Lightning Is On A Mission For God In Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

Gunblade, check. New outfit, check. Sunglasses, check. Lightning is on a mission from God… a Fabula Nova Crystallis god, that is. This time, she’s serving as a “Liberator” in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, with the role of saving the souls of everyone around her.

In a recent Famitsu interview with key developers, Motomu Toriyama, Yoshinori Kitase and Yuji Abe, we learn more about Lightning’s role in the next Final Fantasy XIII game. Lightning will be the center of the story this time around, so you can expect a satisfying finale on her part, they say.


This third installment of the series is still an expansion to the ever growing world of Final Fantasy XIII. Square Enix wanted to keep the idea of Lightning appearing in all three games, while changing the styles to keep things fresh. After considering her resurrection as the main focus, they decided to name the latest project Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII instead of Final Fantasy XIII-3.

Now on the subject of Lightning being a “Liberator”. You might be asking yourself, what exactly is a Liberator?

To put it simply, the world is going to end in 13 days, and a new world will be born after that. The Liberator’s job is to help Bhunivelze, a Fabula Nova Crystallis god, in helping souls transfer to the new world. Lightning’s new outfit was also given to her by Bhunivelze, as Liberator attire.

Director, Motomu Toriyama, explains: “We got [Tetsuya] Nomura to design Lightning for what will be her last fight. We asked him to represent her with the word ‘strength’ as the focus. Red and white were the dominant colors that represented Final Fantasy XIII, with that in consideration, I believe that the color red symbolizes strength better than any other. In the end, we decided to go half white and red for Lightning’s color scheme.”