Louis Vuitton gains +10 charisma by enlisting Final Fantasy’s Lightning

The overlap between Final Fantasy XIII fans and people who splash out on Louis Vuitton handbags might be a slim one, but modern marketing is all about exploiting those profitable niches. At least, that's the best explanation we can find for the appearance of FFXIII protagonist Lightning in a series of ads for the famed French fashion house. Louis Vuitton's creative director Nicolas Ghesquière has been posting shots from the upcoming Series 4 campaign on his Instagram account, including a video of Lightning wielding items from Louis Vuitton's Spring-Summer 2016 collection like they're capable of doing serious damage. (Which, with all those leather and chains, they probably are.)

Reality and fantasy become one : lightning a genuine heroine in the new @louisvuitton series 4 ad campaign

A video posted by (@nicolasghesquiere) on Dec 25, 2015 at 1:38pm PST

Lightning by tetsuya nomura and visual works of square enix for the new @louisvuitton ad campaign #LVSS16

A photo posted by (@nicolasghesquiere) on Dec 26, 2015 at 10:47am PST

It's not an unexpected collaboration though, as FFXIII characters (including Lightning) have already modeled for Prada in Japan and Ghesquière is a noted fan of digital worlds. The catwalk debut of Louis Vuitton's last collection was centered around the premise of exploring a virtual reality, with a heroine with suspiciously Lightning-like pink hair described in the show's notes as "initiating a quest, a heroic journey in which the protagonist gains strength every step of the way." Yep, sounds like Final Fantasy to us.