Final Fantasy has never been a franchise to shy away from giving their characters revealing outfits. Many of its female characters (Rikku (‘FFX’), Fran (‘FFXII’), Cindy (‘FFXV’)) are dressed in little more than bikini tops and short shorts, and while they have previously given some of their male characters similar outfits (Vaan (‘FFXII’), Gladio (‘FFXV’), the fanservice has generally been more favored, and more obvious, towards their female characters.

‘Mobius Final Fantasy’ (previously ‘Mevius Final Fantasy’), an upcoming mobile game from Square Enix, was going to give players their own scantily clad male protagonist in a rather nice change of pace. That is, until they changed their minds.

Square Enix held a presentation where they revealed that Wal, the protagonist, has gone through a costume change in order to make him “less sexy” (the conversation begins around 29 minutes in, gameplay 36 minutes, though its all in Japanese).

‘Mobius’ will have a job class system that is similar to ‘FFXIII: Lightning Returns,’ ‘FFX-2,’ and ‘FFIII’ – this will allow players to change the character’s job to a variety of different categories (such as mage or warrior), and with each new job comes a different outfit. The outfit under fire is the one the player starts off with, Onion Knight, which left huge slits of Wal’s sides and back exposed.

In Rocket News 24’s article about the presentation they provided some English translations:

“After we released the screenshots in December, we looked at the various reactions we were getting online,” said the game’s producer Yoshinori Kitase, “and in the end, showing this much skin . . . ”

“It’s kind of sexy . . . ” said Asuna, the sole female presenter. “A little too sexy.”

Now, Wal’s starting outfit covers his entire torso and hips. His back is still exposed (probably to show off his tattoos), but if you were hoping for a ‘sexily’ dressed protagonist, then you might be disappointed.

Not everyone at the presentation was happy about the change – project leader Naoki Hamaguchi and managing producer Hiroki Okayama both protested the loss of the old outfit, saying “But I want that naked outfit,” and “He looks like a model . . . You can see the body line of his lower back and hips.”

Since the change came from a desire to make the audience happy, Kitase added that the outfit could be changed: “If enough people say they like those hiplines, then we might bring the original costume back.”

For now, ‘Mobius Final Fantasy’ is only planned to be released in Japan on the Android and iPhone. On its website, Kitase says “A new era of gaming is here…We’re crafting a full-scale, high-quality RPG world the likes of which has never been seen on smartphones and tablets.”

You can check out trailer (featuring Wal is his original ‘sexy’ outfit) here: