Square Enix Wants Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII to "Beat Skyrim"

"Ignored amid all the news of Lightning going from a C-cup to a D-cup in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (don't ask), director Motomu Toriyama and 'wilderness lead planner' Yui Umeda talked about how the game was meant to "beat Skyrim" (or "Sukairimu" as it's pronounced in Japan) in their interview with Famitsu.

"Seriously."

[-Gespenst-]

I'm looking forward to this game, and I'm not really a big fan of Skyrim, but they've got to be kidding.

[minimur12]

good luck.

[zeal0us]

Its good to be optimistic about your game but Motomu Toriyama and Yui Umeda is too optimistic.

Skyrim shipped 7million copies within the first week of its release and sold over 10million(reported in July 2012, doesn't include Steam or the Legendary edition sale figures).

Only when FF13 and 13-2 is combine do their sale figures come close to Skyrim, 9.6million (if you were wondering).

I could see FF13 along 13-2 and 13-3 selling more than Skyrim when you combine all three sale figures but for a single game, I doubt it.

Given that SE lost the trust of their hardcore fanbase(some not all) I doubt 13-3 will sell more than 13-2(~3m copies) or even close to what FF13(~6.6m copies) sold.

[ThanatosDMC]

I think they've become so blind that one eye popped out and ate the other eye.

[majiebeast]

Toriyama thinks his waifu will beat Skyrim thats cute.

When is Square Enix gonna take him behind the shed and put him out of our misery. If he directs FF16 they might aswell just kill off the entire Final Fantasy franchise so atleast it doesnt have to suffer again.

[blitz0623]

April 1 was 4 months ago

[Mainsqueeze]

This is why Square Enix is doing so bad lately, they have very unrealistic expectations and put unnecessary amounts of money into developing their games.

[guitarded77]

Post launch story title == Lightning Returns Didn't Meet Sales Expectations

[fermcr]

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII will beat Skyrim... in crappiness.

[Lovable]

Well at least we all know for a fact that it will be less buggy and definitely will be playable than Skyrim.

[gamertk421]

...on PS3. My Xbox 360 experience was smooth all the way through. My friend had a glitch, but that wasn't my problem!

[infamous-butcher]

gamertk421
Skyrim was buggy on PC as well as on consoles,
(that companion mission to get the axe was just broken)
Bethesda can make great games but badly.
SE just force bad games on us, but hopefully FF XV proves me wrong

[T2]

@gamertk - obvious troll is obvious... I only played skyrim, fallout on 360 and it was still buggy as hell. fallout your companion would just randomly die, people walking through walls, floating, horse would trip on a pebble and die, dragons would stick in the sky, etc.etc.etc... it was endless hilarity. save often!!

[levian]

It seems Square Enix has extremely unrealistic goals lately. Saying Tomb Raider didn't sell enough, and now they're expecting a THIRD part in a generally disliked series to outsell the legendary Elder Scrolls series newest game? I love you Final Fantasy, but you need a reality check.

On the other hand, its fully possible that Final Fantasy XV will be almost as big, if its as good as it looks. It doesn't have the stigma of 13 attached to it (which is probably why they made it a numbered game, instead of Versus 13)

[Darrius Cole]

Not happening.

[Majin-vegeta]

-
http://youtu.be/oAKG-kbKeIo

[Namikaze_Minato]

Good luck.

[Godmars290]

While its good to want things, you actually have to work towards such a goal.

Not just plop some steaming pile in front of someone, slap "FF" on it, and expect it to be eaten.

And by steaming pile I'm referring to the game's plot. From game play it may be worth playing, but by being based on two prior games who's stories were less than stellar and not really connected, there's no way this is either going to redeem them or stand on its own.

[bicfitness]

Game sounds like an absolute hot mess. Best summary I read on Neogaf was: "open world breast-enhancement simulator."

[ZeroX9876]

Wow! I don't know what they've been smoking lately, but it's working quite well if you ask me.

Not saying that no games can beat Skyrim either, but seeing the 2 last FF XIII titles, I highly doubt Lighting returns will be better than Skyrim. If they prove me wrong then good, but the chances for this to happen is quite low.

[Snookies12]

How would one go about comparing the XIII series and Skyrim anyway? They're totally different in nature...

[pr0t0typeknuckles]

i dont even like skyrim,but LMFAO,its not gonna happen,at least not with lightning,i dont hate lightning like everybody else but unless the game is a ff7 remake thats not gonna happen

[GreenRanger]

Square Enix are milk drinkers.

[kreate]

'Square Enix are milk drinkers.'

the fanboys are the drinkers, SE are the milkers.

[Sarick]

"the fanboys are the drinkers, SE are the milkers."

What about?

The customers are CASH cows and SE milks them.

[bicfitness]

Maybe he means "milk of the poppy", as in they're high on opium. I would agree with that.

[DragonKnight]

*facepalm* Milk drinkers is an insult that the Nords use to describe someone weak and pathetic. The idea is that mead drinkers are strong, milk drinkers are not.

[kreate]

a final fantasy 16 might be able to, but the 13 series would be hard to beat skyrim.

[blackstrr411]

Skyrim? No way.

[Cyb3r]

Two Worlds 2 maybe but Skyrim? I cant see it happening

[_QQ_]

.... so they are as blind as we thought.

[SpiralTear]

It probably won't, but whatever, Square...

[Tetsujin]

No

All jokes aside unless they mean "we have less glitches and memory issues" which then SE gets first place; other than that this looks like something die hards would play just to finish the story line, while others like me moved on to other games (currently Dragons Crown).

