Braska, Young Auron and Jecht Cosplays

An unusual and striking-looking costume in homage to a truly good man. Between the headdress, the staff, and the artichoke-like vestments, you've got your work cut out for you. Here are some cosplayers who have pulled it off with style.

Crimsontriforce gets us started with this superb Braska, Yunalesca, Young Auron trio (Auron is toting a Jecht Sphere, and Yunalesca has a stuffed toy Yu Yevon!) Crimsontriforce worries that her older version of the Braska costume wasn't that good, but I like it, too: Photo1 | Photo2 | Photo3

laughingpineapple stuns with several beautifully-staged photos of her Lord Braska (and the only Bahamut-fayth cosplay I've come across): Photo1 | Photo2 | Photo3 | Gallery.

Piobaireachd's Braska cosplay has strength and presence, and has won a few awards. Here's his Photoshoot and some notes on making the costume.

Gardensgnome carries her beautiful Braska costume with dignity, and incidentally has some useful costuming notes on her Cosplay Gallery, particularly this one showing which Yevon Glyphs she used for the headdress.

Leumas looks great, as usual, but it's a pity he has to cover up so much as Braska (see his Jecht below). Leumas' Braska Cosplay Gallery includes mid-construction photos.

Papercutperfect's Summoner Braska is whimsical -- Braska did laugh often, after all! -- and comes with a put-upon Young Auron and zany Jecht: Gallery and misc photos.

Nox7's Braska seems to be a work in progress: here are several headdress photos.

We see Braska in the game in only a few sequences: concept art, a fleeting glimpse in the ending FMV, in Jecht's slightly-fuzzy sphere recordings, and in the wooden statues of him erected in temples. I've adjusted the brightness / contrast and dialed back the cyan tint on some of the Jecht Sphere screenshots to bring out details.

Click thumbnails for full-sized versions:

BONUS: User Ultimecia has ripped Braska's texture sheet for his in-game model. This shows the jigsaw puzzle pieces (sometimes duplicated and flipped) used to render Braska. With no lighting effects, this is a good reference to use for color.

Unfortunately, the hi-res render in the ending FMV does NOT seem to show the glyphs on Braska's headdress crest, and the in-game, low-res versions are not quite crisp enough to make out entirely. However, I do know what they are: they're the sacred glyphs of the Yevon Script (click to enlarge):



You can read all about their symbolic meaning here, but right now you just want to know what they are, huh? See Gardensgnome's excellent guess above.

Here's my guesses from bottom to top (see transliteration chart above for what English letter goes with which glyph):

--The larger circle enclosed in a darker outline at the very bottom looks like a circle or Yevon rosette, although I like Gardensgnome's idea that it's a Yevon-sign (A).
-- Then, the glyphs in light-colored circles separated by dashes. Starting at the BOTTOM:
W? - I - T - X - B - F? - L? - N? - and then 3 more, the last one (possibly "Yevon," A) on the crown of his head. (It's not gibberish: when the signs are enclosed in circles like this, they tend to stand for something symbolic like "lightning" or "darkness" not a sound.)

When I went hunting for Jecht Cosplays, I was shocked to find no fewer than 17 on Cosplay.com, and tons more on DeviantArt. Way to go, guys! I can't possibly do justice to all of you, so I'm just going to arbitrarily pick out a few.

First of all, leumas11. He's got the sword, the blitzball, and he's the first Jecht cosplayer I ever saw. He does both Classic Jecht (from FFX) and Dissidia Jecht. Properly scruffy.

Then we have Elffi's yummy Dissidia Jecht Cosplay. His gallery's five photos are not enough. We demand more photos to make a sober assessment. Many more. (Nice sword, by the way, and some costume design notes on his gallery.)

okageo also has excellent armor on his Dissidia Jecht, but alas, too few photos. Shaggy hair a nice bonus.

Defrain brings us Jecht Classic, with the proper flame-like pants leg thing. He's the Jecht seen with Papercutperfect's impish Braska above.

Einlanzer (who does a fine Balthier too, by the way) brings a Dissidia Jecht with brooding badassitude and really good props, including leg scales.

Finally, you need to see Drefano's animated gif "Jecht Is Pissed," as well as Drefano's Jecht ON FIRE. Okay, just his sword. Still. Here's another photo of Drefano's impressive Jecht.

