Wasn't feeling it at first, but I'm startin' to appreciate the sheer audacity of us playin' dress-up!Barret in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Alternate outfits, also known as alternate costumes—frequently shortened to alt outfit or alt costume—are a recurring gameplay feature in the Final Fantasy series that allows the player to change a character's appearance. The effect this has on gameplay can vary—at times changing appearance has been an integral part of the gameplay, other times it is merely a cosmetic change. In some games, job system changes the characters' appearance to the job they equip. In some games, such as Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light and some Crystal Chronicles games, normal equipment pieces change the party's appearance in both the field and in battle. The ability to customize characters' appearance has become more common in modern games. For games that have character creation, the player can often customize their character outright.
Appearances
Final Fantasy
The rat's tail can be given to Bahamut and upon doing so, he will bless the player party by upgrading their jobs, altering their appearance permanently.
Final Fantasy III
The main characters' outfits change depending on their job.
Final Fantasy IV
In the process of transforming from a dark knight into a paladin, Cecil undergoes a complete outfit change. Similarly, Rydia, upon returning to the party as an adult, wears a new outfit.
Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
Kain appears as the Hooded Man and rescues Ceodore near Mysidia after the Red Wings airship crashes.
Final Fantasy V
In battle, the appearance of the main characters depends on their job, and each party member has a unique outfit for every job.
Final Fantasy VI
While escaping South Figaro under the control of the Gestahlian Empire, Locke can don disguises to move around town. By using the Steal command on cadets and merchants, he can steal their clothes and disguise himself as a soldier or a merchant. Depending on his current supplies, NPCs will react differently and may allow Locke access to different parts of town. Upon entering the area where Celes is being held captive, the player will be prompted to remove their disguise or leave it intact, but Locke will remove any disguise he is wearing anyway when Celes is recruited. Using the bypass event glitch it is possible to leave South Figaro with Locke still in disguise, allowing him to retain his disguise for the rest of the game.
Celes herself must change into an opera gown when called upon to substitute in Opera "Maria and Draco".
At the player's discretion, Gau's sidequest in the World of Ruin has the entire party trying to tame him, to comical effect. A debate over what would be appropriate attire turns chaotic, but the party does find a suit for him. Gau is never seen in this suit apart from getting reacquainted with his father.
Strago and Relm can equip the moogle suit, which alters their sprite into a moogle during battle.
Final Fantasy VII
Cloud, Aeris, and Tifa have "Wall Market outfits" for infiltrating Don Corneo's mansion in "To Corneo Hall". Doing the quest is part of the main story, and the player can't participate in battle, leave Sector 6 or visit the Honey Bee Inn when Cloud is disguised as a woman. Cloud also disguises himself as a Shinra infantryman during the Junon parade in "The Stowaway Strategy", and the rest of the party follows suit to disguise themselves to stow away on the cargo ship. Some characters seen in flashbacks also had different appearances when they were younger: Cloud, Aeris, Tifa, Barret, and Vincent.
Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-
Zack Fair has five appearances that change depending on the progress in the story. A 2nd class appearance with his initial hairstyle, a 1st class appearance with his initial hair style, a 1st class appearance with his new hair style, a swimwear outfit, and a bloodied 1st class appearance with his new hair style. Zack's swimwear attire also appears during certain missions.
Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis
A number of alternate outfits known as gear are available for all current characters, with each modifying at least two stats specific to each character. Gear is acquired as follows:
- Storyline.
- Blackout a bingo card.
- Collect a full 12 stamps on any of the first two cards during a draw. Optionally, redeem a gear voucher exclusive to said draw.
- Purchase a loot crate or pass that includes a gear voucher, then redeem the gear voucher at the shop.
Final Fantasy VII Remake
Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith all have three options for the dress to wear to the Audition at Don Corneo's mansion. The player's actions throughout the game determine which garment each wears, but the effect has no impact on gameplay other than the scene where Aerith is introduced after her makeover.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Cloud, Barret, Tifa, Aerith, Red XIII, Yuffie, and Cait Sith all have alternate outfits at different points of the game. These outfits can be switched between in Costa del Sol.
