Lightning Becomes Cloud with Pre-order Bonus

We’ve all heard the jokes that Lightning is just Cloud with a change of hair colour and a slightly more feminine physique. Well, now it might be coming part of the Final Fantasy XIII canon…

If you pre-order Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, you’ll receive a bonus costume for Lightning. Along with Cloud’s famous uniform – complete with shoulder guard – you’ll also get the buster sword. For fans of the 1997 Final Fantasy classic, this is going to be a must if you’re picking up the next offline game in the franchise.

It was revealed in the last few months that Lightning would have a lot of costumes this time around, including one based on Yuna. Costumes won’t just be for show, but will actively shake up your stats, so you’ll need to swap and change clothing if you want to best utilize your moves against a given set of enemies.

There’s a very good chance this will be taken to general release at some point, as pre-order bonuses generally are. Square would be mad to leave this only to those who pre-order, especially as part of a franchise that so many people will be waiting on reviews for. Don’t expect to get it for free though, and if Final Fantasy XIII-2 is anything to go by, expect to spend more than perhaps it’s worth.

For those that absolutely want to see “Cloud” in a HD PS3 game your chance has almost come. The only alternative is to wait for Kingdom Hearts 3 to come out on PS4 and Xbox One, although you’re likely to be waiting a long, long while.