Originally Posted by
ShinGundam
Yes. But all of those outfits still feature her increased breast size. And
here is an image showing several other outfits, one of which is a
ballgown which is out of character and terrible as battle wear. My point is that even a single skimpy outfit puts cracks in the positive steps that Square Enix have made when it comes to strong female characters that don't need to be hypersexualised in order to be popular/whatever.
Clearly they've been taking a little too many cues from the folks who worked on Dragon Quest VIII's Jessica. If the one outfit was
Viera based or
Rikku based, would that make it any less revealing and out of character? No, it would be stupid and it would undermine the fact that Lightning is a conservatively and appropriately dressed warrior.
I understand that "one outfit" is not a big deal. But do you also see that it's a series full of girls who have to dress slutty and have gigantic tits in order to be popular? I want to see a strong female character who doesn't have to be relegated to the eye candy department and have to have over the top "sex appeal" in order to be considered a good leading female.
Lightning can still be sexy and confident with her clothes on. Adding the Miqo'te outfit is not necessary - you could have added the
female hume starting outfit to get the same cross-over content without turning her into a smurfing cat girl who
leans forward, jiggly her tits, to celebrate a victory in battle. It's almost the smurfing same as Lulu, which Raistlin already highlighted in his sexism series.
The same thing goes both ways though. What would you think if they remade Final Fantasy VII and
made this an option for Cloud to wear? Does that fit with his SOLDIER 1ST CLASS personality? (I realise that his personality was stolen from Zack and he was only a Shinra guard but that's not the smurfing point.) By undermining the true strengths of the character and relying on sex appeal to try and gain favour, they have actually ruined everything that make Lightning a progressive female lead.
EDIT: Well, almost everything. If Lightning spends all her smurfing time thinking about boys, I will pack it in and quit Final Fantasy for good.