During chapter 4, "Dawn of a New Era", Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith dress in Shinra infantry fatigues while in Junon while Barret dons a sailor's outfit to pose as a dock worker. In chapter 6, "Fool's Paradise", Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith have options for beachwear, while Barret wears his sailor outfit and Yuffie has her own. Later, in the Gold Saucer, party members have different outfits for the Loveless scene.
Final Fantasy VII The First Soldier
SOLDIER candidates' gear could be customised with gear obtained from the shop, battle pass, or events.
Final Fantasy VIII
The party members who attend Balamb Garden have three outfits: their casual attire that is their default look, a cadet uniform, and a SeeD uniform. The SeeD uniform is only worn for the SeeD inauguration ball as part of the story, besides Quistis Trepe, who wears it when she is teaching and never wears the cadet uniform. The SeeD uniform never appears in battle. Rinoa Heartilly has a white party dress she wears to the inauguration ball and to the Garden Festival at Fishermans Horizon. Edea Kramer also has two attires: the sorceress attire, and the dress of a matron. The party of Selphie and two others explore the Missile Base dressed in Galbadian uniforms. Laguna Loire's party also dress differently depending on when they are met in the story: while in the G-Army they wear the Galbadian uniforms, but later on dress casually, and even later adopt Estharian outfits. Laguna also wears a knight's armor for one scene and various characters wear space suits while in Lunar Base. The only playable character never seen in a different outfit is Seifer Almasy, although he is seen as a child among the other party members in flashbacks, and his trench coat becomes torn toward the end of the game.
Final Fantasy IX
Garnet Til Alexandros XVII is seen in three outfits: her formal dress, and her orange jumpsuit with or without a white mage's hooded cape. Zidane wears a black hooded cape in the ending sequence. Though not attire, playable party members and Kuja also have Trance forms, which alter their appearances.
Garnet appears with short hair after a point in the game and appears with a different portrait. Zidane Tribal and Blank steal Knights of Pluto uniforms, and Blank appears in the first battle against Steiner wearing his.
Final Fantasy X
Rikku is introduced wearing a diving suit, but later discards it and wears her normal clothes for the rest of the game. Yuna and Seymour Guado also wear wedding attire for a scene, while Auron wears a Yevonite warrior outfit in flashbacks.
Final Fantasy X-2
The dressphere system allows the Gullwings (Yuna, Rikku, and Paine) to take on different skillsets by changing their outfits. The Gullwings only change their outfits in battles and certain story events; the player cannot change the outfits they wear on the field map. Other characters can also use dresspheres, but the player cannot manually change their outfits.
Final Fantasy XI
Player characters can wear different gear, affecting the visuals of the character's outfit. Additionally, using the Style Lock commands, players can change the appearance of their gear.
Final Fantasy XIII
There is no costume system, but Snow Villiers can wear a "different" coat if the emblem from the back of his trench coat is rendered outside of battle via glitch.
Final Fantasy XIII-2
Serah, Noel, and Mog, can change outfits for cosmetic differences but no impact on gameplay. Costumes are downloadable content, variably either as pre-order bonuses and/or requiring the player to purchase them. Furthermore, the player can accessorize their Paradigm Pack with adornments.
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII
The Schema system allows Lightning to change garbs in battle to change up her stats and abilities. She can equip up to three garbs at a time and change between them in battle. Outside of battle, the player can wear any garb any explore the overworld in it. Garbs can be acquired in-game in a variety of ways, while others are only available as DLC, and two—the garments Lightning wore in the two previous entries in the Lightning Saga—are unlocked by having save data for those games on the player's console. The player can also accessorize Lightning with adornments.
Lightning has a different outfit for the epilogue scene, one she never wears as a garb.
Final Fantasy XIV
Player characters can change their equipment which is represented visually on the character. While most high-level equipment is exclusive to specific classes or jobs, using the glamour system, players can apply the appearance of any piece of equipment onto another piece, barring weapons or tools that fall into different classifications.
