Nova Crystallis

Classic white mage + plate armor + big shield = amazing paladin!
Body suit = eeeeeeeh?!

Am I the only one who thinks the art direction of the FFXIII-series is all over the place?
It went from a good basis technological versus nature style in the first, then to a “Let’s dress up Serah in really short skirts and 70′s bodysuits for no reason” and now.. to an armor meets body suit meets white mage?

I’m reeeeally anxious to see this new outfit, because.. yikes.

Don’t be surprised if you see her in a shiny magical girl outfit, because, yes, Japan.

Nothing wrong with that either! Considering what kind of outfits have been created in the past.

Im very scared that some of her costumes will turn into another X-2 situation….please dont make her a slut !!!!

I agree. Lightning is a strong and resillient character, and her design should reflect that. It should not be a contest to see how small a costume they can get away with. They barely had anything to cover her crotch in XIII-2, and I’m a bit nervous as to what else they can come up with.

Yup. They’re called “Styles” I believe. They affect her roles in battle, but that’s as far as I know.

They covered it enough. I think you need to look at her outfit again.

Doesn’t seem like they would, with how important it is to your abilities. I would imagine the reason her default outfit contains so many thematic elements is they want her to start off with well-rounded stats and abilities, allowing you to make your own specialization choices later.

Looked again. Covered by a loincloth and a pair of panties. I was wrong.. obviously! To war, Claire! Mind your bikini line!

Those are not panties. Look again, lol. It’s clear over-exaggeration it seems. She’s covering a lot more like Ehren states. There are also her leggings further down.

There’s apparently another image here:
http://storage.siliconera.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/ff13r.jpg

Although it’s weird that the gloves seem to have changed from red to black between them… The sword and shield seem different/more detailed in this one, too.

Ohh, thanks. Jump scan should leak out by tomorrow hopefully.

That’s true, of course. I forgot they had other artists working on Serah’s outfits in the previous.

And my frustration was more aimed at the fact that there didn’t seem to be a consistent design-direction within the series, not specific types of costumes. Though, the design direction might have been clearer in 13 because of the clear seperation of Cocoon (high-tech) and Pulse (primitive cloth designs), whereas in 13-2 everything was jumbled up, and Serah went from a her 13 outfit to a.70′s sports outfit. It’s not so much that I find it revealing as the fact that – to me – it seemed inconsistent with the overall design of the world. She just seemed out of place, just as I think Lightnings valkyrie armor seemed. I mean, she was the only one in the entire game to wear plate armor. Sure, it was designed by etro, so one could say it was of her design “style”, but Etro also gifted Serah her 70′s outfit.

To me it just seemed too chaotic. Art is subjective, of course.

That outfit does not look comfortable to move around in…but it looks cool, at least.

It’s not about the amount of skin shown, it’s the areas. And a miniskirt shows of less than a pair of panties. Furthermore, I agree that elegance and strength doesn’t mean covering up your body. Look at her 13 outfit. Her jacket emulated an officers jacket, her shoulder armor was also taken from the PSICOM units, which made her image even more powerful. She might have had a miniskirt, but it didn’t dominate her “look”. It was elegant, feminine but powerful.

Her valkyrie armor felt – to me – too random. The armor was most likely drawn from the holy knight idea (hence valkyrie of course), but due to the uniqueness of the heavy plate armor, she felt disconnected from the entire game. Even her colour scheme did not match Valhalla, so even the place her outfit was “born from” didn’t connect with her.
Due to this I found that her design had no strength to draw from. She was just Lightning in armor with holes in odd places, with the very small cloth covering her lady parts just one little annoyance more. I have no hate towards revealing outfits (if done with style), but to me it just seemed too random and not well planned in 13-2.

But no matter, that is not the essence of my dislike for the design. As stated in an earlier post, it is the artistic inconsistencies within the series I am more concerned with, and I feel it is important for a game to have a strong sense of art direction to be memorable, and for the characters to feel integrated.

All this is subjective, of course. But my gripe has never been about “ew boobs”, but instead that I really felt it was a weak design with too many flaws.

Cool, where’s Versus?

She has shorts underneath lol. Not to mention wearing pants hinders flexibility/movability.

Lightning hasnt been covered up too much or too little, so far. I have been very happy with her costumes, I just want to continue to be happy with em

if read previous update and details,this games features dress concept..which is like paradigm but this ones involved dress part ex… head,mid,low part of body dress..it might be like kamen rider ooo concept ….from this tetsuya nomura design, probably upper part is white mage,mid part is maybe knight which is she wear black armour and lower part might be thief?so she has knigth or paladin probably, white magic and thief abilities with this combination and its seems balanced in all aspect maybe… also probably be used as main combination …other dress design might be included other ff jobs like black mage and others …there are might be completed suit form also… just my guess