[r3f1cul]

how does a game like newer FF even compare to a Skyrim in the first place??? seriously Bethesda could shit out better product then FF now a days... just my opinion but i admit i go a lil over the top but its just due to the fact that i used to love FF now i cant stand to even think about it :(

[Dfooster]

They shouldn't be trying to best skyrim they should be trying to best FFVII

[LoveOfTheGame]

They did that a long time ago, granted they were still squaresoft or whatever their name was before Square Enix.

[Darrius Cole]

I would be satisfied if they just beat FFXIII.

[josephayal]

I must say I am hugely dissapointed with SquareEnix, FF13(all) is the worst game in the entire FF Series

[SpideySpeakz]

I consider them to be the worst RPG on current-gen point.

[fsfsxii]

They've been smoking the blue stuff
Yea... they'll beat Skyrim with bigger tits and how they got bigger is a DLC

[Heisenburger]

Yyyyyyeeeeaaaahhh b*tch!!

Lol sorry. I just finished an episode moments before reading that. ;)

Maybe they could beat vanilla Skyrim in production values? FF XIII & FFXIII-2 were absolutely gorgeous. They just weren't what I wanted personally.

Though I can at least say I tried. Lol

[Darrius Cole]

You mean graphics. There is more to production values than just the game being beautiful. That said, would say that the vanilla FFXIII had better production values than vanilla Skyrim.

[MrTrololo]

Haha beat Skyrim xDDDDDD were they on drug ?

[My_Name_BTW_Is_Dante]

Skyrim is the worst Elder Scrolls game that there is so it will be easy to beat it.

[MrTrololo]

haha you are even a worse troll than me bro

[Campy da Camper]

I have to agree with Dante. Skyrim was my least favorite Elder Scrolls. Oblivion and in particular Shivering Isles is my favorite. Skyrim had a cool world but when I drop to 10 fps in battle and fight the same dragon over and over and over it became a chore to finish.

[titans9999]

No f-----g way will it beat Skyrim! Final Fantasy games use to be unique back in the day, but they have lost touch with who they really are, and that is the REASON they will NEVER beat a game like Skyrim. I hate to say it because I loved the old FF games, but they are just not the same anymore.

[TheMutator]

looooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooool

[panbit86]

LOL LMFAO ROFL . . . omfg *crying* LOL LOL OMG... oh no they didn't! LOOOOOOOOOOL

[Williamson]

The gameplay in lightning returns looks really fun and interesting.

[titans9999]

Keep dreaming sucksoft! Haha haaaaaaaa!

[The_Truth_24_7]

Well FF13>Skyrim so I can see it happening.

[Thisisjuju]

"Final Fantasy XIII to "Beat Skyrim"

Not sure if they are trolling.

[No_Limit]

The headline is not outlandish qualify enough to be worthy of being on N4G.
It should be retitled: "Square Enix Wants to Shoot a Lightning Arrow to the Knee of Skyrim"

[leahcim]

WTF!!!

Squenix you know that´s impossible

the third entry of the worst Final Fantasy era to date cannot beat the bigger rpg out there by no means

[progaor2013]

ff xiv would be half that ff 15 will probly outdo skyrim maybe depedning how game is shown fans want it.

kingdom hearts 3 will be game to outsell skyrim by se its only game that has capability of doing so will it probly not in first week sales.

i know game that will outsell skyrim gta v thats no brainer there

[Pancit_Canton]

Lightning needs to get dragonbone literary.

[SpideySpeakz]

There's nothing special about FF13 that can compete with Skyrim. The last garbage SE released was even worst than the first one. No way will this be any better. The biggest difference between the two is, Skyrim developers actually took risk to create something that would change the genre. FF13 is watered-down, repetitive, and uninspiring horse poop.

[J@D]

I couldn't but laugh loud after read that... maybe XV but Lighting won't. Not now, not ever... fact.

Not even the Cloud, Yuna or any other outfit won't boost the game sales to that extend.

[chrispseuphoria]

With Lightning being the main character, not going to happen...

[CLOUD1983]

Did any1 else find completely out of place what Toriyama said? I mean they have lost it they don't know what they do & what they must do anymore.. SE make JRPGs & want to compete with Skyrim.. Some time ago they said that they want to surpass FFVII & now they forget that & their new target plan is to surpass a WRPG? The retardedness is over 9000! with those guys, if they succeed to surpass XIII-2 sales even for 50k copies they should be happy about it & not ask anything else.

[Kte]

A little funny for my taste lol

[DVAcme]

Squeenix is drinking the same Kool-Aid Capcom drank when they said they expected Dragon's Dogma to sell 10 million. 10 million is ROCKSTAR-level sales. Games like GTA and Red Dead Redemption.

[AceBlazer13]

Ffxv probably,kh 3 probably,ff 7 remake probably,ff xiii laughable.

[Kenshin_BATT0USAI]

And this is why you guys never make a profit.

[sarcastoid]

Well great, now we know SE's projections for game sales for this game. It's like they're purposefully sabotaging their game sales to justify going mobile.

[Mr-SellJack]

That's hard but lightning returns looks like a promising game for sure

[Funnymonkey013]

Keep dreaming SE that is all I have to say.

[minialex]

when i played skyrim, my thought was: this it what final fantasy should have become. maybe squarenix is trying to go that direction...

skyrim with turn base battles? i could play that!

[Mr_Luke]

Good luck

[Iceman_Nightmare]

Mission Impossible

[SolidDuck]

I consider 13 to be the worst final fantasy game by far, and the won't let it go. Nobody wants more lightning. At least the trailer to 15 looked cool, and that maybe some innovation was actually taking place.

[squallcloud9]

Well I played skyrim +300 hours and because of the time limit and everything else implemented in lightning returns I will be playing this game 0 hours.

[rextraordinaire]

Funniest thing I've read today! hahahahahaha

And I have that game pre-ordered. But this is just... A ridiculous claim.