Really shitty monster designs

[maninahat]

Time to name and shame the most shitty monster designs.

For example: the imp derivative.

Every shooter needs an alien grunt, and every alien grunt is the same humanoid, brown, roaring, boring monster.

Spoiler: We went from this

Spoiler: to this

Spoiler: to this

They are even worse to fight than commie nazi humans, because at least they have dialogue, and throw grenades, and demonstrate basic intelligence beyond pointless roaring.

 

[Asita]

Well there is one unquestioned king of such designs.

Spoiler

I mean it is literally a monster made of poo.

...Oh, you meant figuratively? Let's just go with the Genlocks and Hurlocks in Dragon Age. Conceptually, the Darkspawn are the stuff of nightmares and between the poison blood and (permanent?) devastation of the land, the resurgences of them are well named as "blights", and then of course there's the matter of where they come from...*shudder*. But when it comes to actual design...color me unimpressed.

 

[Neverhoodian]

Time to name and shame the most shitty monster designs.

For example: the imp derivative.

Every shooter needs an alien grunt, and every alien grunt is the same humanoid, brown, roaring, boring monster.

Spoiler: We went from this

Spoiler: to this

Spoiler: to this

They are even worse to fight than commie nazi humans, because at least they have dialogue, and throw grenades, and demonstrate basic intelligence beyond pointless roaring.

Well, if you want to make your common DOOM imp more...*ahem* interesting, there's always the HDoom mod.[footnote]WARNING: NSFW[/footnote] Imp-tan is best demon waifu.

I'm not sure if these count as a monsters per se, but...giant rats and wolves in fantasy games. It's a freaking fantasy setting! Use your imagination, people!

 

[FalloutJack]

I won't take no shit about Doom there, Hatman. Wait a minute. YOU can't be Hatman!

I'm Hatman.

Seriously though, The imp weren't so normal-samey back in the day, when Jack was a kid on the Sharewave game, going "What the heck was that?!". (Had to be past-tense, because I was so desperately blowing it away. I didn't have the evilness back then like I do now, and neither did you...assuming you're evil right now, which I don't even know.

OT: Anyway, let's make this topic what it deserves to be, a commentary on monsters that just suck. And you wanna know where I wanna take this?

Not Final Fantasy 8.

Surprise! FF8 is notorious for looking nice. A fair few of the monster designs are weird or cool-looking and in a normal world where the rest of the game wasn't shit, they would even be fun. The battle mechanics are what ruin them.

Actually, it's Blood Omen 2 that bugs me on this end. SO! It's the weird-ass future and Kain's world has been dominated by the Sarafan warriors...or rather the Hylden, who are either aliens or an ancient wiped-out demon race or BOTH. We find out that hey're planning to wipe out all non-Hylden life with a Device powered by a creature bred for destruction simply called the Mass. I was kinda' looking forward to this. What dark horror could they have dredged up when the warning of said beast came from a monster who turned out to be Janos Audren? Well, uhh...

Yeah, I was disappointed. The original Blood Omen game had you slaying the pillar guardians and other great stuff. The original Soul Reaver pitted you against vampires gone abomination and KAIN. Soul Reaver 2 was pretty terrible, but Blood Omen 2 seemed to be better-constructed (and hard). I'd been hoping to find something pretty damn nasty here and...I didn't. You walk up a winding path up to where they dump the blood, poison it, and you're done. Sad.

 

[Vern]

Time to name and shame the most shitty monster designs.

For example: the imp derivative.

Nobody better disrespect the Doom Imp.
Getting caught by surprise by a couple of imps after getting in an elevator, or grabbing a key can prove fatal.They can use the fireball at a distance, or melee up close. They're very useful in Doom when used correctly. They do provide cannon fodder, but unlike the former human and former human sergeant and chaingunner, they don't provide ammunition when they die. And in large numbers, spread out, they can create a wall of fire that's hard to maneuver through. Don't disrespect the imp.

They also take five pistol rounds to die, which I've always hated. Using the chaingun I have to fire twice, then switch to the pistol to finish them off. They're very useful in a "piss-you-off-because-I'm-not-tough-but-you-waste-your-ammo-on-me-and-sometimes-I-throw-a-fireball-but-sometimes-I-scratch-so-you-don't-know-when-to-punch-me-with-a-berserk-pack" way.

