It’s not simply because the colour looks cool. Or because the characters hate pastels.
On the Final Fantasy XV forums, the game’s director Hajime Tabata answered a question as to why all four characters were in black. Here’s Tabata’s explanation:
The clothing worn by the four main characters is the official battle gear of the Kingdom of Lucis.
Noctis is a member of the royal family and the other three characters are parts of various Lucian national organisations and they are each wearing the specific battle dress relevant to their individual stations.
In the Kingdom of Lucis where our heroes reside, the colour black has historically been treated as a special colour. Because of this, the attire of the royal family and those in occupations closely tied to them are unified by having black as a base colouring. This part of the lore is the reason why the outfits of all four main characters are black. For the finished game we also intend on having their clothing having effects in battle and not just being a part of the world and its background.
And here I was, thinking these dudes were the biggest Johnny Cash fans in the Kingdom of Lucis!
Comments
16 responses to “The Reason Why Final Fantasy XV’s Main Characters Wear Black”
Doesnt make it any less corny. They are the lamest jpop looking characters I’ve seen in a JRPG for a long time.
Are they mourning the loss of Square as a serious contender in the JRPG scene?
I think you mean, morning the loss of the entire JRPG scene.
Hyperbole.
Sorry.
“I think you mean, morning the loss of anyone giving a shit about the JRPG scene anymore.”
Better?
I dont see high budget JRPGs as sustainable anymore, nobody is innovating and they all seem to have the worst stories and poorly written generic characters I’ve ever seen.
And yet anime is popular for that reason…
Isn’t it more likely that they wear black because the character designers thought it looked cool, and then the convoluted explanation came second?
Given Square’s history with colourful scenes and costumes in previous Final Fantasy games, I’m inclined to believe their explanation. Most designers I know would be screaming to let them add some colour to the character, damnit!
And we have a winner.
Though I have to admit I do love watching developers trying to make people believe their ridiculous reasoning came first… Especially when it’s almost completely unnecessary and they could have just said, “We liked it that way.” in the first place.
Their “battle gear” looks like band shirts.
HAHA yeah I would have believed it more if the developer said that these guys were bikers and these were their uniforms, but not official battle attire for a nation.
Should’ve been sporting black string bikini and stockings then give it an over convoluted back story.
Interesting…
Drill Sergeant: All right maggots this is your uniform, a leather jacket and a pair of black Cargo pants! You will wear this jacket open and shirtless at all times! You will maintain a six pack at all times! Am I understood!
Recruits: YES DRILL SERGEANT.
I thought it was because they came from Melbourne?
Really. Because they look like a Da Sound Machine tribute band.
So basically they wear black because someone decided black was the colour they wear?