Good Smile: Noctis Lucius Caelum (FFXV)
- Onyx
- 33 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Alright! Been looking forward to this one ever since I saw that Square Enix was licensing some characters to be done by another company through statues! I'm pretty excited for this piece! So without further ado, let's check out the Prince of Lucis in his brand new statue!
The box is not only aesthetically pleasing, but it also does a great job protecting the figure inside. I especially love how it opens like a book, revealing the Noctis statue along with some more awesome artwork on the inside.
Properly encased and protected! There is a small amount of assembly required, but nothing that will inconvenience you.
Noctis Lucis Caelum is the protagonist of FFXV, formerly of FFXIII-Versus. To this day, I'm still longing for the Noctis we didn't get, and while I grew to admire the FFXV Noctis that we got, there's still that longing feeling of what might've been had we gotten FFXIII-Versus Noctis.
When Noctis became the FFXV version of himself, much of his core design carried over. However, his clothing was changed slightly — though the strong themes of ‘night’ and ‘death’ still remained prominent in his outfit.
While I have been familiar with Good Smile over my years of collecting, I don't have a ton of experience with them. But judging from what they were able to do with the Noctis character, I'm going to say it now: they do a better job than Square Enix. The details! So much to talk about! First, let's talk about the accuracy of Noctis--the way they translated him to a statue is 99% accurate to his video game counterpart. He's got the outfit and all the little details that we can hardly notice in-game. He's holding his Engine Blade, standing with it clutched in his hand, replicating an in-game render pose.
The sculpted details on his clothes are really impressive — the wrinkles, the sense of movement, it all looks so organic and lifelike.
The pose is done really well. As I mentioned, it’s basically an in-game render turned into a full statue. Good Smile did a fantastic job taking that specific pose and turning it into a complete figurine. It’s not super action-oriented or anything crazy, but it works perfectly. It lets us collectors fully appreciate all the work and details put into Noctis.
The color choices had to be on point since Noctis is basically dressed in all black. From his jacket, shirt, pants, and boots, he’s decked out like the night sky (he does have a bit of red on the bottom of his boots, but it doesn’t stand out much here).
For a character who wears mostly one color, the different shades of black they used to give him depth are really commendable. The texturing and wrinkles on his clothes do a lot of the heavy lifting, creating natural shadowing and light reflection.
His skin tone is spot-on too, with a nice paint wash that gives it a realistic flesh look. I’ll talk more about his face and weapon in the other pics, but overall, Noctis looks really good in the color department.
I said earlier that it's 99% accurate to his video game counterpart because the face doesn't fully replicate how Noctis looks. However, one can look at this face and recognize the Prince of Lucis immediately. The paint on his eyes isn’t as clean as I’d like — it looks a little off, almost like it was done with a thin layer. Maybe I’m just being picky, but it still looks good overall.
The sculpt on his hair is very accurate to how it looks in-game and in the official renders. Sure, it’s a pretty common anime-style hair for broody, handsome protagonists in the JRPG world — but it really suits Noctis. It looks great on this Good Smile statue, so who am I to complain?
Noctis has many weapons, but you’ll almost always see him in promotional art holding his Engine Blade — sometimes the Sword of the Father, but mostly the Engine Blade. It was definitely the right choice to give him the Engine Blade for this statue.
The weapon is packed with great details — from the moving engines and mechanical parts of the blade, to the intricate writing-like designs, and even the realistic wear and tear from use. It’s really refreshing to see this level of detail on a moderately-priced statue.
The blade has a nice, sharp curve, and I can't stop mentioning how amazing the details are and how accurate it is to the game.
I love how they managed to include the skull and bones motif on his clothes. Noctis was originally meant to be associated with death during the FFXIII-Versus days, while Stella was supposed to represent life. Of course, we never got that version of the story, but they still kept some of his old theme alive through subtle hints like this (no pun intended).
Then again, Noctis’ main role was always to die to purge the world of the Star Scourge, so I guess the meaning carried over anyway. All in all, these are some really nice little details!
The stand is simple but still has a prestigious feel to it. It’s stable and comes with pegs that securely hold the boots in place. The “Final Fantasy XV” lettering is clean and elegant. My only small gripe is that they didn’t include the FFXV symbol on it.
The Play Arts Kai version looks so outdated and stiff. It’s honestly hard to believe that PAKs cost just as much — if not more — than higher-quality statues like this Good Smile version. Clearly, you know which one I'd suggest over the other.
Right off the bat, it’s easy to see that the scaling between Good Smile’s first Final Fantasy statue and Square Enix’s Static Arts line is way off. That said, the detailing is pretty good on both figures, and once scaled properly, Noctis and Aerith actually look pretty great next to each other.
According to the wiki, Noctis is around 5'9" while Tifa is 5'6". Again, they're not scaled properly at all, so they're not a good reference for size comparison.
That said, even though they're from completely different companies, the details and sculpt work on both figures are amazing. Good Smile's version is clearly the superior one between the two.
Playarts & Static Arts: Final Fantasy
I’m going to flatly say that I highly recommend this. It’s a bit pricey and shipping can be atrocious, but Good Smile actually shipped this one super fast — I got the notification and had the statue in my hands just two days later. The details and sculpting are spot-on. It’s on the simpler side and some might gripe about the price, but the quality is excellent. It’s a much better representation of the Prince of Lucis than the Play Arts Kai I previously owned.
As official merch, this one is awesome. Can’t wait to see what other Good Smile Final Fantasy statues they release.
Until Next Time!
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