It's a fact that uniforms are a big part of games. It doesn't matter if the team you're playing on are the Zanarkand Abes from Final Fantasy X, a team from the NHL, NFL, or NBL, or the outfit of a military unit, either real or fictional. Specifically, though, I got to wondering about military uniforms of fictional military units. It happened while
I was settling down to play Final Fantasy Seven: Dirge of Cereberus. There was
Vincent, running this way and that, being the bad ass that we all know him to be. There
in front of him advanced a line of DeepGround soldiers, machine guns held in hand, and
firing at our dark and brooding hero. Amidst the flashes from the barrels, the piercing
reports of the weapons, and Vincent's red cloak flapping behind him; I noticed one thing
that struck me as odd.
Two male DeepGround soldiers. Boots, pants, uniform tunic, weird looking helmet..nothing
new there. 1, 2, 3….waitttt a minute. The female soldier had her digitally shaped legs
bare all the way up to her hips practically. I pondered the military reason for this. Are
they all trained to be extremely good kickers and any cloth from the thighs on down
lessens their effectiveness? It was either cover their legs with cloth or get those
snazzy helicopters?
Certainly the people in the WRO(World Regenesis Organization), while being equal opportunity, did not make their female recruits dress like Military Barbie. This may indicate that I have wandering eyes and too much time on my hands, but consider it.
What's the morale here? Is it a commentary that giving the females in the organization
racy uniforms somehow reflects on their badness of spirit, while the young, earnest, and
dedicated members of the WRO choose function over form? Scarlet's outfit from FF7 would
seem to support this thesis. I still have nightmares about it.
That could be it, or perhaps it is the single nod to fanservice that has shown up in the
game thus far. Thinking about it now I think that any FF game..well, the one's that I've
played, have had one female character who wears an outfit designed to be ogled over. You
can pick one for yourselves, but below is just my list of examples.
FF7-Tifa.Nuff said.
FF8-Selphie's short skirt of doom.
FF9-Let's see..Dagger is 16, so I really can't talk about her..and Kuja..no, I'm leaving
that one alone.
FFX-Lulu.I mean, just look at her!
FFX-2: Still Lulu. Sorry, Paine, but while you are dark and brooding you lack the
tremendous cleavage Lulu brought to bear.
FFXI-The Mithra. Well, okay, and the Hume women, but more so the Mithra.
It should be noted that all of the above are the good guys..or good
girls..women..catgirls..carbon based lifeforms of a female persuasion? Well, except Kuja.
I don't know what that was all about. So, at the end, I guess have to remove all moral
examinations from my argument and put it down to fanservice which, it seems, there must
always be some.
Nick McCavitt at nmccavitt@forumwizard.net