Lunafreya Nox Fleuret
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| Lunafreya Nox Fleuret | |
|---|---|
| Final Fantasy character | |
 Official CGI render of Lunafreya | |
| First appearance | Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV (2016) |
| First game | Final Fantasy XV (2016) |
| Created by | Hajime Tabata |
| Designed by | Yusuke Naora |
| Voiced by |
|
| Motion capture | Yumi Yoshitatsu (XV) Amanda Piery (Kingsglaive) |
Lunafreya Nox Fleuret (Japanese: ルナフレーナ・ノックス・フルーレ, Hepburn: Runafurēna Nokkusu Furūre; Lunafrena Nox Fleuret), "Luna" (ルーナ, Rūna) for short, is a character from the Final Fantasy video game series made by Square Enix. She is a central character in Final Fantasy XV (2016), originally a spin-off title called Final Fantasy Versus XIII, a prominent character in the game's associated media, and has made appearances in mobile projects within the Final Fantasy franchise. Lunafreya is the Oracle, a powerful figure in the game's world of Eos who communes with its deities, the Astrals. Originally engaged to main protagonist Noctis Lucis Caelum as part of a political marriage, she remotely helps Noctis's quest to become the True King of legend and save their world from darkness.
Lunafreya was created by director Hajime Tabata to replace another character, the similarly named Stella Nox Fleuret, during story rewrites between 2012 and 2014. She was designed by Yusuke Naora, with her design being influenced by Tabata's concept of a woman handling responsibilities from a young age. While voiced by Amy Shiels and Rina Kitagawa in the game, Lena Headey and Shioli Kutsuna voiced her in the film Kingsglaive (2016). Game journalists faulted her portrayal and limited role in the game, with Lunafreya often being mentioned as part of criticism surrounding the game's supporting cast. Her role in expanded media has likewise seen mixed reactions for her inconsistent portrayal.
Origins
Final Fantasy XV began production in 2006 as the spin-off game Final Fantasy Versus XIII for PlayStation 3; following a troubled production history, the game was rebranded, resulting in it changing platforms and staff, and seeing multiple story rewrites.[2][3] The original heroine of Versus XIII was Stella Nox Fleuret.[4] Stella was designed by the game's original director and character designer Tetsuya Nomura, first appearing in promotional media in 2007.[5] He wanted her to "stand out from all previous [Final Fantasy heroines]" as a character.[6]
The relationship between Stella and protagonist Noctis Lucis Caelum was meant to be platonic rather than romantic, as Nomura preferred portraying a different kind of relationship between male and female protagonists.[6] She was intended to be a very polite person, with that politeness conveyed through specific dialogue traits.[7] A key scene for Stella was the meeting and conversation with Noctis during the opening scenes.[8] During early parts of development, Stella could also wield magical powers in battle, and would have been forced into fighting Noctis.[9][10] Her powers were associated with Etro, a goddess in the Fabula Nova Crystallis subseries of which Versus XIII was a core part. The game later dropped the subseries's deities and terminology while maintaining thematic elements.[11][12]
During the transition from Versus XIII to XV during 2012 to 2014, which aimed to condense the story down into a single game rather than the planned series, the developers envisioned a different type of heroine which did not fit with Stella's original role.[13][14] Stella was already known to and expected by fans who had followed the game's development, which worried the team.[13] Redesigning Stella to play a more active role in the story was considered, but new director Hajime Tabata was uncomfortable about this.[14] Faced with the scenario of fans being disappointed if Stella's personality or role were changed, the developers instead opted to replace her entirely.[13] Her final appearance was in 2013 during the game's reveal under its new title.[5]
Development