So yeah, I just use the shotgun to kill them up close. Which I don't like doing because it's a waste of ammunition, but I love shotgunning those bastards. The only thing more satisfying is blowing them up with a berserk pack fist.

 

[Soul of Cinder]

Well there is one unquestioned king of such designs.

Spoiler

I mean it is literally a monster made of poo.

...Oh, you meant figuratively? Let's just go with the Genlocks and Hurlocks in Dragon Age. Conceptually, the Darkspawn are the stuff of nightmares and between the poison blood and (permanent?) devastation of the land, the resurgences of them are well named as "blights", and then of course there's the matter of where they come from...*shudder*. But when it comes to actual design...color me unimpressed.

True xD except for broodmothers and the architect they are just ctrl+p design from any "evil dudes" fantasy army
I found myself utterly disappointed by the Fearlings in DA:I too. Spiders. Wow.

Covetous Demon from Dark Souls 2. Why.
http://cs6.pikabu.ru/images/big_size_comm/2014-12_3/14185705484647.png

 

[Fractral]

Monster Hunter is usually pretty spot on with it's monster designs, but some of the older ones are a bit crap. Case in point: Congalala.

Spoiler

It's a big dumb monkey that, even at G Rank, just sits there and lets you attack it while it farts all over the place. And for some reason they decided to bring it back not just for MH4U but also for MHGen, taking up space that could have been used for something better, like Barioth or Gigginox. As someone who started with MH3 I'm not impressed that Capcom keep pandering to the Freedom Unite fanboys by including the bad designs from MHFU over the far better monsters introduced in the third generation.

 

[RJ 17]

I'm not sure if these count as a monsters per se, but...giant rats and wolves in fantasy games. It's a freaking fantasy setting! Use your imagination, people!

Sooooooooo giant spiders? :3

...Oh, you meant figuratively? Let's just go with the Genlocks and Hurlocks in Dragon Age. Conceptually, the Darkspawn are the stuff of nightmares and between the poison blood and (permanent?) devastation of the land, the resurgences of them are well named as "blights", and then of course there's the matter of where they come from...*shudder*. But when it comes to actual design...color me unimpressed.

My favorite thing about those buggers is how they evolved (perhaps devolved would be the better term?) from being straight-up rip-offs of the Orcs and Goblins from the LotR movies in the first game to being generic undead lookin' bastards what with the skull heads and bony limbs in the rest of the series.

 

[Neverhoodian]

I'm not sure if these count as a monsters per se, but...giant rats and wolves in fantasy games. It's a freaking fantasy setting! Use your imagination, people!

Sooooooooo giant spiders? :3

Funnily enough, I don't really have an issue with giant spiders as enemies. Perhaps it's because most real spiders are small to the point that it's hard to make out details (at least where I live, anyway), so seeing a giant version feels more exotic.

 

[Amigastar]

I never really liked the monsters in Far Cry 1. The moment they appeared i quit the game.

 

[hermes]

Really, is that the best you got? I guess if we are going to go for crappy in terms of generic, there is nothing worst than the average zombie/skeleton/shambling melee monster. They are generic and cheap, but they are not necessarily shitty.

But Videogame monsters design has nothing against D&D monster design. Some of those are really shitty...

Spoiler

Yes, that is a flat monster that hides on the ceiling and let itself go to trap adventurers. It also comes in floor and walls variety

Spoiler

How to make a ghost crappier? By literally make it something with a sheet on.

Spoiler

And the king of all crappy monsters:

I have no idea what was in the designer's and drawer's mind when they created this thing. Its face almost begs for you to end its misery

 

[Asita]

...Oh, you meant figuratively? Let's just go with the Genlocks and Hurlocks in Dragon Age. Conceptually, the Darkspawn are the stuff of nightmares and between the poison blood and (permanent?) devastation of the land, the resurgences of them are well named as "blights", and then of course there's the matter of where they come from...*shudder*. But when it comes to actual design...color me unimpressed.

My favorite thing about those buggers is how they evolved (perhaps devolved would be the better term?) from being straight-up rip-offs of the Orcs and Goblins from the LotR movies in the first game to being generic undead lookin' bastards what with the skull heads and bony limbs in the rest of the series.

Funnily enough, the genlocks might be getting a better treatment. When I was pulling the examples, I was quite surprised to learn that they had a rather hefty redesign that - to date - has only been used in the DLC in both Dragon Age II and Inquisition.

