arrive to scene and Lightning is the first among the four to insist not being put to rest, but instead take out the manikin infestation.

At some point in time, Lightning talks with Firion, stating she senses something about his rose, which surprises him. Later, after learning the manikins are making their way to Cosmos, Lightning leads Laguna, Yuna, Kain, Vaan, and Tifa in a final stand against the manikins at the Empyreal Paradox, but not before encountering Garland, The Emperor, The Cloud of Darkness, Kefka, and Ultimecia. After defeating the warriors of Chaos, they learn they were just buying time for the next wave of manikins to arrive from the portal. Lightning and her companions charge at the endless waves of manikins in one, last, desperate attempt to close the portal. Eventually they are overwhelmed, and Lightning's allies begin to collapse. Before she falls, Lightning throws her Zantetsuken into the portal and sees it close, as she finally collapses in defeat. Lightning loses her power, but not before she smiles at the Warrior and fades away.

Battle
Lightning is described as a Paradigm Commando, using her Paradigm Shift abilities from Final Fantasy XIII to shift between Commando, Ravager and Medic roles during battle by pressing R while holding L (Faster than the usual L and R). Each role has its own moveset, allowing Lightning to change her fighting style. As a Commando, Lightning uses primarily melee attacks, as a Ravager she casts magic, and as a Medic she uses Cure spells to recover her Brave without attacking. Lightning's attacks are close to mid-ranged, but using her to her full potential requires mastery of all her roles and their unique abilities. The player also has the option to omit some of Lightning's Paradigm roles by not equipping any moves for them - for example, if no attacks are equipped for the Medic Paradigm, Lightning will skip it when switching Paradigms in battle and go from Ravager to Commando. An upside is that her ground movement is fairly fast. As a downside, she is not as powerful as other melee fighters and many of all her magic attacks are only mid-ranged. Furthermore, her HP Attacks are slow, giving time for enemies to dodge and counterattack.

EX Mode
Gestalt Drive Bv6EQDQTvY8 Lightning's EX Mode is Omega Weapon equipped, swapping out her Blazefire Saber for her strongest gunblade in Final Fantasy XIII. While in EX Mode, Lightning gains the abilities "Omega Weapon" and "Grav-Con Unit." The Omega Weapon bonus automatically inflicts Break on opponents when she attacks with a Bravery attack while their Bravery is less than 30% of its base value, and Grav-Con Unit completely protects her from all Wall Rush damage by projecting a force field to bounce her back into the air when she hits a solid surface.

Lightning's EX Burst is Gestalt Drive, where she attacks with a backflip and a barrage of gunfire before attacking with the Zantetsuken. The player must input the appearing button and analog combinations to attack the opponent with Lightning Strike, Thunderfall, Stormblade and Razor Gale. The commands appear in a random order, and some may appear twice. Lightning ends the EX Burst with Zantetsuken, spinning to unleash a flurry of blows, the amount of Bravery-damaging slashes done equal to the amount of successful command inputs. Failing to input one of the four commands will result in Lightning skipping to Zantetsuken, minimizing the Bravery damage done.

Equipment
Lightning can equip Swords, Daggers, Greatswords, Katanas, Guns, Parrying Weapons, Shields, Bangles, Gauntlets, Hats, Helms, Headbands, Ribbons, Clothing, Light Armor, and Chestplates.