There are many more (needs cosplay.com membership) Jecht cosplays -- those are just a few to inspire you.

All right. I know Final Fantasy X better than Dissidia (say, nearly every gesture memorized) so I can find more screenshots for you from X. Obviously, nearly all of them come from the end game. Let's take a look at the Sublimely Magnificent Jerk, I mean, Jecht. Sorry, channelling for young!prissy Auron there, for a moment.

Costume notes: It looks like Jecht's left sleeve under his armor has a scallop pattern. Underneath that orange flounce, his dark shorts are the same length on both pants legs.

For some reason, Jecht's in-game model has blue straps, whereas the ending FMV shows red straps. Take your pick. There's also a few weird rendering artifacts (darker or bluer shading) on some of the really high-resolution game captures, which were made using a PC emulator rather than an actual Playstation, so rely on FMVs, model rips (taken from game data, no background) and lower-resolution screencaps for coloring. Or check out the actual texture sheet from Jecht's game data, used by the game engine to render him on the fly. It's a jigsaw puzzle, but all his pieces are there.

NOTE: One of Dissidia Jecht's Duodecim alternate outfit is his Final Fantasy X outfit rendered more clearly. See below; it's the outfit without the shoulder spikes.

Click thumbnails to enlarge:

Regular game model (click for full-size images):

Jecht's shorts have gotten raggedy, and he's picked up a few of those weird scale-spikes on his left shoulder guard and right leg under his sash.

Alternate Outfits Auron and "Abes Uni" style:

The "Abes Uni" is supposed to be his Zanarkand Abes uniform, pre-aeon.

Jecht Duodecim Alternate Outfit:
Final Fantasy X Classic

He's got a "Final Fantasy X" model that reverts to his FFX classic look -- no spikes.

Jecht EX Mode: Braska's Final Aeon updated



JECHT TEXTURE MAPS FROM DISSIDIA: Once again, user Ultimecia has helpfully ripped the textures for each character, which are pieced together by the game engine to render him. It's a little hard to figure out what goes where, but here's all of Jecht's models:

• Dissidia Default Jecht
• Dissidia Ex Mode Jecht
• Dissidia "Auron alternate" Jecht
• Dissidia Ex Mode alternate
• Duodecim Jecht default model
• Duodecim Jecht Ex mode
• Duodecim Zanarkand Abes Jecht
• Duodecim Jecht Ex mode alternate

Sorry, I don't want to dig more than that for good in-game screenshots. I want to get PSP so I can play this and Duodecim, and I'd rather avoid spoilers. :)

Akeldama by ~GinnyLyn on deviantART

Young Auron is fairly rare, probably because most Final Fantasy X fans will think there's something wrong with your costume if you leave off older Auron's iconic shades and high collar from the game.

Interestingly, Young Auron is a favorite for women cosplayers, since he was a rather bishie (and Spocklike) 25. It's a little more rare to get Jecht, Braska AND Auron all played by female cosplayers. (from this amazing Otakon FFX cosplay group).

More common is something like Amidoji's pensive Auron, one of my favorites, symbolically capturing his loyalty to Braska. Here's more photos and costume notes.

Hoshi Astraea made a fine "Young Auron" costume for her husband, but their RL relationship didn't stop her from putting out his eye. (Wait, is it a YuYevon handbag?)

I'm still hunting for more. There's a lot of cynical, grizzled ronin warriors out there, but few headstrong, bishie Aurons.

It's hard to differentiate Young Auron cosplays from old cranky Auron, and there are so many (excellent) Auron cosplays I really can't begin to highlight just a few. So this section is to help you if you're going to be cosplaying the Legendary Guardian, particularly his younger self.

There's tons of screenshots of Auron around, plus his very detailed Play Arts Action Figure (that's my photoshoot) which is quite accurate to the game. To adapt what you see from mature Auron to young Auron, all you have to do is:

Young Auron:

-- Leave out the gray (duh) and pull hair back in a ponytail. (The older Auron has a ponytail too, but it's hidden by his collar).
-- NO collar.
-- NO cool shades. Sorry, he must have gotten those in Zanarkand.

All else is pretty much the same.

Click Thumbnails to Enlarge:

Also see the Young Auron texture sheet, the bits and pieces that make up his in-game model.