Spoiler

Concept Art:

DAII: Legacy

Inquisition: Trespasser

That's a much better design than the "not-goblins" we saw in Origins and Awakening. That said, considering that lore-wise Genlocks are supposed to be the most numerous of the lot, that might be a bit excessive considering the sheer mass of the Alphas. To sum up the problem in a word: TAAAAAANK! (Instead of common infected).

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

I think all you have to do is look into pokemon for the laziest designs. My biggest gripe are creatures like ditto who only copy other designs. Especially in fighting games, there is always that character that steals every move from all other characters. I wish that trend could just die already. It's not big and it's not clever, stop it!

 

[Guffe]

Goombas from Mario?
Not sure that is the answer you guys want, but now I've thrown in my five cents

 

[gigastar]

Is it just me or are the OP images the size of thumbnails?

As someone who started with MH3 I'm not impressed that Capcom keep pandering to the Freedom Unite fanboys by including the bad designs from 1st gen MH over the far better monsters introduced in the later generations.

Congalala is not pandering to the old players.

Its pandering to children, which happens to be a large portion of MH players in Japan.

And its not just Conga either, every generation the earlygame monsters tend to have a more cutesy/less threatening look about them, standout examples being Yian Kut-ku, Qurupeco, Great Jaggi, Lagombi, Azuros, Kecha Wacha and now Great Maccau and Malfestio as well.

 

[Bad Jim]

Nobody better disrespect the Doom Imp.
~snip~

They also take five pistol rounds to die, which I've always hated. Using the chaingun I have to fire twice, then switch to the pistol to finish them off. They're very useful in a "piss-you-off-because-I'm-not-tough-but-you-waste-your-ammo-on-me-and-sometimes-I-throw-a-fireball-but-sometimes-I-scratch-so-you-don't-know-when-to-punch-me-with-a-berserk-pack" way.

So yeah, I just use the shotgun to kill them up close. Which I don't like doing because it's a waste of ammunition, but I love shotgunning those bastards. The only thing more satisfying is blowing them up with a berserk pack fist.

Sorry, but if your main concern is the amount of ammo you need to kill them, they probably aren't an interesting enemy.

 

[MysticSlayer]

Boos from Super Mario Sunshine

Boo isn't particularly my favorite creature from the Mario games, but at least they looked like a generic haunted house ghost. Then Sunshine comes along and just makes them look goofy:

Spoiler

Beyond that, all I can really think of are designs that don't make a whole lot of sense, such as:

-Ogres in Dragon Age: Origins have a purplish tint. Why they aren't the same color as other darkspawn seems odd, considering the creation process of an Ogre is the same as other darkspawn. It just comes from a Qunari Broodmother.

-Headhunters in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines are supposed to a menacing monster, and they supposedly convince people that the film they're in is real. In reality, they're rather goofy looking (though I'd imagine frightening to humans being attacked by them) and seem barely consistent in the world. Needless to say, I was unimpressed when the game spent so long building up hype around the film only for it to be comically unconvincing. If you're looking for a good laugh, though, watching them run around in the sewers is sure to get at least a chuckle.

 

[maninahat]

There are some basic design flaws to monsters in general. The first one is, why do they roar all the time? From a gameplay perspective, a roar lets you know a certain type of enemy is around the corner, or that it is about to pounce, but why does it always have to be a roar specifically?

One thing you notice when you watch lions or tigers or any predator hunt is that they make as little noise as possible when attacking. The only reason for an animal to roar is as a threat display against others coming into their space - they aren't looking for a fight, they are just warning you off. And in games, a monster roaring just tells me that the game designer thought this would look scary or cool, when in fact it looks perfunctory, pointless and makes the monster look incredibly stupid. You know what would scare me? A big monster that silently waits and watches you approach.

-Headhunters in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines are supposed to a menacing monster, and they supposedly convince people that the film they're in is real. In reality, they're rather goofy looking (though I'd imagine frightening to humans being attacked by them) and seem barely consistent in the world. Needless to say, I was unimpressed when the game spent so long building up hype around the film only for it to be comically unconvincing. If you're looking for a good laugh, though, watching them run around in the sewers is sure to get at least a chuckle.

Oh those sucked. I remember them leaping around and getting caught on the furniture all the time. I'm surprised there weren't more interesting monster designs overall in that game, considering the kitchen sink approach it has to dark fantasy.