14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at Square Enix working on Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII has explained why the main character has a big costume change at the beginning of the game, saying that her look is a big part of the story of the new Japanese role-playing game.
Lightning is working for the god Bhunivelze at the moment, trying to save the souls of the inhabitants of the game world before it brutally ends, and her costume is actually a uniform which shows the faithful that she has become a Liberator and that they can trust her.
Motomu Toriyama, a producer working on Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, tells Famitsu, as translated by Siliconera, that, “We got Nomura to design Lightning for what will be her last fight. We asked him to represent her with the word ‘strength’ as the focus.”
He adds, “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.”
Some fans of the Final Fantasy XIII concept are worried about Lightning’s new look, but the development team says that all gamers will be able to customize her outfits and her armor in any way they see fit.
The new game will use an improved combat system, designed specifically to allow gamers to feel more involved in the fights without taking anything away from the spectacle that Final Fantasy is known for.
Lightning Returns will be the last chapter in the long-running Final Fantasy XIII saga.
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII will be launched on the PlayStation 3 from Sony and the Xbox 360 from Microsoft during 2013, presumably in Japan first and then on Western markets.