Tabata created Lunafreya as a replacement heroine for the rewritten story, allowing the team to work without previous character constraints.[14] While Lunafreya was superficially similar and retained a connection to divine powers,[16][17] Stella's specific magical abilities were removed as they did not fit with the new character and reworked narrative.[9] During the design process, it was decided that Lunafreya would assume and accept responsibilities from a young age, putting her in direct contrast with Noctis; this required Lunafreya to be older than Noctis, which influenced elements of her character design.[15] According to Tabata, the relationship between Noctis and Lunafreya was not a typical love story despite their being engaged.[18] He also defined Lunafreya's personality as being stronger than either Stella or Noctis, attributing much of Noctis's development in the story to Lunafreya's influence.[15][17] The scene after her death where her spirit communicates with Noctis was created by staff as a homage to a scene featuring Aerith Gainsborough, a lead character in the earlier series entry Final Fantasy VII (1997).[19]
Lunafreya was designed by Yusuke Naora.[20] Her appearance was defined by Tabata as "strong and heroic", which would be conveyed by her expressions and actions. Lunafreya was designed to give off the look of a strong-willed woman. To achieve this, the designers focused on the shape of her eyes and mouth, blending her appearance in Final Fantasy XV with that in the film prequel Kingsglaive (2016) so she could project an air of grace and strength even when standing still. Her face needed to reflect a wide range of emotions born from her goals, which resulted in her expressions being "serious and somewhat sad".[15] Naora remembered Lunafreya as one of the hardest characters he had to design.[21] To convey Lunafreya's strong will and high-born status through her appearance, Naora consulted a professional hairstylist and makeup artist; the way makeup was applied to her eyes and mouth was changed accordingly, and her hairstyle was done to resemble "something that would require the assistance of a handmaiden". Care was taken not to make her too prim, so that players could relate more to her.[20] To maximize the character's realism, her hairstyle was first created using a mannequin's wig, then rendered into the game's Luminous Engine.[22] The wedding dress she is meant to wear for her marriage to Noctis was created by English fashion designer Vivienne Westwood for her 2014/15 couture collection.[23]
The game's Yoshitaka Amano-designed logo art, initially described as an important goddess in the game's world, was later described as a version of Lunafreya.[19][24] An early concept for the ending was Lunafreya appearing in a divine form modelled after the logo to lend Noctis her power during the final battle.[25] Noctis's Japanese voice actor, Tatsuhisa Suzuki, asked Tabata to include Noctis in the game's logo alongside Lunafreya. This idea was approved by the team when it was decided to include in the ending with Amano drawing the two characters together.[19] This combined logo was described as representing both the beginning of a new journey, and the game's development history.[26]
Portrayal
When creating Lunafreya, Tabata was conscious of parallels with Final Fantasy X protagonist Yuna, with his goal being to create an alternate take on the concept of a pious and determined woman.[19] Lunafreya was described by Kingsglaive director Takeshi Nozue as the "keystone" linking the narratives of Final Fantasy XV and its two larger multimedia supplements, Kingsglaive and the original net animation Brotherhood.[27] While she did not have an active role in Kingsglaive, her character strength was conveyed through a single-minded determination to reach her goal.[28] Lunafreya was used later as a model for the design of Aera Mirus Fleuret, an ancestress introduced in media relating the main antagonist Ardyn Izunia.[29]
Lunafreya is voiced by Rina Kitagawa in the Japanese version. She is voiced by Amy Shiels as an adult and Liliana Chomsky as a child for the English dub.[1] Shiels described the role as interesting due to the character's combined strength and vulnerability.[30] In Kingsglaive, the character is voiced by Shioli Kutsuna in Japanese and Lena Headey in English.[1] The voice casting in Kingsglaive, for both English and Japanese, focused on well-known actors to broaden the movie's appeal.[31] Kutsuna had never performed a voice role in a CGI film before, finding the experience unusual. She described Lunafreya as a strong and polite person, using that politeness to effectively deliver even more emotional or unusual lines.[32] She was the last to record her lines, basing some of her performances on the other actors' recordings.[33] Originally there were plans for both the film and game to share a voice cast, but these were scrapped.[34][35] Lunafreya's motion capture was performed by Yumi Yoshitatsu in XV, and Amanda Piery in Kingsglaive.[36][37] For her appearance in Kingsglaive, she was modelled on Russian model Sonya Maltceva.[37]
