That says someone with the name 'blaydcor' =p.

Anyway good thing then your gaming fund is empty ;).

Hilaroius; I'm not cheaply angling for mass-appeal to a bunch of losers with a mid-teens mentality who need scantily clad women, "bad ass" weapons, and "cool" names to make a game vicarous enough for them to enjoy.

I'm not criticizing you, just the (partially) imaginary demographic that Square Enix seems to think "Lightning" and a female Cloud will be so appealing to. And thanks to some other people in the thread I'm starting to realize that maybe Square Enix is more spot on than I thought.

It's a little cheesy, I think.
And, it's makes her remind of the much cooler Flash. Flash Gordon.

Lightning is generic, not all that bad, there are far worse names for videogame characters (hell, solid snake is a pretty bad name but people have gotten used to it or just haven't figured it out).

I doubt names have anything to do with game results. "Master Chief" isn't exactly a name but that doesn't stop Halo from selling millions :p

even worse than Cait Sith, and isn't Lightning just her code name? I remember hearing that it's not her real name

EDIT: whoops you already mentioned that

Cloud?

It is inferior to Cloud for several reasons:
a) The name Cloud is not trying to sound cool

b) Single-syllable names (followed by meaningful last names) are ideal for main characters (for pop-media purposes like video games). I'm not making this up, there are literally essays on the subject. Cloud, being simplistic, works fairly well.

c) 'Cloud' does not invoke strong associations or imagery: the idea of a cloud is a pretty passive one. Lightning, on the other hand, has all kinds of connotations: it is more a "stronger" word than cloud and thus has more of its own identity

d)Lighting is obviously derivative of Cloud, making it, by definition, even lamer.

All that being said, Cloud ain't that great of a name either.

No, of course not. But Final Fantasies are character driven, and it's hard to feel too affectionate for a character named "Lightning". Since you don't seem to think it's that bad, imagine if the main character of a game you were anticipating was named "Intestine". It predisposes you to disliking the character, making the writers' job of making me connect with and like the character that much harder. So it will, albeit not much, affect my experience.

I'm more dissapointed with the combination of the names Lightning and Snow, I also found it odd how Snow's summon was Shiva, yet Lightning's isn't Ramuh