Reaching level 80, 90, and 100 with Trust avatars unlocks alternate costumes for them, including summer-themed outfits.
In the legacy version, the players could also change their undergarments and belts. These parts were removed in A Realm Reborn.
Final Fantasy XV
The main four party members can change outfits in the menu. Depending on the outfit worn, stat boosts may be applied to them. The player only has access to three outfits for the group at the onset, but can find additional ones during play. Outfits can also be acquired as DLC and pre-order bonuses, including special costumes for Gladiolus, Prompto, and Ignis, by downloading and completing their individual DLC episodes.
Noctis also appears in sleepwear that is his normal outfit without the jacket and shoes. Various characters undergo visual changes as the plot progresses, such as Ignis from chapter 10 onward, and everyone in chapter 14.
Final Fantasy XVI
Clive Rosfield's outfits change as the story advances, during his younger years, as a Branded Soldier, and as an outlaw. Other characters who also change their outfit as part of the story include Jill Warrick and Joshua Rosfield, and Torgal also has an alternate look.
A free update for the game lets the player change Clive, Jill, Joshua, Torgal, and Ambrosia to alternate appearances.
Final Fantasy Tactics
Generic units change their appearance depending on their current job, and each unit has a unique outfit and portrait for every job. Enemy generic units can be of attire colors that the player cannot use, and if the player recruits these units, their colors will change to those of generic units.
Ramza's appearance changes three times, gaining additional squire abilities with each transformation. In The Ivalice Chronicles, the player can change the color of his outfit in the menu if they own the DLC. Delita's appearance also changes three times; however, he changes jobs with each change. Reis begins as a holy dragon, and changes to a dragonkin after her curse is lifted. In the PSP version, Argath starts out as a squire, but later returns as a deathknight.
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Generic units change their appearance depending on their current job, and each unit has a unique outfit and portrait for every job.
Marche Radiuju, Doned Radiuju, Ritz Malheur, Mewt Randell, and Cid Randell all start out in casual clothes, and after being transported to Ivalice their clothes alters to fit the new surrounding.
Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift
Generic units change their appearance depending on their current job, and each unit has a unique outfit and portrait for every job. Luso Clemens first starts out in casual clothes, and later changes into new clothing to fit his new surrounding.
Final Fantasy Type-0
All fourteen members of Class Zero can change uniforms in the menu for cosmetic differences, with each set unlocked under different conditions. The HD version allows all uniform sets to be unlocked in-game and features an exclusive set, the resplendent garb.
If Machina Kunagiri has his l'Cie status activated, he will appear in his Incognitus outfit.
Dissidia Final Fantasy (2008)
The player can purchase alternate outfits for their character in the PP Catalog. Each character has a single alternate outfit to purchase and wear. These outfits are merely cosmetic and serve no purpose in gameplay, and cannot be used in story modes.
Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy
Alternate outfits are available in the PP Catalog, with all characters having two alternate outfits by default save for Feral Chaos, who has one. They serve no gameplay purpose, but are used in story mode to show characters in other cycles of the war—for instance, Tidus and Jecht wear their new alt 2 outfits in the 12th cycle. Despite this, none of the costumes can be used in story modes, and the player never has an opportunity to play as a character wearing an alternate outfit in a storyline battle.
Additional costumes can be purchased as downloadable content. These outfits are designated "DLC" and then a numerical value. Through hacking it is hypothetically possible to assign any character multiple DLC outfits, up to 10—however, no character was given more than one.
Dissidia Final Fantasy -Arcade- and Dissidia Final Fantasy NT
Each character has two alternate outfits in addition to their default outfit and each outfit has two alternate color schemes in addition to the default coloration. These outfits are for aesthetic purposes only and have no effect in battle. Characters are also able to change their equipped weapon in battle independently of their outfit.
Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia
Various costumes could be purchased for the player's use with certain premium packages as they were released; each was available for a limited time. While their sole function was to change a unit's appearance and their avatar, community events sometimes offered greater point rewards if participating players were using units in costume.
