It isn't just the members of AVALANCHE who have received a makeover in Final Fantasy VII Remake, as Shiva's appearance has been totally overhauled for the game, with new screenshots offering a closer look at her redesign.
Final Fantasy VII was known for its lengthy summon monster sequences, to the point where spells like Knights of the Round reached memetic status for taking so long to complete, even though it ran for less than ninety seconds. Final Fantasy VII Remake only takes place during the Midgar section of Final Fantasy VII, which means that the producers have given the player earlier access to summon monster spells than in the original story, as Cloud didn't receive the first summon Materia until he reached the Chocobo Farm.
Final Fantasy VII Remake will give the player access to summons like Carbuncle, Ifrit, and Shiva during the early stages of the game. Famitsu has given players a closer look at Shiva's updated design in Final Fantasy VII Remake, and it's clear that she has been greatly changed in comparison to her first 3D outing in Final Fantasy VII.
Shiva's original design was very bare-bones, which may have had something to do with the developers still coming to grips with the 3D hardware of the PlayStation. Tetsuya Nomura's original concept art (via the Final Fantasy Wiki) for the Final Fantasy VII version of Shiva was wearing an outfit that resembled lingerie, but all of those straps would have been tricky to model using the available hardware, so her outfit was turned into a bikini instead.
The Final Fantasy VII Remake version of Shiva has been totally overhauled, with a new outfit that looks like a mixture between her unused concept art and final design from Final Fantasy VII. She's still wearing the bikini top that is tied around her neck, but the rest of her clothes are far more elaborate in their design.
Shiva is one of the most popular summons in the Final Fantasy series, and she has appeared in almost every game since Final Fantasy III. The Final Fantasy VII version of Shiva was impressive at the time, but it became more basic with each of her more outlandish appearances in future games. It's good to see that the developers of Final Fantasy VII Remake are bringing Shiva more in line with her other outings, instead of keeping her as a floating blue-skinned woman in a bikini.
Final Fantasy VII Remake is coming to PlayStation 4 on March 3, 2020.
Source: Famitsu, Final Fantasy Wiki