Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII: Tetsuya Nomura Explains Lightning’s New Outfit

If you’ve paid any attention whatsoever to the character designs over the past few Final Fantasy games, you’d have noticed the relative demure aesthetics worn by the games’ protagonist, Lightning, who first sported a trendy white military jacket in Final Fantasy XIII. She later changed into an armored suit with a skirt of feathers, which looks very much like how one would imagine a Valkyrie to look like. 

Lately however, she’s been sporting a light black leather corset and body suit which looks quite a bit different from her previous outfits. Her new looks come at the request of the lead designers at Square Enix, who handed out the basic order to the game’s character designer, Tetsuya Nomura, to fashion something after a leather body suit. Nomura revealed this in an interview this week with Famitsu. 

Her pauldrons and gauntlets are fashioned after a spinal column, but her arm-length buckler and sunglasses were added to infuse both futuristic and medieval aesthetics. 

In contrast to Lightning, the game’s other revealed character, Lumina, was designed by Toshiyuki Itahana, who designed the characters in Final Fantasy IX. The same artist is also responsible for the other outfits that Lightning will sport in the upcoming game, though images of those have yet to be revealed.