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[EdgeOfProphecy]

Yeah, Nomura ruined Final Fantasy with his Harajuku androgyny bullshit. Way to suck the creativity and art out of characters and reduce them into every other vapid teenager who's got a Hot Topic gift card.

I can't decide if that's worse or the "generic mid-30's white guy" that's been plaguing the Western AAA studios for the past couple years.

[zombieonion]

It seems like this to you but you don't know shit because that text on wikipedia is ridiculously vague and undetailed. ALL we know is 1) he had many iterations and 2) these iterations contributed to the final version.
Unless you believe "standard practice" means a character will come out perfect the very first time you sketch him on paper, then yes, this is standard practice.

Iteration is standard. Mashing together a bunch of stuff without purpose is also standard. It doesn't have to be good because it's standard.

The "real nerds" motivational poster is very true. Only real street fighter nerds recognize those characters, because they have become iconic. Otherwise they don't make sense.

[shig]

Iteration is standard. Mashing together a bunch of stuff without purpose is also standard.

In red: The part where you stopped arguing and started making shit up.

It doesn't have to be good because it's standard.

Never said this. You're arguing against a strawman you just assumed was there and never properly defined in the first place.

The "real nerds" motivational poster is very true. Only real street fighter nerds recognize those characters, because they have become iconic. Otherwise they don't make sense.

Non-sequitur.

[Kevin]

Yeah, Nomura ruined Final Fantasy with his Harajuku androgyny bullshit. Way to suck the creativity and art out of characters and reduce them into every other vapid teenager who's got a Hot Topic gift card.

I can't decide if that's worse or the "generic mid-30's white guy" that's been plaguing the Western AAA studios for the past couple years.

"Generic mid-thirties white guy" is boring and bland and unoriginal, but at least it's not embarrassing.

Look at Sora, Sion, and Tidus. Granted Sion's not a jrpg character, but he's one of Nomura's crappier designs. All of them suffer from an abundance of superfluous chains, belts and zippers; Tidus is wearing a pair of unlikely odd-legged shorts, mismatched gloves and a... corset with suspenders? Sora's the least offensive of the three, and he has zippers on the toes of his shoes, which are also held together by belts. I dunno, to me it seems like Nomura takes the approach that more stuff = more better design, and so just throws as many "details" onto his characters as possible (be they the aforementioned belts and zipper, or the various chains, tights, vests and general layers of clothing/gear he tends to pile on.

WRPG's, meanwhile, are so generic in their main character designs that I had a hard time finding any visual examples, so take Shepard and... the default Dragon Age characters, I guess? Shepard is a beffy, mid-thirties white guy with a shaved head, while the human male Dragon Age character is a... beefy mid thirties white guy with a shaved head. Both are extremely boring, samey and unoriginal, but I find them to generally be a lot more believable or, at the very least, less offensive. Not that the unoriginality should be praised, I just personally prefer blandness to.. .whatever the other extreme is.

[Theophilus]

The "real nerds" motivational poster is very true. Only real street fighter nerds recognize those characters, because they have become iconic. Otherwise they don't make sense.

I recognized all of them and I have played street fighter once, for five minutes, on a crappy mexican restaurant's arcade machine.

[ink.inc]

[nelson]

i always liked this dude (er gal)

gonna have to disagree and say i think skyward sword has some of the worst designs i've seen

lets compare from this

to this


there wasn't much design consistency (for the most part)


they all look like theyre from different games


(looks like a leftover from wind waker, i actually like this design, but when put into the skyward world he feels wrong)

what

i'm not saying everybody has to look the same, but the idea of visual design should be to unify everything in some way (be it shape language, color grouping , environment influence) to make it believable they all co exist in that world so you as a player feel more immersed and aren't wondering why there's a hermit crab in the desert that is electrified

[tylerjhutchison]

@nelson: While I disagree that Skyward Sword has some of the worst designs ever seen...  I do agree that they are lacking for a Zelda game.  And compared to Wind Waker... pretty horrible.  It is definitely suffering from some patchwork design.


Anyways, here is some art from someone who is not a video game artist, but a fantastic character designer: Nico Marlet





and a larger image that I am just going to link to:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_-YOK6-hJ5kY/TRqhyZNUHjI/AAAAAAAALuI/04mwEeMoN0M/s1600/HTTYD%2Bbarbarians%2BNicholas%2BMarlet%2B2.jpg

[ink.inc]

It's a simple, iconic character design that has scared thousands and thousands of small, edible children out of their minds.

[ink.inc]

[iffi]

Spirited Away is great. I also liked Kamaji from the same film:

[Armageddon]

I've masturbated to Elastigirl so many times.

Glad to know I'm not the only one.

[Jad]

Yeah, Nomura ruined Final Fantasy with his Harajuku androgyny bullshit. Way to suck the creativity and art out of characters and reduce them into every other vapid teenager who's got a Hot Topic gift card.

I can't decide if that's worse or the "generic mid-30's white guy" that's been plaguing the Western AAA studios for the past couple years.

"Generic mid-thirties white guy" is boring and bland and unoriginal, but at least it's not embarrassing.

Uagh, I prefer embarassing over bland any day. I wish there was place for all sorts of designs. I'll remember that from now, that I'd rather be embarassing than to blandify to avoid being embarassing. That was actually kind of an eye-opener O:

[Bandages]

[JMickle]

[xfry]

[Kevin]

Yeah, Nomura ruined Final Fantasy with his Harajuku androgyny bullshit. Way to suck the creativity and art out of characters and reduce them into every other vapid teenager who's got a Hot Topic gift card.

I can't decide if that's worse or the "generic mid-30's white guy" that's been plaguing the Western AAA studios for the past couple years.

"Generic mid-thirties white guy" is boring and bland and unoriginal, but at least it's not embarrassing.

Uagh, I prefer embarassing over bland any day. I wish there was place for all sorts of designs. I'll remember that from now, that I'd rather be embarassing than to blandify to avoid being embarassing. That was actually kind of an eye-opener O:

Tidus' design is definitely a lot more visually stimulating than, say, Shepard's, but there's a difference between stimulating and good. I totally support and prefer interesting, even crazily outlandish designs if done well. I just find that, while Shepard is definitely more bland than Tidus, from a design perspective the N7 armor is a lot more solid than whatever Tidus is wearing.

[s0]

lets compare from this

to this

uhm i dont like skyward sword but its kind of unfair to compare these two like that. one of them is concept art the other is an actual in-game model. bokoblins don't really look like that in wind waker.

[Bandages]

that's release art not concept art

and also design is design

[Xion]

what castle said. Doesn't change the fact that skyward sword's bokoblin design is complete balls compared to wind waker's.