Allusions

 * When Lightning initiates her EX Burst, she shouts "I control my fate!" She sometimes says this when using her Full ATB Skill, Army of One, in Final Fantasy XIII.
 * Lightning's EX Mode ability, "Omega Weapon," refers to the Quick Stagger ability in Final Fantasy XIII, an ability that instantly staggers opponents when attacking if their stagger gauge is 90% full. Lightning's strongest series of weapons come with this ability. "Grav-Con Unit" refers the device in Final Fantasy XIII, which Lightning uses when she jumps from high altitudes in order to slow her descent to prevent injury.
 * The attack Lightning uses when beginning her EX Burst, back-flipping off the opponent and firing a barrage of gunfire at them, is similar to the final attack in her combo when she has four ATB gauge segments in Final Fantasy XIII. The button commands used to input her attacks during her EX Burst are the same commands used in Final Fantasy XIII - Up and [[File:X-button.png]] to use Stormblade, Down and [[File:X-button.png]] to use Lightning Strike, Left or Right and [[File:X-button.png]] to use Razor Gale, and [[File:Circle-button.png]] to use Thunderfall.
 * In the game's opening FMV sequence as she battles Garland, aside from the rose petals Lightning's charge is nearly identical to the one seen at the Palumpolum's Agora (beginning of Chapter 7) of Final Fantasy XIII. As the scene ends, the camera zooms in on Lightning's eye, imitating the opening of Final Fantasy XIII as she enters the Hanging Edge.
 * Meeting with Firion, Lightning comments a sense of familiarity with the wild rose he possesses, referring to the rose shape of her Eidolon crystal and the rose petal motif in her attacks.
 * While Lightning's Bravery attacks are based on the actual moves she uses in Final Fantasy XIII, Lightning's HP attacks and Brave to HP attacks are used by Odin in both his modes. Many of Lightning's Commando-based attacks are amalgamations of two separate skills she uses, like Blitz formed from the spinning Blitz attack, and ending with her Scourge attack with the gunshot.
 * As Lightning is about to fight a manikin of herself in a cutscene, she has her Blazefire Saber in Gun-Mode, the camera zooms in on her as she looks to her right to see the Warrior of Light's manikin. This is a reference to a similar scene in the opening of Final Fantasy XIII when she is surrounded by PSICOM soldiers.
 * Her Paradigm Roles, Commando, Ravager, and Medic, are based upon her primary roles in Final Fantasy XIII.
 * When Lightning uses the Bravery attack Army of One, a visual distortion appears on the top and bottom of the screen - the same distortion that appears in Final Fantasy XIII when a Full ATB Skill is used.
 * When performing certain actions, Lightning will exclaim quotes similar to the ones of her comrades from Final Fantasy XIII. For example, when using Lightning Strike, she exclaims "This is gonna sting!" this is a reference to what Sazh says when he performs an attack.
 * When Lightning faces Garland he says "You dare to oppose your fate?", alluding to Lightning's attempt to deft the fal'Cie and resist her Focus in Final Fantasy XIII. It also references Barthandelus/Galenth Dysley.
 * At the end of Prologus when the Warrior of Light orders Lightning to stay and wait for Kain and Jecht, she replies, "Who died and made you Primarch?", referring to Primarch position of leadership of Cocoon's government.
 * While fighting Onion Knight, Lightning will say "Need someone to toughen you up?" referring to when she took Hope Estheim under her wing in Final Fantasy XIII. Onion Knight's quote when facing her, "Maybe I can pick up some pointers," also alludes to this. One of Lightning's quotes when entering battle, "Some things in life you just do," is a reference to another of her conversations with Hope, "It's not a question of can or can't. There are some things in life you just do." The Cloud of Darkness's opening line towards Lightning is a possible allusion of when a despairing Lightning was just about to abandon Hope prior to Odin's intervention.
 * The name of her manikin, Fleeting Flash, is a reference to the conversation she had with Hope about her choice of name: "Lightning. It flashes bright, then fades away. It can't protect. It only destroys."
 * When Lightning speaks to Warrior of Light in Chapter 5 of Treachery of the Gods, she says "I keep looking for hope until I find some." This is a reference to what she said to Orphan, "When we think there's no hope left, we keep looking until we find some."
 * When facing Warrior of Light, she says "Great, now I'm fighting fairy tales," alluding to the Eidolon battle that in Cocoon was said to be a fairy tale.
 * One of Lightning's defeat quotes, "I can't stop now," is identical to a quote she sometimes uses when defeated as the party leader in Final Fantasy XIII.
 * One of the items needed to make Zantetsuken and Odin Blade is Survival Knife, which is an allusion of Lightning's sister Serah, giving her a survival knife for her birthday.
 * Lightning's exclusive weapons are a reference to the three-tier weapon system of Final Fantasy XIII, where each weapon could be upgraded twice to become each character's ultimate weapon. Like in Final Fantasy XIII, the Blazefire Saber is upgraded into the Flamberge and then into the Omega Weapon; and the Axis Blade can be upgraded into the Enkindler.
 * Lightning's two ultimate weapons are a reference to Odin's blades, which she wields in both games.

Trivia

 * Lightning was originally set to appear in the first Dissidia, but was scrapped as the developers did not want to lock down her character design and move set before Final Fantasy XIII was released.
 * Prior to the official announcement, a hoax had "revealed" Lightning would appear in Dissidia Final Fantasy: Universal Tuning. The hoaxes involved elaborate fake magazine pages created in Photoshop and complete with fake Lightning 3D models.
 * Lightning's artwork is based on an artwork of her for Final Fantasy XIII. Her Dissidia art was the first time Tetsuya Nomura drew the Blazefire Saber, which he found difficult due to it having so many parts.
 * Coinciding with Lightning wearing Aya Brea's outfit in Dissidia 012, Aya can also wear Lightning's Final Fantasy XIII attire as an alternate outfit in The 3rd Birthday. Wearing this outfit will change Aya's voice to sound like Lightning's.
 * Furthermore, Lightning shares her Japanese voice actress with Aya, as well as Aerith Gainsborough, who appears as an Assist-only bonus DLC character.
 * When Lightning wears Aya's outfit, she doesn't have her l'Cie brand or naval piercing.
 * In pre-release versions of Dissidia 012, Lightning knows Curasa, which she cannot learn in Final Fantasy XIII. This is fixed in the final release, when Curasa is renamed to Cura, which Lightning can learn in Final Fantasy XIII.
 * Lightning, along with Firion, Tifa, and Prishe, are the only Warriors of Cosmos who never summon their usual weapons. In Lightning's case, she draws her gunblade from her holster though she can summon the Zantetsuken in its place during her HP attacks.
 * Lightning is the third character in the Dissidia series to wield a gunblade, after Squall and Bartz (due to his Mime abilities).
 * Lightning's holster for her gunblade is absent in her victory pose, causing her gunblade to disappear behind her back. This is especially noticeable for her second alternate and DLC costume as the holster is implied to be behind Lightning's back in the first two costumes.
 * Despite Lightning making many quotes related to other characters from Final Fantasy XIII, she is the only character from the said title to appear in Dissidia 012, unlike other heroes or villains who have a direct opposite or another character from their original game.
 * Lightning appears in three storylines, including Prologue, in Dissidia 012, other characters having only one chapter for each of them.
 * Lightning has the most exclusive weapons of all characters in Dissidia 012, a total of eight, and ties with Cecil and Feral Chaos on having the most exclusive equipment.