Although Cecil obtained both of his signature outfits in the course of the story, these were treated as separate and mutually exclusive units—that is, the player could not deploy both in the same party. The same logic applied to Yda and Lyse, as the two units were one and the same, just as they were in Final Fantasy XIV.
Since the event Taking the Gods' Stage was released early in the global version, Yuna's costume was the first to be offered.
Dissidia Duellum Final Fantasy
In this title, each playable character has a "classic" look based on their in-universe appearances, and a "modern" look representing how they would dress in the real world. Each pair of outfits is recolored twice, for a total of three sets of outfits (prime, Alpha, and Beta). When a character is drawn, they may appear in any of their six available outfits, which appear in battle, on the home screen, and in profile cards. The character's role in battle does not change, but the character can only use an outfit that they have in their inventory. In the event that the player draws a character whose outfit(s) are already owned, the excess outfits are converted into Job Medals.
Final Fantasy Record Keeper
Wardrobe Records allow the player to change their characters' outfits for aesthetic purposes, which have no impact on battle. Some characters are shown changing into alternate outfits for their Soul Breaks; Cloud, for instance, will change into his "Cloudy Wolf" attire from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children when using Cloud Cycle, regardless of his current outfit.
Final Fantasy Brave Exvius
Each of the standard characters had at least one alternate costume. However, the player could not change costumes at will; the alternates appeared as separate visions, each with their own stats, skills, and unit ID numbers.
Mobius Final Fantasy
Wol and Meia could wear any number of outfits, depending on the active job in a given deck. Each job carried a set of personality traits and lines that both would occasionally exhibit and utter. Meia could accessorize her job attire with cosmetic add-ons won from gacha or delivered as gifts; including eyeglasses, hairpieces, and clothing ornaments.
The same applied to the player's Echo, whose entire form and personality changed according to her outfit.
Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin
Gear equipped on Jack and his party is visually be reflected on them. Added with an update is the ability for players to set a preset outfit as an appearance while equipping other gear, keeping the appearance of one set of gear.
Non-Final Fantasy guest appearances
Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring
Cloud Strife and Zack both have a 2nd Class SOLDIER uniform as an alternate outfit, and Cloud additionally has a Shinra infantry uniform as an unlockable costume. Tifa Lockhart's first alternate costume is based on her Yoshitaka Amano artwork, and an unlockable costume depicts her in her cowgirl outfit from the time she served as a guide in Nibelheim. Sephiroth's alternate costume is his jacketless appearance seen in the final battle against Cloud in Final Fantasy VII. Yuffie Kisaragi's alternate costume is a palette swap based on an early concept color scheme for Final Fantasy VII. Vincent Valentine's alternate costume is the Turk suit (which also has its own portrait).
Adventures of Mana
The 2016 remake of Final Fantasy Adventure has one alternate outfit available, based on the paladin class of later games. For Sumo to replace his usual red armor with a platinum silver set, the player can enter the phrase "knight for a day" at the password prompt in an item, weapon, or armor shop.
Tekken series
Players can modify Noctis' appearance in Tekken 7: hairstyle, hair accessory, glasses, entire body, upper accessory, lower accessory, effects, aura, mirroring, and character panel. Named outfits are: Casual Outfit, Royal Raiment, Choco-Mog Style, Fighting King's Raiment, Metallic, and Kingly Raiment.
In Tekken 8, players can customize Clive's appearance to a greater degree.
Super Smash Bros. Series
There are 8 alternate costumes for Cloud Strife and Sephiroth in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, Super Smashg Bros. for Wii U, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Most are color palettes subtly referencing other characters within the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, though four of Cloud Strife's costumes replace his model from his appearance from Final Fantasy VII to his appearance in the film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, and two costumes from Sephiroth replace his model with a shirtless version during the final battle of that game. In Ultimate, if Cloud uses his Final Smash while in his Advent Children costume, it will turn into Omnislash Version 5 from the final battle of Advent Children, though is mostly an aesthetic change.